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?

conditions are inherent to the job

But the conditions are not shit in every low paid job. I have worked in sine where that staff were very well treated and loved working there, and one in particular that stands out that was god awful and the atmosphere was horrendous, the wages were the same but the conditions were totally different.

the conditions aren't shit at all where I work. I have no reason to lie about it

List of jobs I've done

Shop assistant ( shoes)
Telesales ( healthcare)
Waitress
Sales assistant in dp .
Telesales ( kitchen)
Sales (kitchen,bathroom,conservatories)
Sales (kitchen)
Assistant manager video shop
Pizza maker in takeaway
Barmaid in posh hotel
Supervisor for functions in posh hotel ( basically a barmaid that gets to boss other barmaids and waitresses and set the rooms )
Full time sham/ career to sn dd.

Loved bits of every job , except the shoe shop ( disclaimer was only 16 so hated weekends being "wasted" working)

Shops
Pub
Packed cucumbers!

Me too- should have said 'are often'

you cannot deny that in general low paid jobs have poorer conditions than more highly paid jobs.

If you are a fee earning professional-the company have a much greater incentive, to treat you well and keep you

My list -

An editorial assistant (dogsbody) at a newspaper.
Various jobs within Disneyland Paris.
In a bar.
In a few clothes shops.
In a few call centres.
A PA.
A recruitment and office manager.

Work for myself now. Thank god.

I agree beejezus, low pay and poor working conditions often go hand in hand, but it's a bit of a sweeping generalisation to say that all low paid jobs are shit, and in my opinion pretty patronising to the people that have no choice but to do them.

Not a bar, factory, supermarket or cleaning job but I have worked in a shop and a hairdressers when I was at college.

I agree trixy. My dad works as a care assistant - that's your traditional low paid job etc, but he loves it!

It's also not true that all manual jobs are low paid... My brother works in a factory, (not managerial) but he earns the same (now, until recently he did earn more) than my office employed husband (whose job requires a degree)

I don't think you can generalise these things.

yup - I worked in a charity shop at school, was a barmaid at the student union at uni (great job - saw my friends, served drinks and got paid for it - and no hangover either), worked in a shop and as a data inputter afterwards to fund travelling and am now a high flying lawyer

It seems on this thread that people who have done entry-level jobs think that people who haven't have missed out on a useful experience. It is only the people who haven't done them who think they wouldn't have gained anything from them.

I think for me, if we are going to analyse pay v's working conditions, the thing that annoys me the most is that you do not get paid for your breaks if you are paid hourly. So you may be expected to be there for 10 hours but because of your breaks you only get paid for 8 1/2. Actually it is what has annoyed me the most about these tax credit changes and the fact you have to work 24 hours a week to claim wtc, when 24 hours in retail, if the breaks being taken off is taken into account, is practically full time.

This most probably doesn't make sense

I wouldn't say it was a useful experience, anymore than any job would have been. It's not the low paidness that is useful merely the act of working.
Actually I got paid more per hour ironing than I do now.

I've never had a job like the ones listed. I started working as a freelance translator between English and my other native language when I was 13. Beats serving drinks to idiots and shoving my hand down a filthy khazi.

One of the worst things about working in a supermarket was other people's reactions when you told them that's what you did - you could see them start to glaze over and their attention start to drift... I had to bite my tongue not to start babbling some justification about hours and convenience and childcare and half the time I failed, which makes me just as bad I guess.

I still work in retail (see, still don't just say I work in a shop - I'm a co-worker in Retail :P ) but IKEA seems to go down better than Sainsbury's for some reason

On another point, to go back up thread a bit, it's a lot harder for students to get jobs now. At DS1's age I had a paper round, they just don't have them any more not around here anyway (and we're living 5 minutes away from where I lived at his age). When I was at Woolies (15 years ago) I'd recruit 16/17 yos to work weekends because the full-time staff wouldn't do it. Now stores don't have that restriction. In IKEA we don't take on people under the age of 18 - we don't have to! There are very few people on 39hrs who aren't management and they're all on flexible 5/7 contracts, so they have to do late nights and weekends. Everyone else is on 16/20/24 hour contracts and are also fully flexible. This style of working and employment makes more sense with the late night/7 days shopping that we all expect now but it's cut out the need to employ under 18's to do anti-social hours.

my jobs are:
saturday job at tea-stands at Notts county
burger king
bookbinding factory
lab technician (2ce)
data entry (powergen) (then other Powergen based jobs)
incoming callcentre
receptionist
bookseller
i'm now a bookseller, but a proprietor too.

ah, see, i did do a paper round, but it wasn't my round, i just helped out a friend for 1/4 of her pay.

agincourt isn't it usual not to be paid for breaks? My lunch hour is unpaid as a teacher and also was in my previous office job, and that was the only break we got.

I worked in Sainsburys, then M&S, through sixth form and uni, but DH has never done any of the jobs in the OP.

I have never worked in a bar, I don't know anybody who actually has tbh. I haven't been a cleaner either.

Everybody I know who worked pre professional job, worked in some sort of shop. I have worked in Boots and I also worked in Littlewoods back in the days they had a food hall and I worked on a deli counter so sort of like a supermarket, certainly not glamourous!

I had a variety of jobs whilst I was still in education.
At 15, I got my first job working as a waitress in a pub- I left that job when I was 16 to work weekends in a clothes shop (the discount on clothes was the clincher!) and worked there all through college until I left for Uni.
During term time, I worked in a pub and stacked shelves in a supermarket.
During the holidays, I signed on with temp agencies and did everything from data entry, to assembling camera parts to making baby blankets in the local hospital laundry!

I am now a well paid 'professional' (I have been for 10+ years) but am always surprised to hear when people either didn't have part-time jobs when studying or haven't done a bar/supermarket/temping jobs. How did they cope for £££?!

but you are paid per annum usually as a teacher and i do think that's different. If you get a per annum wage, so say 20k p/a, you get paid 20k p/a (after tax, ni and pension) and I don't think it has the connotations that you are not getting paid for you lunch break. If you have flexible shift work and you have to do a 7-5 shift but you don't get paid for that whole 7-5 shift as they take your break off but you have to be there on site, well I think psychologically that's different. Maybe it's just me though. I know dh gets paid per annum and doesn't think of his breaks being unpaid, which i suppose they are but it's not so obvious.

DH's only holiday job/weekend job was as a bingo caller.