"Crappy jobs are character-building"

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Discuss. Draw on your experiences you can.

― adaml (adaml), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know. . I think I'm building a lot more character by teaching than I did by data entry. Does that mean teaching is a crappy job?

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I'm not gonna take the job I interviewed for yesterday. Fuck character building.

― hstencil, Friday, 24 October 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Working in grocery stores in high school taught me how to scam my employers.

Working construction has taught me that no matter how much I can dread getting an office job as a last resort, it would sure as hell beat putting up sheetrock when I'm 40.

Working in restaurants taught me that people are complete and utter assholes devoid of reason and compassion.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

whats so good about having your character built?

but yea, i guess looking at it this way is one way of making things better

― charltonlido (gareth), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Character Building is for D&D Geeks.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

"Crappy jobs are".... soul-destroying, not character-building.

Temping in some dreary office just to able to eat and drink regularly is nothing more than prostitution basically. I found my temping years to be thoroughly depressing - probably the lowest point of my life.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:41 (twenty-two years ago)

My job isn't so much character building as soul sucking.

― luna (luna.c), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I worked in a warehouse a month back, for extra money.
I lost a couple pounds and got some muscle tone back, but I think I screwed up my shoulder and have a gougemark on my foot from a rogue power lifter.

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I got character, miles and miles
so much character it's wasted

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:44 (twenty-two years ago)

"I've got enough character to kick your ass if you ever say that again, Dad."

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

hey don't knock prostitution. . .

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

(real quote from my dad to me when I was a teenager weighing my future prospects: "Life is a shit sandwich: The more bread you have, the less shit you have to eat.")

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Horace Mann's dad == the wisest guy in town.

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

(or you could just tell the guy at the deli to go light on the "potted meat product")

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, cuz the amount of bread you has no bearing on how much is BETWEEN the bread, but it does have an affect on how strongly you TASTE what's between the bread. My dad's a jerk.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 24 October 2003 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

being a security guard, while heavily damaging mentally, is kind of fun in retrospect. by knowing the "law," you can very easily figure out how to break it. plus, you at least have to know how to defend yourself and get out of rather confrontational situations. but it fucking sucks don't it for nothing it will tear your mind apart and leave you an empty cold shell. ha.

― Dean Gulberry (deangulberry), Friday, 24 October 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

in retrospect
oh yeah, it's easy to laugh/smile about something you don't have to face day-in-and-out for the foreseeable future

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 24 October 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Being a security guard is only worth it if you get to carry a weapon.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 24 October 2003 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

and a gun

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 24 October 2003 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah it was absolutely miserable while i was doing it. but you gotta figure that with an art degree, you're pretty much fucked anyways. it's gonna be rough the whole road ....

― Dean Gulberry (deangulberry), Friday, 24 October 2003 17:07 (twenty-two years ago)

and a gun

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 24 October 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean, "the better armed the minimum wage workforce is, the better for everyone"

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 24 October 2003 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

i suppose some people do make minimum wage for that sort of thing. depends where you work. most security guards who are armed actually make quite a bit of money.

― Dean Gulberry (deangulberry), Friday, 24 October 2003 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

by knowing the "law," you can very easily figure out how to break it. plus, you at least have to know how to defend yourself and get out of rather confrontational situations.

that doesn't work if the person being confrontational with you doesn't give a fuck about the law, though.

― Little Big Macher (llamasfur), Friday, 24 October 2003 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess working as a fry cook could be considered "character building" if by that you mean "flesh scarring and smelly making".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 24 October 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

when you're in a confrontation with someone who doesn't give a fuck about the law, most things don't matter, aye?

― Dean Gulberry (deangulberry), Friday, 24 October 2003 20:14 (twenty-two years ago)

http://gourmetclub.signonsandiego.com/images/fresh1.jpg

― kephm, Saturday, 25 October 2003 01:34 (twenty-two years ago)

true. from a timid 16 year old getting screamed at by a harpy who pays you fuck all to pick her ugly fly-shat-on dog-pissed-on tomatoes that you are then supposed to sell to the public in good conscience, i have become the healthy well-adjusted citizen you see before you today.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Saturday, 25 October 2003 08:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Um . . . depends on the job. I did shitty jobs for ages until I got in m more-cushy one now. I was a builder for a while - from a raw 16yr old to a rather savvy 17yr old, I put it down to my shitty job.

― Johnney B, Saturday, 25 October 2003 10:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I enjoyed being a builder, bt I don't know if it was character building or not. However it was summer and all that healthy outoor living plus lots of heavy lifting = content me.

Working in restaurants taught me that people are complete and utter assholes devoid of reason and compassion.

Haha this is how I feel on my worst days at work. But by and large I enjoy it, no getting up early, sociable, plenty of booze..

Hmm, I don't think I belong on this thread.

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 25 October 2003 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

The character-building comment always comes from someone who has a really good job, or at least more money than the person they're addressing. Usually I tell whoever it is to go stuff it up their ¢unt.

― suzy (suzy), Saturday, 25 October 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Crappy jobs don't build character. They teach you who and what to fear. To a crappy boss, "character" means blind, terrified obedience. This is generally accomplished through the demolition of character.

― Aimless, Saturday, 25 October 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Lets all post chronological lists of crappy jobs held:

1) Grocery bag-stuffer at 16- good for illegitimate tips and stealing food out the back door
2) Der Burger Fuhrer cook- good for french fry fights with meat tong catapaults
3) Pizza cook- good for nothing
4) Dish Washer- good for sneaking back into work after quitting and papering it with fake "health department warning" stickers
5) Bagel cook- good for being broiled by a 100gallon boiling vat and 10ft tall oven in 90 degree weather, good for walking out on
5) Pizza delivery- good for delivering to crackhouses, getting mugged, having an italian mafia boss who could barely speak english and seeing mystery contraband peddled out the back door
6) Warehouse- good for personally experiencing what this racism hoo-ha everyone bitches about is
7) Convenience store night shift- good for crackheads trying to sell you stolen shit or kill you
8) Vet hospital- good for eliminating any aversion to touching shit, vomit and dead stuff, good for seeing how to incinerate bodies
9) Wood refinishing- good for getting to call yourself a "professional stripper"
10) Video transfer tech- good for getting to see real live bestiality porn on 8mm, good for having perverts ask you to repair their videos that broke from being greased with lube
11) Animator- good for getting to see how totally useless an art degree is

― sucka (sucka), Saturday, 25 October 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

The next time I form a band, it will be called "Meat Tong Catapault"

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Saturday, 25 October 2003 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

So sucka, how much character have you built up?

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Saturday, 25 October 2003 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I have no character but I have a waxy buildup between my toes. How about I mail you some.

"Custos and the Meat Tong Catapult" sounds like a winner. What can I guess the style would be. EZ listening symphonic oi mall metal?

― sucka (sucka), Saturday, 25 October 2003 20:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Post-Intestinal Klemzertronica!

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Saturday, 25 October 2003 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it just depends. When I worked as a hotel cleaner in a team with this other middle aged lady who had varicose veins that made it hurt to walk and she had a wee boy but the father had run off, and she went and walked him home from school every day and protected me from all the rooms where there was vomit and other gross stuff because I was 'too young' and always praised my work - well that made me realise the beautifulness of people who sacrifice themselves in silence every day, and how the ugly middle aged women you pass on the street maybe they are doing this too. It made me forever radically left wing. I guess I have a lot to thank that job for.

― -, Saturday, 25 October 2003 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

... But what I just said is a bit of Charles Dickens-ish thing to say. Because what if this women I worked with had been nasty and made me do the horrible jobs, and neglected her son ... which would have been a more natural response to her tiredness and her poverty? I don't think I know what I'm talking about.

― -, Saturday, 25 October 2003 22:05 (twenty-two years ago)

my post was sarcastic, btw.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Saturday, 25 October 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

@ otm

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 25 October 2003 22:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, if 'character building' has the modern euphemised sense of 'a right royal pain in the arse with no obvious immediate purpose or benefit'.

Aimless speaks great wisdom upthread. There should be a special exemption to the homicide laws for bosses who use the phrase.

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Sunday, 26 October 2003 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

dude i heard ralph's is paying $12/ an hour now....SHOULD I DO IT ??????????????????????????????????

― Vic (Vic), Sunday, 26 October 2003 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

go for it.

― Dean Gulberry (deangulberry), Sunday, 26 October 2003 21:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Suzy OTM on who usually utters this cliche. Ben OTM on how "soul-destroying" is usually the more appropriate term.

― j.lu (j.lu), Sunday, 26 October 2003 21:42 (twenty-two years ago)

i suppose some people do make minimum wage for that sort of thing. depends where you work. most security guards who are armed actually make quite a bit of money.

The last job ad I saw for one showed a salary range of 12K/year (for the lowest grade position) to 25K/year (for the top grade, and they were looking for former Special Services military people for that one).

― Christine 'Green Leafy Dragon' Indigo (cindigo), Sunday, 26 October 2003 22:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's very important to have extremely crappy jobs when you're young, so that when you find a job that isn't crappy, you really appreciate it.

I *do* think that crappy jobs are character building when I end up talking to my annoying British mates who shrug and talk about how they spent their early 20s hanging around on the dole. This makes me instantly want to become a Tory.

― kate (kate), Monday, 27 October 2003 09:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I spent a year and a quarter mostly on the dole, but with a bit of temping here and there. In retorspect, maybe I should have just gone and got a job in a pub.

I agree with you about crappy jobs making you appreciate the good ones. I am in the fortunate position of being able to say that every job I've done is better than the one before.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 27 October 2003 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I really should avoid this thread and others like it for a while, simply because HSA made me go to The Anarchist Bookfair at UCL at the weekend.

You know, I'm pretty liberal. I read the Guardian and shit. But after two and a half minutes of the Anarchist Bookfair, I was ready to go on a rampage screaming BRING BACK NATIONAL SERVICE!!! ABOLISH THE DOLE!!! BAN STUDENTS!!! F*CK TOP-UP FEES, LET'S MAKE YOU ALL WORK TO PAY YOUR SCHOOL FEES YOU HIPPIE FUCKING SCROUNGERS, GO TO LUSH AND BUY YOURSELVES SOME CRUELTY FREE ORGANIC FAIR TRADE SOAP AND WASH YOUR HAIR AND GET A FREAKING JOB!!!

Nothing turns me into a screaming reactionary Tory like the smell of unwashed dreadlocks and hypocrisy.

― kate (kate), Monday, 27 October 2003 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

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