How many jobs have you held in your life? I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. This does not include all of the musicals, operas, television and film projects either. I am a professional singer and actor. Did I plan on having 33 jobs in 17 years? Of course not, but life has been a crazy wild ride.
There were no drugs, very little alcohol, but my drug of choice has been WORK! Most of my adult life I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing. Each week I will discuss one of my former or current jobs. I will reflect on my experience at each job. Job number 5 was Campus Pizza at Murray State.
Campus Pizza
Campus Pizza was a pizza delivery service at Murray State. I worked at Campus Pizza during my senior year of college from fall 2011 until October 2012. This job was a solid job for a college student. It was not as physically challenging as working at Winslow Dining Hall. You would prep cook the pizzas when you arrived to the shift. Then, we would wait for students to call in orders for pizzas, make and cook the pizzas, and delivery the pizzas to the students’ dorms.
Schedule
I worked Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from around 4pm or 5pm until midnight. During the 2011-2012 school year, I did not do any musicals or operas. I just did the Alpha’s Miss Black & Gold Pageant in the fall of 2011. This freed me up to work most weekends at Campus Pizza and get a consistent paycheck. Furthermore, my grades were much better my senior year when I had a job than when I did not have a job during my junior year.
Student Managers
Murray State Dining Services had student managers. The student managers were in charge of the older staff members who had been at the University for years, which was a bit weird. Most student managers were pretty good, but they were college students. It was too much responsibility for a college student. Management is hard for adults in general let alone, 19 to 22 year olds. A student manager is a great idea and concept, but it was poorly executed at times.
Shift Coverage Issues
We did not have the student managers’ cell phone numbers. No one ever answered the dining services phone, especially on the weekends. There was one student manager, who was a former roommate of a close friend. She was amazing at the job and I loved working with her. She knew that I was a music major and had performances sometimes that may conflict with my work schedule.
In the past, if I had a performance, I would place my name on the shift coverage sheet for someone to take my shift ahead of time. I tried to get someone to cover my shift. If no one signed up, I would let this student manager know ahead of the shift, so it was never a “no call, no show”. However, this student manager graduated in the spring of 2012. Unfortunately, I had one more semester of college in the fall to complete my double major in Journalism.
New Manager
One of my former co-workers was promoted to student managers in the fall. I had worked with her the previous school year. This student had taken some of my shifts a few times when I had performances in the past. I was cast in Big River and Little Shop of Horrors at Playhouse in the Park and had performances on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays during the fall of 2012. So, just like in the past, I tried to get someone to cover my shift, but no one signed up for this shift.
Firing
On the day of the shift, I left a message on the Winslow Dining Services phone to no avail because no one received the message. After my performance, I got an email from the new student manager and former co-worker saying that I was fired because I did not show up for work. The job was about to end in a little over a month permanently since I was graduating in December 2012. But it hurt a bit to be fired by someone who I had worked with and who knew that I was a good employee.
Reflection
I worked hard at that job for over a year and was dropped like a hot potato. If there had been an adult with life experience in this situation, it would have been handled much differently. If I had just been able to contact the student manager, everything would have been fine. I sent an email to the student manager explaining that I did call, but I never received a response from her.
You should always contact your employers if you cannot come in to work and speak to them directly. However, this has never been an issue at any of my jobs before. There was no way to contact my student managers since I did not have their cell phone numbers or email addresses at the time. I graduated college a little over a month after the firing. Lastly, I was still working at the Murray State News during that semester, so comme ci, comme sa. Next post will discuss my time at the Murray State News.
Have you ever been fired? Comment below!
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