One thing that I learned about working in the tech world, the internet does not take a day off. As odd as this may sound, the world rests at many times, and when they rest, they are restless.

There are a couple of jobs that I can think of that don’t get the day off today, and while I’m sitting at my house before the day of work begins, I am called to remember two jobs that I had where I had to work on holidays, even when things weren’t so great.

Here are my top holiday jobs….

1) Casket Sales Man: Some people fantasize about this job, some people sing about it or name their band after this. But I actually lived this job for two years. It wasn’t an easy transition. It took some clever known how to get there, but I was a casket salesman. When the boss and all his employees were injured at work, there left one person for 3 months to run the business….Sir Jorge. I worked for California Casket Company, and it was an easy job, it doesn’t take much to sell caskets, you just have to physically be there. Most people are not shopping for caskets because they like the vanity involved, there is a need and with great sorrow I was there to help them. You can’t smile most of the times, so if you’re a real goth or just sad in general, you’ll fit right in. I just happened to like driving hearses at the time, so I fit in greatly.

Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July and everything that people hold sacred meant that the Casket Store would be open even if it is for a short time. I was there every holiday earning a paycheck. Sadly…loved ones try to hang on for one more holiday, and a lot of them don’t make it…especially when families fail to come visit them in homes and hospitals. Casket sales, depressing as it was, had me working on holidays.

2) Video Store Clerk: At minimum wage you would think there would be some perks like 401 k, Health Benefits, Paid Vacations or something along those lines, but nope, that’s not true. There is no hope for the video store clerk on a holiday. Regular holiday hours apply for one simple reason: People that are at home want to rent movies. If there is a family they are going to all want to watch different movies, and unlike any other time for a video store, the holidays means that parents, families, and teens are willing to blow $20 or more on video rentals. I remember working Thanksgiving day alone and people were renting 4 or 5 movies at a time. Meanwhile the lonely desperate men would be renting 10 or more adult videos to appease their loneliness. Christmas eve was a nightmare last year, filling the cash register with a large amount of cash, and my pockets with nothing more than a Snickers bar that a young boy gave me for letting him rent Pokemon…even though I had to go through the kids section dvd by dvd until I found that elusive Pokemon title for him.

So there you have it, two under appreciated, under paid positions that have to work holidays. I don’t feel so bad being a tech worker having to work a full day today, because the tech world doesn’t sleep. Not only that, the coffee world doesn’t sleep either, because it’s 5:46 AM and I dropped off the little woman at the good ol’ Starbucks at 4:45 AM to work.

If you’re at home, have the day off, just relax and sit back and enjoy the greatness of having the day off, and if you run into either one of the clerks that have to work the counter at these two positions, be nice, they don’t want to be there and at minimum wage with no commission, they are trying hard to be nice.

Further Reading

• Holidays
• New Years Interest
• On Dream Jobs
• More Work Less Pay No One Cares
• The Balloon Burst
• The Stupidity of Heat
• Lunch At Work Bores Me

Netflix Fund

Filed under: Casket Store Rants, Clerks, video store commentary, casket sales, casket salesman, clerk, clerks, kevin smith, video store clerk