Itπs a Hard Knock Life

As I walk into the smoke filled bar where I am to do my first interview outside of Circuit City, I immediately become aware of why I choose to do this project. Eric Peralez greeted me with a smile and told me to sit down in the corner. It had been almost a month since I had turned 21, and this was the first real bar I had ever been in. Eric quickly reappeared with a pitcher of beer that we were to share during the interview.

Eric is a good guy. He always has a smile on his face, and he always listens to what people have to say. When I first approached him about this project he told me that he would be honored to do it. I think that he was just excited that someone was noticing what he was doing and commending him for it. I always make sure to do that with Eric. I always make sure that he knows I respect him greatly for his efforts. The reason that I think he is interesting to profile is because Eric has two jobs.

The bar, Samπs Boat Bar in Austin, Texas, is his second job. He works there part time, around 20 hours a week, as a ≥door guy.≤ He is a bouncer, to put it simply. Eric is a big man. He is not working tonight. He is there for football. It is Monday night, you see, and the entire bar seems fixed on a dull glow in every corner. The Broncos are losing to the Raiders, badly. Turning away from the game to focus on the topic at hand I ask Eric what it is like to work two jobs.

≥I feel pretty good at the end of the night because my part time job isnπt very demanding.≤ Later on in the profile process he decided that he wanted to change that answer. He was sitting in a rolling office chair near the cash office at Circuit City. ≥I knew if I answered you my feelings would change. I am fucking tired man!.≤ Barbara Ehrenreich goes into this issue deeper in her book, Nickel and Dimed: On NOT Getting by in America. Ehrenreich goes into great detail the physical pain that she endured when she took low paying jobs such as the one that Eric has. Her friend, Holly, trips in a hole while cleaning a house and her boss does not seem to care about her well being:

I blow. I canπt remember the exact words, but I tell him he canπt keep putting money over his employeesπ health and I donπt want to hear about åworking through it,π because this girl is in bad shape. But he goes on about åcalm down,π and meanwhile Holly is hopping around the bathroom, wiping up pubic hairs.

Eric is not dissimilar from other people that have two jobs. He admits, ≥äthe other ≥door guys≤ work days as well, and we are a lot alike, so I think that I am in a similar situation to others.≤ This is a small sample, but Eric has a valid point. Only certain people can work two jobs. The physical demand is so great that many people are unable to do it.

Eric relates to most other people that work two jobs, but there are individual characteristics that make Eric who he is. He always maintains a positive attitude about his situation. Even when it is the end of his shift at Circuit City and he knows he is about to leave directly for his other job at Samπs Boat he always smiles. ≥My part time job is just something to do to make a little extra money. Itπs not necessary but it helps out on little things like gas and entertainment.≤ At this point I am curious as to what Eric means by entertainment.

≥I do tend to have more of a social life then the other guys, but thatπs because of my Circuit City job and my big family where cousins are about my age. I like to go out and hang out, which includes drinking, dancing, movies, and family functions.≤ Family is very big with Eric. He has a brother and a sister that he spends a lot of time with. He actually lives with his brother and their friend Alfonso. Beyond his immediate family Eric also has several cousins that are his age. He sees them as much as he can, but it does get a little hard with his schedule.

He typically gets to Circuit City around 10am and works until 7pm. He then has to go to Samπs Boat at 10pm and is there until 2am. This is a tiring task for anyone, but for Eric, it is his daily life style. He normally does not see a true day off of work. ≥When I have a day off at Circuit City I usually will have to work that night at Samπs, and vice versa.≤

* * *

≥I typically get up at around eight thirty. I am usually tired from the night before, but I manage to start my day off with a refreshing shower.≤ After he puts a little zest into his life he has breakfast. ≥I think breakfast is part of what keeps me going through the day. It really gets my brain going, and then I feel one hundred percent better. I usually watch the early editions of Sports Center that they show nonstop åtil noon or so while I eat my cereal or whatever I have that day.≤ Eric lives close to Circuit City so he does not have to leave early to get to work on time.

≥Around 9:45 I leave for work, and get there, like ,five minutes before I am scheduled to be there.≤ The first thing that he does every morning is look over the ≥Daily Processed Sales≤ sheet that the opening Customer Service Associate has prepared for all the Sales Counselors.

Eric always keeps on top of customerπs needs. If he special ordered an item, meaning that he sold an item that we do not have in our store but we can get it for the customer, then the customer can come in to the store at their convenience to pick up their item when it arrives, then he will make sure that they are notified when the unit does come in. He also sends out thank you cards to people that have given him his business. You see, Circuit City is a commissioned job. Eric does not make a penny unless he sells things to people. Customers tell me all the time that Eric does a wonderful job of taking care of them. I work for Circuit City as well. I am the Customer Service Associate that prepares is sales report, and I am the person that customers call to discuss his performance. Eric goes over his report and sends out the new batch of cards before he even hits the sales floor.

≥It is usually like 10:30 or so before I actually get out there to sell. It is always slow at that time of day. There are no real buyers, only people that are in the store to pick up something for work or a new CD that has just come out. With all this, Eric still makes around twenty-seven hundred dollars a month at Circuit City.

≥It isnπt until around two that things begin to pick up. People begin to come in looking for items that are a little more high priced.≤ I know how hard working at Circuit City is. It is at this time that your feet really begin to hurt. Standing in dress shoes all day really takes a lot out of a person. For hours after work is over you can think of nothing else to do but sit or lay down and avoid being on your feet any longer.

Somehow, through all of this Eric moves on. He is still smiling and he is still thinking about the people that he is there to help. Sure, Eric is there to make his money, but he never wants to sacrifice what the people want in order to make a few extra dollars.

It is not all great with Eric and Circuit City though. Sometimes Eric is so focused on what the customer needs that he sacrifices what the company needs. Circuit City is a business, and when you run a business you want to turn a profit. The amount of money made over the amount spent is known as the Profit Margin Index, or PMI. When Eric sells an item at a discount because the customer will not buy it at the full price the company makes less money on that unit. Sometimes the price can be lowered so much that the company loses money on the unit. This lowers PMI. It is not always bad that this happens. If Eric sells a service plan with an item or Monster Cables with the item he has marked down, then the company makes a lot of money (those items have the two highest mark up rates). To put this plainly, Eric makes mistakes, but does not everyone?

At the end of the day Eric checks to make sure that the home audio section is completely clean. The store is open a few more hours, but Eric wants to make sure that other employees have an easier job at the end of the night. ≥After I leave I usually go home and fix myself dinner. Basically, I try to rest most of time I have between Circuit City and Samπs.≤

* * *

At around 9:15 Eric leaves for his second job. It is only a thirty-minute drive, but Eric likes to get there a little bit before his scheduled time. When he gets to work he goes and checks in with the manager so they know that he has made it. When the manager clears him to go to work, he goes to the head doorman and finds out what door he is watching that night. ≥[Then] I report to my station [to] card, or ID, people that come in to insure that they are 21 or over.≤

This is not his only responsibility. ≥I also keep on the lookout for overly drunk customers to ensure customerπs safety. Breaking up fights is something I do as well.≤ I asked him if he had ever had to do that, and he replied, ≥Sure. I mean, its not like it happens often, but it has happened before.≤ Breaking up a fight is a hard thing to do when you have already been working for eleven hours that day, but somehow Eric can do it without thinking about it.

At the end of the night Eric is on outside clean up. He first must take all the barstools, which are outside for people who want to enjoy the night air, and move them back inside so they will not get damaged or stolen overnight. Then he must walk around the grounds to look for debris such as bottles or cans. This takes till about two-fifteen, and then he is free to go home and enjoy his night.

What makes this job easy for Eric is the fact that he has someone that will be on the door with him. ≥There is always a guy there besides me to take IDπs.≤ On a busy night this helps to ensure that the lines move quickly and the IDπs are actually checked. There is also a girl that is on a cash register on each door. ≥She takes the cover charge that we are charging that night when we let people in.≤ On a slow night Eric can sit and talk to both people, so it is almost like he is not even at work.

When Eric gets home from work there is not much that he can do as far as a social life is concerned. ≥I usually catch up on my personal things like laundry and house chores.≤ Eric normally gets to bed around four or four-thirty. He gets up the next day and does it all over again.

* * *

Eric does not need to work two jobs. He works at Samπs Boat because he likes the atmosphere and it allows him to make a little extra money for things that he might want to do. Eric is motivated by the fact that he likes the challenge that having two jobs present to him. He likes to test his own limits by pushing the envelope a little further each time. ≥I just like to push myself to do it so that I know that I have the discipline to do things that I do not always want to do. I guess that is kind of clichÈ [laughing].≤

Eric is an important person in his unique social status. He is a guy that shares a lot of traits that make up the group of people that have two jobs. He is tired at the end of the night, his jobs allow him to have extra money, and his social life is severely hindered because of the long days that he works.

≥The best days are obviously the days that I work only one job, or the rare days when I work at neither job.≤ If Eric has the day off at Circuit City he usually goes home to meet with his family. Eric deeply enjoys sitting down and talking with every member of his family. If he has the night off he usually goes out with friends for the night. ≥When I got off work at Circuit City I usually will make sure that my clothes are ready for the next day, and then I call my friends to find who is hanging out.≤

It is days like these that help Eric to maintain his sanity that he would lose if he worked both jobs every day. ≥Without a day off here and there from one of the jobs, I would not be able to do it. Just like anyone else I need to rest in order to keep going.≤

Eric makes on average 37,200 dollars a year, before taxes. This is a pretty nice hunk of change, but Eric also works more than sixty hours in a week. Not only does this make his dollar per hour lower to around 11, it also limits his ability to be away from work. It is true that everyone must work in order to survive, but working so much that you cannot have a full social life all the time is harmful. Simply put, people that work two jobs work long hard hours for rewards that are not as high as most people. The rewards are lower because in general, people that work two jobs do unskilled work.

Working in sales is not for everyone, that is true, but there are no special skills that a person needs to have to be successful. The same is true with being a bouncer at a bar. It is not a skilled job, yet it is not a job that everyone can be successful at. This is true for almost all non-skilled jobs. This was the partly the point that Ehrenreich made in Nickel and Dimed. She sat down with the editor of ≥Harperπs≤ and discussed what they wanted to accomplish. ≥How in particular, we wondered, were the roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor marketägoing to make $6 or $7 dollars an hour. Then I said something that I have since had many opportunities to regret: åSomeone ought to do the old-fashioned kind of journalismãyou know, go out there and try it for themselves.≤

For me, I cannot do the field research that Ehrenreich talks about. I am a fulltime student and a part-time worker. This is not the same, but it can relate somewhat to the things that Eric goes through. I know that after a day of classes and school work that I have to go to work. The thing that separates me from people that have two jobs is that I am not on a strict time schedule at school. If I feel like taking a nap and doing my schoolwork later I can do that. Eric cannot decide that he wants to sell later and go home for a nap. So, inherently, I am different and there is nothing that I can do about it.

* * *

Now that the holiday season is upon us Ericπs life is about to change. Since Circuit City is a commission only job, Eric is going to make a lot more money with people buying for Christmas. The problem with this is that he will also work more hours. ≥They do not pay overtime if we work more than forty hours in a week. If we work sixty-five hours in a week then we make more because we were on the sales floor longer.≤ Eric looks at this with mixed feelings. He likes the money, but he knows what the store will be like when the day after Thanksgiving comes.

≥Black Friday.≤ This is what we call the day after Thanksgiving at Circuit City. It is the busiest shopping day of the year. It is projected Ericπs store alone will do over 300,000 dollars in sales. Eric will be placed in the home theater department, because that is his best department. He knows that he will make a ton of money, but at the same time he knows that his feet are going to be killing him when he finishes his six to five shift that day. ≥At least I have around four hours to sleep before I go to Samπs that night,≤ Eric says with a slight laugh.

* * *

Sitting down with Eric made me realize that there are a lot of people that live the same kind of life that he does. There are five people that work at Circuit City that also have second jobs. I didnπt realize this until I sat down to do this project. Eric informed me that this was the case, and my jaw nearly hit the floor. I never thought that so many people had to work two jobs to make ends meet. Eric has taught me some very important life lessons.

For a while I was thinking that I needed to take a year off from school to figure out what I wanted to do. After talking with Eric, a man that never went to college, I see that college is the best place for me. I know that I could never work two jobs. After a long day at work, I want to come home and do nothing else. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to get off work and know that a few hours away there is another job waiting for you.

Eric has also raised my understanding of the importance of non-skilled jobs. Someone has to do these jobs, and without them we could not live the in the world that we do. This is not exactly true for Eric, but for most non-skilled jobs it is true. Ericπs two jobs do not change who he is. They merely define what he does for his living. They limit how he expresses who he is. They slowly take the energy away from him that at the end of the day he is exhausted. No, Ericπs two jobs do not make him who he is, they hinder who he is by limiting his time to be himself.

Afterword

When I first started this project, turned in my proposal, I suffered a major set back. Jesse Martinez, the person I originally had online to profile, backed out of the paper. He did not like the idea of me writing a paper all about who he is. I had to quickly find a person that was willing to help me out. That is when Eric Peralez enters the scene. He was far more excited about doing the project. I think he felt special because someone was showing a lot of interest in what he did.

I decided not to tell Dr. Bednar about this change because I basically was doing the same project. Eric works two jobs just like Jesse. They even come from similar backgrounds, so I decided that I could make the decision to change people on my own, especially since I still had several weeks to do the project.

As it turned out, I think that Eric was a better choice. He as really laid back and let me know what I wanted to know. He would, however, sometimes forget that I was writing a paper on him, and he would let some things out that he probably should not have said. That is where the first quote that has the f word in it. I decided to keep the cursing in there the get at who Eric is. Before I was doing the project he would curse around me all the time, then it became far more sporadic.

As I sit here writing this afterword, Eric is working at Samπs. It makes me wonder what it is like. Then I think about all the time that I spent with him and all the things I saw him go through. I could never go through all that like he does. I saw him today at work and he looked at me with that smile and was like how did it turn out? I told him this was only the rough draft and he told me he wanted to see the final. I agreed to let him see it when it was finished. I might even ask for his input before I turn it in. I just hope he has time.

Work Cited

Erenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed, Metropolitan Books. New York, New York. 2001.