Dream Journal
I had been hired to work in the local Sam’s Club warehouse, and part of my job included sales and computer technical support. I was to hang around the electronics department to help customers and answer any of their computer questions.
Electronics were in the furthest back corner of the warehouse behind the cleaning supplies, and so, as a side effect, no customers ever came to the department. As I walked back to my area I passed a black man whom I recognized but couldn’t place. Only when I heard him talk was I able to place him: he was a DJ on a local radio station. He had been talking with two women giving away food samples so I figured he was either there to shop or to do interviews.
When I got to my area it was devoid of customers and slightly darker than the rest of the store. I sat down at an old computer terminal and absently doodled with an old painting program. I had been sitting there a while when the DJ sat down in the chair next to me.
He asked me a bunch of questions and I either answered half-heartedly or nonsensically. I didn’t want to help him and wished he would just go away. After some more questions he seemed adamant in asking, he said, “Let me be straight with you.” He then proceeded to tell me that my test scores were lower than the other two tech support employees, and he had just determined that my attitude was much worse. “Wait, you’re not a DJ?” I asked.
He had been hired by the store for quality assurance and efficiency control. “I’m afraid you are going to have to be let go,” he told me. I couldn’t believe that I was being fired; I had never been fired from any job before. I packed up my stuff and walked toward the store exit. Another employee asked me what was going on, and I raised my arms high above my head and exclaimed that I was unemployed.