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 worked in a small supermarket when I was at university - the sort where you have to mop the floor and serve on the tills at the same time. By my third year at Uni I was working 30 hours a week as deputy manager as I only had 10 hours of lectures/seminars.

I've also worked on various farms doing everything from lambing to wrapping hay. When I'm having a bad day at work now, I can always be grateful that I haven't got my hand up an animal.

I had a paper round from 13 (terrible, was always the last to turn up - hated it), so that didn't last too long. Then job in M&S from 16 (Saturdays and late-night Thursdays after school) plus a couple of other retail jobs in the summer before university.

Once at university I worked in the union bar in my first and second years. Didn't work in my third year as wanted to focus on exams, but didn't find working in the other 2 years was a problem in terms of fitting in studying - still got a First. Did do English, though, so not hours of lectures .

Stayed on as a postgrad and did all manner of jobs around the edges of that - retail (WH Smith - awful place to work, I found), call centre (British Gas - ditto), small printing company (as close as I have got to a factory). Always found it quite interesting (met lots of nice people along the way - from all classes, if it matters ), and highly motivating from the point of view of how dull and unremunerative the work was.

Immediately after getting my postgrad quals I was a lecturer, am now a lawyer.

When I was younger I worked in quite a few shops. I also did lots of babysitting.
I worked in a factory for 2 weeks and I couldn't have done it for another minute, it was horrendous.

I also worked for a travel agency and that was really bad.
I've managed to have jobs I quite like from my mid 20s onwards.

I've worked in a book-packing warehouse, fruit picking, in an industrial bakery, and in a bookies. I've also been a home carer.

never mind character forming, i enjoyed three of those jobs immensely, and have days when i ponder quitting my professional job to go back to something like that

I've never worked behind a bar, but have had a good variety of jobs when I was teenager and in my university holidays.

I've been: a babysitter, a waitress, a firework packer, a runnerbean picker plant planter and waterer.

Now I'm a physiotherapist!

The money was nice when I lived at home but essential when I was at university.

cuffing my dad worked in a chicken factory inhis 20's-he said he ran away after a week!! they must have a huuuuge staff turnover!!

From first year at high school I worked ever summer doing farm work (backbreaking farm work - barley rogueing, berry/veg picking) and cleaning holiday cottages.
I supported myself at university working in a shop (20 hours a week), waitressing and chambermaiding.
In the uni holidays I worked as a cook/cooks assistant/cleaner and childminder for families who would want help on holiday (all in the UK).
It was expected of me from a young age as we didn't have a lot of money and the pocket money I did get was enough to get a curly wurly and some salt n vinegar chipsticks. If I wanted anything beyond that I would need to save up for them.

If I had children (I don't - but my DP does) I would want them to work in order to truly understand the value of hard work (not jut the financial benefits).

Yep/yep/yep/no

I still work in a cafe.

i had one job in a restaurant and lasted precisely three hours. I dropped a tray of glasses and they predictably smashed everywhere. I was fired on the spot.

My other jobs were:

Clerk to a Solicitor
Lifeguard
PA

and then my career...

I babysat from 14 then worked weekend jobs from the day of my 16th birthday
(newsagents, co-op, jewellers) then carried on while I was at Uni (Jewellers, La Senza). While I was at uni I moved into bar work and worked practically full time around my degree until my PGCE.

I've been a teacher for 12 years now but have 'moonlighted' in bar work when money was tight.

I'd quite like to scan things in a supermarket. Unfortunately my mortgage keeps me tied to teaching. :(

mine was a pasty factory and that was bad enough-standing in a pool of rancid egg and milk glaze, making sure the pasties werent upside downon the conveyorbelt as they went into the oven!

I've worked behind 4 bars and in 2 shops whilst at 6th form and Uni.

I would say about 50% of my peers did similar jobs to get them through.

A lot of the ones who didn't work were from rich backgrounds as it was a uni that seemed to attract those who had the backgrounds but not the brains for Oxbridge

I have been:

A waitress
A housekeeper
Call centre agent
In retail
Bar steward
Bar supervisor

And, I am now a professional bar supervisor after having done a degree and masters in a totally unrelated subject.

Well, some of us have to manage these places!

It's a cracking job which a lot of folk make a very good profession out of!

I worked as a cleaner and a care assistant in an old people's home for two years, and cleaned up just about every bodily fluid and emission there is.

I babysat for people as a teenager, was then a cleaner, then a kennel maid, then a zoo keeper, then an au pair and now a zoologist.

Dh worked in a shop and a bar before qualifying - so b/w us we qualify.

Pretty much everyone I know has had these sort of jobs to fill gaps in employment, or while studying. Now some of us are headed that way again....

Some of us still do those jobs.

Shoe shop.
Twice.

The last was fairly posh, though.

yup I also assume that everyone at some point has done something like that

I've worked in:
shops
a supermarket
bars
nursing home
cinema
restraunt
babysitting

but never:
factory
call centre
cleaning (well when waitressing once I was moved to housekeeping, then moved back after half a morning because I was a bit deliberately very crap at it!)

I was variously a babysitter, deli counter assistant in a supermarket, free paper deliverer and cleaner while at school, then did silver service waitressing, shop and supermarket work and lab work in holidays from med school in pre-clinical years. Very few of my med school peers had ever worked.
I did enjoy the moment, after a rather snooty woman had ranted at her teenage dd that if she didn't work harder at school she'd end up like me behind the deli counter in a supermarket, when I mentioned that I was on holiday from university where I was studying medicine

Worked in restaurants from about 15 right through till after Uni. Loved it most of my friends did the same type of work to earn money while studying.

During university I did more agricultural work during the summer.

Also waitressing.

After university I did bar work and even more bringing in the sheaves.

between the ages of 14 and 22 i have :
been a babysitter
waitress in cafe and in a fairly posh restaurant
worked in a bakery
been a strawberry picker and packer
worked in department store, on shop floor then as clerk in sports dept

most of these while at uni

Yes and some of us still are. We aren't all high flying professionals on here...