Episode 103: First jobs and odd jobs

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Ian: You are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today, we're going to go back a little bit—we're going to think about times in our lives when we had our very first jobs, or maybe some odd jobs. So, when you're younger, sometimes you need to make money for whatever reason and a lot of times you can't get a really professional job without experience. So, it's important as a young person to get some of these jobs, get that experience, make some money, to really learn the importance of hard work. So today Paige and I were going to talk about our first jobs—some odd jobs, some weird ones. So, remember, if you get lost go online and check out that audio guide and transcript. Okay, so Paige—first jobs. They're always, I shouldn't say always interesting, but most of the time they're interesting. So, what was the first job that you can remember?

Paige: In my family, it was very set in stone that you were going to work if you wanted allowances. We didn't get any money and I wanted a car and you know with a car comes car insurance, gas, all that. So, I was always going to have to work in high school. And so, my first job—I think you can legally start working at fifteen in the US—I worked as a waitress. But at fifteen, you can't serve alcohol so I was a waitress at an old retirement home. And so, it was like fine dining every night for this community, and because it was an old retirement home, the customers were the same. So, you know everyone. You're like “Oh, Betty at table seven and Frank over table 10.” And they're the worst customers—older people—because they're so needy. You know, it's like, “I like this, this particular temperature, and I want extra water and this on the side.” But it was fun, it was a good job because then once I finally turned eighteen, I had a lot of experience that I was a waitress all through college, which is more money than I make today.

Ian: That's a pretty typical one starting out as a waiter or waitress. And do you have any particularly funny stories from that first job? That waitressing gig?

Paige: I mean, I don't know if per se funny, but obviously older men can be a little…

Ian: Friendly?

Paige: Aggressive. Extra friendly…extra friendly. So, you definitely, as a waitress, kind of have to accept that a little bit. Especially because you work on tips, so you kind of have to play into the friendliness a little bit. But nothing too bad, just like the typical stuff that you'd expect from older men—lots of compliments on my eyes, what I was wearing, all that.

Ian: I bet you got some good tips.

Paige: Yeah, it's like I said, even besides teaching and doing the podcast, when I was a salaried reporter, I made more waitressing than I did on salary. Because you just get, especially on a Friday or Saturday night, you get really good money on tips. And that's why a lot of people still do it well into their thirties and forties because it is such good money and it's untaxed, and you have it that day—you take it home with you. But it is a grind because if you want a social life, you're working Friday and Saturday nights until one in the morning. That's not great for being social.

Ian: It's certainly got its pros and cons like everything.

Paige: Yeah, but it is a great job financially and it is a fun crowd. The people who are waiters and waitresses are usually a funny bunch—they're just like super smiley and then as soon as they leave the table, they're like, “Those fucking assholes…” People are pretty funny in the restaurant business. You kind of have to be because you take a lot of crap.

Ian: I'd say, you probably have to have pretty thick skin to deal with all the bullshit that comes with bad customers, rude customers, things like this.

Paige: Exactly. Well, what about you? What was your first job, Ian?

Ian: So, my first job was, from what I remember, I think maybe when I was ten or eleven years old, I started working mowing lawns in my neighborhood. So, my dad taught me at a really early age how to use the lawnmower, use all the landscaping tools. Since I lived in a suburban neighborhood with so many houses, especially older people who needed help with cutting their grass, it was the perfect summer job for me. So, I would just go door to door and, “Hey, do you need someone to cut your lawn this summer?” And so, every day I'd have my list of different houses and I'd go cut the lawn and do some landscaping and this was probably the first time when I realized I actually really liked working outside. And, obviously, working in business and now teaching English, you spend a lot of time inside—a lot of time in the office. And that's okay—it has its pros and cons. But something I really liked was I was just outside all the time, getting the sun and sweating and feeling like I was really just getting the best of everything and getting paid for it. And so that was fun, and it really taught me a lot about taking care of landscaping of houses. And of course, I learned a lot of mistakes along the way, a lot of lessons, but it was a great first job. And that was my first job that I did kind of just on my own. And then after that, I had a job, I started as a soccer referee maybe when I was, I think, legally, there was a loophole and you could start at thirteen maybe for this. So, at thirteen, I went to refereeing school, got my certification, and then since I was playing soccer every weekend, I would play my soccer games and then after the game, I would change into my referee uniform, and I'd go referee some games. So, I just lived at the soccer complex playing and refereeing. This was great. You know, when you're a young kid and you know, it was the same way for me and my family, my parents said, we're not just going to give you money. If you want something, you're going to have to work for it. And I'm really glad they did that, they taught me a lot of lessons about nothing gets handed to you in life—there's no free lunch, and you got to really work for everything. So, from a young age, it felt great to have my own money in my pocket and, you know, feel independent. I can spend my money, I can save my money, so it was a really good lesson in working, and also financially at a young age. But yeah, it's really fun and interesting to think back on those times. And at the time, it's something you're just worried about making the money, whether it's to go to the movies with your friends or whatever you wanted to do at that time. But looking back now in retrospect, they were really great learning experiences, and they've really helped me to appreciate hard work and what it takes to get something done in my age now.

Paige: When you were a ref(eree), you were only thirteen. What age group were you reffing? Like younger?

Ian: It was usually like the same age or a little younger, but also, it could be older at times. So, there's referees that you have a referee in the middle, and that's like the main referee that officiates everything in the middle. And then you have people on the outside who are called linesman and the linesman are in charge of if the ball goes out of bounds, offsides, so really, you're just staying on the outside of the field and use the flag to indicate rulings, basically. But yeah, I was this little kid with an oversized uniform with a flag and it was pretty intimidating, to be honest. You know, if you're refereeing older people, you're worried about them yelling at you because you're younger. You had a lot of people saying, why is this young kid officiating our game? As if I didn't know what I was doing. And I even had a few times where you had really aggressive parents, who would start yelling at you or curse at me. I think my first day on the job actually somebody called me a “candy-ass.”

Paige: A what?

Ian: Which has always stuck in my mind. A candy-ass? I don’t know if you have ever heard that term before.

Paige: A candy-ass? No, I’ve never heard of that.

Ian: I don't know. I guess I didn’t really understand really what it meant either, at the time. But it's like well, okay, you got adults calling young teenagers curse words. Again, it's one of those you got to build that thick skin if you want to be able to get through it.

Paige: I don't know what candy-ass means but I would perceive it is negative if I was called that.

Ian: I know. it's more confusing than insulting. So, whatever.

Paige: CWG officially has over one hundred episodes and we are among the “Top Podcasts in Chile” and that’s thanks to you. But we are always working to grow our audience so make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and even LinkedIn. But most importantly—rate, review and share us with all your friends, family, and coworkers. And if you want to take your English education to the next level? Sign up for private or group classes at dynamicenglish.cl.

Paige: So those were our first jobs, but you know, now that we're getting older, we've definitely had a lot of different jobs. What are some of the weirdest jobs that you've done? Even if it's just something temporary that you've done that's pretty out there.

Ian: Sure. So, this is good because I've also had some odd jobs. Maybe, not really odd but definitely varying jobs. So, back on the landscaping thing, for other people I've done landscaping work like digging up rocks in their yard, disposing of rocks, completely clearing out yards. A lot of manual labor kind of stuff. And I've also had jobs where, like, one time I cleaned out an entire warehouse for a company, and it was one of those just, “Hey we need somebody to do this work for us this weekend. We'll pay you this much if you want to do it.” Of course, you need money during college when you're a poor college kid and jump at those opportunities so I did that. Also, during college, I worked at a golf course as a maintenance worker, which was really funny. Basically, I felt like Bill Murray in the movie “Caddyshack”, so my job was to clean golf carts, fix golf carts, pick up balls from the driving range, take out the trash, take care of insects in the clubhouse. I mean, you name it, I was in charge of that. So, again, a lot of manual labor stuff like that, working at the golf course, getting paid minimum wage but making enough money to buy beer during a week with friends in college and pay for those little bills you have. It was a great perk because I got free golf out of it. So, while I didn't get paid a lot, I got a lot of free golf out of it which was a good nice perk. So, it's funny to look back on jobs, especially now even in adult life. My background is more in business and marketing. It's what I studied and I worked for a big telecom company in the US for three years after school—after university—and completely changed directions. And now, teaching English and doing the podcast, so you never know where life is going to take you in terms of jobs, occupations. So, it's really interesting. Paige, what about you? So, we know you had a job as a waitress. Any other odd jobs you've had since then?

Paige: Yeah, I mean now that I really think about it too, even when I was younger, I did all the typical, stereotypical girl jobs. I babysat a lot. I cleaned people's houses for money, including my own. My mom would pay me to clean the whole house—very little. Now that I think about it, she definitely underpaid me. And then, besides those types of odd jobs, I also worked at a golf course for many years.  I caddied, but because I was a girl, I wasn't able. I could probably have done it but I didn't have to carry the bags. All I did was I would run to the hole and I would let them all know where their balls are and if it was in the woods, I would go get that for them. I would clean the ball, very minimal stuff that I would do, but got paid very well. And then after that, I got promoted to the beer cart lady, so I would drive around a golf cart and just give guys beer and mixed drinks all day, which was awesome. And they tipped very well.

Ian: Yeah, I was going to say that I remember being envious of the cart people when I was working because they were the ones that got the nice tips.

Paige: Yeah, it was a super easy job—super easy—and you just make good money and you just drive around on a golf cart all day. So, serious question—it seems like we've both had quite a lot of jobs over the years. Have you ever been fired from a job?

Ian: I have never been fired ever, thank goodness.

Paige: Never?

Ian: Never. Let's say there were points where we just we mutually decided it would be best if we all just left. But no, nothing ever like a fired situation. That's something I was always concerned about too; I never wanted something like that on my record. So, while there are good jobs I've loved and jobs I've hated, I've always tried to try to be respectful, at least. So, what about you?

Paige: Yeah, I've been fired once—it was the beverage cart job. I was fired wrongly, but I didn't fight it because it was one of two jobs I had that summer. So, I was like, I’m back to college or something. I was eighteen, it was the summer after my freshman year of college, and we went to Montreal because you can drink at eighteen. So, we planned a big trip with all my girlfriends and it's not that far from here, it's like four or five hours. So, we did this road trip and there were two beverage cart ladies. I was one of them and I asked the other one if she could cover that weekend, months in advance, because we planned this trip. And she forgot, so no one showed up that weekend and since I was on the schedule, I got fired. And I was like, “Well, I told Nicole, and she promised months ago. Here are all our messages.” And it was already determined before I got home.

Ian: Yeah, that’s too bad.

Paige: I didn't care that much, but it was kind of rude.

Ian: I thought you got fired maybe for drinking all the beverages in the cart. So, those are just some examples of our lives so we've had our first jobs, odd jobs, firings, quitting, drinking on the job—just kidding. So, everyone again if you get lost, go online, check out that audio guide and transcript. And also make sure to follow us on social media, through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat, so you can stay up to date on everything English. So, thank you for listening.

Paige: We'll see you next time.

Paige: “Coffee with Gringos” was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you’re interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     set in stone (idiom): confirmed; certain.

a.     It isn’t set in stone, but we want to have the party on Saturday

2.     allowance (noun): a small amount of money that a parent regularly gives a child.

a.     I had to work for my allowance. My parents would not just give it to me for free.

3.     needy (adjective): always needing attention or help.

a.     Old people are usually needy with waiters and waitresses at restaurants.

4.     gig (noun): a job, especially temporary.

a.     I need a new gig so I can earn more money to buy an apartment.

5.     per se (adverb): by or in itself; exactly.

a.     It is not the facts per se that are so important.  

6.     tips (noun): money given to someone as a reward for their work or services.

a.     Waiters make great tips from customers so it is a popular job.

7.     to play into (something) (phrasal verb): to participate in; to help support.

a.     She has to play into the customer’s compliments in order to get a good tip.  

8.     compliment (noun): a polite expression of praise or admiration.

a.     The more compliments she receives, the more tips she receives.

9.     salaried (adjective): receiving a fixed regular payment instead of variable wages.

a.     She made more money as a waitress than as a salaried reporter.

10.  grind (noun): hard and long work.

a.     Working in a restaurant pays well even if it is a grind.

11.  smiley (adjective): having a smile or happy expression.

a.     The restaurant staff is always smiley to ensure their customers are happy.  

12.  crap (noun, slang): verbal criticism; rudeness.

a.     Waiters take a lot of crap from customers so they can receive good tips.

13.   to have a thick skin (idiom): to be unbothered or insensitive to insults or criticism.

a.     She became so successful because she had a thick skin and never let anyone discourage her from reaching her goals.  

14.  to mow (verb): to cut grass.

a.     I like to mow the grass on the weekends.

15.  lawn (noun): the grass yard of a house or property.

a.     It is important to maintain a good lawn so the grass looks nice.

16.  landscaping (noun): the maintenance and design of a yard or piece of land.

a.     Landscaping is an important industry for suburban communities.

17.  referee (noun): sports official who is responsible for managing the rules of a sport.

a.     The referee gave the team a penalty for committing a foul.

18.  loophole (noun): a way of avoiding a law or a set of rules legally.

a.     The company found a tax loophole which allowed them to pay less annually.

19.  There’s no free lunch (idiom): nothing is gained or achieved without working or paying for it.

a.     My parents taught me early in life that there’s no free lunch and we have to work for what we want.

20.  retrospect (noun): a review of one’s past actions during a period of time.

a.     In retrospect, I’m really glad I had that job in order to gain experience.

21.  out of bounds (noun): outside of the designated play area of a sports field or court.

a.     The ball went out of bounds and the referee made his decision.

22.  offside (noun): a position in soccer where playing the ball is not allowed because there are fewer than two defenders in the attacking half at the moment the ball is played.

a.     The goal did not count because the referee called Alexis offside.

23.  intimidating (adjective): frightening; overwhelming; threatening

a.     Working at such a young age could be intimidating but I’m glad for the experience.

24.  to curse (verb): to say vulgar or inappropriate words.

a.     The parents cursed the referee for making the wrong decision.  

25.  candy-ass (noun, slang): a timid or scared person.

a.     She called him a candy-ass for not speaking his opinion to his boss.

26.  to be out there (phrasal verb): to be extreme or unusual.

a.     My old boss was pretty out there—she said the craziest things to the employees.

27.  varying (adjective): different.

a.     I had many varying jobs growing up during my life.

28.  driving range (noun): area used for practicing hitting golf balls.

a.     I used to pick up the balls at the driving range as one of my first jobs.

29.  perk (noun): benefit.

a.     Playing free golf was one of the perks of my job.

30.  to babysit (verb): to watch and take care of children.

a.     Many people babysit as one of their first jobs growing up.

31.  to caddy (verb): to carry a golfer’s clubs and provide assistance during a match.

a.     One of the best jobs I ever had was to caddy for golfers.

32.  to be promoted (verb): to be given a higher position and/or pay at work.

a.     I was promoted only after a few months at my last job.

33.  to fire (verb): to dismiss an employee from a job.

a.     My cousin is really upset because he was fired from his job.

34.  to cover (for someone) (verb): to temporarily do someone else’s work while they are gone or sick.

a.     My coworker will cover for me when I go on vacation next week.