A long time ago I worked in retail at ‘ The Mall ‘. It was an ok job and things were going as fine as they could until one day I went in and found out that one of my co-workers had seen the new schedule and didn’t like her hours so she switched them with mine.

The store manager had gone on Vacation and her assistant who had taken over was friends with the person who had switched the schedules.

The problem was I was in school so couldn’t work during the days.

When I told the District manager what she had done because the acting manager claimed she couldn’t change the schedule because her friend would quit and we’d be short staffed, the District Manager told me if I valued my job , I’d work the schedule and ‘we would see about ‘ – and these are the words she used, ” we’ll see about catering to your personal needs.”

I was 16 years old and a woman in her 40’s had just told me either skip school or drop out if I wanted to keep my job.

To paint you a picture, it was my part time, dead end minium wage job ( which contrary to what millennials believe did not pay me enough in the late 70′ to rent my own place or buy a car).

So I quit.

Believe it or not, I didn’t get a lot of support because I had thrown away a great job at ” The Mall ” Some of my friends told me I was never going to get a good job because I had walked off and my parents to me I was on the road to being a ‘quitter’.

If you think that didn’t sting, you’re a thousand percent wrong.

Not to worry though I learned my lesson and my life has been a series of dead end jobs but they paid the bills so I was grateful to have them.

So this is what I have to say to people who have the chance to get out of that rut- get out, stay out and no matter what anyone says- don’t go back for NOTHING like I did.

If you go back for nothing, trust me that is all you will ever get.

amm