A Resume of Sorts
Dec. 1995-Dec. 1996 - - McDonalds
Green Bay Wisconsin, the one by Bay Beach.
    This was my first job. I turned in a bunch of applications to a load of places, a number of McDonald's too. So when they called for the interview, I forgot to ask which one. This one seemed was the closest, so I went here first. Damned lucky guess.

    So I started out at the front counter. Pretty good times. Worked there for a while, then they moved me to the drive thru. Good times back there, then I got to do the "presenting" in the drive thru, then to "wall" and "meat". All these positions that you wouldn't understand unless you worked there. Actually, one if four people worked there, so there is a pretty good chance you were there too. I taught myself how to make the burgers and everything, but I was just so damned good at the register, I did most of that. Let the idiots make the burgers. Management at it's finest. I actually broke a record in the drive thru for speed. I was so damned fast too, I guess you do it enough, you learn to memorize certian things. My friends would make up orders at school, and I'd give them prices, including tax. I couldn't bust out everything, obviously, but could get almost everything up to ten dollars, that's pretty impressive.

    I met Jody Helf working here. She was 21 at the time, and I was 16. Yeah, we dated for a while. Good stories with that. I also acquired a taste for the oriental here too. See, I worked with a bunch of oriental ladies, and some of them were damned hot. I was hitting on almost every girl that I worked with that was decent looking. Those were the best times.
Green Bay West
    Worked in the Paint Dept. Actually, the only reason I chose paint was because my good friend, Alex LeClair worked there. My friend Kelly Jerabek also started the same time I did, but he was in "Farm". Don't you just love how places categorize everything like that?

    I didn't know shit about paint, and they never trained me at all. We had a factory rep come in and talk to us about Driveway Sealers, so I knew all about that. If you asked me a question about something, and I didn't tell you to ask a guy with the black shoulders on their shirts (the full-timers), the answer was just a guess. I can't even imagine how many people got home and were just bitching because of the "advice" I gave them. Damned funny.

    I just pretty much stopped goign to work here. I only had to work every other weekend, but during football I would drive there, and I'd be so messed up from the game the night before, that I would have to stop and throw up. So I just stopped going. They called me up a couple weekends later, and said, "Doug, do you plan on coming to work anymore?". I said "nope", and that was it. I'd prefer to leave that one off of the resume.
Oshkosh Wisconsin
    I got this job for only one reason. I had just got an underage drinking ticket and had no way to pay for it. Worked in the Deli my entire freshman year, about 15-20 hours a week. It was about a mile from my dorm, and I walked most of the time. Even throughout the winter. I didn't make shit for cash, but I got paid every week. There were other benefits as well.

    I used to do homework when I was alone after 7 pm. I couldn't leave till 9, and it was always just dead, so I had plenty of time to do homework, and other things later on. But I always had my backpack with me. So I was able to take things I needed, just putting them in the bad. Lunchmeats... Cheese, food that we cooked for people. So even though I didn't make much money, the other benefits were terrific. I also had to be in a union, and once a month they took out 40 bucks from my check, which was like half of it. They didn't do anything for me either. Mind you, I'm a big supporter of unions, but I was making min. wage, and I had no benefits. Phmfff...

    I left for a summer, and came back to work there my sophomore year. What a mistake. I still kept the same wage, which was 50 cents less than people who started there made. And I worked in produce. That sucked. Stocking banana's and lettuce. It wasn't that much fun. Plus, we always left at the same time, so I had a harder time getting the things I needed.
Oshkosh Wisconsin.
    This job was a major reason why I ended up quitting school. I went in for the interview with a friend, and the boss told my friend that he would have to shave the goatee or wear a little net. He said he wouldn't, so that was it for him. He just sat by while our interview ensued.

    I started in the back, cooking stuff mostly. My boss took a liking to me, and I didn't do much to stop him. (he was rumored to be a homosexual, but nothing ever happened between us). I took advantage of what appeared to be his little crush, and withing a month, two weeks after I got my first raise (50 cents), he asked me if I would like to be a manager. Sounded good to me. So within a month starting there, I had went from making 6 bucks an hour to making 8 bucks.

    A few weeks after I was a manager, I noticed that my boss was changing my hours in the computer. I always changed them back, but then I decided to look and see if anyone else was changed. I noticed a few, so I went over his head, calling the "regional manager". Within a few days, My boss was fired. There was one other manager besides me, and she quit. So another girl was trained really quickly, and we only had two people to run the store, which needed to be occupied by employees from 8am till 10 pm. There were many days that I worked that entire shift, doing the manager thing.

    That was probably the most fun I ever had working at a place. My closest boss was a 2 hour drive away, so I pretty much ran the place. I hired people, I fired people, did nearly everything that had to be done to keep that place running. Needless to say, it was closed in the middle of May.

    I had taken 2 days off to help my mother get ready for her move to Arizona. I got back to Oshkosh at about 3 in the am, and noticed that there were some strange messages on my machine from co-workes. So I drove to Boston Market at 330 in the morning, and I saw that the big outside sign was off. This was strange, that thing was on 24 hours a day. I got up to the door, and saw a sign on the door, stating that the place was closed. That was it, they didn't give any notice, and I had no way of getting a hold of the people that I got along with so well, because I always relied on the computer to get phone numbers.

    I don't hold myself responsible for the place closing. McDonald's was scheduled to take over all Boston Markets on May 25th, and on May 26th, the closed the Oshkosh Branch and the Green Bay Branch. So I did a fine job.

more to come...
© Doug Malcore 2002