OFFICE & SHOP WORK

After leaving my first full time job at the Market Stores, Pett Level,  I found a vacancy in a local small office that did postal orders for garlic products.

I had to keep records, typing, general office duties and parcellling/posting up bottles of tablets and jars of ointment.

I worked there for about a year until the “Garlisol Company” ceased to do business. I did also at this time attend night school at Hastings for Typing lessons which I could manage but short-hand was completely beyond my comprehension.

I am ever thankful I learned to type because since becoming IT literate the knowledge I learned then about key-boards has helped me immensely.

There were by this time no other local options for work so I found a vacancy in Hastings at the International Grocery Store in which meant travelling daily to and fro by bus. I did find my previous experience of weighing up and packaging products very useful and did enjoy my time here until the store closed down.

I soon found another vacancy for an assistant in a Grocery Store in Hastings which was owned by a married couple and I worked there until the age of 21. It was quite a long day because I had to catch a bus from home in Fairlight at 7.45 and start work at 8.30.a.m. until 6.00p.m.The Boss Man had two large dogs and used to ask me to accompany him in his three wheeled estate van on Dog Training classes after work but I soon realised that he had other things in mind therefore I was given notice to leave because I would not respond to his amorous behaviour.

My Brother worked at a Grocers Shop in Ore on the outskirts of Hastings and asked his boss to give me a job there but I found working with relatives was not a good idea and I only stayed there a short while.

The problem I now had was no academic qualifications but I knew that if I didn’t embark on a profession now I would probably spend my working life in shop work which was not going to give me the job satisfaction I craved for.