Thread by @Wamagaisa

Student life 2

1. Last week I told stories of working during my postgraduate days & promised a 2nd part. I hasten to add that I was in a relatively privileged position. I had a scholarship & got a decent stipend. But extra income was good & I learned a lot from these jobs :-)

2. One day I walked into a departmental shop which was advertising vacancies. It was in Coventry, just a few miles from college. I spoke to the manager & to my surprise I was hired. I would start the next day and work on the shop floor as a shop assistant!

3. I had always been the customer all my life. Now I was on the other side & it was a revelation. The job was a demonstration of how the movement of time is relative to the amount of work! On busy days, time passed very quickly. But on quiet days, it seemed like an eternity.

4. Unlike what I had been used to back home where shop assistants seemed to accost customers, approaching them to help unsolicited, here you let the customers mind their business & waited for requests for help. You wanted them to ask so that you could have something to do!

5. So you were left to pack & arrange clothes to make sure they were in order. Sometimes it was so slow that assistants removed items from shelves and started putting them back! Anything to pass time. I only did 4 hour shifts when called but on quiet days it was like 12 hours!

6. I made good friends at the store. It was a lovely bunch of people who were dedicated to their job. I observed that no one pulled rank. You would not have recognised who was the boss. The manager didn’t ask you to do anything that he didn’t do, including cleaning up any mess.

7. A week before the end of my contract, the boss called me to his office. “Alex, why didn’t you tell me that you’re a PhD student?” he said with a smile. I said I didn’t think it mattered for the job, smiling too. “I wouldn’t have wasted you down there. Do want to work up here?”

8. “No, Raj” I said. “You didn’t waste me down there. I’ve enjoyed it. I was happy to do something different. Besides, had I told you, you might not have hired me boss!” We both laughed at this. Even if you have nothing, a sense of humour is a great passport in these parts.

9. I had made good friends on the shop floor. We occasionally hit the pub after our shifts. We had great banter & we all looked out for each other. No one had airs. We called each other by our first names, including the bosses. We made tea for each other. It was a good family.

10. It seems I had gone up in the estimation of my colleagues when they learned that I was a PhD student. Some concluded that I must be “very clever”. They were surprised that I had not mentioned it. It was one of them who whispered to the boss that “Alex is a very clever lad”

10. When I left they organised a “Leaving Do” for me at the local pub. Drinks flowed and there were a few tears. I had only been there for a few months but it was a great family. I was hurt when years later I learnt that TJ Hughes had gone into administration. It was personal

11. The job taught me a lot of things. There are things that seem small but mean a lot to others. I seem to have earned more respect from my colleagues because I hadn’t flaunted my “credentials”. I wonder how our relationship would have turned out had they known who I was earlier

12. Try not to flaunt your credentials & see how people relate to you. You might be surprised by the results! I also saw that whatever you do, be proud of it and you will be happy. My co-workers applied themselves fully to what they did. They earned my respect.