Author Topic: My first job  (Read 5127 times)

biglouis

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My first job
« on: Sep 27, 2019, 04:57:30 PM »
When I was 14 I had nothing to wear but school uniform. I whinged to my parents that I was having to refuse invitations. My father said "We buy you the clothes you need for school. If you want fancy clothes get up off your backside and get yourself a saturday job like your mates."

That saturday I went into the local shopping center but by then all the little jobs in shops had gone. I was thinking I would have to go into Liverpool and try the big stores. As I was passing the chip shop I remembered the owner's daughter (who was friends with my sister) saying her father was looking for someone to work in the shop for a few hours.

The shop owner (He was Greek) told me to come around the next day and he told me what to do. He also said "When there are no customers you have to keep busy. Brush the floor, clean the range or tidy up." He said he would give me a weeks trial for 8 hours (2 hours a night) and would pay me three shillings an hour.

Have you ever seen one of those talent shows when someone good comes on. You can see the dollar signs in Simon Cowell's eyes! Well my friends at school who had jobs in the likes of Woolworths, Littlewoods or Debenhams earned  12/13 shillings for a days work. And the chip shop man was proposing to pay me twice as much for 8 hours. Also the shop was 5 minutes walk from my house so I didnt have to make a long bus journed into Liverpool. My eyes must have been like saucers.

At the end of the first week he asked me "how much do I owe you?" I said "Well we agreed on 3 shillings an hour and Ive done 8 hours work so thats 24 shillings." Really expecting something to go wrong. He took the money out of the cash drawer - a pound note and 4 shillings - and gave it to me. "Take some fish and chips and whatever you want when you leave. You dont have to ask!" So we had a fish and chip supper every night as well.

When I told my friends about my job they were a bit sniffy about my working in a horrible greasy chip shop. Then they found out how much I earned. Within 3 months I had the best wardrobe in the class, plus a nice new record player and a record collection.

It taught me a lot about how to sell stuff to people. If they ordered a fish I would always ask "chips as well? how about a drink?" Nowadays they call it upselling. It also taught me how to manage the slightly merry customers who came in from the pub and wanted a fish supper to take home.

I continued to work there at weekends even when I got my first job in the civil service. It was good money and of course no tax or NI.
Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools.

Diasi

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Re: My first job
« Reply #1 on: Sep 27, 2019, 05:41:56 PM »
My first job was in the Civil Service.

My first proper job was when I baled at 50 & started doing electrics, which I loved.
Make every day count, each day is precious.
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firenze

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Re: My first job
« Reply #2 on: Sep 27, 2019, 05:51:03 PM »
Oh the memories!  I told an age porky and got a job on the tote at the Greyhound Stadium.  Loved it! The punters were so funny, if they won it was me who became the purveyor of luck. My parents thought my shorthand typing lessons were rather late...well it was a "night class" was t it?










Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Mark Twain.

GrannyMac

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Re: My first job
« Reply #3 on: Sep 27, 2019, 07:15:12 PM »
I had a Saturday job at 15 in a rather grubby grocery shop.  The cheese was processed stuff, I know my mother wouldn't have shopped there, but it was 15/- for the day which was ok in 1961.  I'd picked rasps in the school holidays before that.

My first full time job was as a clerk in the corporation rates office.  I remember being quite shocked when a colleague had to leave because she was getting married!  I also remember what it was like as a young, miniskirted, long legged, fairly innocent girl walking through an office full of blokes to get to the room where the women worked!   Once I got over the initial embarrassment we had a laugh.
Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.

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zoony

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Re: My first job
« Reply #4 on: Sep 27, 2019, 08:15:13 PM »
  I had a similar feeling when I started nursing Mac. For the first year I was one of two male student nurses in a large teaching hospital. I found the teasing of the staff nurses and Sisters quite enjoyable for the most part as it was never spiteful or mean.
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

"Never use money to measure wealth, son"

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Yellowbird

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Re: My first job
« Reply #5 on: Sep 28, 2019, 05:20:41 PM »
I was 15 and started nursing we were known as The Yellow coats, we wore yellow coats! It was far too young and I finally left and became a Dental nurse. I wish I had started later I think I would have stayed and become a Nurse. Ah well I enjoyed the dental nurse work and stayed till I married and moved away. Still regret it a bit, but my family all had well tended teeth.
Born sceptic grown even more sceptic sadly

GrannyMac

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Re: My first job
« Reply #6 on: Sep 28, 2019, 05:47:25 PM »
I was 15 and started nursing we were known as The Yellow coats, we wore yellow coats! It was far too young and I finally left and became a Dental nurse. I wish I had started later I think I would have stayed and become a Nurse. Ah well I enjoyed the dental nurse work and stayed till I married and moved away. Still regret it a bit, but my family all had well tended teeth.


My daughter did a nursery nurse course when she left school.  She then nannied for a few years, I think she was about 22 when she started her nursing training.  Those few years, working abroad and in London were invaluable.
Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.

R. Gervais

biglouis

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Re: My first job
« Reply #7 on: Sep 29, 2019, 01:11:46 AM »
At 75 I am still selling stuff to people but nowadays its on the internet.

My grandmother used to say I was "vaccinated with a gramophone needle". Only folks of our generation understand what a gramophone needle was!
Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools.

zoony

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Re: My first job
« Reply #8 on: Sep 29, 2019, 01:15:36 AM »
..And only folk of our age understand what she meant.. ;)
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

"Never use money to measure wealth, son"

                                           cowboy wisdom.

Scrumpy

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Re: My first job
« Reply #9 on: Sep 29, 2019, 10:46:01 AM »



The pickle factory... Many miles away... Remember having to walk when the buses were on strike.. 
Everything will be alright in the end, and if it’s not alright, its not the end.

prestbury

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Re: My first job
« Reply #10 on: Oct 01, 2019, 12:27:02 AM »


The pickle factory... Many miles away... Remember having to walk when the buses were on strike..

Would that be Pledges Pickle Factory ;D

StephenM123

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Re: My first job
« Reply #11 on: Nov 10, 2019, 10:54:54 AM »
My first job was doing somebody's garden on Saturday mornings. The man of the house had an interesting magazine collection hidden in the garden shed; 😁

GrumpyOldFart

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Re: My first job
« Reply #12 on: Nov 10, 2019, 05:38:11 PM »
One of my friends (no longer with us) left school to work in the Walls sausage factory. After a few weeks we met up and I asked him how the job was going. He said his job was to carry a load of meat up a ladder and chuck it into a huge mincer. The mincing room floor was covered in sawdust and at the end of his shift he had to sweep it up and put it into the mincer!

minniemouse

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Re: My first job
« Reply #13 on: Nov 10, 2019, 06:36:44 PM »
My first job was as a Junior in a Solicitors Office.  In those days you weren't allowed to address any of your colleagues by their Christian name and ladies were not allowed to wear trousers! 
Smoking kills you, bacon kills you, smoking bacon cures it.

Ode Iron

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Re: My first job
« Reply #14 on: Nov 10, 2019, 08:37:36 PM »
First job was loading wagons with packing cases and pallets etc...taught me how to load trailers and distribute weight properly..old shunter showed me how to rope and sheet..that was not easy!
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