Everyone has a soft spot for mom. Whether she’s a gourmet cook or simply knows which grocery aisle has the Tuna Helper. Whether she was there with a bandage when you skinned your knee or she was too busy laughing at your klutziness. Whether she took you shopping for back-to-school clothes or sewed you embarrassing pink bunny costumes. Either way, mom was always there.
Of course, given the chance, everyone would vote for their own mom as the hardest working mother. But we want to know: Who would be your second choice? Would you go with adopt-a-holic Angelina Jolie or perhaps TV mom of eight Kate Gosselin? Maybe your mom of choice once laid her head on a pillow at the White House – or soon will. And oh yeah, happy Mothers’ Day!
As the weather warms and the homework wanes, there are some summertime records that are fun to watch, including homerun derbies and hot dog eating contests. Other records are not so much fun, namely, soaring gas prices and media coverage of soaring gas prices.
We hate being redundantly redundant. And trust us, every time we see a headline or newspaper info-graphic about “pain at the pump,” we’re equally annoyed. Most of us pump gas, we see the prices and we feel the pinch. We don’t need some lame local news jockey with a phony voice to make the problem real with a few dramatic pauses.
With the average tank of gas going for $3.62, it’s gotten to the point where commuters’ headaches can be equally attributed to the high price itself, as well all the ink and airtime spent speculating about what’s next. Of course, we don’t want to be hypocritical in our own digital blog ink…
That’s we’re trying to offer some fresh perspective. Do the math, and unless you’re someone who drives for a living or makes major league commutes, you’ll realize you’re not losing as much as you might have thought. In the past two weeks alone, gas prices have risen a hefty 15 cents per gallon. If you fill up a 10-gallon tank twice a week, that’s $3 extra a week, or $156 year.
Everyone’s situation is different. And for hourly workers and job seekers who struggle to pay bills each month, any amount is a lot. But mix in a carpool here and a bus ride there, and things get a bit more manageable. Bring your lunch to work and trade your car’s A/C usage with a quick crank of the window, and you’re doing better than OK. All of a sudden that $156 is down to pocket change…unless, of course, gas prices continue to jolt.
All we’re saying is that before you cancel your summer vacation or buy a brand new, fuel efficient motor scooter and cool pink helmet, do the math first. You may just save yourself a few bucks down the road.
Summer is weeks away, but with “Iron Man” opening at movie theaters today, the summer movie season is underway. Get ready for laughs, chills, thrills, butter stains on your favorite jean shorts – and most likely – disappointment.
For every great summer movie, there’s a complete bust. For every “Spider-Man,” there’s a “Pearl Harbor.” (Let’s be honest, in terms of Michael Bay movies, “Transformers” was more historically accurate than “Pearl Harbor.”)
And with the high price of movie tickets these days, which can cost as much as $12 in some metropolitan areas, you can’t afford to roll the dice on a flick about talking cartoon chimps in outer space. (Yes, that movie really comes out this summer.) Think about it: With minimum wage now at $5.85 an hour, you could be working your summer job 90 minutes to over two hours to pay for a seat watching primates drink tang in zero gravity.
So be careful when choosing your summer popcorn flicks. Don’t be lured in by fancy fast food promotions or other movie hype. Back in 1987, it’s not like the families who poured into “Harry and the Hendersons” thought it would be awful. It just was.
[One last thing, if you ever utter the phrase, “Two tickets for ‘Made of Honor,’” never read this blog again. We kid, we kid! We’re not movie snobs. Heck, we’ve already got advance tickets purchased for “Space Chimps.”]
Since we’ve launched our Off the Clock online hangout for hourly workers, we’ve been super stoked about the huge response to our Share & Win! contest.
We asked job seekers and hourly workers to send us your funny job stories. And you responded with dozens and dozens of stories – many that we could never print, and some that could actually be entered into evidence at a criminal trial. But don’t worry, we’ll be quiet.
To keep the momentum going and give you a sniff of what the competition is like, we included a few of the stories below. Enjoy, and don’t forget to submit your own funny job stories.
I worked in a factory that made casket protectors, and we had an unused (of course) casket there used to fit the protectors. So one morning I got there before everyone else and moved the casket to an area were the boss did not want it. I got inside and covered myself with watered down ketchup and shut the lid. My boss came in and was furious that the casket was not in its right place. He went to move it and realized that it was heavier than usual. When he went to open it up, I sat straight up and almost gave him a heart attack. All the co-workers were laughing hysterically for days after that. The boss’ response was “YOU’VE BEEN DYING TO GET ME BACK.” On that note, I never tried it again. — Adam D.
I was working at the Haines City Walgreens. I was a cashier for them about 2 months into my job. I was ringing up this older gentleman about in his 80s. He was in a Hoveround when he pulled up to pay for his things and he pushed a piece of paper towards me. His phone number was on the paper. Don’t you just love how old people can still pick up chicks in their 80s? — Evie
I work at a local convenience store and after a while you get to know most of the customers and the police officers. Well, one night while sweeping the floor under the counter (with my butt in the air facing the doorway) this officer comes in and says, “Good evening Claudia.” I just bounced right up and said to him “That’s pretty bad when a customer knows you by your backside.” We all laughed and had a great night after that. I also told him that when the time comes for me to go, I’ll be buried with my rear up and the customers will know that the witch is indeed dead…. — Claudia M.
As if America’s hourly job seekers didn’t have enough to deal with between the tanking economy and the surge of unemployed white collar workers invading their hourly turf, now they have another threat: President Bush.
No, the President isn’t backing any legislation curbing the federal minimum wage or anything like that. In fact, politics aside, the president has been a big supporter of the nation’s hourly workforce for a long time. The problem is that he now may be joining it. Well, not really…
That’s right, when SnagAJob.com Founder and CEO Shawn Boyer was recently honored as the Small Business Person of the Year at the White House, President Bush had some zingers ready for the crowd.
“Now Shawn started off by helping a friend search online for an internship, and he got an idea for a business right there,” Bush said when introducing the SnagAJob.com CEO. “Sometimes that happens. You know, it’s just like, ‘click.’ And the idea was to create a website to help unemployed Americans with [hourly] job opportunities. And – actually, I asked him to leave a business card because it seems like I might be looking here after a while…”
ZING!
The president, who of course was a successful businessman himself with both the Texas Rangers and several oil outfits, probably won’t be filling out applications for summer jobs even though his second term is winding up. But we’re proud to have his support – as well as the support of the 10 MILLION JOB SEEKERS who helped SnagAJob.com win the small business of the year award. Yes, that’s right, we now have 10 million registered job seekers. But we’ll get more into that later…
The gang from “Beverly Hills 90210” chilled at The Peach Pit when the going got tough. The ladies from “The Hills” crash at mommy and daddy’s million dollar vacation pads when money can’t buy happiness. And when President Bush gets bummed over his approval rating, he can golf, fish and play the Risk board game deep in the heart of his Crawford, Texas ranch.
Everyone needs somewhere to hang out and relax. To reflect and move forward. And now America’s hourly workers and job seekers have Off the Clock. Think of it as yoga for your paycheck. Sure, the beanbag chairs and the old school “Donkey Kong” arcade game haven’t arrived yet, but please make yourself comfortable.
Within the walls of Off the Clock – SnagAJob.com’s new community/hangout for hourly workers and job seekers – you’ll find a ton of resources for both your working life, as well as the hours before and after you punch the clock: Connect to our MySpace profile and accelerate your job search. Get personal finance tips, hourly job news and plenty of punch lines in SnagABlog.com, our job search advice blog. And even send us your job stories, read others and win prizes in our new Share & Win! section.
Have fun. Tell your friends. And be sure to check back often. Off the Clock is a work in progress and we’ll be adding cool new features in the near future. We welcome your ideas; if you have any, please send them here.
When Mitch Buchannon ran in slow motion across the bikini-infested shores of SoCal, people sweated right along with him through their TVs. From Wichita, Kansas to Berlin, Germany, “Baywatch” fans helped catapult David Hasselhoff & Co. to B-level stardom. Heck, some would say he even had the best summer job ever, whether he was performing mouth-to-mouth on a porpoise or busting goons and perps in the short-lived “Baywatch Nights.”
Now it’s time to find out for certain. But we need your help. SnagAJob.com is putting “The Hoff” up against some stiff competition to find out who had (or has) the best summer job of all time. Some of these are real gigs, many are not.
Here’s a funny summer job story:
Imagine you’re a star baseball player for the New York Mets. You get paid big bucks to play a game. First of all, how awesome is that?
Recently your fans got to vote on a song to pump up the players during the 8th inning via the team’s website. Choices included Bon Jovi’s hard rockin’ monster track, “Livin’ on a Prayer.” But somehow, ‘80s anti-rock icon Rick Astley and his terribly addicting “Never Gonna Give You Up” was selected. Yes, it was a joke and part of a running Internet gag known as “Rick Rolling.” And it really happened.
Now just imagine: You’re down by one run in a home game during the World Series. And just when you need a juiced crowd to pump up your adrenaline, you hear a crooning pop rock fossil who dances around in all denim being blown through the loudspeakers. How do you not giggle, lose focus and drop a routine pop fly when you hear Celine Dion-meets-Vanilla Ice?
Now that’s a great summer job story for a ball player. But we’re sure you’ve got better. And we want to read them.
Here’s a Wal-Mart fun fact: No one in the country sells more groceries - or toys. Wow.
That means on any given day, no company could be selling more bratwursts and BRATZ dolls. (So if you need to pick up a birthday present for your 9-year-old cousin on the way to a football tailgate, you know where to go for one-stop shopping.)
Here’s our point: The success and product diversity Wal-Mart has achieved translates into a ton of different jobs. That’s good news for hourly job seekers. When a retailer is selling everything from fresh fish to “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” DVDs, it needs a high volume of hourly workers who are highly adaptive.
That’s a quality that Wal-Mart has also demonstrated as a business: Being adaptive. The company has joined the green revolution by contributing $500 million annually toward increasing fuel efficiency in its massive trucking fleet. Some store locations even offer Wi-Fi Internet access and Sushi now. But don’t worry, you can still by denim overalls and turtlenecks at Wal-Mart. And the friendly greeters haven’t been replaced by robots.
It seems that everything these days comes with instructions: toaster ovens, exercise equipment and – heck – even mac & cheese.
Well, almost everything. First jobs don’t come with a free helpful guide. Until now…
SnagAJob.com has written “Working Papers” with the goal of helping all those soon-to-be hourly workers who have tons of questions but no answers.
Whether you’re curious about how many hours you can legally work each week or you demand to know why the amount on your paycheck looks suspiciously small, we have all the answers – well, all the answers about first jobs. We can’t tell you if opossum is safe to cook in that new toaster oven. Sorry, check the instruction book.
Everyone has a soft spot for mom. Whether she’s a gourmet cook or simply knows which grocery aisle has the Tuna Helper. Whether she was there with a bandage when you skinned your knee or she was too busy laughing at your klutziness. Whether she took you shopping for back-to-school clothes or sewed you embarrassing pink bunny costumes. Either way, mom was always there.
