I got to thinking this morning, I've had a lot of crappy jobs when I was younger. They've made me really versatile and easily adaptable, but didn't do much in terms of giving me any skills. These jobs include: shoes & luggage sales person at a department store, Altoid Mint promotional rep, Resolution Specialist in a call centre, beauty advisor, cashier at a music store, sporting equipment sales person ... I could go on and on. But one job is always going to stand out as the worst job I've ever had:
Newspaper Bundler - When I was 19, I worked the graveyard shift (11pm - 7am) inserting flyers and bundling newspapers in a freezing cold warehouse, working with co-workers who didn't speak English. At first, they just pretended I wasn't there. I don't think anyone even acknowledged I existed for the first month I was there.
I was making $8.95/hr. (at that time, the minimum wage was $7/hr) standing on my feet the entire time, and was literally working my fingers to the bone. The skin from my finger-tips started to peel off after my 2nd night on the job, and I had to wear gloves for the rest of my time there. Oh, and I frequently got slashed on the hand by the paper bundler, causing my raw fingertips to start bleeding.
Since the newspapers were to be delivered the next morning, we had to stay until the job was done ... and we would frequently work until 8 or 9am if the newspaper printers had jammed or we were short-staffed.
So, what was the worst job you've ever had?
Labels: job
When I was a student at Cambridge, I worked in the housekeeping department over the holidays (I was an overseas student so I only flew home once a year). I didn't mind cleaning and I got to know my OWN housekeeper really well, but sometimes I had to clean college mates' rooms who stayed over the holidays and that was kind of embarrassing. They were nice abt it though. I guess it wasn't THAT bad of a job really lol.
i bartended at a hip hop club in los angeles for a year. aaaaawwwwful! the place was so off the hook nuts that each bartender had their own bodyguard. mine was like the incredible hulk. i jokingly asked if he could bench press my volvo and he said yeah, from the rear bumper. it was brutally busy, slinging drinks for very little tips even though i worked the VIP room, and the verbal abuse was non stop. yeah, my year in LA was not so fun...
I was a substitute teacher one day a week for about 3 years. It was miserable, and you had to start from scratch each day.
I was determined not to be mean and miserable. On one of my first times I think it was a 3rd or 4th grade class- a child asked if he could sharpen his pencil. I said of course- thinking how ridiculous that he had to ask- they make rules just to have rules in public schools. Well about 20 minutes later after each kid in class had stood in line, sharpened their pencil to the nub, then went to their desk to get another pencil and stand in line again- I practically screamed-- "No More pencil sharpening for the rest of the day!"
Tried to allow the kids in another class to sharpen their pencils- same thing happened.
Middle School was the worst- I only subbed at that level twice and swore never again.
Right out of high school, I worked as a deli clerk in a grocery store. It was utterly horrid. I worked with hot oil from fryers, slicing machines, and harsh chemicals that often caused me to break out in rashes on my arms. Furthermore, usually, I was the only person for the deli and when the bakery person went on their lunch, I had to handle both departments.
The icing on the cake was that often, I'd have to work off the clock so that I didn't go over eight hours. They made sure I never worked 40 hours a week so that they didn't have to give me labor benefits. I was too young to realize that I could have petitioned the union.
The job was was in Sydney, Australia, and it went like this:
I was to go into the attic of a house (as in not a finished attic, but with beams, insulation and then the roofing) and vacuum out all the paper insulation in it. I had to drag around an 8 inch wide tube which was attached to a vacuum outside the house. The only entrances were small opening in the actual roof where the tiles had been removed.
Now, I don't know if any of you have been in an attic before, but it's dark, dusty and very, very small (especially for a 6'4" tall man). On top of this, you have to balance on the studs of the ceiling (or risk falling through) while evading all the roof support beams and other large things in there. Now, on top of this, I had to vacuum this crud out because the house had termites... so some of the beams holding the roof up... and temporarily stopping me from falling through the roof were rotten through.
I do not exaggerate.
I was in that roof for 6.5 hours, balancing, vacuuming, crawling and breathing this dust air. The gentleman who hired me left me an hour in. Now this wouldn't normally be a problem, and I continued on my way. Soon I had to move the hose vacuum and emerged from the house to see that the vacuum bag (a very, very large bag {we're talking 8' x 8'}) had blown up a while ago and for the previous 30 minutes I had been shooting paper machete into the air. It looked like Christmas, the tree was snowing and the ground was covered.
I got home, hurting, blistered, slivered, bruised, hungry and severely dehydrated, not to mention I blew my nose and my snot was black, had a looong shower and went out for a drink, celebrating the fact I will NEVER do anything like that again.
This is gross. I worked at a department store in the women's clothing section. This was terrible because, one night during the later part of swimsuit season, I was stationed in the fitting room and I found a bikini bottom in my clothing pile WITH BLOOD INSIDE OF IT.
I told my department's manager that if they put me back in the fitting room before November, I would quit. (I did in October, anyway after an annual review, because it was the type of place that punished hard work by giving you more to do instead of recognizing it with raises!).
Wait, after reading anonymous, I'm not sure if that retail job was really the worst one after all. Teaching eighth grade English *may* have been worse.
I happened to do that same job you did. It was with people who didnt speak english and who spoke very little to me. I lasted 2 nights. I hated it! My second worst job was working as a csr at a call centre. It gave me great skills that were transferable but i hated every.single.moment that i was there. I came away with some great friends who i still see today but that job left me shuddering everytime someone said call centre.
Ha, I just wrote about this here:
http://guinness416.com/?p=24
Not something I'd wish on anyone ...
Oh man. In high school, I worked for a summer at a day care. The people there would leave me in a room by myself with 15-20 toddlers. Talk about a nightmare! I worried so much that something would happen to one of the kids, so I ran myself ragged trying to chase them down while carrying 2-3 of them. Trying to feed them was utterly impossible. I look back on it and wonder what the hell I was thinking.
In high school I worked in a gift shop that sold collector teddy bears (don't ask, they were big in the 80s). I was required to wear a bear costume and dance in front of the store my whole shift. To this day I think my neck pains are due to the weight of the big bear head I had to wear!
I worked in a health food store. Six and a half hours a day (so they only had to give us a 15-minute break), NO DRINKS, not even water, allowed at the register. You had to stand, NO SITTING, NO LEANING!
And my oh my did those customers complain! Why don't you have Oreo's? Why don't you have more tofu? Don't you know that this company kills kittens?
I used to have dreams all night long that I was bagging groceries, and wake up exhausted (and with Tegan and Sara stuck in my head :P ).
Wow! What a horrible job?!
My worst job was working at McDonald's.
When I was 17 I worked for the Calgary Stampede as hostess at the dinning room above the Casino. They were always short of people so I ended up working over time everyday. After 12 hours of standing on your feet day after day there was just no comfortable way to stand.
P.S. I like your blog. I found it a few months ago and have been following ever since. Good luck on the job hunt.
I am ashamed to admit that I was a telemarketer in college. It paid really well and I didn't care that people hung up on me. I had several different jobs in that industry - photo sittings, grocery service, magazines and lawn chemical service. Now that I am an adult I am so annoyed by telemarketers and hate to admit that I was a part of such an industry.
I took a job as a telemarketer (selling circus tickets) for a month to pay for some damage I had done to a car I hit when I was 15 (no beginner's, no license). I was desperate not to let my parents find out.
Now I just can't bring myself to be mean to telephone solicitors. It sucks - and they know it. :(
I worked for a temp agency for college students. One of my jobs was to hold signs promoting homebuilders in the Texas heat from 12-5pm Sat and Sun at a busy intersection. Paid well but very boring...esp if when my batteries for my CD player died. (I was too poor to own an iPod.) Had strange people yelling at me. I also got to dress up as a house for one of their promotions. Super hot and sweaty!
My worst job was recent.
After 30 years managing businesses, I had to move for my family (my wife had a nervous breakdown and my daughter was harmed though the subsequent affair).
I worked as a production manager at a Candy Factory where upper management and totally no concept of real management, especially as it came to human resources. People have left in droves and stated what a terrible place this to work, yet to this very day, they think this is a well managed company and a good place to work.
Please read my post for more details:
Carl; My worst and most demoralizing job
The worst I ever had was at Vantage West Credit Union, formally DM. Unpaid overtime, no days off, managers unethical behavior and etc is all you will get working there.
1. Office cleaner (whilst in college) - It's amazing what utter slobs some people can be when they know someone else has to clean up after them. I mean, I expected to have to do some cleaning but puleeeeez, the used toilet paper goes in the toilet, that white ceramic thing on the wall is a pretty large target so stop missing it, a desktop is not a place to accumulate large volumes of food waste, . . Oy vey! The stuff I put up with. God bless the people who make their living doing it.
2. Chicken fryer man at a fried chicken fast food restaurant. 10 pressure cookers running all at once. Grease all over the place. Me, 16, with enough stuff going on to cause a #*$!le or two on my face. OMG - after 6 hours of being the chicken guy I had to scrape that crap - vaporized oil spewed into the air from the pressure cookers, powdered seasoning applied to 50 pound bags of chicken - off my face, hair, . . . but not before mopping the floors.
Two very memorable jobs.
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temping work in london-temping work in london
1. Office cleaner (whilst in college) - It's amazing what utter slobs some people can be when they know someone else has to clean up after them. I mean, I expected to have to do some cleaning but puleeeeez, the used toilet paper goes in the toilet, that white ceramic thing on the wall is a pretty large target so stop missing it, a desktop is not a place to accumulate large volumes of food waste, . . Oy vey! The stuff I put up with. God bless the people who make their living doing it.
2. Chicken fryer man at a fried chicken fast food restaurant. 10 pressure cookers running all at once. Grease all over the place. Me, 16, with enough stuff going on to cause a #*$!le or two on my face. OMG - after 6 hours of being the chicken guy I had to scrape that crap - vaporized oil spewed into the air from the pressure cookers, powdered seasoning applied to 50 pound bags of chicken - off my face, hair, . . . but not before mopping the floors.
Two very memorable jobs.
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Dx
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temping work in london-temping work in london