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K

KG

Who Wants Jack Daniels?
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Not the georgie kind of job :giggles:

Tell us about your first real employment. What did you like about it; what did you dislike; what did you learn?
 
I worked summers during HS @ The Fisher Pen Company in Forest Park (In the Roos Building on Harrison next to the park)...$1 an hour my first summer, $1.10 the next...I would count out 12 pens by 3...put them in a box...12 boxes went into a carton...12 cartons went into a shipping box...I ran a blister machine the last year...put 12 cards in a frame, place a pen on the card, cover with a plastic blister, pull down the lid, and they were heat sealed...no A/C...no shorts allowed...we had to wear skirts or slacks...I met some great people who are friends to this day...I learned that Paul C. Fisher was a perv...he actually had Presidential aspirations...he invented the Space Pen which can write upside down...they sent them up with the Astronauts...
 
I always babysat, etc. For legit jobs:

My first job was when I was 14, I worked at Dairy Queen. I learned adults have NO problem disregarding the child labor laws :lol: It was fun.

When I turned 16 (and could drive) I got a job at McDs. Worked there thru HS & college. That was a GREAT job. I made plenty of $, etc.

In WI (where I lived at the time) back in the day if you were 18 you could "serve" alcohol. Not be a bartender (for that you had to be 21) but you could hand it to a customer as a waitress at 18. When I turned 18 I worked at a number of supper clubs doing dinner, weekends, and banquets. I made at LOT of money. I was definitely a table stealer (if people weren't properly working their block which the bosses were fine with). I made GREAT tips. I learned how to keep it sweet with the cooks & bartenders. I learned how to talk Espanol to the busboys. Learned how to "value-add" i.e. bring another drink instead of asking if they want one (very common in bars & supper clubs, not offensive to that crowd). I learned how to make quarterly tax deposits (already said I made great tips). Learned to hustle my little a$$ off for money :lol: NOBODY here wants to know what I learned about what happens when an assy customer sends back their plate because it's "wrong."

After that I started working in offices (held on to the supper club jobs only for banquets or events well into my 20s for extra $). When I was 26 I broke my shoulder in a car accident and could no longer do the trays, so I gave up waitressing.

When I started working in offices, I learned the value of fringe benefits & health insurance and also that IMHO in offices most people just a$$ off as much as they can get away with. Very much the 80/20 rule. 80 percent of the work is done by 20 percent of the staff.

The truest lesson I learned from any job is that overachievers are ALWAYS "rewarded/punished" with extra work/other people's work, and the slackers (that you are picking up the slack for) almost always stay far enough under the radar to not get fired.
 
My actual first job where I was on a payroll was in sr. yr. of high school...before that I babysat for peeps and loved it MOST of the time. But anyway, I worked at a cafe and deli and that is where I learned that there are ALL TYPES of people in this world, some nice, some mean, some scumbags, etc. This was a real eye opener because before that I thought ALL ADULTS were just like my parents...relatively fair, easygoing people...not the case here. I also learned that I had to hustle and work hard or else I would get yelled at for not being fast enough. I also learned that there are a TON of health code violations working in a restaurant..most go UNNOTICED however and it changed the way I look at eating out for life! My first real, real job after college was working as a case manager for seniors 60 and over in beautiful Chi-town. My caseload area was wrigleyville and boystown and I LOVED IT! I still recall that job fondly and all that I learned about seniors, the mentally ill and lessons about life in general...bottom line is people aren't always what they seem. This is both good and bad!
 
My first job.. babysitting @ 11, fulltime all summer. Plus weekends or after school during the school year. Did that 6th, 7th and 8th grade.
When I turned 14 I started doing phone sales selling olan mills photo sessions during the week, 5 nights a week 5 hours a night.
On weekends, I was still babysitting.
When I turned 15, I worked taco Hell err I mean taco bell... hated it!
I then got hired into a waitress job. I worked fulltime from 3 in the afternoon until 11 as often as I could. Unless it was weekends and then it was any hours I could fill in. Most times I was over 40 hours a week and going to school. I wasn't supposed to be working fulltime per state law, sometimes I worked for cash :quiet:
Once I graduated high school, I then got hired into a factory and worked 2nd shift. At the same time i was working in a restaurant 1st shift.


Wasn't planning on telling all... but... the reason I "had to" was my mom had had back surgery and was unable to do ****. She had no $ coming in and lawsuits are not settled quickly.

You do what you have to do.
 
first job at 14 for 1.5 years baskin robbins yeah nothing like a 14.5 year old closing up shop by herself basically in a fish bowl--LOL

not sure what I learned besides working efficently --summers were crazy the money sucked it was a small business and they paid us "illinois minimum" which was less then federal minimum. I learned about secret shoppers--LOL I screwed up my first time when one came in--never again-I made sure after that one time I was on top of my game always

2nd job McD's from Junior in HS-2nd year in College

I loved working there--IF the McD's by my house had a majority or English speakers working there ( which they dont) I would have my kids work there--so much was learned there--about work ethics to customer service--handling food--I worked with some GREAT people from rival HS that were my best friends for years--while in college I worked at the busiest McD's ( at the time it was ) at the student union at ISU--it was rarely slow

My dd just got her first job ( thank you jesus) my first child to work a regular part time job ( my boys worked for family business) she is learning so much about timing--and co-workers who are slackers--the value of picking up an extra shift

LOL the MONEY omg the money--LOL--she is being made to deposit 1/2 into savings --then the other half--half goes into a longterm goal purchase ( right now an Iphone with a years data upfront..) then the last 25 percent for her to spend on gas..extras etc..it had been a great month for MY pocket book--finally!!
 
I worked for the same reasons Mama, cept mine was a single mom with CS collection problems (though my dad is super now, their married/divorced life SUCKED).

I despair that my 2 older teens seem to have no desire to work. I have cut them off from about everything, just no ambition. The 13yo would go to work tomorrow if it were legal :lol:
 
I hear ya kathy. My dad died when i was 7... my mom was working and making good money. She got in a car wreck when I was 13.. and it went downhill from there. It was rough. But you learn to help or do without. I wasn't liking doing without.
 
16 - Jewel - bag boy/cart-bringer-inner
 
Kathy, I feel your pain on the teenagers! My oldest one had a caddy job last summer. They didn't assign bags the day before, you had to go and sit and wait. There were LOTS of returning caddies and college kids and he got 1 in 1 week! Kind of hard to make him keep going, getting up at 6am, riding his bike 5 miles, to sit for 8 hours with no work. So now we have to get him to do something else! He has no money, but doesn't care.
 
My first job was bussing tables at a cafeteria. It was owned by a Greek family and it was such a soap opera with all the people working there! Big eye opener for me who was quite naive.

I also babysat and worked in the ER at a hospital and then the billing department. Then during college, I was a temp in many offices. Being a temp you get treated like dirt. Another eye opener.

Many years ago I managed a project where I had a team of temps. I was so nice to them remembering my experience!
 
I babysat a lot from 12-22ish...almost entirely for two families...I bet those boys are all married now. :lol:

I also worked as a bus girl at a local restaurant when I was 16 for almost 2 years. It was there that I learned 1)some people are pretty lazy! and 2) that I can do the job of 2-3 people. :p After that, I worked at a daycare and a pre-school. After that I worked selling appliances, where I learned again that 1) some people are really lazy! and 2) I can do the job of 2-3 people. :p
 
My first job, I was 15 and working at Subway. That was the best job experience ever- the owner was cool with everything, as long as the work was done, place was clean, and as long as we didn't burn the place down- she was cool with whatever. We were next door to Fitzgeralds (bar that was featured in Color of Money) and we would get that rush around 9 pm and would have a line out the door to the corner- talk about stressful! But it was fun and the drinkers were usually funny and nice. I would always get stuck working with this coke head and she would pass out in the back and leave me with all the weekend crowds- but they would all be cool with the slow moving line considering I was by myself. Funny story tho was when I was 16 and old enough to open the store alone- I accidentally set off the security alarm. Cops came with guns drawn and scared the buzeesus out of me. Cops at that time used to get free sammiches, and one time I was pulled over for going thru a red light but when the cop recognized me from there, he let me go with a warning. Lots of good times!
 
And I learned in the DQ/McDs biz that cops and firemen NEVER should pay for their meal.

That seems not to be the custom any more (or maybe just not in IL) but no WI fast food place owner would have a cop or fireman paying for his meal! I mean we had a "cop" button programmed on the register at McDs so we didn't always need the key!
 
my first job was a Hardee's when I was 16, I loved it I worked there for a year..............intrestingly enough when my DSS turned 16 I got him a job at Wendy's the store manager that hired him, was hired by me when he was 16 and I was a manager DSS interview consisted of 'so will you shave that off? sure.............ok Suzi did you hear about Mike?' who used to be our district manager
 
First real job other than baby sitting was at the library when I was 16. I was a circulation page, the person who gets to re-shelve all the books. We were rated and graded on how accurate we were in putting them away. I was good at it and liked the work.

Learned really quick that some people would milk their carts so I would do the extra ones because I was faster than them. Punishing me for working hard, plus I got graded on more carts then they did. So I learned how to be fast but not too fast.
 
I started programming computers probably by the age of 10 and doing accounting work shortly thereafter. Worked for either my grandfather or my mother making minimum wage, but even back then was probably $5/hour.

Also did some babysitting jobs - loved going to the US resorts and making $20/hour, plus attending whatever activities the kids were doing.

Was working as a bookkeeper/computer sales (not nepotism - I was living on my own in another province then) by the time I was 17, probably making $10/hour plus our boss would usually give us $50 cash each Friday to go out and party. Legal age was 19 so not quite as bad as it sounds.

Been lucky and just kept moving up from there.
 
My first non-babysitting jobs were in grade school. I hated being at home. So I found things I could ride my bike to. I worked as a gate guard for a private beach and I worked answering phones and light office work in the parish rectory after school one day a week and on Sunday. I learned how to show up on time and how to save my $$. I saved it all, and my parents would sometimes come to me to borrow money.

When I turned 16 I started waitressing. It hard work, but it was fun and I learned a lot. like Kathy I learned some espanol and I learned that wearing makeup and a sweet smile, and acting like the cooks' and busboys' corazon, will get you what you want (oh my LORD, the personalities of those cooks.......). And if that doesn't work, unbuttoning a button or two, will ;) I made friends and a boyfriend that I wouldn't have met otherwise, and I learned how to balance work and school. I learned to think on my feet, be efficient, and that I'd be rewarded for hard work.

I worked in the china department at Marshall Field's. The women I worked with were quite knowledgeable and I liked learning about fine china and crystal. I even got to tour the Pickard china factory in Antioch Illinois. I got "secret shopped" and got a perfect score, and there was a special party for everyone who got perfect scores on their secret shops during the year. My mom was envious, she'd worked there for over a dozen years and never got a perfect score on a secret shop.

I worked in a variety of different offices as a temp. I liked temping -- the variety was nice. If you didn't like someone it didn't matter much because you'd be in a new place in a few weeks anyway.

I also worked as a banquet server and as a grocery cashier. I liked the banquets -- the pay was decent, the work was predictable but not boring, I could ride my bike to work, and I got free food. I didn't really care for grocery cashiering -- it was monotonous work and the pay was not great (non-union). But I did it because it was a job, I needed money, and it was close enough to walk to.

A couple summers I also worked in cash control at 6 Flags, second shift. I met the most interesting, colorful personalities at that job. I learned to keep an open mind about people, since some of the nicest and most fun people were the kind of people I wouldn't normally gravitate towards, based on appearances alone. Stealing was rampant, and turnover was really high; it was hard for them to stay staffed. Sometimes I worked 80 hours a week, well into third shift.

I'd say overall I learned to keep an open mind about people, and that a smile goes a long way. So does a sincere apology when you've done something wrong.
 
I started as a caddy at 12, now those are child labor laws. 6 or 7am until 6 or 7am 6 days a week. Even though in the last years I'll take 120+ a day in cash and being out in nature. Just not worth it for me anymore. I did my 10 years and am done.
 
I was a pickle packer in high school. In college I worked for the dorm as a receptionist then it was a server at the cafeteria where I met DH. Also worked at Burger King and as substitute teacher and then finally into the medical field....
 
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