Well, after two grueling years, I am proud (and sad) to say that my time as an employee for WinCo Foods has officially ended. I had my last shift last night (and it was a night shift, unsurprisingly), I left my apron and name tag behind when I clocked out, and I can now say, "My work here is done."
While I wouldn't say WinCo Foods is a bad place to work, it hasn't been very good for me, mostly because my hours were too unpredictable and became far too few, especially in the last six months. Most of the people I worked with were nice enough (I even became Facebook friends with some of them), but the job as a whole hasn't made me happy, though it made me plenty tired and stressed.
I especially dreaded the night shifts. I never was a fan of working at night at any place, because it's a long and tedious process. Everything has to be just so before you can go home, customers often pop in at the very last minute, and I would come home tired and sore all over. Mom was always nice enough to give me a massage and she'd tell me I was as hard as a rock, and I'd pop like a bowl of Rice Krispies the next morning.
Beyond that, I'm just the type of person who would rather work in the daytime and use the nighttime to relax. I'm not exactly a night owl, at least outside my house.
Sometimes my superiors at WinCo made me feel like my best efforts weren't good enough. I felt like they focused too much on what I did wrong and too little on what I did right. While I could understand their viewpoint perfectly, I wish they had understood my viewpoint a bit better. I can handle constructive criticism but a bit of leeway is always nice. I don't like to show off but I appreciate a word of appreciation now and then. It's amazing what a kind word can do for your morale.
Maybe that's why I'm extra-polite when I go somewhere; I make an effort to personally thank the cashiers and compliment the chefs and janitors. Maybe we all need to learn to be a bit nicer to each other.
But the worst part, as I said, was when WinCo cut my hours too much, and so my salary took a big, bad hit. And when your salary goes down, that doesn't mean your expenses are going away.
It sure sucks when you don't have enough money and your expenses say, "Well, tough luck, pay up anyway!" If I wasn't living at home, if my mom and siblings didn't help me out, I would be completely sunk.
Besides my college debts, I thought WinCo would handle my medical insurance (you qualify for their insurance program after working with them for a year), but it turns out there is a string attached: you have to work a minimum of 30 hours a week. And since I was nowhere close to 30 hours (I was lucky to get more than 5 or 6 hours at a time), I was pretty much screwed over.
So, in 2019, I had to find my own Healthcare plan and pay for it out of my own pocket, as if my paycheck wasn't meager enough. And the cheapest plan I could find still costs me more than $200 a month. That means I was upset with my job
and the government; while I understand the importance of medical insurance, I don't think it's fair to threaten people with a fine if they can't afford it. No one should have to have their arm twisted like that.
I would have quit a long time ago if possible, but I needed something else to fall back on, since having no job at all wasn't exactly an option.
I put out plenty of applications and resumes, and had a couple of nice interviews...but no one seemed willing to give me a chance.
Not till now.
Where will I be working this time? Starting April 8 (which happens to be my dad's birthday), I will be a cashier for Kneaders Bakery & Cafe.
I'll be honest: my expectations weren't too high when I applied to Kneaders. It was like a dart thrown halfheartedly, but I ended up scoring a bull's-eye. My expectations weren't high after I had the interview, either.
Then they sent me a text message, saying they wanted me.
Imagine that!
Guess it's true what they say: change often happens when you least expect it.
Now, I'm perfectly aware that Kneaders won't be perfect. No job is perfect, and even writing and drawing (my ultimate dream job) aren't all fun and games. I will have my bad days as well as my good days.
But for better or for worse, I am here, and so I might as well make the most of it.
There are at least a few pros to working here. For one thing, this particular Kneaders place is just a few blocks from my house, just across the street from my old elementary school. This means I can easily walk there; I bet this is as close to home as I'll ever get to work, besides actually working at home. Transportation will never be an issue unless the weather gets that bad. Funnily enough, one of the questions they asked me at the interview was, "Do you have reliable transportation?" I should hope so!
For another thing, this place is (gasp!) closed on Sundays.
I will have to work some holidays (which is fair, considering what happens in a bakery/gift shop around the holidays), and these days, my holidays are pretty low-key anyway. Even Deseret Industries and WinCo made us work holidays, closing only for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. My first day at WinCo began on St. Patrick's Day.
But I won't have to worry about missing church and working on Sundays anymore.
These days, it's so hard to find a non-Sunday job. Not to knock those who do work Sundays, of course; some people (like WinCo) just don't see Sunday the way I do, and some services will be needed regardless of the day of the week.
Still, I would much rather
not work on the Lord's Day if I don't have to.
And since Kneaders is closed that day, that's an answer to prayer right there.
I'm still nervous, which I suppose is normal, and even a good thing because it means I see this like a big deal and so I'll treat it like a big deal. It's also strange because I have been at WinCo for two years and I got used to the routine, and now I'll have a brand-new routine to get used to. Plus, I have been at the deli the longest of anybody; even my boss came to the store after I did (he was boss #3). I wonder who's going to break my record.
Well, at least I get to leave WinCo the way I wanted: professionally quitting. I always felt bad when I saw my coworkers get fired or quit on the spot, and I have a slight phobia of getting fired myself. I had always hoped to leave WinCo with that two-week notice, and now I have. I doubt they'll feel my absence that much, though a few teammates wished me luck and I promised to stop by now and then as a shopper.
WinCo may not be the most ideal place for employment, but they still have good stuff at great prices. In fact, the only thing that's keeping Mom from doing her weekly shopping there is the fact that the customers must bag their own groceries.
Once in a while, we like to get a nice chicken dinner from WinCo. My siblings and I
love the potato wedges, and Mom has fallen in love with their rotisserie chickens. Just about everybody adores WinCo's wedges, which they call all kinds of names, from "big fries" to "Jojos" to "tater babies." It's no surprise that customers often insist on a fresh batch.
On my last shift, a lady came with her husband and two kids and ordered a big chicken dinner, with an extra pound of wedges on the side. She asked if it would be possible to get soft wedges, since she almost broke a tooth last time. I told her if she would be willing to wait a few minutes, we could fry her a fresh batch right away, and she was surprised but very grateful; I can still see that glow in her eyes and hear that delighted note in her voice.
They came back almost immediately after I shut off the fryer and checked the temperature of the wedges, so I couldn't resist telling them, "You're just in time!" I also advised them to let the wedges breathe a bit, since they were piping hot. But they were happy enough to have it all fresh, and you don't get fresher than that!
Being a fry addict myself, I could snack on WinCo's wedges anytime, anywhere. They go especially well with ketchup and I like to wash them down with soda. I definitely plan to stop by now and then just for some wedges!
Plus, they sell fruit parfaits, which stir up fond memories of my college days. I ate a
lot of parfaits as a Weber State student. In the food court, they had these really nice mixed-berry parfaits with granola, and I'd have them with pretty much any meal; they went just as well with my dinner as they went with my breakfast. While the WinCo parfaits have different fruit (strawberry and mango), the yogurt tastes the same, and they still include that little cup of granola. So parfaits have become a kind of comfort food for me.
Today, one chapter in my life has ended. In just a few days, a brand new chapter will begin.
Onward and upward! Tally-ho!
