Inside Career Experience: Doorman

Being a doorman anywhere, especially in New York City, has many perks, benefits, and advantages over most jobs. You will make $18-$20 per hour sitting around, opening doors, greeting residents, screening guests and packages, and doing practically nothing. Now, for $18-$20 per hour, there are jobs that will have you doing a heck of a lot more work than what's described here. You also get good tips as a doorman, including the mother of all tips during the Holiday season. However, upon my experiences in this financially attractive and convenient business, there is a torturous and unpleasant environment hidden beneath it all.

It's a very tough business to get into because most doormen will not quit their jobs. Therefore, to get in, you either: a) Need to know people or have relatives in the business, b) Need to wait until New Year's to see if one of them retires or c) Need to wait until one of them drops dead. Those are the only ways you can get into the business. Well, for me, it was number A but not in the manner which you think. I grew up and lived in a doorman building in the East 50's part of Manhattan, so my family and I were good friends with the doormen there and knew them for quite some time. One day, one of them hooked me up with a temporary summer position at a building where his 27 year old cousin was the super. Everyone was telling me to jump at it as it was a way for me to get my foot in the door and possibly get something permanent. So I did.

I met with this 27 year old super at this building right across the street from Central Park East and I was hired. After the first couple of weeks, it wasn't what I expected. First of all, I will tell you that the closer you work to Central Park, the worse it will be. The building I lived and grew up in was right next to the East River and was a far more relaxed atmosphere. This place near Central Park East was fifteen floors of million-dollar apartments owned by stuck-up old and rich people. It was certainly more uptight and uncomfortable than the buildings near the East River. Because I was a temporary employee, I was given the worst treatment ever, especially by the super, I was a little person compared to all of his long-time employees there.

However, what really blew my lid off the pot was what happened four months into my employment there. After coming back from a four day stay at the Poconos with my fiance, she had an anemic attack which she hadn't had since she was 13 years old. Mind you, I was off the day this happened, so I went to her house and brought her to the emergency room. I have never known anyone who was anemic and I have never went with a loved one, let alone anybody, to an emergency room. The whole situation was new to me and I was scared to death, I literally thought she was going to die and I was losing my mind. That evening, after staying with her at the ER for six hours, I called my job and spoke to the doorman on duty since the super was asleep, I explained to him what was going on and asked him if he could do a double and take my shift for me in the morning so I can stay with my fiance in the ER. This guy cared more about going to the golf course after work than my sick fiance, nevertheless, he said he would deliver the message to the super in the morning.

I felt like I was doing the right thing, I called and gave notice twelve hours ahead of time that I wouldn't be able to come in and I stated exactly why. My fiance ended up staying in the hospital for eight days straight and I stayed there with her every step of the way until she got out. It was as if my world could not go on without knowing she is her healthy self again. But when I spoke to the super again the following evening after I had given notice that I wouldn't be coming in, he had some of the rudest things to say to me, telling me that I was a temporary employee and that I had no privileges whatsoever to take time off from work, regardless of the reason. I couldn't believe my ears.

However, that unpleasant experience did not discourage me enough to give it another shot. I mean that was only building, right? The other ones had to be different, right? Wrong. About six months later, I received another opportunity, this time for a full-time position (the guy that was already there was having back surgery and he planned on retiring in a month or so), but not for a doorman, it was for a maintenance person. Now, I got paid around the same hourly rate as I did for being a doorman at the previous building so that was not the issue at all. This was a far worse place to be altogether. It was a much bigger place, three buildings in one, meaning even more stuck up rich people (old and young), it was on Central Park West this time around, and it was ran by a much older super in his 40s-50s, with his type of mannerisms, he could probably pass as the father of the younger super at the last building I was in.

I worked in the basement most of the time, doing maintenance work, picking up garbage on every floor with the service elevators, and so forth. A lot of the co-workers there befriended me and I liked it at first. That was until I found out that every single one of them was a snitch and was not to be trusted. So I felt like I had no one to talk to there, not even small talk, that was very depressing. The super and his handy man often got on my back a few times on small stuff. For instance, the handy man yelled at me because he was wondering why I was taking so long to pick up garbage with the service elevator, spending lots of time on each floor, I explained to him as politely as I could that as I was picking up garbage, I was sweeping each floor as well which one of my co-workers had suggested I do. Nevertheless, he had it in his mind that I was upstairs in the elevator sleeping, fooling around, wasting time, and what have you. I had it out with this guy in a long shouting match in which I continuously warned him to stop yelling at me like I'm a child, I may have been 23 but I have my own family and my own place, I am a responsible young man so I expect to be treated like one and not like some 20 year old college punk living with mama and dada.

My torture didn't stop there though. The super and handyman were continuously pushing me to do overtime almost every day, mind you, I was already working long nine hour days for five days a week. According to these two morons, they had it in their heads that since I'm young and I'm a new guy, that I should be jumping at all of this overtime they were throwing at me. That's fine and all, but honestly, I would like to time off from work to spend the money I make and quality time to spend with my family. I guess they thought since I was a young guy in my early 20s, I'm probably living with mommy and daddy still, and have must have lots of time to spare on my hands. Wrong, I have my own place, I have a stepdaughter and a fiance, I have responsibility to take care of. Not only that it is against the law and the Department of Health to penalize employees for not doing overtime (which is what they were trying to do to me), if an employee AGREES to or REQUESTS overtime, that is a different story, you can not force someone against their own will to do overtime.

On another note, my facial hair was also an issue. See, I could only shave every 2-3 days due to a shaving rash. When I shave every couple days in between, the hair grows out a little, causing the rash to shrink, this helps get rid of it. The super wanted me to shave every single day. I explained my medical situation to him right when the bright red rash was in front of his very face for him to see, yet he went on saying he didn't care and that my reason for not shaving every day wouldn't be relevant unless I went ahead and got a doctor's note. That's very nice and all, but if you're going to be a real jerk about it and want me to shave every day, you could at least tell the two spanish studs who work there to get rid of their thin-line goat-tees and you could also tell the 70 year old doorman of your's with the perfect schedule to shave his big white mustache. But no, these guys never get in trouble for having facial hair, it's only me.

As I continued to work there, I felt as if the walls were closing in on me. I even had a nose bleed one time because I was so depressed. Picture you work somewhere where everyone is a snitch so you can't even hold a conversation with them, you talk to no one, you want to avoid your superiors at any given moment you can. Compared to the first building, these guys wanted me to be a workaholic. Whenever I finished one task, I was to go to the handyman for a new assignment and each task he gave me took about ten to twenty minutes to complete, not very long at all, and these nine hour shifts were going by very slow. It was the most demoralizing, de-edifying, depressing, and inhuman experience I have ever gone through at a place of employment. I vowed never to work in the business ever again because once I caught onto the nonsense that was happening to me at the second building, I knew right then and there that these places are all the same with their evil nazi supers, handymen, snitching co-workers, snobby rich tenants, and totally unnecessary (some, not all) rules.

I will close on this final piece of advice. I highly don't recommend that you get into this line of work unless you are a family member of or are very close to a super in the business, that is the only way you get treated fairly and like a human being (i.e. like all the other doormen there). I used to think that call centers and customer service were bad, but nothing tops the monstrosity of the doorman career. If you want a relaxing job, become a security guard or an EMT, not a Slaveman at an apartment building.