Remember that summer job??

atomom
Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:35:52 +0000

Started babysitting for 50cents an hour when I was 11. By middle school/highschool I made 75 cents and the nice people paid $1/hr. My brothers had paper routes and sometimes they’d give me a doughnut or some candy for helping.
First job at 16 was in a restaurant kitchen. After a few weeks, I naively told the manager not to bother training me on carryout–because I’d just applied for another job and probably wouldn’t be there much longer. He swore at me and made me punch out immediately. I cried–I couldn’t believe I got FIRED from my first job. I got a check for 11 cents–which I still have. (I think the pay was about 2.65/hr)
Good thing I got the other job–as a switchboard operator/receptionist at a car dealer. Clean and climate controlled–but the sleazy salesmen harassed me. I also worked as a secretary for a company that sold industrial parts. (I went to high school part time/worked 42 hrs/wk my senior year).
In college I worked in the dining hall–mostly checking IDs, serving food, and washing dishes. My college sold the slop from the disposals to hog farms so we had to be careful not to put any non-food items down the disposal. Summers I worked at an amusement park–one year on rides and two years sweeping up trash(mostly cigarette butts and sometimes vomit. . .)for 2.90-3.15/hr. I enjoyed sweeping more than any job, but it was hard on my hands and wrists. Hours were long–up to 80 a week. At the beginning of the season they were short staffed. We worked 40 days straight, 10-13 hours shifts, without a single day off. It seemed like a prison camp. I’d fall into bed exhausted at night and be sorry to wake up and do it again the next morning. If it was cold, every morning before the park opened, we had to ride the roller coasters for 1/2hr or so to warm up the tracks. (We did get paid to do this.) The dorms were gross with no heat or air conditioning. In spite of all that, I have very fond memories of that job and still keep in touch with a few co-workers. I never again experienced that kind of camaraderie at any job. I worked some temp. jobs the summer after college. I actually got a raise (from $3something to $5.00/hr) because I knew shorthand! Mostly I worked for a construction company in an unfinished office building. It was creepy and dangerous and I was the only female there. I had to take the bus downtown and walk several blocks to the building–got harassed every day by construction workers. Ugh. Definitely not a job I’d want my D to have