Take This Job And Shove It

Facebook reminded me that it is now 11 years since I resigned from my last “proper” (monthly salary, paid holidays, etc) job. I went straight from school to working in a bank and did 22 years before taking voluntary redundancy. It wasn’t actually that “voluntary” as the alternative was to either relocate to Birmingham or move over to a sales related job at a lower grade!
I then bought a franchise to do minor bodywork repairs on cars, but it didn’t really take off so I was happy to be tempted back to the bank with the offer of being an on call cashier, after only a year away. Gradually I found I was spending more time at the bank, and less time trying to run a business, so accepted the inevitable and went back to being employed. Part time at first, but then I got big ideas and eventually ended up working full time again as a Branch Manager in Ambleside. Unfortunately, I grew to dislike the job so applied in late 2009 to be a Small Business Manager. And rapidly found out that the grass is definitely NOT greener on the other side.
Some major health scares at the end of 2009 / early 2010, coupled with the realisation I really didn’t like what the job entailed, led to me tendering my resignation in March 2010.
Thankfully, I could draw my pension from June that year, albeit at a reduced amount so I still needed a job of some sort. Luckily I was offered the opportunity to work as a quasi self employed technical trainer (I had my own company but got the work mainly from one source) and spent the next ten years happily working all over the U.K. delivering training on such things as self scan tills and automatic coffee machines.
Great times and great people. Definitely the best ten years of my working life and it was with quite a bit of regret that I took the decision to fully retire last year when all work dried up due to the pandemic.
And as to why I still had a cashier’s sign even though I was a Manager? That is down to running branches on the bare minimum of staff. If I was to allow my cashiers a lunch break, then I had to cover for them on the counter. Never a problem because I always found serving customers and running a till the most enjoyable, and least stressful, part of the job. Didn’t have to do it though, when I switched to the business role, which might explain why I only lasted six months!!