h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't want to derail KB's conversation about supermarket jobs F1886503?thread=8311126 so here's a new one.

What we're talking about over there is grim and bleak jobs in general.

I know a few people who work for three different supermarket companies (although I think one of them is now owned by one of the others) here and love it. A few of them have worked in the same one since it opened ten years ago, and I've thought of applying for a job at times because I've been shopping there since not long after it opened and still see many of the same faces I've been seeing in all that time. In a competitive business such as, and in a job that involves dealing with the public, such a relatively low turnover of staff is unusual. It's a decent place to work, they get treated with a good degree of dignity, and they get paid a fair wage.

And then there's the new branch of the local food co-op that's just opened nearby. Whichever way you look at it, it's still a supermarket. I'm seeing plenty of familiar faces there too because it seems to be slowly filling up with former Drafthouse employees.

But there are, for sure, many supermarkets around town that I'd absolutely hate to work at. I won't name any names in case their lawyers employ people to search the web for derogatory and possibly defamatory comments, but like wallpaper shops, carpet showrooms, launderettes and minicab offices, they're the land that time forgot.

Conversely, there are plenty of jobs equally as grim that aren't in a supermarket, such as the one BG mentioned - waitressing at the Waffle House. Being a waiter or waitress, no matter whether it's at the Waffle House or Claridge's, has to be one of the most difficult jobs there is because your job security is entirely at the whim of the people you bring food to, and if you don't please them in every way possible - even when it's not your fault - there's a good chance you'll get a blot on your copybook. If a patron's expectations aren't met, even if those expectations aren't entirely reasonable, your day isn't going to be a good one.

That goes for just about any job where you have to serve or interact with the public, and review sites such as Yelp aren't making things any easier in that respect. I despise those with a fury because too many business owners take too much notice of them and give too much weight to the - often plainly childish, unreasonable and daft - comments. I know at least one person who lost their job because of one of those. People seem to have lost all sense of proportion, perspective and decency towards their fellow humans when it comes to being a customer.

There are plenty of grim jobs where you don't have to work with the public too. I wouldn't want to work for any of the companies (again, I won't name names but you know who I mean) who operate distribution networks of any kind, including those that move the products they sell themselves. We've been hearing stories in the news recently about the interminable and grinding pressure they're sometimes put under to get the job done.

But it's not all bad. They are good companies to work for, good jobs to be had, there are employers who are thoroughly decent and do the right things for the workers, and there's always the possibility of self-employment, which they internet has made possible in so many ways.

We could sure use a few more people like Robert Owen running businesses though.

Who he? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen

Waitering is one job I've never done. I wouldn't have the temperament for it. Sometimes I kind of see red when it comes to dealing with people who are being unreasonable and act rather rashly.

I think we should value jobs like that more. I think a lot of people view it as a kind of stop-gap job for students during the holidays or until something better turns up. But I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be a career in its own right. And, of course, if you give staff reasonable working conditions, a good wage and a bit of stability, you'll have staff who do the job better.

It is a career for many people, KB. I've worked with and known a fair few. If you get it right it can be a fine job and you can make very good money. Or you can have a relatively easy and stress-free life. Like the bloke I once met in California who said he reckoned he had the ideal lifestyle - surf all day and wait tables at night.

There's nowt wrong with that, but it seems to irk some people. The people whose mantra is various combinations of the words 'work', 'hard' and 'working'. People who know the cost of everything but the value of very little.

Hit the send button too early.

That last point of yours is one which, by now, 200 years after the industrial revolution got going, employers, business owners, managers would have understood. It's a testament to human stubbornness, narrow-mindedness, short-sightedness and greed that so few businesses run on that principle

One thing I don't like is the business of giving workers in service jobs a pittance as a basic wage on the understanding that they'll make the rest up with tips. I know it can be very lucrative for many people, but I just don't like the principle of someone's wage being reliant on the whim of the customer: if you do the work the pay should be guaranteed.

I remember reading in "Homage To Catalonia" about how, when the anarchists took control of Barcelona, they outlawed the practice of tipping and increased the basic flat wage. I could sort of see their point.

Tipping servers and bartenders is the norm here, as you know, but there's a co-op brewpub in town that's outlawed tipping and pays its employees a living wage instead.

Yes, I'm a member Although I don't go there often because it's not so easy to get to on the bus from Fort Gosho, and, to be honest, although the beer's very good, the ambience and atmosphere leaves much to be desired.

Then again, I'm a bit of a hypocrite, because I loved tips when I was doing deliveries over there.

There were two kinds of deliveries I hated because you'd never get a tip: ones for churches, and ones for Irish people. They'd be wonderfully friendly and fill your head with Blarney about the old country, but you wouldn't get a cent. I remember a conversation in the van one time:

'Right then. Who's next? "O'Halloran"? Awww shit...'

What, not even a sip of the black stuff?

Costco has a bad habit of making all the other big box stores look bad by treating their employees well. They pay living wages and they will be closed on Thanksgiving day unlike most other big retail chains that have moved Black Friday to Thanksgiving day Thursday.

Good for them.