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
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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
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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
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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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When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.