Sunday, 09 September 2012
Ten years ago today, I began my employment with Part Three Analytical, a contract lab for 3M that refused to call itself a contract lab for 3M.
This may seem like a somewhat arbitrary anniversary to acknowledge, especially since I don’t work there anymore, but it was a big deal to me at the time.
Earlier that year, I graduated from Century College. I spent the summer looking for a new job. I wasn’t terribly eager about it. For one thing, I liked my current job. Yes, it was in the eyecare industry and, yes, I had to work with the public, but working at Apple Valley Eye Care was an enormous leap forward in terms of job satisfaction.
See, in February 2001, I finally quit my job at Lenscrafters. I worked there for over six years, enduring all manner of incompetent and micromanaging bosses – a revolving door, it seemed, of goons who each had their own idea of how to ingratiate themselves to upper management. Then there were the long and inconsistent hours – one day I worked from 10:00 to 2:00, the next day I worked frmo 9:00 AM to 9:30 PM. The pay was marginal, my co-workers were so-so, and the customers collectively rank as one of the worst experiences of my life…right up there with junio high school, the orthodontist, and the Wheelock Parkway congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
So, yeah, leaving that hell and going to Apple Valley Eye Care was downright glorious.
But, like I said, I still had to work with customers. There also wasn’t much room for advance. And the benefits, as is typical for a small company, weren’t much to speak of.
Finally, in August 2002, I interviewed and was offered a job at Part Three. Following our wedding anniversary, and jury duty, I began work there on this day ten years ago.
When I arrived home that evening, and Jennifer inquired as to my day, I said, “It was awesome, I didn’t have to talk to one customer all day.”
And it’s been that way now for ten wonderful years.
😉