Learn about life for $4.75 per hour

Monday, July 20, 1998

Learn about life for $4.75 per hour

JOB: Working for Toys R Us gives very different perspective from
sheltered world of UCLA

For me, summer always evokes memories of my very first job. The
pursuit of a job was an endeavor I eagerly set out upon, intending
it to only last for that summer before college. Little did I know
that it would be a job I held for almost three years. It turned out
to be one hell of an experience.

I had just graduated from high school. I was near the top of my
graduating class, garnering awards, going to UCLA. I was on top of
the world. So that summer, I decided to pursue a summer job. After
numerous applications, I had been hired at Toys R Us.

My very first memory centered on an ominous sign posted in the
upstairs storage room. It said, "Welcome to Hell." Oh, what an
inviting sign. I must have lost 20 pounds that summer by climbing
insanely high ladders, lifting 50 pound cribs, or unloading trucks
filled with diapers, Power Rangers and Polly Pockets.

That first month or so was truly a humbling time. I remember
lovingly (I hope) being nicknamed "Nomo" (in reference to the
former Dodger Hideo Nomo) by some of my co-workers. I remember
mopping the entire store, dumping out the garbage and even cleaning
out the restrooms.

My first reaction to all this was that I didn’t really need this
$4.75 per hour job. I should just quit. I believed that I was
better than just a storeroom slave or a janitor. But for some
reason, I stuck it out.

Even after that summer, I decided to keep the job and work
during the school year. Yes, I crazily decided to work about 20
hours my first quarter at school. Bad idea: it was a psychotic
time.

I came home dead tired from work, faced with the prospect of
studying for Math 3A or Chem 11A. Hey, I was even conned by my
manager to work on the night before my Psych 15 final. Still, I
stayed loyal (or maybe insane?).

But what kept me there? I think I first realized this late one
Friday night, while sweeping the stockroom at work. At first, I
thought about what the other UCLA freshmen were doing and what I
was missing out on. Then, more importantly, I thought about how
working there slowly made me a better person.

The contrast between work and school was huge – the real world
versus an imaginary world. I think that work became something like
a refuge: school was just so unreal. School always surrounded me
with people who wanted the same things as me, people with goals and
lofty expectations, the smart and motivated. I was with the elitest
of the elite.

At work, I got to experience real life, the real world. People
for whom a promotion at Toys R Us meant the world. I slowly gained
perspective.

A huge part of the experience at Toys R Us was sharing a part of
my life with the other employees. As time went on, my co-workers
somehow found out that I went to UCLA. They all thought I was some
genius or freak.

I suddenly became inundated with questions about school. I felt
like I was the general catalog, the schedule of classes, the
central authority on higher learning. Also, people found out that I
wanted to be a doctor and asked me to treat them when I had my own
practice. It seemed as though I was the great hope, the one who
would rise out of Toys R Us.

All in all, those people were some of the most wonderful
individuals I had ever met. Maybe I just got lucky, but I met some
very quality people there. For one, they were all real. My
coworkers were never superficial or full of crap. They knew who
they were.

I remember my department head, who worked full-time at Toys R Us
at night while working full-time at Pic N Save during the day.

I still can’t believe that there were also students there who
worked the night shift while attending school during the day.

I realized that in no possible way was I working my butt off. I
was a slacker compared to them. If life was hard for me, it was all
the more difficult for them. But as different as we all seemed to
be, we got along extremely well. We were silly, and we didn’t care
about our different races or backgrounds. We were white, yellow,
brown and black all mixed into one. It didn’t matter.

My friends Adrian, Mike and Cesar were closer to me than any of
my friends at UCLA. They understood me and I understood them. The
four of us even nicknamed ourselves the Four Horsemen, proud of the
bonds that we shared. I would defend them anywhere, also knowing in
the back of my mind that they would never let me down.

Truly I grew up at Toys R Us in numerous other ways. I recall
all of those crazy 80-hour weeks during Christmas; we were happy to
work for the double overtime pay. I remember using the intercom
system to call up my coworkers, informing them on the locations of
all the pretty girls in the store. I improved my more "practical"
usage of Spanish and Armenian.

Hey, I admit it; we stashed Star Wars action figures to prevent
the crazy collectors from getting to them. We even made loud,
echoing monkey noises in the stockrooms, making customers believe
that Toys R Us bred live animals back there. I really did survive
the Christmas crazes for Power Rangers and Tickle Me Elmos. Those
were the days.

Looking back on it all, I loved working at Toys R Us. As
different as we all were, we never segregated ourselves from each
other by focusing on our differences. In my mind, that microcosm of
a community separates itself from the UCLA campus community, which
seems so blatantly segregated.

Another thing that I realized was that I could succeed in the
real world and rely on something other than my brains. I started
from a measly $4.75 and am proud to say that I moved all the way up
to $6.85 (everyone thought that I moved up faster than anyone else
did).

I started from nothing, not being privileged in any way from
anyone else. I had to rely on common sense, customer service and
sheer physical ability to work well. I truly believe I
succeeded.

Moreover, throughout those times, I admit I occasionally thought
I was better than all of this. I thought that I did not need to
sweep the floors or be told to go to a hell by a gentleman who
couldn’t get the Barbie scooter he wanted for his daughter.

But in truth, I am nothing special and in no way better than
anyone else. I need to always remember my job at Toys R Us, the
humbling experience that challenged me to constantly fight for the
best and treat everyone with respect and dignity.

My job at Toys R Us shaped a part of who I am today. I am still
left with many battle wounds – cuts here and there from all of the
lifting and physical work. I still might even smell from climbing
into the trash compactor many times. But all in all, I loved
working there. As a child, Toys R Us was my favoritest place, and I
proudly admit that it still is.

Abrajano is a fourth-year English and molecular, cellular and
developmental biology student.

E-mail comments to [email protected].