to think that most of us have worked behind a bar/ in a factory/supermarket/ as a cleaner at some point, HAVEN'T we?????

[bejeezus]

Came up in conversation today in the office, that I have worked as a barmaid; my colleagues where and I was equally that non of them have...I thought EVERYONE had worked behind a bar at some point in their life???

Ive had variousjobsinmylife, including factory work, working in kitchens, dog kennels, cleaning, callcentres; and now Im a professional

it gotme thinking--i went to uni and worked holidays/ evenings and weekends...now i think about it, hardly anyone else did that!

Am reading 'Chavs' at the minute and the author makes that very point....very large majorityof politicians have never done that kind of job and so cannot relate to the working classes AT ALL. It really hit home, how very far removed from normal folk, politicians are these days

But,most of yous have done/do these kind ofjobs-right?

most people i knew at uni worked in some way.. i didn't work during termtime (i did lots of voluntary stuff that helped with my eventual career) but i did work holidays.. i went to a 'posh' university but still most people worked either termtime or holidays (though very posh students 'interned' for 'daddy').

Waitressing from silver service to pizza place, bar work, cleaner, shop worker, care assistant, cinema usher.

There were good bits about all of them. All of them were worth doing and I really appreciated the money at the time.

I have worked in various jobs. They were all damned hard work but I think they did me good....
I started at 15 as a waitress for an outside catering company
Then I worked as General Assistant in a small hotel
I have worked as a post person at Christmas
I worked in a chicken packing factory (bleugh)
I have weeded lettuce and packed it
I have worked in restaurants and bars
I have picked tobacco on a farm in France
I have also been a 'hostess' at a football ground (ie I served food to the boxes and worked in some of the bars)

I amnow a teacher but if I needed to I would do any of them again (except maybe the chicken thing!)

Cafe
Shop
Bar
Kitchens
Care assistant
Factory

All while studying. Then admin temp until I found a "graduate" job.

I quite miss bar work sometimes.

Too many jobs to count really, starting with farm-work as a child (can't turn the cows off you know Bibi ) to working in a clothes shop at 15-16, enveloper licker (not a euphemism), Au-pair, Silver service waitress, Hotel Receptionist, Girl Friday in a Hotel including Bar work, Man & Van Assistant, a plethora of office jobs, self-employed book-keeper....

This thread and all of it's contributors have given me an unexpected boost tonight!

Thank you OP and everyone for reminding me just how capable I can be in life :)

Oh, and the bingo hall at Bognor Regis Butlins, which I loved!

Hello Bibi

Don't forget your very important job as ticket-clipper

That reminds me that I used to work in a bingo hall, making sandwicjes and collecting coffee cups. All the bingo harridans used to SHUSH me because I rattled the cups when I collected them.

Bloody hell people take bingo seriously.

I've never worked behind a bar. I did waitress for a bit in a pub but was too young to serve.

Have done equally shit jobs though such as hours of stuffing envelopes

Ha ha ha GetOrfMoiiLand (love that name btw, always have) :)

Ticket-Clipper of course, how could I forget!

Yours and Springforward's Bingo Hall jobs instantly put me in mind of Peter Kay's autobiography.

Apparently he used to work in Bingo Halls in the middle of Summer and was forced to crawl around peoples sweaty feet collecting the trays

Worth reading the Sound of Laughter just for the crappy jobs he used to do :)

I was a pot washer when I was 14 (not sure if that's allowed now??) and have been a (VERY bad) waitress, worked in a shop and done telesales (which was by a LONG way my worst job ever) in my younger years. Like the OP I assumed everyone had had an "entry level" job at some point

Thanks bibi

My first job paid the grand wage of a pound an hour (1990). Wasn't bad actually, what with the free ice cream and all. The owner of the place used to bugger off and leave me to it, on my own in an ice cream kiosk and sandwich bar. What was she thinking? I was 12!

Oh and I stuck up skittles in a pub from around 9 years old.

Yes, I have

I've done factory work (several types) and lots of bar work. I've also done cashier work in a DIY store - mainly all during Uni holidays and just after graduating when I was deciding what to do with my life

I have worked in all of those places and many more besides, now I'm a nurse. I thought that was the norm.

Bar work, lion safari park, supermarket, shop work, fast food joint, made dog hide bones at home, fruit shop, ran an after school club, paper round, drove a Mr Whippy van, sold jewellery, not in order!! Last pt job was bar work - £3.01 per hour, while I dossed on the floor when I first arrived in London. Till I finally got a "profession".

Fruit shop at the orchard was the best. Nothing tastes as good as an apple or peach straight off the tree

People REALLY take bingo seriously!!!

I've met people who make a living playing bingo, and reckon on 3 or 4 wins a week...

Before I got my trainee accountancy job at 19 I worked in a factory over the summer holidays, weekends in a clothes shop, and then in a pub as soon as I was 18. That was the best fun, but the late nights and after-hours drinking would kill me now!

I too assumed that most people (ie those without rich parents to fund their social lives/trips to Top Shop) had done similar types of work at some stage. Are politicians still more likely to come from well off backgrounds? I know Cameron and Osbourne do, but what about the rest?

before and during uni

shop staff
candlemaker
bar work
waitress
factory work
receptionist
tele marketing for charity
cleaner

Ooh, bingo halls... heaven help me if I miscounted someone's change, or called too fast!!

God, I loved that job, we worked split shifts so work, beach, work, pub, every day .

Just me that still works in a cafe then

I think more so now msmarple

I have an urge to bingo now! I can't never keep up, it always makes me cry with laughter, and I always get frowned at...which makes me laugh more...

"I was a pot washer when I was 14 (not sure if that's allowed now??)"

Ooh, ooh, over here, me too! Working in a tiny little restaurant/hotel for six weeks over the summer holidays, live in, 40 miles away from home (might as well have been Mars)

I recall being 16 though and still remember as if it were yesterday my mother pushing me towards the owner of the place at drop-off time with the words 'she's used to farm-work this one, strong as an ox'

To this day I wish she'd have said - be careful with Bibi now, she's a delicate little flower, don't tax her too much

It was six weeks of pot-washing, bed making, coffee serving, vomit and other fluids cleaning from the toilets, one day off a week hell but at the end of it I was the proud owner of my much coveted shiny new Stereo System.

Looks like usual, put the kettle on duck...

I've never done that type of job, but I suspect I am in the minority so YANBU.

I never had a Saturday job when I was at school, and as a student, I had sponsorship and summer placements, so no need to look for other work.

I used to have to empty the slot machine bingo things as well (all the bingo players used to run like the wind during the 'breaks' to get their usual slot machine.

Used to get shouted at because I made a noise emptying out all the 10ps into an ice cream container. You try emptying loads of 10ps out in silence!

Plus because I lived in a small town the harridans used to gossip to my gran at the bus stop/supermarket the best day 'your getorf does well but she makes too much noise, it put me off dabbing the no. 88 last Wednesday' bloody old trouts.

It put me off gambling for life - they didn't look as if they enjoyed theirselves, all that martyred dabbing and SPITE directed towards the winners. Especially the big money link ups with Bingo halls around the land and the thousands of pounds prizes.