Shear Madness

When I was 24, I got a job at a dog grooming salon as a receptionist/dog grooming student. It was a small business, just the two owners (who were in their late 20s) and I. Everything was normal for the first few days, but by the end of the first week, it felt like I was babysitting instead of working. They’d say they were going to pass out fliers around the neighborhood but instead they’d end up sitting in the break room, smoking and talking which, of course, meant hardly any customers. And even when they had customers, they’d still spend most of the day hanging out in the break room. Then when 2 o’clock rolled around, they’d do a spit n’shine on the dog, call the owner and say they had an “emergency” and then take the rest of the day off.

Even worse, starting the second week, I would get to work, wait 10 minutes (they lived a couple blocks away), call them and ask where they were at and they’d say, “Oh, we decided not to come in today.”  Since I took public transportation at the time, it was a major pain to get there. I asked them to let me know when they were taking the day off, but I guess it was too much trouble. I stayed there for three months since I didn’t want to leave without a backup job and never even got paid. Last I heard, the salon closed down four months after I left. Suprised it lasted that long.