Maybe polo shirts show too much skin

When I was 18, I got a job delivering pizza for Pizza Hut. I worked there for like two years.

I didn't often work during the day because deliveries were mostly at night, but people in the food service industry never seem to do only one specific job. Aside from deliveries I also waited tables, prepared and cooked food, took orders, answered the phones and worked the cash register. Basically as a "Team Member" you do everything that needs to be done, regardless what your specific job is for. Unless you're a male. Men don't have to wait tables, or they didn't in hick Texan towns in 2001.

Working day shift was often a lot slower, turns out that pizza is more of a nighttime food. This meant that the manager of the store often worked day shift. I haven't job hopped all over the fast food industry, but I've worked enough to confidently say that most managers are on the lazy side. It's kind of implied with the job title, they don't do - they manage. Even still, working days mostly entailed sporadic work and filing my nails.


On the very rare days that I did work day shift, I was often left alone in the store for an hour or so about 2pm when the manager would go to the bank. On one of these such days, he had brought his 4 year old son to work with him and, since team member duties apparently also extend to baby sitting, left him in my care while he went to the bank.

Mostly the kid sat in a booth and coloured while I did my work, all I had to do was make sure he didn't escape out the door, make a mess of the salad bar and that nobody kidnapped him for ransom or something insane.


Enter awkward charity moment.

About half an hour before my manager got back, a woman came in to order a pizza. As she was leaving she thrust a 20 in my hand, babbling about how brave and responsible I was for bringing my child to work with me. I have no idea what gave her this idea and she left before I could explain and give her the money back. I felt guilty for ages and unsure of what to do.


Of course it only just now occurred to me that I probably had her real name and phone number from when she placed the order, but even then.. it would be a rather awkward conversation if I tried to get the money back to her. I don't really remember what I did do with it. I just remember wondering if she thought I was a slut.