I quit my "first" job after the first day. Picking fruit and whatnot at a nearby business. You were paid by the container filled. You'd fill a container to the top of the container (so none spilled out), manager would take one of your containers and pour it onto the rest, and you'd get paid for the number of "full containers" based off that. End of the day, at the actual store front, I noticed those same exact containers were filled only to the top of the container. Slightly below "hard" work (but far from easy), pay wasn't great AND I was being cheated on my pay?
Not sure if it was company policy or managers were skimming off the top. But even as a young lad, I knew to try to avoid rigged games. So I quit. I generally don't even mentally count it as my first real job. Which I had two that were essentially seasonal. Doing IT and tax work at a CPA firm during the tax season, washing dishes at a banquet hall during the summer. Neither was that bad, but not particularly easy.
Hard work by itself is not inherently noble in my opinion. The end result is what truly counts. But it can be admirable.
I was at a wedding a couple months ago that booked said banquet hall. Weird seeing the washing area again, after a decade and a half.
