You Don’t Have to Eat Groceries for Them to Change Your Life

How a part-time after school job has changed my worldview for the better.

A steady part-time job in a local grocery store wasn’t part of the original plan. We are a two-income family, as my wife and I are both high school teachers, and I also teach a writing course for a university’s online programming. With paychecks from our main source of income ceasing to exist between the end of May and the end of August, we both seek summer employment to keep the cash flow moving. It was with some disappointment that I was informed this past spring that the job I had done last summer involving welcoming incoming freshmen would not be funded, so feelers were put out for something else to do.

Walking into the local Sprouts grocery store to seek an item my wife was looking for was part of my plan for that day. What wasn’t part of the plan was seeing the table offering employment, deciding on a whim to apply, getting a call for an interview, receiving a part-time job offer on the spot, working full-time hours over the summer, and being asked to stay on as the school year started, albeit with about half the hours. A summer job had been placed in front of me, and for that, I was grateful. My wife and daughter would travel out of state to visit her family for much of the summer, so working forty hours a week would not be a problem. I now work a few evenings after school, and one weekend day each week, and the extra income has been a blessing for our budget as our daughter ages and incurs more expenses.

Image Courtesy: Yelp.com

My section of the store is the grocery department, which means that there are about six aisles of the store that are within my purview for each shift. The responsibilities are usually to bring items offloaded from the trucks to the shelves, work through a daily list to bring individual items out for sale, and to “block” the aisles in the evening to ensure they are presentable for the next morning. It is a completely different skill set from that I utilize at school, except of course for my interactions with customers- those interpersonal skills are required no matter where one works. While I am constantly exercising my mind while teaching during the day, it continues in the evening, but my muscles get their turn as well. Between teaching and working in the store, days in which I attend both jobs are shoe-ins for reaching my 10,000-step count goal.

One may wonder how an after-school job may have the ability to completely change my philosophy of how I see the world, and the answer became crystal clear once the school year kicked off, and I was working both jobs. The words that come to mind are hubris and humility. As I was working two jobs in which I was teaching, it seemed as if the jobs were enough to provide stable income. They were jobs in which I was using my brains, my degrees, and there was a reeking overconfidence that came with my mistaken belief that working in academia gave me a position of superiority. Working a non-education related job was something that I shouldn’t have to do, despite the fact that thousands of teachers across the country do the same thing. To humble myself by taking a job in the service industry might have been exactly what the doctor ordered.

For no longer do I believe that I am “above” any type of work. I no longer see retail, physical labor, or any type of work outside of occupations requiring degrees as something that would be “beneath” me. I can come home after a day of teaching, take off my button-down shirt and dockers, change into a store-issued t-shirt and jeans, and put in the same amount of determination and effort in my service industry job. Just as students need my guidance and wisdom for their education, the customers who enter the store need my help finding items and answering questions that they have.

An aspect of the job that I wasn’t ready to embrace until it happened was my enjoyment of interactions with my fellow employees, but also the customers who come into the store on a daily basis. Yes, there are the moments that are frustrating, occasionally prompting me to wonder where people’s minds are, but the majority of conversations with shoppers are pleasant, ending in a smile. In fact, I’ve gotten to know many of my regulars, so they know that I teach. They will often ask me how school is going, and especially now, will offer words of encouragement as we near our two-week Christmas Break. Some have asked if I’ll be at full-time hours during that time and are pleased to hear that I will be. My “Dad Jokes” are also not limited to the classroom, so while assisting others, I’ll occasionally say something that will make them laugh, which they usually appreciate. A recent interaction involved a customer asking where the jams were to be found, so I inquired as to whether he was seeking 80s jams or 90s jams as we made our way to the edible jams. He loved the joke, but I think his daughter (who looked to be about my students’ age) liked it the most.

On arriving at work Monday, my direct supervisor caught me in the break room and handed me a box from which to draw my “Secret Santa” name for our newly minted Christmas gift exchange. As he did, he quickly said, “congratulations- you’re employee of the month, and here…draw a name.” With the quickness of the exchange, there was some definite trepidation as to what I heard, but after I pulled the name, he finished with, “no, but seriously…congratulations.” To know that someone with whom I work took the time to nominate the part-time teacher who only works a handful of days a week for this honor gave me an even deeper sense of connection and gratitude with and for those with whom I work. The idea that the tasks I perform each shift were noticed helped me to realize that what I thought would be a simple job to bolster our bank accounts was slowly becoming more than that.

Image Courtesy: Yelp

It had transfigured into a job where I was respected, where I am honored to come in after school, or on a weekend day. My input is valued, my skills are appreciated, and I enjoy putting effort in the work that I do. While it may not be a job that I ever thought I would have, it is one in which I put forth all of the effort I have when I am on the clock. Not only for the customers and my co-workers, but for myself as well. No matter what the job, or the pay, I want to do it well so that when I leave, I can say that the most possible effort was put forth, and I can rest my head knowing that I tried, not with the attitude of, “oh, this is just my part time job-it doesn’t matter,” but, “this is my job, and I am going to do it to the best of my ability.”

As the months roll on, I will continue to don my green shirt and jeans while providing the cushion to our family income. I will do so with confidence, as I assist customers with the same care and dedication that I show my students. The gratitude for this job is not only because of the money it provides, but also for helping me to reconnect with the soft skills involved with helping people who are not my students. I will continue to provide the same listening ear as well, taking care to provide a smile or humorous words to those who I believe might need a smile. My individual actions will probably do little to affect the company’s bottom line, but if I can do at least one thing each shift that has a positive impact on my coworkers, or my customers, that is when I know that the job has been done well. That level of satisfaction far outweighs customer or managerial accolades, as it is the work we do that may go unnoticed that humbles us, that makes us better human beings.