An acquaintance lost her job [View all]

[Lurker Deluxe]

I pretty much stop at the local watering hole very day after work, I skip a day here and there ... but if I am working you can usually find me there. So you get to know the "locals" pretty well after a couple years. This story is about one of them.

She worked in a corporate setting, nice looking girl, smarter than average, and seemed to have her shit together ... as much as one can tell over conversations around Patron shots. She had been there over three years and was moving up the ladder as it were.

A few weeks ago she let it be known that the company was having her cross train another person to help with the workload, and although she was not happy she went along with the program. I kind of helped there as I put it, the first step to supervision is training other people to perform a task and making sure it gets done properly. So over the last few weeks she has been teaching someone else to do her job.

At the end of business Wednesday she was let go by the company. She inquired as to why and was told that the other person was "more dependable". It was an interesting conversation from there ... Was she late to work? "only a couple times a week" Did she go to work every day? "I miss like 4-5 days a month" Do you generally work 40 or more hours a week? "well, I was salaried so I really did not have to" What do you intend to do now? "I think I will go back to bar tending" Why? "I really don't like getting up early" What time did you have to go in? "nine" I bought her a couple of drinks as we spoke and paid my tab (6 pm) and politely told her it was time to get my ass to the house and she asked me what I was "doing tonight". Uhhh, sleeping ... I get up at 4 every day.

So yesterday I stop in and the owner of the watering hole struck up a conversation about this young lady. It seems that around October of last year she started running around with a couple of the bartenders and was closing the place down three or four nights a week and some days she would be waiting there for them to open and start drinking at eleven and stay there until two. Why would this person begin down such a destructive path? "she likes to drink" Hell, I like to drink, but I can't do it without money so I know when to take my dumb ass to the house. "well, she would rather hang out with friends than do that" Such is life.

I post this just as a gentle reminder to those out there that insist that everyone who has a good job and manages to be successful is not just lucky, and that those who end up working at some job that has no benefits, insurance, or opportunity for advancement is not just unlucky. Work ethic still means something in the world, something I think this young lady will learn ... after being fired from a bar tending gig for lack of attendance.