Your First Day of Work

Greetings, ATS!

I'm wandering down memory lane today, and thinking about my past jobs. I've worked full-time since I was 16. I've been a clerk at Kmart (not as fun as my five year old self imagined, ha), a lifeguard, a bra-fitter (NOT FUN), a florist, a pharmacy tech, and last...a teacher. I've had a lot of first days.

I want to tell you about my first day of teaching first grade. The school was in the mountains of East Tennessee and I was a nervous wreck. Would I be able to handle 23 first graders? To make it worse, I had been hired only the day before, so I was completely unprepared.

At LONG last, it was time for recess. I lined the students up and prepared to lead them outside.

Just then, my principal dropped by to see how I was doing. I told him we were heading out for recess.

He nodded, turned to leave, then casually mentioned, "Be sure to check the playground for bears, bobcats, and snakes."

I thought he was joking.

He wasn't.

In my tenure at that school, I killed two rattlesnakes, chased off three bobcats and one black bear.

What a first day!

Well at 16 i got a part time job with a local plumber. I couldent believe some of the houses we worked in in Manchester. It was rough as hell. I remember he left me in one house while he went for some fittings. And some women full of tattoos wanted more than the sink fitting so i ended up hiding behind the water tank in the loft pretending i was busy! She was bigger than me i would of had no chance!

I used to work in Norfolk UK on the broads

This was my local pub about 5 minutes by boat from work




On my first day I was asked if I could swim ? I said yes of course I used to be a lifeguard.

OK just remember before you jump in THINK
I was a tad but later on I saw a child fall from a boat (no lifejacket) and instinct made me run and jump to save her. Having grabbed her I looked up to see a boat reversing at us. I nearly soiled my armour. Luckily enough the driver was a novice and couldn't reverse in a straight line.

The look on her mothers face as I soddenly handed up her child to her.....A priceless memory.

So for all of you before you jump THINK.

Cody

Originally posted by TheDoctor46
Well at 16 i got a part time job with a local plumber. I couldent believe some of the houses we worked in in Manchester. It was rough as hell. I remember he left me in one house while he went for some fittings. And some women full of tattoos wanted more than the sink fitting

so i ended up hiding behind the water tank in the loft pretending i was busy! She was bigger than me i would of had no chance!

Coward

Just kidding Doc, a wise head on young shoulders.

Cody

I once got a job working for a carpenter in north carolina. He was of Cherokee descent. so we are driving up a hill towards the job site and out of the blue he pulls out a bottle of baileys irish creme (now mind you, less than ten feet to my left was a precipice of well over a hundred feet) and he starts swigging away.

About a half hour before lunch we were pulling away from the jobsite and he leans out the window and asks another worker, now get this, if hew knows where to find crystal meth. At this point I'm losing it and can't wait to go home. the day ends uneventfully. when I get home I tell my uncle (who had custody of me at the time) and he says too bad you gotta go back in tomorrow. so i'm like crap. I had a bad feeling about it from the get go.

So I go in the next day we work until quitting time and he ( my new 'boss') asks me if I want to get in some extra hours, reluctantly I agree. The job is a simple one, tearing out baseboards from an old house and fitting door jambs and the like all the while he is getting s-faced drunk. eventually he starts asking me about drugs and I say ' I don't do that kind of thing'... wrong answer. Guy flips and starts becoming aggressive and sucker punches me dead in my right eye I was holding a hammer and belive me when I tell you this man was gods blessed that I have the restraint that I do.

That's my crazy first (and second) day at work story.

S&F

My first working day was a vacation job, between school and college, spent at a Butlins holiday camp in Scotland.
I typed up the diary of that month recently, so here is the relavnt extract;

Sunday July 26th

This morning I was woken up at half past six by John’s alarm. While the others went back to sleep, I got up to start work at seven o’clock. I went into the Grosvenor Restaurant (named “Grovsenor” on one of the side pillars), a little earlier than the others, and was directed to the manageress. “Hey, Bull”, she cried (to rhyme with “gull”) “have you anything for Stevie here to do the now?”, but there wasn’t. When the other Filey boys came in ,we had breakfast, stood around a little, and one was taken away. Then one of the supervisors beckoned the other three of us down to the bottom of the hall. “You will be much safer doing this,” he said. “There’s a c- standing there who’s looking for staff to go to the slops, and if he sees you standing around doing nothing, you’ll be off like a shot”. He showed us how to wrap two knives, a fork, and a spoon obliquely in a napkin, and then left us to it. New supplies of knives had to be fetched twice. The manageress warned us to keep our heads down and have a look of deep concentration on our labours. When the knives ran out altogether we polished spoons and forks. Finally the manageress came to us again; “You three are coming out to the washing-up. I told youse.”

The washing-up area is on the left behind the restaurant’s clearing area, the kitchens being to the right. The cycle begins at a bench where the dishes etc. are collected, then they go through a dish-washing machine which has containers endlessly passing through it, like a ghost train at the fair. At first there was little to do here, and we were just shifting spoons or polishing them. Two of us went with a trolley to collect two heavy trays of cutlery. However, not long after breakfast began our work really started and continued unceasingly until dinnertime. Recently-washed cutlery was dumped out of containers onto the table, and we had to dry them and put them in other containers. It seemed like a losing battle, because the pile kept getting larger as more cutlery was dumped on, no matter how much it was spread around. We seemed on the point of containing it, when it was time for a tea-break.

At half past eleven, we returned to the restaurant to eat. The supervisor who first got us into cutlery wrapping was complaining that they had been short-staffed in our absence. He said the manager who transferred us looked at the Restaurant when nothing was happening, and did not observe when it was busy. He promised that it would not happen again tomorrow morning. When we came back to the washing-up, the table was nearly within sight. It was at this time that I did some more trolley work, collecting more things from the clearing areas. Soon afterwards the heavy work started all over again. Jan joined us at this time. His hours are to be from twelve to ten, and he seems to have been permanently attached to the washing-up. We stopped for more tea and the remnants of the dinner icecream at ten past two. I got off at three o’clock today, because of the transfer, but normally I would leave work at four.

reply to post by cody599




That reminds me of a trip a college roommate and I took to Florida. She insisted on renting a jetski and got a big two-person one for us both to ride on.

Well, we dumped it, of course. And its HARD to get back on a jetski in the middle of the ocean! I knew I was balanced-challenged, but gee whiz!

We'd been trying to remount the thing for about ten minutes when I heard people shouting. I was positive it was a shark (my roomie had been humming the tune to Jaws under her breath the whole time), but when I looked up I was very surprised to see a big pirate ship heading straight for us.

It was one of those tourist boat cruises, and we were about to get keel-hauled for real. So we grabbed the jetski and swam it out of the path.

LOTS of people took pictures as they passed.... and eventually we got back on the jetski.

Ahhhhh.....fond memories....

My ol' dorris teaches first years and I can imagine how her stomach felt on that first day...
No bears though.. maybe a few cats and a rogue wasp...

I've had many a job but the first day that sticks out the most was when I started at a body repair shop on a baking hot summers day (yes, we have hot days in England) when I was 17...16?.... around about that age...

My mate worked there also and I went out in the yard for a smoke with him and casually flicked my fag end on the ground and we went back in. 10 or so minutes later I was asked to take something off an old write off in the yard and when I ventured out, I realised I had flicked my fag end onto an old oil soaked carpet because the bloody thing was burning like bonfire night!
I managed to put it out without anyone noticing and kept my job!

Thanks for the reminder!

My most recent job which I started a few years ago I managed to break a £700 lawn mower on my first day!
I'm so accident prone!!!

reply to post by CagliostroTheGreat


I had a one day only job once. Was looking for work during my college break and went door to door to see if anyone was hiring. Surprisingly, one of those drive-by wedding chapels gave me a job. Told me to come in the next day at nine, dressed nice.

So I'm there on time, not quite sure about things because it was just me and the "preacher" and I have trust issues with guys. By lunch time I'd decided I'd wouldn't be coming back, he was one of those people who apparently have no sense of personal space and kept getting way too close for my comfort.

Anyway, a couple walked in and asked to get married. The preacher told them the prices, and mentioned that for $100.00 dollars more, a "professional photographer" would capture their special moment for posterity.

Apparently, I was that professional photographer. I couldn't even load the film into the camera, as it was a 35mm and I owned a disc camera (this was a long time ago, ha).

The groom, a huge biker dude, loaded the film for me. To his credit, he was very nice to me (he could probably see I was having a rough day)....I took the photos for them, gave them the film.

They didn't pay the extra $100, and I didn't come back the next day.

The first day at a workplace are a lot like the first days of a relationship. Something embarrassing is bound to happen. I started a new job last week and the first thing I was asked to do was fill these cardboard boxes with 50 packs of biscuits and then move the box to the tape machine to be taped. Little did I know that the bottom of the box wasn't taped up and so all the packs of biccies smashed all over the floor.

I once started a job at Safeways, the very first day I turned up on my moped/scooter and decided to park it up in style (swinging the backend around) and come straight off due to the pebbly/gravelly carpark. Ripped clothes and bleeding from my arms and legs before even clocking in

I thankfully haven't had to fight off any snakes or bears over the years..

I've been working steady, with the exception of the years spent going to college, since 16.

First job: overnight janitor at a Kent's Building Supply store. Let me tell you, the ladies washroom in a hardware store is something you couldn't even dream up watching saw.

Second Job: Window and Door installer. Dear god, a 17 year old kid installing 200lb panes of glass holding them up with little suction cup things that you'd swear were from james bond. My first day i showed up with sneakers and they laughed at me asking which toes i wanted to lose first.

Third Job: Clerk at Biway, a cheapo department store from hell. Ever wonder if listening to the elevator muzak version of hotel california for hours on end will drive you into a murderous rage? Yes... Yes it will.

Fourth Job: Custom sign maker / installation. You know those cars you see with all the ads spammed all over them? Yeah, giant printers from like the 70s that cut out your designs on vinyl stickers. Placing them on a vehicle or sign is a pain in the ass you can't even imagine, and of course, if you screw it up it's a nightmare to pull them off cleanly.

Fifth Job: During college I was contracting myself out as a graphic designer and programmer.

Sixth Job: Not sure if I even wanted to include it as after college I couldn't find anything in my field and refused to work fast food, so I took a job with a health care provider. I'd go into the hospital and sit with terminal patients, talk to them, engage them, sometimes the trouble patients to keep them busy and take the load off the nurses. What a depressing and horrible job it is to come to work most days and the person you were supposed to be going to see is dead. Watching patients with dementia was enough for me.

Seventh Job: Computer and electronics recycler / refurbisher. My first day on that job was learning that if you walked around the warehouse with a pallet jack every hour or so, management assumed you were working. Stripping computers down to the base electronics and metals is not something i would suggest anyone volunteer for. And get a tetanus shot.

Eighth Job (current): Computer & Network technician for the government of my province. I get to repair and maintain just about all of the IT related equipment that the government and education system here purchase. Thousands of laptops and netbooks. A massive cisco wireless network spanning almost all of the schools and all government. Smartboards, senteo smart learning equipment, blah blah blah.

My first day on that job was a geeks dream, well the second half was. The first half was clearing out an old library, the second half was converting that into a massive computer cloning network. I was tasked with designing and implementing it all, from running the cables, to programming the switches, to creating and maintaining the imaging system for mass imaging of laptops. We were able to push windows XP at the time, out to 300 client computers in about 8 minutes.

I worked on the check outs at Sainsburys, at the time it was pretty well paid, for a 16 year old anyway. Sundays would be double pay, but would normally have been up all night on Saturday so, felt like crap, just tried to hide, doing the trollies outside.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Greetings, ATS!

a bra-fitter (NOT FUN),

I fail to see how fitting bras could not be fun...?

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Greetings, ATS!

a pharmacy tech

One for me and one for you, one for me and...

I have got to figure out a way to combine those two jobs!
Then I will have found a way to live an exalted bliss all while making money in a heavenly life finally I could move out of this dark basement!

Originally posted by abeverage

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Greetings, ATS!

a bra-fitter (NOT FUN),

I fail to see how fitting bras could not be fun...?

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Greetings, ATS!

a pharmacy tech

One for me and one for you, one for me and...

I have got to figure out a way to combine those two jobs!
Then I will have found a way to live an exalted bliss all while making money in a heavenly life finally I could move out of this dark basement!

No, the bra-fitting was a nightmare.

This may get removed by the mods, but I'll explain anyway.

To do a fitting, you simply measure around the torso, first across the breast and then under the breast. These numbers determine cup size (A, B, C, DDD, etc) and the band size (32, 36, etc).

The majority of women who wanted a fitting were elderly, which is understandable. Most women just measure themselves, but When you get older it can be tricky.

Anyway....this was a typical measuring session.

Elderly Lady: "I'll take off my bra so you can measure, okay?"

Me: "That's not necessary, I can measure while you're wearing......oh, my. Ummmmm...."

Elderly Lady: "Do you want me to lift them up one at a time or together?"

Meanwhile, she's hanging down to her knees and it is NOT attractive.

Now keep that image in your head tonight, my friend!

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Anyway....this was a typical measuring session.

Elderly Lady: "I'll take off my bra so you can measure, okay?"

Me: "That's not necessary, I can measure while you're wearing......oh, my. Ummmmm...."

Elderly Lady: "Do you want me to lift them up one at a time or together?"

Meanwhile, she's hanging down to her knees and it is NOT attractive.

Now keep that image in your head tonight, my friend!

Ok you win...