Summer Job

Written by: Raingirl

I was on summer break from my first year in college and wanted a summer job. Never expected to be a janitor, but it has it's perks!

Summer Job 

I just finished my freshman year at college and returned home with my
mom to get a job for the summer.  Mom and dad had gotten a divorce two 
years earlier when mom found out he was screwing his secretary at his 
law firm. 

All the usual jobs were unavailable due to the poor economy.  Finally
after a few weeks of looking, my mom asked "Would you be interested to 
do some cleaning at my office on the weekends?"  Now the thought of 
doing vacuuming and dusting in an office building wasn't exactly what I 
had in mind, but I was getting desperate!  "What would I have to do and 
what would it pay?" I asked.  "Well, I asked my boss if he had any work 
that you could do and he said the janitorial service he's had were 
doing a crappy job and he was looking for someone to do it in the 
interim time til he could hire a permanent replacement.  You'd be 
vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the restrooms and that kind of thing.  
He'd pay you $200 for once a week service."  Now I'm not great at math, 
but I figured a small office like that couldn't take more than 8 hours, 
so that would be $25/hour!  I wasn't wild about cleaning toilets and 
such, but for that kind of money, I'd have to work three times as many 
hours as a barista in some little latte shack.  "Tell him I'll do it!"  
I replied with enthusiasm. 

Now my mom works at a little electronics firm and the office consists of
one floor with about 6 private offices and a central area where 
secretaries and sales order-takers sit in cubicles.  The cleaning was 
to be done on Saturday when the office was empty.  I 

I went to my mom's office the next day and she showed me around the
whole office and what my duties were to be.  I had been to her office 
once or twice before since she started working there a year or so ago, 
but never paid that much attention.  She gave me a set of master keys 
and showed me the alarm panel and gave me a code to get in without the 
cops showing up!.  Finally, she introduced me to her boss, Mr. Daniels. 
 He was probably about 40, maybe a couple years younger than my mom and 
greeted me warmly.  "Thanks for helping us out with this cleaning, 
janitorial companies are so unreliable!"  he said as he shook my hand.  
"Thanks for the job, I hope I can do it to everyone's satisfaction." I 
replied.  I looked over at my mom and she seemed to be acting a little 
strange in Mr. Daniel's presence. 

Saturday morning came and I arrived at the office at 8:15 AM and
unlocked the door and disarmed the alarm.  The office seemed a little 
eerie without anyone there and I got the janitorial cart out , put on 
my walkman and started emptying waste baskets and dusting desks and 
counters.  I did the restrooms next and that really grossed me out, 
especially the men's room!  I checked the list of the things I was to 
get accomplished and I just needed to get the vacuuming done and wash 
the interior windows.  I checked my watch and it was only 11:00 AM!  
This was going to be a breeze! 

I grabbed a candy bar and Coke out of the vending machine and took a
break for a few minutes.  I wandered into Mr. Daniel's office and 
looked at the pictures on his credenza of his wife and two boys.  They 
seemed like a cute family and I sat in his big chair and put my feet up 
like a "big-wig" boss-man.  I knew I shouldn't, but I've always been 
the curious type and decided to see what Mr. Daniels might have stuck 
in his desk drawers.  "Drat!"  they were all locked.  So were the one's 
on his credenza.  There was a armoire over against the wall and I 
opened it to find a large TV and VCR.  I flipped on the TV and surfed 
through the channels, but nothing much interested me on Saturday 
daytime TV programming.  There was a drawer full of VCR tapes with 
labels like "Ad campaign for new products" and "Instructional video for 
mini-cam set-up and installation".  "Boring" I thought to myself and 
proceeded to get back to work. 

The sun was beating on the South side of the building and it was getting
very warm, especially in the private offices like Mr. Daniels.  I went 
to the thermostat and found one of those guards around it so you 
couldn't adjust the temperature settings unless you had a key.  "Oh 
well!" I thought to myself.  I was wearing a sports bra under my shirt 
and nobody was around, so I stripped off my shirt and did the vacuuming 
and windows in the stifling hot offices. 



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