A New Beginning

No, it's not Star Wars, just my thoughts on the direction my life is taking.
Ever since I retired from the navy, I have felt like I should be doing something more worthwhile than delivering pizza. Yes, I worked for a contractor for a couple of months, but I realized that I wasn't cu tout to be a 44 year old 'trainee.' My patience level and the teaching methods involved were not copacetic to a good working environment. I do, however, appreciate the time I had there. I learned quote a bit about building, painting, siding, etc. I also appreciate the opportunity to earn a litle money that was given to me by the owner of the company. When work fell off, and we were laid off for a couple of weeks, I simply never went back. They didn't call me to come back to work and I found my current job, so it all worked out pretty well.

So, delivering pizza helps pay the bills. That's about it, though. There isn't really room for personal growth in the industry, unless you want to become a 'company man.' Let me say a bit about the retail food industry. The customer is always right. Period. Even at the expense of the company, the customer is always right. It sucks the life out of management. If someone seriously wants to eat free, all they really have to do is complain. If their complaint is not reasonably addressed by the store manager, all they have to do is complain to the corporate office. Corporate will call the store and tell the manager to give them what they want. Their reasoning behind this? Simple: "How many people do they know that they will tell about the bad service?" Nevermind that there may not have been any bad service... nevermind that the problem may have been addressed locally, nevermind that the same 'customer' has complained and gotten free food for three weeks straight. Unrealistic expectations are commonplace in management of any industry. However, in the food industry, those expectations are magnified. In my company, I am expected to help people at the counter with their order, which I do when I'm not on a delivery. However, only the manager has the key to the cash register. He (or she) has to stop what the are doing, come to the counter, take the money from the customer, unlock the register drawer and make change. Why do I have to work the counter??? Of course, the manager is also expected to keep labor costs down, which means he has to anticipate that business will not pick up and send home the employees that make the pizza, and the drivers that are no longer needed. Typically, after the dinner rush, most of the drivers and insiders (that's what we call our in-store employees) are sent home for the day. Typically, about 30 minutes or an hour after that, we get busy again. I think it's one of those weird Karma things, because it never happens until after the majority of the people are gone for the day. Anyway, the manager s stuck making pizza, doing the inventory, cashing out the drivers, handling daily problems, and working the front counter. The pay for managers in training is pretty pathetic, too. I told my manager that I couldn't afford to be a manager. Too much of a pay cut. So why does the company want only the best people to train as managers, but is unwilling to pay them to stay there for a year or so? If each store has at least 2 assistant managers, and the area has only 7 stores, it stands to reason that not everyone is going to be promoted to general manager. Of course, an even smaller percentage will be promoted beyond managing their own store. Sure, many companies have similar promotion statistics. Simply put, that's life. Be the best at what you do. However, it seems that pizza store managers have an extra set of hand cuffs holding them back. Maybe I'm biased because this is the first long-term job I've had since the navy.

Well, at first, delivering pizza was fun, it kept me busy, helped pay the bills and I made pretty good money, without any responsibility at all. I still make pretty good money, but I recently began to feel like I was wasting away. With no responsibility beyond ensuring that the store is cleaned and stocked up, I felt that my talents are being wasted. I felt that I was becoming stagnant. I couldn't stand the thought of being a 45 year old man whose primary source of income is pizza delivery. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing the job, and I am grateful to have a job when so many don't, I just don't want to be delivering pizza when I'm 45, unless it's a part time gig to help get some bills paid off. I applied for a couple of government jobs. Jobs that I felt I had a pretty good shot at getting. In comes budget cuts. I have yet to hear from either of those government jobs. Probably a good thing in the long run.

The next phase of my life is due to start in another couple of weeks. I made a promise to myself that if those government jobs fall through, I am going back to college. So a few weeks ago I contacted a local technical school to see if I could use my GI Bill to get some education. Well, not only does the GI Bill pay my entire tuition, it also pays me a monthly stipend! Pretty cool. So now I can go to school and cut my hours back a bit and still make a decent amount of money. In a year and a half (hopefully, my transcripts will allow me to get done that quickly), I'll have another degree- this time it'll be in network security. I hope that by the time I get done with this school, the economy has recovered sufficiently and I don't have to worry about finding a good job. I figure I've got about 20-25 years of good work left in me, an I need to make a good amount of money to eventually retire.

Life is good. I have a good woman who loves me (sometimes I wonder how she can stand me), I have a home and a pension check. I have a good family and live in a decent neighborhood. I have God and Jesus loves me. I still have my health (and my healthcare, but that's a post for another day). Things are going to get better.