This Job Sucks!

There's a meme that's been going around for awhile where you list four things in several different categories. I haven't been specifically tagged and I haven't really felt like taking up the open challenges of those who have because I think much of what I'd list would probably be pretty boring, and in some cases, I probably couldn't even find four things to list.

Four movies I'd watch again? I don't know. Maybe that Bourne movie I listened to the other night. Of course, it would have to be at a time when I could actually WATCH, 'cause listening didn't quite work out. But for the most part, I don't like to watch movies I've already seen. I know a lot of people DO, but I kind of think there are too many things I want to do to have time to do them twice. And I get bored.

Anyway, reading the memes on the various blogs reminded me of my first job--that's one of the categories: four jobs you've held. Most of my work life, I've been a legal secretary but I've done one or two other things. I worked in a women's dress shop one Christmas season when I was in high school, just long enough to decide I seriously didn't want a job in retail. I worked for my former father-in-law who taught college real estate law classes and wrote environmental impact reports. I remember one weekend, my former husband and I were stationed at the entrance to a county park, counting cars going in and coming out--they were looking at making some changes to the park that required an environmental impact report and needed some figures on traffic. I think I'd rather have watched several movies I had already seen several times. Barbarella maybe. But I think probably the goofiest job I had was when I was a junior in high school. It was my first "real" job other than babysitting.

I was hired to work for a company that sells vacuum cleaners door-to-door. You probably all know the company. Perhaps you've had a demonstration. Heck, maybe you even own one! They're good vacuum cleaners from what I know but they're fairly expensive.

I was hired to staff the store front office in the afternoons after school, answering the telephone, doing some light filing, etc. I think I worked two or three hours a day, maybe three days a week. That job convinced me I didn't want to go into any kind of sales job either.

Although I never actually witnessed it, I heard stories about how all the salesmen got together in the shop every morning for donuts and to sing songs, the lyrics of which were all about the company, set to familiar tunes. Pumping up the sales guys on sugar and songs was supposed to boost sales.

There were always contests, and even when there weren't any real contests, the sales guys made them up for the benefit of the customers. Several times I'd answer the telephone to find one of the sales guys on the other end, calling to confirm that if he got just ONE MORE SALE, he'd win that trip to Hawaii. There was no trip to Hawaii. It was kind of funny, though, to be on the other end of the line, trying to think up something to say to distract the sales guy while he was trying to pump up the excitement to close the sale.

Each quarter, the company would have a Beef and Bean Dinner. The sales region would divide the stores into two teams, and over the course of a few weeks, the sales guys competed against one another to be the top sales team. At the dinner, the winning team got steak dinners while the losing team ate hot dogs and beans. They sat the losers across the table from the winners. I remember attending one of those dinners, but for the life of me, I can't remember what side of the table I was on! I kind of think I was on the bean side--I've probably blocked it from my memory. Who knows? Maybe if I had gotten steak, I'd still be working in vacuum sales! But as far as I was concerned, the job was pretty boring, so after a few months, I moved on.

Have you had any jobs that you'd like to tell us about?