Her three jobs let woman meet variety of people

Moreen Hamlin holds three jobs, for reasons both practical and profound. I chatted with Moreen on Wednesday evening at the Hillyard Center at 4410 N. Market. Students gather there to study for their GEDs or learn English as a second language. The Community Colleges of Spokane building is nondescript on the outside, but step inside and you’ll meet some fascinating people, including Moreen, a security officer.

Moreen is what I call an “occasional regular.” In this column space, I have encouraged folks to hold conversations with some of the people whose lives intersect with theirs. Chat with janitors, grocery store clerks, fast food dudes, coffee baristas. And security folks. They are everywhere now.

These conversations allow people to talk across social and economic lines. It increases understanding of this weird economy we have in the Inland Northwest. An economy where some people struggle daily to make it financially while others don’t. And there’s not much in between those two extremes.

Moreen is 52, trim and fit, with close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair. She was a tomboy growing up, and you can see vestiges of it in the I-can-fix-anything way she walks down a hall. “I was raised in Chattaroy on a farm, and I was always in my dad’s back pocket, begging him to please let me shovel out the barn,” she said.

Here’s her weekly schedule:

• Monday and Tuesday, midnight to 6 a.m. Graveyard shift at the Travis Pattern and Foundry in the Mead area. She works security. Part-time job.

• Wednesday through Sunday, 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Graveyard shift at the Wal-Mart located at the Y in far north Spokane. She stocks merchandise. Full-time job.

• Monday through Thursday, 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Security work at the Hillyard Center. Part-time job.

Moreen works a graveyard shift every night, so she sleeps each day from about 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Her longest stretch of free time comes Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays when she only works the Wal-Mart job. On Sundays, she cooks up all her meals for the week.

When people hear she has three jobs, “they think I’m crazy,” she said.

Her father and brothers tell her to slow down, as do her friends. But Moreen works like crazy because she likes it. She likes and needs the money, of course. She averages about $25,000 a year and will be eligible for health benefits soon through Wal-Mart. But the deeper reason for all the work is the socialization it provides. The single woman is a loner by nature. The three jobs allow her into the lives of others. “It beats going to the bars to meet people,” she said.

She’s been working three jobs for more than a year now. She’s doing this after a 23-year stint at a lighting company. She likes all her jobs, but her favorite is the one at Hillyard Center. She appreciates the new immigrants who learn English there. A man from Ukraine walks in every day and says to Moreen: “Hello, my friend. I’m glad to be here in the U.S. of A.” He tells her he was often hungry in his old country. But now, he tells Moreen, “I have full stomach!”

Some of the new immigrants are well-educated. They left prestigious jobs in their countries of origin to move here. The language barrier means they sometimes work jobs others consider menial.

“I tell them here in the United States, any job is an important job,” Moreen said. “They are working. They are paying their own way. I was always raised that whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability.”

It’s a childhood lesson she practices daily. Tim Ludwig, her boss at Securitas Security Services USA, said: “She is the ultimate security officer. She is dependable, responsible. She takes pride in her site. She supports the people there. She absolutely cares. I’m really proud to work with her.”

Of people on unemployment, Moreen said: “The only ones I get irritated with are the ones who sit on their butts, drink beer, watch TV and make people feel sorry for them. But those people who need the help and are really trying for jobs, they should go for it.”

And they should visit Moreen for a pep talk. She never minds being bothered at work.