05.10.07

Johnny Be Good

Posted in Barbershop at 10:14 am by Benjamin Ross

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First of all, I want to thank everybody for reading thus far and apologize again for the form and style of these blog entries. Usually, I am quite anal and particular about this blog, but these eleven hour shifts are only leaveing me with very little time to put together a coherent log of what is going on, not to mention time to edit. I am finding the late shift is much more condusive to allowing me time to blog, but it still isn’t much.

After about a week on the job, I am starting to fall into a little routine. Noon to two is the typical Chinese siesta time, so for the first two hours of work, often there aren’t any customers at all. I punch in, put on my apron, and then sit on my ass for about two hours sending text messages and chatting with the other employees. Also during this time, I get my hair funkdafied by Xiao Fang (pseudonym), another one of the little brothers. Xiao Fang is a few years younger than me, and one of the higher ranking little brothers. His hair is permed up into a wavy afro which would make Ben Wallace proud, and every day he uses a big wad of wax to spike my hair up into a new style. I should also mention that a few days ago, my colleagues decided I needed a new haircut. Xiao Fang along with two of the barbers hovered around my head for about an hour, before I finally came out looking like a cross between a Taiwan pop star and Mr. Sparkle. It was the first time I have ever received a haircut by committee.

Today when I came into work I was a bit surprised to see that Johnny (the little guy who’s always slacking off) wasn’t there. I had figured there was a good chance he’d get fired but didn’t think it would have happened so soon. I asked Xiao Fang about it, and he told me that Johnny was home sick with a headache.

As the afternoon progressed, there were still very few customers, Chen Qing (also pseudonym), one of the barbers took me aside to do some massage training. The massage we give comes standard with haircuts and hair washes, and only lasts about 15 minutes. There are only 5 or 6 different motions, but they all must be done to perfection. After working on Chen Qing’s back for about 10 minutes, I felt like my hands were going to fall off.

Johnny keeping busy

At about 4 o’clock Johnny showed up. I asked him how he felt, and he said his head was okay, but I was still skeptical. His work performance continues to border on hilarious. He is by far the least competent of the employees, and thus is responsible for doing Mr. Zheng’s (the boss) errands and other bitchwork that he doesn’t want to do himself. Around dinner time, Mr. Zheng sent him out to the grocery store across the street to buy sweetener for his coffee. Johnny returned half an hour later with a big bottle of instant coffee mix.

“Do you not see how I drink my coffee every single day?” Mr. Zheng yelled at Johnny, with a smirk indicating that he was at least a bit humored by the stupidity of the situation. He then explicitly wrote down the characters for sweatner on a piece of paper, gave Johnny a brief lecture on the coffee making process, and sent him back to the store.

Later on in the evening Johnny pulled me outside and confessed that in fact he had not been sick.

“This job is too stressful,” he confided to me, “I needed to take some time off. I think I am going to quit. I am still not making any money, and we have to work too hard.”

Now the first part of his statement I can understand. As a trainee, we do not receive any salary until we pass the official training period. But as for working hard, a job which requires at least 8 hours per day of sitting on one’s ass should hardly qualify…one would think.

“It’s not just me. Three of us are going to quit together,” he told me. I asked him when he planned on quitting and a look of frustration came across his face.

Johnny enthusiastically greets customers as they walk in the door

“It’s not so easy you see. I have no money, and if I quit, I will have no place to live.”

“Can you ask your parents for money?” I inquired. After all, Johnny is only 18.

“My parents can’t help. My father works as a security guard and makes only 800 RMB ($100 USD) per month. There is no way I can ask him for money.”

This represents quite a predicament for Johnny. Our long hours make it virtually impossible for him to have time to look for another job. But to quit the job at the barbershop may cause him to have to live on the streets. He has no money for food, shelter, or even a bus ticket back to his hometown. My guess is he will be fired before he even has the chance to quit, and I think he knows it too, as today he eagerly asked for all my contact information. (Knowing one’s co-worker’s contact info usually is hardly necessary when you work an 11 hour shift with them every single day).

In other news, I got my first scolding from my boss Mr. Zheng today as after sweeping the hair from under his chair, he called me back to sweep again since it was not clean enough. Also I found out that on the fifteenth we will be having our employee BBQ, and I am invited. I’ll keep everybody posted.

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