What is the best low paying job you have had?

[Lockdowner35]

My paper round for me for £40 a month , great experience.

I enjoyed working at a pizza restaurant. I just liked interacting with the customers. Some if the other staff were right bitches though.

Library assistant for me too. Just loved the peace and getting on with shelving books at my own pace. Enjoyed helping people get online, and at that point there was still a date stamp and scanner to use and as self check out machines hadn’t been introduced yet! Only part I didn’t enjoy was that sometimes there was a group of drunk homeless gentlemen who would come in wkd be a bit rowdy. Mostly they just sat in the magazine section for a snooze though so pretty harmless. I don’t know if there are still jobs in libraries now or if it’s mostly volunteers but once the kids have left home and the mortgage is paid off I would love to go back to it!

@Bunchup yeah I feel the same.

Once my mortgage is paid off and I have built up some savings I'm getting a minimum wage job in a plant nursery.

Part time nanny/home help type person when I was 18. Lovely kids, lovely family, lovely house. The mum took genuine interest in what I was up to, was appreciative of me. Both children were just so nice to look after and felt like we had a good connection. They seemed to like me being there. I look back now and I was so young and personally in quite a bad place, and working with them was this little pocket of normality.

I've had the same job with another family which was a nightmare so that's not always the way.

Assistant in a library. Just working with books and friendly staff all day.

Saturday job at Argos, fun colleagues, good times!

Barmaid!

Working in New Look, made some great friends and had some awesome nights out.

Coffee shop barista.
Loved working with the girls, greater owner of coffee shop even come on nights outs and weekend trips away.

We got to keep our yearly tips!
Life long memories made.

Fish and chip shop when I was about 20. Stepdad would pick me up and my mum and siblings would all be waiting up for all the freebies I would be allowed to bring back. Pies, chips etc.

Special needs teaching assistant. I was in a class of 10 and built up such close relationships with all of them, loved working with them every day and seeing them develop. Cried like a baby at the Christmas show every year. Would have stayed forever if I could’ve afforded a mortgage on the wage

Nhs admin, terrible pay but amazing people.

I was a nursery assistant on NMW in a shopping centre playgroup/preschool and loved it. I only worked 3x days per week, including some Saturdays, so I could still do day-to-day supply teaching on my days off. I liked the people I worked with, the children were great and it was right in the middle of the city centre so I could go shopping straight after work before going home (I was young, single and living with my parents so I had plenty of money) and it was easy to get to. I was so sad when the shopping centre was taken over and the new management closed the playgroup because it wasn't making any money.

Blockbuster video (how very retro). Really quiet during the day and you could sit and watch videos, and you could take them home for free. I have a weirdly specific film knowledge of everything released on video from 1994-1997.

@SallyTimms

Working behind bar of local pub. Worked with good friends, we didn't (overall!) fall for any nonense, had a blast, got to know the regulars. It was an eye opener as to what men were like, as they drank after work on a Friday, or all the young blokes plotting their night out. Loved it and would go back in a heartbeat to those times.

This was my experience too! Had a ball working behind a local bar, we used to get a chippy at the end of a Saturday night and had a few drinks when all the customes left. Ah, those were the days!

Worked in a regional theatre box office. Shit pay, couldn’t get full time hours so not enough to pay my bills on that job alone. But I bloody loved it, lovely staff, not micromanaged every second like in other minimum wage jobs - they trusted you to control your own workload and not take the piss, which meant we all worked hard. It was just a lovely atmosphere and it’s the only job I’ve ever had where I looked forward to going to work.

Cleaning beachside huts for a backpackers place on Magnetic Island (off Australia’s east coast). It paid for our board and an evening meal. We’d get up early to beat the heat, get the work done then spend the day reading and dozing on the hammocks and swimming, and the nights, partying. Oh, to be young and free and 18 again! My currently reality is laid up in bed with Covid (caught from the hospital where I work).

Working in a butchers. Had a laugh everyday and customers were fab.
Manager in a care home loved every minute and no two days were the same.
Butchers was minimum wage, care home worked out at half minimum wage - worked everyday and all holidays, but had some fab experiences.

Hair wrapping/ face painting / air brush tattooist at a seafront tourist attraction- it was my student job, returned home every Easter and Summer and had a guaranteed job Spent all day outside and always had an amazing tan. Boss was great and paid £5 per hour which was well over minimum wage. Boss would come down with extra cold drinks / sun cream on really hot days or drop us off a hot chocolate when it was colder

Giving tours of a brewery 🤭

The one I have now. I'm on probation so the pay is quite low, but today I spent an hour and a half walking around a park and feeding squirrels with somebody I support who has mental health issues and learning difficulties. Yesterday I sat by a canal watching the boats, with another of my clients. Yes it gets stressful at times, but weekends like this one make it all worth while, to see the joy on their faces.

Film extra.
I am a teacher and do n the hols.
Loadsa free food and time to just sit and read a book.

I did bar work in town pubs when I was a student, and I absolutely loved it.

We were all around the same age and it gave us a fantastic social life outside of university. We had a right laugh, I got asked out at least once a night which was great for the ego and I had plenty of fun with the boys. We all did. . Once your face was known around town all the bouncers would look after you, and you never had to queue or pay to get into bars & clubs. Happy, happy times.

Saturday job on the record counter in woolies. Got to flirt with all the blokes coming in once the pubs closed (1970s), could play whatever music I wanted all day and got to giggle with my colleagues. Brilliant.

Nearly all of my seaside jobs: various fairground rides and stalls attendant; making ice cream cornets, doughnuts and candy floss; bingo calling, waitressing, ballroom and bar work.
Highlights include: riding the Wall of Death, taking home a bucketful of leftover ice cream every day, free fairground rides, new people every fortnight, huge bands playing locally and a chilled out atmosphere.
The death of the seaside holiday changed all that.