Worked as a clerk at a supermarket. Great life experience. Learned that a clerk meant they could have you do anything, like clean bathrooms, push carts, clean spills. Here i thought i was just a cashier. Learned that unions are thieves. $75 to join, and $25/wk dues out of a $3.35/hr wage. No union, no job. And learned a hell of a lot about human nature. The store manager was having an affair with the head cashier, the produce manager with another person, and the deli girl was pregnant at 17. This was all heady stuff for a 16 yo, and a hell of an incentive to get an education and a good job...
Private employers can be thieves, too. Learned that lesson at 16. My first job was waitressing at a mom and pop café. Opened it for the early morning coffee drinkers and through the lunch crowd. I had to open but didn’t go on the clock until the customer opening time. Didn’t find out until after that our withholdings and FICA never made it to D.C.. And the jerk skipped out on our last 3 weeks of pay. It should have been shut down six months earlier when the toilet backed up and was never fixed and food was stored on the ground. Literally, on the ground out back.