My first day at work.

Off-topic discussions, musings and chat
dogduke
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Joined: Thu 03 Jan, 2008 6:47 am

Post by dogduke »

I think most people wil remember their first day at work.Glancing at the calendar today I was taken back to my first dayat work. 28.12.1960 - Fifty years ago !.15 years old,fresh out of school at Christmas I reported to the BR general offices in Aire St.I was sent on to Stanley where I worked for 3 months as a junior clerkon the princely salary of £240 p.a. or £4.8s.3d.a week.Lots of different jobs in lots of different places.I continued in railway employment until 1999 having been throughdieselisation,modernisation,Beeching,privatisation and finally redundancy.I was 'invited back' the following year for a further 6 years so 44 years in total. Lots of happy memories,this is why I like to see any fifties-sixtiesphotos of railways in Leeds which turn up here and on Leodis.
Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.

Trojan
Posts: 1990
Joined: Sat 22 Dec, 2007 3:54 pm

Post by Trojan »

My first job was at W L Ingle (I Never Give Laziness Encouragement) at Millshaw Tannery at the bottom of Churwell Hill. I was employed as a junior cost clerk in July 1962. The factory is long gone but the offices are still there. Unlike me - I lasted precisely three months You sat on a high stool at a sloping desk, and had to write everything with a scratchy steel pen, in pencil first. It was like something out of Dickens. Finishing time was 5-30 by the office clock - not your own watch, and you couldn't go until the office manager said you could. It was £5 pw.
Industria Omnia Vincit

Cardiarms
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Joined: Tue 21 Oct, 2008 8:30 am

Post by Cardiarms »

First proper job was for small civil service dept in Dudley House. Much disappointed to find only one secretary and no typing pool. Previous job was Lynx in pudsey where much of the time was spent walking over broken pallets in trainers and avoiding forklift forks at ankle height, no H&S gone mad then. Mind you did get paid to feed a bonfire with the broken pallets and read a book for several days.

BLAKEY
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Joined: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 4:42 am

Post by BLAKEY »

September 1952 and I reported on a Monday morning to the Century Insurance Company at 13/14 South Parade, Leeds to be a junior clerk in the Fire Department. I wish I still had the letter which told me that my starting salary would be a breathtaking £120 per annum. We were allowed to wear a sports jacket and flannels on Saturday mornings but smart suits, whether you could afford one or not, during the week. Initially the experience was exciting - travelling daily from Ilkley and meeting so many new folks, most of whom were helpful and kind, and finding out about "the big city" which was a fabulous place in those days with theatres, cinemas, dance halls and legendary department stores, and best of all for me - trams !! The work however soon became very routine and boring, and its difficult now to remember how offices functioned without computers etc - acres of dusty laborious paperwork and inter office mail everywhere. There was also a strong atmosphere of Dickensian times in the hierarchy. The Area Manager was a quiet but unapproachable Welshman, Richard Edward Thomas, who instilled awe and compulsory respect in everyone. I clearly remember him walking down the long office, immaculate in morning suit, expensive haircut and gold rimmed glasses, and stopping near me with a very displeased expression to ask "WHY is this desk crooked - any particular reason ??"National Service rescued me from what I felt was a restrictive and boring career with obligatory professional exams and so forth - and besides I wanted nothing more than to work "on the buses" and soon afterwards did so for forty four very happy years in many different roles - I may have sacrificed some security and wealth, but contentment and enjoyment have no price ticket, and I have much to look back on with happiness.
There's nothing like keeping the past alive - it makes us relieved to reflect that any bad times have gone, and happy to relive all the joyful and fascinating experiences of our own and other folks' earlier days.

geoffb
Posts: 342
Joined: Fri 23 Feb, 2007 9:53 am

Post by geoffb »

My fist day 30/09/1968, as a 16 year old junior technical assistant at Tingley Gas works on £250.00pa, I had to report to the works manager at 0845, arrived at 0815 and asked the gateman to see Mr Rickard, his response was "he'll still be in fxxxxxxg bed. What was I doing here in this Dantes Inferno. I lasted there for two and a half years until the works closed, then went to Meadow Lane works.Tingley gas works was a great place to work and as an apprentice the training I received was first class. I lasted with the Gas for 30 years.

DOBBO
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat 21 Feb, 2009 5:32 pm

Post by DOBBO »

Before leaving school I was lucky enough to find a Saturday job ( get into town at 7.30am and go to the back door of all the big stores ) at Woolworths in Briggate as a washer up in the cafeteria . I had no idea what I would be paid but at 6PM I was given a pay packet - One Guinea less 6d Tax !!! I had never been so well off . The bonus was that in the school holidays you were guaranteed a full weeks work - £5 and still only 6d tax - now I really was rich . Its all been downhill since then and I'm still in catering God help me. Anybody else have a good Saturday job ?
All knowledge is important

DOBBO
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat 21 Feb, 2009 5:32 pm

Post by DOBBO »

Before leaving school I was lucky enough to find a Saturday job ( get into town at 7.30am and go to the back door of all the big stores ) at Woolworths in Briggate as a washer up in the cafeteria . I had no idea what I would be paid but at 6PM I was given a pay packet - One Guinea less 6d Tax !!! I had never been so well off . The bonus was that in the school holidays you were guaranteed a full weeks work - £5 and still only 6d tax - now I really was rich . Its all been downhill since then and I'm still in catering God help me. Anybody else have a good Saturday job ?
All knowledge is important

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Leodian
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Joined: Thu 10 Jun, 2010 8:03 am

Post by Leodian »

While still at school in the late 1950s I tried to get work for a few hours a week at a W H Smith's wholesale newspaper supply building that was at a side road near the New Market Street/Duncan Street junction at the Corn Exchange. I was turned down because I was too small (as far as I recall some other school lads got taken on). I think the work may have involved shifting and bundling newspapers to await collection. That WH Smith's must have closed down a long time ago!
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

dogduke
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Joined: Thu 03 Jan, 2008 6:47 am

Post by dogduke »

Leodian wrote: While still at school in the late 1950s I tried to get work for a few hours a week at a W H Smith's wholesale newspaper supply building that was at a side road near the New Market Street/Duncan Street junction at the Corn Exchange. I was turned down because I was too small (as far as I recall some other school lads got taken on). I think the work may have involved shifting and bundling newspapers to await collection. That WH Smith's must have closed down a long time ago! Did that back onto the railway ? - I think itburned down in the mid seventies.
Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.

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Leodian
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Post by Leodian »

dogduke wrote: Leodian wrote: While still at school in the late 1950s I tried to get work for a few hours a week at a W H Smith's wholesale newspaper supply building that was at a side road near the New Market Street/Duncan Street junction at the Corn Exchange. I was turned down because I was too small (as far as I recall some other school lads got taken on). I think the work may have involved shifting and bundling newspapers to await collection. That WH Smith's must have closed down a long time ago! Did that back onto the railway ? - I think itburned down in the mid seventies. Hi dogduke. I can't recall if it did back onto the railway, but it could well have done as it was a wholesale distribution centre for newspapers and so was not a small building.
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

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