collecting eggs on a battery farm was grim, piecing small offcuts of chamois together [homework] was boring, silver service at may balls is knackering if you`re on shift till breakfast.
Clay bagging. Putting clay in bags. Big heavy blocks of the stuff. Putting a heavy block of clay in a bag. Then putting another in. All day. All week. Clay bagging.
Door-to-door sales for double glazing in the middle of winter, at a seaside town. It was bitter, bitter weather, commission-only pay, and the company put us up for a week at a 'hotel' there. They provided bed and breakfast, but most of us were completely skint and couldn't buy lunch or an evening meal.
So, door-to-door sales every evening after 6pm, in snowstorms and/or hail, biting winds, after eating a bowl of cornflakes at 8am. During the day we were talked at by the management about selling techniques etc before going out to the estates to sell.
Awful job. I packed it in as soon as we got back to our home town.
We weren't even warned beforehand - we were told we wouldn't need money because we'd be earning loads. On the Monday that they took us there, however, the management changed the rules to week-in-hand pay rather than daily.
Working in a factory - was pretty physically intensive and mind-numbingly boring.
I also worked in a data-centre as something akin to a 'porter' slash 'cleaner' which was odd because neither thing was actually in my job description. The saving grace was it paid £18k a year, because it was the sort of shit-work that would have paid minimum wage elsewhere. I was in the big skips out back just sorting out rubbish half the time. Wouldn't have done it for any less money.
Roofing over one of the coldest winters I can remember. Up and down ladders whilst it was blowing a blizzard. Pulling materials up to the roof via a manual pulley. I have never been so cold in my life.
Also included clearing the old rubble into skips. Pushing a full wheel barrow up a single plank of wood to tip it into a skip was a job that needed practise. I still have the scars on my shins to tell me how many times the wheel barrow went over the side (taking me with it)
Health & Safety was in non-existent back then - but the money was fantastic.
I have had more boring jobs, but none that I recall ever being so cold for so long.
Working in a Builders merchant stacking Paving slabs by hand. 3x2 compressed concrete weren't too bad as you were allowed to walk them but 2x2 had to be carried. The yard had high walls and was a sun trap without a breeze.
To see in a lorry backing into the yard with 600 2x2 compressed concrete flags that you know are going to have to be hand balled off brought a feeling of dread.
You would start off at the back of the trailer at just over waist height but by the time you got to the back of the cab they were coming off at shoulder height. Sweat running down your face and caked with the inevitable dust, Your head would be banging with the heat and you desperately wanted to take your shirt off but you couldn't or your skin would be ripped to shreds. All for a wage of £17 a week. I was a teenager and stuck it for 6 weeks but there was an older lad who stunned me one day by telling me he had been there for 5 yrs.
It wouldn't be allowed now and the flags are all on pallets for fork lift removal or brought off with a grabber thank god. One thing though, it gave me the kick up the arse I needed to improve myself and set me on the road to where I am now.
Working in a biscuit factory, on the packing line, evenings and weekends whilst at uni. Noisy, impossible to make conversation, and mind-numbingly dull, and surprisingly tiring too. I absolutely loathed it and it inspired me to study hard and get a decent degree. And on the plus side, I absolutely hate biscuits now, in any shape or form. Just the smell of a digestive makes me feel ill.
Working in a call centre. It was soul-destroying but I managed 9 months without killing anyone. It was awful. It led on to the job I do now so it was a good experience that way.
I did nearly a year in a call centre - a hideous but character-building experience. My first job was as a bank clerk - really soul-destroying, but I managed to stick it for 18 months.
Worked as an operative in a Fleet Street newsprint recycling yard on Deptford Docks when I was a student in the 70's. Huge end rolls of newsprint were manually hauled onto giant paper cutters which were then sliced to the middle tube by a large blade coming down onto it. Safety barriers? Ha!
Four foot square bales of mashed pulp then had to be manually removed from a belt after processing and then 'hand banded' with wire and a pair of industrial pliars - God help you if the wire came undone and sprang back on you. A 2 minute lesson on how to drive a fork lift and then stacking these bales 3 high without securing them. A favourite 'prank' was to stand a newcomer by these stacks and others then push a bale down onto them.
Working with some of the roughest, hardest men I have ever met. A vocabulary where every word was qualified with words beginning with f and c. I thought I could swear, but blimey!
I once worked in a factory stacking magazines for distribution to shops: they had to be piled up, then carried over to a machine to be bound in plastic (and these were heavy, thick, glossy magazines in piles of 20!) Physically exhausting, mind-numbing, soul destroying. There were a lot of Eastern European people there working around the clock for minimum wage and zero benefits. I knew some who'd been nurses, dentists, teachers, etc in their home countries but were stuck here because they couldn't get jobs anywhere else ...
Cold calling people at home telling them they had been awarded a holiday and all they had to do was come along to a presentation where they could see the accommodation on offer and pay the small admin fee
I lasted about 2 weeks before I figured out the true nature and my conscience got the better of me.
Glass collector in a nightclub. It wasn't the worst. Just tedious as there were quite a few drunk people who had jelly puddings for minds, rubbish bins for mouths and tentacles for hands.
"Hey, girl! Come 'orward, come 'orward. Here, look! I have money if you come closer! *drunken giggle* Lemme feel your bottom! No, your chichi! I like chichi! Yeah, I give you 'oney if you let me feel 'em! *hands reaching out* Gimme gimme. Come on! Come 'loser, girl! Gimme! *falls off bar stool*"
my father used to pluck turkeys at christmas too. we used to get a foot to play with
So did I. Pull a ligament make a chicken's claws clutch involuntarily. It was fun chasing childhood friends around my garden with it. Crass, I know, but we were kids.
Glass collector in a nightclub. It wasn't the worst. Just tedious as there were quite a few drunk people who had jelly puddings for minds, rubbish bins for mouths and tentacles for hands.
"Hey, girl! Come 'orward, come 'orward. Here, look! I have money if you come closer! *drunken giggle* Lemme feel your bottom! No, your chichi! I like chichi! Yeah, I give you 'oney if you let me feel 'em! *hands reaching out* Gimme gimme. Come on! Come 'loser, girl! Gimme! *falls off bar stool*" .
I worked as a 'potman' in a holiday camp in the mid 70's. I can honestly say it was the most tiring job I have ever had in my life, and I was a nurse for 20 odd years after that.
We worked from 0800 - 1500 and then 1800 - 0200 for 6 days a week. After a month I had my 18th and on that day [after much pleading] was promoted to barman. It was still hard work, but not having to deal with the plebs on their own territory was far better. There is a bar between you and you have something they want, so they are far more civil, besides, as our then bar manager told us 'If fings get tasty, bottle out of the skip, smash on the bar and glass 'em'. before they get to you'.
I do miss the 70's
No one bangs the potman either. The barman has an allure - God knows why, or it might be the free pass we could give someone to the nightclub on camp.
Comments
Your right I havent got a job but recently I have heard stories from people who have had to work in terrible jobs
So, door-to-door sales every evening after 6pm, in snowstorms and/or hail, biting winds, after eating a bowl of cornflakes at 8am. During the day we were talked at by the management about selling techniques etc before going out to the estates to sell.
Awful job. I packed it in as soon as we got back to our home town.
We weren't even warned beforehand - we were told we wouldn't need money because we'd be earning loads. On the Monday that they took us there, however, the management changed the rules to week-in-hand pay rather than daily.
I also worked in a data-centre as something akin to a 'porter' slash 'cleaner' which was odd because neither thing was actually in my job description. The saving grace was it paid £18k a year, because it was the sort of shit-work that would have paid minimum wage elsewhere. I was in the big skips out back just sorting out rubbish half the time. Wouldn't have done it for any less money.
Also included clearing the old rubble into skips. Pushing a full wheel barrow up a single plank of wood to tip it into a skip was a job that needed practise. I still have the scars on my shins to tell me how many times the wheel barrow went over the side (taking me with it)
Health & Safety was in non-existent back then - but the money was fantastic.
I have had more boring jobs, but none that I recall ever being so cold for so long.
To see in a lorry backing into the yard with 600 2x2 compressed concrete flags that you know are going to have to be hand balled off brought a feeling of dread.
You would start off at the back of the trailer at just over waist height but by the time you got to the back of the cab they were coming off at shoulder height. Sweat running down your face and caked with the inevitable dust, Your head would be banging with the heat and you desperately wanted to take your shirt off but you couldn't or your skin would be ripped to shreds. All for a wage of £17 a week. I was a teenager and stuck it for 6 weeks but there was an older lad who stunned me one day by telling me he had been there for 5 yrs.
It wouldn't be allowed now and the flags are all on pallets for fork lift removal or brought off with a grabber thank god. One thing though, it gave me the kick up the arse I needed to improve myself and set me on the road to where I am now.
http://www.featherman.net/pluckers.html
Four foot square bales of mashed pulp then had to be manually removed from a belt after processing and then 'hand banded' with wire and a pair of industrial pliars - God help you if the wire came undone and sprang back on you. A 2 minute lesson on how to drive a fork lift and then stacking these bales 3 high without securing them. A favourite 'prank' was to stand a newcomer by these stacks and others then push a bale down onto them.
Working with some of the roughest, hardest men I have ever met. A vocabulary where every word was qualified with words beginning with f and c. I thought I could swear, but blimey!
'Cash in 'and mate, no questions'.
ok this was fourty years ago!!
my father used to pluck turkeys at christmas too. we used to get a foot to play with
My first job was to put the lids on the tin ... For 8-9 hours a a day ... Tin.. Lid .. Tin lid ... Tin lid .... God it was dull
I lasted about 2 weeks before I figured out the true nature and my conscience got the better of me.
"Hey, girl! Come 'orward, come 'orward. Here, look! I have money if you come closer! *drunken giggle* Lemme feel your bottom! No, your chichi! I like chichi! Yeah, I give you 'oney if you let me feel 'em! *hands reaching out* Gimme gimme. Come on! Come 'loser, girl! Gimme! *falls off bar stool*"
So did I. Pull a ligament make a chicken's claws clutch involuntarily. It was fun chasing childhood friends around my garden with it. Crass, I know, but we were kids.
I worked as a 'potman' in a holiday camp in the mid 70's. I can honestly say it was the most tiring job I have ever had in my life, and I was a nurse for 20 odd years after that.
We worked from 0800 - 1500 and then 1800 - 0200 for 6 days a week. After a month I had my 18th and on that day [after much pleading] was promoted to barman. It was still hard work, but not having to deal with the plebs on their own territory was far better. There is a bar between you and you have something they want, so they are far more civil, besides, as our then bar manager told us 'If fings get tasty, bottle out of the skip, smash on the bar and glass 'em'. before they get to you'.
I do miss the 70's
No one bangs the potman either. The barman has an allure - God knows why, or it might be the free pass we could give someone to the nightclub on camp.
Happy, happy days for an 18 year old in the 70's.