How Getting Fired Made Me Grow Up

How getting fired made me grow up

It was a Saturday just like any other at Ace Hardware; all of my coworkers were slacking off. I was working my butt off running around the store while most everyone else working was just hanging out and talking to each other. I just couldn't take the laziness anymore, and snapped. I just started yelling at the laziest of all employees, Kirk.

Kirk is the kind of person that instead of just manning up and doing what it takes to get ahead in life just makes excuse after excuse. He's also the laziest person I've met in my entire life. Kirk is probably the least intelligent person I've ever met. His main responsibility is filling chlorine jugs and bringing them around front, which he doesn't do most of the time. He is also the employee that as soon as he clocks in for a shift goes outside and smokes for 15 minutes. Even though he's so lazy and unintelligent my boss still hasn't fired him, and he knows that he won't get fired. That has always bothered me since there are 100 other hard working and dedicated people that would take his job in a second if given the chance. When Kirk first started at Ace he was homeless and had gotten the job because he knew my boss from church. He is now just the level above homeless, living in a shack. He is constantly complaining about how terrible his life is and how he can't get ahead but I consistently see him smoking cigarettes, drinking energy drinks, and eating, that's what really frustrates me about him.

Most days that I work I'm the youngest employee by about 15 years and for the most part I'm the most mature one. I'm also one of the key employees most days since I can do just about anything from cashiering to mixing paint. I hadn't been having a good week and got called into work 2 hours early that day because someone decided to not show up. No one was answering their radio when the cashiers were calling for things to be brought from outside in the back to the front for customers so I had to run to the back to get it and I see Kirk just sitting around smoking cigarettes. That's when I just lost it and started screaming at him calling him a lazy bum, I made him cry. He proceeded to go inside crying to my boss about how mean I am and how I had no right to call him out. I got called into the office and my boss tore into me and then I was fired. The day I got fired was one of the best learning experiences for me.

Needless to say I wasn't very happy to get fired and I was not very excited to tell my parents. For the rest of that day I just went for a drive to calm down and think about what happened. I realized it was probably a good idea to just get telling my parents over and done with. When I finally went home and told them they were very displeased with me since my boss has been a family friend for quite some time. Since I paid for just about