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Low income jobs might be looked down on for their perceived position in society. However, only the uninformed think there's nothing to be gained from this level of work. In fact, these jobs can teach you valuable lessons for life, as demonstrated by these people's experiences.
Reddit user, u/KSacc1210, wanted to hear what you learned from low pay jobs when they asked:
What is the best low income job you ever had?
When It Feels Like Play Instead Of Work
I've waitressed in way too many restaurants and I hated all of them, except for one sushi spot. It was in a hipster part of town so my co-workers and the customer base were cool as hell. It truly never felt like "work" because I was essentially just socializing my entire shift.
Enough time has passed where we all moved on or literally moved out of the city but they felt like family and I really f-cking miss it.
Oddly relevant, my old manager texted me yesterday (haven't talked to him since I left in 2016) just to say he was thinking about me and wished me well. Feelsgoodman.
Paid To Pee
I was a lab tech on the 7pm-11pm shift a couple days a week a year in college. Very few people made use of the labs at these hours, and the few that did most of them already knew what they were doing. For the most part, I was paid to do homework and browse the internet. Also took a bathroom break whenever I wanted because no one was really around to complain otherwise.
Grabbing The Best Of The Worst
I worked at a computer store. It was great I got to fix computers all day, talked to customers about computers. When things were slow they would have us build a custom system to showcase and sell. Sometimes it was the best low end budget PC or a PC for a college kid. The best were the top tier gaming rigs. Of course we had to test them out and make sure they worked.
Also every return had to be thrown out. So they put a box up and all returns went into the box. If you wanted an item you signed the sheet. At the end of the shift they went down the sheet and you got to pick out one item until everything was gone or no one wanted anything. No one would sign the sheet until something good was put in the box. I just signed the sheet everyday when I started my shift.
I got a $400 video card for free. Just needed a new fan.
Do You Even Gym, Brah?
Sales/front desk associate for a gym (specifically Planet Fitness). I love all of my coworkers, my manager is easily my favorite person I have ever worked for, and they are super understanding and willing to work with my University schedule.
After coming from some pretty high-stress work environments in the food service industry, it is amazing to have a job that is incredibly relaxed, and non-stressful. They pay isn't that great, and I could easily get a job that pays better, but having amazing coworkers and a stress-free work environment is more than enough to keep me around while I finish off my degree.
Dealing with dumb gym members who don't understand Covid rules can be pretty frustrating, but otherwise this is probably my fav minimum wage job I've ever had
Zen Work
Probably working for the city. I mowed all the baseball fields and city owned lots. It was pretty nice, just working alone and listening to music. I also got to drive around in a loader when I needed to clean up the dump spots. It wasn't glorious work, but it was almost zen like and I got to drive some seriously heavy machinery
Backbreaking Work
Landscaping for a small local business. It was my first job after walking out of Toys R Us in the middle of a shift 2 weeks before Christmas because of how wretched it was.
Boss was just a regular guy, all he cared about was that you worked hard. It was hard work, but felt good being outside and active. And very rewarding working your a-- off for 10 hours and then being able to step back and admire what you created, be it a fish pond, stone patio, a nice shrub garden, ect, as opposed to unending lines of pissed off customers and cleaning up toy shelves that would be wrecked again in 15 minutes anyway.
And pay was actually pretty great, $10 an hour for 50 hours a week. At 17 when your boss hands you $500 cash every Friday afternoon you're basically rich. All in all the job was no bullsh-t. Boss gives you instruction and you do it. No dumb sh-t about tricking old people into buying insurance they don't need, no guilt trips if you request a day off, no 19 year old middle management c*nts with bad skin on a power trip, and if someone came in with an attitude demanding stuff, the boss would tell them to f-ck off, simple as that.
An Orientation For The Ages
Worked for a firework stand one summer. Pretty much explains itself. Oh and at the beginning of the season they had an orientation, which was just them naming and showing each firework and then lighting it off.
A Job To Show You The Coolest The World Has To Offer
Up until the pandemic, I had been working as a cameraman. Loved it despite the pay. I was onstage with great bands, behind the net in the AHL, in the pits at Motocross, and so much more.
I've used this time to earn IT certs but I may try and keep my side gig if I land a "real" job.
Leading You To Your Romantic Destiny
I worked in a record store off and on again for nearly eight years when I was young. Met the woman that became my Wife, and two of my longest/closest friends while there.
The store is closed, and it was torn down to build a Chick Fil A a few years ago. I'll always cherish the years I spent there.
Working Out In The Wilderness
I worked a year in Finnland as a builder. Mostly building log cabins with only handtools like axes, big handsaws and chisels, and as i'm an electrician by trade doing all the elctrics in them. Pay wasn't much, but i didn't need much, as i had a car with gas paid for by the company, a nice VW Amarok, and our building sites were almost ever in the backcountry. Often Lapland.
As i only had to work 4 days of the week, I often went fishing, hiking, a colleague took me hunting. I built the furniture for those cabins we sold, and it made for a nice extra income, also. I have never felt this free again. I loved it and if live didn't intervene, i probably would still be working there.
Other Like Minded, Caring Individuals
Volunteering at a charity shop. So low income it didn't even pay. Had it have paid I'd have never left and got a 'proper' job.
Met so many nice people there whom I'm still Friends with and everyday was different. You really did not know what people would donate and what would come through that door. It was fascinating at times the stuff that people donated.
Showing How To Take Care Of Your Staff
I worked in a ranch every spring, summer and christmas break from middle school to highschool. The ranch would cook us breakfast and lunch. I learned a lot there, including how do drive manual shift at 13, tractor at 14 and 5 ton truck at 15. If you worked hard, arrived on time and didn't drink, the owner would co-sign any reasonable line of credit and a lot of my coworkers bought a house like that. In my case, the owner paid for everything that I needed, from supplies to uniforms to glasses to a bike, so that I had everything I needed to finish school.
Running Karaoke...For Profit!
I worked at an ice cream shop / eatery and the owners were wonderful people. The whole thing was a part time job where I would fill in and do just about everything / anything they needed when one of them had to be somewhere else during their busy hours so at most I probably did 20 hours a week making slightly more than minimum wage.
The real kicker (besides them being great people and close to home), was they ran Karaoke on Saturday nights for 4 hours and needed someone to run it. I love to sing, I love doing Karaoke to being with so once a week they were paying me to do nothing but that for 4 hours which I probably would have done for free.
They appreciated it too because I was enthusiastic, got people into it and like clockwork there were some families who became regulars and would pretty much stop by every Saturday for months. The job lasted about 2 years while paying for college and it was great fun while it lasted.
Providing An Actual Service To People
Selling comfort shoes. Nothing like seeing a customer walk in practically in tears because their feet hurt so much and leave with a huge smile on their face because their feet have stopped hurting.
The Empire Records Of Video Rental Stores
Shift Manager at Hollywood video, making $7.25/hr. For some reason, we were the only story in the area where corporate allowed us to order whatever movies we wanted for the store. A lot of the employees were film students at the local university so we ordered a lot of crazy sh!t. We had a great indie, foreign, anime collection. We had the entire Twin Peaks series on VHS. Because Hollywood Video didn't make you pay your late fees to rent new movies, our clientele were mostly customers who couldn't rent from blockbuster b/c of high late fees.
We hated the Blockbuster people and would crank call them all the time. We'd dial them up and ask sh-t like, "Do you have Private Parts...? Can I touch them?" or "Do you have Lorenzo's Oil?... Can I rub it all over my body?" Our store manager was the coolest guy who would let us play whatever movies we wanted (as long as they weren't rated R) in the store. We were such a motley-crew, it felt like working at Empire Records.
I miss that job and those people so much.
Sometimes, A Good Boss Makes All The Difference
Cook at a breakfast restaurant. No doubleshifts. The owner was really nice and would bus dishes when we were super busy. Most of the cooks and some servers were friends so we regularly hung out. To top it off we had windows/a lot of natural light.
The atmosphere really made all the difference.
Then the owner sold the place and the new owner was fully incompetent and we all left.
The Most Excitement You Can Have Taking Pictures Of Bugs
Capturing live bees in little plastic bottles, gently chilling them until they were docile, and gluing tiny colored plastic tags with numbers onto their backs. Then sitting outside in a flowerbed with a notepad and trying to spot any of the tagged bees that returned to that site.
Other highlights of that job were: Sheltering in a grad student's car during a sudden intense thunderstorm and having the tree we were parked under get literally exploded by a lightning strike. Police arresting a student worker for sitting in the bushes next to a public pool full of kids with a big camera and macro lens (he was photographing insects). Getting shot at in the woods by people playing paintball. Almost falling out of a tree while trying to get a wide overhead shot of a survey site.
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Dating and the search for love and companionship... What a nightmare.
This journey plays out nothing like in the movies.
Every Prince or Princess (or everything in BTW) seems to have a touch of the psycho.
The things people say during what should be simple dinner conversation can leave a dining partner aghast.
Like... do you hear you?
Redditor detroit_michigldan wanted to discuss all the best ways to crash and burn when trying to make a romantic connection. They asked:
"You're on a date and it's going really great. What can another person say to ruin it completely?"
I once had a guy ask me if I was willing to follow him into the woods, depending on the price of the meal.
Yeah. No steak is worth that.
Plans After...
"Thanks for the ride but I have a date with someone else, I figured you wouldn't drive me if you knew I was going on a date with someone else and I really needed a ride."
"Online dating, talked to her for a while, finally got the courage to ask her out and then she said that as we got there."
iareyours
Mirror Image
“'You look just like my wife!'”
catalinachild
"I did have a guy tell me I reminded him of his son. I don’t believe English has a word to adequately describe my feelings at that time."
UnicornMagicRainbow
"That would definitely do it."
chaotica78
Third Wheel
"'Hope you don't mind if my mother joins us.'"
ofsquire
"Actually had a girl do this on a first date because she had anxiety issues. Honestly wasn’t bad except that 90% of the time she was silent and her mom talked over her."
"I didn’t mind that much and wouldn’t have minded trying again when she was more comfortable except that she was let go at the company we worked at and she deleted her social media profiles and she never responded on her number. Ah well."
Seightx
Liar
"'Hey bro aren't you gay? I made out with you last night.'"
"Random dude I've never seen before in front of my (f) date."
JHXC16
Was he lying though?
Filter Issues
"'You looked better on Tinder.'"
waqasnaseem07
"Isn’t it basic knowledge that everybody looks slightly worse than the worst picture you can find?"
no_user_ID_found
The Past
"'My ex used to do that too.'"
xxIvyOF
"Yep. I’ve definitely had two otherwise-decent-guy date-situations sour because the ex-comparisons just would not stop flowing. No woman wants to be seen as interchangeable—I’m not here to perfectly fill that ex-sized hole in your life. Focusing on the present moment and a future we could build together is a courtesy we need to grant each other in earliest dates of dating."
LarkScarlett
Powerless
"'I'm an alpha, you cant handle my top energy.'"
Midnightgay28
"I actually left a dude in the middle of dinner, in part, for saying this. I ordered an Uber under the table while pretending to listen to him. Went to the bathroom, and never came back. That was when I was young. Now I’d just say, 'How about we enjoy this meal in silence, before we head our separate ways.'”
UnicornMagicRainbow
Mommy...
"'Mother says I should be back by 9.'"
"Saying 'mother says' just feels weird."
bunnyrut
"That gives me Norman Bates vibes."
Werewolf_lover20
"'Mother says alligators are aggressive because they have an overabundance of teeth, but lack a toothbrush.'"
sodaextraiceplease
Obvs...
"'If you were going to be murdered, what method would you prefer. Purely hypothetical. Obvs.'"
Specific_Tap7296
If it looks anything like a Dateline NBC episode... RUN!
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Despite the advancement of technology rendering people left to their own devices–literally–to entertain them, there are some leisurely activities that will never go out of style.
Or so you would think.
Do people still knit to pass the time? Are people actively collecting stamps?
It depends on who's asking.
Curious to hear about hobby trends, Redditor gizehgizeh asked:
"What are once popular hobbies that are slowly dying these days?"

Before we've become conditioned to living on our phones, these activities used to keep people occupied.
Before Texting, There Was This
"Letter writing."
– littlekingMT
Literal And Tangible Joy
"Well the internet killed pen pals for sure. I do remember I had a Japanese girl for a penpal maybe back in 2007 or so. I honestly don't remember how it started, pretty sure some website, but that was a fun experience. But now I can just straight up talk to foreign people real time, lol. But yea getting a physical letter that someone took the time to write and mail still is hard to beat feelings wise."
– skyburnsred
Model Trains
"When I was growing up, every town had a model train store in it. Now I have one in region and everything else has to be bought online."
– Hairy_Effective1172
Pretty Rocks
"Don’t see anyone playing marbles anymore, I had an awesome collection in school."
– sheeple85
"I had some marbles as a kid in the 90s. My grandma got them for me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I always imagined them as a thing kids in the 40s played with."
– Ryoukugan
People Were Moving Canvases
"Paintball has been dying a slow death since 2006. Sad, really."
– hobo_recycler
Before the general population began hating clutter, collecting was once a "thing."
Precious Coins
"Coin collecting... I'm a silver/gold nut and I'm always hunting for precious metal coins. whenever I go into a shop they get all excited because 'no one under 70 collects coins anymore.'"
– ThatFishySmell99
Post It
"Stamp collecting."
– spooky_scully_mulder
"Collecting in general, really. Of course there are still prominent collectors but it's slipped more into enthusiast and niche territory than being a popular hobby that you might expect anyone to have."
– iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
What A Gem
"Rockhounding was immensely popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Personally, I think it's a fascinating and fulfilling hobby, but when I go to a meeting at a rock and gem club, I'm usually the youngest one in the room by several decades."
– filthy_lucre
People once enjoyed making things.
Admiring The View
"Stained glass. I learned how to make it from my old man, and my junior high art class teacher also taught it. Very few artisans are still around."
– brobeanzhitler
Metal Vocation
"Black smithing."
– kenworth117
"I bought a forge to try. It’s insanely hard work, and crazy expensive. I still haven’t finished a piece."
– DSentvalue
Scrapbooking
"Yeah. I'm watching the arts and crafts stores around me completely uninstalling their racks for specialty paper. Now the only thing they have is mega packs of repeating colors/images. To boot all the inclusions like papercraft/die-cut things, washi tape, scissors, stickers, etc have gotten so expensive I would rather go buy $5 bags at value village to get an assortment of things versus buying anything new. I really, really miss yard sales for the same reasons."
– Phantasmai
I envy people who have jobs that are basically their hobbies.
Not everyone gets paid doing what they actually enjoy and have a profound level of passion for.
If they do, kudos to them.
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When we first meet someone–whether through mutual friends, at school, or in a new work setting–we generally feel people out to determine if they're worth getting to know.
While the process could take time, some people make our jobs much easier after spotting instant red flags.
Curious to hear about our general radar of people, Redditor xxFluffie asked:
"What is something that makes you immediately dislike someone?"

Some people just think they are absolutely hilarious and never realize they're the only ones laughing.
Next In Line
"They laugh about having screwed someone else over. If you think you're not next, well, you'll learn."
– whiznat
Unfunny
"when you mention you don't like a thing and they immediately do that thing 'as a joke.'"
– wayfinder
Playing Devil's Advocate
"Kneejerk contrarians. People who, no matter what you say you like or believe, just have to dismiss it and say they like or think the opposite."
– BubbhaJebus
People who put others down get slammed here.
Bad Parents
"When they treat their kids sh**ty in public. I don't mean handling tantrums, setting a rule, having to hurry to the train etc. I mean perfectly normal-behaved kids getting in trouble for trailing along peacefully, looking at things, asking questions etc."
"If you don't like tiny humans who learn the world, why have them??"
– raxeira-etterath
Public Humiliation
"Treating people sh**ty in public for laughs. Like being rude to service workers because they think it’s funny. Big red flag."
– Ok_Personality_1080
Simply Uncalled For
"Someone who is a d*ck to other people or animals for no reason."
– xebt1000
Those with ulterior motives rubs people the wrong way.
The Scheme
"If they try to get me to join their MLM scheme."
– spazmcgee1
Hard Sell
"A guy I used to be friends with in high school reached out a couple of years after graduating about a business opportunity he wanted my opinion on because 'you've always been smart', then he set up a Skype call and brought some other dude into the call and they started trying to sell me on what was clearly an MLM scheme. The guy went from friend to 'I'm never talking to you again' in a matter of 10 minutes."
– Mental-Afternoon-164
A Timeline
"Good gawd, this! I've had more than one exposure to this abject bullsh**tery..."
- Back in the late 80's/early 90's I was invited to a meeting of literally the OG "Pyramid" where you're recruited to pay in, and then you go out and recruit others to pay in, and the last in line got f'kall.
- In 1995 I had a coworker try to reel me into Amway, which was a hard no.
- In 2000 it was Pampered Chef, though to be fair they did have useful products.
- In 2009 a coworker tried to get me into some stupid video calling service that was obviously stupid from the description. He even got offended when I called bullsh*t.
– Mystical_Cat
Too much ego is a no-go.
I Can Do Better
"Being a b*tch just to stroke their own ego."
"We get it, you can lift 5lbs more than the 12 year old, you don't have to rub it in their face just because you're slightly better"
– Livia_Pivia
Can't Top This
"Oh, you did <story that's been told>? That's nothing! I did <implausible story>.
"I get the whole empathy through relating common experience, and I'm someone who does that (which drives some people crazy on its own), but there's a big different by empathising through common experience, and one-upmanship."
– Tisarwat
Lacking Conversational Etiquette
"Starting to talk over me when I was already talking."
"Stop it you rude, arrogant jerk."
– R33Gtst
If one or more of these traits sound familiar to you, you're not alone.
We don't have time for braggadocios, pyramid-schemers, and conversation interrupters.
And that's just for starters.
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Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
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