Reminiscing

Social Security called me and said that Xicor had made a mistake on my W-2 form in 2002. I had to call Xicor and it started making me think about when I used to work there...

I worked at Xicor from June 1985 until March 1995. When I first started working there I was the custodian and I loved it. There was three buildings, one 2-story building and to two-story buildings. My job was to clean the cafeterias, make sure they had paper towels and napkins, sweep the floor and straighten up the chairs and tables, clean the counters in the bathroom and make sure they have toilet paper and paper towels, dust mop the hallways and empty trash cans when they needed to be emptied . The night tying custodians cleaned the toilets and mocked the floors, all of the heavy cleaning.

Also part of my duties started to be relieving or replacing the receptionists in all buildings. I didn't like this very much but it made me feel good that they counted on me to do it. It helped me to memorize the extensions of the people and apartments and I liked that also.

Whenever the mail coordinator was absent or went home sick they would ask me to fill in for that position also. At the time I thought that was a lot more responsibility and although it made me very nervous I began to enjoy it. In between regular mail coordinators they would try to get me to take the position but I didn't want to stress. Whenever somebody doesn't get their mail on time the first thing they do is call the boss and complain, I didn't like that.

They're all was supposed to have their checks by 11 a.m. and they asked me if I could get them to them sooner and I almost always did, I tried my best but if I didn't have them to them early they would call my boss and complain. Luckily I had a great boss that trusted me with everything I did and she would tell them that if they kept complaining they would not get their checks until 11 a.m.

Weighing and posting male was also part of the job and that part I loved because that's when I got to be alone and do what I was supposed to do without too many interruptions. I usually do this at the end of the day and sometimes during lunch if there was a lot. Of course people would come down with last-minute things that need to go out and sometimes personal items, since I was going to the post office every day. I would pick up the mail at 8 a.m., usually anywhere from 3 to 10 buckets of mail, bring it back to the mail room, sort the mail and at 11 o'clock start my deliveries. The fun part of the deliveries was being able to stop and chat with people and get to know them during my rounds. People would call me from other buildings or other parts of the building to ask me to bring in supplies so I would stop by stores and get what they needed and just charge it to their department.

Eventually I started to like the mail coordinator position so I took it permanently... although my boss always said," nothing is permanent". After I took over the position part of the job was to relieve the receptionists in building 2 for 2 15 minute breaks and a half hour lunch everyday. I didn't mind it very much but I wasn't always dressed for it, there is a different dress code for mail coordinator then there is a receptionist. It sometimes did give me an opportunity to take a break and relax because I didn't always have time and I liked to stay busy.

Of course everybody has their silly little quirks. This person wants his mail on his desk instead of in his mailbox, this person wants his mail on his secretary's desk, this person only once letters and no magazines...

All in all I loved my job and I could see me doing it until I retired but I got taken away from me due to an automobile accident on March 10th 1995 before I could retire.