First job stories
- Thread starter Doclector
- Start date
All the good stuff at that job happened on the first day, I use it now and again as an examole of how bad first days aren't the end of the world. The rest of my year there was quite ordinary but I do miss it now and then, even though it was corrupt as hell.geK0 said:
My first day at my current job (I work as a biochemist and microbiologist) was mainly reading standard operating procedures, getting a tour around the lab, and getting started processing samples. The first few weeks were fairly tough, getting to grips with the layout of the lab and trying to work out where everything was kept, as it is different from university laboratories in that there is no lab assistants to set all the equipment out for you. A couple of years down the line I know the job like the back of my hand. My advice is to be patient and don't be afraid to ask your colleagues for help should you need it, most of them will be happy to help you as they don't want anything to happen anymore than you do.
First job I ever had (not counting wandering the neighborhood as a kid with a lawn mower offering to mow people's lawns for $20) would be at Price Chopper (a grocery store) when I was 14 and needed a summer job. Given that I was only 14, pretty much the only position I could apply for was called a "utility". Well what's another word for a "utility"? A tool. And that's what I felt like: an absolute tool. Basically what this meant was that all the other Utilities and I had the crap jobs around the store. Clean-up on aisle 3, fetching the grocery karts from the parking lot (in 90 degrees F and above), bagging the groceries, and everyone's favorite: "facing" the aisles (walking down every single aisle and making sure all the products were pulled to the front of each shelf with their logos facing outward...not a difficult task, just tedious). But again, I was only 14 and after searching for some jobs, this was the only one I could find so and it was only for 3 months until high school started up again so I tried to grind through it.
I didn't quite make it the entire summer before quitting.
As for stories from said job, I did have a few interesting ones to share before the story of when I finally quit. One Saturday night it was getting close to closing time (11:00 pm) and I was bagging groceries. This smoking hot red-head comes through my aisle. I'm talking about the kind of young lady that makes a 14 year old go "God DAMN!" while his pants get a little tighter. She only purchased three things: 1 large bottle of vodka, one pack of condoms, and some KY Jelly. Gee, I wonder what she had planned for that evening. :3
Another less lewd story is about how I got a 20 dollar tip while fetching grocery karts from the parking lot. Every now and then you'd be approached by a customer asking for help loading their groceries into their cars and it's no big hassle since most of the time they'd give you a little something as a tip. One day I was waved over by a woman standing next to a very elderly woman. The younger woman asked me if I could watch the old lady's groceries. Apparently the young woman didn't even know the older woman and was just trying to help the senor citizen out...as it seems the little old lady had absolutely no idea where she parked her car. Being a good and helpful lad (and eager for a good excuse to take a bit of a break from pushing karts in the muggy heat of the hot summer's day) I said I'd be happy to. Inside, though, I was rather concerned, thinking "If she can't remember where she parked...lets just hope she can remember where she lives...or how to drive, for that matter." About 20 minutes later (they apparently had to search the entire parking lot) they pull up in the little old lady's car and I load all her groceries into her car. The younger lady who had asked for my help initially thanked me for helping and gave me $20.
A bit of a more humorous story that happened while out fetching karts was that I got to see the most stereotypical car accident you could possibly imagine and I couldn't help but laugh at it. A blonde teenage girl drove past me in the parking lot, prattling away on her cell phone. I didn't pay it much mind as the car passed behind me. Moments later I hear the sound of screeching tires and then the collision of metal against metal. I turn around and see that, sure enough, the blonde teen on her cell phone has just got into a fender-bender accident (so there were no injuries, just vehicle damage) with a little old lady who could barely see above the steering wheel of her car. As I said: it was the most stereotypical car accident one could possibly imagine.
As for the story of "what made you finally quit?" Well the managers were all a bunch of pricks at the store. As an example (and this actually happened on the last day), a customer had asked me where I could find a product and I wasn't certain. So I looked around for one of the managers to ask them, the only one I could find was an over-weight one named Mark who was eating some chicken strips from the in-store deli. Now there's nothing wrong with taking your lunch break in the store, but surely he could spare just a single moment of his break to say "Oh sure, you can find that in aisle (x)." But no. Quite literally snorting (seriously, this guy snorted and grunted like a pig and pretty much everyone at the store made fun of him for it) as I approached him with the customer, I asked where the customer could find the product they were looking for. He looks at me with an expression of complete indignation and responds with "Ugh, I'm eating! Go ask someone else!" Way to keep things professional in front of the customer, Mark.
So there was that and the fact that, in general, I was just having a very bad day. Seems like every cashier that I moved over to bag for was getting the heaviest load. Until finally this overweight guy in his 30's riding on one of the little motorized shopping karts we provide for the disabled (his disability being that he was apparently just to overweight to walk around) pulls into our checking lane. Behind him comes his kids pushing three grocery karts filled to the absolute brim with groceries. Like they thought the zombies were coming and they wanted to make sure they were well stocked for the oncoming apocalypse. The man insists that I do double paper inside of double plastic (opening one big paper bag inside of another and making sure both of those wear inside of a plastic bag within another plastic bag). He also asks that I bag the lightly so they'd be easier to lift. Well this is going to take half an hour, I thought, and sure enough it was on pace to reach that time as about 15 minutes had passed by the time we were half-way through the groceries. At that point I put a single bunch of bananas and a single canteloupe into one of the bags and put it in the kart. Well this simply would not stand. "Hey, HEY! I said to bag them light! That's way too heavy!" I asked if the man was sure, showing that it was indeed just a single bunch of bananas and a single canteloupe in the bag. He reaches for the bag and lifts it with no apparent strain, hefting the weight quite easily but apparently he was determined to be right today. "I can't lift this, take the canteloupe out and put it in it's own bag!" The guy was actually raising his voice at me. I mean-mugged him for a few moments before I finally snapped. "Fuck you, fuck your canteloupe, and fuck this store. I'm out!" It's not entirely that guy's fault and my reaction was, admittedly, pretty uncalled for. But as I said, I had been having a particularly bad day that day and that was really just the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
Didn't even go back to pick up my last check for $50.
Captcha: "Chutzpah"
Damn straight! :3
I didn't quite make it the entire summer before quitting.
As for stories from said job, I did have a few interesting ones to share before the story of when I finally quit. One Saturday night it was getting close to closing time (11:00 pm) and I was bagging groceries. This smoking hot red-head comes through my aisle. I'm talking about the kind of young lady that makes a 14 year old go "God DAMN!" while his pants get a little tighter. She only purchased three things: 1 large bottle of vodka, one pack of condoms, and some KY Jelly. Gee, I wonder what she had planned for that evening. :3
Another less lewd story is about how I got a 20 dollar tip while fetching grocery karts from the parking lot. Every now and then you'd be approached by a customer asking for help loading their groceries into their cars and it's no big hassle since most of the time they'd give you a little something as a tip. One day I was waved over by a woman standing next to a very elderly woman. The younger woman asked me if I could watch the old lady's groceries. Apparently the young woman didn't even know the older woman and was just trying to help the senor citizen out...as it seems the little old lady had absolutely no idea where she parked her car. Being a good and helpful lad (and eager for a good excuse to take a bit of a break from pushing karts in the muggy heat of the hot summer's day) I said I'd be happy to. Inside, though, I was rather concerned, thinking "If she can't remember where she parked...lets just hope she can remember where she lives...or how to drive, for that matter." About 20 minutes later (they apparently had to search the entire parking lot) they pull up in the little old lady's car and I load all her groceries into her car. The younger lady who had asked for my help initially thanked me for helping and gave me $20.
A bit of a more humorous story that happened while out fetching karts was that I got to see the most stereotypical car accident you could possibly imagine and I couldn't help but laugh at it. A blonde teenage girl drove past me in the parking lot, prattling away on her cell phone. I didn't pay it much mind as the car passed behind me. Moments later I hear the sound of screeching tires and then the collision of metal against metal. I turn around and see that, sure enough, the blonde teen on her cell phone has just got into a fender-bender accident (so there were no injuries, just vehicle damage) with a little old lady who could barely see above the steering wheel of her car. As I said: it was the most stereotypical car accident one could possibly imagine.
As for the story of "what made you finally quit?" Well the managers were all a bunch of pricks at the store. As an example (and this actually happened on the last day), a customer had asked me where I could find a product and I wasn't certain. So I looked around for one of the managers to ask them, the only one I could find was an over-weight one named Mark who was eating some chicken strips from the in-store deli. Now there's nothing wrong with taking your lunch break in the store, but surely he could spare just a single moment of his break to say "Oh sure, you can find that in aisle (x)." But no. Quite literally snorting (seriously, this guy snorted and grunted like a pig and pretty much everyone at the store made fun of him for it) as I approached him with the customer, I asked where the customer could find the product they were looking for. He looks at me with an expression of complete indignation and responds with "Ugh, I'm eating! Go ask someone else!" Way to keep things professional in front of the customer, Mark.
So there was that and the fact that, in general, I was just having a very bad day. Seems like every cashier that I moved over to bag for was getting the heaviest load. Until finally this overweight guy in his 30's riding on one of the little motorized shopping karts we provide for the disabled (his disability being that he was apparently just to overweight to walk around) pulls into our checking lane. Behind him comes his kids pushing three grocery karts filled to the absolute brim with groceries. Like they thought the zombies were coming and they wanted to make sure they were well stocked for the oncoming apocalypse. The man insists that I do double paper inside of double plastic (opening one big paper bag inside of another and making sure both of those wear inside of a plastic bag within another plastic bag). He also asks that I bag the lightly so they'd be easier to lift. Well this is going to take half an hour, I thought, and sure enough it was on pace to reach that time as about 15 minutes had passed by the time we were half-way through the groceries. At that point I put a single bunch of bananas and a single canteloupe into one of the bags and put it in the kart. Well this simply would not stand. "Hey, HEY! I said to bag them light! That's way too heavy!" I asked if the man was sure, showing that it was indeed just a single bunch of bananas and a single canteloupe in the bag. He reaches for the bag and lifts it with no apparent strain, hefting the weight quite easily but apparently he was determined to be right today. "I can't lift this, take the canteloupe out and put it in it's own bag!" The guy was actually raising his voice at me. I mean-mugged him for a few moments before I finally snapped. "Fuck you, fuck your canteloupe, and fuck this store. I'm out!" It's not entirely that guy's fault and my reaction was, admittedly, pretty uncalled for. But as I said, I had been having a particularly bad day that day and that was really just the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
Didn't even go back to pick up my last check for $50.
Captcha: "Chutzpah"
Damn straight! :3
Local grocery store.
Was 15, went there to work during the busy summer months.
Not too much was expected of me, but I got good praise and went back the summer after that, they gave me another place to work at which required more to do and more responsibility.
Was 15, went there to work during the busy summer months.
Not too much was expected of me, but I got good praise and went back the summer after that, they gave me another place to work at which required more to do and more responsibility.
My first day at my first job was some point in October of 2006 at a Hibachi restaurant working as a host. I was 18 and it was simple enough just seating people, giving out menus and, turning on the grills. It was a relatively uneventful job really...I only worked weekends and I stayed there much longer than I should have. Granted I think the same is happening now with my working at Target but I don't have a good handle of my skill-set and no idea what I would even want to do with myself honestly...
My first job was shelving books at the local library. I had volunteered there all through high school, so there really wasn't a learning curve. I enjoyed it, my bosses were cool, and I made some really good friends there.
On the "cool bosses" part: One summer, I wanted to shave my hair into a mohawk. I asked my boss if it would be okay, and he said "yes". After that, he dubbed me "shark boy" and decided that I needed to keep my hair in a mohawk. It was a summer job, but I returned from school the next summer and reapplied. The manager said yes, but as long as I had a mohawk.
It was a fun place to work.
On the "cool bosses" part: One summer, I wanted to shave my hair into a mohawk. I asked my boss if it would be okay, and he said "yes". After that, he dubbed me "shark boy" and decided that I needed to keep my hair in a mohawk. It was a summer job, but I returned from school the next summer and reapplied. The manager said yes, but as long as I had a mohawk.
It was a fun place to work.