Epic Default Productions

For those who didn’t know, I have been out of a job basically since Christmas.  It’s no real surprise, since Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country.  So finding a job has been hard. This is why I jumped on the first company to offer me a job – Circuit City.

Yes, you are correct in guessing that it’s the same Circuit City that is going out of business. Yes, the same Circuit City that tried staying afloat by closing half their stores last November. And, no, I don’t know when the store is closing. It could be anytime between now and the end of March.

Now I do have to point out that I didn’t get hired under the “random guy off the street” hiring plan. I’ve worked retail at the following places: Best Buy, Target and Meijer (a less evil Wal-Mart Superstore). And I’m glad I worked at those places.

The reason is my interview was on Wednesday night at 6:30 pm. I filled out all my tax forms and was working a cash register less than 18 minutes after that. No training, no drug test, nothing. It was “Here’s your shirt and here’s your schedule.” And that was it.

Mind you, it doesn’t take much to answer the most asked question, “How much is this after the discount and do you have any?” Any monkey who can run a computer can answer those questions. But the rest of the time…

It’s one of two types of people you encounter. There are people like myself – with a wealth of knowledge who are able to cut straight to the deals like a scalpel. And then there are the people who have no idea what they are looking for and have only walked into the store because they saw the giant “Everything 20% to 50% off” signs out front.

Now most people who are “in the know” with technology would look down on these people, call them luddites – or something worse. I know, I work with some of them. But is that really accomplishing anything?

Technology is only going to get more complicated as time progresses.  Look at televisions.  A few years ago, all people cared about was the size of the screen. Now, it’s size, resolution and type of screen. If nobody is going to help the ones who are behind, it’s not going to get easier for them.

Now I know there are some who don’t want to know what’s going on under the hood for fear of doing something wrong. And I know where they are coming from. I’ve messed up FTPing photos to my server space at school, but I have yet to mess up getting my photos on Flickr.

So I’m not saying that everybody should know the difference between TN and IPS LCD screens. But rather then looking down on people who have no clue, why not help them out a bit and catch them up to where the rest of us are at.