Low wage jobs

Ratt Mhule

Ratt Mhule

Heisman Trophy Winner
We've all had them. Possibly many of them. Some of you...ahem decked....may still have them :) What were they? How long did you last at them? What you liked/disliked about them.

Fazolis: Lasted about 4-5 months. I was the guy that brought around the breadsticks. Wasn't suppose to eat them, but I snuck a few around the corner when it wasn't busy. I know, Im a rebel.

HyVee: Sophomore in HS. All my friends got jobs here, so I decided to follow suit. Lasted about 3 months. Got yelled at by some 50-60 year old drunk dude pulling his car out of his parking space because he couldn't wait two seconds for me to pass him with the long line of carts. Sorry dude, once those bad boys get rolling, its hard to stop 20 of them. Just freaking wait for me to pass. This guy was really pissed/drunk. Went to the manager to complain about me.

Ragin' Cages batting cages on 90th and Center in Omaha: Worked there for two summers. Awesome job! Paid a dollar over minimum wage. For a HS kid, that's awesome! When they weren't busy, Id grab a bat and hit to kill time. If they didn't close along with the rest of that area, I would have worked there every summer through HS.

VIP Car Wash: Don't know how long I lasted. Maybe two months. Very forgettable job. Got to drive some cool cars though.

Umpire: Two summers. The abuse I took was too much for me to deal with. You don't know how crazy some people are until you've officiated sporting events, even little kids sporting events the parents are ridiculous. Great money. Made $2000 doing a Memorial Day tournament. Worked 14 games in three days. Almost got beat up by parents from a KC team. I knew then I was done.

Gamers: Pretty fun job. Worked there about 5-6 months freshman year of college. Hate people who bring in a million things to sell back at once. One buy back took me four hours the guy had so much sh#t.

Millard Public Schools Kids Network: Before and after school program for K-5 grade. Fun job. Worked there for 3.5 years through college. Got paid to play Candy Land and kickball :)

Bartender at Field Club of Omaha: Two summers/falls. Pretty fun job. Most of the drinks the members ordered were easy ie. jack and diet, vodka lemonade, etc. Some members were rude, some were awesome. Most tipped really well!

Little league baseball coach: Seven seasons. 13/14 year old in house kids for three years. Didn't get paid. Four seasons of select. Got paid $1000/season. Won a state tournament (great experience getting a Gatorade bath btw). I posted in the dad coaches thread that I had a dad coach that created TONS of problems for me and eventually I started to lose my passion for coaching. A shame that parent complaints can do that when it should be about the kids.

That's all of mine. What about you guys?

 
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Dishwasher/bus boy in huge truck stop diner at 14 years old. Busy all the time. I liked sexy and young waitresses and cashiers; yummy, equal to Hooters girls, all of them (and my first wet dream ;) ). Plus truck drivers outrageous BS meetings. Lasted one year .... manager dispute.

Lewis Drug local chain, equal to Walmart size. Handyman job. I liked it because variety jobs; floor cleaner duties, clerk, cashier, shoplifting spy, inventory, maintain and driver for beat up bakery truck, loading warehouse, changed the lights .... you name it. Every day was different. I quit because too many hours.

Concrete pouring company. Slab, driveway, sidewalks, streets. I quit for only one month or less because South Dakota brutal winter. Brrrrr .....

Motorcycle shop (non-certified mechanic). Somewhat interesting. Changing the oil and tires, replaced points, tune-up and mostly 2-cycle bikes ... simple. Very few engine overhaul. Laid off because lack of work ... supposedly too many mechanics; me, prison guy who was an excellent motorcycle troubleshooter. He served state pen jail time except 8 hours a day co-op release, another experienced and certified mechanic and now hired manager's brother in law :rolleyes: .

Du-al Factory (tractor accessories). Loading trucks. Meh.

School bus driver (contract company). Using a regular and old city buses, now violation because no red flashing lights and no stop sign warning. Obvious easy job, from kindergarten to high school passengers. Overflow big time, sardine, packed full of passengers (again illegal now days).

I offered John Morrell meat factory job (2500 employees) at 20 years old but I decided to choose Air Force career. In 1973, Morrell starting salary was almost 11 dollars per hour :o plus excellent benefits. Union.

 
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Cool thread!!!

First job I had was as a bus boy in a steak restaurant in Omaha. Took that job after I threw a huge party when my parents were out of town. I basically got grounded and was told to get a job to repay my brothers who had stuff stolen during the party. It was on ok job, other than working pretty late on Friday and Saturday nights. I am sure that was against child labor laws, as I was 15 at the time. I lasted there about 8-9 months before I got sick of it.

I then got a job at a hotel in Omaha, setting up tables and other stuff in their conference and banquet rooms. There would be some LONG Saturdays where we had conferences all day, and then had to set up for a wedding reception. It did have a lot of down time where I would talk to my supervisor about gambling and other stuff.

My senior year in high school I started working at Finish Line in the Crossroads Mall in Omaha. That was a pretty fun job, and I really liked getting the employee discount on shoes. When I went to college, I was able to come back over Christmas and the summer to work there. I also worked at a different shoe store in Lincoln during college. Everyone would show up on Sundays hung over, and I actually met my wife when I was working there.

Also during college, a friend of mine was able to get me a job at a par 3 golf course in Omaha. We would work during the summers in the pro shop. Basically, we would be the starter, concession stand guy, and watch the course. Weeknights were easy because there would be leagues going, so I just sat there while the league took care of itself. It was also nice to get my work done early, and then putt and chip on the putting green while I was waiting for all the golfers to get off the course.

 
My first few jobs were working in the fields around Fremont. I worked for my uncle when I was 12 roguing beans for $2 a day. Did that for maybe a week that summer.

When I was 14 I started working for Fontanelle, roguing, detasseling, whatever. The first year I detasseled I had no idea what to expect, so when everyone showed up with garbage bags, I and another couple of guys were stumped. The first pass through the field, coming out the other side soaked to the bone... we figured it out. Everyone else thought it was pretty funny, but it wasn't funny until the next group of new guys came along and we got to see them soaked. That was actually a pretty fun job - good crew of kids, we'd screw around when the straw bosses weren't looking playing jungle attack (not what we called it - turns out what we called it was a racist term). But it was hot, tiring work out in some field in the boonies, and it paid minimum wage. I wonder if kids today still do this work, or if they rely on immigrant labor to do it.

Best field job I ever had was a couple weeks working for this guy spraying beans. Sitting on this pole arm sticking out from the sides of the tractor with a spray gun, a pretty decent seat and an umbrella over my head, sitting in the chair next to Keelie, one of the best-looking girls at school... yeah, that was all right. I think he even paid $4/hour, which was more than minimum wage back then.

Probably the worst job I've ever had was after I had flunked out of college and decided that ditch-digging jobs weren't my goal in life, I went back to school and worked part time at a rent-to-own place delivering merchandise to the very bowels of Lincoln. I'm a pretty big dude so I got sent on the repo crew all the time, whenever someone went delinquent on their payments we went and got the stuff back. One time we were in this trailer, like a redneck crack house, repossessing a washer/dryer, and the place just stank. Utterly rank inside, like week-old vomit and excrement left to rot in the summer heat. I'll never forget that place, so wretched, and the smell. My god, the smell.

Another time we were sent to repo a fridge this couple had rented. We knew they were in there so we just stayed on the porch knocking until they caved and opened the door. We go in and the place is just covered in roaches. Everywhere, roaches crawling out in the open. We had to take the doors off the fridge to get it through their front door, brushing roaches off the fridge, out of our way while we're doing this. The whole time, this couple is sitting on their couch watching us, while roaches are crawling on the couch right next to them, and they barely even noticed.

Another time, the only time I've reported someone to CPS, we were in this woman's house trying to fix her TV she'd rented. It had stopped working because it overheated when all the pet fur in the place clogged the air flow on the TV. But the awful thing was, her carpet was crunchy from animal crap/piss, and if you know how awful cat piss smells, that whole place was just choking with it. There were two kids under the age of five there, one in a very full diaper, and I couldn't get the image of that kid looking at me like, "HELP!" the whole time I was there. Got back to the office and called CPS right away. Poor kid. Nobody should have to grow up like that.

Found out at that job that Lincoln, because it's in the middle of nowhere and pretty quiet, is a hideout town for gangs from the coasts. Someone does something and the cops are looking for them, they put the guy in a car and send him down the interstate to Lincoln to hide out until the cops move on to another crime. These guys rent furniture for a month, six months maybe, however long they'll be in town. The first time I went into one of these places it was me and my white-bread coworker putting together this living room setup with TV, stereo, furniture & lamps, and the whole time this group of maybe seven or eight Black dudes is standing there glaring at us, wanting us out of there ASAP. We obliged them, and after we left my buddy told me what that was about. Did that a couple more times in the 18 months I did that job, and it was never an easy job. We very clearly were not wanted there, at all.

That job wasn't 100% awful, though. We delivered stuff to a stripper quite a lot, and she was really good-looking and had a pretty decent/clean place, so it was never a bad trip to go see her. Another time we took a bunk bed out to a farmhouse about 20 miles west of Lincoln for this couple who had a bunch of family visiting. The wife was the only one there and she was smoking hot. Maybe early 40s, really long brown hair, tight button-down shirt with shorts and an a$$ you could bounce a quarter off. Super sweet lady, too. There was another woman, very white trash and pretty stupid, but the spitting image of Anna Nicole Smith. Same body shape, that white/blonde hair, busty. Nice to look at but dumber than a box of hammers.

 
Started printing t-shirts in 1974 for a company in Lincoln for 1.65hr.(min. wage) Lived in a one room efficencey apt. 50.00 a mo.(all utilities paid).The owner of the t-shirt shop also had a Head shop selling pipes and bongs.(very convenient for me back then)Cool job,with benefits.

 
I worked an entry level construction job the summer before I went to UNL. I got stuck on the concrete crew. We poured the footings and foundations for farm buildings and grain bins. Since I was one of the new guys I did an awful lot of digging. I worked at a liquor store another summer. I was amazed to discover how much shoplifting goes on at a place like that. I set out to catch the person(s) who was regularly boosting the small bottles of Jack Daniels. I'd keep my eye on that aisle. But sure enough, I'd pass through the aisles to pull bottles to the front and there would be one missing that I knew we hadn't sold since the last pass. Damn those people are tricky. I also worked a couple summers at hay mills in central Nebraska. I was the mill operator. Kept the place running, spitting out hay (alfalfa) pellets at a rate of three to four tons per hour. I don't think any of those jobs were minimum wage. But they weren't far north of it.

 
Started my work experience when I was 16 painting houses. Found out on that job, if you are working with the right people, anything can be fun.

First summer in college, I came back and worked at a large feedlot cleaning pens and other maintenance. Not bad gig. Spent the summer in either a JD tractor or pay loader, both with air-conditioning and radio.

Went off to college and my first job was working at a cold storage warehouse out by the airport in Lincoln. That job sucked. Me and this other dude were the only college kids working there and we had the evening shift. We would get in huge tubs of all the scraps from meat packing plants. We would dump that onto the floor in this room and have to take grain scoops and shovel that into smaller tubs to be frozen. We had the job of cleaning the entire dock also. It was interesting working with ex cons straight out of prison though. It was always interesting around the holidays. We would get truckloads of fruit cake in and......I never saw them leave. Our theory was that nobody really eats fruit cake. They are just made, put in frozen warehouses and then forgotten about. Many stories from that place. Top Hat bar was a regular stopping place after work.

Left there to work at Bryan Memorial hospital. Ended up being a Nursing assistant in the ICU/CCU unit. That job almost convinced me to go into nursing as a career. I absolutely loved that job and the people I worked with there. Experienced some things there that normal college kids will never be able to experience. Great group of nurses to work with that taught me one hell of a lot about life. Not many college kids go to school during the day and then actually help save someone's life in the evening....and....oh.....nurses..... :)

The absolute worst job though ever was delivering fire wood around Lincoln. All firewood had to be delivered before people went to work. So, We would get up and be at my friends house (manager) to get slips of paper with the orders by 5:00am. We would drive these horribly old pickups out south east of Lincoln to load up. We would then have to try to find these addresses around lincoln. This was before cell phones and GPS systems. The boss was a drunk and if someone called late enough, he was too drunk and would sometimes get the address wrong. However, in his eyes, it was always our fault if we took too long getting there and back. We would then have to unload the wood by hand. Sometimes hauling it up to the third floor apartments that had fire places. That paid decent but the job sucked.

Did maintenance for some apartments around Lincoln. College girls apartments....woo hooo....

Probably the worst paying job was the first 18 months of owning my own business. But, that is too long of a story. To sustain myself during that time I became a phlebotomist. That was interesting...and....more nurses.... :)

 
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I have many of the same experiences so I won't go into those, but one of the summer college jobs was helping a friend and his step-dad (step-dad's company) cut down trees. No, it's not like being a lumberjack and hitting a tree with an axe and yelling "timber". Involved getting in a harness and going up VERY tall and thick trees, cutting 'em apart and working our way down. Pretty heavy and tiring work. I was afraid of heights before. I am even more afraid of heights now!

 
Moved to an acreage so dad bought a lawn tractor - so I mowed lawns with it.

Dad owned his own business, so I worked there addressing junk mail, catalogs and newsletters off and on when things were busy through the end of college.

High school - dishwasher to pot scrubber to line cook at a restaurant. Summer was so hot in the kitchen, I would take ten minute breaks in the walk in freezer.

 
Raised hogs for my dad while he was at his full time job. Got virtually no money for doing so. I was allowed to live in his house and eat his food and drink his water though. Thanks pops. Also raised and butchered 1700 capon chickens one summer. Made about $1200. It equivelated to about $5 a day. Did the whole walking beans and detasseling corn. Peanuts. Milked cows. Decent paying job. Then I worked in the restaurant business as a buffet filler and dishwasher. Terrible work, long hours, very little pay. As a youngster it's suppose to be more than about the money. Life lessons and all. All I really learned was that damn FICA person owes me a lot of money.

 
More stories knapp about your time as repo man
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and BRB im sure you have some good stories from the hospital

 
My first job was early teens mowing lawns for the state. They would pay me to mow the lawns at houses and apartments where the housing was subsidized and the yards neglected. The pay was decent but the lawn conditions were usually horrible. Knee high weeds with hidden concrete blocks etc. Of course I also mowed other lawns for neighbors etc.

Then, much like knapp, I worked my mid teen years detassling and roguing for Northrup King in the Columbus, David City, Stomsburg area. I loved it. Made straw boss my first year and by my 3rd year they actually gave me a pickup truck and a small hotshot crew and we would go around on our own and cleanup fields that had already been done but weren't quite up to snuff. This was a great job. The pay was good, a little over minimum if I recall, and the hours were great. Start at 5 or 6 in the morning and done by 1 or 2 in the afternoon. The down side was the corn cuts, pretty darn cold in the morning and insufferably hot/humid by late morning. We also would play the jungle b***y game in the fields. It never occurred to me at the time that the name had any racist connotations. Nothing like getting full on blindside tackled when not expecting it.

Then I worked at a Holiday gas station pumping gas that was ok except for some of the more dickish customers. This one lady would come in all the time and literally get like $2 worth of gas and 2 quarts of oil. One really busy day, cars were lined up both directions waiting, she just forces her way up in the middle of the pack parked all catywompus, throws the keys at me and tells me to check her oil and the air in her tires and clean the windshield. I told her to move her f'n car and get the f out of here. She went in and complained to the manager. He starts telling me we can't talk to the customers like that, I explain what she did and he changes his tune and says maybe we don't need her as a customer. He was a pretty cool guy. We also had a guy that would come in to use the restroom just for jacking off. After finding the mess in the can a few times, we put two and two together and figured out who was doing it. Oh yes we did barge in on him the next time....told him to clean up his f'n mess. He never came back.

Also worked at an old Kings restaurant and at Long John Silvers. Long Johns was probably the worst job I had. After a few hours the grease seems like it's running out of your pores. Pretty slimy by quitting time. I will say their fish/food was not bad at all. Biggest problem with that job was the manager and assistant were totally baked potheads. They would literally spend all their time in the back office smoking a bong while the rest of us took care of everything. Then he would post the next weeks work schedule, we write it down and plan on it, but he would forget he made a schedule and he would do it again and change it. He was a real piece of work. Didn't last there more than most of one summer.

 
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