My 50th Work Anniversary

On June 18, 1968, the day after my fifteenth birthday, I got my first job employed at a business with a real paycheck. You couldn't work until age sixteen, except for restaurants and movie theaters where you could start at fifteen. I walked a quarter mile from my home and was hired at a theater for $1.40 per hour.

That first job was one of the greatest learning experiences of my young life and today still use many of the lessons I learned fifty years ago.

I tell young people that if you want to be successful, get a part-time job during high school.

I didn't want a job for learning opportunities, I wanted the spending money and to save for a used car. At first, it was all about the paycheck and the other perk was the flirting with teenaged girls who worked the candy counter. Only later did I realize what a tremendous educational experience it was.

I learned how to work under different management styles. The owner was a no-nonsense, straight-talking guy. The assistant manager had a caring and nurturing management style. The business leadership version of good-cop bad-cop. The longer I worked there the more I realized how well this combination worked in maximizing getting the best out of employee

I learned how to work with all kinds of different customers. Everyone should work in food service or retail just for the experience in how to handle difficult people. The sheer volume and variety of different personalities alone was worthy of an advanced course on human behavior.

I learned the true meaning of taxes. Taxes were something my Dad and uncles talked about. It had no real meaning to me until I got my first paycheck. After my gross pay, all these other taxes were taken from me. They took money I earned cleaning up vomit, scraping gum off the carpets, cleaning bathrooms and herding hundreds of screaming little children during the Saturday morning bottle-cap matinee (price of admission was six RC Cola bottle caps where we then sold the kiddies popcorn, candy, and soda which was thrown-up by about half of the kids). No one from the government helped me clean up puke, yet they took hard-earned money from me.

I learned how to be a good co-worker and that if someone doesn't do their job, someone else had to pick up the slack. The good-natured coworker who always disappeared when it was his turn to clean the bathroom and I had to do his job and mine. I learned to confront. I learned that others were counting on me and being a part of a team.

I learned if you work hard if you completed your job you found another way to contribute, if you went the extra mile, you would be rewarded with pay increases, promotions, and bonuses.

When I hear how low youth unemployment is, I worry about the future of our country. That part-time after school job is one of the greatest learning experience our young people can receive and it builds a stronger, more resourceful nation.