Poor kid fired so that rich kid could have a job

Rumrunner submitted 607 days ago

When I was 14, I got a job at a local country club. I came from a poor family and I really needed the money (or more to the point, my whole family needed whatever money I could make). This job involved first unplugging each electric golf cart from its overnight charging station, hooking the carts up in 'trains' of three carts each, driving the trains up to the clubhouse, unhooking the trains, and finally, inspecting each cart to be sure it was clean, free of debris, and that the batteries were 'green' and all fluids were topped off. Any cart that showed a mechanical problem was to be taken to the maintenence shed where the club's mechanic would work on it. Being a farm boy, working with machinery was second nature to me, and I didn't mind the work at all, it was actually a good bit easier than the work I was used to doing.

So, I'd get to the club at o-dark-thirty before school (I rode my bike, an antique balloon tire bike that was older than I was and had no brakes...) and get the carts all brought up from the charging shed and cleaned out, and then I'd take the ones that were set aside the night before as being 'balky' and take them (often by manually pushing the heavy beasts) to the maintenence shed. I'd then use a 'tow hook' to retrieve any broken down carts from the course (the carts were normally reliable, but every now and then there would be one that would be either stranded from dead batteries, mechanical malfunction, or just plain stuck due to driver error).

Anyway, I did this job for about two months, starting in May. Since I really needed the money, I worked hard and was never absent from my duties. In July I was told that I would not be needed and when I asked if there was an issue with my job performance, I was told that I was a great worker and if something else opened up they would contact me. Well, the next September I was talking to one of the kids at my high school and he was telling me about this new job he'd been forced by his dad to take over the summer and it sounded EXACTLY like the job I had been doing at the country club.

I found out that this kid's father had been made the chairman of the club's board of directors, and he'd asked the club manager to make a job for his son to 'keep him out of trouble', so I was the one who was fired so that this rich kid could have a job. I guess the last laugh was with me though, I went on and graduated from college, he got involved in drugs and the last I heard of him he was in jail, so apparently the job failed to keep him out of trouble (or maybe he just used the money to buy drugs...).

Summer Sob Story Entry