It's a cruel, cruel summer....

Yeeeowwwch! Did you feel that growing pain? (That's gonna leave a mark.)

After working her first job, #5 has learned a few things. Taxes aren't fun. "Training" and work is fun, but being paid less for the same work is not. "Bosses" fudge, stretch the truth, or otherwise flat out lie to you so that they appear to be your advocate when in reality they are just trying to get the best deal for the(ir) business, too bad you got the not so truthful end of the deal. There are no 40 hour a week - even during the summer- minimum wage jobs in Utah. There are no such things as promises from management. Good luck getting 20, those ahead of you will be grabbing all the hours they can because they have already learned these truths. Paying for a uniform can reduce one's earnings to a check that is embarrassing to cash: one penny. After you work next week for the same "training" pay scale, "the rest of your uniform monies will be taken out", thus a huge possibility of you receiving another embarrassing check. (There is a reason everyone has worked for this company and now does not.)

She has also learned that girls who have parents who pay their bills have no idea how much their bills are, they "just send the check to Dad and he takes care of it... your share is on the table..." and then they forget all about it. Thus the inquiries on said bills before signing on is about $80.00 more than anticipated. Living in the basement, your room gets neither heat nor cooling due to the layout of the venting situation. So when it gets warm enough up stairs they shut it off before you get it and the same is true for cooling. Whether or not you want cable or will use it, you will be charged for it; even when we asked you if you did or did not need cable and told you it was o.k. that you didn't and would be excluded from the agreement.

The really good friends who share the room above you aren't really that good of friends and now you know why they say "good roomies are hard to find". You have become the sounding board.

Life as a grown up is different than anticipated. (But still fun.)

(Let's hope that second job working for the MTC is a tad better. Or at least a more true picture of what the management painted prior to hiring.)