The Worst Employee

I started working my first full time job when I was 16 years old. I loved school and finished high school early with the dream of studying medicine one day and becoming a medical doctor.

I went to work for a carpentry crew. My starting wage: $12/hr. I felt good about my starting wage as the minimum wage at the time was $10/hr., and I was new to the trade, and not yet 17 at that.

I did not enjoy carpentry. The first project I helped build was a 3 story apartment building with 18 suites per floor (if my memory serves me right). It was hot. Very hot. Guzzling down a gallon of water during work was not unheard of. I detested physical labour, thinking that I wanted to work with my brain "doing work that matters". Like helping people in an emergency room or intensive care unit.

When I had been with the company for approximately one year, I was earning $14 and some dollars/hr. We had wrapped up the big framing project close to home, requiring me to commute further. The 40 minute commute was too far a drive for my $14/hr. wage. Or so I thought. The "long drive" combined with my detestation of any physical labour put me in an ugly frame of mind.

I complained about the long drive and that the commute cost me too much money. In the meantime, my work ethic was pathetic. One task, in particular, comes to mind. I was assigned the task of fastening styrofoam to the underside of a bay window cantilever on a new house construction. What now would take me 15 minutes to accomplish, took several hours of time. Clocked in time.

One Friday I told my boss that I was going to quit early that day to go job hunting. What a brat! I deserved to be fired. My job hunt proved to be useless. Not surprising, given my arrogance.

My bosses didn't complain or scold me. They should've fired me or given me an ultimatum: to shape up or to be fired.

I eventually did leave the company to go study at the University of Manitoba, where I took most of the prerequisite courses I needed to get admitted into the College of Nursing. I did enjoy school, hard as some of the courses were (anatomy and physiology, especially). But after a year of university, I emerged with a different attitude towards work. What had changed?

My perspective on life.

Fast forward 10 years. I now co-own Pine View Buildings with my brother, and get to hire people. It's been 10 years since my first job. The roles are reversed. In retrospect, I marvel at the patience the owners of Summit Contracting had with me.

And I get to do work that matters.