First Jobs

Barrychuckle

Barrychuckle

Administrator
Staff member
Captain C got me thinking about first jobs. Other than a paper round my first ever job was working in a chicken factory. I got paid £1.25 an hour and it was a pretty grim job, they used to kill the chickens there too and it was freezing as all the rooms had to be at fridge temperature. My job was typically cutting the chicken breasts into strips or getting the meat off the legs (which still had the claws on) I remember the supervisor used to come in and tell us off if we'd left too much meat on the bones! I used to come home covered in plasters where I'd cut my fingers on the sharp knives. Interesting fact was I worked directly for Ranjit Boparan who is now the owner of 2 sisters chicken empire and worth an estimated £500m, I used to have to collect my wages from him!

Suffice to say I decided it wasn't the career for me as it was really hard graft on your feet all day and I was very glad when I finally left!!!

What was your first ever job and memories?
 
I suppose my first money earner was working for Heron service stations, I used to open up a small but busy petrol station near Hatfield at 6am, often it meant walking a couple of miles to get there for 6am. I got to know the regular customers very well, in those days it was all about selling oil, so it was always part of the job to check oil, window washer fluids and tyre pressure in all weathers, strangely enough I enjoyed the job.
My earnings gave me enough money to buy my first banger, a Ford Popular at £15, it was terrible but I now had the luxury of being able to drive to work. I think the annual insurance 3rd party was less than £10 a year and RFL was really cheap.
I had been there for about 18 months,rolled into work just before 6am one morning to find an area manager and a police office, they asked if they could search my car, no problem I replied, they came back with almost 3 full books of green shield stamps, with finding that I was suspended and the books seized by the police, and the company had me charged with theft of the stamps.

I was interviewed by the police a few weeks later, who asked me I how came into possession of the stamps, I explained that some customers did not collect them, I always made a habit of giving them the stamps, often a strip of 10 or 20 stamps as they were regular customers and only had a couple of gallons each visit.

The police could easily see that the numbering on the stamps did not follow any large batch sequences, they told me they had interviewed several morning customers who confirmed I had handed them the stamps and they then gave them back to me as a tip, Heron still tried to insist they had been stolen, but the police officer who seemed to be batting in my corner, explained to them as they customer had become the owner of the stamps and then gave them to me I had done nothing illegal.

Heron kept me suspended for almost 3 months without pay before they decided I could have my job back, no apology just if I went in to the office I could first collect my back pay and start work under a new manager, who they had put in place as the old manager had been stealing thousands of stamps, I collected my back pay, then called the area manager who had been very aggressive during all of this and explained what Heron could do with their job, got in my car and waved goodbye, I had a interview the next day for an apprentice electrician and started with them the following week.

I noticed some years later that some of the Heron family members were convicted of major share fraud, just goes to show
 
@maltrab
What an amazing story thanks for sharing! Clearly the police had loads more capacity in those days, even if someone in the same position was stealing from the till, the best they'd get these days would be a crime reference number!
Was it like Scripps' garage?
 
Barrychuckle said:
@maltrab
What an amazing story thanks for sharing! Clearly the police had loads more capacity in those days, even if someone in the same position was stealing from the till, the best they'd get these days would be a crime reference number!
Was it like Scripps' garage?
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It was considered a modern forecourt back in the day, they offered a terrible oil change service, a machine sucked out the old engine oil via the dipstick, then a flushing solution was poured into the engine, that got removed the same way and new oil was poured in, the service was free except the cost of the oil and flushing solution.
Mind you how well this worked long term as the oil filter was never replaced.
 
My first job was delivering leaflets, I've done that job twice, then worked in a cake shop, I've worked in 2 schools worked at Marconi, 2 hospitals did 3 jobs at Walkers pies and worked at the AA depot not forgetting Wilko and a few burger Van's! My god typing it out it looks like I'm a gypsy!
 
My first paid work was in the Cashier's office at Corning Glass Works. This was in 1965, in the early days of computers. Checks to pay the company's bills were printed by the computer, but the powers that be didn't trust the keypunch operators to have done their job correctly, so, fairly late in the afternoon they were delivered to me to verify that the payee and amount matched the info on the bill. Then I stuffed them in envelopes, put them in the out box, and pushed each bill into a machine that punched "PAID" through the it.

Did I mention that I was bored out of my skull?
 
I did a couple of part-time jobs while a student. One was in a linen factory, and working in the sorting bay could be grim at times because some of the towels had been used to wipe all sorts of horrible stuff up before being sent to be laundered. Also worked in a betting shop briefly.
 
I cannot remember my first paying job, but some of my early (usually part-time or school holiday) jobs included

1. Paper round

2. Working in a Service Station ( cheating a bit here, my parents actually owned it for a time)

3. Chicken Innoculator! YES!!! worked on a chicken farm and regularly had to go around and give every chicken (they call them "Chooks" here!) a dose of some chemical to keep them healthy. Similar to drenching sheep and cattle I suppose.

4. Worked on a Wheat-Bin. For those that don't know, at harvest time (around December here) farmers would bring their grain (Wheat, Barley, Oats etc) to a bulk storage place, usually just called a "Bin". Most big towns and a lot of smaller towns in the SW of West Oz called the "Wheatbelt" have these places so they are generally just names after the town eg. Merredin Bin, or Northam Bin etc. In West Oz these are owned basically by one company "CBH" (Cooperative Bulk Handling) who buy and sell grain. At these bins are a number of different jobs usually filled with casual workers, often Uni students during summer holiday.

5. Seed cleaner. Again, to those unfamiliar, farmers store a percentage of their crop for use as seed for next year. This needs to be cleaned of things like weeds, dirt, other types of seeds etc. Some smaller farms basically do it themselves but larger ones often go to a specialised company to have it done. This also involves "pickling" or having the grain chemically treated to prevent rot etc. To show how much things changed, when I was doing it the usual "pickle" chemical included MERCURY!! I used to come home covered in the stuff! Not much Health and Safety going on back then.

6. Worked at a Nickel Refinery for a short time. Again no Health and Safety, We were once detailed to clean a "tailings" pond and had to wade around in the sludge, up to our waists. Found out much later the thing was full of toxic heavy metals and was also a "bit" radioactive!!!

7. Casual work at seeding time on farms driving tractors or trucks.

8. Manager of a Sports Store.

9. To my eternal shame, was a used car salesman for a VERY short time. In my defense I never actually sold any....hence the "short time"! :08:

10. Self employed part time, semi pro photographer.

11. Worked at several bakeries over the years part-time/casual

Growing up in a country town you took any job that was going and most revolved around farming related work.
 
Sat my A Levels.....got really good grades.....got offered a place at St.Andrew's University in Scotland.....went up for interviews.....realised that a scallywag like me from Liverpool would not last 3 to 4 years with really posh students....living 24/7 with them in the halls.....SO.....I packed my bags......and moved to Palma Nova in Majorca for 4 years ...and "worked"[or should I say played] as a person trying to attract people in to bars and clubs that a gentleman from Liverpool owned in the resort...[but I still flew home every Saturday to watch Everton home games !!]...sad but true !!!.
X!
 
MoodyBlue said:
Sat my A Levels.....got really good grades.....got offered a place at St.Andrew's University in Scotland.....went up for interviews.....realised that a scallywag like me from Liverpool would not last 3 to 4 years with really posh students....living 24/7 with them in the halls.....SO.....I packed my bags......and moved to Palma Nova in Majorca for 4 years ...and "worked"[or should I say played] as a person trying to attract people in to bars and clubs that a gentleman from Liverpool owned in the resort...[but I still flew home every Saturday to watch Everton home games !!]...sad but true !!!.
X!
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Not sure about your age but I'm guessing that may have been in the Howard Kendal era, to be fair it was a great side then. You also had arguably the greatest goalkeeper of all time in Neville Southall then.
 
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