Parks Place

I thought I’d spend some time talking about my former job. I spent ten years doing it, so it made up a significant portion of my adult life. Because of that, I’ll probably break this into a few posts so it doesn’t turn into a hundred-page novel.

Before I dive in, a quick clarification: whether I’m talking about a company or a person, I won’t be using any real names out of respect for everyone involved. I also won’t answer speculation if anyone asks. That just feels right—and I’d want the same courtesy if the roles were reversed.

I started at this particular company in 2015, which already feels like a lifetime ago. I was hired as part-time help in the Home Décor department. Prior to that, I’d worked as an operations manager at a gym (I’ll probably write about that at some point—there’s nothing quite like working in a gym), done some basic retail, and before all of that I worked with my father in marine electronics.

Home Décor was pretty straightforward retail work. We zoned, front-faced, and down-stocked when needed—nothing terribly complicated. The trickiest task was trimming blinds. The machine did most of the work, but there was still a bit of technique to it.

The coolest part of that department was the Specialist, the person who handled special-order blinds. If you want to talk about someone who truly knew his craft, he was your guy. I called him The Oracle of Akron, Ohio (that’s where he was from). We hit it off immediately, and he was always helpful whenever I needed something.

The second person worth mentioning was the Department Supervisor—let’s call her Princess. She had been with the company for a while and was both knowledgeable and helpful. It was obvious she was a great person to learn from, and I could tell she was on a path to continue advancing within the company.

And finally, there was the person who hired me—let’s call him Chief. He was a retired firefighter who stood 6’4″, and he had the uncanny ability to make you feel guilty even when you were completely innocent. He was tough but fair, and whenever the store manager wasn’t around, he was usually the one in charge. I distinctly remember him making me go back and re-dust the displays because I hadn’t done it well enough.

Between Oracle, Princess, and Chief, I had plenty of people to learn from. There were many others, of course, and I’ll talk about some of them in future posts. I still keep in touch with a few of them even now. I worked in Home Décor for roughly six or seven months. I was very vocal about my desire to move into a full-time position, and when the opportunity came, I jumped on it.

But that’s a story for Part Two.