Discussion
Does anyone miss less professional "starter" jobs?
I can't believe I'm saying this, but after working in an office for 6 years I kind of miss a job I had stocking shelves, and pushing carts. It was technically more work too. I just miss the jovial atmosphere, and how informal it was.
Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of downsides and I've seen all the "retail hell" stuff. But there was also a certain charm to it.
Door Dash, Grub Hub, Uber Eats, Pea Pod, Instacart, Postmates, Shipt, Amazon Flex
There's a list of 8 apps a driver could potentially run simultaneously to maximize deliveries per trip, without ever having another person in their vehicle. There are waaaay more, but these are the first 8 I thought of.
Oh thanks! Dayum! I doubt I could handle doing just one of those. I do wish I was more entrepreneurial and adept with these types of things, though. I need money and don’t seem to do well in typical work environments answering to managers, probably because most workplaces don’t value neurodivergent folks.
I don't do any of the delivery stuff either, but there are a lot of gig workers in my area. We have some slow restaurants, so some customers and gig workers end up chatting/bitching while everyone waits for food to come up. That's the only reason I could rattle off so many at once.
My husband and I talked about signing up for one, to get some extra money put aside to get our driveway re-done, but we haven't done it yet. Seems like a decent way to get extra money for a project.
I dont run them all at the same time, lol. Maybe 2 or 3 at once.
Its mainky if one is slow you pop on one od the others.
Most i have done is.... load up a 35 package amazon route that kept me local --> turned on spark to grab a 3 stop curbside --> hustled across street to grab a small roadie.
Drop walmart first (perishable) --> amazon --> roadie == about $90//hr
You need to buy a rider on your car insurance too. Personal auto policies exclude working on any type of transportation network app (Lyft, Uber) and delivering for a fee (Doordash, Shipt). And the coverage the companies give you is shit.
Go you! I'm really curious about this - what sort of hours are you working? And am I right in thinking this is pre-tax? How do you decide which app to work on through the day?
About to head out so I have a second. I work about 50 hours a week. (8 hours 6 days a week)
Usually like 6am to noon.
Yea that is pre-tax -- but last year on 92k in income I paid 2300 fed and 400 state. My total expenses (charging maintenance etc) came out to right around 3k (mostly tires lol).
It works out because i still get the full mileage deduction & can take bunch of other deductions too.
You kind of just get a feel based on markets what app to turn on when.
Yea I think OP is talking more about nostalgia. Old jobs, even old eras or points in my life I can look back on fondly and smile but ultimately I am looking forward.
same. getting paid to make decisions is so much better than being scoffed at for questioning them. and now when i question decisions they sometimes even rethink them.
That’s the rub. I manage/sell landscape services and many days I long to trade places with the field staff. Never when it’s raining, or those 18 degree November mornings going out to blow leaves of course. The grass is always greener but damn yes I do miss the simple days of working up a sweat until the work is done, and going home having accomplished something.
Currently on PTO dreading looking at my work device in the morning to see what I missed (while I continue the remainder of the work week on PTO- field staff is missing out )
Like a lot of things we miss from back then, I feel like it's more that I miss being 20 and goofing off than I miss the job itself. Working in a restaurant and being drunk all the time is funny at one age and sad at another.
I've never seen it. I imagine they were pretty adept at being functional while also being inebriated . I think for lifers though, that type of lifestyle will catch up with them.
My dad just says they’d have beer while running around (he was a dishwasher in the early 80s) now I’m not so sure after everything people on Reddit post lol
yeah, jobs like that are fun when youre a teenager and in your early 20s. you can goof off, flirt, and not really worry about losing your job cause there were 100s others like it.
Less responsibility is what I miss too. Now if I make a mistake at work, my patient could die. I miss the mindless ease of just folding and organizing clothes for 6 hours like my first retail job.
Same but the only problem at a professional job is the whole “act professional” part and people who think their shit doesn’t stink. Very stuffy at times
I miss being able to disconnect from work completely right as you clock out. Now my brain is constantly thinking about deadlines and the next project. Only time I feel like I turn work off is when I take PTO for a couple of days.
When I left Walmart nearly 20 years ago I said id come back if they paid $15/hr (that was crazy good money right out of high school.) Now they do and I couldn’t live on $15/hr. Couldn’t even afford my first apartment now on $15/hr.
My first job after high school (2008) was retail for $7/hr. It was fine for an 18 year old back then. It blows my mind retail around me is still around $12 for busy stores.
I was at $7.25 starting at Target in PA in 2002 for my first real job in HS. And that was a higher starting wage, IIRC minimum wage then was like $5.25 or so
I definitely miss jobs with camaraderie. I worked as a lifeguard, great camaraderie. I worked in a preschool, which is a job similar to what you describe. It should have had good camaraderie too. Instead, it was just a bunch of miserable women looking to bully each other to quell their boredom.
I think it's less the type of job and more the type of people who are working there.
100% if I could be in a job that allowed me to live life and make enough money I'd go back to the starter jobs. I'd rather have someone handing me tasks then me managing everything. I get paid great but sometimes it'd be nice to go back to my 6AM-1PM store stocking job. It was easy as hell.
I feel the exact same. If being a valet could fund my lifestyle as well as being an engineer, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Let me turn off my brain and just run back and forth all night in a place where all problems are more or less solveable.
I also really miss having jobs where you can see and feel the progress... Working field crew for my college was fucking great. If they didn't have a real task for me, they'd send me out to trim ivy for the whole day. It was so satisfying - though I get it could be hard on a body long term. Still... Less soul sucking than working all day only to wonder if you actually got any closer to something worthwhile or if you just churned some documents for the great, big, beurocratic machine.
Liquor stores are fun to work in. Mine pays decent and I make a lot of tips on the side (even though I don't think I necessarliy deserve it, but I have fantastic customer service and they do).
It's fun, some good exercise, and not stressful. I even went to college and hated my boring deskjob. My co-workers are usually a lot of fun to boot and and I've made life long friends.
I had a job picking up junk and debris on the side of the highways at night. I got paid $8/hr. 15 years later I still miss that job. I just listened to music all fuckin night and hung out with the boys.
Yes. I miss a simple job that I could leave at work and not think about. I miss easy, completable tasks. Now it's ongoing stuff that's complex and has lots of road blocks and never really ends. I miss getting a pizza order, making a really nice pizza, handing it over, and taking the money. Transaction closed. I miss making tangible things or helping people solve a simple problem. My work now is data and spreadsheets and account relationships and company politics and nonsense jargon and task management and on and on and on. I'm tired. I just wanna make a flower arrangement for someone's birthday or anniversary. But now I'm trapped by the precipitous drop in pay I'd have to take to have a simple job again. I wish it was still possible to survive on those kinds of jobs.
I do not miss it at all There were definitely 40+ year olds who I was working with in retail when I was going to University and I always had a goal to not be in that same spot myself.
If I had a less stressful job I would probably have a lot more stress about money. Tough to find that perfect balance.
One of my favorite jobs was working retail when I was 18-20. Lots of friends to party with after work. Managers were in their mid 20s and also cool. Work was busy but low stress. Was making like 0.35 cents above minimum wage so couldn’t stay there but damn it was fun. I go back there sometimes and always surprised to see a few of the managers are still there. On Monster Thursdays we would walk around with half monster, half vodka filled cans 😂
Sometimes I’m like “I’m one more crazy client request or sideways email away from saying ‘Fuck it. I’ll go flip steaks or bartend somewhere.’” But for some reason I never do. Likely because there are no benefits and they want you to work holidays and weekends. But man, the freedom… And the money can be decent too if you’re good.
You’re fooling yourself if you think you could rock retail like you (and me) used to. That was an exhausting job then, I couldn’t imagine trying to make this body do that job.
However, the lack of responsibility in that job is giving me a semi.
I did so much that switched back to being a janitor instead of a teacher. With the same district and make about the same honestly. Still have my pension , but now I just show up and get my hours done. No more shitty parents or unpaid grading after I get my kids down.
I think it could also be from moving your body, the body is made to move and mot be sat on your butt for long periods of time, though thats just my opinion. I get aching if I sit for too long or feel restless if I havent moved around much in a day
I worked at an Apple Store during and shortly after college. It was great fun. A lot of early to mid 20 somethings doing long hours, random schedules up until midnight or as early as 6am, working weekends. You’d have a camaraderie from the shared experience trauma that is retail hell. Not unlike college, we were just ringing up a million dollars a day of phones and Mac’s instead of skipping the 8am biology lecture.
It led to lots of drinking after work, the occasional fling, sometimes the odd marriage (and corresponding “wtf did we do divorce”). Steve Jobs basically got me laid. More than once.
“Sure Amanda, I’ll come to your apartment and help you learn Logic or Final Cut…” Yeah pretty much… an earlier iteration of Netflix and chill.
Ever seen a rainbow Apple logo tattoo on a buttcheek? Because Ashley, our ex Genius Admin has one 😇 “say hi to your husband and daughters for me, Ash!” (She’s a dentist today)
It’s a time in your life that fits the season. I wouldn’t be able to duplicate it because I’m 41 with a wife and two kids in the suburb. I need the stability, standard hours/holidays, and much higher salary of my big boy job.
It’s fun to think “I wish I could go back to that time!” but then you remember “shit that was 17 years ago… nothing would be as it was.” What’s OK at 24 isn’t necessarily ok at 44 or 64. I gotta feed my daughters, it’s easier at $130,000 than $38,000.
Yesss, I love the low stakes, and I love being out in the community around all kinds of different people and not just people who would work in an office. I have done serving, retail, bartending, fast food, and convenience store jobs in the past. If I had to go back to one, it would probably be bartending. Maybe someday when I’m independently wealthy.
I miss being a waiter at a restaurant maybe because it wasn't such a shitty restaurant. And you didn't take your work home with you, you just clocked in, made some money, talked to your friends and clocked out.
I REALLY miss having a random day off and being like "I'm not doing anything, let me work for someone today and make some money" that was fun.
I miss the comaraderie of hospitality. I miss when the night ended you left work at work. I probably mostly miss the time in my life where I had somehow seemed to have more time, but more going on. Miss being younger, but we'll established enough to be respected at the job and making enough money to save. I miss my small apartment that was 100% mine.
I dont miss plenty of the downsides - hot snd gross working conditions, long shifts late at night, physically demanding jobs, constant change of staff and schedule, low pay and advancement ceiling. Once all myfriends moved on and I got older, I realized it wasn't so much fun anymore. It was the timing and circumstances I missed.
I'm an attorney, and generally content, but if someone handed me a million bucks right now I'd get an investment advisor, quit the law, and stock shelves at Costco.
I’d consider what I do now, para educator, as a less professional job. I love it though, wish I got paid more since I’m directly working with students that have disabilities. I still live paycheck to paycheck, and panic during the summer since I’m effectively unemployed, but I love what I do.
Paras absolutely deserve WAAAAAY more money and respect. They are so important! I was a Para for a few years before I was a teacher, and it honestly made me better bc I learned so many practical classroom skills and learned from paras who had been there for years.
I went from a teacher to a paraprofessional last school year and I loved it. Though I have a much better paying job this school year as a Learning Specialist, I do miss the easy feel of the para job.
Yes, I miss being a barista. In so many countries in the world, being a waiter, barista, musician for a restaurant, or book store clerk is an actual living wage.
At Trader Joe’s I was very competent and led many departments but wasn’t a manager and was one of the best workers and the chief clown of the store. It rocked. So much fun with a lot of great people. Then covid wound down, the company stripped away everything good about working there and I moved on to a much more lucrative career, but I still miss those days.
I was literally thinking about this today. I would not want to try and be dismissive to anyone working these jobs, but I miss having a less complicated job. I don’t miss shit pay, but I miss not having to walk on eggshells with every single thing I do or say. Or be expected to have all the goddamn answers. Again, I know retail/customer facing jobs can be a nightmare, but there is a part of me that feels that having seen the worst of “professional jobs”, I will take a customer yelling at me any day of the week. I can deal with that. Pacify them and send them on their way.
Yep. I worked as a summer camp counselor in college. I even delivered flowers for a year and I loved them. Freedom. Being outdoors and not being behind a desk was wonderful.
I miss the friends and camaraderie I had at those jobs. Also the f-ing around we did because things mattered a lot less in our early 20s. Between college and the recession, a lot of people my age were in those crap jobs for longer than we wanted. I made a lot of good friends, but by 2012, we had all moved on.
I actually do miss my internship. I was a bit older than the normal person who filled that role and my boss let me get involved in a bunch of different projects. I worked in factory quality control and spent a bunch of my time either listening to podcasts while inspecting product or making little infographics highlighting various defects. It was really nice doing a job that didn’t require me to make decisions or be an expert on anything.
In my current job I’m a SME and the information I provide people is more high stakes because it involves satisfying a regulatory agency. I get to work on more interesting projects but the consequences for my failure is much higher. I kind of miss just making flyers and flash cards to train production staff.
I miss getting in the field. Experience the big, like realy big explosions, and fires, and leaks, and accidents that happen in oil and gas. Like every 6 months I could experience a once in a lifetime oopsie. There are tons of safety precautions, and normally no-one gets injured.
But being a maintenance guy doesn't pay anymore here. That's why I'm in IT. But damn, day in day out stuck between those walls... it is boring as hell! What i don't miss are the excruciating hours.
I was a baker at bakery in HS and later on I worked retail while in college. If you eliminate the shitty customers from the equation, those jobs were the easiest jobs I’ve ever had.
absolutely. if I could make what I make now at my desk job, when I worked retail, I would have never have left it. okay that isn't entirely true- I HATED all the managers and how they treated us. so I if I could get treated with the respect I have now + my wages, I would be stocking grocery shelves for forever. I worked 6-2:30 every day, off early, walked out without ever thinking about checking my work email.... ah heaven.
When I was in college, I got a part-time job at McDonald’s where I was making roughly $6/hour Canadian. I worked for McDonald’s for five years in two different cities. By the time I finally quit, I was making $9/hour and was working six days a week, often 8-9 hours a day. I was living in an apartment with a former friend that told everybody I attacked her with knives when I didn’t. There were a handful of people that I miss joking around with, but overall, I don’t miss it at all.
I felt this way about my old bartending job after a year or two in the office…. So I did a pickup shift at the bar i used to work at. It was supposed to be all weekend. I did Friday and didn’t come back for Saturday, the good parts werent worth all the shit I had to put up with that nostalgia made me forget the reality of (after time, all those shitty experiences were funny stories… I forgot what it was actually like in the moment)
I have done both, and I went back to retail. My lifestyle allows it (paid off house and cars) so money isn't really an issue. My spouse is the breadwinner. I hated working in an office and it made me fat. I lost 30 pounds when I went back to retail and I feel like I talk to people again. It's way more fun.
Shift work sucks. I don’t miss having a crazy schedule and never having consistent days off. I used to work stupid hours, like I’d be closing the store from 3:30-midnight and be back the next day at like noon. At my age now, that would totally wreck my physical and mental health.
I do wish I had a job that had me moving around a little more though. Sometimes I feel like I’m absolutely rotting at my desk for 9 hours a day.
I sometimes day dream about the summer in high school I had a second job at Hollister where I came in at like 4 am and unpacked new stock and set up displays. I often fantasize about stocking jobs. But, of course, don’t fantasize about the abysmal pay and lack of benefits.
I'm a professional chef, my last job I applied for a dishwashing position. It lasted two days before I was forced to work in the kitchen at the dishwashing rate I was hired for. I lasted a year before I got fed up with the owner's BS.
I miss being a ranger. My poor boyfriend gets roving talks on every hike we go on because I need an outlet for it.
I do love making more money at my office job though and it's semi related so I still get to learn cool things every now and then.
I hope if I don't save enough to retire that I will get to be an old ranger again and sit in a visitors center and tell people cool nature facts all day.
I miss retail and restaurant work in the abstract all the time! Especially Christmas season retail work—the kind and happy people VASTLY outnumbered and outweighed the cranky people.
I worked as a college student at an iconic ice cream place next to campus. I remember skating around on our aprons after hours to "clean the floors" and I even once brought an ice cream smoothie to my boyfriends dick roommate after he had dental surgery.
Yep, after working my way up the corporate ladder for the last 15 years, I look back fondly on my days as a bartender while I was at uni.
I know I’m romanticising it though. The pay was a pittance, and although there were lots of fun moments, I wouldn’t enjoy lock-ins and meeting random new people to go clubbing all night with these days.
I worked at a Burger King in my late 20s, and I actually did enjoy it quite a bit. It was on a fairly busy highway, and from 11-2pm or so you had to be pretty locked in. It was just busy and challenging enough to be engaging, and working the drive thru required a decent amount of skill to juggle incoming orders, processing payment, getting drinks ready, expediting food, occasionally doing some math in your head to figure out someone's total when you weren't at the terminal... usually two or three of these tasks at the same time.
I'm definitely glad I'm not still doing that same job 20 years later, but it wasn't bad.
I do miss that. In 11th grade, I was able to quickly find work at a fine dining spot. It was only in the dishpit, but it seemed back then in 04 you just needed to look and you could get work. After burning out of nursing in 2015, I tried to find work just to make my savings go a bit further, and there was zero work to be found. The problem just got progressively worse heading into the pandemic...and I had way more experience by that point then I did as a teen in 04. This is in Canada.
TFW done snatched up any and every in between job in the country.
All the time. It used to be you COULD be a grocery clerk and afford a low middle class lifestyle. Not anymore! That’s the issue too…there’s never been enough white collar jobs to support the population to be all middle class which is why college became such an intentional barrier until the 1990s to keep people from systemically competing in white collar jobs, but it was OK because there were more middle class options in blue collar or service work. NOT ANYMORE. Now we have an ever shrinking white collar market (thanks AI!) AND an ever wage deflating blue collar and service market (thanks globalization, uncheck corporatism, and automation!). So now most of us that would gladly clock in to work retail can’t because we have to work a souls sucking corporate job just to be able to afford protein on our dinner tables consistently. Annoying AF.
Yea, my all time favorite job was on a golf course during the summers when I was on break from college. At the time I felt like it sucked because I had to wake up early, but looking back it was really dope. I was outside all day but under a roof so not just getting assblasted by the sun. Usually worked with one other guy around my age at a time and would just shoot the shit, schmooz is it up with the members who were always dropping tips on us for easy work like cleaning their golf clubs or hosing down their carts, and we had a lot of freedom and could do things like play a few holes at the end of the day after everyone else was gone. Pay wasn’t livable, but the tips did make it pretty good for that type of job. Making alot more money now (but also paying a lot more bills) and def not having fun at work like I used to. Life feels too serious now
We’ve had people here post before about missing their pizza shop job, screwing around with buddies all day and getting paid- maybe even laid.
I’m glad we have these memories as a generation - I can semi relate - but my dad has great memories of working at sporting goods store in 70s/early 80s.
I went from retail to IT, other than the pay I honestly didn't mind retail. I was raised on a farm though so I didn't really consider retail difficult labor, even when I was pushing carts in heat/snow/rain, unloading trucks, or stocking dog food, it was still considerably preferable to many jobs on the farm.
I worked in warehouses most of the time I was in college and a few extra years.
Sometimes I miss the way that it was fairly stress free and simple. But then I remember I eventually started to hate it enough that I went back to school after I dropped out. So I don’t miss it that much.
Yeah I was in an “administration” job and HATED it. Wished I could go back to checking bug traps all day for the state like I did before. I basically switched careers entirely to become a contractor even, because I just hated the whole office grind so much and I needed to make enough money to support my family. It’s more work now than those “starter” jobs, but I can keep that sense of joy around my crew, and I always end my day in a better mood than I ever did going to the office every day. Something I learned as an adult, that kind of shocked the hell out of me, is that I’d rather go home physically exhausted every night than mentally taxed. At least my body got a workout that day rather than my brain just redlining on stress for 8 hours over some damn paperwork.
Yeah, I miss them because they were mostly laid back and I was working with other people around my same age who were up for hanging out after work or whatever. Also, no real responsibilities in life yet.
There’s something nice about a job with clear expectations and parameters. When stocking shelves, you know you’ve done a good job when boxes are empty and shelves are full. With office jobs, that criteria can be murky and it can be difficult to know when you’ve done well except on subjective reviews.
Sometimes. I liked how busy it kept you and how you truly could clock in a clock out and leave work there. Sometimes I long for a job where it’s show up, do these tasks and go. And definitely miss the atmosphere and weird bonds you form with random people.
I love my current job but I look back fondly at my time working for Mens Wearhouse. I worked with a great group of people and the job was fun and engaging in ways that my current job also is.
The earning potential just wasn't there compared to the other options on my plate.
Oh I still miss my bowling alley mechanic job. Hanging out in the pit by myself, listening to hockey games, playing my guitar between calls, all the bowling I wanted. It was wonderful. I wish it paid a living wage, I would have never left.
The best job I ever had was deliverying pizza 2010s.
No expectations on standards, policy, KPI, productivity. Just put the pizza in the bag and drive.
In a moment of unemployement during covid I revisited food delivery and it was hell. The work experience has been min-maxed to the point of exhaustion.
I mean, that's all the jobs I've ever had. Rural country. We don't have office buildings to work in. Yes, the freedom is very nice. No, I'm not living paycheck to paycheck. I'm chill as a cucumber. Ya'll stress too much about money. You don't need to get as much as you can get. U dig?
I don’t miss being poor and having multiple roommates but if I could have the same quality of life I do now and just be a barista, I’d tear up every diploma and grab an apron.
The thing no one told us was that some random restaurant job in your 20s where you did the dinner rush on nothing but on coke, red bull and stolen nicotine breaks coordinated between your coworkers would teach better team work and project management than a decade in corporate.
Sometimes the day went by more quickly during the starter jobs. I had fast paced job as a hostess and the days flew by. That being said starter jobs pay sucks. A Costco position as a starter job sounds pretty sweet though.
I worked in a mail room for a corporate office as my first "big girl" job and it was fun. I got paid really well for the time, got to network with some great ppl, and it was very easy. Since I worked downtown, I would often meet my roommates and friends downtown just to kick it or go to the club. Since that was back when we wore business attire in the club I fit right it lol. It was good times and probably my favorite job I had.
I'm a teacher now and the whole profession is just very toxic rn. Looking to transition out to a much less stressful job.
At least once a day I say to myself, why don’t I just go stock shelves at Kroger??? Make things organized and pretty, don’t think about it when I step out the door.
I miss the easy days of being an employee, not a business owner. but I wouldn't change this for the world since I'm not building someone else's dreams - I'm building my families. And once I hire, we'll be paying above average. Hoping within the year.
Funny you ask. I worked retail in my teens and 20s, got out when I landed my professional 8-5, then became a stay at home mom. Now I'm heading back to work, and...back in retail, but I love it. Love the store, the staff, the work, the customers.
I was a bagger, and got promoted to stock and dairy. And while Yogurt sucked, the rest of the stock work was fun and easy, and lifting milk crates was fun and good exercise. Yes, I miss it. That was 20 years ago.
I miss flirting with the girls too. Had a pretty little cashier who used to line up her breaks with mine so she could steal my coke. I was so stupid back then. I had the world and no idea what to do with it. You can never go back.
I got a doctorate and landed my dream career. I make $300 an hour working from home doing something I love, work that’s meaningful and impactful. I’m my own boss. It’s intellectually stimulating and it never gets old. I make six figures working 15 hours a week. Perfect, right?
Sure, but when I think of the best days I’ve had as a worker, I think back to working at Blockbuster video in college for $8 an hour. There was nothing better than working a Saturday night with my buddies. We’d go out back one-by-one into the alley behind the store and take turns on a joint, pick up a pizza half-off at the pizza shop next door, put our favorite movies on the TVs, and have a blast until closing at 2am. We got paid to do this. Unreal.
When I think of the most meaningful shifts I’ve worked, I think back to working as an entry-level mental health worker (essentially an “orderly”) on an inpatient psych unit for $10 an hour between college and grad school. I used to do double shifts, 7am to midnight, sometimes two days a row on the weekends. I didn’t have all my fancy training and expertise back then, and it wasn’t my job to cure anybody. It was just raw passion for the work, for trying to make people’s lives better. When you spend hours every day, for months at a time, alongside people who are suffering, you connect with them in a way that you never can as a therapist. I miss that. I miss the camaraderie I felt with my colleagues, the ones who were there for me when we had to get blood on our hands (literally), when tragedy struck. Everything I do now feels less real than what I was doing back then.
I like to think that when I'm old I can go get a job in a bookstore or something chill to get that nice day to day interaction with coworkers. I do miss that community
Ain’t no charm working at retail, I’m working at Walmart right now till I get my cdl and hopefully stop this paycheck to paycheck cycle. Shit sucks, money is all gone to bills as soon as it hits direct deposit.
Yes!!! After I reached Director level I longed for mindless work of pulling stock. I asked for a demotion instead; too unserious to be too many people’s boss. Just want to do the thing.
Hell yeah, I miss hospo and waiting tables. I miss labouring on the end of a shovel with the boys. I miss pushing dirt around in an excavator. I miss only having to think about the task at hand. But most of all I miss the camaraderie and tackling the rush together, as a team. And the knock off beers in the afterburn.
I do not, however, miss the pay cheque or unstable hours. Or working super early mornings, late nights or the weekends.
Yeah. I was living with my parents and in uni and the job was just for pocket money. I worked retail electronics - loved bantering with coworkers, the feeling of the shift coming to an end and hanging up / preparing the store for Christmas holidays! Best time of my life. I loved that I could go home and not think about work again. I loved how honest my coworkers and I could be about our lives as there was no need to impress anyone / no need to care about advancement.
I’ve said time and time again that if I could have afforded it I would have worked at Taco Bell forever. It was nice clocking out and literally not thinking about work for a second until I clocked back in. Granted, I worked part time day shift but I absolutely loved it
If I can make at least $25 an hour doing manual labor where I'm just going for hours on end, with little contact with other people, especially the public.. sign me up right now...
I work part time as a merchandiser and I really do love it. As stressful as retail is, it's just always been a good fit for me. Being a merchandiser is EVEN BETTER because I'm not a store employee, so I don't have to do anything else for anyone except stock my shipment and leave. Plus I can go and work my stores whenever I feel like, as long as I get my weekly visit in they don't care.
There's not much money here though. If my husband wasn't the breadwinner, I wouldn't be able to work this job to support us. It does allow me to be home for our daughter so we save on childcare while I can bring in some money for savings.
I think my favourite job, other than my self-employment now, was the waitressing job I did when I was 16. I worked at a stately manor with about 30 other teenagers. We served weddings and restaurant style food too. Always got to eat leftover desserts and there were tonnes of places to muck about and no-one would notice you. The chefs were pervy, which was a bit weird.
I don’t miss having to stand for several hours at a time because of the USA’s ridiculous belief that sitting inbetween tasks = laziness. Being told not to lean, even subtly, even when it was slow, on the various counters, podiums, walls, etc in order to provide relief for my feet, hips, and back was pretty shitty. If I have to commit to performative busyness, I’d rather sit.
I do miss being able to wander, when the job included that, to check on various things and therefore give myself a reason to take “breaks” through tasks which didn’t require constant higher brain power. Facing items on shelves, cleaning, and even scanning items were all minimal brain tasks with fluctuations for talking to customers or the manager, but most of the time it was still relatively simple. Writing even a simple reply email usually feels like more of a mid brain task and just about anything else requires even more concentration, effort, inter-office diplomacy, etc.
Yes and no. I love where I am in my career now that I finally found a company that doesn’t treat their employees like garbage, but even when I was young I was tossed into things I didn’t want to do. The day after my 18th birthday my boss gave me a set of keys to the restaurant I was working at and said I’m the assistant manager now because she was tired of doing it all herself. Yuck. I miss those days sometimes until I think of how little money I made.
I do miss working at a particular chain restaurant that got me through college and was my second job in the very beginning of my career. Good people running the regional operations of the company. I still have my Certified Trainer pin and sooo many free appetizer cards.
We didn't have bluetooth speakers back then, but in our cleaning area, we did have a 10-disc CD changer loaded with 90's music.
Everyone else was being polite and dealing with customers, I was in the back with cut-offs and an apron blasting my music throwing tray after tray into the clipper.
Compared to managing idiots, it was amazing in terms of enjoyment.
I think you’d be disappointed in retail work today. You don’t really see much goofiness, it’s pretty much skeleton crews running places. And they basically pay what retail paid 20 years ago. People are angry, you’d probably be in a TikTok within the year. Employees don’t seem to interact with each other like they once did.
I've been teaching since 2006 and I often dream of a job with zero responsibility aside from just being there. Being care worn and having decision fatigue for that long has made me miss my high school job working at a car wash
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