Jobs you miss

[Rahmota]

OK I was thinking of this based on the drugs in the workplace thread.

Since several people have no doubt had more than one job. And sometimes even though ou have left a job you eventually look back with some fondness or otherwise miss that job. What job is that one for you?

For me it was oddly enough the car lot above bein a tech for SPCS or myown tech business. Being the head lot tech was not bad, not great but not bad until the management changed. I got paid to drive all kinds of cars and trucks, ranging from $100 beaters to 90k vipers. Sometimes I'd get to take a car or truck and get sent off on a mission that would take me all over the tristate. I was in charge of my department and as long as I kept the manager happy I could do my job pretty much in my own style.

Then it all came crashing down with the new jerk managers in laying off people left and right and getting more and more anal about cost cutting. Including not putting gas in a car until it had run totally out of gas, only making the minimum repairs to make the car run. i cannot tell you how many times the only reason I got a car into the gas station was because it was downhill from the car lot. Oh and did you know that running a mazda RX8 out of gas can cause damage to the engine? Neither did I or the manager until we did that at the lot and wound up having to do almost 3 grand worth of repairs just because they didnt wanna spend 10 bucks on gas. They wound up sending the car to auction so it became someone else's problem. Oh well. Life goes on.

[Seanette]

I enjoyed both tech support and dental insurance eligibility. Given my choice, I'd still be doing one or the other.

[Becks]

Definitely Goodwill. Those were good times.

[Cedophile]

College computer lab. I tell you, how much you love your work has very little to do with pay at our level. I was payed at WorstBuy a good $7-something, and my college job paid only minimum wage. But I loved my college job because they gave me enough power to care about how things were done in the lab.

[powerboy]

Sadly it was at my old job, which was in Construction. For the most part, one of my main supervisors, always took care of us. If it was winter, he would bring in a coffee pot, and make us all coffee. If he felt that we need a raise, then he would actually fight for us. Plus he actually knew what he was doing, unlike some of the other jerks.

[Gurndigarn]

Working auto salvage. The owner was an ex-nuclear engineer; I was a college grad with eclectic, wide-ranging interests. We probably had some of the most unusual conversations ever seen at a junkyard.

Unfortunately, it didn't pay enough to support a family.

[Maevis]

One of my all time favorite jobs was being the secretary/dispatcher/girl-friday for an Air Conditioning/Heating company that also sold used appliances.

I think I made something like $5.50/hour and worked 50 hours/week with no overtime pay and no benefits.

But, I pretty much had the office to myself, and even though I was at work I could get most of the real work done in about an hours time so I spent most of the day reading and BSing with the guys on the radio. My boss, when he was around, was pretty hysterical joker, and his girlfriend was too...she would show up now and then and chat with me too.

Every Friday about 4, my boss would say, "Oops, look at that! It's beer-thirty time!" and he would hand me some money and I would walk down to the bar and buy a couple of six-packs and the HVAC guys would wander in and we would all sit around in the shop and have a beer and BS a bit.

Then my boss sold the buisness to some asshat who had no clue as to what he was doing and after three months of working for the bastage and being reduced to keeping a bottle of malox in my desk drawer I walked out.

[repsac]

The first real job I had, is the one I think I miss the most. It's strange really, since it wasn't in retail and the pay wasn't very good. Even so, I can close my eyes now and remember that job. Every day was...well I don't want to say heaven, there were bad times there. Still, the people I met, the friends I had...it's something I cherish.

I worked as a shipping clerk there. It's a simple term, used to describe a forklift operator.

I remember, after the rest of the company had left, I would be sitting there on my forklift waiting to load the trucks that were to come in for that evening. Even now, I can tell you the general order of the trucks, and if I could expect them to be late or not.

Roadway usually came pretty early on. There were only a few times I could expect him to be late. The driver was a blast, always giving me ball caps and stuff. He was also an amazing driver. Only guy I've ever seen that would back in a double trailer and not hit anything.

Aeveritt (Averitt) came next. The driver was something of a trip. Real nice guy who INSISTED he load the truck. I, as he had put it, needed the break. Besides, I'm being (meaning me) paid by the hour so enjoy it.

CS (Central Southern) Was a random apperance. Every time that guy came in, something on his truck had broken. It was really funny to listen to him talk about the problems. One in particular struck me (and does to this day) as amusing. His truck had been loaded wrong at the warehouse, and on his way to us, he'd managed to get his dollys (landing gear for the trailer) snagged on something. It had rather neatly snatched them out from under the truck.

Overnight: Oh how I hated this guy. I hated him with a passion. He was a total asshat, and wouldn't let me drive my lift up on his truck. Which was odd since it was a full sized tandem wheeled trailor. I think he did that just to irritate me.

I remember days where I would sit for two or three hours on my lift, having everything staged I was waiting on the trucks. Feet up on the steering wheel, kicked back with a ballcap pulled down over my eyes, I'd doze. It was only after hearing the loud WHUMP of the truck backing in I'd rouse, and prepare to do my duty. Why did they let me doze?

It was a rather interesting policy really. You see, I would arrive some time around 5 AM each morning, where I'd do some work for several machines in my department. Then I'd do my paperwork, and then the bell would ring and work began. I was leaving for home around 6 pm. So, they let me doze because I was obviously tired. That and there wasn't anything else better to do.

[Robyn]

I think if there were a job I missed it would have to be working concessions at University basketball games. The job sucked. The pay sucked. But I made awesome friends there and we had a kind of manic energy that I've never found anywhere else.

[Luckymom]

I miss them all in quirky ways,

My first job at Arby's I miss because I worked there with my best friend and we used to close together all the time and play sliding across the wet floor and running into the front counter. The loser was the first perosn to fall on their rump.

The college chem lab - I worked here until I dropped out of school. It was fun because i was usually the only one in the lab, besides a few people working on projects. Plus I got to mix stuff to prep for class labs.

The gas station - We used to steal from this place all the time, but not on purpose. It was a mom and pop store and you could run tabs on stuff you needed if you worked there. We ran tabs and right around payday they would disappear. No one would remember where they went. It was done in honesty! i never figured out who was making those disappear. I got fired for my vehical being broke down and in the shop a couple of days too many and no one could seem to give me a ride.

The Raddison hotel - I worked as a bar tender here. It was generally business men in town for business and they all flirted hard. Got fired because I am allergic to pestisides and they didn't rinse their fruit so after one reaction to it when putting together a fruit basket. So I refused to do it again and the manager fired me when I didn't do it for the Hotel owner when he came in.

Next was the Waffle House - How can I not miss a job where I got to meet all sorts of weirdos and creeps working from 9PM - 7AM four nights a week.

Then was Wal-Mart - wait a sec I don't miss that job at all....

My last job was in the pediatric urology clinic - sigh I liked this job. I answered phones, checked patients in and file. Oh I loved filing. I could zone into my quiet world. I lost my job because I was a disturbance in the office. I didn't like gospel music the other ladies did and I asked if we could listen to rock one morning. I also may have told the other ladis I worshipped the devil...

[Knightmare]

There are two jobs I miss, one because I actually enjoyed. That was working at a coffee shop inside a bookstore in the mall. It was very fun, very enjoyable. I love coffee. I love making coffee. I got to be creative. I got to be artistic. I even made my own drink and we actually put it on the menu (sadly, no longer there). I quit because of crap they were giving my manager (she and I were *very* close ifyaknowwhatImean ) She quit and over a period of 2 weeks, the rest of us walked out because of what corp. did to her and were changing. We couldn't have live entertainment anymore (yes, we asked our store manager, and we brought in live local bands on the weekends, and it was very popular). We had open-mic nites. We had adult story-telling time (not Adult, but adult) with either original stories or ones that have been told for generations. It was very fun, very relaxed and very few SCs. I made friends with customers that I am still friends with almost 8 years later.

The second one I liked because my girlfriend at the time worked next door. It was in the mall, and after closing, we'd get together in her back room and "take inventory."
The job itself was decent, not too bad. The usual consumer electronic type of stuff.

[Giggle Goose]

I missed my old job at the pizza place back home, because I used to work there with my boyfriend, and the managers just let us goof off, as long as we were helping the customers. A lot of my friends worked there, and I made a lot of new friends that I still have today.

Unfortunately, as many restaurant (and probably retail) employees can tell you, things can be great one day and then all of the sudden they turn to sh*t. We got a new manager that kind of shook things up and a lot of people quit, and I was going to college anyway. But I'm going to get a few shifts there this winter break so I'm really excited!!!!!! And even though it will never be the same (and my bf won't be there), a few people are coming back with me so I we'll try to re-live everything all over again!!! I just hope that all the year-round employees are OK with us college kids taking all their hours...

[Kogarashi]

I kinda' miss the cashier position I had at a craft store (not unlike Michael's), despite the one department manager who always talked down to me and the usual gamut of clueless and sucky customers. It was a fun-enough job, and I got a discount on the merchandise (me + craft store = no more paycheck). But then I was "placed on-call due to overhiring," to quote the store manager (no advance notice given; just "turn in your till and your apron and go home"), and I didn't think to file for unemployment until something like two months later when my mother-in-law brought the idea up. I worked a total of two months there before they decided they hired too much holiday help.

I have a bit of a grudge against the store now, though, since I went in about four months after being laid off to discover a small handful of new employees working there. They'd never called me like they said they would.

[Ringtail Z28]

As bizarre as it may sound, I miss Target. I don't miss the lousy customers, terrible pay and asshole managers. I miss my old coworkers, the physical nature of the job and working at night. I'm just not a day person, I'm more active and more comfortable at night. I also suck at office work, it's just too damn boring.

[TNT]

The job I most miss and will always miss was counselor in a group home for severely mentally ill adults. I loved my clients and I loved the work I did with them. There were other things too... I got paid to sleep and play Scrabble, I saw bosses for two hours a week, and I worked two days and then got four days off. (In actual practice, I worked a lot of overtime.)

When it was challenging, which it often was, it was challenging in a good sort of way.

The best part was the program's psychiatrist. Although he had little day to day involvement with the program, he was still the program god and everyone ultimately answered to him. As luck would have it, he was also my own psychiatrist... I had an hour every Monday morning for years before I started the job, so we knew each other well. We respected each other, we had the same high level of commitment to our mutual clients and we shared a strong dislike for the bureaucrats running the program. (We disagreed on a lot of things, too... and he always won those arguments.)

It was rather like having a job in the mailroom and playing golf with the CEO.

Doc left the program and moved to a different city. Simultaneously, my life on the job became quite miserable... I had to suffer the retributions of all the people we'd offended the previous three years. At the same time, my job opportunities at other agencies in the mental health field dried up.