CityView Magazine

on second thought Training T On the Job BY MARY ZAHRAN his edition of CityView celebrates wom- en in business, those visionary and hardwork- ing females who have made their mark in our community. While I will admit that I admire their talents, their dedication, and their success, I will also admit that I am in awe of any woman who can create and command her own business empire. In the 1980s, these women wore power suits and sneakers as they made time for a brisk lunchtime walk. Today, they carry iPhones or Blackberries in order to be in constant con- tact with clients or children. Their lives are busy, demanding and productive. And I applaud them all. However, when I consider my own life in the workforce, I prefer to look back to the beginning, to my early years before I became a "professional." Professionals, regardless of their particular field, spend a lot of time in meetings, mostly with other professionals. They write reports, proposals and evaluations overflowing with jargon. They use terms like "paradigm shiſt" and "optimizing organizational dynamics," phrases that confuse even those who use them. I prefer the atmosphere of the non-professional working world, which is where most of us begin our lives as employ- ees. Some people describe these positions as "McJobs," a refer- ence to the fast food industry. While this description may be somewhat condescending, I will readily confess that I learned some of my greatest life lessons in those jobs, and the lessons 14 | March/April • 2012 stayed with me long aſter I entered the professional world. I was twelve when I got my first job, and my father was my boss. He owned a small dry cleaning plant in Rocky Mount, and I worked there on Saturdays. I waited on customers, checked in clothes to be cleaned and bagged items for pick-up. I worked from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. for $12.00, plus breakfast and lunch. While I did not earn much above minimum wage, I learned some priceless lessons working there. I learned to count back change by figuring the sum in my head, a skill almost un- heard of today. Now, many workers have difficulty returning the amount printed on the receipt, and heaven help them if you give them change so that they only have to give back bills. I also learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the contents of his pockets, something I remember each time I take a garment to a dry cleaner. Judging by the number of motel keys and love notes that I retrieved from customers' pockets, my father was the only man in town not cheating on his wife. I worked for my father for about three years. Aſter a suc- cession of part-time jobs in high school, I leſt for college. Dur- ing the summer between my freshman and sophomore years, I hit the job diversity jackpot: I worked in an exterminator's office during the week and at a donut shop on the weekends. Fortunately for all the customers at both businesses, I was able to perform my respective duties without ever once for- getting where I was. I learned something very important about human behav- ior when working at the exterminator's office. One of the technicians, a mild-mannered man named Jerry, would chat with me each morning when he reported for work. I don't know exactly what happened to Jerry one day between early morning and late aſternoon, but he was arrested at a cus- tomer's house when he removed all his clothes and proceeded to chase her around the living room. Jerry taught me that a person can go from seemingly normal to totally bonkers in a very short time. Likewise, my manager at the donut shop, a pleasant, stand- up guy named Walter, was arrested for robbing his own store and making it look like someone had tied up him and another employee with a rope during the robbery. Fortunately, I was not the other employee. I did not need to attend the Wharton School of Business to learn that co-workers can appear normal one day and then take off all their clothes or tie themselves up with rope the next day. Jerry and Walter taught me that lesson. I have since become a teacher, a children's librarian, and now, a writer, all occupations considered to be in the profes- sional realm. While I have strayed from my working-class roots, I have never forgotten the lessons I learned in my first jobs: I have learned to count my change carefully aſter leaving a store; I have learned to expect the unexpected, especially from quiet, well-mannered men; finally, I have learned to check my pockets thoroughly before going to the dry cleaner. But even with all of this amazing knowledge, I still haven't learned how to shiſt a paradigm. CV Mary Zahran can be reached at maryzahran@gmail.com.

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