IBYTTSIAY - Working 9 to 5

What was the first job you ever had? How much did you make? How often did you work? What did you like/dislike about your job?

The first job I ever had, if you don't include babysitting, was as a summer hire library assistant. I think summer hire was created so that the high school students had something to do during the summer. Living in Germany there weren't a lot of job options for the American kids, so we worked summer hire with the military.

I worked Monday thru Friday, 40 hours a week for a measily $3.50/hr. But hey, it was better than nothing and I had something to do during the week instead of sitting around bored out of my mind.

For me, the worst part of this job was shelving non-fiction books. I loathed the task and avoided it when I could. Who is this evil Dewey decimal guy? Luckily it was only three of our numbers after the decimal at our library. In college I visited the library only to see something like twenty numbers after the decimal and felt bad for the poor student who had to shelve those books. On the other hand, the best books to shelve were the fiction kiddie books. They had colored tape on the spins to correspond with certain letters of the alphabet and we pretty much just dropped them into the designated bins for the kiddies to sift through, easy peasy.

Monday's were the best day to work. Yeah, I know the beginning of the week, yuck. But on Monday the library was closed. We pretty much had free reign and didn't have to worry about being quiet. We could spread out our work and relax.

I was lucky enough that the library asked me to come back and work during the school year. I took the opportunity and used the measily $3.50/hr to supplement my allowance/lunch money. It was nice because I didn't have to come in 40 hours a week, basically just when I could make it in for a couple of hours.

For the most part it was a pretty decent job. The adult staff was pretty nice. And odd bunch, but still pretty nice. Heck, they even bought us ice cream once in a while...who wouldn't enjoy a bowl of ice cream while settling down with a good book?