Work Stories: Episode 44: Cleaning Out a Closet

Previously on Work Stories I wrote about something.  What was that something?  I don’t remember.  Ah yes.  I wrote about the time that I got stuck in the parking lot when I was trying to go home.  That wasn’t an exciting story, was it?  It was basically 600 words that can be summed up in seven.  I got stuck in a parking lot.  That was it.  But I told that story.  I told it hard.

This week is a different story from a different time.  This is from back when I worked at the hotel that I worked at for a few years.  This is before I went to university and then left university.  This is from when I still had hope in my eyes and all the dreams in the world.  I was a happier person then.  I would be happy to do anything.  I would even spend my three hours at work cleaning the storage room.  That’s right.  This is a story about cleaning.

I think the laws around here state that if a person isn’t called off from work and they go into work, they must be paid their hourly wage for three hours, or whatever they work above three hours.  That’s how my current job is, and that’s how my previous job at the hotel was.  If I came into work, they had to pay me for three hours no matter how long I was there up to three hours.  If I went to work for over three hours, they had to pay me for however many hours I was there.

There was a day where I was supposed to work in the dining room.  I was only a busser, so if things got slow, I would be the one to leave first.  That’s how it worked.  You can’t have a busser waiting on people.  Well, you can, and I have before, but that’s not supposed to happen and this story isn’t about that.  I came into work expecting to work the dinner shift.  When I got there, I was told that it was really slow and I wouldn’t be working in the dining room.  Instead, I would spend three hours cleaning out and reorganizing the back storage room.  So that’s what I did.

First I moved everything out of the room, or into empty space on the other side of the room.  I cleared out all of the shelves.  Old computers came out.  Typewriters.  Carpeting.  Whatever was on the shelved got moved off of the shelves.  Then I inventoried everything that was in the room, and got rid of some of the stuff that wasn’t needed at all.  It wasn’t much that I got rid of, but it was enough to free up some space.  Then I put everything back on the shelves in a more organized way.  It was no longer just piled on the shelves.  Everything was put in a specific place so that it was near what was similar to it.  Decorations for various holidays were all stored together.  Old technology was stored together.  Extra utensils and other kitchen stuff were all stored together.  I made that place into a masterpiece of organization.

When I finished the job, I checked the time.  I had been working for half an hour and I was done.  I don’t remember what I did for the other two and a half hours.  Maybe I snatched some food out of the kitchen and ate.  Actually, I probably did do that.  I did that every shift I worked.  Maybe a bus came and I got to unload the luggage and make extra money.  That happened quite a bit.  Maybe I just ran toilet paper, towels, and cots to rooms.  I don’t know.  They all seem like likely scenarios.  Whatever it was, after three hours in the hotel, I went home.

That wasn’t much of a story, but it’s this week’s Work Story.  What can I say? Sometimes I make a lot out of nothing at all.  What will I write for the story next week?  Only time will tell.  I don’t know at this point.  Whatever I want to write about next week will be what I write about next week.

Until then, bitches leave.