It's been a few years since I updated the boys' blog now that they both live in Detroit, but need to document a momentous occasion in the life of Colby.
Today, Colby started his new job at City Dentistry. This is exciting in and of itself, after three months of unemployment and constant parental nagging/worrying/praying. His friend David works at this dental clinic as a receptionist, and knew they were looking for help, so suggested Colby apply. Colby was hired on the spot after his interview on Tuesday, to start work today, two days later. We asked him what he would be doing at a dental clinic, because he has a long history of interest in the tech field and this was NOWHERE on the Colby BINGO card. Cybersecurity, computer programming, video editing, sound design. That's where his perpetual interest lies. Teeth? That's out of the blue. Colby had no idea what the job entailed, only that he would be working "in the back". Money is money, and a job is a job. After three months of unemployment, any legal job is acceptable. Whatever "working in the back" means, so be it. Rob and I watched Colby's avatar on Snapchat all day. "He's at work! He's at work!" 10am, 12pm, 2 pm, 5 pm. Oh wait. He's still at work. 6pm. 7 pm. Wow. That's a long day. He finally called at 7:30pm, after 9.5 hours.
"THAT WAS CRAZY!" he said as soon as I answered the phone. He had worked solid for that 9.5 hours, without a lunch break. He was starving and drove straight to McDonald's as soon as he got off. We asked him about his orientation, and what they had him doing. Apparently, there was NO orientation, and he was taking xrays and doing dental impressions! He was interacting with patients on his own, assisting the dentist during procedures, handing him tools that he didn't know the name of, to fix teeth that he didn't know the name of. He said they kept getting irritated at him that he didn't know what they were talking about when they would ask for things. And the dentist sent him to the store for a Gatorade, but didn't give Colby his PIN number, so the debit card didn't work and Colby had to buy the drink himself, except that he has literally NO money after being off work for three months so had to call me in a panic and ask for an emergent $5 loan!
Also? Warren is not a very "good part of town", apparently. Colby said there were droves upon droves of people, solid, all day - and "most had only one or two teeth". He said he would anticipate a cavity here or there, but these people... ALL of them... had the most horrible mouths he'd ever seen. "I'm pretty sure nearly every patient we had was a meth addict." Nice. That's great. "I think they only did one actual cleaning the entire time I was there, because so few of them actually had teeth." The one dentist was "gruff" and didn't talk much, just got irritated at Colby for not understanding the lingo... on his first day with absolutely no training! As a computer science major! At one point, Colby asked him if he should study up on teeth and dental tools in his free time, and the dentist said "don't bother. You'll learn it just by doing." OK then.
So, Colby is getting a crash course in the field of dentistry, and has an opportunity to learn a heck of a lot, if he can stand the pace of it all. I asked him when his next shift was, and he has no idea... no one told him when to come back, or how many hours he would work in a week. I asked if he filled out paperwork and his W9, and apparently none of that happened either. He's wearing a mask and gloves and is in people's mouths... on day ONE. CRAZY. He said the office manager is a little old Arab lady who frets about people not being busy if they stop to rest.
As we hung up the phone, Rob said "Well, Colby, you know that it can't be so terrible because your friend David works there and he likes it."
"Oh, David complains all the time," Colby said. "But at the end of my shift, they did tell me that I did better than David did on his first day, because by the end of the day he was crying!"
At least Colby's not in tears. Just kind of numb and bemused at the whole thing. Crazy, inner city, sweat-shop dentistry. Wow.
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