New Job in Everyday Things

I posted a photo on fb a while back announcing my new job at FedEx. That same day, I took a road test to see if I could handle driving a commercial vehicle. The vehicle was nothing more than your average U-Haul box truck; it was a 16' automatic. The instructor had me do a forward and backward serpentine (think figure 8), and upon successful completion, we would go out on the road and see how I could handle the truck in traffic.

After passing the road test with flying colors, I had my picture taken and a temporary badge was given to me. They told me orientation would be Saturday the 16th at 10.

When I arrived at orientation, I was 30 minutes early lol. The orientation lasted 3 hours. There were eight of us there, and the instructor went over the various rules and regulations as well as how our job is performed day-to-day. He basically assured us that we would be ready to start working the following week pending we were approved by HR. I was hoping I would get a call Monday and could start working that week. I didn't get a phone call Monday, but I did get a phone call Tuesday.

That's where the headaches came in.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was hired on the condition my background was waiting to be approved. To work as a temp at FedEx, you have to have a minimum of six months driving experience within the last 3 years. The last time I had driven a commercial vehicle was in May of 2010 at Aaron's. I barely met the requirements, so I had to go back 10 years in order to have my background fully approved.

On Tuesday, the lady called me and wanted me to go back over my background with a fine tooth comb. They didn't care about regular employment; they only wanted to know what driving experience I had. Even though I worked at Aaron's for 2 1/2 years, that wasn't enough to push me over the top. I had worked at Domino's and Papa John's, but I drove my own passenger car. I didn't have any other driving experience in my work history. To make matters worse, she wanted me to find people who worked with me during 2003-2007 essentially. Luckily, I had one of my former co-workers from Papa John's on my facebook. I sent her an urgent message asking her to get back in touch with me with her phone number.

Star, from FedEx, also wanted to send over a fax for me to sign and date the information I provided was true. Unfortunately, our fax machine was being a major pain in the butt, so I told Star to maybe scan the documents and send them over in an e-mail. All of this was going on while I was still working at Sears that day. I tried opening the e-mail, but the attachment wouldn't open. I managed to call Star back and told her I would send the e-mail once I made it to my sister's house.

I went over to my sister's house to print out the attachment, sign it, then fax it back over to Star. After that, I went home for the night.

The following day, she called me wondering if she received the fax. I told her when I sent it, but she said she couldn't find it. I told her I would go to the local Staples and try and fax it that way. I tried faxing it, but none of the machines were successful. So, I asked the guy at the counter if I could scan the documents, put them on a thumb drive, then send it to Star. I was on the phone with her during this time as well.

To make a long story short, I ended up having to drive the the FedEx terminal and sign the documents myself.

After all of that, she assured me I would start working the following week. She commended me on how diligent I was in pursuing this opportunity; I told her I fully appreciated everything she did for me because she doesn't know how bad I wanted this job. After I signed the last paper, she said she would give me a call Thursday if I got the job or not.

Since I was off, all I could do was wait by the phone all day lol. I called her early that morning (around 9:30) and asked if she had heard anything yet. She told me she hadn't, but she would call me within the next hour.

A few hours went by, and I told myself if she doesn't call by 3, I would give her a call. I took Chip outside to use the bathroom. When I came back inside, I noticed I had a missed call. I called her back, and she told me I got the job!!! She told me that I would start Monday.

I immediately called Jasmine, then my brother-in-law and my sister and relayed the good news.

My first day was Monday :-). I'll write more later. Here's a pic of me on the first day.