@89ute commented in the KFC thread about working at KFC in his youth and how shitty a job it was. That got me thinking about the hardest job I ever had.
Summer of 91, I just graduated and was about to go into the Army but my dates got pushed back so old man Nacho set me up with a job at Gai’s bakery (now Franz bakery) in the sanitation department.
A couple of chinteresting tidbits: mom, dad, both brothers, an uncle, and 2 cousins all worked at Gai’s bakery at some point over the course of 50 years. I don’t think I had a job in high school that wasn’t set up by one of my parents.
On to the story....
My first day at work was a Saturday in August starting at 5 am. I was hungover from a party the night before and had no idea what this job entailed. I arrive and meet the other guy on the shift; he’s going to train me and today is his second to last day before going back to school at UW.
First part of the job, go into the basement of the giant factory bakery were there are 30+ mini dumpsters full of yeast infested dough that has fallen on the floor during the baking process and take a shovel to scoop up anything that’s fallen out. At about 7am, a dump truck arrives and the 2 of us are pushing these dumpsters in front of the truck to get emptied.
Let me tell, you don’t want to walk into a room of 30+ containers of yeast infested dough when you’re hungover from drinking Olde English the night before. Those 2 things don’t mix very well.
Next part of the job, go through the bakery with a shitty flat bed cart to collect barrels of discarded product that’s fallen off the assembly line. (The barrels were probably 55 gallon capacity) The flat bed part of the cart was about 18” off the ground and the barrels had no handles. Then tar the cart with barrels to a dumpster shoot. Lift the barrels off the cart over a 4 foot wall to empty the contents but not drop the barrel. Repeat this process 30 times.
My second day was Tuesday (the bakers were off Tuesday and Saturday which was when we worked). Show up expecting another day with the UW guy only to have my supervisor tell me UW guy decided to quit early and that I’d be on my own for an hour but a new guy was coming in and I’d be training him.
Thank God I left for basic training 6 weeks later.
Comments
A quick survey of the shop determined that out of a half-dozen workers, I was the only one with a valid driver's license (more on that later). So I became the set up guy. The charge was $20, with a tip often included, that went to me. I got so good at it that from knocking on the door to hose- in -mattress took about 20 minutes. I would do anywhere from 8-12 on a given day. One of the benefits besides the dough, was it kept me in great shape.
One day, late in the summer, I and another guy had to drive a U Haul trailer from EWA to Bellevue with a load of beds for a shop in an old house on Bellevue Way, just south of downtown. We ran out of gas at the bottom of Snoqualmie pass, and had to hitch-hike to the truck stop east of North Bend.
Their store charged a case of beer for set up, so there was a shit-load of brew when we got there. After a few beers, somebody busted out a joint, yada-yada. We asked about a place to eat, and they pointed us to the Pump House. After a couple beers with dinner, I had to drive back, because my "co-worker" passed out. The best part of the trip for me was that at the Pump House, we sat at the bar, and I looked up at one point and was looking at Dean Vernon Wormer, at the end of the bar (no sign of Mayor DePasto, or Mrs. Wormer)
The guys I worked with were sketchy as shit. My pops worked with one of their dads. I found out later that father and son robbed a couple of banks and disappeared, presumably to Mexico...
At the end of the Summer, I decided to shelve thoughts of "taking a year off from school", and suddenly sitting in boring classes didn't seem to bad...csb
That was some bullshit. Forearms broke out with hives. Eyes were glued shut and red. Hay fever, couldn't breathe.
Lasted two days. Done. She wasn't worth it.
p.s. I banged the back out of the one of the register girls at the Pizza Shack on the reg. Her name was Jessica. Unreal 16 year old hard body and a face to protect it. Not my finest moment from a face perspective, but had an ass you could crack an egg on and C cups that quite literally pointed up they were so firm. I'm not sure why this post became about some hot bodied Texas blonde with a snaggle tooth, but it did, so fuck right off.
First day on the job, I work for forty-five minutes in the hot sun, and then feel thirsty so I wander off and find a hose and start drinking from it. My new boss asks me what I'm doing. I tell him that I'm thirsty and I'm drinking water. He tells me that this can be done on my break time. I tell him if he's not going to let me have water when I'm thirsty then I'm not going to work for him anymore. And I walked off the job. Didn't even make it through the first day.
Weeks or months later, my dad tells me, "Son, I must say that you embarrassed me a bit. I pulled some strings to get you that job, and you didn't even last one day."
Yes, I was a colossal idiot.
If we're going to bash snaggle tooth blondes, I'm out.
I was on the line in a dirt pool hotter than hell when the owner asked who wanted to run the warehouse. The cool, shady not digging with a shovel warehouse. My hand went up and out the door I went
I was always lucky at getting pulled from the labor pool to run the company.
This guy was a piece of work. With a hand gun in one boot and a roll of cash in the other
Also worked at Puetz Golf on Aurora. The amount of hubris associated with failed 30-somethings who sold golf apparel and could shoot 10-over was mind blowing. I quit that job after two weeks.
Retail sucks.
The jobs I had in warehouses and on production lines during my college years were much more enjoyable and the people were mostly honest, hard workers. That was before the great purge of all the PNW Tuff Liberals, though.
It wasn’t the customers either (though every once and awhile you got a grade A prick) it was management - they timed you on your calls in addition to evaluating them, and that added an unnecessary layer of pressure. Some people need more hand holding to work through their issue so we’d all cringe if it was a “needy” account on the line.
Plus, I hated the pre-canned script they forced us to use for troubleshooting. It was all very de-humanizing.
But even that gig wasn’t too bad. In hindsight I’ve been very lucky with the companies I’ve worked for and the positions I’ve held. I know what truly hellish jobs other people do.
My first job was picking raspberries. Working the fields was the only job you could do before you were 13 or something, so the kids my age lined up to do it. I don't remember what hours I worked other than it starting at some ungodly time in the morning and going until the U-pick opened. Rasperries have got to be the most difficult produce to pick. They're super fragile, so it's hard to be fast. We were all set off with a shallow bucket, and we'd come in and have that bucket weighed and loaded into flats, then back out with another bucket. I was picking for $.27 per pound. Know how many raspberries are in a pound? All of them, that's how many.
I worked ALL summer in the hot ass sun, all that kept me going was visions of that check I was going to get when it was all over. I was planning all of these things I was going to buy (I think a Walkman was top of the list). At the end of the summer, being one of the better pickers there, I was handed a check for $42.
That was the moment I lost all interest in growing up to be a responsible adult and earning an honest living. That day, another fast strategy kid was born (RIP DDY).
Fuck employees.
That's all I can say. FUCK EMPLOYEES.
Door to door stuff can be pretty bad. I've never done it long term.
There's nothing worse than having a bitch's hand in your pocket. Listen to Leykis. I see the hot single chicks complain about bills on social media. You aren't conning me out of my hard earned money sweetheart. I'll bet your ex is paying vaginamony. Fuck that noise.