Hillary Clinton uses slave labor

[Hauldren Collider]

You don't even know what my experience was, you ****ing retards.

[giblets]

Getting a summer job when you're a teenager with a reasonable expectation of going to college is obviously not the same experience as being a working class serf at the bottom of a vast corporation.

[C0ckney]

You don't even know what my experience was, you ****ing retards.

if you want to convince yourself that what you experienced in a menial job is similar to what most people who work in those jobs experience, and thus is somehow relevant to them, then that's your business. however, you're not fooling anyone else.

[MRT144]

You don't even know what my experience was, you ****ing retards.

Im sorry but you had a nice home with a lovin family who supported you and believed in you to go look forward to every day. When I was on my own at 21, I had 4 dickhead housemates and a box of stag chili. You can think you were a mini adult all you want but you were play acting the role.

[Elok]

What a ****ty manager

Rather than spend pages and pages informing HC of his multiple-bathroom privilege, I propose we follow C0ckney's example and share our crappy menial job stories.

First job out of college was (due to my English major) a badly-run pizza place. Mind you, both the general manager and (at first) the shift managers knew what they were doing. The problem was upper management. The pizza place was in Ridgely, a thriving agrarian metropolis too small to support a proper grocery store. But the owners were trendy California types, so they chose a "hot concept" franchise from out west called Red Brick Pizza. RBP is basically two thirds of the price and pretentiousness of California Pizza Kitchen, but less creative, and only about half the quality. They sell mediocre gelato instead of ice cream and every item has a douchey pseudo-Italian name. So Farmer Bob drives up in his pickup truck, walks up to the counter, squints at the menu, and sees a bunch of things like "Pizza Bufalo" and "Pizza Carne," with a little accent over the E. He also notices it's way more expensive than Domino's. He tries it once, never comes back. I'm amazed the place stayed in business for more than a year. The same bozos later tried to start up a trendy coffee shop and a crappy diner, both of which folded with merciful speed.

The gas station was even more ridiculous, but less degrading. It was a Safeway gas station, across the parking lot from a Safeway grocery, whose manager didn't want the station but had to take it because corporate decided. Her response to this unhappy situation was to neglect the gas station as much as she possibly could, then act pissy with us when it didn't take off. We didn't even have a proper restocking procedure; once a day we just made a note of what was low, pushed a shopping cart across the lot and swipe what we needed from the shelves. She'd always yell at us not to completely deplete the shelves, but because the whole thing was bull**** we mostly took what we needed regardless. What was she going to do, fire us? Nobody else wanted to do our jobs, which was funny because we got paid the same as the rest of them and we hardly ever got a visit from management. We were effectively paid to sit inside and talk for most of our shifts.

We were supposed to be doing stuff like check the shelves for expired product. But even in that little store there were over a thousand separate products on the shelves, and nobody ever checked if we did it, and the only way a product ever lasted long enough to expire was if it was something nobody frigging wanted anyway. But they had some policy of not switching out an item until it had been in there failing to sell for six months. So I made a habit of checking and chucking the dairy stuff, which might have actually made someone sick, and letting the rest just sit there getting faded by the sun. I think my coworkers didn't check at all.

Every once in a while the manager or one of her subordinates would sweep in and attempt to motivate us via arbitrary harassment. You know, pointing at random crap and demanding to know why this or that hadn't been done. Except they didn't bother to learn enough about the place to even do that right. At one point one of them asked me why five or six things hadn't been done; each time I respectfully explained that we didn't actually do any of the things she was talking about. She got annoyed, pointed to an empty napkin holder and stomped off before I could waste any more of her precious time.

Basically the only time we saw our GM was if the Veeder-root went down. That's the computer that controls the gas pumps; if it goes down, you can't sell a drop, and that basically required us to close the whole store. Now, our GM of course could not actually fix the Veeder-root, and until the techs came by to fix it there was really nothing any of us could do, but every time it went down she was over there in quarterback mode, keeping us on our toes with her inspiring example. She basically couldn't stand the thought that we were legitimately doing nothing on the clock, so she strutted on over so we could do nothing, and waste her own time, and piss us off with her attitude, all at once.

Nobody actually wants to be a retail boss, so they tend to be just as defective as the people they supervise. Just in different ways. That's my theory.

[Aeson]

My first job was when I was 8. I cleaned the offices at the orchard after work, drove around the orchard on three wheelers digging holes and putting poison in gopher holes (this was actually pretty awesome), and putting a bunch of spreaders in young apple trees to keep the branches from growing up so much (again awesome given the swordfights my brothers and I had with those spreaders while playing cowboys and indians or cops and robbers).

In my early teens I drove tractors during summers. Usually ones with big mowers on the back, going through 6' weeds filled with critters in 80F to 110F temps. No matter how I wrapped up there would always be a ton of bugs crawling around on my skin by the time I was done for the day. On the plus side, it's really just sitting there in a bug infested sauna listening to Paula Abdul and C&C Music Factory so I can buy some basketball cards and rent some Nintendo games.

Later I graduated to driving forklift, which was mostly in clean/cool environments, building apple bins, or driving the front-end loader. The front-end loader picked up 4 apple bins on a trailer with some motorized chains that pulled them up on some runners. Like the name suggests, it was attached to the front-end of the tractor ... which was simultaneously cool, infuriating, and nerve-wrecking. Try driving for 8 hours in reverse while "towing" a trailer ... at 25mph on a bumpy dirt road while carrying a cargo that can easily spill out and represents more money per load than you'll earn in a month. I did jackknife it once pretty good, but luckily never lost a bin or cause anything but superficial damage to myself or the tractor.

------------------

I think this is why I'm able to now post on Apolyton or take naps anywhere in the world while money comes flooding in. I learned the value of hard work when I was 8!

Being born in the most affluent country in the world, with loving parents who taught me well and were able to give me a safety net that allowed me to chase after some really inefficient/risky ventures until one of them panned out, with an IQ that's rather rare and an innate interest in computers and how they work ... had nothing to do with it! Neither did any of the countless things that happened outside my control ... I just chose to be awesome through a completely non-causal process (+ the influence of having a job at 8 of course)

[Lorizael]

I've had approximately 10 jobs (the number varies based on whether you're talking about number of employers, instances of employment, etc.) since I began working for reals at 16. What I mostly learned from those experiences was that people have a lot of different experiences and that it's probably unwise for me to make generalizations based on my own.

[C0ckney]

Rather than spend pages and pages informing HC of his multiple-bathroom privilege, I propose we follow C0ckney's example and share our crappy menial job stories.

so yeah, menial job stories. here are a few, some describing a general situation and some a specific event, split into three groups.

the good:

my first job was a paper round in a small town in somerset. after a couple of years i graduated to being the guy who would open the shop up, sort out the papers for the other boys and then work behind the counter. i started at 5am and finished at 1pm. it was full time, but it allowed me to go out cycling in the afternoons. unfortunately mr white, the owner, died a few weeks before i went to university.

i was a barman/waiter at chepstow racecourse. my job was to look after a private booth, there were two of us in fact, with a dozen or so well heeled clients and a bookmaker. there wasn't a lot to do and we had a good laugh. i spent most of my time in animated discussions with the bookmaker about the chances of this or that horse. probably the funniest moment there was when some agency dude was trying to crack on to my friend and introduced himself as a weight loss consultant; he was really overweight. i burst out laughing and couldn't stop. my friend started laughing too and the poor guy went away very red faced.

i was a barman at swansea city football club. my bar, which was tiny, only sold carling lager, so at every game at least 20 people would ask what kind of beer i had, or order a different kind of beer, or some variation on that theme. i went back there a year later as a guest of the football club at their player of the year dinner; i got the ticket through the law firm i was working for.

i worked over a fairly lengthy period in a pub/hotel in somerset that was run by a gay couple. great people, and a great environment. we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. they'd let me, and the other staff drink after work and when they had a lock-in, which was quite often, they would put me behind the bar to get drunk and smoke cigars, for free, with the regulars, and pay me for my time. when we worked christmas day and they gave us a seven course christmas dinner.

various building and factory jobs, most of which I enjoyed. the work was quite physically demanding but it felt rewarding. the people were cool and i always got along well with them.

a chef in a respite care home in neath. i was skint when i got this job, and i lied through my teeth to get it, due to said financial embarrassment. it involved heating up ready meals for the poor old buggers. after a little while i realised that with the money we spent on terrible food, we could actually buy ingredients and i could make good food. so after a lot of pleading on my part, they let me do just that for a week and were so pleased with the results that they gave me control of the food budget and told me that i could do what i liked with it.

the bad:

a discount book and general tat shop in swansea. i did lots of different things there, but usually found myself working with stock. the assistant manager and i didn't get on; her fault for being an ignorant c*nt. we used to argue quite a bit about silly shop nonsense, and also about the fact that she expected me to do physical work faster than was humanly possible. the company stiffed me on some overtime pay; i took my revenge by stealing all my christmas presents for that year, as well as about 6 month's worth of toilet paper and a selection of cleaning products, from them.

a pawn shop in swansea. the owner was probably the biggest ****wit i ever worked for (and there's a fair bit of competition). he hated seeing people doing nothing, even when there was nothing to do. when i couldn't think of anything to do, i would ask him if he had anything for me to do and he would invariably say no. if you've never tried to constantly look if you're doing something when you're not, then don't. it's ****ing exhausting. the tight ****er, during a nine hour day, gave us two twenty minute breaks and expected us to stay on unpaid for about 20-30 minutes to close up the shop. i tried to get the others interested in doing something about this, but they were too apathetic and downtrodden. it all ended there when we had a furious argument about money he owed me, which nearly came to blows, in the middle of the shop. i walked away, but i got my money in the end.

pot wash in an all you can eat restaurant, which sold bad, and badly cooked, food from all around the world. pot wash is pretty hard, you're on the go all the time, and you have to be pretty organised. pot wash in an all you can eat restaurant is really solid. before i took the job there had been, according to the staff there, 5 or 6 other people, all of whom had either walked out before starting or not come back after the trial shift. i stuck it out and was soon made head of the wash room (on the same minimum wage of course) because i actually understood what needed to done. the restaurant was run by a team of four managers, two of whom were completely incompetent and one who, despite actually knowing what he was doing, couldn't really speak english. this led to a lot of ridiculousness and at times utter chaos. when i arrived there they expected staff to stay unpaid after a certain time. i spoke to several other people and all the non-management staff came met up and we decided, at my suggestion that we should present a united front. we did so and the management, upon seeing that if they didn't agree, they wouldn't have any staff the next day, caved in almost instantly. there was also a blatantly illegal fines policy, for not wearing one's name badge and similarly trivial bull****. one day one of the chinese managers tried to fine me for something (i forget what exactly). i was in a bad mood and i told him that the fine was totally illegal and furthermore that i would repay any fine levied on me at the rate of one punch in the face for every £1 and a free kick in the balls thrown in for every £5; i never heard anything about another fine after that, and he actually became extremely cordial with me. i went on to surreptitiously distribute leaflets to staff members about the law on fines at work. the fines policy was quietly dropped after a little while. i think the way that some 17 and 18 year olds could quote the relevant act of parliament word for word put them right off it. they were looking to get rid of me after that, but i left of my own accord. i wonder how things are there today, hopefully a few of them learnt a lesson about the value of solidarity.

various call centres, which were all different shades of ****. i hated the work, the pressure, the targets, the lack of dignity and the utter worthlessness of the work itself. i despised the management and most of my fellow workers.

the druggy:

during the summer of 2004 i got into taking ecstasy every day*. one day i'd taken my morning pill and was coming up in the shower when i remembered that i had arranged a job interview at 11am. i rushed down to parc tawe and met the manager of the pet shop. i asked him how long the interview would last, he said about 15 minutes. around 50 minutes later i left the building feeling rather pleased with how it had all gone; i didn't get the job.

i was working in a factory in port talbot where shift changes happened every 2nd or 3rd sunday. i was leaving a nightclub and was, to put it plainly, right off my tits and looking forward to a nice spliff or three before passing out, when the dude who used to give me a lift to work called me (it was about 5am) and told me he'd be at my door in about half an hour. i had forgotten that my shift was to change that day, and although in no fit state to do anything, i needed that job and so said "ok cool, i'll see you then". i headed home and took a shower. i remember coming out of my house with a can of stella in one hand and a spliff in the other and getting into the dude's car. it wasn't the best shift ever, and i got a fair bit of shtick from the boys, but i got through it.

during a stint in a ****ty call centre i went out on a friday night for 'one or two' and ended up getting absolutely arseholed on speed, coke and mdma. i used to have to cycle about 7 miles to get to the place and on the saturday morning, and after a much needed spliff with my buddy sammy, i made the trip. it was the best bike ride ever (i had billy idol's white wedding stuck in my head the whole way for some reason); the seven hours of work on the other hand...

* kids, don't do this. it was an amazing summer though...

there's loads more and i could go on, but i'll spare you.

[regexcellent]

I actually haven't held any of the traditional menial kind of service jobs like retail and so forth.

When I was 16 I got a job at my high school doing IT ***** work. It paid $12/hour. I worked 20 hours a week. It was easy but boring, mostly zip-tying stuff up and imaging desktops.

I didn't work the summer before my senior year of high school.

When I was 18, between high school and college, I worked at a small defense subcontractor as a sysadmin. I impressed the owner at my high school's job fair thingy and he hired me on the spot more or less.

After my freshman year of college I got a job at RIT's career fair with the Federal Reserve Board. I didn't particularly like the job. I fixed a lot of copiers, wrote some code, and updated Adobe packages on the Windows image. I did a small amount of work on mainframes. We had a big project to lock down an iPad for the chairman. They liked me there but I didn't want to come back.

Between sophomore and junior year I was supposed to go to LTC, an army summer training thing, but decided not to go and not join the National Guard.

Between junior and senior year I got a job at Kuci's actuarial firm more or less on his reputation. They loved me and hired me back at the end of the summer; I've been working part time remotely there all year and will be resuming fulltime work in June.

[Hauldren Collider]

Cockney's talking about how my experience didn't mean dick and how working hard doesn't help. Hm, maybe he's a counterexample, I wonder?

i took my revenge by stealing all my christmas presents for that year, as well as about 6 month's worth of toilet paper and a selection of cleaning products, from them.

Oh....

Hmm

[Jon Miller]

Let's see...

As a kid I did cleaning (toilets, mowing, etc) at the local church. I also did a paper route. This wasn't real money and I don't know if you can count it.

Summer after junior year at highschool, I had turned 16 and could get a real job... which for me, since it was the only one available, was the local cannery. It was horrid, I couldn't do anything but work and watch TV (I couldn't even play video games, I was too tired). I tried, but I was pretty terrible, and sometimes would have 5 different jobs in a day (you usually do the same thing for weeks if not longer). A funny story: I told them when I was hired that I was colorblind, and they hired me, but I would sometimes have the job of looking for red spots on green cucumbers... I was pretty terrible at that.

Summer after graduation of highschool, didn't do anything really. I am not even sure I looked, but I generally had difficulty finding jobs.

During college I worked 5-20 hours a week for grounds, IT, physics, and/or safety and security. It was student work, and other than physics they didn't expect much. For IT and Safety and Security I basically just sat and watched buildings and/or computer labs (remember those?). At the end of my senior year I got moved to driving around the drunk girls who didn't feel safe walking home at night (or who were cold and wanted a ride in a warm little car). This actually provided good blizzard driving experience (at a low speed). For physics I graded and assisted in laboratories. For grounds I picked up trash, emptied trash, collected things left out in fields (from grounds), and removed ice/snow. I had a little cart I drove around for the trash collection. I was pretty bad (I ran into things with the cart, this was before I drove for S&S) but they liked me anyway and so found a job I was capable of. And they didn't mind that I showed up for work 10-20 minutes late (which was good when my work schedule was officially 6-7am (I Think)).

Summer after first year of college, I couldn't find anything again. Towards the end of the summer I finally got a job (I needed it) at the local pizza place. My job was washing dishes, and it was pretty terrible (just like the cannery, the clothes had to be thrown afterwards). Generally at the end of the night the manager would come help me, she was nice but told me I was lucky enough to be smart enough to go to college because I was really terrible at washing dishes. I have forgotten her name.

Summer after second year of college, I got a job working remotely for the Foresty service updating their old code (which had been written on punchcards). A bit over half way through the project (after I understood what the code did and had spent some time updating it) I discovered that what they actually wanted was the same code but in a modern language and with a user interface. I knew nothing of user interfaces, was not great at coding, and rushed a crappy one out before I left.

Summer after third year of college I looked for and got an REU. It was really valuable but I foolishly wanted to do theory while I hadn't put the time in to get ahead on my theoretical physics. I ended up just programming a calculation from a theorist (which was probably not interesting). I didn't really do a good job, I was still terrible at programming and would be for another decade.

Summer after graduation I didn't do anything. This was a mistake, I hadn't experienced burnout yet (although maybe it was starting) and probably could have impressed more before I experienced burnout (the professor who accepted me as a student was one I had impressed in the first semester, before I experienced burnout).

I think I mentioned that REU (And being a TA in physics) on the application for graduate school, but that is the only one. I didn't ask for any non-academic letters of recommendation. I didn't learn any great work ethic, although I tried to do a good job.

I think it is important for teenagers not to just play, but the menial jobs didn't do anything for me other than keeping me out of trouble (probably I wouldn't have gotten into any anyway) and providing some money (which was needed because my family was poor).

JM

[Jon Miller]

I thank God for having the intelligence and opportunity to go to college.

I was really terrible at menial labor. Even Grounds which I liked.

JM

[Jon Miller]

Somehow I think that Grounds job was initially 530-730 (later I would do it even at 9, depending on my schedule). But I often showed up close to 6 and got done close to 7.

JM

[kentonio]

Cockney's talking about how my experience didn't mean dick and how working hard doesn't help. Hm, maybe he's a counterexample, I wonder?

Oh....

Hmm

That's what happens when you **** your staff over pay, they find ways to get the money in other ways. The problem with a lot of managers in ****ty jobs is that they forget little facts like that, and treat people on minimum wage like morons who they can abuse because a lot of people on minimum wage don't have the money, knowledge or ability to do anything about it legally.

[Egbert]

You don't even know what my experience was, you ****ing retards.

Calling people retards is an excellent argument.