Woohoo, my 14 yo daughter has just got her first part time job - at MacDonald's!! Great, she will stop asking me for money!! She can only work up to 12 hrs during school term but when school finishes i a couple of weeks she will be able to work up to 38 hrs. She can't wait.

My first part time job was selling ice cream from one of the vans in outside Wigan Market. I just so happened to be around the market with my older sister when we bumped into the boss's son, he told my sister to start again for the summer and he said "Who is this" and before I could say "I am only 13" my sis elbowed me in the ribs and said, "Yeah she is looking for work too" So that got the ball rolling for me. I got a pound for all day Saturday.

It is a matter of being in the right place at the right tme??

So where was everybody's first part time job??

Sheelagh

I remember doing my paper round 50p a week , if you were quick youd get a bar of chocolate at the end of the week, don`t know how much there on nowadays.

I started on a petrol station, filling cars. 2 hours before school, 2 hours after, Monday to Friday for £1-50p a week, which even in 1971 was exploitation.

I only did that for a couple of weeks before packing it in, and then I went spud picking in the school holidays. Damned sight harder work, but £1-25 a day! I thought I was Rothschild!

I started my own business. It was illegal to put newspapers in the bins in Southport for quite a few years after the war, may still be, the result was that many people had sheds full of paper. I made myself a small pull-along trolley thing and went round collecting the newspaper, most people were so glad to get their shed cleared that they usually gave me something. I sold the newspaper to a dealer for something like three farthings a pound, that went on for three or four years till suddenly the waste paper market crashed, the rates dropped and I couldn't even cover the fare on the train to the dealer.

MacDonalds does seem to be a good place for young people to work, they have a clean as you go policy and generally the job is based on being well organised. When I was in the work force I noticed that young people who had worked at MacDonalds made very good employees, they seemed to be able to organise themselves well and get on with the job. Lately though I've noticed that they cannot cope with anything that is slightly different, never give them your order, let them ask the questions in the sequence that they've been trained to do it otherwise there is chaos.

Hi Sheelagh,

Blog (29) gives details of first job , I was in fulltime employment until the mid eighties when companies here started abolishing full time postions so as to remove the need to pay penel rates, bonuses etc . First part time was at the age of 33 but working three jobs each week , the main one would have been maintenence plant fitter at Donald Presses who built farming appliances . Many sheep stations/farms around the world have one of their wool presses or sets of wire strainers.

Wallace

My first job was a paper route, both morning and after school.
AS if that wasn't enough work my parents bought a Sunday route off a fella, which they had delivered to the house and had to address for delivery.
I got sick of it after a couple of months, I was tired. Dad got tired long before I did tho, you could just tell by looking at him at that early hour on a Sunday morning, the man was Not enjoying himself at all. So it did'nt last too long!
I was paid ten shilling a week for the lot and it was often donated to the family cause we were hard up, which was probably disappointing to me at the time. Now I get a smile knowing as young as I was, I helped.
Phil.

The first part time job I had was working on a Sunday morning in a pub called THE HARTINGTON in Barrow .I used to go with my old mate Bernie Cunningham and we used to sort the bottles from the blue skips and put them in creates ready for pick up from the brewery.I can still smell the stale beer now

The good old paper run, kept a few kids from going hungry I think??

Don't know if they have it anywhere else, but here in some parts of Oz, the Sunday papers are so thick, over 100 pages, the paper boy brings them around in his trolley. He blows a whistle to let you know he is around, usually gets a tip for saving you the trouble of getting up, getting dressed to go and get the paper.

Well worth it if you ask me.

Sheelagh

As a PS to this thread, 'it never rains but it pours'.

Eee I am proud of my lass, not only did she work Sat and Sun in Maccas she went babysitting on Sat nt.

I'll be after a sub from her at the end of the week I think!!

Now there must be some tales to tell about babysitting???

How come kids can be knocked out by 7 pm for their parents but when they decide to go out and get you into babysit it's like they have drunk 5 litres of undiluted red cordial and it's party time.

Woohoo lets drive the babysitter round the twist time??

God, glad I am past that stage.


Sheelagh

John i think it is called Bar Cairo now, you are going back a while there. Regards Doris

Have you asked her for a sub yet Sheelagh?
I once did that to my youngest for a laugh, and a good one it was.
I was earning and paying, he was earning.
I told him since I haven't seen a brass farthing from him and he must be doing well, can you lend yer old dad 500 bucks, I'm a wee bit behind.
The result was ,"What, are you serous?!!!" " I don't know what to say, I mean, like,like,like.
A very good laugh I will treasure for a long time.
Well, have you asked her?
Phil.

My first part-time job was when I was 14.My cousin was manageress of Halfords in Chorley,asked me if I would like to work on Saturdays and she would pay me ten shillings,of course I said yes,but I only did one day as someone unknown put a stop to it. The next time was when I was 15 and I worked shifts during school holidays,at a cotton mill where one of my sisters worked,6am 'til 2.15pm one week and 2.15pm 'til 10.30pm the next,all for a grand take home pay of three pounds a week.I did the same the following year before I started my apprenticeship which saw a drop in my weekly wage,but regardless Thursdays saw mother holding out her hand when I got home,that's how things were in our house.

Asked her for a sub Phil?? She is hanging on to it for dear life!!

Taken me I don't know how many trips to the bank, filled out I don't know how many forms to get her an ATM card, give her access to checking her balance online etc. I feel like I have signed my life away.

But, I am the 'guardian' of her account officially for the bank until she is 16. She doesn't know but I hold the key.


Sheelagh

We didn't have the same Mum did we mine used to do that. My first part time job was milk at weekends Saturday and Sunday for no pay just the odd tip and free orange juice after we'd finished I would have been 9 or 10.When that was finished I would go across the road and work on Earnshaws farm for the rest of the day. When I was old enough to do papers I got a job at the paper shop at Staining Rd End, up till I left school at 16 weekly pay was 10 shillings all the time no pay rises in them days and still did the milk and farm work.I started real work and real wages apprentice 30 bob a week Mum hand out streched took a quid left me with 10 shillings, now save some of that most of it went on bus fares to and from work. I times were ard not changed much compared to today's current climate.