Yes I have cleaned toilets

[ahnuld]

Lets use this opportunity to start a thread on all the menial jobs we've had before we (hopefully) moved on to bigger and brighter things.

There is a good amount you can learn from having these types of jobs. You learn how to interact with the customers and deal with their illogical and selfish requests. You learn how to cope with unbelivably dumb and lazy co-workers. You learn not to take your common sense for granted.

I worked at a TCBY for 13 months starting when I was 18. It wasnt so bad at all, except for the boss/owner. He would only be there during the day, so I would schedual my shifts for night to enjoy the more relaxed atmosphere. However, about a month into the job, he installed security cameras so he could basically spy on us 24/7. If something weird was going on, he would call 90% of the time to ask us what was going on, which confirmed that he was pretty much always watching the live feed from his computer at home.

I did have to do alot of bitch work when I first started, such as cleaning the bathrooms (womens always worse than mens in my experience) and poruing small cups to be sold at school which entailed sitting in a basement alone pouring cups for a few hours straight. Not exactly fun. I much prefered serving customers. That was actually part of the fun of the job, as you could sort of [censored] around with some of them and they were too dumb to catch on. Also flirting with the girls who were my age was good times as well. You got to know all the regulars and their exact order, and they get to know you. Some actually cared and kept up to date on my schooling and such.

Overall, it wasnt a bad deal. The pay sucked and I moved on to poker/school full time, but I did learn alot about interacting with people/ different types of people



Discussion: Describe some awful jobs you had, and for humour's sake, the funniest things said by customers/bosses.

Mine was definitely some dumb girl who was flirting with me. She asked me how we made the sprinkles. I told her we have one giant sprinkle in the back that we chop up into little pieces. She looked all excited and asked "really!? Can I see it?!"

[jzpiano]

I worked at a Graham Cracker Comic's when I was 13. I was hired basically to clean toilets and rack comics. I made a whopping $5 an hour in store credit. I used it to buy Magic Cards, how cool was I? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[imitation]

3yrs at MacDonalds, I was too bad an employee to ever move up to any other position. I worked in the front which is usually just girls for some reason I was allowed to, so I never learnt to cook the food or anything. By the end when I was 17 I had 16yr olds telling me what to do so I had to get out. It wasn't that bad but they never ordered me new pants and obviously I grew in those 3years, at the end the pants I wore were like a glove. But for some reason I had a shirt designed for someone who was 9ft tall and weighed over 400lbs.

I also worked in a factory for first 3yrs of University but that was actually the best job I had ridiculously good pay and the work was relatively easy.

[econophile]

[ QUOTE ]
I made a whopping $5 an hour in store credit. I used it to buy Magic Cards, how cool was I? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds illegal. Did you have the option of being paid in cash?

[thirddan]

15 - McDonalds 3months (my boss did coke out of a plastic bag w/ a straw in the lobby, weird)
16 - worked in fathers factory making spa parts
17 to 19 - worked on and off at babiesRus selling car seats/strollers/play pens etc...
18 to current - play some poker for side income and living expenses during college
22 - internt at a company doing special fx for fantastic four movie
23 to current - insomniac games doing effects animation for ps3 games...

random stuff...can't say any of it was bad though...

[Boris]

I've worked at McDonalds. Stone effing broke. I was 18 at the time. Since I was such a cute boy the manager made me work the cash register. My favorite part was saying hi to all the people I just graduated highschool with. a few months later my friend called me up to go fishing. I was scheduled to work but never made it in that day.

I've worked the graveyard shift at a plywood mill. They glue the plywood together with glue made from chickenshit and who knows what else. My job was to clean the chickenshit glue out from beneath the production line. That was another awesome job.

I've worked as a roofer, dishwasher, temp construction laborer, warehouse worker, firefighter, forester, barback, busboy, paralegal, research assistant, Econ tutor, landscaper, babysitter, snow shoveler, janitor, VC... I think that's about it.

[mjkidd]

I have worked at Subway, Arbys, Perkins, The Outback, and TGI Friday's.

And currently I am in the most menial position of all, graduate student.

[Slow Play Ray]

I spent a whole summer bagging aluminum oxide dust on second shift (4pm - 4am).

[SplawnDarts]

I was lucky - I was good with computers in HS so my first job was like $12 an hour or something doing IT for a little company a friend of my granddad's ran.

Never had a truly [censored] job.

[danzasmack]

In highschool I had 2 jobs - first at Macy*s then as a lifeguard. The lifeguard gig was awesome and probably the best job I ever had. Everybody there loved me and I played Chinese Poker all day long and picked up chicky babes in the brief stints I was "single" while there.

Macy*s was awful. They had people always watching you. At one point I walked up to the counter to ask somebody something (i was new there) and I made a joke. The guy laughed. The phone rang and the guy on the phone said "can you make it at least LOOK like you're doing work?" I probably did more there than 1/2 of the staff combined, which really wasn't a good idea. Because I wasn't a complete idiot they would just stick me all over the place. I did inventory on damaged good, security stuff, women's, men's, kid's sections and even sold the shoes, watches jewelry. Usually you are assigned to a section and such but they just tossed me around.

The worst thing was folding ties. You know how the ties are all arranged in a neat manner on a table? yeah I had to do that. It wasn't a big deal except then tony provologne who hasn't had to wear a shirt in the last 14 years comes and picks up 3 of them which messes up the whole table. Running around folding clothes was awful.

My freshman year of college I worked contstruction for a guy through my stepdad. This was hillarious. It was me and a bunch of russians who spoke like 4 words on english. They sent me out to get their lunch every day, which consisted of bogus chinese food and various beers. I was 18 at the time and told them I couldn't buy beer (and they couldn't drink on the job!) but they sent me anyway. One of the best conversations I've ever had:

Me: "Ok so you want chicken wings?"
Russian #1: "No, get me the chicken."
Me: "What chicken?"
Russian #1: "Yes."
Me: "What do you want?"
Russian #2: "Nothing I am on diet."
Me: "Oh, so you don't want lunch?"
Russian #2: "No lunch, just 2 beer. Good beer."
Me: "No lunch, two beer."

They used to make me drink with them just so we'd all get fired if we got caught.

The guy who ran the crew was awful and they went bankrupt.