A Question for the Big Boss

There I was arriving at the job interview at Popeyes. I had been running late and was nervous about the bad impression it would leave. As I headed into the building and sat down in a booth, the manager Jen approached and introduced herself. From there we began. The conversation was not hard at all. Unlike other job interviews where I tried to act serious and professional, I decided to go in with polite manners, but at the same time letting myself be me. Some jokes were made and fifteen minutes later she decided she wanted to hire me on the spot. Jen went to get all the paperwork and we went through the process. After all was said and done, I realized I didn’t know how much I was going to be getting paid. I was going to ask her to clarify, but by that time I realized I had already signed all the paperwork to make it official with the company all while showing up late in the first place. I knew that if I were to ask the question it would seem as if I had not been paying attention to the whole thing and I could not stand for that. Knowing the pickle I was in all I could do was shake her hand and be on my way.

Upon arriving home, my parents immediately interjected my peace with questions. I told them about how I was hired on the spot and when I was starting. The next question that came out of my mother’s mouth was about how much I was getting paid. What was I to say? So I went with telling her the truth. My response was along the lines of who knows. My mom was curious about the reason as to why I didn’t just ask. The bottom line consisted of me just wanting to seem like I knew what I was doing. To get her off my back, I told her I would find out on my first day of work. From there my troubles continued.

There I was on my first day of work. I was just trying to do my best as to not come off as a useless worker. I had multiple chances to ask about my rate of pay, but I kept talking myself down because of nerves. As an alternative, I decided I would try to figure out what others were being paid. I low key started to try and maneuver my way to an answer, but nothing to my avail worked. One would think that because I was working with the coworker that I have been friends with since the third grade, but for some unknown reason, I felt as though I would be intruding his personal space if I asked him straight up about his pay. As the days passed by, this lack of ability to ask a stupid question just became more of an inconvenience. Finally, after two weeks my first paycheck came in and I found out just how much I was making.

After working for a company for nearly three weeks I had learned how much I was being paid. The whole time an irrational fear of authority and looking clueless preventing me from just asking a question making my life that much easier. Now that I have gotten to know my manager Jen, I realize now that she is nice enough to the point where if I had just asked the question originally at my job interview she would have clarified the answer with me without any hassle. It truly is crazy just how hard it can be to ask a simple question. A head full of what ifs preventing someone to accomplish their goal. At the end of the day, there are no such things as stupid questions and next time, I will be ready to ask whatever it is on my mind.

Photo by Marco Bellucci on Foter.com / CC BY