Forum Game: Summer Jobs

Hi everyone,

it’s summer vacation! The kids are thrilled—finally free to enjoy the summer without a care in the world. But some older students also go to work to earn money. Summer jobs today are certainly different from what they used to be, aren’t they?

Who among you has worked during summer break, and what was your experience like? Did you earn a lot of money, and what did you have to do? Was it worth the effort, and did it perhaps even shape your future career path? Tell us a little bit about it.

Thank you so much for participating.
Best regards from Ina

To help you get started, I’ll go first…

Over the years, I’ve had several summer jobs. Summer break lasted 8 weeks for us. I always worked for 3 of those weeks. You were allowed to do that starting at age 14.

Once, I spent 3 weeks in the commercial kitchen of a machine tool factory. That was pretty exhausting. It was a hive of activity with cooks, assistants, and dishwashers. I was sent wherever an extra pair of hands was needed. That’s how I ended up in the dishwashing kitchen first. Dressed in a heavy, long rubber apron and rubber boots, I stood on damp tiles or a wire rack. I had to load a huge dishwasher with dirty dishes. It rattled, rumbled, and steamed, and in the end, clean dishes came out, which I had to stack up. It was very hard work. I had to scrub huge, burnt pans and pots by hand in enormous sinks.

The next day, everything ached. So I was moved to the cold kitchen to make salads. That sounded easier. But even that had its challenges: for a tomato salad, I had to peel and chop a huge bucket full of onions. It brought on a lot of tears, I tell you.

Then they put me at the food line because they were short-staffed. It was a long counter with several serving stations for different dishes. I got something easy: potato salad and fried eggs. The kitchen opened at 12:00 sharp; the doors swung open, and crowds of hungry workers poured in. The potato salad was still easy enough to scoop out, but the fried eggs in those huge pans just stuck together. I didn’t do a very good job of separating them quickly and skillfully. The workers grew impatient and started tapping their cutlery on the stainless-steel counter. After all, they only had a 30-minute lunch break, including the walk to the cafeteria and back. My line was the longest. And since it was all men, they naturally teased me. It’s easy to embarrass a young girl like that. But I couldn’t worry about that at all, because I was struggling with the 50 fried eggs on the sheet pan. I must have breathed a sigh of relief when my replacement arrived. The experienced, heavyset kitchen woman cleared the line in no time and even joked around with the men.

After the food was served, things did settle down a bit, but then everything had to be cleaned and scrubbed. The floor steamed for what seemed like an eternity as it was hosed down with hot water from a hose. And the food for the night shift and the next day also had to be prepared. My feet were swollen inside my rubber boots, and my fingers were bright red from all the dishwater and cleaning supplies.

I earned very good money during those three weeks, but it was hard-earned. Because of these experiences, I have great respect today for kitchen staff in particular. Fortunately, I only had to do that for three weeks.

Best regards, Ina

Dear Ina,

I know all about summer jobs. They give you the chance to get a taste of fields you’d otherwise never get to know.

I myself did an internship for school two years in a row.
Once, I was in the linen room at the hospital. 
It was in the basement, where they patched holes in the sheets, mended the uniforms of all kinds of staff, and also tore up cleaning rags for the cleaning crew. 
It was a wonderful and fun time. The ladies in the sewing room were always in a good mood. It wasn’t hectic or stressful, and yet everything got done quickly and efficiently.

The following year, I worked in sales at a clothing store. After four weeks, I knew what it meant to work day in and day out as a saleswoman in a shopping mall.
I could only tell what the weather was like outside by looking at the customers’ clothes, and that’s when I knew it wasn’t for me.

I’ve always worked during all the other years, too. But since my parents ran their own restaurant, I always helped out there. 

My son is 16 now and is currently working a summer job. 
He’s a counselor in the holiday childcare program for elementary school kids in our town. He really enjoys it and this is his second time doing it. 
In August, he’ll be able to enjoy his vacation and spend his hard-earned money.

I didn’t have summer jobs in that sense—my job was to take care of my three younger siblings during the summer.
But here in the village, my youngest daughter used to work at Kühne Kümmele during her school breaks, stuffing pickles; back then, that always paid quite well.
For those outside Franconia, “Kümmele” are sweet-and-sour pickled gherkins :-)

Best regards, Inge

I only had one truly official summer job—I manned the switchboard at a large company, which included handling the telex and managing the office supply warehouse. It was pretty funny when distinguished gentlemen had to stand in front of a schoolgirl and ask for a pencil or an eraser. 🤣🤣
Otherwise, it was very laid-back and quiet for a lot of money—simply awesome. That’s how I paid for my driver’s license.
But during vacations, I’d occasionally work as a waitress. My friend there was the innkeeper’s daughter and, of course, had to help out. So I’d often pitch in—it was always a lot of fun and definitely more entertaining for her than doing it alone. We were allowed to keep the tips, which we’d always promptly invest in ice cream sundaes.

Thanks for your stories. Really exciting!

I had my first summer job when I was 15 or 16—it was at a bakery. I worked at the Plus (Yep—I think it was still called Plus back then 😅) running the mini-store out front in the entrance area.
I think the job itself is actually pretty cool, but the circumstances were pretty awful
—right on the first day (I was left alone after a 30-minute training session), an angry customer came in and said that the bread from the day before was already hard and demanded her money back. I had no idea what to do—
there was basically nothing going on all day. Mostly I just stood there twiddling my thumbs because there were no customers, and when there were
—older men would come in almost every day, stand there with me for a VERY long time, and flirt with me very aggressively. That made me very uncomfortable at the time.
The ending was also... terrible. I just didn’t get my money! Nothing came through. Calls were ignored. After about two months or so, my mom drove to see the boss in person and told him she wouldn’t leave until he paid up. And that actually worked 😇

After that, I worked a few more times in production at industrial companies.
  It was a change of pace and a great experience with some “interesting” incidents (my first “work accident,” a department head you had to keep waking up, funny coffee breaks, mean coworkers…), but it wouldn’t be for me in the long run.

I then had a short-term part-time job at a restaurant during high school… But that was nothing!
The boss was super nice and polite, but he’d just moved there and (probably for cultural reasons) treated me a bit… strangely. I had to be on call every evening, and he’d call when he needed me. I’d end up working there for 1–2 hours at a time and got paid 5€/hour. There were no tips because he always handled the cash register.
But the worst part was (and he really didn’t mean any harm—he just thought it was totally normal!!): He was constantly trying to send me home with some drunk regulars at the bar. He’d say things like, “Tina can come home with you later and cook you something!” Uh, no…?! :D
Or he’d ask me to sit with them when I was done for the night. Yeah, right...
  And—my highlight: One Christmas holiday, he just didn’t show up at noon.
I didn’t have the cash register key, the server’s wallet, or anything else, and the place was packed with guests.
I managed to handle everything with the cook—completely without a cash register or any system—without the guests even noticing anything was wrong. (I entered everything correctly into the register later, though.)
After more than two hours, the boss finally showed up (he’d overslept)—just as the first guests were about to pay.
Guess who went straight to the register (after I’d already added everything up by hand) and pocketed the tips. That’s right—not me.
And I never even heard a “thank you.”

Well—I’m getting off track 😂

Anyway, I’ve had a few experiences with part-time jobs as a student. I wouldn’t want to have missed that time, but to be honest, I’m actually quite glad I don’t have to rely on them anymore. 

It’s all very interesting to hear about the jobs you had during the summer and how you view them from today’s perspective. So far, we’ve heard about…

- kitchen helper in a commercial kitchen
- tailoring at a hospital
- temporary help at a fashion store
- temporary help at a pub
- babysitting siblings
- temporary help at a switchboard/supplies desk
- bakery

That’s quite a diverse mix. But there’s more.

In addition to the three weeks in the commercial kitchen, I spent three weeks another year at the NARVA light bulb factory in Berlin-Jannowitzbrücke. Back then, the factory produced light bulbs on an assembly line. The production halls were huge, and it was very loud. Hardly any daylight came in, and machines rattled everywhere, seeming to have a life of their own. You surely remember that each light bulb used to be sold in a small cardboard box. My job was to transfer 10 of these small, individually packaged boxes side by side into a larger one. The conveyor belt ran at its own speed. Other coworkers sat next to me, performing the same or similar tasks. Everything had to run like clockwork. Of course, that wasn’t the case for me.

I spread my arms to grab the 10 little boxes—just as the forewoman had shown me—but a pile formed above my hands and they all tumbled into a jumbled heap. Nimble hands from the right and left helped me clear up the mess. But the next 10 little boxes were already there. I struggled a lot. And every now and then, the assembly line even had to be stopped because I’d caused a bottleneck. Everyone gave me dirty looks, because I was the reason the line had stopped. And in that environment, performance was everything. But there was no mercy. I had to learn—and fast.

That night in bed, the whole world was still spinning past me. Anyone who’s ever worked on an assembly line knows what I mean.

Every few hours, the line would stop for 15 minutes (a break). And everyone had to be back on time. Only when everyone was back at their stations would production resume. That was definitely hard-earned money.

Best regards, Ina

My brother did something like that once, between graduating high school and joining the Bundeswehr—at Widia in Essen, sorting magnets, at a certain pace, of course. He said he’d been dreaming about it for weeks… round, square, long… round, square, long…
It really makes you see jobs like that in a whole new light.

I didn’t really have any summer jobs, but starting at age 16, I had a babysitting job. Every Sunday from 6 p.m. to around midnight. I got 50 DM for that.
When I was 17, I got a part-time job at the kiosk downstairs in the same building to save up for my driver’s license, and I quickly earned 900 DM a month. That was an incredible amount of money for me back then :-)
And all of that while still going to school and in vocational training...

I also had a part-time job alongside school. When I started high school, I tutored younger students in English and German, earning 5 DM per hour.
And my mother worked for Caritas and arranged quite a few cleaning jobs for me. If older people were still able to manage well in their apartments but couldn’t keep up with cleaning the stairs, I’d come and clean the stairs for them, so they could stay in their homes. Cleaning stairwells was a sensitive issue in the Ruhr region back then; in some buildings, it was guarded as closely as the crown jewels. That paid 10 DM per floor.
I also walked to school instead of taking the bus, so I got to keep the money for the monthly pass—as far as allowance went, I was pretty well off.

When I was 15, I worked at a theater here in Düsseldorf, vacuuming up confetti that had scattered all the way to about the 5th or 6th row. I was paid 20 marks an hour back then. That was a fortune to me. We’re talking about the year 1970!
It was the musical “Hair.” I wasn’t allowed to see the performance itself yet. You had to be 16 years old for that, since there were sometimes naked people running across the stage. But since my uncle was a set designer, I got a full behind-the-scenes look at everything. I’ll tell you, it was weird, colorful, and very exciting for me. Many of the performers couldn’t afford a hotel and slept in the backstage area (or slept around :) ).
Even today, I remember exactly what I bought with that money back then—among other things,
a dark blue suit and a bright yellow blouse to go with it. It was made entirely of some kind of synthetic fabric, had large, rounded collar corners, and was totally trendy. Today I’d say: AWFUL,
but back then it was the hit of the season.
Thanks, Ina, for your post—it really brought back some wonderful memories of that summer.