Finding meaning in the closing shift.

[TooManyIdeas]

I work in retail these days. I manage the cafe within a large bookstore. If I work "closing", I am usually working 2pm to 11pm. It's pretty fuckin' late by the time I get home. And then I'm lit from all the coffee I drank and from various physical activities involved in closing. But there is still something very fun and freeing there.

Despite my shitty pay and having to answer to bosses at two corporations (the book store and the coffee company) there is some merit to the closing shift. As business quiets down at night, and my personality tends to move toward the silly (if not giddy) I find myself able to have conversations with my co-workers (all younger employees) in which I see myself as mentor, not in a work sense, but in a love yourself and enjoy life sense. I just want everyone to feel good about themselves...most are under so much pressure in college, or from parents, or even from odious and out-of-proportion comparisons of themselves to others.

We all need to learn to love people and have fun, it can come in handy when times get tough and we find ourselves doing meaningless tasks, like measuring and logging the wasted remains of two urns of coffee every hour on the hour.