When I was 14 (3 years ago), I got a job helping an older guy paint his house. $9/hr, 40 hours through 5 days. That's it. If it didn't get done, fuck it. He was done. Anyways, I show up on the first day, and I meet him on his front porch, shake his hand. We proceed to the local bar to eat breakfast (we did this everyday, except for 1 day). We come back, he teaches me how to paint. I was terrible. I didn't “figure it out” until after the week was over, although I did improve through the week.
We stop for lunch anywhere between 12 and 2. We usually spent around 45 minutes eating and shooting the shit. When we're done eating we got up, went back to work. With him being old(er), he was lethargic after eating and worked slower. My 14 year old self barely had any speed in the way I worked, but I still worked quicker.
Around 330, we'd call it a day and clean up. Spend whatever extra time talking. By 4, my ride was there and I was leaving.
- I forgot to mention he let me listen to whatever music I wanted, without earbuds. Just using my phone speaker.
Rinse and repeat for 5 days.
During one of those 5 days, he taught me probably the most valuable lesson of them all. He was a painter for years, and had to go switch paints. He walks back while I'm up on the ladder and yells “Union Break! That means fuck off!”. I got my ass off that ladder and took that 20 minute break. Every minute I spent listening to whatever story he told I enjoyed.
I learned a lot working with Joe, from cleaning up a job site to why drunk racing is a bad thing that you definitely should not do.
He will forever be the best boss I could ask for. He's not dead or anything, I just saw another post about how an employee refused to work through their 15 minute break and wanted to post this. This might not be the best sub, but I figured yall could use some uplifting.
If you want to argue this doesn't belong here, the only counter I have to offer is this: It fits because this is what I think work should be like. Instead of what it is now, let's make it this.