April 2 marks World Autism Awareness Day. The day was designated by the United Nations to increase awareness of autism and how it affects people. For many people in the neurodiverse community, it is also somewhat controversial due to it not always promoting acceptance (and even pride) as well as awareness. In addition, the “light it up blue” campaign makes many on the autism spectrum cringe due to its association with an organization that I will not name here (but many of you who are on the spectrum will know exactly what I am talking about).
One such alternative to “lighting it up blue”, is “red instead”, where those who support the cause will instead wear red. This was something I was able to do really well as I wore red a lot growing up, and little did I know that this was going to be an essential part of my first real job.
Job-hunting is a difficult task for anyone and as of this writing I am seeking a new position of my own after a recent company restructuring meant that I lost my previous role as a software engineer, and this takes me back to my first job search in my first year in college. The year was 2002 and I was home for the summer. While it would have been nice to stay at home playing Doom deathmatches with my brother all day and driving my parents crazy, I knew that it would be better to actually try and get a summer job.
I applied at several places, including Circuit City (as I was a computer nerd who knew a lot about electronics and could also benefit from the employee discount) as well as Publix (a major supermarket chain in Florida who will hire people of any ability.) Being the shy introvert I was, I figured that I would do best in the backroom where I would not have to worry about interacting with people
Unfortunately, neither store got back to me, so I applied at other places. The next option was Target, a national retail chain known for being slightly more upscale than Wal-Mart and having stores where everything (including the employee uniform) was red. My brother had worked there and he did a reasonably good job there so I also had a good reference. Despite being an extremely shy introvert, the manager interviewed me on-the-spot and asked if I wanted to work in my brother’s position (the snack bar). I told him that I would prefer working in the back but was open to options.
The following week, I went in for my first day of work. Not in the backroom under fluorescent lights on maximum hum-buzz or even in the snack bar, but out in front of the store in the sweltering Florida sun (and regularly scheduled thunderstorms) retrieving shopping carts – so much for not being around people – I was often the first person customers (or in Target lingo, “guests”) would see when coming to the store and the last person when they left. Training was very basic – I was assigned a mentor and he showed me the ropes on the first day and after that went into the store to help out on the registers leaving me on my own. The work was very strenuous, and while I did not have a driver’s license, I did get certified to use the cart machine, which did the heavy work – at least when it did work. The culture of that particular store encouraged pushing 60 carts or more at the same time (company policy was only to push 25).
As physically demanding as the job was, it helped me open up to people, as other duties of that rule also included helping load up vehicles and helping people who stopped me on the floor. My supervisor suggested that I get trained on the register to pick up more shifts, and I got quite good at it. I may have been a little bit “robotic” and could not sell the store credit if my life depended on it, but I became one of the fastest cashiers in the store (often having to wait for the slow POS software to catch up with my scanning) and was very accurate in making change. Running a register also exposes one to all the unique characters in society, such as cell phone zombies, people who think they are funny by saying “it must be free” when an item does not scan, and the occasional guest that modern society would label as a “Karen“. Welcome to Retail!
One of the downsides of retails is the unpredictable schedules and late nights, and even though I wanted full-time hours, I did not usually get them and I had to pick up shifts when they became available. As part of this, I ended up cross-training in a variety of roles around the store, including the snack bar (Food Avenue) and the sales floor. I also earned a reputation for my technical abilities, such as fixing computer equipment.
My knowledge of technology was helpful when I learned the photo lab – being an aspiring photographer myself who learned to develop film in high school, I was able to keep the customers happy and the equipment running. Film chemistry would go out of balance, computers would crash, and printers would jam, and sometimes this meant having to explain to customers why their prints were not ready. Unfortunately conflicts did sometimes happen as some of my supervisors did not understand the technology very well and some miscommunication after a piece of equipment briefly going down actually resulted in me suffering a mental breakdown. Unlike the classic autism meltdowns I sometimes had as a kid, as an adult I am much more likely to shutdown and withdraw. Ultimately this lead to me taking a couple of unpaid days off and transferring to a different department.
Several months later, with multiple university degrees in hand and another long job hunt, I was able to land a new job that better suited my skill set (and paid a lot more) and I clocked out for the last time. I still came to shop at the store on a regular basis and meet up with my former colleagues, especially the older gentleman who was cart attendant and loved his job. He was easily entertained and would crack up whenever I jokingly told him about that cart I saw next to the dumpster behind Wal-Mart on my way to the store that he needed to go and retrieve.
While the pay was marginally above minimum wage, shifts not always easy to obtain, and promotional opportunities rather limited, working retail did help me open up to other people, and it was my first real job that paved the way for other careers. It also got me through school and paid most of the bills. At the same time, I was able to work with many good people, some of whom I am still in contact with today. These days I almost never wear red, but April 2 is still a day for #redinstead