TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO FILE:

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT:

THERAPIST: ...December. (PAUSE) And so you're going to be doing, you're going to be getting off at five the next four times? I'm fine meeting at six the next few times and then we'll go back when you can.

CLIENT: Okay. I don't know what happened to the woman that worked there. Her name's Audrey. She, sometimes I wondered if she was a little special, like special ed.

THERAPIST: And she's working there as a child care person?

CLIENT: I mean... I don't how to tell. I mean, I didn't ever give her an IQ test or anything. But sometimes she would just stare off into space and then she would get angry easily. My toes are so cold. And she would shake when she would, couldn't get things right and when like she was especially doing like fine motor things that were difficult. Like she couldn't do a button one time and she was getting angry and she would shake. [00:01:23]

THERAPIST: Oh, okay.

CLIENT: And I said, "Audrey, do you want me to do it?" Like...

THERAPIST: How old is she?

CLIENT: Early 40's. I don't know what happened. She took two sick days. She had some sort of stomach bug, tried to come in on Friday, went home because she was still sick and then went and then on Monday... Who was eating salsa on your couch? [00:02:05]

THERAPIST: That's salsa? Ugh! Are you serious? I'm sorry about that. Thank you.

CLIENT: Somebody eat a burrito on your couch? Somebody sneeze a burrito onto your couch?

THERAPIST: Somebody eats... There's one person who will eat because he's just gotten off, off of work. So he'll get... That'd be the only person I can think of. But he wasn't eating last time. Anyway, sorry about that.

CLIENT: So I don't know what happened. I don't know if she got fired, if she is in terrible health and just quit. But when I came in on Monday, she was leaving. [00:03:05]

And I knew something was going on because when, on Friday afternoon she said to me, my boss said to me, "Will you come in at nine for the next week?" and I said, "Oh, I thought I was working, you know, 8:30 to 4:30 with Amanda." And she said, "No, you're going to be working in the other room." And I couldn't think of who had the nine o'clock schedule. I guess I thought Audrey came in at 8:30 or something. So I knew something was going on but she laughed as I was coming in and she said... I said, "Oh, Audrey. You're still feeling sick?" She said, "Oh yeah, I have a headache or I'm still feeling nauseous and I'll see you later." But I guess she was just covering up for whatever happened.

THERAPIST: Yeah. What, what did the, what did the agency say?

CLIENT: Well they can't say. I mean, if she was fired, they're not going to go tell people. But the note that was left...

THERAPIST: Yeah. [00:04:00]

CLIENT: ...in everybody's mailbox said, "You know, Audrey will no longer be with us. This is a, you know, major loss for our, whatever." I forget what they said.

THERAPIST: Oh okay.

CLIENT: But like...

THERAPIST: They did announce it. They just didn't say it. Yeah.

CLIENT: Yeah, they don't have to.

THERAPIST: Right. Yeah, they've got to protect confidentiality I guess.

CLIENT: Right. I kind of wonder if... Because Stace really didn't like her and like working with her and Stace thought she was an idiot. I wonder if Stace was just like just was like, "I'm done. Like she needs to get out." I really don't like working in that classroom. [00:04:57]

THERAPIST: Yeah, what's the story on the classroom?

CLIENT: I don't know. It's just the dynamics of the teacher and all one of the teachers does is... One of them can't lift. One of them can't push strollers. One of them only is ever with, hangs out with the babies and I feel like I'm the one that does all the hard stuff.

THERAPIST: Mm hmm.

(PAUSE)

CLIENT: I met a guy on the train last week and he... I guess this was after I, when I came here. He told me to look into catering sales.

THERAPIST: Yeah, you mentioned that.

CLIENT: So I have to do that. (PAUSE) I'm tired and sick. I'm sorry. [00:06:03]

THERAPIST: Mmm.

CLIENT: (inaudible at 00:06:11) your trashcan? (PAUSE) Does your new building have recycling?

THERAPIST: Umm... I don't, I don't know that it does.

CLIENT: Oh and here's my whatchamacallit. (PAUSE) My evaluation.

THERAPIST: Oh. What does it say? Yeah, tell me about it. [00:06:57]

CLIENT: It's pretty good except I think there's something. I don't know. They want me to be like less... "It'd be useful for Crystal to work on reading nonverbal cues from others." Apparently I pissed somebody off and I didn't know.

THERAPIST: That's it? Is that it? What...

CLIENT: "Crystal sometimes has difficulty reading other people's reactions to her actions or words which sometimes causes others to misinterpret her intention to be helpful." I don't know. I mean, she didn't go into detail about what happened. I mean, I think I can sometimes make suggestions that sound like I'm being condescending.

THERAPIST: Hmm. [00:06:53]

CLIENT: But like I had this, this interaction with a substitute and she asked me my opinion about like, "Oh, what do you think if we take this kids to the playroom for a little while? And then I'll come back and clean up and then they'll come back and they'll help us clean up and then we take them back to the playroom," I think is what she was saying. [00:08:21]

And I just said it sounded like a lot of transitions when we can just stay in here for an extra ten minutes. And she said, "What's the problem? I did it all last week." And I said, "Well, in all of our trainings, they tell us to reduce the transitions." And she got mad about me like bringing me, holding my education or my trainings over her because she was a substitute. And I talked to my other boss about it but I don't know if maybe the other what's her name, if the substitute talked to the assistant director who does these.

THERAPIST: I see. Uh huh.

CLIENT: But like... I don't know. [00:09:03]

THERAPIST: Yeah, I guess it kind of goes along with the sense there that sometimes your education can kind of be looked at as, as something that makes people feel uneasy or defensive.

CLIENT: Well like sure but last month we had a training and they told us like we have to have bachelor's degrees. We all have to be working towards X, Y, Z education and so like whatever. Like they can kiss my butt if they're intimidated by my...

THERAPIST: Mm hmm.

CLIENT: ...by my education. Like... I mean, it's not that I don't care or that I don't have compassion for them for not having the opportunity to have that education but I just don't... Like if it's something you're supposed to have and, and something like just don't hate me because I'm educated. [00:10:03]

THERAPIST: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CLIENT: Just like whatever Beyonce says or whoever sings that song. "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." Don't hate me because I'm educated.

THERAPIST: Don't hate me because I'm educated, yeah. (PAUSE) Well, yeah, I mean, that's why you do the education. You get the education to get trained. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CLIENT: So like, I don't know.

THERAPIST: Yeah, that's been a kind of tricky part of all that. It's like there's almost a way that, that you can feel like they're sort of saying, "Play at our level or speak up to our level or work at our level. Don't make anybody feel bad."

CLIENT: I know that, I guess when I'm trying to be helpful. I guess people interpret it as they're doing it wrong or I don't like the way they're doing it.

THERAPIST: And... I mean, in a way you are. You're trying to... You're not being malicious. You're just... [00:11:03]

CLIENT: No. They should say like, "I'll do it myself," or, "No, thank you." Whatever.

THERAPIST: I mean, do you end up feeling kind of annoyed by it or are you frustrated by it?

CLIENT: I mean, like I've been told plenty of times that I lack tact. Like... It's like not new to me to hear that. So... But... I, I don't know. I mean, like, I try... When it's like really important, I am tactful and I guess my crass or my blaze-ness just pisses people off sometimes.

(PAUSE) [00:12:00]

THERAPIST: Hmm.

CLIENT: I don't really know like... I don't know how to grow tact or like...

THERAPIST: Yeah, how do you... With this woman, what is it like to kind of tell her or give her the...

CLIENT: Well she's like the kind of person where like you never know if she's joking or not.

THERAPIST: (LAUGHTER)

CLIENT: She'll go like, "Really? Really?!?" And then like something will switch and she'll be like, "Really." And you're like, "I'm joking." And she'll be like, "Ahh! So am I!" And you'll be like... Or like, I don't know. I don't know and like...

THERAPIST: She can be kind of cryptic in that way? [00:13:05]

CLIENT: Yeah. So I don't know. (inaudible at 00:13:15) where's my new one? (PAUSE) So that's what's going on there. I, I don't know. I'd like a new job and I don't know where to start and it takes so much time, you know, like to commit. You know, if I'm working... I work thirty seven and a half hours a week but with my commute it's like a forty hour week and, and so, it's just so much work. And I don't even know what I want in life, what I want to do with my life. So, I don't know. [00:14:03]

THERAPIST: You know, one thing I keep hearing you say is you want to have kids.

CLIENT: Yeah, I want to have kids. Like, I would be fine if I worked thirty hours a week and took care of my kids or twenty hours a week and took care of my kids but I can't do that until...

THERAPIST: But you feel like you would want to work, you would still want to work or would you...

CLIENT: If we can make enough money, if Phil can make enough money I might stay at home but I think I might get a little stir crazy.

(PAUSE)

THERAPIST: Yeah.

(PAUSE)

CLIENT: But right now...

THERAPIST: So twenty or thirty hours would be enough.

CLIENT: I think so. Twenty five was enough when... I was happy working part time I just wasn't making enough money.

THERAPIST: Yeah, yeah. [00:15:00]

(PAUSE)

THERAPIST: Well, plenty of people do that. I mean and I guess the thing that you have talked about the strongest interest in is, is raising kids. (LAUGHTER) I mean, it's your job, in a way and it's also the kind of like the thing you feel, what I've heard you feel the, what I've heard you feel the most interested and committed to doing.

CLIENT: Yeah, absolutely. And like, I just... Until Phil starts making 70,000 dollars a year or more, we can't.

THERAPIST: You can't do it, yeah.

CLIENT: Right.

(PAUSE) [00:15:59]

THERAPIST: Well some it too I think is, is... I mean, listen. You're working a hard job and it takes a lot of hours and saps all, drains a lot of energy from you the kind of, especially the kind of work you're doing and the amount for but... So it doesn't leave a lot of time to kind of invest energy into looking for new work, obviously. But I was thinking too, what, you know, all the feelings that come up when you, when you've venture out towards a more competitive job market, one that you feel will be more kind of... Well... Not even a more competitive, even if you're just making a change, there's like this whole aspect of evaluation you go through. You know?

CLIENT: I just don't like, I don't like being so severely judged before I even get to an interview. You know? [00:17:03]

THERAPIST: Mmm.

CLIENT: Like all these questions they ask you when you're applying for jobs now and, you know, X, Y, Z philosophy and, you know, if I need accommodations. You know? If I could perform this job with or without accommodations. I don't... Like I think that means like ramps and special light bulbs in your desk, you know, lamp. But, you know, like when I think of accommodations, I think of the tests that I took as a child, you know, I would get extra time.

(PAUSE) [00:17:53]

CLIENT: And so I think about that and I don't want to get into a situation where I'm like, "Yeah, well I do have ADD," or whatever and or learning differences and them being like, "Oh, well, we can't accommodate that." Because that's basically what I feel like what happened at the jewelry store.

THERAPIST: Huh.

CLIENT: You know? "I'm sure you're a really smart girl but this isn't for you." Like what isn't for me your backwards, your ass backwards system of, you know, keeping books. You know? You need a computer and a bar code scanner or at least codes.

THERAPIST: Yeah, that was... What were you grappling with at that job? What were they complaining about? [00:18:53]

CLIENT: Oh they... You had to take the sticker off the thing that they bought and put the total into the, put the cost into the little like till that was like an adding machine. It wasn't even like a register. And then you add all those things up and then you write the total down on the yellow pad of paper and then you take the sticker and if it's the last thing, if it's the last thing, if there's none left, then you put it on the little piece of paper over here and if there's another one in the back or somewhere, then you take that and you put the price sticker on that. So it looks like there's one bracelet that looks like this and you take off the sticker and you hold it for a while and then you put another bracelet out that looks the same. [00:20:05]

THERAPIST: Oh, okay. That's a lot of steps and everything.

CLIENT: Yeah! And then, you know, you write down the description of the item in the...

THERAPIST: (LAUGHTER)

CLIENT: I don't know. I mean, it was just so complicated.

THERAPIST: Mm hmm.

CLIENT: And like, I haven't gone in there. I look in the window sometimes but I haven't gone in there to see if they've like stepped into the twenty first century. I mean, they're doing books the way people would have done books in the fifties.

THERAPIST: Yeah, it sounds like that.

CLIENT: You know? And I was practically educated in the fifties considering my elementary school. So...

THERAPIST: So what would be... Like, for you how was that, how was that...

CLIENT: I mean, it's terrible. I was, I was good at the selling. You know?

THERAPIST: Oh yeah? Huh.

CLIENT: Sold a couple of hundred dollar bracelets or, you know four hundred dollar bracelets or something. I don't know. [00:21:01]

THERAPIST: Hmm.

CLIENT: You know?

THERAPIST: Did you like that part at all?

CLIENT: Yeah! I was good at it. You know? And I treated every customer the same. There was a little boy that came in, you know? Sixth grader or something and wanted diamonds for his girlfriend and I said, "Well, our diamonds are over there." He was like, "How much is it?" And I'm like, "Twelve thousand dollars." He was like, "Oh." I was like, "Yeah." And so we found him like a little glass like carved thing that was like, you know, ten dollars or something. And like, you know, I don't want to make him feel bad because he can't afford twelve thousand dollars in diamonds as a sixth grader. You know?

THERAPIST: You didn't try to milk him out of his...

CLIENT: No! (LAUGHTER)

THERAPIST: ...piggy bank?

CLIENT: Out of his bar mitzvah money? No!

(PAUSE)

THERAPIST: Yeah, so that part was... [00:21:59]

CLIENT: That part was fine. I met a woman who knew, who knows my great aunt. You know? I asked her where she was from, what she was doing in town. "Oh, I'm from a town outside of Blacksburg." I said, "Oh, where?" She said, "(inaudible at 00:22:09)." I said, "Oh, my aunt lives in (inaudible)." She said, "Oh." You know, I asked her what she does there. She owns a bookstore. I said, "Oh, you own Christmas Dove (ph)." And she was like, "Oh yeah," whatever. And so, you know, she knows my aunt. Her brother in law or something is my aunts farmhand or whatever he does up there, groundskeeper basically. And I, you know, sold her a gold and ruby bracelet. But like right before I was about to start on commission, I got fired.

THERAPIST: Huh.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Well what do you, what do you think?

CLIENT: Well I, I wonder if they actually needed anybody for that long. [00:22:59]

THERAPIST: Huh.

CLIENT: But...

THERAPIST: Huh.

CLIENT: If I... Was I really that bad? Like, I don't know.

THERAPIST: Yeah, what was the feedback you were getting about the, about the system?

CLIENT: Well like I wasn't getting any feedback on like not on the ball or anything.

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: I just got like, you know, "You can do this kind of thing when we're together but when the boss is here," I forget what her name is, "But when the boss is here..." I guess I wasn't on the ball enough when the boss was there.

THERAPIST: With the system? The thing, the system?

CLIENT: Not the system but just like when there's a break in the lull in the store, instead of like, I don't know, reading, not reading but like I was looking at one of those gem books. I wasn't like replenishing the (inaudible at 00:23:55) statue, you know, from the so and so cabinet. [00:24:01]

THERAPIST: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's almost like you had to kind of anticipate and think about what you were supposed to act like when the boss was around and act accordingly in some way.

CLIENT: Right.

THERAPIST: Look busy. Look...

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: Like, I don't know. She... I mean, you know, I understand that like people in the jewelry business can be very old fashioned but like to the point where you're using an adding machine and not a register?

THERAPIST: They weren't using a register?

CLIENT: No. It was a cash drawer and an adding machine.

THERAPIST: Is that right?

CLIENT: Like if you wanted to go stick this place up, it would be so easy.

THERAPIST: What's the address again?

CLIENT: Did... Are you recording this? Did you remember?

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: The address? It's...

THERAPIST: I'm just kidding. (LAUGHTER) [00:25:05]

CLIENT: It's Geoclassics (ph). It's across from (inaudible at 00:25:05] (PAUSE) Yeah. Jewelry store. And they sell... But their like really expensive items isn't the jewelry. It's the fossils that are this big.

THERAPIST: Oh really. Is that so?

CLIENT: You know and they are like a fossil of like a fish or something on they're on a big slab of limestone or whatever.

THERAPIST: Oh really, okay.

CLIENT: Yeah. You know? Fifteen thousand dollars or something.

THERAPIST: Oh okay. I know where that place is. Yeah.

CLIENT: Nice stuff.

THERAPIST: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

CLIENT: Yeah. [00:25:59]

THERAPIST: Yeah. What did that do to you though in terms of, you know, how felt about, you know, work and you working and when you got that...

CLIENT: I didn't work for a long time after that.

THERAPIST: Is that right?

CLIENT: Yeah. I think it was... Let's see that was the summer of ‘09, I guess and I didn't work again until January of 2010. And I wasn't working before that.

THERAPIST: Okay.

CLIENT: So I worked there for three weeks but otherwise I was unemployed for a long time.

THERAPIST: Okay.

CLIENT: But...

(PAUSE)

THERAPIST: What kind of effect did it have on you emotionally, psychologically?

CLIENT: I just felt like I wasn't going to be good at anything and like I had been worried about that my whole like because I wasn't good at school. I wasn't great at school. [00:27:03]

THERAPIST: Yeah, yeah.

CLIENT: You know? And plus, with the economy nose diving, I felt like, "Well, where am I going to get a job?" I was tired of folding two ounce panties with ten ounce censors on them at Victoria's Secret. I didn't want to go back there. And I felt like I needed a real job. You know? Like, oh you're graduated. You need a real job. You know? But I don't know if I didn't look in the right places or if I didn't know where to look or if I was just being lazy, but...

THERAPIST: Well I was wondering if has less to do with laziness and more to do with, I mean, among other things, this kind of, this kind of sense of yourself. Not, you sort of wondering and not feeling on solid ground about, you know, what you have to offer. [00:28:07]

Kind of like you sort of just, you know, you're sort of saying about school was a struggle. Now this is going to be a struggle too. And, and... That, that, that being such a hard thing for you to be living with as you're applying for work or looking for work or thinking about work.

CLIENT: Sorry. I dazed out there. (LAUGHTER)

THERAPIST: What struck, what came to mind?

CLIENT: When I left the book store, because I was fired, I had these flash card things.

(RINGING)

CLIENT: The flashcards that were... Sorry, I'll call you back. Who is this? Oh, hi. I'll call you back in like half an hour. Bye, bye. Sorry. I thought I ended the call. [00:29:11]

THERAPIST: Where do you get the flash cards? What...

CLIENT: I had these flash cards that were like about all these different gemstones and like their properties and their vision cuts or whatever and I sent them back in the mail. I could have just gone down there but I didn't want to.

THERAPIST: They had given them to you to study.

CLIENT: Oh, Yeah

THERAPIST: Oh, I see.

CLIENT: And the store had plenty of them but it was like thirty of them.

THERAPIST: You mailed them back. What about that?

CLIENT: Well, I guess when you were talking I just was picturing myself going into the store and putting them on the counter and leaving and I wonder why I didn't do that. I think I was just so upset. [00:30:15]

THERAPIST: Yeah. (PAUSE) Yeah. You felt bad.

CLIENT: I felt, I felt cheated and I felt like... I didn't really feel like it was my problem. I really did feel like that's your problem. Like you're going to go through a lot of people if you don't fix your system. But I felt like I wasn't really given a chance, you know?

(PAUSE) [00:31:00]

THERAPIST: Hmm, hmm. Yeah. It's such a different way of narrating that experience to yourself than I can't, than this other narrative that can happen for you which is the narrative of, "I'm not doing this well, either." You know? You know what I, you follow what I'm saying? Like, there's one narrative of like, "Wait. I got cheated. They didn't give me any time, they didn't give much time or their system's kind of messed up and it wasn't a good fit for me in that way because the place is kind of screwy or something," and the narrative of you feeling like, "God, I... The reason why this happened maybe or is because I'm going to struggle with work too." It... [00:32:01]

CLIENT: Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, I, that place wasn't set up for somebody like with my learning style and my style of work but like because it's so intensely detail oriented but like I blamed myself a little but like, I really just think that like your system is wrong. Just like the occupiers believe that the banking system is wrong. Like, your system is wrong.

THERAPIST: It's unnecessarily detail oriented. It's archaic and all that.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: What's coming up? What are you thinking?

CLIENT: I think I got a W2 from them that year (inaudible at 00:32:57)

(PAUSE)

THERAPIST: Because you got, you got a paycheck didn't you? [00:33:11]

CLIENT: Yeah, maybe one or two.

THERAPIST: Yeah.

(PAUSE)

CLIENT: I just... I don't mind switching fields. I think it probably be a good move for me but what if it happens again? What if I get three weeks into a sales job and I'm, you know, not fit for the system?

THERAPIST: Mmm.

CLIENT: Like... [00:33:55]

THERAPIST: Just as you were saying, like, "What if these places are asking me about accommodations." It's kind of the same question.

CLIENT: Right. But like they, when they look at me, nobody thinks I need an accommodation. I don't have like a wheelchair or a missing appendage. I don't have to like only work on the first floor because I can't go up stairs or something. I can't not lift heavy things. But like, I just, when I think of accommodations, I think well, I want to be given time and a half.

THERAPIST: Huh.

CLIENT: But you can't really ask that at work when you have deadlines and things.

(PAUSE)

THERAPIST: Yeah and it's not like you could make yourself be better at being detail oriented or work faster.

CLIENT: I wish I could. Is there a way?

(PAUSE) [00:35:05]

THERAPIST: I mean, practice. (LAUGHTER) You know, like a job that gives you some time to get in a routine, I suppose.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: But it still might be not the, you know, checking every little step along the way might not be the best thing, you know, for what your, you know, what your talents are either. It sounds like sales as good. You felt like the sales part was good.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: There's a lot of gigs out there that don't require... That just require you to sell. (PAUSE) I mean, you're right. What if the gig was just that all you had to do was scan a barcode on some different things.

CLIENT: Yeah. [00:35:59]

I mean, with barcode creation, like I don't know how expensive it is, but they could have a barcode for each product or they could have a barcode for like bracelets. And then the person would have to type in the description of the bracelet. It's better than writing on a sticky note that's the size of my pinky fingernail. (PAUSE) And I had to count back change. I guess, which I wasn't very good at. Like if somebody gave me twenty and the thing cost seventeen I had to like give them the, you know, I had to be like eighteen, nineteen, and thirty eight sense makes twenty or something like that.

THERAPIST: Mm hmm. [00:36:59]

CLIENT: And like I don't know why. It's a lot more complicated than it sounds. (LAUGHTER) Especially the machine doesn't tell you that the person's getting two dollar and thirty eight cents back.

THERAPIST: Yeah, like the registers nowadays...

CLIENT: Right.

THERAPIST: ...just show change 2.38 and you count it up or...

CLIENT: Right. Like if [inaudible] can do, can have a register, I think this place can have a register. You know? They, they have like at least three hundred different buttons...

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: And you type "buttons" and then... Or it was like either taxed or non-taxed. So like buttons weren't taxed. Thread wasn't taxed. But like something that stays a part of your clothes. The needles, I think they were taxed. Because it depends on if it's staying as part of your clothing or not. [00:38:05]

THERAPIST: Well, listen. I better stop in like a couple minutes.

CLIENT: Oh.

THERAPIST: But yeah, you ran into a system was inflexible, wasn't going to change. It sounds like it was very frustrating to try to work with that.

CLIENT: Yeah.

THERAPIST: Especially when there was this expectation that you do it just right.

CLIENT: Yeah.

(PAUSE)

THERAPIST: I guess some, some, one of the consequences of this is you kind of, kind of feeling uncertain of how you're going to fit into a system.

CLIENT: Right.

THERAPIST: How flexible and accommodating they're going to be.

(PAUSE) [00:39:00]

THERAPIST: You worked at Victoria's Secret.

CLIENT: Yeah. They were kind of, they weren't... It's not that they were inflexible but like people were just mean, especially the bosses. And like, they'd be like, "Who hung this enormous bra!" And it'd be like thirty eight D and I'd be like, "I hung it because they had the flowers like the display was." They'd be like, "Oh no, it looks terrible! You have to put the thirty sixes and on the mannequins or, you know, the thirty fours." Just, "You're being mean right now. Like not only to me but to women who wear that bra size."

THERAPIST: Oh yeah.

CLIENT: You know.

THERAPIST: Oh yeah, it was kind of insulting too on top of that.

CLIENT: Yeah. It was kind of insulting to work there. Like... [00:40:03]

I don't know. I didn't really mind it at first but once my bosses (inaudible at 00:40:15) they got really mean.

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: Like catty basically.

THERAPIST: The familiarity bred contempt. (LAUGHTER)

CLIENT: I don't know (inaudible at 00:40:27)

THERAPIST: What, what, what?

CLIENT: They were just mean and...

THERAPIST: I was just thinking as they got more comfortable with you, they start to show their personality.

CLIENT: (inaudible) I'd be like, "Can I please clock out? Like I'm tired. I'm hungry. Like I'm going to pass out." And they were like, "Oh, do this first and then you can go." And I would do it and then I would be like, "Can I please go?" And they'd be like...

THERAPIST: They'd be like what?

CLIENT: They, I mean like, he wanted me to do a drawer and I did the whole thing. He was like, "Yeah, I just wanted you to do one drawer." And I'd be like, "You just wanted me to stay for an extra two minutes to torture me? Like..." [00:41:07]

THERAPIST: Huh.

CLIENT: I don't know. They're very... For a company that employs so many women, they're very terrible with pregnant women. Like, it's like almost company policy.

THERAPIST: To, if they're working there?

CLIENT: Yeah, yeah. There was a woman that would always get morning sickness or have, be nauseous and throwing up. And they were like, "If you're going to throw up, can you at least do it in the other bathroom?" The one that was like the men's bathroom but was basically like our storage closet.

THERAPIST: Yeah. Boy they're, they were not the...

CLIENT: And then, "Oh, if you're going to be throwing up for that long, you should really just clock out for your break."

THERAPIST: So this is how they treat people that...

CLIENT: And then there was another woman who worked with us at (inaudible) really close to being regional manager before she had her kid and then she was just like the fit manager when she came back after her having kids. [00:42:11]

THERAPIST: The what? The fit...

CLIENT: The fit manager. She would go into the dressing room to make sure the bra was fitting.

THERAPIST: Was that a demotion or something?

CLIENT: Straps, backs...

THERAPIST: No I mean was it a demotion from where she was headed?

CLIENT: I think so, yeah. I thought you said emotions. I'm like, "Emotions?"

(CROSSTALK)

CLIENT: She was, yeah, pretty close to becoming regional manager.

THERAPIST: Yeah, but not very accommodating. Right? That's the...

CLIENT: Not very accommodating to pregnant women.

THERAPIST: Or to anybody who had a kind of (LAUGHTER) any sort of special situation or need. Yeah. Well it's interesting too in terms of what you started with in terms of this woman getting fired. Or you think, you're wondering if this woman's gotten fired because she was sick and had special needs. [00:43:07]

CLIENT: Well I don't know if she sick. I wonder if she was, she was ill and so ill that she had to quit or so ill in the way that she had to leave like if she has like hepatitis or some other... Not that she has hepatitis or AIDS or anything. If she does, she can't work with children.

THERAPIST: But it kind of reflects what it seems is kind of one of your concerns about the job market is how people in the work force react to and how sympathetic they are to people who have different kind of styles, needs, whatever (inaudible) it doesn't feel safe. Well, okay. So next Wednesday.

CLIENT: At six?

THERAPIST: At six.

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