G is for Gettin' Paid

[the_siobhan]

Stolen from kightp



1. Babysitting. Sucked at it. Didn't do it very often

2. Got a job briefly helping one of the guys from the ROM make casts of dinosaur bones. That lasted about one day until he made a pass at me. :-p

3. Restocking books at the school library. I think I got $1.50/hr.

4. The school board hired some of the students to revamp the school's entire inventory. I think I even got minimum wage for that.

5. Worked for SCOPE (School Community Outreach Program For the Elderly) doing errands and small jobs for elderly and disabled individuals. That was where I experienced my Scariest House In The World and Holiday in Cambodia stories.

6. Somewhere in there I turned 16. And armed with a new SS number, I got a job doing telephone surveys for a company called Canadian Facts. It was a really interesting place to work - lots of writers, actors and other people trying to make ends meet. Also lots of punks and freaks who liked having work that didn't require changing their clothes.

7. Packing and shipping for a company that made decals. Their biggest line was those things you put on the top of the windshield of your car that tell you what kind of car you're driving.

8. A factory that made life vests. Once again in the shipping department.

9. A sausage factory. My job was to go into the drying fridges and scrub the mold off of the racks of sausages with a wire brush and power house. I barely lasted a week. I couldn't eat sausage for about 10 years.

10. A doughnut shop. Lasted less than a week. Couldn't eat doughnuts for about 15 years.

11. Picking strawberries. I got paid by the basket. Lemmie tell you, if illegal immigrant labour is getting less than what we did, then they are subsisting on air. I made less than $1/hr for back-breaking work.

12. Waitressing. Which gradually progressed into bartending. For about um, 10 years? Worked in nice upscale restaurants, worked in shitholes, worked in stripjoints. Found out that the classier the place I was working, the worse the customers treated me.

13. The Pharm. I worked in a vaccine lab; with polio, measles, HIV, RSV and PIV. This is where the White Rain story happened. Stayed there for about 10 years.

14. A new media start-up. In QA. Lasted about a year before the company folded.

15. Canadian Blood Services. Broke my back.

16. LD50. Broke my brain

19. And now at the bank.

I need one more for an even 20.

What I'm listening to right this second: Supergroove

Comments

[disastrid.livejournal.com]

all i can think when i read "PIV" is "penis in vagina."

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Para-Influenza Virus.

And to be honest that is exactly what I thought, the entire time I was working with it.

[ravensee.livejournal.com]

I just read the stories linked in number 5.

Damn.

O_o

[ravensee.livejournal.com]

Sio, you are walking book of experiences.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

And the book is called, "Things Not To Do". :-p

[greylock.livejournal.com]

1. Picking strawberries. I got paid by the basket. Lemmie tell you, if illegal immigrant labour is getting less than what we did, then they are subsisting on air. I made less than $1/hr for back-breaking work.

What did the punnets sell for?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Is a punnet a basket?

No idea. They go for about $5 now, but that was probably 20 years ago.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

A punnet's ... er... roughly about the size of your hands wrapped together (unless you have hands like Brother Lee Love).

I don't eat stawberrys, but $5 a punnet sounds about right.

[the_axel]

In the context of strawberries & such, 'basket' is North American for 'punnet'.

Axel, your helpful English - English translator :-)

[greylock.livejournal.com]

There's no end to you talents, is there?

But $1 a punnet seems a lot compared to modern pricing.
If youse ever visit, I will take you stawberry pickin'. And to Galefry Wines. You'll like them both. Sio, one more than the other.

/Today Grr is dressed by Siobhan.
(Sadly, C4 top, Hallowmas T-shirt)

[panic-girl.livejournal.com]

But $1 a punnet seems a lot compared to modern pricing.
She wasn't getting paid $1/punnet though (new favourite word; will use often). It was less than $1/hr.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

'Exactly. It was more like two cents a punnet.

It's punishing work too - strawberries grow so close to the ground I was basically crawling around on my hands and knees for 8 hours.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

It was less than $1/hr.

So it was. That's miserable.