I was eventually promoted to "Key Carrier" - whatever the hell that is supposed to mean - which was basically equivalent to Assistant Manager, except Psycho Wayne was the REAL Assistant Manager. We did the same things, work wise, but HE got the title. ::grumble, grumble::

That's okay, though, cus I stepped down when I went off to college. (I took a year off between high school and college.) I worked in the UMBC Admissions Office stuffing envelopes for a very brief period. Then I went to Domino's Pizza to work with my dad.

THAT was fun.

No really, I mean it. I worked inside, answering phones, making pizzas, that kind of thing, but I just really had fun working with the guys I worked with. Of course now, in today's PC world, that kind of work environment would have led to a sexual harassment suit, but hey, I was young and pretty and loved the attention. I didn't actually DO anything, what kind of girl do you think I am???

From there I went on to work as a cashier at a grocery store. Eh. It was a job, it paid the bills. I stayed there for four years, mostly because I didn't know what else to do.

A chance conversation led me to my first "real" job (where real is defined as any job that does not require a name tag). I did inbound customer sales and service for MCI, and I did quite well, although I really didn't enjoy it much.

After about a year and a half, I left there to move to Virgina with Dave. I needed to find a job FAST so I decided to try waiting tables as I looked for something else.

Ugh.

I was probably the world's worst waitress. I sucked. I got so many penny tips it was disgusting. I don't blame myself entirely, though. A large part of it was the clientele just didn't know any better.

I left there when I got pregnant with Melissa. (Coincidentally enough, with each of my three pregnancies, I changed jobs.) I took what was pretty much a cush job working at a jewelry store in Potomac Mills Mall. I say cush because, even though it was the holiday season in one of the busiest malls in the country I really wasn't expected to do much. Basically I just stood behind the register and looked pretty and if any of the sales reps made a sale they would bring the customer to me and I would take all their money and send them on their way.

I left there about a month before Lissa was due and basically stayed at home and sat on my a** until she came along. Six weeks later, I found myself working for Domino's Pizza again, different location, this time as a driver.

I don't think I was meant to be a delivery driver though. While working there (from July through October) I wore out not one, but TWO cars. (Not that either of them were in great shape to begin with, but I took it as a sign that I'd better get my butt off the road before something serious happened)

I came home from work one night and there was a flyer taped to the mailbox in our apartment complex. One of the neighborhood teenagers was looking for babysitting work. I needed to find a babysitter, so I called her and ended up speaking with her mother. We hit it off quite well, and when I mentioned I was looking for work, she asked me to come in and interview for a position with her company, Paychex.

I did and I got the job and again, I did very well. Michelle was later shocked to learn that she had hired me without even finding out that I had never finished college. Dave and I eventually moved back to Maryland, although I commuted from Baltimore to Fairfax every morning until my transfer to the local branch went through.

After a year with Paychex I was promoted to Senior Payroll Specialist - Woo Hoo!! Then I left to go do payroll for a security firm.

In between interviewing for that job and accepting it, I found out I was pregnant with Ben. They weren't happy about it, but what could they do?

CES was not a good company to work for in many ways, but at least it was a nice, low key, low stress job. Last thing ANY pregnant lady needs is more stress. But once I had Ben, I went back to Paychex.

I honestly don't know why I left there in the first place. I really enjoyed working there. It was a good company, great benefits, the job was challenging and stimulating. I'd probably go so far as to say that was my favorite job ever and I'd still like to get back into doing payroll one of these days.

But...I left Paychex again after an incident at Melissa and Ben's daycare. I decided to stay at home with them during the day and work at night. I knew it would be rough on Dave and I, but I thought it would be best for the kids.

So I went back to the grocery store for a few months, part time, but we found that we really couldn't live on that.

And that's when I came to my current employer (and I was pregnant with Susanna at the time). I started out in Processing (mailroom, basically), working nights. When they eliminated the night shift for that department, I moved to Origination, offering debt management programs (DMPs). I left Origination briefly to work in our tax settlement department (which is where I first worked with Chel), but I really wasn't cut out for that kind of sales, so I went back to ORI.

(I want to stop here and defend my company for a moment, because the industry as a whole has taken quite a beating in the press. There are good debt management companies and there are bad ones. We were trained to "do the right thing, always". We were NOT a DMP mill, putting just anyone on the plan. We didn't rip people off, we didn't lie to them, we didn't keep their money. We did give them full disclosure about what a debt management program was all about. Okay, that's all)

I was really hating Origination though, just because there was no challenge. I'd been doing it for so long, I could do it in my sleep. I also had some major personal issues going on and I NEEDED to be doing something work wise to distract me from my real life.

I applied for a position in our newly formed debt settlement group. I interviewed on a Friday. On Monday, my boss (who, along with Jeff, my other former ORI boss, is now a phone slave) called me on my cell to tell me not to come in. Unfortunately, he reached me as I was already standing outside the building, so I went in anyway to talk to him in person.

Turns out that over the weekend, the organization that regulates the non-profit credit counseling agencies (CCAs) had made some rulings that resulted in our partner CCAs deciding to begin originating their own accounts.

Eighty Originators had been displaced. We weren't technically without jobs - yet. All other areas of the company were asked to make a few openings for all of us former Originators. HR conducted mini-interviews with everyone. The lucky ones were offered positions that were, at least status wise, a move up. Some people were not. They were placed in customer service, a step down (although with the same schedule and same pay).

No one was actually fired, but many of those people who were placed in customer service chose to take a severance package and leave the company.

I will say that through all of this, the company acted admirably, in the best interests of the employees and NOT of the company. It ended up backfiring on them because the deparments that were asked to create new positions were overstaffed and we ended up having to lay people off anyway....but at least, I honestly believe they tried.

Me? I ended up getting the position I had interviewed for, the position I am currently in. For the most part, I love my job now. It's challenging and frustrating, to be sure, but I enjoy it. And again, I'm tasked with "doing the right thing, always" although in a much bigger way. It's no longer part of my job. It IS my job. I refer to my department as the Department of Integrity. It's our job to make sure we don't end up on 60 Minutes for ripping off a little old lady or something like that.