Episode Five: Don’t Squeeze the Charmin
Previously:
Ryan’s deadline to find employment or find a new place to live looms with one day remaining. Every place he’s applied for has rejected him. Ryan doesn’t know what he’s going to do, so he prays. Suddenly the phone rings.
And now:
[Two days later -- 8:00am]
Ryan sits in his car on a cold Thursday morning. He takes a deep breath and opens the door, stepping out into the chilly air. “Don’t screw this up.” Ryan mutters to himself before walking toward the entrance. The sign on the building is revealed: Kroger.
Ryan gulps once more. “Swallow your pride … swallow your pride.” he mutters as the doors slide open. He steps inside.
“Can I help you, sir?” an older man in a Kroger uniform asks Ryan. “Yes, I’m looking for the training center?”
“Right over there.”
“Thanks.”
Ryan walks past the registers, toward an innocuous corner near the front. The tinted glass conceals anything inside, so Ryan loiters about, waiting for someone to show up. Eventually he’s admitted inside by a middle-aged lady. She welcomes him and explains the following procedure.
“These next two days we’ll be doing your training. You’re going to be on night-crew doing stocking, but you’re also going to need to be a cashier, too.” she says. “We’ll start with the CBT, computer based training, where you’ll just run through the lessons and take the tests.”
Ryan examines the row of IBM NetVistas along one wall, grimy, dirty. Probably a couple of years old. “So first, we’ll get you set up to take the tests.”
The lady turns on the monitor to one of the machines, Ryan notices with a degree of humor that the computers are all named according to characters from “The Golden Girls” — Rose, Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia.
Computer training takes hours. The flash-based interface is rather quirky, prone to crashes. Staring at the monitor for six hours gives Ryan a headache, but he breezes through each quiz. Afterwards the lady says that he can go, and the next day they’d finish the computer training and give him some time training for register work. Then he’d come back a few days later to train for night-crew work.
The next day Ryan returns and finishes the computer training. He’s put out front, working a register with an older gentleman. Cashier work isn’t terribly difficult, but it’s a challenge to appear friendly and courteous to customers. The hands-on training zips by and he only works the register for about two hours. Finally he’s taken back to the training room and they finish paperwork.
Like joining the army, he’s now a part of a larger organization with rules and regulations.
Later that day he reports to his own store and signs more paperwork for payment. Finally he’s issued his uniform and a new customer discount card which also gets him an extra employee discount on certain days. Ryan finds out he’s already scheduled for night work the next evening, so he won’t have to show up to the other store.
–/–
Ryan knows the sleep schedule is going to be rough, and Sunday mornings even harder. The first night, a Saturday, Ryan clocks in at 10:00pm for an eight hour shift. He hopes to be able to leave by 6:30am and head to the church, take a quick nap, change clothes and try to get through the morning services. The next morning he clocks out at 8:00am, then rushes to the church so that he can attend to his responsibilities there.
During sunday school it finally hits … a tidal wave of fatigue that washes over him. The second morning service suffers a media meltdown that could have been prevented, and Ryan even considered making the change pre-emptively, but he was so tired that he didn’t bother.
That afternoon, Ryan is invited to eat, and sleep. He reluctantly takes both offers. Sleep recharges him for a while and he’s ready for another evening. Fortunately Ryan doesn’t have to work that Sunday night.
The week continues, working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. The next week’s schedule is posted on Friday and Ryan discovers he’s working Saturday night, as well as Sunday night — a development he knew would be possible but hoped wouldn’t crop up for a while. The shift goes overtime only an hour. Ryan goes to the church, changes out of his uncomfortable uniform and prepares the media for the services.
Fatigue arrives faster this time, with the accompaniment of a media meltdown. Ryan spends sunday school working on the overhead system, and then takes a short nap on the floor of the booth. He’s awakened by the door opening as the lighting operator steps inside for the second service. Though a bit disoriented, Ryan snaps back. The second service is an improvement.
Afterwards Ryan eats with two friends from church, then returns to the booth where he sleeps again. The hard floor offers little comfort, but the two hours of sleep is enough to keep him going for the rest of the evening. Somehow Ryan manages to get through the service, and then another eight hour shift before he could return home.
At 8:00 am on Monday Ryan finally crawls into his bed and quickly falls asleep.