My youngest daughter recently got her first job, as a grocery store cashier. She works mostly evening shifts, which suits her teenage nocturnal lifestyle. At her three-month review, she got kudos for her friendliness to customers, plus thanks for getting the most charitable donations.
My first job was cooking breakfast in a nursing home. I had to get up at 5 am. It was wretched. Old people are mean and so was my boss. Plus, 5 am, people! Later, I taught aerobics, slung ice-cream, prepared tax returns and got fired by a florist. Then, I spent two years in school to earn $8/hr and get peed on.
Good times.
But now I get paid to play with words, an occupation that suits me very well, as it involves almost no human interaction and very few early mornings. No one throws porridge at me and I’m almost never peed on. (I find myself begging people to like me, however. You won’t make me beg, will you?)
At the start of my latest book, His Reluctant Rancher, Desiree Burke is reeling from a career setback. She’s frustrated at not being able to use her skills fully, and Des being Des, she doesn’t take this quietly.
And she ends up disgraced, humiliated and unemployed.
But this bad luck, of course, is how she discovers a whole new, even better, life.
If you don’t understand occupational angst and your career path has been sweet and smooth, well, congratulations. You can go back to polishing your silver spoon.
I want to hear from the rest of you: what career mishaps have you experienced? What odd occupations came your way? Do you have a first/worst/cursed job story? Did you gain anything from it?
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My first job was terrible! I worked with all girls around the age 16 or so. And two elderly women. The women were more concerned with being ‘one of the girls’ that they never did there job. I was paid $4.75 an hour (because we made tips), tho the manger and some of the girls usually stole them, so we didnt get anything. I had two pay checks stolen from the boss. First was held back for two weeks, tho i never got it and my last check wasnt given to me because i quit and left them hanging. Some girls were stealing food and whatnot and a manger turned it in to the owner. Then the manger told the two stealing girls that i was the rat that told and put all the blame on me. All in all, the job was hell, the people sucked, and my mangers acted more like children than adults. :/ Oh! I worked in an ice cream shop.
YIKES! That sounds truly wretched. Hopefully it was a learning experience…
My first was a grocery store it was ok nothing to bad but night hours I hated that!
Thank you for the great giveaway Hope you had a great V day :)
Latisha D
Ooh, night hours are rough. I’d be worried about security, but that’s me being a mom, I guess.
My first job was as a waitress. I was extremely shy (still am), and I had trouble going back to the tables to ask if they needed anything else. Needless to say, I didn’t last very long and I made horrible tips (along with horrible pay). Oh, and my boss was foreign and didn’t speak english well, so I had trouble understanding him. Fun times, lol…
I was super-shy as a teen, too and would have been a horrible waitress. But that which doesn’t kill us gives us stories we can tell later on, right?
my frist horrible job was when i worked at a fast food joint ..i always came home smelling like a french fry
I can totally imagine, Lisa!
My first job was as an assistant to a Psychologist in making appointments, So it wasn’t really bad. But my worst job was cleaning the toilets of companies for a sanitation company. People are nasty!
Mel
bournmelissa at hotmail dot com
Kudos to you Mel, for your courage. Some people find they “get used to” disgusting stuff, while others (like me) just get increasingly reactive. My gag reflex and smell-sensitivity would probably have created more work, if I had to do that job. Do you find your tolerance for grossness has changed, since then?
nothing bad to say
my first job was framing houses, but all i did was haul wood around all day every day
Good exercise at least!
My first job was as a secretary for a temp agency. It was difficult going from one place to another. By the time you get to know your coworkers, it was time to change jobs.
Ooh that would be a tough one for me, too.
My first job besides being a babysitter was a day camp counsulor. I guess I was always stuck with kids. And oh boy I ended up having twins. Joy oh joy.
kwanawrites (at) yahoo (dot) com
Seems to me the universe is sending you a message, Kwana!
I had a job as a teenager where I worked at a summer day camp with handicapped children – one of whom jumped into the deep end of the pool and couldn’t swim. I jumped in after him, and as a thanks, he hugged me, and then promptly sank his teeth into my face – while I was treading water with him. I couldn’t let go of him and let him drown, so I had to swim to the side of the pool while he was biting me. I had teeth marks in my face for a week – luckily,no scar! Thanks for the giveaway!
YIKES! Good on you for not letting him drown! So glad you didn’t end up needing cosmetic surgery… if the give-away was based on trauma, you’d certainly be a contender, Laura!
I have had only 3 jobs in my life so far and have liked all of them.
Something tells me, Joy, that your name suits you very well! :)
My first job was with a pizza place when I was 16. I was so nervous going in for the interview, that I couldn’t think of answers to most of his questions. Luckily, he gave me a second interview later.
[email protected]
The worst is when you blank out on questions like “what’s your phone number?” Good managers understand how stressful interviews are. Thanks, Lisa!
My first job wasn’t THAT bad. I was a newspaper delivery girl. My Dad used to go with me but it was at like 5am. That was rough!
Thanks for the giveaway!
mestith at gmail dot com
Meghan, 5 am makes it a truly awful job.
My first job was shockingly nice, it was at an art gallery cafe. But since then I’ve worked in a costume store, jewelry store, and now I work at a post office. So I’ve definitely had a few random jobs.
And the most random jobs can sometimes give you the best experience. Thanks, Veronica!
I wouldn’t really say I have ever had a horrible job.
My worst job experience was probably the summer after I graduated High School. I worked at a theme park/water park that had just reopened after being closed for several years.
I worked for the “food services” department so they would put me in several of the park’s various eating establishments.
On this particular night they sent me to work at the far end of the park (where very few things are except the large roller coaster) at the Dippin Dots stand. Which was mostly a little metal building. Well you had to wait at night for the manager to come by so that they could print the register tape to zero your cash drawer. The park closed at 9, so I did all the end of evening things and sat on top of the freezer to wait for management. And wait. And wait. At 10 oclock I finally let myself out of the building and started making the walk to the money office where we turned in our money etc.
The managers had forgotten I was out there and had left for the day. Was very very annoying because money services didn’t want to let me leave until they could zero my drawer but all the food service managers with register keys were gone.
I’d have been freaked out! You sound like you handled it just fine, making it a growth experience. (I usually hate those.)
Mine was working for a fast food chain in high school. ugh.
Thanks for the chance to win!
Froggy
[email protected]
They say it’s a great introduction to the work world… but I’m glad I never did it.
With a shiny new diploma in Zoology I got a job at a wild animal reserve. Our main focus was breeding rhinos through artificial insemination; the rhinos are at risk for extinction. My job was to get the “sperm donations” from the male rhinos…. yep a bucket and electric cattle prod were the tools for my job and man if I missed the prostate that was one HUGE UNHAPPY Rhino!
I learned about unconditional love, doing that job for the species to survive had to be unconditional love! Thank goodness I didn’t have to get “samples” from African elephants or orangutans!
Happy Hearts Day!
EEEUUUWWW! I’ve seen horses, bulls and dogs collected but not rhinos. On behalf of The World, thank you for helping keep the species going.
It wasn’t my worst job but, first day on the job at a Frozen Yogurt Ice Cream shop. Learning how to add ice-cream w/mixings to machine sounded easy enough until machine EXPLODED Frozen yogurt all over me –totally drenched–and the smell :P I was then known as the Exploder!
LOL! Awesome, Lisa! Some of the best stories start out as Most Embarrassing Moments.
my first job as a “money runner’ at the horse races was fabulous. later jobs, not so much. one job was as a sales person at a toy convention. there was a little song about “the heart family wants you to know, what’s new for the twins and you.” and i had another group of even lamer dolls to hock. mostly the sales reps would be trying to shut me up as they rushed thru my booth to get to the better dolls further along. but i got paid so all was good…
Runner at the races sounds like great fun! Money, horses, what’s not to like?
My first job was at McDonalds when I was 16 and it was awful. For one, the smell of grease, and two, people are so mean. I then worked at Dunkin’ Donuts which wasn’t much better, but it didn’t smell as bad and free coffee!!! I went on to a grocery store cashier from there and realized I just am not a people person. At least not at 16 years old. I am much more tolerant now haha!!
16 is so young to be thrown into the workplace. You can tell the ones who are miserable – I feel so sorry for them and try to cut them some slack.
Okay it wasn’t my first job… my first job was lovely and I only quit it to raise my kids. But I received a job offer (my second job) when I was only 19 to assistant manage a now bankrupt booktore that I was a daily customer in. Alas, it conflicted with my schedule for church (I was still living with my mum at that point and church attendance was the stipulation for our arrangement) so I couldn’t take it. I was bummed but it was the holiday season so the manager offered me a part-time job on my days off from my regular job. My regular job scheduled me heavily as it was and I worked tons of OT there and I was in over my head and wound up getting fired for not showing up because I didn’t realize I was scheduled at both jobs at the same time. :(
I still sometimes see the manager who fired me—she’s now a peon at B&N—and cringe in shame every time. She’s always sociable but I can still hear her voice as she told me to come sign my resignation paperwork the next day. I didn’t even get a second chance. Ugh, just thinking about it’s making me want to crawl under a rock. lol
Ugh. Those aren’t fun memories. Especially since it was a bookstore – a place you once loved! I’ve often thought about that. Like working in a garden store, for instance. Would it destroy my love of gardening? Sometimes the things we enjoy are special simply because we’re NOT there every day.
At least you don’t have to look at her when you buy digital books!
Well, my first job was at a hotel. I was the pool attendant and I hated it. Imagine every weekend having to deal with screaming children and teenage guys that either hit on you, or just don’t listen to a single rule. Getting splashed throughout the night and consistently yelling “No running” to deaf ears. It was by far the worst job ever. The only perk was that I got to swim whenever I wanted. Well guess what? I hate swimming, so not that great of a perk. It was not a fun job at all.
LOL, Annah! If you didn’t hate swimming before, you certainly would after a job like that!
My first job was as a telemarketer… probably couldn’t get much worse than that in my small town.
Ack. I often think about that, Yadira, when I’m annoyed by phone calls right at supper time. Yes I HATE those calls… but the callers aren’t any happier about it than I am.
One of my favorite jobs was working at Applebee’s. I didn’t mind the work but my favorite things was the people I worked with! I think the relationship you have in your job help make it easier to work!
You’re so right, Sharon. Such a huge part of our waking hours is spent at our jobs, it only works if we enjoy the company.
My first job was in a grocery store and one night a lady came in and was doing the self check out machine. She was a bit trashed and ended up peeing on the floor right in front of the self check out machine. Poor janitor had to be called to clean up that mess. Same story, different nights throughout the time I worked at that job.
Seriously?! That’s crazy.
Celia, Shannon, Eva and Nicole: don’t worry, I’ve entered you in the draw, just as you would be if you’d gone through Rafflecopter.
Dang these new fangled intraweb contest thingies… tripped up again. But it’s all good now.
The summer holidays just after I turned 14 years old, working at the Kraft Mayonnaise factory down on Grandview Highway in Vancouver BC, for 75 cents/hour. I can’t remember how I got the job – probably through someone mom knew. Sitting on a stool watching glass jars, four in a row, on a moving belt filled with those glass jars, get filled up just right with fresh mayonnaise. Boring, hard work, and I managed to clean up the few times a jar tipped over and broke, spilling mayonnaise everywhere. After a coffee break, I got to change jobs and go to the end of the moving belt and pack those filled jars into boxes, OR, go to the beginning and unload empty clean jars out of boxes onto the belt. Sigh. More money than babysitting however – that was only 25 cents/hour (35 after midnight). First job – definitely one to keep me in school!! :)
And isn’t that the beauty of those first horrid jobs! I’m imagining the smell of spilled mayo on a hot summer day – gak.
My worst job was working at straight out of college working at the copy shop. It was hot, exausting, paid poorly and my boss was terrible but it was all I could find. I heard that not much longer after I quit they finally fired him
That does sound wretched. It’s sweet when bad bosses get their just desserts, isn’t it?
I must be really lucky because I’ve never had a really bad job. My first job wasn’t until college when I was a lab assistant back when I was majoring in science. I quickly changed my major after a few months at that job and realizing I did not want to work in a lab for the rest of my life …and now I’m a lawyer!
You see, there you go. It’s all about finding out what suits you, and you did it early on. Good for you!
My first job was really nervewracking because it was also an internship. I was lucky enough to get paid and earn college credits at the same time but it was crazy. I was an intern at a pharmaceutical company. You have to get through a fence to get into the parking lot and since I didn’t drive back then, I had to remember to call security every day to tell them that a ride was coming in a half hour to pick me up and to let them through.
I hope it was worth it, Nicole! It’s amazing, isn’t it, to look back at stuff we did? Sometimes a little frightening…