Working at Democrat Printing and Lithographing Co.

I loved making magazines, it was so much fun. There was also a lot of juicy history to learn about the company as it was fairly old and had been, at one point, a part of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The friends I made there were wonderful and I miss them terribly.

The environment was awful, I won't sugarcoat it. But I am also biased, having never worked at a warehouse before. What made the environment particularly bad, aside from how dirty and hot it was, was how I was treated by some of my coworkers. It wasn't a good first impression and I didn't feel welcome at all. That was on night shift. After switching to days, there were still a few coworkers I was wary of, but I started to relax and feel much more included after a while.

Every Friday morning our CEO, Logan, would come into the bindery loaded with boxes of doughnuts, and they were my favorite kind. Just simple glazed doughnuts, no muss or fuss. Everyone would get a doughnut and a bright, happy greeting from Logan. It was a delicious start to the day!

They were all very welcoming and friendly people. Some, like our HR manager Nicki, would even come into the bindery and help us on the machines.

They were already pretty diverse when I sit back and think about it, but as an LGBT+ person, I felt severely outnumbered (and again, wary of certain coworkers, if not actually harassed by them). Going forward, I would advise making the place more inclusive for them, maybe even implement some training programs on how to NOT be a bigot. Because some people need to be taught this, they didn't get the memo that they could be anything else. The company I work for currently has programs like this, I know it can be done.

I dressed in some of my nicest clothes and, though anxious, kept a level head. I'm usually more successful when I at least appear confident. I also asked questions about the job in question, as I'm a trained artist and lithographing has a lot of art history attached to it, not just commercial. I would apply the information I got to experiences I already had, then relay this to the hiring manager so that she could see I wasn't completely inexperienced.

From what I've seen, their compensation was above minimum wage (and above average for that matter). It wasn't $20/hour, but it wasn't (thankfully) $11/hour, either.

As I already mentioned, it was already fairly diverse, but I think more LGBT+ folks should be hired, and training programs should be in place to help them feel included. Even accidental harassment is still harassment. At the very least, the company should learn more about its hires' attitudes towards inclusivity. You can't have, one would assume, uninclusive people in a decidedly inclusive environment.

At Democrat, I liked that I was constantly moving throughout the day (for the most part). On slow days, I still tried to stay busy. I have to keep physically moving, or have my attention focused on something, or I will get too tired too quickly (or bored, or burned out). I also really loved the friends I did make (difficult coworkers aside). They were much like family and I was excited to work with them every day.