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Aug. 3rd, 2009 10:53 pmHere are the uniforms I have worn in my not-all-that-long life:
1. QMC middle school uniform (Summer: navy shirt-dress below the knee w/pale blue collar, roman sandles. Winter: blue-black wool gym tunic, white shirt, stockings, t-bar or lace up black shoes. All seasons: Striped blazer, tie.)
2. QMC senior school uniform (Summer: Long pleated navy skirt with a slit up the side - I found this an inexplicable choice at the time, but on reflection it may have been meant to mimic the look of the full-length kilt look schools in CHCH sometimes use (for context, my school was Scots Presbytarian in origin) - and navy maternity blouse (practically), tie, blazer. Winter: ditto but with stockings, footwear as above.)
3. Spotless Services catering gear for Westpac: black pants (own), giant yellow polo shirt w/black stripe (Hurricanes colours.) Name badge.
4. StarMart uniform mark 1: above and away the worst uniform I have ever worn. Extremely bright green pants in an unflattering cut, enormous polo shirt with white, green, and orange stripes and lots of logos. Also a big navy polar fleece which, in its favour, was very warm and a much nicer colour. Of course, I worked at StarMart in summers, so I typically only wore it when stocking the fridge. Also, the pants had pockets, which was OK. Black shoes. Name badge.
5. Caltex uniform: grey pants in a similarly unflattering cut, enormous red polo shirt w/logos etc. Sometimes a similar navy jumper. Name badge.
6. StarMart uniform mark 2: GREY pants in same cut - but GREY, which was such a huge improvement you just have no idea. Same shirt or similar shirt (this was about four years ago and I don't remember the differences that clearly.) Same jersey, same shoes. Name badge.
7. Various different caterers' shirts paired with black pants and shoes and white shirt, doing casual catering/bar staff temping.
8. Liquorland uniform: Own black pants and shoes, navy liquorland shirt with branding, name badge.
Here are the jobs, prior to my current one, that required me to wear neither a uniform nor a name badge:
1. Working at a flower shop when I was a teen (like one hour a week for pocket money. This was back when $5 could buy you a movie ticket.)
2. Graveyard shift on friday nights putting sections into the Weekend Post (above and away my worst job ever, partly because I used to do it on Friday having worked a 40-hour week Mon-Fri at StarMart, and partly because it was just awful; they didn't have us wear a uniform because there was so much horrible grey dust in the air that everything you wore would be dirty anyway.)
3. Working in a cafe selling sandwiches - this was just an OK job, but being able to wear jeans didn't suck.
With the exception of my school uniforms, these have all been both unflattering and dispiriting (actually, who needs to except school uniforms? I do Approve of school uniforms though for various reasons so I oughtn't bitch.) The jobs associated with them have all had their ups and downs, but putting on the name badge is kind of ghastly, and for a few years now my daydream has been a job that I don't have to wear one with. Well, now I have a job where I don't have to wear a namebadge, or take out the rubbish every shift, or clean things, or sell things to anybody (except theatre tickets.) I finally quit at Liquorland so I'm only working four (!) days a week - which, considering I've been working six and seven days a week since April, along with theoretically doing a full-time Honours degree, is like a miracle. Also, the customer isn't always right.
And I'm sitting here and feeling pleased with myself and, you know, I sort of am. But man, I'm so lucky! I've never had to struggle to get a job. As much as my jobs have sometimes sucked, I've never had to clean offices in the middle of the night like my mother did when she was at university, or had to mow lawns at the botanical gardens which my father did only about fifteen years ago. Even if I have to go back to retail again, I can feel reasonably confident that with a good degree under my belt it won't be for too long. But I've had coworkers who will never not have a job where they don't have to wear a name badge. I just quit a job where I worked with a woman who had worked for the same shop for seven years and hadn't had a really significant promotion in that whole time. So, you know: those uniforms sucked. They were pretty fugly. But I was lucky to wear them and I'm luckier still not to wear one now. So think about that the next time you're rude to the person serving you in the shop, because you might be talking to me, or you might be talking to someone who will never have another job. And seriously, don't be an asshole to that person, because they get enough of that crap.
1. QMC middle school uniform (Summer: navy shirt-dress below the knee w/pale blue collar, roman sandles. Winter: blue-black wool gym tunic, white shirt, stockings, t-bar or lace up black shoes. All seasons: Striped blazer, tie.)
2. QMC senior school uniform (Summer: Long pleated navy skirt with a slit up the side - I found this an inexplicable choice at the time, but on reflection it may have been meant to mimic the look of the full-length kilt look schools in CHCH sometimes use (for context, my school was Scots Presbytarian in origin) - and navy maternity blouse (practically), tie, blazer. Winter: ditto but with stockings, footwear as above.)
3. Spotless Services catering gear for Westpac: black pants (own), giant yellow polo shirt w/black stripe (Hurricanes colours.) Name badge.
4. StarMart uniform mark 1: above and away the worst uniform I have ever worn. Extremely bright green pants in an unflattering cut, enormous polo shirt with white, green, and orange stripes and lots of logos. Also a big navy polar fleece which, in its favour, was very warm and a much nicer colour. Of course, I worked at StarMart in summers, so I typically only wore it when stocking the fridge. Also, the pants had pockets, which was OK. Black shoes. Name badge.
5. Caltex uniform: grey pants in a similarly unflattering cut, enormous red polo shirt w/logos etc. Sometimes a similar navy jumper. Name badge.
6. StarMart uniform mark 2: GREY pants in same cut - but GREY, which was such a huge improvement you just have no idea. Same shirt or similar shirt (this was about four years ago and I don't remember the differences that clearly.) Same jersey, same shoes. Name badge.
7. Various different caterers' shirts paired with black pants and shoes and white shirt, doing casual catering/bar staff temping.
8. Liquorland uniform: Own black pants and shoes, navy liquorland shirt with branding, name badge.
Here are the jobs, prior to my current one, that required me to wear neither a uniform nor a name badge:
1. Working at a flower shop when I was a teen (like one hour a week for pocket money. This was back when $5 could buy you a movie ticket.)
2. Graveyard shift on friday nights putting sections into the Weekend Post (above and away my worst job ever, partly because I used to do it on Friday having worked a 40-hour week Mon-Fri at StarMart, and partly because it was just awful; they didn't have us wear a uniform because there was so much horrible grey dust in the air that everything you wore would be dirty anyway.)
3. Working in a cafe selling sandwiches - this was just an OK job, but being able to wear jeans didn't suck.
With the exception of my school uniforms, these have all been both unflattering and dispiriting (actually, who needs to except school uniforms? I do Approve of school uniforms though for various reasons so I oughtn't bitch.) The jobs associated with them have all had their ups and downs, but putting on the name badge is kind of ghastly, and for a few years now my daydream has been a job that I don't have to wear one with. Well, now I have a job where I don't have to wear a namebadge, or take out the rubbish every shift, or clean things, or sell things to anybody (except theatre tickets.) I finally quit at Liquorland so I'm only working four (!) days a week - which, considering I've been working six and seven days a week since April, along with theoretically doing a full-time Honours degree, is like a miracle. Also, the customer isn't always right.
And I'm sitting here and feeling pleased with myself and, you know, I sort of am. But man, I'm so lucky! I've never had to struggle to get a job. As much as my jobs have sometimes sucked, I've never had to clean offices in the middle of the night like my mother did when she was at university, or had to mow lawns at the botanical gardens which my father did only about fifteen years ago. Even if I have to go back to retail again, I can feel reasonably confident that with a good degree under my belt it won't be for too long. But I've had coworkers who will never not have a job where they don't have to wear a name badge. I just quit a job where I worked with a woman who had worked for the same shop for seven years and hadn't had a really significant promotion in that whole time. So, you know: those uniforms sucked. They were pretty fugly. But I was lucky to wear them and I'm luckier still not to wear one now. So think about that the next time you're rude to the person serving you in the shop, because you might be talking to me, or you might be talking to someone who will never have another job. And seriously, don't be an asshole to that person, because they get enough of that crap.
