The First Day

I did it!  I walked away from 12 years in advertising for my dream job.  I can’t remember a day I was happier, even after taking a $70K pay cut.  After trying to change careers for 3 years, The Store wanted me!  They decided in only 4 days!  I went from the world of 9-5 to the world of 10-7.  And after 7pm, we turned into Sommeliers for those parties in the back room.  I was working for a famous chef and I couldn’t believe my luck! 

The pay was crap, but I didn’t care. For the first time in a long time, I woke up happy and headed to work grinning from ear to ear.  In the interview, Arnie mentioned getting wined and dined by customers, going to Italy, and a great free homemade lunch every day so the perks would be appreciated.

I started my walk from Penn Station to Union Square in a suit on a hot, sweltering day.  I wore my best suit.  After all, this was mainly a desk job during the day.  Of course, I get there 30 minutes early and have enough time to stand in a long Starbucks line and get a $4 iced coffee that I finished in two slurps.  The pit stop gave me enough time to change out of my sneakers and into my cute, new open-toed shoes. 

While I walked, I received a phone call from Bonnie, my mentor and last boss.  She told me that Don was laid off and he knew it was coming at my final lunch!  That’s why he was acting weird.  WOW!  I’m pretty sure that I was next since most of the staff was laid off or their hours were cut.  Good move Deb!

I reported to the store and met Stan at 9:45am.  He’s a nice, down-to-earth guy with a dry sense of humor like my own.  He’s patient and welcoming.  Next in is Dina.  She seems cold and distant.  She’s in charge of shipping and the wine club, but that’s about the only information she’ll share with me.  Next in is Roberto who I remembered from my interview.  He is from Verona and not very cute for a native Italian.  He is a strange bird as you’ll see later. 

I waited almost 2 hours for my boss to come down and get me.  I needed some water and I was informed to get a wine glass and fill it.  Water is drunk out of wine glasses!  Talk about an air of snobbery.  I get the grand tour of the cellar and finally my boss comes down to get me.

Arnie, my boss is rico, suave.  He’s about 7 years younger than me, but he knows the store.  I’m going to learn a lot from him. I finally get to go up to the mysterious office.

The office!  I couldn’t wait!  Oh no.  Why did I not ask to see the office before I accepted this job?

The office was a loft space 6 floors above the store.  It was dark, dirty and it had two air conditioning units jammed in the 2 windows in the very opposite sides of the room where my desk was.  No central air?  You’ve got to be kidding me. In the middle of a New York City summer?  I immediately started to sweat in my suit. 

 My colleagues all sat at tables looking across from one another like in a lunch room.  They looked miserable and no one talked to each other.  Only a few people like my boss had real desks.  No privacy, no cubicles, no cubicle walls, nada.  Just a table with a computer and a phone and if you were lucky, a filing cabinet.  What if somebody farts?  Everyone is so close.  My husband said, “try it and see what happens.”

There was a small, disgusting kitchen and two nasty bathrooms of which one had a shower.  I sure hoped to god no one used that shower.  In the back, a wall separated an empty room with a table, later to be learned as the conference room and the owner’s office who I still had not met.

My colleagues were less than friendly.  There were no smiling welcomes, no great to have you aboards, just a few glares that let me be warned to steer clear.  What had I done?  I wondered if I can just go back to my other job and pretend none of this ever happened. 

My boss’ boss, Peter is the head of sales and I met him at the interview.  He is hippy-chic.  He wears mostly jeans and wears his hair long and unkempt.  I even saw him without his shoes.  Gross!  Remember the room?  I’m sitting next to him, but if I smell feet, I’m outta there! 

My job to start is to observe and learn.  Sounded boring to me.  Except, no one told me I would be in the store all day for 9 straight hours shadowing my colleagues.  Remember those new, cute shoes?  Not so cute at the end of the day when I had about 4 ripped blisters and aching legs.

I did get a nice lunch from the chefs, but everyone eats so little that I’m afraid to go back for more for fear that my colleagues will think I’m a pig.  By 3pm, I’m starving!  I did get to taste about 10 wines that day. 

I went home and cried, but I was happy and couldn’t wait to go back.  I cried a whole lot more when I received my first pitiful check.

Please note, from here on out the company will be referred to as "The Store."  All names have been changed to protect the innocent.