PHOENIX — When he lost his job as a cashier, he called his son. What his son did next put his father in a position to potentially have his own choice of his next job.
For most of his career, Peter Judge knew he had a big responsibility of quickly ringing up your items and somehow finding a way to make you smile.
“I love people, I’m a people person,” said Judge.
After working as a cashier or in a customer-facing role for decades, he got pretty good at finding the balance between timely checkouts and pleasant, memorable interactions.
“People would wait in my line for me even when it was really long because I was the one they wanted to come through,” he explained.
Last week, that revolving conveyer belt of snacks and smiles came to a halt when Judge lost his job at an area grocery chain.
At nearly 60 years old and with several stints of at least 10 years of loyalty for several major chains, Judge had no idea what to do next.
“I was in a zone I’ve never been in before,” said Judge.
After he walked out of the facility that just let him go for the last time, he called his son Patrick McCarthy and they spent the next two hours discussing what to do next.
“I know how scared he must be,” said McCarthy.
While listening to his father’s stories about all the interactions that have come across his register over the years, McCarthy started to take notes and wondered how he could leverage the situation.
McCarthy, a marketing and communications professional, posted a passionate short story about his father on LinkedIn.
“He loves his customers, he loves that he’s the reason they come back,” wrote McCarthy.
As of Thursday, that post has over 1.7 impressions and the comments are filled with possible job opportunities.
Some came directly from CEOs and company stakeholders, and some were international inquiries.
The posts that resonated most with Judge were the ones that didn’t have much else to offer other than just words of empathy and support during a transition in your life.
All those years of Judge's interactions that left customers with a smile came back to him in the form of hundreds of comments on Linkedin.
“The support was overwhelming. It kind of restored my faith in humanity,” said Judge.
In losing his job, Judge got a reminder that family is more important than any employment. And thanks to that family, he got a great start on his new Linkedin page.
“It gives me huge confidence,” said Judge.