There’s a good chance you’re listening to this podcast at work…or on your way to or from work. If you saw any social media posts about this episode, you probably saw them during work hours, on breaks from tasks at hand. Most of us work a lot; it’s something we’ve talked about on Men in Gorilla Suits quite a bit in passing, but we’ve never dedicated an entire episode to working. That changes today…
We kick it all off by talking about the first job we ever had, and then we roll into the best job we’ve ever had. Of course, if we talk about the best job we’ve ever had, we really should talk about the worst job — and we do!
If you’ve watched the teaser for this week’s show, you know that at least Christopher has had a lot of different jobs. Shawn is no different. Neither of us are strangers to manual labor. We devote a little time to discussing what we’ve brought from construction and warehouse jobs over to our office gigs. After that, we share some good job interview stories.
A good manager or shop foreman can make even a not-so-great job better. We talk about what makes a good manager and whether or not we’ve ever worked for people fitting our descriptions of a good leader in the workplace.
Work enough, and you’re going to meet some people you’d probably never have met on your own. We spend some time talking about some of the more “interesting” people we’ve ever worked with and share some of our stranger on-the-job stories.
We spend one minute each in a lightning round, listing as many jobs as we have had in 60 seconds. (Christopher racks up over 30 in that minute. Check out this video for a sneak peek.):
Some people almost seem bred to complain about work. We devote a bit of time to why we think so many people complain about their jobs, and then we talk about our dream jobs…and why they are our dream jobs.
With many jobs being automated or shipped overseas, we discuss what we think is the future of jobs as we know them before wrapping it all up with the dreaded job interview question: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
We’d love to know where you see yourself in five years — feel free to share your work stories in the comments.
Now…get back to work!
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This was the first time I listened to this podcast–loved it! You guys are both fun and interesting. Thanks for sharing your adventures in employment; it’s nice to hear different anecdotes from different parts of the work spectrum.
Steve – Thank you for listening; we’re glad you enjoyed the show! I’m definitely fascinated by the similarities and differences in the kinds of work people do. Just yesterday after a meeting, a few of us lingered when things were done and talked about past jobs and how strange it seems to me at times to still get the benefits and perks I get at work. I’ve worked jobs in the past where there was no sick time…if you were sick, you didn’t get paid. A couple younger people in the group can’t imagine that because all they’ve ever known have been office jobs. One guy seriously didn’t know that was even possible.
It doesn’t take much to understand that some people just don’t get what others go through at a job. I’m working from home today. I started a little early, so…I just took a 10-minute break to cut up peppers to rehydrate for a red curry I plan to make tonight. Living in an apartment, it’s landscaping day…and I can hear the buzz of weed wackers and leaf blowers out there. If I told the guys out there working that I’ve spent the morning writing Help pages for a program to manage hotel properties, had a call-in meeting, and took a break to rehydrate peppers — and that next weekend I’m taking [paid] time off to go to East Texas for a writing retreat — they’d probably be a bit amazed. So for me, having had jobs like that, even I’m still a bit amazed by how good I now have it. Others at work who have known only office work, though…many of them know others who have more perks than we have or longer vacation times and feel like we should have even more than we do.
It’s a topic that’s always fascinated me, so I’m glad we finally got around to this podcast.
The funny thing is now that I *have* sick time, I never use it. I worked a full 40 hours after nearly dying of chemical poisoning, because I just hate shit not getting done.
But when I worked jobs where I didn’t have sick time, I called in sick at least once a month.
My first paying job was babysitting for kids in the neighborhood. (I got out of corn detasseling because of my severe pollen allergy.) I was very enterprising – I put “Babysitter Available” notes with my phone number in peoples’ mailboxes. I even babysat while being babysat.
My first taxable job was a live-in camp counselor. Much harder than it looks! You’re responsible for a cabinful of Tasmanian Devils 24-7. Every minute was scheduled. Since college, I’ve had countless jobs, most of them sucky. Or maybe I’m the one that sucked.
My favorite job (besides the one I have now) was non-paying. I was a volunteer docent at an art gallery. 🙂
Now I mostly work from home (with occasional house and pet sitting jobs). My main job is writing. I’ve even made a few bucks from it so far. 🙂
Oh yeah…I did the babysitting thing, too. Be glad you are not in Texas this week…pollen is even getting to me.
The camp counselor thing sounds like a crazy thing. Having been to camp, I know our counselor was very busy. They all were; I always figured their lives were like the movie, Meatballs, though…
Volunteering is work, and an art gallery gig sounds great. That writing thing, though…it’s the best! 🙂
More skull squirrels?
Oh yeah – in 5 years I will still be writing, but will have made another few bucks from it. At least that’s the plan!
An excellent plan.
I will MAKE skull squirrels a thing.