Since I’ve been talking about work this week, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of stories about when I was looking for a job. These two happened to take place in the late nineties, when my husband and I lived in Florida in a suburb of Miami. I like bad news before good so I’ll tell them in that order.
I was living in Miami because I was part of a research program. My schedule didn’t allow for a full time job so I was out looking for a part time jobby-job kind of thing. I figured I would start close to home so one of my first stops was at a major pharmacy type store. I won’t name names, but it starts with a ‘C’ and ends in an ’S’.
I asked the woman at the register for a job application and she looked at me funny. She found the application and gave it to me with encouraging words that were something like, “you can’t work here. You can’t even do anything.” This was twenty years ago so I don’t remember exactly but I know whatever she said was definitely fucked up.
I just looked at her and she continued to name all the things I couldn’t do, like reach the shelves to stock them. I was in tears. How could she? And is this unnamed pharmacy store fucking kidding me with this discrimination?
I went home SO upset. My husband was super pissed when I told him about it (because he always has my back 😘). He encouraged me to call headquarters - which I did. I almost immediately received a phone call from a CEO offering me a job (which I no longer wanted) and explaining plans on what would happen with the employee.
He continued to follow up with me a couple of times (likely trying to avoid a lawsuit) and filled me in on how they handled it and how they would be training their employees on how to address issues such as these. #winning
The clerk really didn't know any better. She probably had a low IQ and she was ugly AF anyway (jk I don’t remember any of that) but ADA laws were new and people really just didn’t know any better - they still don’t sometimes. It wasn’t the first time I was discriminated against in a work place - but it was definitely the most blatant.
I considered it a win - this large chain would be making changes because of that.
Since I was still looking for a job, I continued my quest. This was back in the stone ages when we didn’t have smart phones and computers were more of a luxury so after going door to door I did that old thing where we would circle the want ads in the paper. (you other old people remember that, right?)
I set up an interview for a secretarial position. When I went to the address they gave me, it was a condo/hotel building. Seemed kind of weird but this was Miami so you never know.
I went to the suite and it was even more shady than I expected. There was a male character straight out of a seedy movie role and a beautiful woman dressed in a very un-secretary-like outfit. We all looked at each other, clearly confused as to what was going on.
I introduced myself and explained I was there for the job and the sketchy dude was like, “I don’t know if you’re a good fit.” The tears started welling quickly after my last experience but I held myself together long enough for him to finish: “we’re looking for exotic dancers for private executive cruises.”
Ummmm…. what? 😂😂😂
Obviously this guy had never seen my dance moves or he would’ve hired me on the spot. But for real, WHAT THE FUCK 😂 I must have circled the wrong ad or mixed up the listings. Who knows, but I screwed that up somewhere along the line!
The three of us laughed and laughed - super uncomfortably, but we laughed none-the-less. I said thanks and left.
It was basically the most epic interview for all of us.
In case you’re wondering, I did get a job - two actually. I worked at Old Navy 🙄 but also had a gig as an investigator for a lawyer who represented people with disabilities following up on claims against hotels and large public places that were not ADA compliant.
THAT was a pretty cool job.
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