Bad Job
Our first "Slave of the Month" winner was found on a side trip to Boston. He works in a Salvation Army thrift store. We figured that would be the coolest thing in the world, until he started telling us about it., which we'll let him do for himself.
My name is Mike, and for almost six months now I've worked for the Salvation Army. I'm the assistant manager. I'm not really sure what this explanation is supposed to be so I'll give the bad first, then the good.
To start with, I get five dollars an hour, because I'm the Assistant Manager. My manager gets maybe a buck more, I don't ask. The "Hangers", as we call them, get minimum wage. We get health benefits after three months, that's a full three months, you start gaining days on the first day of a month. I had to wait almost four months because I started just after a month began.
I get paid for forty hours a week. Overtime usually needs to be approved. They only pay me for the 9-5:30 hours that the store is open. There is no time clock. I arrive early and leave late. I don't get paid for this extra time. I set the clock ahead every day to compensate but I still stay late.
Probably the worst part of the whole job is the red tape, the bullshit, the whole working-for-God-and-these-poor-people line. After a while you can't stomach it. You see too many thieves and crooks both shopping and running the store. Some times it seems everybody is using the Salvation Army to make money for themselves.
People steal donations from the bins outside. The rehab truck drivers steal stuff too when they come to pick it up. Stuff disappears all the time. Everybody that works for the Salvation Army gets things for themselves. Long time people get better stuff because you have to wait and wait for opportunity. Older people, with houses and families have a wider scope of people and places to get stuff for.(I can't really say I need to get some clothes for my friends) You don't steal it either, you pay, only not full value. You pay on an imaginary scale that weight the worth of an item with what we know your family gets paid.
As far as my day to day duties go, I'm the keeper of the miscellaneous shit, and head of the electronics division. Every day we get deliveries of stuff from the main center. Usually it isn't what we ordered so everyday is a surprise. I price the crates of clothes with the manager so the hangers can hang them. Then I price the assorted crap. We get it all, but about half is trash. I plug it in, wind it up, Whatever. I make sure it sort of works, and slap a price on it with my trusty permanent marker. It takes all day because I have to show customers interested in other stuff that it works all over again because nobody believes it does.
I take lunch, but get interrupted all the time to either carry some furniture around, or show some old lady how the Epilady works. During lunch I watch whatever T.V. we've just gotten in- to make sure it works.
The good thing about working for the Salvation Army is you get stuff. The policy is that workers are only supposed to buy clothes, not anything else, and the clothes have to be on the floor for a week or more. This happens only to a degree.
As a manager I don't stop people from buying books and records, or stuff I figure they'll use. Big pieces of furniture come from the sorting center with prices and tags that are monitored. Employees can scrounge crappier pieces from the donation bins outside, or have their wives come in and buy it the morning of the big sale, but nobody really funnels big stuff home.
People who love clothes can have a great time looking for stuff. I price probably five hundred pieces of clothes a day, that go out on the floor. We sell between 8 and 10,000 pieces a month, and around 4,000 pieces of bric-a-brac, books, records, pots & pans, everything that's not furniture or clothes. Literally tons of stuff pass in and out the doors, you can get great stuff.
Personally, I've managed to get enough pairs of jeans and sweaters to last all winter. You get grimy stuff from the Gap to work in, and pray some guy with your suit or dress size either dies or gains major weight and brings in their stuff.
I've never found anything worth risking my job over. Stealing is hard, and my manager an I have an honest relationship, so if I want something bad we the issue is always open for discussion. We don't see much point in stealing and selling old Instamatic cameras and porcelain figurines anyway. You have to work too hard to make any real money. We leave all the Pawn Shop visits and flea markets to our customers. I need my Sunday's off. The best thing I've ever gotten is this 1950's table and lamp in one. It's all the furniture my apartment can hold, other than the bed. I even painted it black, to cover up the old scratches.
I guess if I had to offer any advice to anybody wanting to work for the Salvation Army it would be this- Don't be a Manager. If you can handle minimum wage, and a dress code, and working Saturday, do it and just be quiet. Don't let them promote you. You'll end up crazy, but well dressed for the asylum.
