Minimum Wage Isn't Enough

FIRST

so yeah. I'm sorry about the lack of art and responses I just really am out of time to do anything at all but in short bursts, and that just doesn't work for me... I'm planning on either cutting back my hours drastically or quitting this job completely soon so that I have more time, but until then, I won't be very active... 


OKAY NOW LET'S GET TO IT


Well well well what have we here

Another story about the horrors of working in customer service mayhaps?

You betcha



Okay so, at my workplace, in addition to the laser tag arena I mentioned in the last journal, we also have a number of other attractions, one of which is a rock wall. It is laser tag and rock wall (as well as ticket redemption) that my specific job requires me to work with, as these are the "indoor attractions". As you can imagine though, rockwall is one of the more dangerous attractions, as well as one of the more risky for both the guests an the employees, since in order to use the rock wall, the employees must put the guest in a harness just right so that they don't plummet to their dooms when they lose their grips on the wall. Fortunately for us, the harnesses are very easy to hook up. I've never had a slip up and I've never known anyone to have a slip up, but the harnesses DO require the employees to get near the guests'.... um..... intimates.............. yeah. We have to wrap two of the straps around their thighs right up in their groin area... and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't graced with a few boners and farts to the face from the guests as I was trying my best to get through this part as quickly as possible. Like seriously self control guys come on. 

But anyways, this story isn't about that in particular. So about half an hour before my shift ended, business was starting to slow down and I was beginning to mess around with some of the prizes. I was flicking around a sticky hand when a sudden "Hey!" (obviously directed at me) broke me from my trance of boredom. I looked up to see a rather tall man looking at me from the other side of the counter, with a weird smile on his face. He looked rather lanky and kinda... greasy.. for lack of a better term. The smile on his face seemed out of place with his long raggedy grey sweatshirt, the hood pulled loosely over his head, and with his hand outstretched towards me. Basically he just looked like your stereotypical creep. Eyes still locked on me, he began to move to the door to the outside attractions with the rest of his group. Finally he spoke up as he was leaving the building, as his outstretched hand took the shape of a crooked "thumbs up". "Smile! Be happy!" He said to me... about... I dunno..... 4 times. Just... out of nowhere. I forced my "friendly employee" smile and nodded as if in agreement. I'm sure you can understand I didn't exactly know how to respond to this. As this guy and his group finally left the building, my co-worker who had sold them whatever package they'd bought leaned over to me and whispered, "Well, they're drunk off their asses". I sighed slightly in relief at this. At least alcohol could be blamed for this strange behavior and these people weren't just creeps.
I responded with a chuckle. "Heh, yeah. Don't let them near rockwall."

don't.
let them.
near.
rockwall.

GuEsS wHaT hPpEnEd NeXt???!?!?!!?!?!?!



About 5 minutes before my shift ended, a woman came up to me.
"Hey, my group and I wanna do rockwall."
I groaned internally as I smiled and directed her to wait over by the gate, and assured her an employee would be with her shortly.
I looked around me before heading over there myself, but due to how shorthanded we were I was the only one able to be at rockwall. I briefly told my supervisor that I would need "rescuing" in a few minutes to clock out, before running over to meet the group.

I recognized them the moment that the pungent stench of alchohol hit me from at least 10 feet away. 

I smiled at them, knowing that, I wasn't exactly supposed to let them climb if they were under the influence, and assured them that I would be back momentarily. I sprinted back up to the counter and told my supervisor that I was about 99% sure these people were wasted. He paused. After thinking a moment, he said he would get a manager to head over there with me to keep an eye on them while I hooked them up. This was better than nothing I guess. 

I headed back over to the rockwall gate and told the first person to come forward. Aaaaaaaand it was creepy"smile" dude. Whatever. I grabbed the harness and had him hold the handle as customary, and just as I grabbed the strap to bring around him, the manager stepped forward yelling, "WAIT". Thank. Goodness.

He proceeded to accuse the group of being drunk, because, in his own words, he could smell the alcohol from 10 feet away. And yeah, it was that bad. As could be expected they weren't happy with him. Himself and the rest of the group began to scuffle, the woman who had come up to me before even accused the manager of being drunk himself, and threatened him that her kid was right there (which he wasn't. I'm almost certain it was just some random kid.) and that she was so insulted that he would assume they were drunk yadda yadda. I carefully took the harness from the man's hands, threw it into the storage bin, and weaseled my way out of the gate over to my co-worker who had been watching the entire thing. I explained what happened and she seemed worried for me, since I was about to leave and this group, now angry and proven to be completely irrational, were making their way out as well.

I stalled for a while, trying to make sure that these people would be well out of the parking lot by the time I left myself, when my supervisor graciously offered to walk me to my car. Of course I accepted, and I began walking out.

I should also note that by now, night had fallen fully, and I had parked far far away as I always do (in an effort to not inconvenience people with my terrible parking). My supervisor had walked me about half way to my car, when it came into view. It was clearly safe. There were no other cars around, there wasn't a single person out between myself and my car, and I felt bad keeping him with me the entire way because he did have work to get back to. I told him I thought it was safe and that he could go back, so I finished walking the short distance to my car alone, though I was still on edge.

Now, I was parked next to a planter, so that the driver's side of the car faced the planter and the passenger side faced my workplace. That being said, I could only see the passenger side of my car as I was walking towards it. I got my keys out, and began walking around to the other side of my car, when I saw creepymchoodie sitting on the planter next to my car, looking riGHT AT ME AND HE HAD SOMETHING GREY IN HIS HAND AND I COULDN'T SEE WHAT IT WAS AS I INSTINCTIVELY JUMPED BACK LIKE 5 FEET. The man stood up quickly as soon as he saw me, holding up whatever was in his hand, as I started to turn to sprint back to the building, but just before he did he held up his hands and apologized profusely for scaring me. He assured me he was just "getting a drink" as he held up what was in his hands... it was a Gatorade bottle with some discolored liquid inside, that had been grayed by the dim light. I stood where I was though, not completely convinced not to run, until he had walked about 100 feet away from me. Entire body shaking, I told him "It's alright, have a good night." (since I still had my uniform on and I didn't want to seem rude). My eyes stayed locked on him the entire time I was pulling out of the parking lot (though I looked away only to check my backseat to make sure his friends weren't hiding there or something), and all the way home I was trembling.

Thankfully the drive home was uneventful. I made it home fine, but my gosh, my weak little body can't handle this ridiculousness anymore it's no woNDER I'M EXHAUSTED ALL THE TIME