To ask what crazy stuff your first employer got you to do?

[TransformationChynaDoll]

Here's my list of my first few jobs;
There was always too much rubbish so we had to take it turns to get in the bin and jump up and down on it so the lid would shut. We're talking about a huge industrial bin.
Ring people and ask them their BMI prior to appointments. For no real medical reason at all.
Arrive early and work unpaid for the first half hour so that the croissants would be cooked on time. No one ever questioned it.
Clean a big grease trap in a dishwasher which flooded the whole cafe knowing that the reason we had to mop for days straight was due to the company being too tight to pay someone to fix it.

Worked at a bank in the complaints dept. Had to make sure the boss didn't get any phone calls or work needing urgent attention until the morning snack trolley had been round, as if she didn't get her can of coke she was hell to be around for the rest of the day.

I was sent over to help the Philippino couple who were their housekeepers chop food for the Christmas party. To which I was not invited.

This was a job that they told me I was very lucky to get, as they usually only took people with firsts from Oxbridge.

Try to predict what records/LP's were going to be the most popular that week so the shop didn't over/under order. I had been there 3 days at that point and had no idea of the demographic of the shop's customers (it was a small market town record/electrical store).

Babysit a shredder that was shredding the old printerpaper that was joined together, day after day shredding boxes of printouts.

Create copies of all the post going to one director (a known alchoholic) so her work could be monitored (obviouslybefpre emails). I also had to record how much time she had me looking for houses for her (I used to lie because I realised she wanted to get away from her partner and quit the booze, stupidly loyal of me as the bitch gave me a pack of lies as a reference).

A few jobs later I used to switch on my bosses computer, download his emails, print them out, put them in his post book so he could dictate a response, I could type it, save it as a memo onto a disk on my computer, go to his computer and email it back - yes I had email on my machine too, he was stubborn).

Got given a bubble wrap ‘hat’ to wear when it was raining, so that I could still fold empty boxes down out that back of the pharmacy I worked one evening a week at, at 15. They used to get me to count the drugs there too, definitely illegal. All for £5 for 2.5 hours. 20 years ago.

Had to wrap up Christmas presents from my boss to her family and friends. Each one has a post it on it with the recipient which I had to pop back on the wrapped present so she could do gift tags in her own writing.

Had to put suncream on my bosses cat (as a cleaner).

Had to collect my bosses Burger King meal every Saturday when I worked in a shop at about 17/18. I always used to take a couple of fries as tax!

Another here who had to take the weeks takings to the bank alone same time every week; I was only 16 and work as a hotel receptionist for a very popular Jarvis hotel. The high street was quite some distance from the hotel where they banked, it was mid-late 90's and I never batted an eyelid but looking back that was madness.

Having to sit on a mountain of change and notes on emptying day in the amusement arcade (often up to 50k), in a little wooden kiosk with no security often for hours on end waiting for the owners elderly dad to arrive and load up his ancient Mercedes so full the exhaust was dragging on the floor as he left.

I'm sure they were some kind of mafia. Maybe all the crims were too scared to rob little 18 year old me?

He tried to get me to clean up when his King Charles spaniel, which I’d already walked, was sick in the office. I refused as it wasn’t my dog.

Work for free... I was a waitress in a small restaurant - I had to come in 30 minutes before the restaurant opened to set up and clean (unpaid), and I was only paid until 11pm - however customers could still be around eating/drinking after that. And then I had to clean afterwards. Most nights I would leave the restaurant well after midnight. So, at least 90 minutes free work every day. If questioned I was told "tips cover the extra hours".

If someone's pen ran out, take it to the director to check before they could have another.

All pens he agreed were used to be stored in a big tin.

Go round office and ensure that the stationery on everyone's desk was in a set layout.

Check no one had any drinks or food on their desk.

My first job at a local shop aged 15. The manager was awful and she used to make me clean everything, fridges, floors, shelves, tall windows up on ladders and I got paid less than a £1 an hour. My mum eventually told them I wouldn’t be going back when she realised how awful they’d treated me.

In a later job - was still probably only 16/17 I also used to have to take the takings to the bank. Except we were made to use a briefcase with a wrist strap attached to it and if anyone tried to pull it there was a Sue canister inside that would basically spoil all the money.
nothing screamed more than “I’m carrying thousands of pounds” than the briefcase!!
The manager was on the verge of a breakdown and would often take 2hr lunches in the pub and we were in strict instructions to cover for him but if the area manager called to go and fetch him from the pub 🤣

Take her old shoes to the charity shop
Pay her parking or speeding fine I can't remember which, but I remember being really embarrassed in the days you had to go to an office to do this.
She'd send me on errands as suited, I was paid £9k as a receptionist in a recruitment agents.

She was a real cow. Abigail.

Clean the kitchen floor with neat bleech and keep all doors and windows shut. My eyes stung do badly and I could hardly breath. That was 2007 not 1807 by the way.

Pick the boss's kids up from school.

I was sent to pick up her dry cleaning and collect a board member from the airport when I had no petrol to do it.

Prep all the meats etc by myself on a time limit otherwise I’d get reported to the owner, for a fresh sandwich shop while my boss hid in the toilets upstairs smoking and then threw the cigarette in the toilet

at my first pub job they used to close between the lunch and dinner services so very often when I arrived at 5pm I’d have to go upstairs to the landlords’ bedroom to wake them up.

Wondering if we were working in the same part of the country at the time. £4.25 p/h temp job when I first married DH. North West. Not quite so tight as your scenario but that £4.25 was a pay rise. 1997.

I was in London so it was a really low wage for the area , I was only 18 though so maybe that was why they suggested £90

I worked as a PA for the CEO of an investment bank. He once made me call a ski resort in Courchevel to ask them to find his elderly mother's pashmina that she'd left behind.

I wasn't asked to do anything especially unusual, I just had to put up with the boss having big tantrums and throwing things at me. I didn't stay there long.

I earned £80 a week as a modern apprentice Travel Agent. My boss would take all my cruise bookings because I didn't know how to book them yet fair enough but the commission was £20 per head which he pocketed. 23 years later I'm still bitter

My first retail manager didn't understand how add-ons work (that they need to be low value and small), and forced us to ask every customer who were mainly buying small utensils for like £5 "would you like to add a halogen oven onto your purchase today?") 😂

I used to work in a corner shop when I was. 16. The owners would go out leaving me with the shop and their 4 kids under 6!

I was 12 years old and worked in my local convenience store.

The boss used to tell me to sell alcohol but "Just be careful they're not undercover police"