Ok, hate might be a little strong.

I’ve had a variety of jobs in my 20ish years of employment. Most of those have been working for people and with people.

My first job was working in a chemist’s. Well, actually, it wasn’t, cos we didn’t do medical subscriptions… but anyway, it was a shop that sold beauty stuff, snacks, body washes, stuff like that.

I worked on the tills, a few days after school and then all day on a Saturday.

I was 15.

I was the only male there with the management and rest of the teams being made up of women aged between 25 to 55.

Now it might have been something to do with people I knew from school coming in on a Saturday — mates pratting about, girls I fancied, bullies stealing stuff — but there was something that irritated me about serving people.

As soon as I put on the bright green jumper (it was either that or bright pink) and name badge, I became someone who is there to serve. Most people were nice, many were not.

I much preferred being upstairs sorting out stock, or facing up the shelves, or checking the photo booth for new orders.

Don’t get me wrong, this was my job and I knew that. I got on very well with all my colleagues (they proper looked after me) and was always polite and interacted with customers.

I knew it was my job, and I did it. I did it well. But I never really loved the interaction part. What I did enjoy was the nice comments from customers to my manager; the feedback from colleagues; the list of new applicants from school to work there after they had seen how I made the job look.

The feeling of achievement that some part of the place I was in was good because of me was what kept me there for 2 years.

And that feeling, really, has never gone away.

Jobs since which had me interacting with people ranged from working in (what used to be called) directory enquiries, to working in an off-license, to fitting awnings to homes around the nation.

Every time, I experienced the same. A feeling of the less I needed to talk to people the better. But it was more than that. It was the quality of the talking versus the quantity.

At the time, directory enquiries were charged per call. Each call cost 40p, regardless of length. So the target was to get as many calls in during the day.

The way this was achieved was to listen, get the number, confirm and send it out to the caller. The only talking was the confirmation part.

If you gave the wrong number, the caller got a refund. So it was all about the quality.

Oh, do you mean the one on New Road, by the library? Yep, got it, thanks for calling.

My now wife worked there at the same time as me. She was let go, because her calls were too long. She liked the interaction part, but that didn't make money.

So what has this got to do with what I`m on about?

Well, since these fascinating career directions, I slipped into the world of computers, then the internet, then web design & UX. A combination of consulting, freelancing and working full time within agencies has given me a wide range of experience of different situations.

And those feelings from the days of my Saturday job are still echoed.