nategrigg.com

You're Fired! A Memory

Tuesday, 08 August, 2017

Long ago, I started my first job as a sixteen-year-old. I was selling pagers at the mall. A family friend was the general manager of the local office of the paging arm of a Regional Bell Operating Company doing business as “PacTel Paging, A Pacific Telesis Company”. I was working my very first shift at the mall when the phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered.

“You’re fired,” my friend (and my manager’s manager) said.

I blinked, stunned and terrified.

“Now answer the phone correctly and I’ll hire you back.”

Oh!

“PacTel Paging: for families on the go! My name is Nate, how may I help you?”


“Okay, you’re hired.”