I have been following this subreddit for quite some time and it has made me realize how lucky I was to be in the workforce when I was. I am now 74 and retired, I started working when I was sixteen as a stockboy clerk in a local grocery store. The pay was minimum wage (I can't even remember back then, maybe $1.25). It was a good entry-level job to work my way through high school. My boss was used to having high school kids working for him and he was very understanding. He insisted on you being on time and giving notice if you couldn't come in but he was flexible and honest with us and treated us well. When I got out of college I was undecided about what I wanted to do and I started driving a cab in our medium-sized town. I liked it as I was on my own and I could make as much as I wanted depending on how long I wanted to work my shift. The boss only cared that you showed up when you were supposed to and didn't wreck his cabs and if you worked hard he showed his appreciation and would be flexible in your hours. I loved the job and the people I met but I realized I could not spend the rest of my life driving cab and so I applied to be a rural carrier for the USPS. I scored well on the Civil Service test and the interview was simple… did I have my own car (rural carriers used their own vehicles back then) and a clean record. You started out as a substitute for various routes, knowing that through retirements you would eventually get a full-time route. Being a sub could be difficult because of short notice to work etc… but it was worth it knowing that eventually, you would be full-time. I kept driving a cab to make ends meet (the boss appreciated my work and was very flexible if I needed to get off to deliver the mail) and after five years I got my own rural route. I worked thirty years at the Post Office as a regular and it was a great job… excellent benefits and pay…BECAUSE WE HAD A STRONG UNION). I had good supervisors and bad ones but I always knew I had a union to back me up and fight for me. I cannot imagine working today, especially without a union, and the way management treats their employees with low pay and lack of benefits. I learned my work ethic at a young age and was lucky to have good bosses and then I was extremely lucky to be a member of a union to protect me.