Where was your teenage Saturday job?

J63320

I had a Saturday job at Woolworths in the 1970s. I’d only been there a few weeks when VAT took over from Purchase Tax and we all got double time for going in on Sunday to change the price labels.
There were several Saturday girls, but I was the only one doing Science A Levels so I usually had to look after the electrical counter. Men would come in to buy cable by the yard, and I had to ask them what they wanted it for. Some of them wouldn’t believe me when I explained that the cheaper one they wanted was not going to be adequate and they needed a heavier, more expensive one (she’s just a girl, what does she know?) , and I would have to call the manager to back me up. We had a light bulb test box and most customers would ask me to check the bulbs they were buying. Occasionally someone would bring in a bulb they claimed was new, and complain that it didn’t work; it was usually obvious that it was  an old one but company policy was just to exchange it and say nothing. 

HouseMartin567

Mine was the local Co-Op convenience store. I didn’t work Saturdays due to sporting commitments, so I did Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and later started doing Sunday afternoons too. This was throughout Sixth Form in the early ‘00s. I think the hourly rate was about £3.70.

oldhaggis

When I was 14 in the 1960's I worked as a hotel chambermaid on Saturdays and during the school holidays. My mum also worked there and ruled me with a rod of iron. I was the lowest of the low and paid 5 shillings an hour (25p) out of petty cash.
The head receptionist (dragon) ,who also did the wage packets, strongly disapproved of this arrangement. As soon as I was old enough to have a National Insurance number, I was officially registered and paid my stamp. When I was at Uni  I recall getting my NI card back at the end of the summer holidays with (if I remember rightly) dark red stamps on it . 

catz4m8z

Local chippie (I cant remember how much I got payed). I do remember that the owner used to let his dog drink out of the chip bucket though!

Job ended when the shop blew up.....
No joke! and it was on my birthday as well.
  

HotDog2020

I started with a sunday job delivering papers which although it wasn't paid well I continued this for several years, I was paid £3.50 for 2.5/ 3 hours (Also tips on Christmas weeks were amazing £100). this was in the 90s, I also babysat briefly one couple paid a little the other couple didn't pay at all (the cheek! I can tell you I didn't do that again!) A more lucrative job was working on canal boats cleaning them on Saturday to get them ready for holidays, that was good but I was told off a few times for having heavy metal blasting on the boats, which I would love to clean to. I would get about £30/£40 a day when I was 14-16. I also worked in (RIP) Debenhams, there was this promotion that if you signed up people for a credit card you could win a prize, I was the person kept going back, one of the prizes was some perfume which I fell in love with but haven't ever found again 😒 although I have now smelt better 😂. I have also worked in a soap and detergent factory!
Also I have worked in a call centre for a blast while I was at college. I worked at MR. T when I had a relationship (young love) (MD said we were like an old married couple spending all our time working and not having any fun!) I Loved there sausage and egg wedge sandwich, yum! I did a one year work placement (Whilst at Uni) at a testing for drugs of abuse place, it was working with a lot of saliva, nice (NOT!). I also worked as a carer assistant, volunteer at the hospital, doing admin and housekeeping. I have worked on a bar, as a waitress, housekeeper, in an antique shop for a very brief spell. I did a work attachment at Scenes of Crime unit related to my degree. (Degree was BSc Forensic science). I also volunteered at the Red Cross charity shop, I made some lovely wise friends. 

In my professional life I started out in Science and worked in several labs, lab manager esque roles, then I decided to move to a more office based role/ finance which is what I do now, and I can tell you I have worked for quite a few different industries. I am currently unemployed and looking for work after being made redundant. However I am quite keen to get back to work and I think my early start in work as given me maybe drive or ability to adapt, no doubt skills have also been picked up on the way, when I worked in a call centre, the boss of the next job in the lab said I was a natural on the phone! It all helps no doubt about it...Although my DSF said you don't want to be the jack of all trades knowing a little about a lot of jobs but not a lot about a smaller area - However in finance, I have found that going around the track a bit, there is some meat there for someone, for example I am seeing quite a lot of jobs that desire NetSuite experience, Hello I just got that!! Admittedly I was hoping the last job would be permenant, they are moving on without me 😒😒😒. I sometimes ask if my bad luck is something to with flitting around too much...you never know I may get that longevity yet, I was interviewed recently so someonce sees value in my CV, I think it is a good CV, I want to work and I was told in my last role that I had made a positive impact to the ledger...I guess my confidence keeps getting knocked, when I get let go of even when they say there is nothing wrong with my work, in fact I regularly got praised in the last job...you just wonder why?

Andyjflet

My first job was on the Saturday Market at Milton Keynes, at 14 years old, I enjoyed the life so much that I stopped going to school in 1982, fed up with the slipper and cane and being abused by my teachers I decided to stay on the bus one morning and then worked 6 days a week on 2 stalls, so my working life began at 14 years old. 

Greenqueen_2

As well as plenty of babysitting I had a Sunday paper round.  Then once I got into the sixth form I landed a Saturday job in Youngsters Toys. Mostly tidying and restocking the shelves, but I got to demonstrate the battery powered cars/robots etc. Great fun. My wage was paid in a little brown envelope.  The boss once sent me up the street to get her some cigarettes but the newsagent wouldn’t serve me because they thought I looked under 16 (actually I was almost 18 at the time). This annoyed her and I got laid off. Nowadays it would be unfair dismissal!

Blackcats

First Saturday job at 15 and 3 months which I recall was deemed to be the earliest starting age for official work
I worked in British Home Stores 8.45 am to 6.15 pm in the men's socks and pants department which I hated!  So many nylon pants that had to be tidied even when they were tidy as you weren't allowed to stand around doing nothing.  Wages in 1979 was £7.20 for the day.

I soon got a Saturday job at Salisburys Handbags which I loved.  We had musak instead of the silence at BHS and all of those earrings, bags,purses etc - utter bliss.  I took a 20p a day pay cut and then spent a big chunk of my wages in the shop.  Still love earrings, bags and purses 😀

grandmanerd

I worked at our local C-operative store (very tatty premises, next to the canal and in heavy rains the water came up under the freezer aisle - rats too sometimes). I was 15 and worked 3 hours on Thursday and Friday evenings and all day Saturday and I think my wage was £2-68 in total (1973). The Woolworths jobs were very sought after and paid well. During the summer I worked full-time for 2 or 3 weeks. The woman who ran the fruit and veg stall (everything was weighed out for the customers back then) and the girl who assisted her (same hours as me) both had holidays booked for the same week so I ran the grocery stall.

 After that I was put on re-labelling the soup tins (introduction of VAT again). All along one wall in the shop, two stacks for each variety, up to 10 layers high. Started at one end, re-labelled and moved the stack one place to the left. Took nearly a week. They gave me an 'assistant'. A boy older than me but with what would now be termed learning difficulties. His productivity was low. One day I went for my 1/2 hour meal break. I opened a box of soup (24 cans), wrote labels (we had a limited number of label machines and sometimes wrote them out by hand) and told him to stick the labels on and add the cans to the stack. When I came back he was still working on it.

He was fan of Elton John and drove me mad singing the same 2 or 3 songs over and over. I shouted myself hoarse trying to get him to concentrate instead of distracting me. On Saturday morning we finished the row and I begged to be put somewhere quiet on my own. The assistant manager said that in 4 days I'd got more work out of him than 3 managers had done in his whole 4 week placement (he had another job lined up to go to)

annieb64

Can remember I was working on my bread van when decimal coinage was introduced. Some older customers used to empty their purses on the table and leave it to me to rake the correct money