It's Not About The Money

1 Cor. 3:13  “Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.”

It’s Not About Money

Last week I told you that my son got a job. He took that job just as another place was calling him for an interview, a job that was offering more money. It’s not about money, he needs someone willing to take the time and train him in a setting that doesn’t overwhelm him and with people that aren’t degrading.

You see, he had a temporary job in December that lasted all of three days. He had no idea how much money he was making until he quit and received a pay. They were supposed to be training him but all they had him do was the ladies mule work that they obviously were too tired to do? They gave him absolutely no direction except to ‘put this away’, he had no idea where ‘away’, was. Was he supposed to guess? Yes, he did ask, but only to the frustration of the ladies unwillingness to train.

He suffers from anxiety and depression so he made the decision to quit just after three days of no schedule, no direction, and no training, just mule work. I say mule work because he was their beast that carried their burden. The women hated their jobs (and told him), they hated the hours, the sloppy store and cared more about the breaks to go outside and smoke, my son is a non-smoker.

This new job that he started on Monday started off the same exact way. Training was, ‘here load this furniture here and move it here.’ Five hours of unending mule work, he came home in severe pain. He works out but the muscles used for furniture lifting and moving did a number on his back and his leg muscles.

He made it to work Tuesday after telling me that he’d give it another try and that he’d be talking to his boss. The talk went over well apparently because he came home in much better spirits than the day before, he was still in pain but it was pain carried from the day before. They wanted him to go Thursday at eight a.m. to go fifty miles to another store to pick up furniture and bring it back to this store he’s working in and unload it there. An eight hour day scheduled of more heavy lifting. Yeah, he didn’t sign up for THAT! After the talk, they gave him the hours of four until eight pm to continue his training today, Thursday.

What I don’t understand is, don’t they have people doing that kind of work for them or are they just shoving the work on this new kid because they can? Needless to say, he told the manager that he couldn’t do all that heavy lifting and that it almost put him in the hospital. The manager replied, “well that’s just part of the job.” I’m even more curious, do the girls/ladies have to do THAT part of the job? Stocking food and other items might be part of the job but furniture? Is moving a hundred pound sofa part of the job? Do the ladies get to NOT do it because they’re female? Sounds like a double standard to me.

It’s not about the money. Sure money is nice but when you’re degraded and belittled does the money become a means to an end? Adam applied for job after job and ninety-nine percent wanted people with at LEAST six months experience. How is a kid supposed to get experience if no one is willing to train him and give him the experience?

After two years of taking care of me, jumping into the workforce is a little harder than saying just do it! This week we ordered him a phone as an incentive to keep the job but also to relieve my worries of him driving in the darkened hours of the day. I think he’ll stick this one out for a little while but not because of the money, because of the experience. Let’s hope it’s a good experience.

We’ll see what happens.