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Posted by: Kiln Nov 3 2005, 02:12 AM

I don't generally make topics but I thought of some of my worst jobs and kinda wondered what the worst job the other forum members have had. Probably the worst job I ever had was a janitorial job cleaning houses and apartments, average pay but the job just didn't fit me.

Posted by: Megil Tel-Zeke Nov 3 2005, 02:16 AM

likewise, I did janitorial work. $25/hr, isn't bad but you can only clean so many houses a day. it got old way fast. Especially when you have to clean places like palette factories, where everything is covered in 1/2" of sawdust, and the company wouldn't pay to get their floors bufered and a new layer of varnish put down, so the beige linoleum was basically a dull gray/black, and not even soaking it in pure ammonia would dislodge the dirt.

Posted by: Bofra Nov 3 2005, 03:33 AM

Phone salesman... one word, Don't do it... oh well three words then..

Sitting in a basement dialing numbers to people who all they want is live their life and NOT being bothered by some fake-kind attitude that tries to sell them stuff they really don't want nor need isn't the best job I've had..
And the worst thing, no succesfull sales = no pay.

Posted by: Kiln Mar 4 2013, 05:22 AM

Just thought I'd necro this thread and see if anybody around here wanted to chime in about their most loathed jobs.

It has been quite a while since I created this theead so my most hated job has changed. I worked for Glad manufacturing as a temporary employee for two and a half years.

The factory was hot all year round and the full time employees treat you like crap because you're considered disposable. You get to stack cases of trash bags for 12 hours straight four days per week and get paid about $8.00 per hour. The job isn't horribly demaning physically but the environment is depressing and the other temp employees are miserable.

Out of more than 70 temporary employees, I was there longer than any other temp after about a year and a half because everyone else had quit and been replaced. I hated working for Staffmark at Glad because you got treated like human garbage and were constantly reminded where the door was if you didn't like something.

Oh and the icing on the cake? You miss more than three days in around six months and you're gone. No sick time and you get three days of vacation per year.

So? Anybody else want to rant about a crappy job?

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 05:27 AM

Not anymore XD

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 4 2013, 05:30 AM

What do you mean?

I used to be a mall security guard. It was horrible

People scream at you when you tell them they are breaking the rules, and I once got a hotdog thrown at me, a lost little girl puked on me, and a dog peed on my shoe!

Posted by: Kiln Mar 4 2013, 05:30 AM

Because?

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 05:32 AM

I don't know. The job I have isn't difficult. It's very easy. Except for the customers. and the mnagement. And the cashiers who never listen.

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 4 2013, 05:33 AM

Yup. It sounds like a walk in the park

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 05:42 AM

And the shoplifters...money problems...the fact that I don't get paid enough to eat half the time.... OH! we cn't take breaks, either. We're supposed to, but if the lines get long, there's no one else to help the cashier from getting mauled by customers. So, if we're there for a 13+ hour shift, the longest break we get is long enough to sit down, use the bathroom, and walk back.

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 4 2013, 05:43 AM

That sucks. How do you have the patience for that?!

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 05:44 AM

His name is Snuggles. He occasionally needs food, and sometimes diapers XD

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 4 2013, 05:45 AM

Kids can change your life, and give you a reason to put up with all the [censored]

You work for a great cause

Posted by: Kiln Mar 4 2013, 05:52 AM

Yeah I'll get to know about the joys of parenthood soon enough. My wife is due in 7 months.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 05:53 AM

O.O CONGRATS!

Start buying diapers NOW.

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 4 2013, 05:55 AM

Congrats kiln, I'm happy for ya

Posted by: Kiln Mar 4 2013, 05:58 AM

Thanks guys. I'm sure it'll be an adventure.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 06:02 AM

As soon as you run out of diapers, it will be XD

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 4 2013, 06:20 AM

And expect to be up at 3 am with a screaming infant

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 06:22 AM

Maybe we shouldn't be talking about parenting in the "Worst Jobs" thread XD

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 4 2013, 06:23 AM

TO THE COFFEE SHOP!

Posted by: PhonAntiPhon Mar 4 2013, 08:57 PM

Not long after uni, I got a job packing metal fittings into hessian sacks. I think a little bit of me died with each piece I packed. Still, it did pay.
Just.

Posted by: Colonel Mustard Mar 4 2013, 10:17 PM

Disposing of corpses for the mafia. That job sucked.

Wait a minute.

Actually, just pretend you didn't read that...

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 10:19 PM

Read what?

Posted by: Colonel Mustard Mar 4 2013, 10:21 PM

Atta girl.

Posted by: ghastley Mar 4 2013, 10:37 PM

Testing light fittings on an assembly line. If I got an electric shock when I plugged them in, they were rejected.

It wasn't supposed to work that way, but nobody had done the safety test on my equipment, or that would been rejected instead.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 10:46 PM

Oh my god!!!!

Posted by: ghastley Mar 4 2013, 11:05 PM

And it wasn't that wimpy 110-volt US stuff, this was full-fat European 240-volt (with extra smoke).

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 4 2013, 11:06 PM

Of course XD

Posted by: King Coin Mar 4 2013, 11:08 PM

Just looking at everyone else's experiences... I can't complain.

Posted by: Kiln Mar 5 2013, 01:19 AM

Sure you can!

Posted by: treydog Mar 5 2013, 03:11 AM

Can't believe I never mentioned the job that still causes me to break out in... something or other.

Working the serving line at the residence hall cafteria at the university.

The pay was below minimum wage- the hours were awful- the students (who paid like a 1.85 to get in and could go through the line as often as they wanted) all asked "Is that all you get?", plus I liked having actual hair instead of a crew-cut- which was REQUIRED. The one job I preferred was considered punishment duty- washing up the pots and pans.

I lasted a week and half. It was then that I came to realize- "Yes- there actually IS a job I am too good for." I also vowed to never work in the "food service" industry again.

Posted by: Darkness Eternal Mar 5 2013, 04:54 AM

Yep. I worked maintance before. When people asked me what I did, I always sugar-coat it with "I am a custodial engeneer."

Haha. But it paid good enough though. I was the highest paid employee in that area.

Posted by: Dantrag Mar 5 2013, 08:09 PM

Barbacking is kinda tough. You run alcohol from the back to the front through throngs of drunk people. Then when you get behind the bar, these same drunk people don't understand that you aren't a bartender and will try to place orders with you. You can a) avoid eye contact act like you're a bartender except you don't pour their drink because you can't or c) point to the real bartender. Whatever option you choose, people get mad because they don't understand that somebody has the job of keeping the bar stocked, and there is no possible way that you're not a bartender.

Plus cleaning puke sucks. And your weekends are shot.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 5 2013, 10:04 PM

That sounds awful, Dantrag.

Posted by: ghastley Mar 5 2013, 10:08 PM

I'm waiting for Kiln and Acadian to tell us the horror stories of moderating a forum.

Posted by: Kiln Mar 5 2013, 10:17 PM

Well aside from the ancient ritual and blood sacrifice (similar to the joining in Dragon Age) it isn't that bad.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 5 2013, 10:22 PM

Was there chanting? I bet there was chanting.

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 5 2013, 10:31 PM

This forum is easy to moderate. There are other forums out there filled with trolls and x-phobes (you name it, someone hates and fears it and thusly cannot resist any opportunity to slander it). Not just in the regular forum-goers, but staff members as well. I was a moderator once on another forum, and eventually resigned due to the latter.

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 5 2013, 11:03 PM

It was that bad? Wow

Posted by: Kiln Mar 5 2013, 11:04 PM

Yeah I've moderated a few forums and this forum is probably the easiest one because people here are respectful to each other and can disagree without fighting.

I'm a member of only one other forum that gets along so well and I think that really says something about the members and staff.

Also, Liz: There was chanting.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 5 2013, 11:06 PM

Sweeet.

I've moderated a forum before. It was easier than this one because it was dead. XD

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 5 2013, 11:10 PM

I wanna be a moderator


Liz, it will be easy moderating that dead forum until it turns into a zombie

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 5 2013, 11:12 PM

When I STARTED it was pretty happening. (I can't think of.. oh. active. Active would have been a better choice.) But once facebook came out, we all added each other on there. There was like...20 of us.

Posted by: King Of Beasts Mar 5 2013, 11:14 PM

Is being a mod fun?

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 5 2013, 11:17 PM

Nobody ever did anything. Any disagreements were taken to a private chat and since most of us were good friends, worked out privately. The owner had strict rules about that.. The only bad thing was the occasional troll/spambot. That only happened 3 or 4 times.

Posted by: Grits Mar 8 2013, 08:19 PM

This has been fun. At first I thought that I didn’t really have any bad employment situations to share. Then I realized that they were all pretty bad in one way or another. Let’s start at the beginning.

When I was little we lived in the country. There was a big field between our house and the neighbor on that side. One year he decided to grow potatoes. He paid us cash to pick rocks up out of the field before he planted. 25 cents per 5 gallon bucket. Now we (the kids around my age) were way too small to drag a bucket full of rocks, so we would pick up all that we could carry and run them back to the buckets on the edge of the field, then run back out to get more rocks. After we got paid the older kids (ages about 10-12 years old I guess) would come over to where we had collapsed under the bushes after getting a drink straight out of the garden hose and sell us candy bars and sodas that they had likely swiped from their parents. At that time you could get a Coke or two candy bars and a pack of gum for a quarter. We would all put our quarters together to buy a Coke to share from those swindlers. It worked out great for a while though since none of us was allowed to have Coke. Then the neighbor realized that the big kids were sneaking over at night and throwing the rocks back into the field so that we little ones could keep earning quarters.

Also I should mention that while we were running all over the place with our shirts full of rocks the neighbor’s beagle would occasionally get loose and try to chase us down for the purpose of humping. That was an overly friendly dog, and what a stink on him. Poor thing couldn’t help the stink. But good grief, what a leg hound.

Anyway after the harvest there were still too many potatoes in the ground for the neighbor’s liking, so he had another job for us 5 to 7 year olds. For every bushel of potatoes we picked up, we could run home with as many as we could carry in our hands. That worked out to about three potatoes per bushel. So I have actually worked for small potatoes.

Posted by: Acadian Mar 8 2013, 08:38 PM

Grits. . .

Posted by: Kiln Mar 8 2013, 10:15 PM

I second that. Lol. At least there were no dogs where I worked.

I did construction work a couple of times and while it pays good, the work is extremely difficult. I would always come home so sore after work that all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep. I'd wake up and go back in for another day of hard labor with my back, arms, and legs still hurting from the day before.

It also didn't help that it was 100 degrees outside so I was sweating like crazy and had a hell of a sun burn.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 8 2013, 11:34 PM

That's one of the cutest stories I've ever heard!

Posted by: Grits Mar 11 2013, 04:50 PM

My brother worked construction jobs over college summers. Like you said Kiln, brutal but the pay was excellent. He spent one summer as a roofer and another on a paving crew. After the paving job he learned to wait tables!


All right so here’s the next entry on my resume. When I was 10 we moved downtown where we could walk everywhere (school, friends, grocery store, bank, pool, the projects). I started babysitting for a friend of my mom’s for $2.00 an hour. She wanted me to do some little things around the house to keep me busy (!!) while I was there after school. Seriously, I had her two kids and my homework plus I fed them dinner, what the heck? Since the cleaning wasn’t working out she had me come over on the weekends to clean her house. For $2.00 an hour. I was ten years old. That was before I learned to say, “Screw you.”

A couple of years later she and another friend started up a small manufacturing business. It was literally a sweatshop under the one friend’s garage. In the winter they had to haul in a space heater because it was so cold the paint wouldn’t dry. They paid me $2.50 per hour though, so I was moving up in the world. Plus the one partner was also a caterer and she gave me awesome food. I ended up working for them on school breaks and as a second summer job all the way through my sophomore year of college. It was incredible experience to be in on the ground floor of a company. A lot of what I did opening new profit centers much later I learned as a kid at that company. But there was a funny moment when an inspector came to check their first rented building after we moved out of the sub-basement. We had all sort of forgotten that I wasn’t technically allowed to be working. So when he asked what I was doing there they quickly said I was the babysitter. About two seconds later when he saw the chemicals, power tools and such that were all over the place (because I had been working!) he said to me, “You need to get outside RIGHT NOW.” He was protecting me! Lol.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 11 2013, 06:34 PM

Oh wow, Grits! Of only he knew XD

Posted by: King Coin Mar 11 2013, 06:41 PM

Yeah... as I was reading I kept thinking "That is not legal."


I think the worst job I've had was being a cashier at a grocery store. It was mindless work, and then you get the pleasure of telling customers that NO this item is ringing up at the correct price, you just didn't read the sign correctly/at all.

I seriously preferred my janitor job at a factory scrubbing toilets over being a cashier. YEAH.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 11 2013, 07:12 PM

One of my friends works in the Huntsville prison and she says she likes her job better than mine, lol

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 11 2013, 07:45 PM

I think my worst job was also probably being a cashier at a grocery store too. The worst part of it was that I was not really a cashier at all. I was a produce clerk. Somehow I got roped into running a register whenever things got busy at the registers. Given that it was a grocery store, it was always busy at the registers. So I could never get my own work done, because I was wasting all of my time cashiering. I quit that job not too long after.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 11 2013, 08:43 PM

I've been cashiering since I was 16. I turn 23 in August. I feel like I have an endless amount of patience XD

But I swear, the next person who tells me my job is easy is going to... not have anything done to them because I'll not say anything XD

Posted by: Grits Mar 11 2013, 10:39 PM

For me the misery of cashiering is very much a function of the customer base.

I’ve worked at three very different clothing stores. (All legally, lol.)

In one my manager ended up moving me in with her family so I could stay and work two more months, that’s how well we got along. But it was the worst experience because our customers were surly she-hounds who routinely screamed and cursed at us. Thankfully the company cared even less for the customers than we did, so at least we had the satisfaction of sending them away as unhappy as they made us.

The one where my customers were decent people who actually intended to pay for the clothes (imagine that) was also the one where the district manager was sleeping with the store managers. Seriously, when the scandal broke they were ALL fired. Oh, and his wife would come in all the time and give us bad “Secret Shopper” reports even though we all knew who she was and could retell every second that she was in the store. I mean she used her husband’s discount to buy clothes! But even though that was a truly hostile work environment, it wasn’t the worst because the customers kept the sales floor fun.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 11 2013, 11:25 PM

Some of my customers are okay. The guys next door at the car shops are great, AMD come in every day. Buuuuuuuuuut the management at this company isn't very good. As in, they make demands we can't, as a staff, meet. We don't get breaks because there are only one manager for 8-13 hours because they won't give us enough budget for two pershift. And, of course, payroll is deemed once a year by inventory losses, AMD we lay 3 times the amount we were expected, so no raise.o

Then there's the screaming customers, dishonest employees, the messes, the trash, the stealing... Standing and scanning things isn't hard. Trying to not bash everyone's faxes is.

My phone is acting up and won't let me.correct my mistakes. Guhh.

Posted by: Pseron Wyrd Mar 12 2013, 02:12 PM

Are we counting only legal jobs? Because one or two of my worst jobs were not legal.

Out of my legitimate jobs, I'd say my worst was Burner at K-Mart. I doubt that this job even exists anymore. It consisted of sitting for eight hours a day in a small, windowless room down in the basement. In this room was myself, a chair, a furnace and a mountainous pile of cardboard boxes. All the line workers would cart their empty shipping boxes down to this room. And I would feed these empty cardboard boxes into the furnace. I would open the furnace door, shove in a box or two, close the furnace door, sit down and watch the boxes burn inside the furnace. When they were burned I would open the door again, shove in another box or two, close the door, and sit down and watch those boxes burn. The boxes had to be fed into the furnace at a very specific rate. Shove too many boxes in too fast and it would cause air pollution problems and the city would call up the store manager and the store manager would come down and give me hell. But feed boxes into the furnace too slow and the store manager would come down and yell at me because the boxes were beginning to pile up and he wanted me to speed things up.

It was not a fun job. If I hadn't been absolutely desperate for money at the time I would not have kept it.

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 12 2013, 06:36 PM

Given some of Grit's admissions, I think more than just legal jobs are on the table here. Though you might want to be careful about incriminating yourself in case the FBI is reading...

That burner job sounds horrible. Not to mention ecologically unsound! I am sure that was back in the old days before the word "recycle" had been invented.

I remember back when I was a material handler at a little plastics factory, I had to break down the cardboard bins that the raw plastic pellets came, flatten them out, and stack them up on top of the manager's office. Trouble is said office was a little box standing up on stilts above the rest of the factory, with just a narrow stairway to get up it. I had to balance the huge pieces of cardboard on top of my head, holding each side so it would not tip too far one way or the other and fall off. Then run up the stairs and throw it on top of the pile over the ceiling of the office. If I missed, it went sailing down to the floor 20' below.

Posted by: Colonel Mustard Mar 12 2013, 08:43 PM

It's not the worst job I've had, but right now I'm so mentally understimulated on this damn calendar entry gig I've got that I'm giving autocannibalism serious consideration as means with which to pass the time.

I'm also so bored that I've made up the word 'autocannibalism'.

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Mar 12 2013, 08:44 PM

Ahaha!!!

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 12 2013, 09:37 PM

Wouldn't you have to be an automobile, in order to cannibalize other autos?

Posted by: ghastley Mar 12 2013, 09:44 PM

Those long words confuse me too. I never figured out if autoerotic had something to do with cars being sexy, or it meant making out in the back seat.

Posted by: Grits Apr 9 2013, 10:47 PM

Talking about being poor (in another thread) reminded me of my college jobs.

So while I was in college I qualified to have two jobs (simultaneously) on campus. (Because I was that poor.) One was in food service. I started off as a runner, which is the person who brings food up to the serving line. The other was in a lab doing the devil’s work or possibly averting the next energy crisis, depending on where you stand on environmental issues. As an environmental biologist I quickly realized that I was in service to the devil. A little bit of my soul died every day that I worked there, but it was quite awesome to be in charge of all those machines. I felt like I was in a spaceship. It kind of looked like the engine room of Serenity. But I have now forgotten my point.

Oh yes, something worse than grunt work in a cafeteria. Deliberately advancing the cause of evil.

Oh, and my runner job in the cafeteria rapidly led to a grill cook position even though I was not remotely qualified. I had however been cooking for my brother and other people’s children since I was ten as I related above, so I got the job. That was pretty fun. I got a huge grill to work on and I was right behind the serving line where I could talk to all of my friends (and cook them eggs and burgers!) as they came through to get their meals. Everyone ate on campus, and everyone knew everyone, so it was a pretty good deal. But here’s the very bad part. After work I had to go straight to my afternoon labs smelling like onions. There can be no doubt that had a negative impact on my social life. All through college I never dated any fellow science majors.

Posted by: mirocu Apr 13 2013, 06:31 AM

Sounds like a dream. Can you get me in?

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 13 2013, 06:31 AM

I quit, so you can take my place

Posted by: mirocu Apr 13 2013, 06:33 AM

Do I get a big gun??

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 13 2013, 02:28 PM

You get a taser

Posted by: mirocu Apr 13 2013, 03:34 PM

Count! Me! In!

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Apr 13 2013, 05:13 PM

WAAAAAANT.

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 13 2013, 06:16 PM

You, mirocu, and myself can all work as mall security guards and tase evil shoplifters

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Apr 13 2013, 06:20 PM

SWEEEET.

Posted by: mALX Apr 13 2013, 06:20 PM

Major Congratulations Kiln! Awesome news!

I've been sitting here trying to think of any place I ever worked that I hated - can't think of one, I kind of always enjoyed the places I worked. There were some bosses I did not enjoy working under, but loved the work everywhere I've been.

Posted by: mirocu Apr 13 2013, 08:17 PM

Sign me up!!

Posted by: Darkness Eternal Apr 14 2013, 01:50 AM

Can I join! I love tazers!

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 14 2013, 01:51 AM

Yup. You're in

Posted by: mirocu Apr 14 2013, 07:59 AM

Man. A bunch of crazy tasers working at the mall.. No one would go shopping there anymore!

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Apr 14 2013, 09:12 AM

I'D SHOP THERE!!!!

Posted by: mirocu Apr 14 2013, 09:14 AM

Do you... have a weird thing going on..?

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 14 2013, 09:19 AM

Liz is a daredevil

Besides, who doesn't want me to chase them down with a taser

Posted by: Elisabeth Hollow Apr 14 2013, 09:19 AM

Yeah, it's called living on the edge XD

Posted by: mirocu Apr 14 2013, 09:19 AM

Me *points at self*

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 14 2013, 09:21 AM

I'll keep that in mind

You're my first target!

Posted by: mirocu Apr 14 2013, 09:24 AM

Then I might have to use.... THE EAGLE CLAAAAAAW!!

Oh, but we´ve derailed this haven´t we? I did have a job doing the dishes at this nursing home before I got my current one. It wasn´t bad per say but it took up two out of three weekends. I quit it maybe two years after I got this one. Now I wish I still had it!

Posted by: Cardboard Box Feb 20 2014, 06:25 AM

My worst jobs? I can sum them up as follows:

1. Flogging big ticket items.
2. To people who weren't really quite sure if they wanted them.
3. And couldn't make up their minds (if they had 'em) to save their lives.
4. Or insisted on pinching every penny until it begged for death's sweet embrace.
5. With no sales training.
6. From managers who were overweening, interfering morons.

The first one was my fault; I'd never had a job before; but the second one, I was initially hired to do web and print ad work - however the manager thought that being able to make ads meant I should be able to assist in making actual sales. Which I couldn't. Since I am a gentle soul and not capable of the gentle coercion that sales requires.

And certainly not putting up with workplace bullies.

The thing is... after those hell jobs, I'm beginning to think they've turned me right off the idea of working. Most distressing.