unfortunate jobs

Yesterday, the rain unrelentlessly pummelled the earth and winds were said to be worse than a typhoon that swept through in 1962. 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 wind beaten, drenched and shivering.

While I fiddled with the car thermostat, in an effort to dry my own 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 like rubber balls. My guess is, "F@*# that!" and then 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 to have an employee out in such conditions. Sure, it is a wage for whomever drew the short straw, and if someone was desperate enough to take the sign shaker job, I just hope they had a choice about being a walking advertisement in yesterday's horrendous and bone chilling conditions, and then I just hope they got a lot of extra pay...call it danger money or an employee-of-the-decade bonus .

But realistically, 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?