Before its stupid makeover.

I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve enjoyed most of the jobs I’ve had.

Probably the job I disliked most was as a tech in a small lab. This was before the state work place smoking law had been passed, and TPTB at the lab had decided to handle the issue by allowing smoking as long as no other coworkers objected. The result was that one small office where both occupants were smokers became the only place smoking was allowed in the building. For that reason, every smoker in the building smoked in that room. The air was so smoky you could hardly see. Even the smokers in that little office found it hard to take (but understanding the nicotine addiction, they never kicked anyone out – though they got pretty pissed off at times). I’m a nonsmoker who has never lived with smokers, and found it pretty unbearable. Yes, they stuck me in that office. I could have banned smoking there by saying I objected, but as the newbie in the office, that wasn’t something I felt I could do.

The thick smoke all day made me physically ill. I went home every day with my clothes and hair reeking of smoke.

Luckily, I was moved to another division within a couple of weeks.

being in a service position to the kind of shits who play the most prep-school game in the states was beyond frustrating. Just lots of people who are completely ok with making anyone “below” them feel like shit.

It wouldn’t have been that bad, but my bosses sucked. They made me consistently go above and beyond my actual requirements (drive across Chicago to deliver things, rewire the offices) without so much as a “thanks”. And they never actually fired me, but rather never gave me summer hours. I’d call to ask when I was working and the dude would just say “We’re still figuring it out, call me next week” for 3 weeks. Until I ran out of time to get another summer job. Just great people, I tell ya.

Working on a horse farm bloooooooooows.

“ride associate” at kings island and cashier at meijer. They both sucked. I hope academia is better.

1. Electrician’s helper
2. Retail Clothing Sales
3. Hay Baler
4. Silage Unloader*
5. Food Service worker at college campus**
6. Carbon grinding technician
7. House Painter
8. Roofer*
9. Janitor in a Hospital (worked the Emergency rooms and the Morgue)
10. Automotive Accessory Salesman**
11. Sold Watkins products
12. Barn Cleaner/Manure spreader***
13. Manager at a Gap Store***

Great Jobs I’ve had
1. Playing Rock and Roll
2. Owning a Music Store
3. VP/GM at Closson’s
4. Owner of my own Art Gallery and Design Store
5. Private Business/Sales Consultant
6. Song Writer
7.Select Soccer coach.

I’m sure there a couple I left out…but all in all its all been pretty fun.

The gunfire in the parking lot…bomb threats…discovering people hiding in the curtains after hours waiting to do ???…theater catching on fire…getting attacked by crazy people…constantly falsely accused of racism because I was the only cracker around…police escorts…armed doormen…employees frantically scrambling in to escape their lunatic boyfriends…no training…chains on the doors…wearing a suit jacket all day on the 4th of July with requisite heat/humidity…one boss a drunk, the other an incompetent boob…$6.15 an hour…June 1991 – September 1992….felt like 10 years in hell.

Other crappy jobs: cleaning a bank’s parking lot (including eradication of possum corpses) every 2 weeks for $5 a pop, swept floors for $3.25/hour, edited infomercial for men’s wigs.