
It wasn’t until I wrote the fourth book (A Quarter) that I at last had one of those “know thyself” moments. I have been laid off or fired from nearly two dozen jobs. I’m smart, very good at solving problems…but I don’t fit in with corporate culture. I don’t even fit in with anti-establishment culture. Here is an incomplete inventory of the jobs where I had to quit or was let go for incompetence, under-agedness, or spite:
- Vallejo Times Herald – Paper boy
- William Morris Reproductions – Wallpaper sample pack creator
- Union Hotel – Busboy
- Varsity Theater – Ticket vendor
- Second Coming Records – Store clerk
- Patricia Field – Shop girl
- Milk Bar – Janitor and Barback
- Diggery Inn – Dishwasher
- Stud Bar Barback
- Sparky’s – Prep cook
- Grubstake – Dishwasher
- International Center -Towel boy
- Marcello’s Pizza – cashier
- Broadmoor Hotel – Slave/Waiter
- Peachy’s Puffs – Cigarette boy
- New Line Cinema – 3rd Production Accountant
- Tupperware Lady
- Sixteen to Life – Assistant to Executive Producer
- Married to the Kellys – Assistant to Line Producer
- New Line Cinema – Product placement assistant
- Ascent Media – Project manager
- Miller Group – Advertising account manager
- Deluxe Media – Billing process manager
A few jobs in my life were a decent match. They ended for reasons like a major geographical move, or widespread layoffs:
- Marriott’s Great America – Self-reflexive juice salesman
- Tower Records – Store clerk
- TimeShare Consultants – Phone sex bookkeeper filer and dog walker
- Italian Welfare Agency – Social worker
- Italian Cultural Institute – Event promoter, News segment producer and Radio DJ
- Lavender Lounge – Segment producer
- New Line Cinema -Post production accountant
- Verestar – Global account manager
- The Acres – Musician
- La Lucha – Producer/Director/Writer/Editor
- Deluxe Media – Manager – Overseas Back Office
- Psychotic Break Series – Author
The primary pattern: I need to express myself and feel good about the work I’m doing. I need to be in a group of similarly creative and quirky outcasts. I have waxing and waning periods of creativity and energy, so I need to have a job that lets me make my own hours or is only intermittent work. Travel and languages keep me interested for a while, too. Tower Records was a really great group of people. I loved working there. Second Coming Records was hell in a glass box. I write about them in the prequel. Several people who worked there have been diagnosed with PTSD. So, if I’m going to work for the man, the boss better be cool.
