Get A Real Job (Part 5 of 7)

Most of the time I was content to stock the shelves. But if I heard “Bill check please” over the load speaker, I quickly dropped what I was doing and went up to the front to my assigned register. My Dad had gone to a management seminar and he told me a lot about how companies should have as much of the products where their customers could see them and buy them. I took this to heart and tried to get as much stock out as possible. It certainly couldn’t do us any good in the back room, now could it? Another time I was up to the University of Utah attending a week-long music work shop. I was supposed to find out which bus would take me to work. I couldn’t find out so I called my Mom asking for her to come and get me. She called my Dad and had him get off work early so he could swing up and get me. When Dad pulled up, he had a frown on his face. “A twenty dollar and hour guy taking a two dollar an hour guy to work.” That’s all he said. And then he wasn’t grumpy about it anymore. We talked the rest of the way.
Once there was a short or something in the sound system at the grocery store and it kept cutting out on people when they tried to talk. It was very annoying but nobody seemed to fix it. I took a look at it and saw a loose microphone wire. The next day before work I brought in a soldering iron and fixed it up good as new in seconds. They sure appreciated that. Bob was going to have to call in an electrician and pay a minimum charge of $60.
As a checker, I very often took checks. For checks over a certain amount, like, $70, we had to call a check verification service. We called a phone number on the only telephone we had up at the front and enter the number on the check. We then would hear a series of beeps if it was good. We also had a list of people who had written bad checks. Usually everything was okay, but it was very time consuming to do all those steps, so sometimes I just took the check. One day Bob called me to the office. I climbed the narrow and steep stairs and saw Bob. He was not happy. He had a check that I had taken for $200. It had been stolen. And I hadn’t even thought twice about it. I didn’t even check the bad check list. And I hadn’t called the check number. Bob would have been justified in firing me right then. I felt like resigning. But Bob said, “Get back out there and don’t let this happen again!”