Girls, girls, girls...

Perhaps today, I am the idiot of the day. I have a million tanks to fill for a class tomorrow, as well as mountains of other things to work on. And yet I have no motivation whatsoever to complete any task, no matter how minute or imperative it may be. So here I sit, blogging. But I am so grateful that you are still here reading.

The Idiot Pandemic is not just a blog for me to flame my workplace, I promise. I love my job, actually. The amount of actual difficult work to be done versus what I get paid is clearly in my favor. I get to work alone, with no upper management coming around and screaming at me. They don't tell me I do well, but they don't tell me I suck either. However, it just so happens that there is a wealth of idiocracy amongst the company, and it also just so happens that I enjoy ranting about said idiocracy. Thus, the Idiot Pandemic is born.

The nature of the dive industry is a dirty one. When you work in a dive shop, you're gonna get dirty and not a day goes by where heavy lifting is not required. Customers return their soaking wet rental gear, straight from the ocean. Sometimes if it's not straight from the ocean, it's fresh out of their trunk - where it has sat overnight - and it is accompanied by a nice, funky, moldy aroma. People have been known to grab seashells from the ocean floor, unaware that there are living creatures inside, and put them in their pockets. When they return their gear, they forget the shell is in their pockets. But the smell that efferveces from the pocket a day or two later makes us employees totally aware that some kind of sea creature has expired inside. People pee inside the rental wetsuits, and they're back on our rental shelves an hour later. 80 cubic foot aluminum tanks are everywhere, needing to be filled. Needing to be moved.

That having been said, it is no wonder why SCUBA diving is a mostly male-dominated sport. The ladies are starting to come around, but male customers far outweigh the females. And I came to a realization the other day. Ever since certain male employees had hjacked the power to conduct interviews, all the interviews for floor personnel have been women. Most of them have been younger, less than the age of 24. A few "older" and less attractive women were hired for mid-management positions, but the rest of them, and the most recent interviewee, were young chicks that looked like they had no business or interest in the dive industry. And how did they work out? Two of the 5 were gone within a month. They caused nothing but drama, had all kinds of schedule demands, and then they quit. And then I hear that another interview was conducted earlier in the week. Co-workers reported that the interviewee looked like she was going to the club, arriving in a spaghetti-strap dress, sky-high hooker-heels, her nails all did and whatnot. This really made me ponder; WHERE ARE ALL THE MALE APPLICANTS?? Now I know for a fact that this island is full of dudes, and statistics here show that dudes like to dive. Why wouldn't they want to work in a dive shop? I find it a bit hard to believe that our program gets nothing but young, attractive females applying, and that's it. But I do find it a bit easier to believe that the man or men who take it upon themselves to conduct these interviews, are considering other job "qualifications" when they hire these bimbos. And so 3 months after we hired 5 females in one round, we find ourselves sorely shorthanded once again. And the chicks are trickling in once more to repeat the cycle. That is terrific. Kudos to you, Mr Interviewer, for getting your priorities straight.