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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Comments:
Mar '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
The King Prawn
Casey
The UK has a growing problem with this. We certainly have some of it here as well. · Jan 18 at 12:46pm
Edited on Jan 18 at 12:47 pm
I have family in the UK and on my most recent visit I noticed that everybody has a well tended garden. "Where do they find the time?" I remarked. "Nobody here works." they replied.
Edited on January 18, 2012 at 10:03pmMar '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
First job was making hay with my cousins
I learned that if you pull a few green leaves off of a tree and stick them under your baseball hat, the evaporation helps keep your head cool.
I learned that if a haywagon is tipping over, it is a good idea to bail out of the wagon from the side that is going up.
I learned that "Snake!" is haymaking shorthand for you would be well-advised to drop that bale at your earliest convenience.
And I learned that working with people you really like makes even hot, uncomfortable work a lot more fun.
Edited on January 18, 2012 at 10:03pmJul '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I can’t remember a time that I didn’t work for one of the family’s businesses. Mainly these were small construction concerns owned by a family member. I mostly did minor maintenance jobs. This was my family’s version of an allowance; you will note that this doesn’t include home chores which were expected of us and not paid for.
At age 14, I got a job working as a “dock boy” on the Ohio River. It was my first real job in that I was working away from the family, had to clock in, pay taxes, responsible for money and property.
Lessons learned:
Feb '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
First job for which I was expected to work outside of our family home and be paid (other than the occasional ad hoc mowing or dog walking) was for my Uncle's trucking company, I swept the floors, dug the accumulated filth out of the floor drains, wire brushed and painted tire rims, washed the trucks and helped stock and organize spare parts, and cut up scrap metal.
It was the summer between fourth and fifth grade, and I worked two to four days a week., it allowed me to save money and spend it as I pleased; but more importantly it taught me the value of doing things the right way, when I cut corners or dragged the pace of my work, I was shoved along or made to redo things.
It was a great school for solid work, pride in a job well done, and that no labor is beneath anyone. I'm sure it was a complete violation of several labor and safety laws.
Jun '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I started when I was 7. My brothers and I picked produce and made $5.00 a week.
At 10, we moved up to the big leagues. Another farm paid .60 cents for every half bushel of beans we picked.
If you were lazy, everyone else relentlessly broke your chops. There was no one around to make sure it was a "level playing field." It was a total meritocracy. We quickly became the fastest beanpickers in the state of Pennsylvania, owning records that still stand today.
I learned how to curse (I have my M.F.A in that area), how to fight and how to work.
B.T.W., one of the businesses we run is a janitorial service. There are plenty of tasks that kids could perform well (it's obviously not rocket science). The problem from our perspective would be turnover. Kids move on pretty quickly. Turnover increases the cost of doing business but there is nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with suggesting that kids should work.
May '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
My actual first paid work...throwing hay bails on a wagon in July. 50 cents an hour. I worked 10 hours for a 5 dollar bill which I took to the drug store and used (along with another dollar) to buy a box of Dristan antihistamine.
I learned NOT to work behind a hay baler if you are allergic to hay.
An early (not first) summer paycheck job had me loading tractor trailers and rail cars full with Magnavox console TV/Stereos. Remember how big those were? I learned I was big enough and tough enough to keep up with the tough warehousemen that did it all year long.
Jun '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I'm a farm boy, so my first job was chores on the farm, starting with filling the water troughs and other things that a 6 or 7-year-old kid could do, then graduating to doing anything my Mom or Dad could do (up to and including helping a ewe give birth to her lambs--growing up on the farm takes all the mystery out of birth). I learned that if you don't fill the troughs, the sheep get thirsty; if you don't feed them, they die; if you don't water the crops, they don't grow. It was a great lesson in the relationship between cause and effect: action and inaction have consequences. In other words, don't plan on something good happening unless you're doing your part.
Jun '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Double post, sorry.
Edited on January 18, 2012 at 10:22pmJan '12
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Bus-boy in a steak house in Clemson. Learned that a paycheck is a wonderful thing, other people take too much out of it, and that you want to prepare your own baked potato if you like to eat the skins. Some restaurants don't wash them before wrapping.
Edited on January 18, 2012 at 10:25pmMar '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I learned how to curse (I have my M.F.A in that area), how to fight and how to work.
A language scholar that I knew once--he was a carpenter in his day job--had a similar philosophy. My experience has proven him right. If you can curse properly and confidently in a language, you can't speak it.
Mar '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
That last sentence was supposed to read:
"If you CAN'T curse properly and confidently in a language, you can't speak it."
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Jude: ... and that you want to prepare your own baked potato if you like to eat the skins. Some restaurants don't wash them before wrapping. · Jan 18 at 1:22pm
Edited on Jan 18 at 01:25 pm
This is important information. Thank you.
Dec '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
The most fun job during my farm time was unstopping sprinkler heads. We'd run out into the field with a piece of bailing wire and dig the mud out of the head, and boy was it refreshing on those hot West Texas summer days. Moving pipe in the same heat, not so much.
Dec '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
As with Give Me Liberty, a paper boy in Honolulu (Advertiser, in my case). Up at 5, fold papers, then ride off into the dark hills. Loved it! What I learned? Well, I was 11 and a bit shy of strangers. I rode my bike all over town, eyes peeled, hoping somebody had dropped their wallet. That was my plan, because there was no way I was going to knock on all those doors and ask for my money. I learned I had to knock on all those doors and ask for the money.
Dec '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
I swept the floors of a barbershop and hobby store every Saturday when I was 12-14 and listened to the wisdom of George the barber, who seemed 100 years old at the time, and his son-in-law, Carl. I learned that the values my parents taught me - especially those regarding work and dealing with people I didn't know - were shared by most decent folks, a very valuable lesson.
Dec '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
In the summer of 1991, I worked as part of "Clean-up" at Cog Hill Golf Course in Lemont, Illinois. As the name implies, it was my job to make sure everything in one of the main buildings was clean - from busing tables, emptying trash, cleaning the bathrooms and, the most important job, keeping the parking lot clear of cigarette butts or any debris.
The owner and legendary "Patriarch of Chicago Golf", Joe Jemsek, was such a stickler for the condition of parking lot that I soon found I was spending any "downtime" out in that lot scouring for the smallest piece of trash I could find.
As the summer was coming to a close after Cog Hill had successfully hosted the Western Open for the first time, Mr. Jemsek walked up to me while I was doing my rounds in between the cars and thanked me for my hard work and that he appreciated that I "loved the place as much as he did".
What I learned from that experience was the impact that some positive reinforcement and acknowledgement can have on an employee as I still think fondly of the brief encounter over 20 years later.
May '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
First job was at 10, a paperboy for the Hartford Times. Then at 12 with the Hartford Courant. Also at 12 years, my buddy and I would use the new 6 hp Ariens snow blower (that our parents split three ways with another neighbor) to do a dozen driveways on the street. We'd make $60 - $100 a day back in '62 or so. (Oops, gave my age away!)
Mowing lawns and washing cars were before I turned 16 and then I worked at a gas station pumping gas, washing windows, and checking oil and radiator levels, and occasionally checking tire pressures as simply part of the job.
As with most of the other posters here, I learned hard work pays off.
May '10
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
My first full-time job was working for a family-owned oil company. I filed data logs, recorded inventory alone in a basement, boxed and moved everything under the sun during a move to new offices, and basically did whatever anyone asked me to do.
Later jobs verified what I learned then: job titles/descriptions only identify who is ultimately responsible for what, not what one will actually be doing.
I also learned that a company can run smoothly while mixing business with pleasure, provided employees take their jobs seriously. A sense of humor makes any labor lighter.
Sep '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
As the second child of a dairy farm family, I was generally required to work, and was unpaid. I got up before school every morning to clean the barn (when I was younger) or feed the calves (when I was older). If I wanted to do something after school, I had to come home first to take care of the same set of chores. My first paying job was in Washington DC at 16 and was a House Page. Oddly, I felt I was still work around [expletive]. The nice thing for me was not having to get up until 6:00 am to go to school before the day's session started. It was sleeping in every day. In college, I milked cows on the night shift because it paid far better than fast food, and summers I worked construction.
Edited on January 18, 2012 at 11:15pmSep '11
Re: What Did You Learn From Your First Job?
Lessons:
No matter what, on a dairy, you have to work. Cows don't take a day off so neither do you.
Girls with callouses and a firm handshake garner nearly instant respected.
That also goes for girls that can change tires on nearly every make of vehicle, drive tractors, back a trailer and competently use power tools.
I appreciate the ease of an office job, but I could go and milk cows or hang sheet rock any day if the necessity arises.