J-O-B

            by Anh Van Pham

 

Youthworks is a program that helps those between fourteen and twenty-one find a job in two fields: child care or clerical, for eight weeks. I had heard of this program for years, but I never enrolled in it because I was too lazy to apply. My sister kept telling me about it for months and I thought it was a good idea but I was scared of rejection.         

I had previously applied for other jobs such as a Teen Service Worker for the public library or as an assistant at Health facility, but I never made it through the interview. I have a shy personality, when it comes to new people and surroundings. I tense up during interviews and my voice reduces to a tiny whisper. I answer questions half-heartedly because I want to speed through it.

This didn’t stop my sister who continued to relentlessly persuade me. Every chance she got, she would bring up Youthworks.   

“Come on join with me. You’ll gain a lot of experience from it,” she repeated almost every day.

I would shake my head and tell her I had homework to do and tests to study for. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“No. I don’t want to. I have too much to do right now. Stop bringing it up.”

“It will get you out of the house during the summer.”

I hate staying home all summer. It’s never fun and there’s never anything to do. Plus, daddy and mommy love to give me chores. If I did this, then I wouldn’t have to do as many and actually get to go outside for once.

I was sold when I heard this. I had never thought of it this way before. My sister was right for once, so I signed all the necessary forms. When they accepted me, I was ecstatic to the point where I could clearly remember all the rules and guidelines that the Youthworks Coordinator, Juanita, told me.  There was one important rule. Everyone worked for six hours a day and would only get paid for the hours that they recorded on their time sheets.

            The first day was just an hour away. I had everything I needed for the day. I said goodbye to my dad and embarked on a new milestone. For years, work had been a foreign word to me. I did my homework and helped my parents around the house like I was expected to, but never had a real job before.

The Permit Service Center was a plain tan building. The inside wasn’t very different but was split into three sections: the Welcome Desk on the right, the Building Permits in the middle, and Zoning on the left. I greeted everyone that I passed and began to search for my supervisor, Marsha Cook. There was some confusion in her eyes after I introduced myself.

“You’re here? Already? I thought you guys wouldn’t be here until at least August.”

“No, Juanita told me that the starting day was June 18^th,” I replied hastily.

I followed her as she headed into the back of the building. On the way, she explained how the building was split into two divisions, Permit Service Center in the front and Building and Safety in the back. She introduced me to the office specialist for Building and Safety, Jaime, and tried to see if there was anything that he had for me to do. In the end, they sat me at a desk near Jaime’s cubicle and had me file permits.

“I’m sorry. I know this wasn’t what you were expecting on your first day but you are helping us out quite a bit by filing,” Jaime said reassuringly.

The permits were all stacked into one cardboard box. One permit was about a millimeter thick and I had a whole box full of them to file according to street names. I will be here forever.

About thirty minutes, another Youthworks employee, Tiana, arrived. Marsha quickly rushed over and repeated the instructions she had given me earlier. We sat there next to each other reading street names silently as we filed the mountains of permits in that one box. There was an endless amount of them and the silence just crept over us. This is going to be one long and quiet day.

The permits were slowly getting more organized but our current situation wasn’t improving when yet another Youthwork employee, Jenniffer appeared. She was given a separate box of permits to work on. We filed for hours and only took a break to look at the clock, hoping that it was three o’clock, the end of our first day.

“That’s it for the day. We can’t keep you get longer. I don’t want to get in trouble because of child labor. Your parents might just sue me for this,” Marsha stated firmly when the clock struck one o’clock.

“But aren’t we supposed to work for six hours?” Tiana replied. “We still have three hours left.”

Marsha shook her head. “I’m sorry. I really have no idea what to do. Youthworks is right next door. You guys should check with them tomorrow in order to sort out this predicament that we’re in,” she continued to say before kicking us out.

First day of work and my supervisor had no idea I’d be here. Plus, she kicked me out when I was doing a good job, too. What is going on here? Filing is the last thing I want to do but I want to get paid for the whole day.

“What are we supposed to do now?” I said not realizing that I had said it out loud.

Tiana and Jenniffer shrugged their shoulders. We walked together, hoping that an answer would come to us. There was no way that we were just going to work for three hours at seven dollars and fifty cents an hour.

“Let’s just go over to Youthworks now,” Jenniffer continued. “It’s better if we deal with this today instead of tomorrow.”

We all agreed and headed into the elevator in the City of Berkeley building. Juanita looked at us all dumbfounded as we piled into the Youthworks office.

“What’s going on here?” she asked. After we gave her all the details, she agreed, “You guys are right. The first day for everyone is June 18^th. They aren’t the ones paying you guys so they have no right to kick you out. We pay you guys and all they do is supervise all of you.”

            “We kept trying to tell them that,” Jennifer said. “But she said that we couldn’t stay any longer.”

            “That’s ridiculous,” Juanita jumped in. “She has no right to kick you out. Let’s go back over there and settle this.”

            I followed along quietly, relieved to finally have found someone who was on our side. The confusion would be cleared up in a matter of minutes, or at least that’s what I thought. I was not prepared for what would happen next.

The thumping of Juanita's footsteps sent a chill down my spine. She stomp through the Permit Service Center entrance and didn't even bother with the Welcome Desk.  Her eyes glanced around as she made her way to Building Permits’ counter. Her voice thundered as she demanded answers and there were to be no excuses.

"Why are you kicking out my employees?!"   

“We weren’t ready for them,” Marsha tried to explain. “There was nothing we could give them to do and we simply couldn’t pay them.”

            “You don’t pay them. We pay them and you guys supervise. Plus, we sent out e-mails to all worksite supervisors reminding them about today.”

            Juanita was furious at this point. She pounded her fist down on the table. We didn’t know how this day had become so chaotic. Someone from behind the counter noticed our dire situation and quickly came over to help us.

            “Juanita, calm down,” said Kent Murray, one of the employees that worked at Welcome Desk. “Let’s just talk it all out.”

What would have happened if he didn’t stop her? I think she would have knocked the whole place down or punched Marsha out.

Kent, Marsha, and Juanita entered a conference room to deal with this situation. They left all of three of us by the Welcome Desk. Each of the workers behind the counter kept asking what was going on. I had no answer. I just shrugged my shoulders and pondered what was going to happen to next. I breathe a sigh of relief when they came back with happy, smiling faces.

Everything was cleared up and we were all set back to filing. For the first week, that’s all there was to do. We’d either file in the back in Building and Safety or behind the counter in the front of the Permit Service Center. I hated filing up there. The cabinets are a light shade of green and stood at a height of four feet. You can only go up one drawer at a time except for the one, which had a glitch. I’d forget that one would be open and go to open the cabinet under it and the whole filing cabinet would tip over. Thankfully, Tiana was always there to help me pull it back up.

As the day passed by, none of my coworkers did much talking. We barely knew each other so there was this awkwardness when we had to ask each other a question. Tiana and I would have little conversations here and there but it was still uncomfortable. There were tons of people working at the Permit Service Center, yet I still felt lonely and lost.

There was one day that was truly unpleasant. I remember my sister telling me that she didn’t like her worksite.

“Those kids at Washington are so rowdy during the summer. I hate it. My supervisor is so clueless and useless. She’s hardly ever there. I’m going to request for a transfer to a new worksite,” she announced.

I never thought that this transfer would affect me in any way. I went to work like every other day. I filed the permits like every other day and then I headed off to lunch. There was all this commotion when I got back. Most of my coworkers watched me more intently than before but I didn’t sense much of a difference. Tiana came up to me while I was filing.

“I met your sister today,” she said.

“What?” I asked.

“She came in today with Juanita,” she continued on. “Juanita explained how your sister didn’t like her old worksite. Marsha said that she could work here if she wanted too.”

I was speechless at this point. My sister and I rarely got along. We’re polar opposites; she’s the more mature one whereas I’m the little kid. It’s one thing to live with her but now I have to work with her, too?

            Soon after, Marsha came looking for me. She filled me in on the situation and asked me for my opinion.

            “I don’t like the idea of my sister coming to work here,” I said.

            “I’m sorry. I should have asked for your opinion. What should we do now?”

“Well since you agreed already, I can deal with it.”

The next day, my sister Anh Tuyet joined our group. I felt less shy around her. I’m never shy around her. It’s impossible. I’m actually a lot louder than her. She’s more of a quiet and reserved person whereas I’m loud and obnoxious. I talked to the others but to my sister more. There would be little side conversations here and there but we still hadn’t really opened up to everyone.

Marsha noticed this and arranged for a mandatory introduction meeting, it was set for Friday. Tiana, Jenniffer, and I all piled into the conference room at around eleven o’clock. We sat there not sure what to expect. Jaime and Marsha came in bearing all sorts of foods from yogurt to strawberries. They began eating before the meeting started. They looked at us expecting us to do something but we just sat there.

            “Feel free to eat whatever you want,” Jaime said.

            “We’ll feel bad if you don’t,” Marsha joked.

            I grabbed the nearest item and began munching away. Free food? I’m starting to like this place a bit more, but it’s awkward to accept food from someone I barely know even if they are my bosses.

            When all of us were comfortable and relaxed, the conference started. They talked about all their expectations and standards. It was all the same information that Youthworks had told us. There wasn’t anything new. This is so tedious. It is such a waste of time. I guessed Marsha and Jaime noticed this because they quickly ended the overview of the rules. There was a bit of a silence before they started with introductions. We each had to say what grade we were going to be in and what we planned to do with our lives.

“I’m Tiana and I will be a junior this coming year at Berkeley High School. I want to be a fashion designer when I grow up.”

“I’m Jenniffer and I will be a freshman at San Francisco State University this coming fall. I’m still undecided on what I want to be major in or be when I’m an adult,” Jenniffer continued on.

“I’m Anh Van and I’ll be a senior this coming year at Berkeley High. I have no idea what I want to do.”

It was my sister’s turn but she was distracted by something across the street. I noticed that she had been like this the entire time. She would pay attention for a minute and then look out the window the next. We were all waiting for her to introduce herself. She sat motionless and distracted until I loudly said, “Anh Tuyet!”

“Oh sorry, I saw something shiny.”

The entire room burst into laughter. My sister is usually a very mature person. She looks at me with utter disgrace when I’m obsessing over my Asian singers and dramas. Yet she does have her moments. She always gets distracted by shiny, pretty things.

“So, my name is Anh Tuyet. I’m about to be a sophomore at Berkeley High. Other than that I’m still undecided with my life.”

I don’t know what it was that day but all of us began to open up more and became closer. There was no more awkwardness as the weeks went by. Eventually, I got to do other jobs besides filing such as entering in inspections, routing construction plans to the different departments such as Traffic, Zoning, Toxics, etc. One job that was particularly fun was making fun of my boss. It was so easy.

“Do you know how to get to Berkeley Bowl?” Jaime asked me.

“Yeah, you can take the F there.”

He went off to lunch at one pm leaving me with the entire Building & Safety office to run. Hours seem to pass by and I started to worry. Where are you? Lunch was over an hour ago. Come back so I don’t have to deal with these stupid callers. The door suddenly swung open and in walked my tired and wearily boss.

            “It’s hot out there.”

            “Jaime, your lunch ended an hour ago. Did you get lost?”

            He shook his head. “I walked to Berkeley Bowl.”

            “Didn’t I tell you to take the bus?”

            “Anh Van, I don’t do public transportation. I got my burrito though. It was delicious, buddy.”

            I couldn’t suppress my laughter anymore. His expression was priceless when I started laughing. His face had turned a bright shade of red.

            “Stop laughing or I’ll make you file!”

            “I’m not filing! That’s not fair. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just laughed at your simple mistake. No one in their right mind walks all the way from Center to Berkeley Bowl for a burrito.”

            “Stop teasing, you player hater. It was a good burrito”, he said but I had tuned him out.

On our last day, Jaime and Marsha held a goodbye party for us. We all gathered everyone from both Building and Safety and the Permit Service. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone but it had been a memorable experience. I see gifts! Are they for us? Is that an AMC gift card? Wait, there’s food too! I swear I love working here. It’s filled with interesting people who throw great parties but wait this is supposed to be a sad, touching, and memorable moment. Stop thinking about the food and gifts!

            “You know what you guys? I still remember when you guys first started working here. It was so quiet back then. You were all too afraid to ask for help from us because of what happened on the first day. But now, you guys are hella loud. You’re always interrupting us in the middle of our work so that we can help you,” Jaime announced.

            All of our cheeks turned a shade of ruby red. We had totally forgotten that we had been so scared and nervous. I, for one was hoping that they’d all forget that.

            Nonetheless, my first work experience had taught me a lot. I gained a lot more confidence from it. I learned how the system of how the City of Berkeley deals with construction projects, how to fill out parking signs, put in construction inspections, etc. Filing is not something you learn. It’s something you already know or not. I think it’s best if you don’t know how to from the start. I’m so happy that I was able to conquer over my shyness and open up to new people in a short matter of time. The Permit Service is a place I will never forget and they’re waiting for me to come back. I hope that this time around it won’t be as chaotic as before. Maybe, I shouldn’t have said that.