Working Girl

A few posts back I talked about needing to get a job as a teen and how beneficial it is. Now I can bring some more credibility to my thoughts because I now have personal experience. I now have a job as a checker at Hy-Vee. Now I know what it’s really like to be working as a teenager. To be completely honest, it is a lot of work, but it is actually a lot of fun.

I started working at Hy-Vee on October 18^th as a courtesy. A courtesy is a person who helps bag all the customer’s groceries, help walk them to their car occasionally, get carts from the parking lot, and clean around the store. Courtesy kids are typically the starting point of the job chain so they get a lot of the grunt work. My manager gave me the image that courtesy kids are freshman, checkers are sophomores and juniors and customer service people are seniors. As you go through work at the store you potentially move up to better positions. That is, if you are doing well at your current job. I got promoted, after my first day of courtesy, to checker. I did very well at my job and my manager asked if I wanted to train to be a checker.

Being a checker has a lot more responsibility, but is also a lot more fun. We are basically the cashiers and we make sure to check all of your items quickly and efficiently, while also being friendly to the customer. It is more interesting to be a checker because we are able to talk more with the customers and have a fun conversation. When you are stuck bagging the groceries you aren’t really able to have a conversation with the customers. We also don’t have to do as much of the cleaning and grunt work that the baggers do. Although checking is more fun, it is also a lot harder. There are a lot of different codes for produce, different products and coupons that we have to punch in. We also have to be responsible with all money we are given and for any alcoholic/tobacco products we sell. Being a checker is a very big responsibility but there are a lot of perks.

Overall, having a job right now is very helpful. I earn a lot of money and I have met a lot of new people. Like I said before, it is a great idea to get a job as a teen, I totally recommend it.