unfortunate jobs

Today the rain unrelentlessly pummelled the earth. I watched people brace themselves before submitting their bodies to the mercy of the heavens. They ducked for cover, and raced haphazardly toward the nearest dry safe haven, as if they were under attack by enemy fire; an experience that was destined to leave them both drenched and shivering.

While I fiddled with the car thermostat, in an effort to dry my clothes and warm my body enough so as not to chip the remaining enamel off my violently chattering teeth, I noticed one poor bugger who I have longed pitied -

the sign shaker for Little Caesar's Pizza.

We had these poor unfortunate souls in Australia too, although they worked for a different pizza chain. The sign shaker job must be one of the most boring, unstimulating, torturous, demeaningly mind numbing jobs I can possibly think of. Some hard-up for cash person is employed to stand for hours, unenthusiastically shaking a big red number 5 at passing traffic. The sign states that a pizza costs $5....I guess, I haven't really read it in detail.

As you might expect, the staff turnover for this God awful job appears to be high, but can you imagine what the poor bugger on shift today might have said or felt when he got up this morning and saw a howling gale outside and sheet rain teeming down so hard the drops appeared to bounce off the road as though they were made of rubber. My guess is, "F@*# that!" and then he suddenly felt a migraine coming on.

Regardless, someone was out there in those dreadful conditions, and my opinion of Little Caesars went down very swiftly (not that I had any real firm opinions of them in the first place mind you) - I just felt that it was inhumane and unnecessary. Sure, it is a wage for whoever drew the short straw out there, and if someone is that desperate to do that job, in such bone chilling conditions, then I just hope they got alot of extra pay or were, at the very least, given the choice as to whether or not they wanted to do take on the sodden walking advertisement role.

Surely the establishment could have given that person something else to do - fold pizza boxes, cut up vegetables, roll dough, clean the oven, tidy the store, brainstorm some more dignified winter promotions and less humiliating advertising strategies...I don't know - do I have to think of everything?