My First Job
My first job was as an "Admin Assistant" in a successful specialist employment agency.

I hated it. Apart from the two ladies I mention below, my boss, and my boss's chauffer who were nice people, everyone was a prick.

It was the middle of summer. The office had two floors (a basement and a ground floor shop). While the shop had a lovely front, and only three people on the first floor (Vickie, the receptionist who was lovely and two agents, who weren't lovely), there were a further 15 of us crammed into the badly ventillated basement which consisted of three rooms (one office, one kitchen and one toilet).

So, you can imagine, it got rather hot. Especially in Summer.

To make matters worse, we had to wear a suit and were not generally allowed to remove the tie, although we didn't have to wear the jacket in the office. We were not allowed shorts (or even short sleeved shirts).

One particularly hot day, I got in to find I had a lovely job. Over the past few months, we had built up a large stock of milk bottles (over 30). I was told to clean all of them and put them in a box, outside the building where the milkman would pick them up.

So, 30 bottles (some months old) with the remains of the milk. I still remember the smell, and the heat of the hot water I was using only made it smell worse.

I also remember a rather nice American lady who worked for the company (Deena something) who's job it was to phone ex-contractors and ask if thry are still interested in work. Unfortunately, she had picked up the wrong file and started happily phoning contractors who had died to ask if they wanted work.
(Ok, I'll get me coat, Thu 10 May 2007, 18:45, Reply)