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?

I have worked behind a bar, a pub near Waterloo!

• Admin work at a local diy store during the holidays, during secondary.
• Cleaning jobs during Uni
• Library Shelving staff
• Barmaid.
• Temping jobs within admin and graphics design,

Then career job.

Actually, my first job was mowing the lawn of an old man down the road, I was 7, and was paid £1, and a glass of cold squash. (bliss)

Exactly, Bibi. We wouldn't be asking them to do it now; just if they ever did it before. Real world, and all that.

Why would revealing they worked in a bar/shop etc damage their reputations?

Maybe they would have a bloody clue how the other half lived if they had.

• Bar staff briefly

- Debenhams in the accessories section - no madam we don't have hazel tights in size large in 15 dernier, but we do have tan tights in size medium in 20 denier. And yet I enjoyed it. - Old peoples home carer - everyone should do this job at some point - Door to door salesperson on 100% commission - we had to pay our own travel costs, so I frequently made a loss on the day.

Very glad to have done all these jobs.

I have worked as a waitress
I had a Saturday job at M&S
I have worked in a grocers but it was Fortnums

I have never worked in a shop (just the transient hospitality and catering end of retail) but am always horrified when I read threads on here at Christmas about the poor sods who work for Next on temp contracts and have to go in at something absurd like 6am on Boxing Day (and have to work into the evening on Christmas Eve to get the shops ready).

I also would never go out for dinner on christmas day because I know how rotten it is being a waitress on Christmas day. I remember working in a hotl which did turkey and tinsel breaks, and by the time real Chrostmas came round we had been 'celebrating' christmas day since September. That is an odd phenomenon. Surely it is only the UK which pretends it is christmas for the whole of autumn to entertain elderly people?

Bastarding shearings coaching holiday hotels.

My mum loves a nice shearings holiday.

"I've never met a single person who has worked in retail (as an adult, not a student on a transient job) who advocates all this twenty-four hour opening hours, never-closing, open-during-the-Olympics bollocks"
Open during the olympics? The rest I agree with. I wish shops would go back to being only open half days on Wednesday & Saturday, and shutting all day on Sunday. So many people see shopping as a leisure activity today, and a day out for some family is a trip round a shopping mall.

I would be very pleased to have a prime minister who had spent some time working on the bakery section in Morrisons, or on a shop floor somewhere.

None of this lot have ever done such jobs, have they.

Usualsuspect, spot on, as per OP. Six quid for serving for an hour at a bar. How many Cabinet Minsters? (Actually the lib dem ones fare better on this, even that Teather.)

No, never. Would have loved to but was never able to.

Brought up in a third world country where such jobs were not available to me, then came to UK on a visa that did not allow me to work at all until I started on my career, so never had the chance.

It sort of frustrates me that I never had the experience.

Lots of the people on the shearings holidays went on about 4 or 5 turkey and tinsel holidays every winter, a week in Newquay, then a week in Ilfracombe, then Eastbourne, Great Yarmouth.

They had a whale of a time.

I am astonished they didn't get sick of turkey. That christmas I had mini baby bels for christmas dinner, I couldn't face any more turkey and all the trimmings.

I have worked:

• in a supermarket
• then I was at uni and single mum, worked at a Beefeater, worked in a pub 16 hrs a week, also worked for NHS out of hours doing reception/call handling - bank staff so was v well paid for the work
• classroom assistant for Kumon
• clerical officer in NHS
• did postgrad degree, didn't work
• teaching, my probation year
• call centre, no sales, was good fun
• admin assistant
• now back to supply teaching

Sure I've missed a few out!

Aged 13 papergirl
Aged 15 cleaning dishes in pub kitchen
Aged 16 high st shop assistant
Aged 18 bar maid, veg factory worker, shop assistant (worked 3 jobs sumner before uni to save cash)
Aged 18-22 shop assistant all through uni

I am keen to teach my DC (when I have them) that earning your own cash from as early as possible gives you a real sense of achievement and teaches the value of things. I worked all through GCSEs, A levels, Uni and got excellent grades, its all possible with good time management and focus.

OH however has only ever had 2 jobs including his current one (the other lasted one day). His parents supported him through/a bit after uni. Was jealous at the time, but I've learned from everything I've done.

But we dont want senior managers from multinationals

We want people who were brought up on council estates by single mothers, or who's father was a postman etc etc, to get a true representation of interests and an understanding of what is actually going on in the country

What happened to Alan whatsisface, who was in line for labour leader? We want him

My first job was Saturday girl in a clothes shop when I was 15.
I then worked in a 99p shop, followed by being a kitchen assistant (hardest job ever ) have been a cleaner, loved being a barmaid, worked in a sandwich shop and a chippy, have also been a care assistant.

Bar staff
Waitress
Supermarket Cashier
H Samuel staff
Spar cashier
Finished uni...
Tesco cashier
Filing clerk, then worked my way up to senior team leader/executive in7 years.

Now sahm & who knows what I'll go back to.

Not really, I went straight from school into an engineering apprenticeship so whilst I've worked in factories it's always been in skilled positions. The two placements in office environments were without doubt the dullest periods of my existence.

I'm not sure that being forced to work behind a bar would give Cameron empathy though, he'd probably just invite all his friends in to drink it dry whilst refusing to serve the regulars...

Alan Johnson?

I'd do him.

I have worked in a sandwich factory (night shifts) , in a kennels, in a pub, in a picture frame factory.

DP has worked in kitchens, as a litter picker and probaby others I've forgotten

I do care how many affairs they have when they spout the moral high ground about 'family values' and blaming the 'demise of Britain' on broken WC homes, feckless single mothers etc etc and dare to suggest people like the Matthews mum is representative of WC Britain

"I also would never go out for dinner on christmas day because I know how rotten it is being a waitress on Christmas day"

Oooooh, that takes me back! I'd forgotten about the Christmas Day debacle!

Picture the scene, there's Bibi, young and fresh and naive, working Christmas Day, in her best girl friday uniform, Queens Speech time finally arrives, all the old codgers guests finally settle down and I thought I was in for an easy 20 minutes at least.

Oh, no, cries of coffee and christmas cake go up - off to the kitchen i trot (chef gone home for a rest by then) - find christmas cake and a knife, try to cut the cake and - nothing! The bastarding knife just would not cut through the damn icing.

Having hailed from the land of Sauerkraut I'd never encountered concrete type icing before. Oh, how I hacked and macheted and sweated.

How the customers brayed for their cake, how their mouths made perfect cats-bums when presented with the butchered fruit slices with carefully chiselled icing arranged around the edges

That's him line runner

Oh God, John Redwood in the 1990s banging on about single mothers.... and how their parents should be made to bring up the babies ....