What was the worst job you ever had? Mine was my last job, I loved the kids, I disliked the principal and the way it

[debm55]

was run, I retired ,after my second year there.

[Elessar Zappa]

1. Sonic drive in.

The managers loved their “power” and acted as petty tyrants. One time I was literally screamed at and written up in front of all the other employees for forgetting to move the ice cream machine and sweep under it. It was my first offense, they could’ve just calmly pulled me to the side and given me a verbal warning.

[debm55]

2. Same here. The principal adressed us a comrads and was forever telling us she built that school from nothing. Me --

I thought she had problems.

[Elessar Zappa]

3. Sounds like it!

Some people should be nowhere near the levers of power.

[debm55]

6. Sorry,Elessar Zappa

Last edited Tue Apr 23, 2024, 02:46 PM - Edit history (2)

[BluesRunTheGame]

4. In an interview for a new job...

…I was asked what my favorite job was.

I told them.

Then they asked what my worst job was.

I said: Same job one year later.

They hired me and a few weeks later that job became my new worst job.

[debm55]

5. Sorry that happened to you. Did you leave.?

[BluesRunTheGame]

7. The actual manager that I ended up working for had wanted to hire his son-in-law.

He made sure I couldn’t succeed.

[debm55]

10. That's shitty.

[BluesRunTheGame]

11. But hey, ...

…my new best job is ‘retirement’.

[lastlib]

8. I've shoveled manure and I've worked for the IRS---

Couldn't tell much difference between the two.....and everything else was a promotion from those.

[debm55]

9. That's funny but true

[LoisB]

37. Made me chuckle.

[AllaN01Bear]

12. worst 2 i ever had was working for 2 differnt churches . cleaning. too many chiefs thinking they were the boss .

and wernt.

[debm55]

25. Sorry about the experience. Terrible that happened to you.

[Aristus]

13. Working as an account manager for a sales training company.

In a nutshell: Selling sales training to car dealerships. That should say it all right there. Having car salesmen as clients. The sleaze got knee-deep sometimes.

I hated the job, but it paid so-so (better than the minimum wage I was getting before that).

The owner of the business was a former car salesman with a degree in industrial psychology. Didn't see that he ever found an application for that particular flex other than playing mind games with his employees. He said things like "The employees here compete to see who can be here first in the mornings." I wonder who else fell for that bullshit.

He had no respect for his staff, but that was okay, because he didn't have any respect for his clients, either. It was my job to see that the client dealerships were continuing to send their new sales guys for training. Met some of the most egotistical assholes in the world (managers of car dealerships, surprise, surprise.)

I only worked there for a few months before getting fired for incompetence. (I'll cop to that; there was no way I was ever going to be any good at convincing sleazebag car salesmen to go in for sales training courses.) It was in the winter time. I remember waking up in the dark of a January morning, dreading having to get out of bed and go to that horrible job. If I hadn't been dating the future Mrs. Aristus at the time, I probably would have slashed my wrists.

[debm55]

26. Boy That was a crappy job.

[Conjuay]

14. @ 16, clam shucker.

Pretty cool tips and everything and even medical.
The 'medical' was a very good probability of getting hepatitis before the summer was over.
Been there, done that.

[debm55]

27. Conjuay, that was a nasty job.

[Conjuay]

58. the strange thing was

I never even realized I had gotten Hepatitis until years later when I went to donate blood. They refused me and said why - I was shocked.

[debm55]

63. I would be too. I hope you had no medical problems form that job. ty

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Reading Through This Thread...

...I feel pretty lucky.
I worked a janitor at a banquet hall from sophomore year of HS to my last year of college.
It paid ok, and I was on my own a lot. (I knew I wouldn't be doing it forever, I suppose.) Didn't hate it.
Then my career, the substitute teaching.
I've had things within my jobs that I hated (firing people, a strong example) but the job overall was good.
Great topic, but I don't have a good answer for you.

[debm55]

38. Ty Professor GAC

[Wicked Blue]

16. W.T. Grants department store

Summer of 1969. It was a summer salesclerk job, subbing for people on vacation. Some of the elderly staff resented me because I was leaving for college at the end of the summer.

They harassed me for wearing skirts they thought were too short, so one day I borrowed a dress of my mom's to wear as an act of defiance. As punishment, they sent me upstairs to the refreshments area, where everyone entering the store could see me in my droopy dress.

They got on my case for drawing daisies instead of dots on the i's in my name when I signed coffee vouchers. They sent me to the toy department where I shivered under an air conditioning vent till my fingers were numb - and I suspect they cranked up the a/c on purpose.

When I was hit head-on driving to work one morning (miraculously survived and escaped serious injury), one of my first thoughts was "Good. Now I don't have to go to work."

Spent the rest of the summer on crutches and didn't save much money for college, but at least I didn't have to go back and work with those crabby people.

[debm55]

39. Wicked Blue , that was terrible what happened to you. I am so sorry.

[mopinko]

17. taste tester in a koolaid factory.

1st job after my 1st divorce. had a toddler and shit child support.
way over qualified. shitty pay, long hours, 1/2 hr commute. i started in dec, and only saw the sun on the weekends. at least there were windows in the lab.
good ppl, tho. they loved me. moved on when summer hit, and they cut way back cuz of the humidity. hated the ot, needed the money. had a weekend job as a cocktail waitress. also bad.
tough times.

[debm55]

40. But you mad it and you should feel proud of yourseld

[BOSSHOG]

18. Bucking Hay for a nickel a bale

Summer of 1970. Load the hay in the field onto my truck, empty the truck in the barn. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

[debm55]

41. Sounds like a very boring job. I had some low paying stinkers of jobs. But I put up with it because I was putting myself

though college. and I needed the money.But we made it.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. Picking up rocks from "can to can't" for $5 a day.

[debm55]

42. Wow, that was a crappy job.

[maxrandb]

20. Can I share two?

Had about three months between quitting my job and entering Navy Bootcamp, but still has bills to pay. Took a job at a local Thrift Store. My job was to sort through the donated shoes, find the matches, and zip-tie them together.

Reported to my first ship and it was undergoing a maintenance availability in the Shipyard. All new junior Sailors were assigned to the Void Tiger Team. We basically crawled through the ship's voids between the "skin of the Ship" and interior bulkheads with a pneumatic "torture device" that the Navy called a "Needle Gun". We used these to break up rust, and then would prime and paint the voids.

Ever seen rust on a Navy Ship? Using a Needle Gun was like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.

We had to wait until the Ship's "Gas Free Engineer" had certified the space "Safe to Enter" before we could enter the voids.

[debm55]

43. TY . be proud of yourself . You made it through those two jobs. and here you are.

[Emile]

21. Driving an 18 wheeler for AutoZone.

[debm55]

44. I would be a little afraid of doing that.Ty Emile.

[zanana1]

22. Packing pickles.

I once had a three-day career pounding pickles into jars at a Heinz pickle plant. The jars had to be packed tight, so I had to pound them in with my fist. (This was in western MA).

[debm55]

45. Gee I didn't know that is how pickels were packed in a jar. You lasted three days. I don't know if I could last that

long.

[zanana1]

60. The smell from thousands of pickles and pickle juice was a perk.

[debm55]

64. HAHAHHAHAH. That's funny. TY zanana 1

[mvd]

23. Hi Deb

Never had an official one but now I work at home doing video games for goals and surveys. Doesn’t bring in a lot but it is a fun way to earn money.

How are you? I am ok now. That last donation I got really saved me and mom - I feel mom would have gone to the hospital. I have some plans for this month but even if I get short there will be no DU fundraiser. Would just have to go through it somehow.

[debm55]

24. Glad up you and mom are doing okay. good luck mvd.

[mvd]

29. Thanks Deb. I hope things are going well with you

I keep you in my thoughts.

[brewens]

28. 15 years at a Budweiser distributor. It wasn't all bad but the place ended up being run like an adult

daycare center and I had to babysit a couple of alcohol junkies.

[debm55]

47. Gee, brewens. what a way to spend your job. Didn't they check the workers out? Sorry

[Doc_Technical]

30. Busboy in a steakhouse

I had to bus tables, wash dishes, help up front with preparing
dinners, clean the grills on which the steaks were cooked,
see that the restrooms were stocked and clean, etc.
I stuck around because the food was good and the pay
was 20 cents an hour above minimum wage.

[debm55]

48. I had a similiar experience, working in the dinning hall at Penn State. Work was crappy but the pay was aver minimum. Ty

Doc_Techical. But we both made it.

[livetohike]

31. The worst job was working as a supervisor

for a manufacturing company . I was offered the job and excited to work for the manager that hired me. He talked a good game. The same week that I started, he quit as he had been looking for another job! It was a horrible company and the other supervisors were all sickening ass kissers. I should have left when that manager left, but I stayed for one miserable year. Lesson learned.

[debm55]

49. Very sorry, livefohike. Yes lesson learned. When I first got out of college and moved back home. My aunt found me a

teaching job. The principal had no one to mentor me.It was a Catholic school, they were the most Un Christlike school I taught in . Not included my last job, I didn't want to leave as my aunt found me the job. My pay was $4,000 a year. I had collage loans. payment for my wedding(parents refusted to pay anything toward and my apartment.She had her ass kissers. just like the last principal. I was glad I
left when I married.

[marble falls]

32. Sold Fuller Brush for one day. Worked at Zetzer's Star Market for one day. Worked refinishing furniture one day ...

... take your pick. Never even went back for paychecks.

[debm55]

50. Ty ,marble falls. How did you have the bad luck to find 3 crummy jobs?

[marble falls]

57. By living to be 70+.

[Ocelot II]

33. Every job I held during my first few years as an actual adult.

Copy reader for a newspaper (reading want ads - horrible, tedious job, had to sit next to an employee with the worst body odor ever); assembly line in a soap factory (sneezed constantly, didn't last long there); cocktail waitress in a faux-Playboy Bunny costume (lasted exactly one evening, that place was Sexual Harassment Central); sorting and calculating waybills at a railroad (long before there were computers); aide at a nursing home (depressing as hell). I really liked my last job until there was a merger; after that it sucked so I took early retirement.

[debm55]

54. Oh, Ocelot II , I am so sorry for the crummy, ahit jobs you had. I took early retirement on my last job too. That is

the job, I tripped of a bookbag and fell down. two flights of steps. Principal refused to call an ambulance or have someone drive me home . I drove the ten miles home. took two aspirin and went to sleep. Returned the fallowing year and was an art on a cart teacher. Had to use a crutch to walk. took therapy to talk and reason. She treated to fire me as I coulded get to my classed on time for the ass kissers to get their 4o minute prep period.

[LoisB]

34. About 55 years ago, I had a second job working for a company that sold encyclopedias. I worked as an

Accounts Receivable clerk. One of my duties was to make collection calls. I called a lady about her account. Se advised me that her husband had just been killed in Vietnam and she would take care of it as soon as she could. When I relayed that to my manager, his words were (and I quote because I will never forget) "Oh good, she'll be able to pay because she'll get $10,000 insurance money". I looked at him in disbelief, picked up my purse and walked out. That was the end of THAT job. I don't remember if I ever even got a final paycheck.

[debm55]

56. That is very sad, LoisB. Some people have no mouth filter.. I am glad you walked out.

[TlalocW]

35. Tech Support for cell phones for Sprint

This was before smart phones. I had lost a programming job (tech bubble burst) and couldn't find another one. Trainer spent the first 45 minutes of every day looking for an overhead projector. Manager was a holier-than-thou type who pushed his religion on us, liked to make teen girls on his team cry, and just hid in his office. The Do Not Call List had just come out so Sprint decided that while helping people with their tech issues, we could flip to another screen, see what upgrades they were available to get, and try to upsell them. Had no training for that, and it made things awkward, and support quality went down.

Breaking point came when manager was pissed that our selling numbers weren't good. There was a contest that the manager (not the team - teams got nothing) would get a really nice prize if their team had the best numbers, and he wanted it. So he brought us into his office, one at a time, to yell at us. During his tirade with me, he hypothetically said something like, "I don't understand why you all can't put in more effort!" (He had made it known he was talking in regards to the prize - not the company, team, etc)

Because you're a dick.
*stunned silence*
You're not a good manager; what little power you have goes to your head; you think embarrassing people to the point of tears is leadership, etc. We all hate you. Why would you think we care about your winning a prize? In fact, I'm so sick of you, I quit.

The best part. I left his office and speed-walked to the exit where the elevator banks were. He was a big guy who was a little slow so by the time I was exiting, he had just gotten up from his desk and was leaving his office, angrily calling after me. I hit the down button, and a door opened, but I entered the stairwell and ran up a floor. He burst out just as the elevator door was closing, yelled, "Shit!" and slammed into the stairwell to run down the SEVENTEEN flights of stairs to try to catch me.

I played Snake on my Nokia for 30 minutes, walked down two flights, took the elevator there to the ground floor, and went home.

[debm55]

65. Great post about negative jobs and bad managers. Good for you.

[CanonRay]

36. Janitor in a department store

Followed closely by working on an asphalt crew in the summer heat.

[debm55]

66. TY CanonRay. . I don't which would be worse.

[Squaredeal]

46. Working in a hazmat suit,

While earning enough cash to start college. After two tours of duty in Vietnam, one job I had was during the plant shutdown, jackhammering solid resin made with asbestos out of deep overflow pits, in August. Luckily, I was only 21 and in great physical shape to tolerate the overwhelming heat in the pits for ten minutes at a time. Ironically, I had enlisted to avoid having to do factory work, only to do it when I got back home. It reminded me of the WW II veteran in Best Years of Our Lives, who returned home to his previous teenage job as a soda jerk. Within a year of that, I was gone, on my way to earn a college degree.

[debm55]

67. Ty you for sharing and ty for serving our country.

[kimbutgar]

51. I worked for years at a wonderful investment banking firm they brought in this new manager who was a divider

And set people against one another and had his favorites, I left there and went from a boiling pot into a frying pan investment banking firm where everyone back stabbed one another, when anyone left the trading desk they talked about them. After 9 months I made plans to quit and saved my nest egg to survive on for 6 months. I called in sick a lot and I came in one day after another sick day off and I was fired. I smiled during the meeting and they gave me 3 months severance and after that was able to file for unemployment. The office lawyer and I were friendly and after the management left I stayed in his office to sign papers. He said he was sad I was leaving and he said it was hard not to laugh out loud because I was smiling so much during the firing. A few years later I ran into him on the street and he told me that firm was so full of toxic people he quit himself.

But talk about timing. I was able to take my son to his first day of kindergarten and be there with my Dad everyday when he was in the hospital dying from leukemia. And there to support my Mother after he passed. So in this case a bad job paid off!

[debm55]

69. Thank you kimbutgar. So it did pay in the end.

[LisaM]

52. It wasn't a real job, but....

A friend of mine used to deliver a free community newspaper to various local places like grocery stores, gyms, etc., and he hurt his back and asked if I could do it for a couple of weeks. I hated it! Almost every place I went didn't want it, and I had to take the old stack from the week before and replace it with a new stack, often to their grumbling. The gym was a fancy one and I ran into an acquaintance there and was embarrassed to be schlepping a free paper. One of the addresses was totally wrong, so at least the senior center finally got their free paper.

With so many people not wanting it, I had to sort of slink in and out of places with my stack, which was horrible!

The only place that wanted it was a local bar where all the day drinkers were actually waiting for it to read the police beat, and every bone in my body wanted to throw away the hundreds of papers I had left and join them!

I didn't even get paid for this misery, I was just helping out a friend.

[debm55]

71. Ty you LisaM for helping your friend. Sorry with the papers.

Last edited Fri Apr 26, 2024, 04:19 PM - Edit history (1)

[indigoth]

53. Driving a forklift

For a (well known) hardware/lumber company.

The work, itself, wasn’t bad. But the boss was the deciding factor.

Bossman literally snuck around actively trying to catch people goofing off. Everyone knew, and so no one goofed off. His whole attitude was “wait till I catch you and I get to fire you!”

I actually took a hammer to my glasses, once, so I wouldn’t have to go to work.

[debm55]

72. Thank you indigoth. During my first job back in Pittsburgh, My principal would let us us our sick days. I filled my

mouth with cotton and told her I had to see a dentist. Instead we were up in Boston at my BIL wedding.

[gibraltar72]

55. Chicken farm.

[debm55]

74. Yuck. dirty job.

[OldBaldy1701E]

59. Roaming Speaker Sales.

Once, I was desperate enough to try my hand at some retail. We would drive around and try to interest people in these speakers we had. They were a decent pair I suppose, but the idea was to convince the person that we are delivery people and that we were supposed to only come here with one pair of speakers, but they kept on loading the van, and so we decided that we could sell off the other pairs we had, make the original delivery, and pay for a hotel for the night. (It was all a bunch of crap, we had a vendors license and were just selling speakers. The act was to convince people that they were going to get a great deal on a pair of great speakers.) I was a performer for 45 year, but this was just too much for me. Especially when we were told not to talk about the speakers themselves, other than to say that they were really good and normally cost a lot. I just did not like doing that crap. I was there for three days.

(The dude in charge would give a pep talk every morning. He would use terms like 'ducks', which referred to the potential customers. We were told to make sure to 'get our ducks in a row' and to make sure that our ducks were 'corralled' into the sale. It was dehumanizing in my opinion.)

[debm55]

73. Yes it was . Thank you OldBaldy1701E for sharing your post with us.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

61. Dunkin Donuts

The manager was a creepy jerk who scheduled me alone on a Sunday morning my first week.

I walked out the door.

[debm55]

70. ty you MorbidButterfly and good for you!

[Mad_Dem_X]

62. A boring office job that was almost all filing

We also had to keep track of the amount of mail we received, as in, count EVERY PIECE we got and enter it into a log. So excruciatingly dull. I quit after three days.

[debm55]

68. Good for you, Mad_Dem_X. It does sound way boring.