What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee took to the House floor today to blast Newt Gingrich's comments about kids working as janitors, sparking an argument with Rep. Dan Lungren. An excerpt:
"The idea of substituting a New York janitor who makes $37,000, and put a bunch of kids to work — the New York school district is predominantly minority, Latino and African American — is by its very words, divisive and destructive," she said.
“The point he made is that it is far better that we create an economic environment in which men and women, young and old, have an opportunity to experience the satisfaction of a job well done,” Lungren said... He added that “too often, we have knocked out the lower rungs of the ladder of economic success” in a way that has led to a lack of confidence.
Set aside Jackson Lee, one of Congress's more ridiculous personalities, for a moment, and consider: what was your first job? And: what did you learn from it?
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Jul '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Fourth grade. I mowed lawns and then later shoveled snow. I learned responsibility, the pride of doing a good job, and especially to get paid. I also learned to like older folks.
Jul '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Stockboy at J.C.Penny during the Christmas of 1976. I learned a couple of things. I didn't want to be a stockboy, I enjoyed getting paid to do stuff that my dad made me do for free and people really, really wanted Star Wars stuff that Christmas...
Apr '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
My first job was cleaning the bathrooms and toilets of my parents home for allowance and then being promoted to performing that same general tasks and other general cleaning duties at the local bowling alley at the age of 12 and 13.
Lessons learned there are applied today as I manage a maintenance and custodial crew of a mid size medical device manufacturer.
May '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
My Dad required me to have a lawn mowing route during the summer. I had to go out and pound pavement, ring doorbells, introduce myself and makes my sales pitch. After that I had to keep up weekly stops, buying gasoline, and ensure the tools were squared away.
Those lessons serve me to this day.
Jun '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
As a Kmart stockboy, I learned that selling is as much about psychology as it is about price. Put a sale item out on the shelf in normal quantities, and not much happens. Stack it to the ceiling, and people grab it up. Why? Still don't know.
Jul '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I worked at the Salk Institute's legal office and the only thing I learned is that I didn't want to be a lawyer. The funny part is that now, 8 years later, I'm debating law school. I'm not sure that your first job is really all that important in the long run... assuming you don't get fired or something.
Nov '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Starting in the 11th grade I began working all summers, weekends and vacations for a landscaping company at $2.50 per hour. I did that for the next five years as I paid every cent of my college education without any financial aid whatsoever. I learned everything from that, and, later on, I drove my management teams absolutely crazy with one landscaping analogy or metaphor after another. Believe me, you don't want to know...
Dec '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I have pretty much worked my entire life, I didnt learn anything because its just part of who I am.
Mar '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Putting aside the small jobs in the summer around the neighborhood or working in my church or at school or for family, I worked at a small local dry cleaner’s in my first year of high school.
Lessons learned: How (and why) to show up on time; how to put the task in front of me before other concerns that I might have; how to look after a business at all times of day and night—how to take responsibility for everything that happens while I’m the one behind the register and among the employees; how to get that cute girl you work with to go out with you; how to own up to a customer if you’ve made a mistake; a healthy respect for immigrants to America owning businesses, learning English, and trying to make their way; and why I needed to do well on the SAT.
Mar '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I learned that prostituting oneself for money creates an endless dependence that kills the will to live.
(For the record, I was a bag boy. Not a prostitute.)
Aug '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I learned to hate the minimum wage.
After working for a period of time as a Courtesy Clerk (read: bagger) at a local grocery store chain in Northern Nevada, I received a 10% raise. I was ecstatic. I had more money to spend! Woot!
Then a couple of months later, the minimum wage went up to a rate higher than I was currently getting paid. I appreciated the additional money in my paycheck, but I went to ask my boss if my new paycheck would be minimum wage +10% to reflect the raise I worked hard and had been deservedly given. The short answer...no!
WTH?
Needless to say, losing out on merit above "minimum" was pretty upsetting to me. I think that this was the first moment I began to shift rightward. I still want my 10% over minimum wage paid...retroactively.
Dec '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I learned that rock picking a quarter section of cotton field and having my pellet gun taken permanently away were the wages of shooting out a few windows in a barn.
Apr '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I was a paperboy for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. In addition to delivering the paper every afternoon after school, and Sunday mornings by 5 am, I had to collect the payments for the paper monthly from which I earned my money. I learned that some people want things for free even if it means sticking it to a 10 year-old boy.
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I was a locker boy down the beach in Asbury Park. I learned people will actually give you money for the simple task of inserting a key and turning it.
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I ran little entrepreneurial schemes as early as age 7 so that I could raise money to buy American Girl dolls. But my first actual employment was at a fabric store when I was 15. I learned a lot: what it takes to offer superb customer service, how to deal with difficult customers as graciously as possible, and how to run a cash register and settle up the day's transactions at closing time. I also learned that the govt seizes a pretty sizable portion of earnings and that the process of filing tax returns is a pain in the rear end.
May '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
My summer job was umpiring youth baseball. A game every night of the week and doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. All for $16 a game. By the time I was in college my season was the equivalent of a minor league season. (96-100 games)
What I learned:
1) If you want to take Cuba, leave the Marines alone. Give me a brigade of irate moms and tell them Castro is the reason their boy isn't starting. I'll take the island in a week.
2) Sometimes you can't tell who's more mature, children or parents.
3) I can ignore anything - to a point.
4) If the view is so good from the dugout I'll sit next to you. No? You want me to stand out there in the hot sun? Fine. Then shut up.
5) I don't care who wins. Throw strikes and good things will happen.
Aug '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
My first real "paycheck" job was washing dishes at a Sheraton hotel. It taught me about workplace camaraderie, the value of having a tough but fair boss, the importance of competitive drive (I was not happy when my buddy was promoted over me), and what it's like to be judged based on your position in an organization's hierarchy (the only time anyone on the wait staff chatted with me was when a waitress found out I was a college student on summer break, and she basically said, "Oh, I just thought you were some loser washing dishes."). I also learned about spray-on coagulant, when I ripped my index finger open on a broken dish.
Before that, I helped my parents renovate houses, which taught me more things I can possibly list here, including how not to use a belt sander. Like most kids of my era, I also worked around our yard, learning, among other things, how not to use a roto-tiller.
I proudly bear the scars of all these jobs on my hands.
Today, if a neighborhood kid offered to mow my lawn, I would be stunned.
Dec '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I picked raspberries in 105 degree heat in the fields of the Central Valley. I was 13 years old - there was some sort minimum-age exemption for summer farm work. What I learned was a zen-like response to misery. One raspberry, one basket, one pallet, one walk to the truck, one drink of ice water....one raspberry...before you knew it, the day was done.
Of course, today this is a job Americans won't do.
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Concerning janitorial work: My fiancé (who came from a relatively poor family) worked as a janitor at the private Christian high school he attended to help pay for his tuition. After high school, he went to college, and upon graduating, he returned to his high school as a teacher.
I think Gingrich's exhortation that poor kids work as janitors is great. It's the reception that his exhortation gets from the likes of Jackson Lee that I find "divisive and destructive." It's as though these Democrats fail to see the inherent dignity of working in order to better one's lot in life. But there I go stating the obvious.
Mar '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
In this economy you'll probably get a 40-year-old man offering to mow your lawn.