Workplace 2 - My Longest Job

On the corner of the street that I grew up on there was a smorgasboard of fast foods. We were within 2 minutes walk from Hungry Jacks, KFC and Pizza Hut, Subway and Baskin & Robbins.. for a kid it was great.

I decided to work at KFC because I didn't actually like their food and figured that would be the safest. My dislike lasted maybe a week after I started and I still crave their chicken nuggets with mayo. We were always sneaking food when the managers weren't looking, popcorn chicken being the favourite coz it was quick and inconspicuous.

On one of my first shifts a boy came up and said "Heather Woodcraft! Wow! How are you?" I had no idea who he was so he went on to explain that we had gone to pre-school together and my sister had gone to school with his sister and he knew my brother...." I did not remember him at all and suddenly felt that I was working way too close to home seeing as everyone I knew was half an hr away where I was going to high school.

I remember freezing while stacking the cold room, nearly passing out in the drive-through from the fumes, and wondering why they made the counters with the tills so high. It wasn't a pleasant job but the people were nice and the work was simple. And the free chicken at the end of closing shifts somehow made the fact that everything I owned now smelt like grease and fried chicken worthwhile.

I worked at KFC for a year and a half - by far my longest job to date. I promised myself when I started that I would work there for Grade 11 and I left half way through Grade 12.
Kudos to me!

After extensive research:
Pros - free chicken! And simple tasks
Cons - EVERYTHING you own will smell like grease, you'll get crappy pay and have to put up with the worst of the general public. Honestly, some people you'll feel guilty for serving.

Workplace 1 - Wrap It. Wrap it Good.

Eager at 14 I started in the workforce. There was a place down the road called Handmade Things, one of those knick-knack stores filled with the sort of gifts you buy for people you don't know very well. You know the ones.

I wanted to work there so I took to hanging out at the store after work, getting to know the staff and probably being a pain in the ass. But always asking if I could work there. I think I went down every day after school for about two weeks before they finally broke and hired me to make up gift packs out the back. I was stoked!

I remember it being good work, all the new stuff that came in, I saw it first. Unpacking and reassembling it into pretty little cardboard boxes stuffed with shredded coloured paper. I remember being sneaky as hell coz I bought a hammock off one of their suppliers instead of from them. Woo!

So I probably worked there for a few months, as would become tradition, sitting in the little room out the back, trying to stay out of the dramas that happened between the four managers of this family owned/run business. Never go into business with extended family. OMG.

No idea what the pay was and it would have gone on Mars Bars at the school tuckshop but that feeling of pay day, having cash in my hand that was mine, it's the greatest feeling a kid can have*.

So if you're looking at going for this job:
Pros - I can wrap gifts and colour coordinate like a ninja! And industry hook ups for cheaper stuff
Cons - Business doesn't exist anymore and being caught in some other families drama's isn't something you want

*you know, after the love of your parents, passing at school, playing with a puppy.. all the stuff thats better than cash in hand. But it's definitely top 5, yeah?