Worst Job You've Ever Had

[Madeline]

In college, I worked in a McDonald's. Would come home exhausted, stinking of oil and even after a shower I could still smell it on my skin.

You?

 

[Mr. Sauerkraut]

i worked in many jobs in the last 20 years. I think there is a link between the hardness of the job and the friendlyness of the collegues. The harder a job is, the more scial the people behave to each other. And backwards.

The dirtiest job i ever had was in a stanless steel factory. It was only on saturday afternoons and we had to clean the furnace. It was simple, just taking the broom and the shovel, but paid very well and dirty as hell.

But later i was in an editorial office of a big german private tv sender and my job was creating content for their website. The job was great - but the people have been the hell. Damn, i never met so many supernerds, a*holes, madmen, s+xual frustrated women, drugheads and losers at one place.

 

[editec]

Machine engraver for Bixler's (America's oldest continuously run jewelry store).

It wasn't that the job was so bad, it wasn't bad at all.

It's that I sucked at it.

And the more chances they gave me to get better, the worse I got, too.

I must have cost that company thousands of dollars in screw ups.

THAT was the worst job ( of the hundred of diferent things I've done!) I ever had.

And it was bad because I was bad at it.

 

[chanel]

I've never had a job I hated, but I did have a boss I hated. He used to get off on making women cry. Then when they'd quit, he'd offer them a huge raise to stay. It was an office of overpaid, anxious, paranoid women. I'm sure there's some kind of psychological profile for this guy. I left when I got married, but I shudder to think what would have happened if I had stayed. I'd prob. be a pill popping, alcoholic making six figures. Money isn't everything, but it's awfully tempting when you are young and single.

 

[Granny]

I think I've had good jobs and I was always good at those jobs. But some of the people with whom I worked were another story. I loved being a legal secretary, but the worst experience I ever had to deal with was a privileged, spoiled, but aggressive and competitive female twit attorney whose bad behavior finally landed me in a hospital.

 

[jillian]

why would the lawyer have been competative with her secretary? maybe you were competative with her? not saying you were... but i find things like that don't operate in a vacuum.

like chanel, i've never had a job i hated. i had the world's worst boss very briefly when i first got out of law school. he was nasty, abusive, sexist... i quit when i needed to go to my doctor on an emergency basis and he said 'no', because you won't be here to answer phones when the secretary goes to lunch'.

i told him i couldn't comply with his wishes. i got a new job a few weeks later.

the hardest job i ever had was as a cashier in a supermarket. i had a lot of fun, though... all of us were kids. i think i was 15 when i started working there. wouldn't want to do that kind of work now, though.

 

[Ringel05]

The worst was eons ago doing physical security. One post was by a back door and the job there was to check employee cards as they came in for work however the post was manned from 7AM to 7PM. If you got assigned that post you would spend the first 1 1/2 hours meeting and greeting and most of the rest of the first 4 hours staring at the pictures on the wall, you couldn't read. You would get a 10 minute break then back for 2 more hours before lunch (1/2 hour), then. back again for 3 hours before another 10 minute break and finally switch out at another post for the rest of the 12 hour shift.
People would get that post for two reasons, first to test their ability to handle the job and finally to get someone to quit.
It was great for developing an active imagination, doing mathematical equations in you head, contemplating the universe and the meaning of life (specks on the carpet.........).

 

[Ernie S.]

My worst job was also my first. I was paid minimum wage ($1.15/hour at the time) to run a steam presser in a mom and pop dry cleaners. "Pop" was no problem, but "Mom" was a drunk. She was nasty and argumentative, though I remained respectful.
I did not deal with customers, nor did I have access to the register. One day while the husband was out of the shop, I saw the wife grab cash from the till and put it in her purse. When the husband returned, the wife went out. When she returned drunk an hour later, the husband had noticed the missing money and confronted her. She blamed it on me and I was fired.
I guess it was easier for him to can me that his wife.

 

[Mr. Sauerkraut]

Machine engraver for Bixler's (America's oldest continuously run jewelry store).

It wasn't that the job was so bad, it wasn't bad at all.

It's that I sucked at it.

And the more chances they gave me to get better, the worse I got, too.

I must have cost that company thousands of dollars in screw ups.

THAT was the worst job ( of the hundred of diferent things I've done!) I ever had.

And it was bad because I was bad at it.

don´t worry. this lesson has to be learned by everybody. it´s hard sometimes to find your right passion.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Worst job: Manager of production at a newspaper/commercial printer. I was 26 years old, supervised 43 people on 3 shifts plus 3 shift supervisors.
Horrendous hours, thankless position, repudiated by other department heads that worked half the hours and half as hard. Enormous stress as there were literally hourly deadlines with high quality expectations - with workers making only slightly higher than minimum wage and no benefits. (during this time period an average newspaper made 40% profit or more).
Best job: Working morning prep at a seafood restaurant. Pay was lousy, no benefits...but the hours were magnificent (6am-12 noon), Tues-Sat..and the work was virtually stress-free.

 

[Mr. H.]

While in college, I took a summer job in a factory working the 11p-7a shift. Mostly doing butt-welds and spot-welds, and metal press. The equipment was circa 1920's. Union work, good pay for the day but working nights/sleeping days was gruesome. And the smell- rancid lubricating oil and rusting metal. There were times I'd have to run to the bathroom and puke.

So one night I was on a spot-welder doing wire metal fan guards. The jig was 2 ft. in diameter with concentric rings, then you laid out the cross member and spot welded. Probably 40 welds total.

I discovered if I held down the foot switch, I could do 2 or 3 welds in succession. Kind of like putting the thing on automatic fire LOL. So I'm thinking aww fuck-it, I was bored and fed up with the job. I held down that switch for all 40 welds, moving the platen round and round and round.

Hit every single weld right on. Huge plume of smoke rising from the table. I stepped back, took off my goggles to admire my handywork. And there in the distance was 8-10 old farts that had worked there for 20 years or more, mouths gaped open. LOL what a sight.

Another buddy worked in a different factory- same shift. We'd meet over at his house about 7:30 am and smoke huge bongs hits and watch The New Zoo Revue. One morning we ate some quaaludes too. LOL those days.

 

[uscitizen]

Worst job I ever had was killing people.
Or patrol around just to see if anyone was out there wanting to kill me.

 

[Mr. Sauerkraut]

Worst job I ever had was killing people.
Or patrol around just to see if anyone was out there wanting to kill me.

Have you been a soldier?

 

[boedicca]

Worst job physically: working in a cannery one summer during college. I had to join The Teamsters, which gave me insight into union corruption as the sons of the foreman sat around doing nothing all hour while the women were given the worse jobs in the filthiest areas of the facility. Three times more women were hired than were needed. There was two week minimum employment period for workers to be required to pay the union initiation fee. Once the union took the fees, 2/3 of the women were laid off.

Worst job emotionally: I worked for a start up in the early 00s for a CEO who had a nervous breakdown. TMI to describe the details, but witnessing the implosion of a human being on a day to day basis combined with a board of directors who kept him in place to do damage to the company was awful.

 

[RadiomanATL]

College Library. At the checkout desk.

Not allowed to bring anything to read (in a library?!?!), not allowed to work on schoolwork (at a college?!?!), not allowed to leave the desk (someone else put up the books).

And we rarely had people to come in and use it. So literally sitting there....doing nothing....for 8 hours at a time.

 

[Revere]

Picking potatoes.

 

[CMike]

Along with others, what made some jobs miserable were the bosses.

I think it doesn't matter what the job if you have a good boss and coworkers that's 90% of it.

 

[Blagger]

I've worked in construction and demolition all my life, but the worse part was when I was unskilled and on the bottom rung of the ladder. I didn't mind the physical side of things, but some duties really were unbearable.

Removing pile caps by hand was one of the worst. You dig a deep trench around the cap and you then attack the reinforced concrete pile cap with petrol saws, acetylene torchs and 14lb hammers. You're surrounded by a constant, inpenetrable cloud of dust and dirt, not to mention it's back-shattering work. Another dreaded duty was stripping-out industrial grade insulation. The itching and red eyes were at times unbearable. Drilling the holes for explosive charges was one of the most boring jobs I've ever done.

After about three years dossing around on London's construction and demolition sites I joined the Army's Royal Engineers, only to be relentlessly screamed at to "dig faster you 'orrible fuckin' maggot". But I was taught to be an engineer, so now I'm in charge of the teenagers who are where I once was, stood in a puddle shovelling shit for £7 an hour.

 

[Mr. Sauerkraut]

the worst job i can imagine. Tailgunner.

 

[AquaAthena]

In college, I worked in a McDonald's. Would come home exhausted, stinking of oil and even after a shower I could still smell it on my skin.

You?

There hasn't been a worst job, but there have been components of jobs that I really hated because they made me feel so uncomfortable. I have been self-employed in two industries; the hotel ( hospitality ) and day spa industries. The main component of those businesses I so disliked was that I was "the boss" and had to exercise control, occasionally, over employees. I always dreaded that and when it happened, I would do it in private and not in front of other employees or customers and clients. My goal was to respect the employee and treat them the way I would wish to be treated. I would always though, praise them in front of customers and clients as well as in private.

Even though I disliked being in another industry, real estate, I did love the fact that I was an "independent contractor" and had no boss over me and I had no power over others. Very satisfying aspect of an industry I did not enjoy. Everything about the job I have now, is something I love. Art, tourists, and autonomy. My boss leaves me to the decisions and is never around.