I Was Fired From My First Job for Being Racist
And narrowly avoided getting beaten up
Yes, you’re reading that right. This isn’t clickbait.
Let me explain.
When I was 17, I landed my first real job working at Odeon Cinema. It was extremely lax — sick days and turning up late were common occurrences. What’s more, aside from the evening rushes, there was a lot of dead time during the day. I could read behind reception, mess around with colleagues, and, best of all, watch movies for free.
Honestly, it felt more like a social club. We didn’t really give a f*ck about propriety. I mean, we were banking around £5 an hour, so “caring” wasn’t in the job description.
Anyway, one of my colleagues was a Polish girl. On a particularly quiet day, a few of us were joking around. She was getting us to say Polish words and we were telling her to say English ones.
“Try antidisestablishmentarianism," I said.
If you don’t already know, “antidisestablishmentarianism” is one of the longest words in the English language. I thought it would be funny to see her attempt to pronounce it.
Obviously, she struggled.
We all laughed.
