Thursday, September 11, 2008

Working at a Christian bookstore

So, in my quest to find employment, I found myself with an interview at a Christian bookstore. I congratulated myself for being 10 minutes early and walked in. 85 minutes later, I walked out feeling the need to go to church and pray for people.

Instead of being introduced to the person who was interviewing me, I got a speech on how they HATE cops (I actually do not remember them introducing themselves at all, but I knew in advance what her name was). After she expressed her views, I was asked what my degree was in and I found it uncomfortable to answer Criminal Justice. This was a foreboding event on how the rest of the interview would play out.

Click here to read the rest of this adventure...

On every application, there is a line that says “reason you left this job”. Now, in an effort to GET HIRED, I have decided for one past job, I would be VERY generous and only put “ethical reasons”. So, when I was asked about that job, I did not say the people there were downright criminals robbing people, but I said something very vague. I was extremely happy with myself, thinking I made myself sound like a great person without dragging people down the gutter. Nope, I am not that lucky in life. I was then told if I had ethical issues on what I said, that this would not be the place for me, for the owner often did things that she found wrong and often would not do them. Well, as I could not run outside and check to see if I was in the right location, I looked at the C.D’s and books all across the table. They said Jesus, Christ, God, Our Lord, ect. So…I was in the right place, this is a Christian bookstore, and I am being told that non ethical things happen all the time here. And for those wondering, yes the thought of running crossed my mind…but I need a job that bad.

So, after being told the owner was a BASTARD, she decided to list all the other bad qualities about the job: low pay, no vacation time at Christmas or SUMMER, rude customers, heavy lifting, complicated register use, you have to work EVERY Friday and Saturday, ect. So, my husband wants to visit his family this Christmas, but at this Christian run place, you are not allowed to observe this religious holiday (which she then informed me she hated). I had a real problem with the every Friday and Saturday rule. I would think one weekend off a month of every other weekend would be appropriate, but not according to the boss. She tries to tell me it is not that bad since they work smaller shifts. That does not help when people want to go out of town or to weddings. Also, from my awesome skills of deduction, being a younger person, I would be subjected to the “heavy” lifting more than the older ladies. I think I have been through that enough.

Yes, I continued to sit there after she left the room twice and made a personal phone call. I am incredible insane apparently. Then she decided to explain the rude customer bit, which I also found bizarre. People who are shopping for Christian material would be polite right? I know that as a Christian, I am not the most polite person at times, but when entering a shop like that, isn’t it like church and you put on a happy smile and be the person you think God wants you to be? (of course this comes off as me lying, but I really see it as trying to be my best). Anyway, apparently that is not the case. People want huge discounts on items or to get them free because they feel as if they are trying to reach people, they deserve these items at no cost. I was told that the pastors are the worst about this (I was then informed that BASTARD owner is a pastor). She said that in all her years of retail, these customers are the worse ever. This was really starting to sound like the twilight zone and I was beginning to wonder how anyone could work here.

She then shifted to how older customers get very offended by new things and one must be careful what kind of music was played in the store. Some people think anything but hymns is the devil’s music. But she tries to inform me that all the employees are very understanding of other employee’s beliefs and as long as you love Jesus, things are cool with them. That might have been comforting had the next thing out of her mouth not been how she feels every church out there has it wrong with how they are set up. Apparently the pews and watching one person speak is not how God intended it to be (I actually had no idea what she was talking about with the pews; I was busying trying to make my spirit escape from my body). So if she is offended by church pews, I do not want to know what will happen with my beliefs on homosexuality.

She did touch on something positive, how she loved helping people find materials they needed to make their lives better and how she wants to help people. That was nice too, until she told me that part of the job would be helping people find the correct bible for them. There are like 483948 different kinds of bibles out there and I am supposed to know what makes them different from others!? She then says that learning the different authors to the other books gets easier over time. Well, since I only know the bible and chicken soup to the soul, that might be hard for me. That and I have no idea about any Christian music that I haven’t heard in church. It sounded like I would need to learn a lot for minimum wage.

I was told that I would have to attend church. While I understand that is illegal, I also understand where that rule comes from. While I might have been hurt from a church in the past, I do feel as if I should be attending church more than I do. However (a lot of those today) she informed me she got kicked out of her last church and she did not feel lead to attend a new church at this time.

So, in case you could not tell, I had no plan on ever working here EVER and doubted returning here to make a purchase. She then gets up and says she feels bad for taking so much of my time up. Um, does that sound really negative to you and that was the big sorry, you did not get the job? I really do not know what more I could have said or NOT said; I thought out of the two of us, I was being the positive one?! She said I needed to pray about it and walked me to the front. My mother had called 3 times at this point, wanting to know how it went. She was shocked to say the least when I told her the first few things and she was like, well you are certainly not working there. It was nice to know she was giving me permission to not work with crazy people.

So, for those of those considering finding a new job just be VERY careful where you go. Do not quit your job until you find a new one. Apparently since the economy is so bad, employers can treat their workers like crap and not worry about the consequences. This overall experience has really left me wondering a lot about people. I was actually NOT going to post this up, in fear this woman might one day come across this or that it was obvious where I was talking about and someone I knew would get offended. Well, that is a little vain of me to think that many people will ever read my blog and that would be censoring myself, which I do not want to do. I do think that this woman had good qualities, but the way the interview was conducted was horrible and the environment did not strike me as Christian like. So people, I am TRYING, there is just too many crazy things that happen to me.

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