Thinking of a new job after christmas.. READ THIS!!!

Red Eagle Agency
Employed to work at a Brewery, Shifting 900 barrels of beer a day on a loading bay into trucks, 700 on - 200 off, each day, everyday. Dangerous work as the barrels are very heavy and can cause long term spinal injuries from lifting them constantly. (Damaging / Degrading)


Manpower Agency
Employed in Various roles, ranging from making up boxes from flat pack, computer data entry and my final two weeks of work for this agency was spent picking up used cigarette ends in a car-park and loading rubbish from an office tower block into a compactor for the minimum wage and I was expected to pay my own transport to and from the job which started at 8 and finished at 2 (Under-paid / Demeaning / Degrading)


Asda Stores
Employed in the capacity of Music and Video assistant, work involved working in split shift's (Day's / Night's) Despite my being dyslexic team manager placed me on Magazine return's which involved in excess of 1000 Magazines which the company delivering had been pushing on the store, without the stores consent. Spent nights working on something like 5 isles of Housewares and Electrical equipment, Ranging from Towel's to Light-bulb's, my duties involved taking deliveries into the warehouse unloading the Delivery then stocking up the shelves towards the end of a shift, Both in the Warehouse and in the Store. Cant describe what its like finding a melted Stilton Cheese in amongst your clean fluffy towels left there by a customer. (Demeaning / Degrading)


APCOA (TheCopShop)
Working in the capacity of Parking Warden, Enforcing the Road Traffic Act, This job was quite stressful as people can become very irate even potentially violent when they receive a ticket imposing a penalty charge. You have to be prepared to deal with constant verbal abuse on a daily basis. (Demeaning / Degrading)


Telephone Tracer
This job entailed my breaking the law to meet deadlines and target's, we used to call various government agencies and impersonate the person we where seeking to trace or track down utilizing social engineering. (Demeaning)


Security Services
Employed as a security Officer, work entailed searching offenders going into a court house, work involved having to pick up used hypodermic needles found in the toilets, handle used babies nappies which had either been left in someone's bag, as they came in or picked up off the floor. Worked for the minimum wage with the constant threat of violence from offenders carrying, razor blades, knifes and other such delightful objects. Working security for a hospital, working in the A&E on a friday night as the night clubs empty and the drunks fall in the door, working under the constant threat of violence from drunk people seeking medical aid or junkies looking for their next fix. Told to use restraint and control, which translates into, they can smack and kick you, you however may not smack and kick them.
Worked in Retail, a Hospital and a Court house, Whilst working at a hospital sometimes required to move dead bodies to the Morgue to aid the short staffed Porter staff. Whilst in retail once informed by manager not to apprehend a thief in the store as he had put the stolen item back before attempting to leave. Once got told by a fellow security officer working on nights that I had a pretty face and I should come and sit on his lap for kisses and a cuddle. Had to dodge him all night as it was just two of us working on a night shift and I couldn't evade him till 8 the next day.
(Underpaid / Demeaning / Boring & Degrading)


Warehouse
Worked handling ladies under garments and other such items of clothing on their way to the companies clothes shops. Eventually lost all drive for this job and spiraled into turning up late or not at all as it felt mind numbingly repetitive. (Boring / Degrading)

Whatever job you choose I hope your career is more productive than mine, but before you go running off to pick up the phone for that all important new job, consider whats involved.

[edit on 9-1-2008 by Brother_Amos]

Originally posted by Brother_Amos
Red Eagle Agency
Employed to work at a Brewery, Shifting 900 barrels of beer a day on a loading bay into trucks, 700 on - 200 off, each day, everyday. Dangerous work as the barrels are very heavy and can cause long term spinal injuries from lifting them constantly. (Damaging / Degrading)
...

This nothing new, lemme tell you about my job experiences in the mid to late 90s.

Temp job - plastics factory
8 hours per day for minimum wage checking formed plastics for defects. Faced with unrealistic quotas and overbearing management.
Demeaning/degrading

Temp job - forklift driver in a factory
8 hours per day for 25 cents above minimum wage. Expected to professionally drive a forklift with no real experience. After 1 week reduced to warehouse cleaning because the replaced driver returned which consisted of starting on one end of a warehouse and sweeping floors/picking up trash until I made it to the other end. Quit after 1 day of this as I wasn't hired for such work.
Demeaning/degrading/extremely boring

Full time job - Subway
8-10 hours per day, minimum wage, free food was a nice bonus. Job still sucked.

Full time job - grocery store
Night stockperson. Worked graveyard shift, varying shifts from 6-10 hours depending on the night. Boss who actually ended up getting fired after I left because he was very demeaning towards all employees, especially women.

Temp job - storage warehouse
I actually kind of liked this job. Started at the bottom, got hired full time, worked my way into a systems administration position in IT 9 years later. Employer provided all training.


Stick with it until you find something you like and make a name for yourself. This is called working up from the bottom and a majority of the population does this.

Yeah but those are the only jobs on my CV and after my Gran passed on she left me some money so I've been out of work for three years, It dost not bode well for a new employer if they feel un-confident that you may or may not stick it out with them, especially when you told your last employer to get stuffed!

I say been out of work but I've tied myself over once or twice with a nice little side earner, if you catch my drift. Did some landscape gardening, but that dried up as he didnt have enough clients to go around.

Done some part time bar-work, my most recent job, which got heaving on a friday night filled with punters from down the road who all came in my pub when theres was closed down for re-ferb, a veritable sea of over 100 faces all hugging the bar going "OI ARE YOU SERVING ME OR WHAT?"

My manager said to me as I came out from behind the bar dumping my apron, "and where the heck are you going?" to which I replied "Going to get a drink!" before walking out the door. We'd run completely out of glasses to serve drinks in, yeap great news for the pub if business is thriving. Bad news for the staff on minimum wage taking the flack and you want to know what really miffed me off, down the road was three more pubs just as nice and they where all empty!!!



[edit on 9-1-2008 by Brother_Amos]

Originally posted by Brother_Amos
Yeah but those are the only jobs on my CV and after my Gran passed on she left me some money so I've been out of work for three years, It dost not bode well for a new employer if they feel un-confident that you may or may not stick it out with them, especially when you told your last employer to get stuffed!

See, that makes it sound to me like it's your fault, not the employers. Sometimes you have to stick with a job you don't like until something better comes along. The work history I presented above was over the course of about 3 years. I was renting a room off of a friend of mine and did what I had to do to better my situation. The two full time jobs listed above, the subway job and the grocery stocker, were both simultaneous for about 6 months. I worked 80+ hours a week and this allowed me to get my own place and stabilize my life. Did it suck? YES. Did it move me on down the road of life into a better situation? YES. This helped form the work ethic that drives me today as I didn't have anybody handing me money so if I didn't work my butt off, I didn't eat. You'll find that a majority of the population has dealt with this in their younger years. I bet no more than a handful will tell you they enjoyed it, but all of them will tell you it taught them a good life lesson about the value of the dollar and an honest day's work.

Hang in there and earn the lifestyle you want. You'll get there sooner than you think.

Nah mate, sometimes you just end up working for anal retentive butt poke's, take my word for it, I'm an easy go lucky kind of guy, I dont mind a days hard graft, I have white finger (nerve damage) from using a kango on a laboring job that paid me £340 for five days work.

You said it yourself sometimes you find yourself ending up working for idiots!

My old manager at ASDA's used to say "Remember, Finger and Thumb rule, everything has to be that far appart and facing forward!" he reminded me of that two or three times a day for over two week's which lead to my eventually snapping at him at the top of my voice "HOW MENY TIMES HAVE YOU TOLD ME THAT, DONT YOU THINK I AM AWARE OF THAT FACT BY NOW... GET OUT OF MY FACE BEFORE I HIT YOU!" he avoided me after that, took it out on someone else, but I still endured hell and for what 5.35 an hour.. pfft

You find melted mouldy cheese on the shelf and the cleaner refuses to clean it, that leaves you.. never ending grape seed stalks from the fresh veg section in an empty bag, know why, the customers wonder round eating them then they hide the empty bag and leave!


I could tell you some real horror stories, how about working in a court house and you stumble across a load a pathology photo's of a guy who's been shot 35 time's from various angles... Do you still feel like a bacon and tomato sandwich for breakfast?

Or how about being in a lift on your way down to the morgue with a stiff and suddenly it farts and sits up in the bed... Guaranteed to get the blood flowing a bit faster!

Do you really think your employer is sympathetic of your predicament when thats what he's paying you for?

[edit on 9-1-2008 by Brother_Amos]

If you can endure all that working your guts into the ground for a minimum wage and on shift work involving you arriving home at 2.30 in the morning just to get up and go back on public transport for another glorious day starting out at 4.45 then good for you!



Lets not forget that sometimes employers enjoy taking advantage of people and despite doing them favors that they swear they'll make up to you, they still threaten you with the sack if you don't nod your head and go "yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir!"

Two of my previous employers would probably welcome me back with open arm's, it all depends on whether I fancy the idea of getting a kicking for sticking a ticket on some idiots car or whether I fancy the idea of getting a little more nerve damage in my hands and arms!

Go for it, parking attendants don't the powers of arrest, so you can give them a good pasting long before any backup arrives and then drive off into the sunset! Did anyone see anything, no it's your word against theirs.

Just for the record, moving a dead body was not in the job description, which is why I left... Driving a forklift, did that myself at the Warehouse job, do I have a forklift licence, no, can I claim against the company, no because at the time I was 17 and didnt know any better!

Thats what I mean by taking advantage and you really don't ever want to work the graveyard shift on security, believe me, getting thrown up on, having to travel miles to get to where your supposed to be on public transport to arrive on time for an 8 start then to repeat it daily before they give you a day off and put you back on days for a week... Mental strain, Body strain, you name it it'll get strained, including your patience when they neglect to pay you any money claiming you forgot to sign in at the beginning of your shift. This is a ruse, whilst holding onto your money along with everyone else working for the company their raking in the profits in interest on their bank account not yours!

As for the agency's fag butts with a litter-picker, do you know how long it takes to stab one butt effectively, you might as well get on your hands and knees crawling road the tower-block, it would probably work twice as fast!

And beer barrels, I didn't complain, I only complained when they left me out of work for a whole week and a half as they where overstaffed and I needed the income, cant believe I was so stupid as to stop all my council tax and income support for that!

[edit on 9-1-2008 by Brother_Amos]

I suppose its not all bad, I'm just having my end of the year whine...

Some more amusing stories would be like the time a guy got brought in by the police found wandering around out of his skull. They thought it was drugs, the nurse said to him whats your name, please we need to know your name, whilst giving him a shake, he responded by turning carrot colored, pulling down his underwear and yeap you guessed it, he let all his bodily functions go, the nurse turned to me handed me a box and said "put on some gloves and dispose of that, then open a window!" The police eventually left when the found out from his so called friends who all looked about the age of 15, 16 that he had consumed a whole bottle of vodka in under a minute for a dare.

I'll never forget that as his mothers car roared onto the hospital grounds to pick up her naked son wrapped in a towel, I stormed out the door and said "Excuse me, we need that back, it's hospital property" and whipped the towel away!

Then there was the time another bloke came in with his dick stuck in a milk bottle, or the time they brought in a guy out of his mind on meth amphetamines and it took 12 police to hold him down whilst the nurse tried to get a drip into his arm, he bit that and a chunk of his own skin clean off the moment they let go!

Oh what fun.....

You can see why I'm trying to get myself involved in office and filing work, screw doing that for a living!

[edit on 9-1-2008 by Brother_Amos]