For my latest teaching position, I’m paid through an agency, not by the district. This was a conscious decision on my part, and there are benefits and drawbacks associated with it. For example, while agencies pay quite well, they do not allocate paychecks over the summer. It’s all figured into what they pay hourly, which is great, as long as you’re reasonably good at setting aside funds for those periods you don’t receive a check.

Since I just started with them at the end of May, I didn’t amass much of a savings for the summer. I knew I would probably have to find a job to fill the gap between now and September.

So, for the last month or so, I’ve been on an aggressive job hunt. This week in particular, I’ve gotten a flood of callbacks.

One venue I did try was a business I worked for previously. I talked to my former supervisor first, about the specific department I used to work, but he said he was all set.

So then, I saw an opening for a cashier at the front end of the store. Well, I thought, I’ll give it a go. I submitted an application via AI chatbot.

For a week, I heard nothing from that store, so I assumed they weren’t interested. But then yesterday afternoon, I got a notification prompting me to schedule an interview with them. So I did, for that evening at 6:00.

Well, I got there, and asked the head cashier, whom I did not recognize, for the manager on duty, explaining to him that I was there for a job interview. The cashier, a polite young man, radioed the manager, informing her of my arrival.

I don’t know if she was aware that I could hear the entire conversation that took place over the radio, but she attempted to pawn off the interview to another manager. The head cashier was now tasked with locating a manager willing to interview me.

Just to give you a little bit of context, the store was not lousy with customers when I arrived at 6 PM. I’m not saying tumbleweeds rolled by me as I entered the scene, but by no means was the place hopping.

The poor kid radioed manager after manager. Each one had a more ridiculous excuse than the next as to why they weren’t going to do it. One guy said, “I already interviewed someone this morning!” Another simply said, “Nope!” as he walked by us without so much as a glance at me.

I was seconds away from getting up and walking out of the store when the original manager supposed to interview me came and got me. She and I had trained together at orientation for several full days in 2023. She couldn’t remember even my first name.

I was not surprised. She couldn’t ever remember my name when I was there, either.

You would think since I had already worked at this business, and not that long ago (last year), that the interview itself would’ve been pretty informal, conversational? “So, Leah, how have you been? What have you been up to since you last worked here?”

It was not. She stuck rigidly to the questions on the sheet.

Finally, I thought. Someone even more socially awkward than me.

Derek said, and I agree, that it sounded exactly like every comedy TV show we’ve ever seen: Superstore, Parks and Rec, The Office… In fact, as I described the whole fiasco to my family over dinner that night, I laughed so hard I was almost in tears.

Was I angry that no one wanted to interview me? I might’ve been, if I hadn’t been so entertained by the situation. For comic relief, I give it two thumbs up.