The Job Seeker (08.16.22)

I was in a nearly-empty small town supermarket this summer and fell into a conversation with the checkout girl. I am always falling into conversations. It was a rather downscale grocery and all the women workers were wearing drab smocks. This young lady was not yet twenty, I’d guess; she had disheveled hair, rather pale skin, and a bright grin. When she was packing my things, she smiled and said I should not worry; she would not squish my bread. I smiled back and said, thanks, I had every confidence, and that she was doing a good job of customer relations with me. She said that was good, because she was looking for work…and then our conversation took off.

What kind of work was she looking for? Anything that would give her forty hours and benefits. She didn’t have that at the market? No, they gave her just enough hours so that she did not get benefits. Did she live locally? Yes, on a farm outside of town. I expressed my opinion that she would do well at whatever she chose. She confided that she had a job interview in a few days with a company that manufactures automotive brake components. It would be on Wednesday. I said that I’d be thinking of her on Wednesday and wishing her well.

She smiled and thought and paused, and looked at me. And she asked me a question that I found shattering.

Do you…work there? she asked me, and her face was bright with sudden hope and a touch of desperation.

For a minute, I think, she believed that I would turn out to be a recruiter, come into the store by chance. Her story would take a good turn. Her life would take a good turn.

I had to say no, and she absorbed that news without surprise or faltering. We parted as something like friendly strangers. And I did think of her on that Wednesday, and I’m thinking of her still, and I hope to heaven she got that job.

And I also hope that appreciation and encouragement from a friendly stranger, just that tiny amount, might have given her a boost, a bit of oomph, when she left the farm, and drove to that interview, having picked out clothes she thought would make the best impression. No smock. Can you hear me, universe? Hire her. Hire her. And let it be a good job.

And, can you also hear this, universe? Encourage them. Encourage them!

Photo by Tim Mossholder | Unsplash