20 Days of Chill - My first Job

Welcome back to 20 Days of Chill - Today's prompt is

My first Job

*Rolls up her sleeves and spits into her hands*

Jobs are my job, so to speak. 

At least in my domain I have been working in for 25+ years, God, I feel old: Human Resources. 

Of course that wasn't my first job, so let's go back even further.

In Switzerland you need to be 14 years old to legally get a summer job. 

My first one was in an industrial environment: my coworker (another Highschool student) and I sanded muffles. We got a huge container full of plastic pipe end pieces. We put these parts onto a rotating piston and coated them evenly with glue. The next step was to remove the sticky fitting and dredge it in sand. 

Sort of like a cordon bleu: from the beaten egg mixture into the bread crumbs, shake off excess sand and carefully place the coated plastic piece on the floor to dry. 

I don't think we had any pressure to get a certain amount done, but we were motivated and had fun building a fortress out of these things. We would only allow ourselves to go to lunch when the container was empty. 

The long-established factory workers walked by and commented on our work. They said they were so glad we were doing this job because it was the most boring one and didn't include operating big-ass intimidating machines. They also told us that every now and then some tie-wearing d*** wanted them to engage in job rotation and other BS. 

We've been doing the same job day in, day out, we clock in, get our work done, we clock out and go home. End of story. We like it that way and don't want any disruption. What good should that do anyway?

We were stunned. We didn't mind coating plastic pieces with sand for a week or two, it was relaxing and allowed us to chat, but after a while? Wouldn't we want more?

I remember asking what these fittings were ultimately used for? Why did they need a sand coat?

The answer was "they need them that way on the construction site." 

I told my Dad about it. He's an engineer and explained to me that most likely they were cable protection conduits that are laid underground in concrete. If they were coated with sand they had better grip and didn't wiggle around. 

At least that's how I remember it. 

In the following years I had opportunities in the F&B field, which was less abstract to me:

I made sandwiches and other take-away food for a supermarket's distribution center.

I worked at the meat and deli counter at Zurich main station's shopping area (I loved the diverse customer base: commuters, local folks and international tourists.)

When I was in college, I had a permanent side job (which, unbeknownst to me prepared me for my position with Starbucks many years later) - I was a waitress at a café / restaurant. It was hard to be on my feet all day, but I loved it. Many regulars came in every day. Most of them sat at the same table and ordered the same thing. When I ran into them years later, say, at the train station or while grocery shopping, I immediately thought "latte and a croissant" or "doppio espresso and the NZZ (newspaper)".

One particular day, I played hooky from school in order to help out at the café. It was a snow day. There was way more snow than in the picture below. People had a hard time getting to work. Snow plows did the best they could but didn't get much done because the snow kept coming down.

So everybody whose bus wasn't operating or who didn't manage to free their own car from the snow, ended up coming in for a hot chocolate or a coffee. At some point we ran out of pastry, and we had to improvise. It was an unforgettable experience. I felt that my being there made a difference, and it was a good feeling.

One of my coworkers from back then later had the opportunity to buy the café from the previous owner, and he's still there today. 

Most of these jobs had in common that they started as early as 6am, which was really hard in fall and winter. But hey, that's when sandwiches need to be prepared, and that's when customers want their coffee. It was valuable to see what it takes behind the scenes in order for customers to get the perfect experience.

They also had in common that I met people of all walks of life at eye level. Later, if you're an HR Manager - or any other type of pant suit wearing b**** for that matter - you worry that workers see you as the enemy who has no clue what it means to work in the trenches, often at minimum wage. Well, I had at least a little clue, for which I am forever grateful. 

What was your first job, and what valuable learnings did you get from it?

Head over to the other posts.