Category: 02: Employment History
By Eduardo
I can’t get into too much detail at this time, but my job involves me working with a team of people overseas who can only be described as “eh doo”.
As you may know, many Asian companies that do outsourcing work for U.S. companies have their employees choose “American” first names for easier identification when communicating with people here. That’s all fine and good, only the people on this team apparently chose random English nouns instead of proper names. Some of their first names are:
Happy
Kitty
Rabbit
Mountain
P.P.
Struggle
King
There are more, but that’s a pretty good cross-section. They’re very nice people, but the communication gap is certainly a challenge at times.
Now, see if you can compose a sentence using all those names.
By Jaimenacho
At Paco’s urging, I will, as painful as it is…recall the 3 weeks I spent working at Spectrum Color. I was home from college, and had known this little photo lab in town that did a lot of color and black and white custom printing Paco and I had delivered there when working for Tom; I had gone in, and asked Z—, the lady who owned/operated the store if she needed help for the holidays. She said she did, and I was hired at slightly above minimum wage to work for the 3 weeks I was home.
My job was pretty simple- Make prints from negatives, both color and black and white. I would make the prints, develop them, then have them checked by Z—, to see if they needed more time, more or less color, whatever.
Our darkroom was located in the restroom. This was fine because while I was waiting for prints to dry, or run through various stages of production, I could take a whiz, or sit on the toilet and wait, rather than stand.
But it also had problems…
One of the serious drawbacks to this location was the fact that Z— also used it for a restroom…
On many, many occasions, I would emerge from the printing room, go into the darkroom, lock myself in for work, and then notice my nostrils were burning…Z— apparently had no qualms about dropping a wicked deuce in the can while I was away…then leaving the remaining odors to torture my senses for those painful minutes I had to be locked in. I couldn’t leave…or wait to enter work needed done, I had to endure. It became like a sick game of Russian Roulette with turds…I never knew for sure if that odor would be waiting for me, to caress my nostrils with its pungent fragrance.
I think she gorged herself on spicy German food all day long. Not many days went by that I wasn’t floored by the smell, and forced to operate a darkroom one handed…as one hand was always covering my nose.
The worst part was I couldn’t just tell her….”Hey Z— for the love of Pete, could you sh** prior to coming to work, or somewhere else…because you’re making for some unsavory working conditions to be sure…”
I liked the experience of working there, and Z— was very nice, and helpful…even if she did have some colon issues.
By Paco
Jaime,
I saw a lady this afternoon who was an employer of yours for a very brief period of time about 10 years ago. She used to run that little photo lab in town that we used to deliver stuff to…
Can you post about your experiences working there? I had to chuckle when I saw her… she was always a very nice lady, but I’ll never forget that ONE piece of info you told me when you worked there.
Haha!
By Eduardo
help me
By Guillermo
First job: seeding and watering a several acre field for a federal water district, I was 12. Second job: paperboy, I got around the ‘hood and I was well liked. Third: oldest existing business in our town, jewelry, fine china, crystal and stuff like that, after school in a mall everyday. I loved it there, they loved me! I’d prolly still be there if the old man hadn’t died :( I had the run of the mall and a good income…it paid for all those VWs to be restored! Summer job: every year since I was 12 working with a certified arborist. This was the life! All day in sunny CA doing yard work! Big bucks! Nice tans! Meals on the boss! Montgomery ward, men’s clothes, enough said. then the mother of all jobs!!! I worked for the government as a staff photographer, had top level clearance, I mean very special privileges… keys and cards and access to just about everything… I roller bladed in the heart of a giant dam! I’ve seen stuff I can’t even talk about! Wooohooo!!! This was fun fun fun and I was a civilian! Had to quit to keep up with my college plans… in retrospect a very bad decision!!!
I also worked for two diff photo labs, a one-hour hole and a pro lab… I did an am/pm for a few months to pay school bills, I sold Nissans and Subarus for a year, very well I might add, but it was too much stress!!! I was a security guard all over the city… some great sites! High rise buildings galore! Also accessed some very interesting places… I was a pro photographer for myself, apprenticed from a very young age thru all these jobs, and I have been a professional artist, a painter, this whole time too…then there was the law firm job. A truly great place to work, biggest and best corporate law, I was communications and operations, boils down to paperwork– fax, copy, e-mail, etc.. I had the run of this place too! Everywhere I’ve ever been I get the keys and the love me. I guess it is because I never cross any lines; I’m honest, and so darn cool to everyone. I feel pretty good about all I have done for these firms. I also worked for an art gallery during the last few years overlapping with the law gig… I guess that has been my way, I always had two or three *jobs* at once… now I work for myself making art.
By Jaimenacho
I only really got to visit Eduardo at MS once or twice. I remember him driving on “campus” and being very amazed at the pure size of the place. It was beyond impressive. Eduardo’s office was very nice, and very professional. He showed me his room, and the first thing I noticed was he had beer in his office. That was crazy. “It’s just left over from a part we had” was his reply. Eduardo would constantly tell stories of catered lunches, expensive dinners, and field trips for team building. I really envied his job. When I was there each floor had two areas with huge refrigerators full of every type of soda imaginable. Eduardo informed me I could have as many as I wanted. I kept drinking soda, and saying things like “you mean nobody cares? I can have another one?” They had snacks, and coffee (good coffee) as well. They also had video games on one floor, with no quarter required. The whole place was like being in the sitcom silver spoons, without the cool train to take you everywhere. I left thinking, no wonder my job whops off so bad. I have the feeling now, if you treat your employees well, they’re more inclined to work longer hours for you, and work harder. Granted 16 hour freak hobbit days are a bit too much, but the concept is good.
By Paco
I have a few moments that stick out from Eduardo’s days at MSFT…
1) Eduardo was out of town somewhere… I believe he was back in CA visiting family or something. Anyways, I was asked to take care of the cat that Eduardo was taking care off… this smoke grey Persian named Romeo. I don’t even like cats, and I managed to actually think this cat was pretty cool. He had a cool personality. Excpet for the hairballs and constant meowing that keep us up one night… well anyways. I got Eduardo’s keys, and he took off for a few days.
Well… turns out that I guess Eduardo mentioned to certain co-worker (large annoying female… what was her name? Danielle?) that she could take care of Romeo too. Well… I was minding my own business taking stock orders out in Issaquah, and all of sudden this girl comes to our door and starts knocking on it. Now, at our work, you couldn’t even come in unless you had this little remote that you clicked at the doorway. So she is sitting out there staring at all of us through the window. I didn’t really recognize her at first… but when one of my co-workers finally opened the door, I noticed that she was the annoying lady that works at microsoft.
So she approaches me and asks me for Eduardo’s key to his apartment. Now I am thinking, what the heck would I do that? Why should I give this girl that I don’t even know his key??? Well… and that is basically what I told her.
Needless to say, she was a bit pissed… probably because she drove all the way to Issaquah, and came back empty handed.
Turns out it was just poor communication from Eduardo.
2) I was invited once out to Microsoft for lunch. I remember thinking why would I want to go a cafeteria for lunch? Well… Eduardo was right, the Microsoft cafeteria (at least the one we went to… there is probably quite a few of them) was VERY impressive… any drink you wanted for free. And NUMEROUS choices of food. Pretty cool. That is a pretty amazing company.
3) And lastly… finally one afternoon while I was working in Bellvue, Eduardo and I decided that we should go to dixies to meet the “man”. Well… it was some mighty fine BBQ, and Gene was nice enough to present me my toothpick of “man”. A half an later back at work, my throat still burned.
