worst holiday job..no gap years then..

Two holiday jobs .One was working at a Harvest camp. We stayed in a boarding school and were taken to the farm jobs everyday in an open lorry. We lifted potatoes, picked runner beans, planted daffodil bulbs ( with a horse plough ) marigold seeds and picked the flowers off anemones to make them produce more. That was all very interesting. The other job was in a canning factory. We slept in tents and the worst job was the conveyer belt of cooked peas where you had to sit and pick out the cooked caterpillars, daisy heads and anything else that shouldn't be in a tin of peas! Strigging frozen blackcurrants for jam ( we did it with a fork ) wasn't much better.

In the cafe of the swimming baths with my friend, which is a joke in itself because I had to cook and people actually paid good money for the food I produced. The worst thing was we had to get there before the baths opened (we weren't good at getting up) and the horrible old harridan who was in charge made us scrub the steps up to the cafe with a nail brush.
She would then inspect them to make sure we had done them properly. It was all very 'upstairs downstairs' and I got an inkling of what life as a housemaid must have been like. I can't even remember what I was paid.

I had it easy compared to most of you. A neighbour was a violinist in a professional orchestra so rehearsed most days and I babysat! I was paid two shillings an hour and bought all sorts of 'unsuitable' clothes that my mother wouldn't let me have. You know the sort of thing - bell-bottom jeans, mini skirts, PVC coats.

Night shift packing ice cream. It was very cold.

I also had a Saturday job in Woolworths from the age of 13. I earned 13/6d and it never went up in two years. Never a Saturday off unless the store was closed over Christmas. I would go home exhausted after a full day standing behind the light bulbs and wiring counter, under a display of hot bulbs and light fittings. Then, I would have a power nap in the bath and go out dancing at the church youth club for the evening!

I was 15 on the 4th September and it was, go get a job. I passed the interview to be a telephonist. There was a 3 week wait for my placement. My Father being what he was, said: your not sitting around for 3 weeks, find something. Local Printers were looking for someone to start an Apprentiship for a Bookbinder/ Hand Sewer.
I loved it. Did my Apprentiship, and never looked back. These people became my Family and looked after me and taught me so much.
I met my first love there who was into sailing, where I was introduced to a whole new different world.
I often look round me and think: not bad for a council house girl from Woolwich. lol. And all because my Father said: go get a job.

My first Saturday job was in Woolies on the haberdashery counter. At 16 I had a summer job in the shop on a local caravan park. The following summer I waitressed in a seaside café. God did we earn our money. However, I met a girl that is still one of my closest friends 40+ yrs later.

flower friend...so,true

I'm loving this thread.

haha charleygirl....had to go to the berries too as a kid...forgot about that..full day earned 2/6 then accidently dropped it down the drain in the field

I was only covering summer holidays so I only worked for 4 weeks on two consecutive years for £2 a week, working behind the counter in a shop in the grounds of a large psychiatric hospital. We sold cigarettes singly as the patients could rarely afford to buy a packet of 10. I also cleared the dirty cups etc from the tables to help out.

I also picked raspberries and my mother used to say that it cost more to give me sandwiches and something to drink than what I actually earned. I did this when I was around 10 years old and picked the berries locally with friends.

Factory work sewing on buttons. Canteen work in said factory. Picking daffs in Tresco. But really, the worst if all, was not paid. My mother did a huge amount of parish work and one holiday she said she thought I should do my bit. I helped her with what would now be known as disfuctional families, and the very worst was cleaning up an infested house and sorting out out six children who were sleeping in a urine soaked bed. It would be a SS matter now, but they were just known as a needy family.

At the age of 18 I started work full time in a bank and I remember saying to my mother on the first Saturday I had off (one in three) that it was the first Saturday of freedom I had had since the age of 13 when I started a string of Saturday jobs. We didn't go on holidays!

I did a paper round from about 13/14 and started working on Saturdays at a local stationers when I was 15. My DDs worked on a Saturday as soon as they were ols eough to do so..also delivered free papers. It seems this work is not available now to youngsters so they do not get into the work habit as quickly. This may why some kids find the world of work difficult.

As I started full time work at 15 I did not have any 'formal' holiday jobs but did spend 2 summers as a milk girl on a horse and cart - no pay, tips only + as much milk and orange juice as you could drink + fresh eggs for mum. Then I was a berry picker (July only) 4d a pound before 8.30am and 3d per pound thereafter. Also did some casual shifts in my Aunt's General Store and occasionally served as my Mum's hairdressing apprentice (good tips at that one). Finally, at 14 spent Saturdays/Sundays and the summer staffing the Kiosk at the local golf course with my sister, taking the green fees and selling balls and tees, soft drinks, crisps, Home Made cakes, etc at inflated prices as the only remuneration was that we could keep any profit.

Certainly taught me that money had to be earned by hard graft.

Working in the sub-basement of Selfridges writing the price on the back of Christmas cards and then paper clipping card and envelope together. All day long, 7.5 hours a day.

There were four of us and because we were so deep in the ground we could not get any radio reception, we worked in a tiny room, no windows, by definition, and as the summer vacation wore on our time keeping got worse and our lunch hours and tee breaks grew longer

Working as a kitchen assistant in the summer at 'Junior Holidays' in Eastbourne.It was a horrible boarding school used for residential holidays for the brats of celebs (the Shadows!) and they were totally ripped off...it was like boot camp.

First holiday job I worked on the conveyor belt in a toy factory putting plastic ladders onto plastic fire engines.Had to do 3 gross a day.(Do younger people know what a gross is?) Boy, were my hands sore at the end of the day.
Second job was as an usherette at the local cinema-Sound of Music was on for the summer and I saw it 52 times. My friend and I used to sing and dance along at the back in the dark.I knew every word of the script.

Working in a cafe on Saturdays when I was 14. Cakes -uncovered - seemed familiar each week and so I ''signed'' some of them one week and they were still on sale the next. Pay was 13/6 a day and it seemed like a fortune in 1963.
At 16 I worked as a waitress in a 'steak bar' where the food was cooked behind the counter in view of the customer if they sat at the counter. If a steak was dropped on the floor, it was retrieved and served up to the next unsuspecting customer who sat at a table.

Bit of a toss up between the Saturday job I had for about a year in a chain store and sometimes had to push round the trolley and clear the tables in the cafe - or the summer holiday working in a factory which made plastic pots of varying sizes for the airline meal Industry. The smell of the melting plastic all day was awful.

Holiday jobs in order of preference:

Xmas post person x 3
Children's home assistant x 2
Care assistant (Elderly care)
TEFL teaching
Silver service ( not just hols..weekends too)
Waitresing

Worked as a waitress/chambermaid in what seemed like a 'nice' hotel when I was sixteen. It was fine most of the time but when the cook got her wages each week she drank until she was 'nasty' and before she was leg-less she could be violent.

Did these jobs help us in ways other than monetary? Yes, of course, they did. Here, in France, youngsters don't work while they are still in school. My holiday jobs were an informative part of my education.

I did not like the waitressing I did, aged 18, .think it was a Kenco Coffee House in a shop called Ely's in Wimbledon which at the time was like Grace Bros.

I was given a few small tables in the corner where all the time wasters sat for hours with one cup of coffee and left no tips. The regular staff of course had the popular tables and regular customers. Service moved from coffee to lunch to tea and menus were strict about what you could order when! If I took a coffee and cake order in the lunch period I was in BIG trouble!

Silver service in a local hotel was scary too but everyone was friendlier there than at the shop! I am always kind and thoughtful to wiating staff and get angry with snotty customers!

I was working from age 17, so had no holiday jobs - but worst experience was working as the secretary to the managers in an engineering works. I was 18, and one of my tasks was making mid morning coffee for the 3 managers. This involved walking through the engineering works to the only kitchen on site. It was dreadful - I was whistled at, shouted at, had obscene suggestions made etc etc every single time. It was simply part of my day, three times daily for several months. I went to work as a temp and never worked in engineering again.

Working on the hardware section in Woolworths in a green overall which was too small and torn. It was much more fun weighing out biscuits from those glass topped tins. Mind you I think I ate the profits!