NationStates Jolt Archive

I finally gave in and decided to go back to my old job because... well, I needed money. It's not the worst job ever, but I have to say this it is fairly boring. The company I work for does surveys. Right. We're the annoying people who call with 200 questions when you're eating dinner or trying to masturbate in peace.

Generally I get two words out before I hear a click or a rush of expletives. Some people are nice enough to say, "No thank you". That's ok. I can handle the rejection. Once in a while I get some poor, lonely person desperate enough for attention to take my survey. I am told to "hurry up" and then they proceed to take five minutes answering each question.

A monkey could do it. Probably better.

So what is the worst job any of you have ever had?

(Honestly my current job isn't so bad. The worst I ever had was sweeping up pine needles all day at a Christmas tree lot.)

When we had issues of the financial kind and not much success with employment, my parents used to do surveys too. They'd get several hundreds of sheets to fill up with people's answers. Instead, they just did them themselves with rough approximate guesses. Sometimes they would even let me do it, and it was actually quite entertaining since I was nine at the time.

So there you go, surveys are being conducted by nine year olds.

I have overall had some pretty good jobs, I think the worst one was one I didn't get paid for though, I used to help my great uncle out on his ranch, I had to go to his friends slaughter house and help "pack up our meat", see he got a discount if he wrapped it himself, did I mention that I was a vegan at the time?

oh, and once I worked for a market research company that did phone surveys, we had to tell people that the survey would take 5 minutes but in reality they took about 45 minutes, I quit when I figured out that the quota we had to make to get anything more than $4.85 an hour was humanly impossible.

then there was that time that I was a waitress and I had to work the 12a-5a shift at the family restraunt right next to the redneck bar, at 2a when the bar closed I was surrounded with men in thier 40's and 50's truck driver types, 90lbs overweight hadn't taken a shower ever, smelly drunk and grabbing my ass.........not fun for a 15 year old. :( I made a lot of money though.

I worked a summer as an onsight nurse/custodian for a group of mentally challenged individuals that were in this place, stuck doing the most repetitive and inane things so they could have a "job" and the employer paid them shit. Broke my heart.

I have overall had some pretty good jobs, I think the worst one was one I didn't get paid for though, I used to help my great uncle out on his ranch, I had to go to his friends slaughter house and help "pack up our meat", see he got a discount if he wrapped it himself, did I mention that I was a vegan at the time?

oh, and once I worked for a market research company that did phone surveys, we had to tell people that the survey would take 5 minutes but in reality they took about 45 minutes, I quit when I figured out that the quota we had to make to get anything more than $4.85 an hour was humanly impossible.

then there was that time that I was a waitress and I had to work the 12a-5a shift at the family restraunt right next to the redneck bar, at 2a when the bar closed I was surrounded with men in thier 40's and 50's truck driver types, 90lbs overweight hadn't taken a shower ever, smelly drunk and grabbing my ass.........not fun for a 15 year old. :( I made a lot of money though.


We do the five minute thing, too. It's always a lie. Our quotas are pretty reasonable fortunately.

Today we have people working on a focus group recruitment where we offer people $75 and a light meal to participate. I'm actually mildly surprised by the number of people turning down free food and $75 for an hour and a half of their time.

My current job is the worst job. I work at a movie theatre, which is hell because a huge majority of people who go to the movies don't take time to consider that if some service (cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the theatres, concessions, etc) is slow, it's because we've got too much on our hands and we're doing our goddamn best.....they prefer to think that it's just that we don't like them, or that we don't know what we're doing. The only upsides are that I get to work with my boyfriend, and also I get to see all the movies I want for free. Oh, and I get posters for free too. And they're really flexible in scheduling. And it's kinda cool working day shifts on weekdays, 'cause nobody's around but the old folks, who are regulars. But weekends suck so much ass.

my worst job was being unemployed, staring at help wanted ads all day.

I finally gave in and decided to go back to my old job because... well, I needed money. It's not the worst job ever, but I have to say this it is fairly boring. The company I work for does surveys. Right. We're the annoying people who call with 200 questions when you're eating dinner or trying to masturbate in peace.

Generally I get two words out before I hear a click or a rush of expletives. Some people are nice enough to say, "No thank you". That's ok. I can handle the rejection. Once in a while I get some poor, lonely person desperate enough for attention to take my survey. I am told to "hurry up" and then they proceed to take five minutes answering each question.

A monkey could do it. Probably better.

So what is the worst job any of you have ever had?

(Honestly my current job isn't so bad. The worst I ever had was sweeping up pine needles all day at a Christmas tree lot.)
tis a tough question. my current job involves analysing and interpreting market research (not surveys but similar/consumer-data-collection related), but then i've been working here since i was about 14 and the work evolvles and changes constantly. this is probably the longest i've spent doing one thing in this job in years (started the data collection in around november and just finishing analysis and reports now). unfortunatley its the least creative :( but then, on the other hand, the work i'm doing has been developing my own product/service and its worth a small packet so thats something :P

other than this i've only ever had one other job: mcdonald's. kitchen staff (they wouldn't let me out front... too surly :p). it was shitty and i hated the stress coupled with the mindless boredom, and taking orders from wankers. i'm not usually all that elitist, but i was the most intelligent person there (they used to joke i should be manager, even when i only worked there for about 8 or 10 weeks :p), and i didn't get on with anyone. i left because of that.

whether or not that's worse than this job is debatable. there it was hot and smelly... the working environment sucked, and i had no self-determination (the best i got was when i always asked to be put on the chicken counter - at least there you have to think about stuff and not just mindlessly make burgers when you're told to...). here my work environment is much better, but i don't get to see people other than my parents for weeks or months on end (generally speaking), its incredibly stressful, and i often find it near impossible to get motivation to do something i truly have no interest in at all.

this is why i'm going to phase out working here, go back to college (UK college) to study maths, and then go to uni and get a degree in architecture... maybe specialise in environmentally-friendly design. that could well be a job i can actually get behind, be motivated about, enjoy and still make a living from :) *crosses fingers*

[/rant]

Oyster farm laborer has to be one of my worst.

Shit kicker.

had to be last summer's "cabana boy"/busboy/cleaner/whatever the hell we tell you to do at a restaurant/bathouse. after july i got no tips, worked 2-3 hours a day for minimun wage, and didn't realize there was another shower in the place until a week before i was fired/released. signed up to wash dishes originally.

total cash flow : $195.37

When we had issues of the financial kind and not much success with employment, my parents used to do surveys too. They'd get several hundreds of sheets to fill up with people's answers. Instead, they just did them themselves with rough approximate guesses. Sometimes they would even let me do it, and it was actually quite entertaining since I was nine at the time.

So there you go, surveys are being conducted by nine year olds.

does this work! *applies for job* its just like elections then:p

my worst job (though I have only had one) was a work experience course at a country park quite possibly the most boring job an the planet I had to pick up dog muck dammit!

my worst?

Probably a fastfood chicken cook.

Supermarket checkout operator...

Supermarket checkout operator...

Isn't that called a cashier?

I think the worst job I ever had was McDonalds. I'm at the best job right now though.

Not in decent countries.
Oh, i work in Burger King btw and although i hate to say it its not too bad a job.

I finally gave in and decided to go back to my old job because... well, I needed money. It's not the worst job ever, but I have to say this it is fairly boring. The company I work for does surveys. Right. We're the annoying people who call with 200 questions when you're eating dinner or trying to masturbate in peace.

Generally I get two words out before I hear a click or a rush of expletives. Some people are nice enough to say, "No thank you". That's ok. I can handle the rejection. Once in a while I get some poor, lonely person desperate enough for attention to take my survey. I am told to "hurry up" and then they proceed to take five minutes answering each question.

A monkey could do it. Probably better.

So what is the worst job any of you have ever had?

(Honestly my current job isn't so bad. The worst I ever had was sweeping up pine needles all day at a Christmas tree lot.)

Oh, you're THOSE people. *glare*

I haven't had a job, so I can't really say.

Being a temp government department PA (or secretary if I was female).
I am a IT programmer/sys admin now ...

I've never actually had a bad job but the two where I had to move to Japan and South Africa respectively sucked.

Wendy's was the worst.

The good thing about Wendy's was the employee food discount.

I think fast food sucks for most people. Slave wages for slave labor.

Isn't that called a cashier?

Meh. "Cashier" sounds better, but they mean exactly the samething.

Stacking videos in the back room of a bookshop... We had to put the video tapes back in their boxes, but there were no boxes for most of the videos, so after five days they were stacked up to the ceiling in some parts of the room and knee-deep everywhere else... there were three of us in a tiny windowless room and my co-workers insisted on playing Kraftwerk.

Being Supreme Ruler of the Earth (before my self-promotions to, respectively, Supreme Ruler of the Galaxy, Supreme Ruler of the Universe, Supreme Ruler of the Multiverse, Supreme Ruler of the Omniverse, and Supreme Ruler of All Known and Unknown Existence).

It's tough at the top. :D

I think the worst job I ever had was McDonalds.

Same for me. Almost 20 years later and I still can't eat there!

huh... this is my first job O: but i like it. i make a lot of money, my boss is really nice, it's fun, and there's tips. so uh... none? well but today i did work 11 straight hours standing in one place. that can get a little painful. but i work at a convention center so we get to see a lot of crazy people. :D

Working at the concession stands for Commonwealth Stadium. My work consisted of standing for 6-8 hours handing people food. Itm ight not sound bad but the line up never end!! To add to that it was outside and in the winter. Pretty damn painful. But I was there for the Heritage Classic Hockey game.:)

my worst?

Probably a fastfood chicken cook.
I did that all through high school--it's amazing I can even eat the stuff anymore.

But my worst job was the six weeks I spent selling cars. I wasn't good at it, but that wasn't the real problem, because I could have gotten good. The problem was really the place--it was the prototypical sleazy dealership where the first, middle and last order of business was to fuck over the customer on the deal. I never felt dirtier in my life.

Never had a "bad job," but have had some bad clients in the past...
Since I was 13 or 14 I've done computer repair and training.

Couple of summers ago I did autocad drafting... I guess that was my worst job, because it could be boring to repeatedly measure square footage.

Then I worked at a computer repair shop. That would be bad if we didn't have so much fun abusing customers who were assholes.

Now I'm doing Software R&D... I'm a lab monkey, and loving every minute of it.

I bag groceries at a supermarket.

Among other things, I've been slapped, had my register urinated upon and had a bottle of tomato sauce forcefully smashed upon the counter in front of me.

I do believe the worst job I've had was also the funniest job I ever had. I was a head Cashier and Phototech at CVS Pharmacy. I had to deal with all the asshole customers and I'd get yelled at for not waiting on people in a timely manner (not my fault I'm not to quick on the uptake) but anyway, the best part about being a phototech was that I got to see people's pictures from like vacations and whatnot...the best ones where of a female party at a strip club...lol.

I bag groceries at a supermarket.

Among other things, I've been slapped, had my register urinated upon and had a bottle of tomato sauce forcefully smashed upon the counter in front of me.

Wow. Sounds even worse than my experience working at a supermarket was.

I bag groceries at a supermarket.

Among other things, I've been slapped, had my register urinated upon and had a bottle of tomato sauce forcefully smashed upon the counter in front of me.

Interesting. Honestly, the TomatO sauce smashing incident brought me to tears. How did that come about? (Put into context though, it most likely isn't as funny as i pictured it)

While I was in college I worked night shift as a nurses aid at a nursing home. I had to change the residents diapers throughout the night and take care of any requests they had. Then I got them up in the morning and help bathe them. And while that was pretty awful, the worst part was seeing how many of my co workers treated the residents like slabs of meat.

I would always be gentle and explain what I was doing to them. But a lot of the other employees wouldn't. They would just walk into their rooms while the residents were sleeping and start stripping them for their baths without so much as a "time to wake up." Then just treat them very roughly. And it did no good when I complained to management. No one wants to take that kind of job, so they have to keep who they have.

And this was the best nursing home in town. It was horribly depressing. You NEVER want to end up in a nursing home. It's dreadful that people are allowed to be treated that way after having lived a full life.

Interesting. Honestly, the TomatO sauce smashing incident brought me to tears. How did that come about? (Put into context though, it most likely isn't as funny as i pictured it)

She wanted to return something that she thought came up at the wrong price. IIRC, it was only a stick of bread, but I might be mixed up there. I called someone up to check it. They didn't arrive. I called again. They still didn't arrive. The woman started making comments "I'm starting to get really ticked off..." etc.

When they still didn't arrive and I apologised and told her i'd call the manager directly, she called me "fucking useless" etc., took out the bottle, smashed it over the counter in a burst of rage, realised what she'd done, and hastily grabbed her trolley and sprinted out the door.

I didn't get any sauce or glass on me though, fortunately. She did, though. I just stared in a bewildered state for about 2 minutes before being told to clean it up. :p

I have quite a few other stories. :p

took out the bottle, smashed it over the counter in a burst of rage, realised what she'd done, and hastily grabbed her trolley and sprinted out the door.


I have quite a few other stories. :p
hahahaha :p

lets hear em ;)
the urination one sounds particularly disgusting...

The fast food jobs were pretty bad, but not too horrible. I guess it would be a toss up between tech support at my university (sometimes loved the job, other times wanted to kill everyone who called me that day with very stupid questions and demands) and the time I got suckered into that whole Vector Marketing thing selling Cutco Knives.

At least the knives were pretty good.

Being Supreme Ruler of the Earth (before my self-promotions to, respectively, Supreme Ruler of the Galaxy, Supreme Ruler of the Universe, Supreme Ruler of the Multiverse, Supreme Ruler of the Omniverse, and Supreme Ruler of All Known and Unknown Existence).

It's tough at the top. :D

That's why I fired you.

For a few months I worked in the back of a fish and chip shop. I had to carry massive sacks of potatos from an outdoors shed into the back room, pour them into a peeling machine and then cut out the various eyes, bruises and other nasty parts with a knife. Not only was it tiring and monotomous, but it was dirty and I stank afterwards.

Not only that, but the potatos sometimes went rotten in the shed, and I had to pour them in the machine regardless. I remeber once slitting a sack open and about a thousand tiny flies flying out of it into my face. Put me off chips for a while..

Strawberry picking. This is the closest a human can come to the monkey in "a monkey could do it". Strawberries are small plants, about 20 cm high. You had to squat the entire day.

The day started at 6.00 and went on until 11.00. The place was 30 km from the residence, so we had to get up at 5 and drive to the place. They paid something like 2 € / box. You could pick about 3-5 boxes of strawberries per day, so in theory you could get 2.00 €/h (about 2.60 $/h), in practice, less. When the job was almost over, the farmer declared that the pay wasn't actually the one they promised. Total cash flow: 55 €. Seriously, not joking, I burned all of this as gasoline needed to drive to the place.

Many Russians worked there. This is because wages and prices in Russia are so low that they make half of a year's income in a few days strawberry picking in Finland.

For a few months I worked in the back of a fish and chip shop. I had to carry massive sacks of potatos from an outdoors shed into the back room, pour them into a peeling machine and then cut out the various eyes, bruises and other nasty parts with a knife. Not only was it tiring and monotomous, but it was dirty and I stank afterwards.

Not only that, but the potatos sometimes went rotten in the shed, and I had to pour them in the machine regardless. I remeber once slitting a sack open and about a thousand tiny flies flying out of it into my face. Put me off chips for a while..

Been there and i agree.

hahahaha :p

lets hear em ;)
the urination one sounds particularly disgusting...

Oh that was friggin' dirty.

It was a little kid...would have been no more than three years old I figure...and he decided to pull his pants down and piss all over the side of the conveyor belt.

Well his mother was deep in conversation, and i'm not allowed to scold people's kids, so i had to interrupt her...and she wasn't really happy about that, but I just pointed to her kid and said "Your son.". He'd now finished...

The woman she was with commented "He must have really needed to go..." and she turned and said to her son "Awww, did you really need to go, did you?" And the kid gave a really big smile and nodded slowly. Then turned to me and gave a really big smile. I just stared.

And then the woman paid for her groceries and left. Leaving me to clean up the piss with nothing more than disinfectant spray and paper towels. And then a customer came along and demanded to know why my register wasn't open. I told them.

Yeah, that's about the closest i've ever came to going on a murderous rampage or at least ditching the job. But I kinda need the money to pay for things and after looking for several months I haven't come up with anything else.


Ugh.

Want more? :p

Oh that was friggin' dirty.

It was a little kid...would have been no more than three years old I figure...and he decided to pull his pants down and piss all over the side of the conveyor belt.

Well his mother was deep in conversation, and i'm not allowed to scold people's kids, so i had to interrupt her...and she wasn't really happy about that, but I just pointed to her kid and said "Your son.". He'd now finished...

The woman she was with commented "He must have really needed to go..." and she turned and said to her son "Awww, did you really need to go, did you?" And the kid gave a really big smile and nodded slowly. Then turned to me and gave a really big smile. I just stared.

And then the woman paid for her groceries and left. Leaving me to clean up the piss with nothing more than disinfectant spray and paper towels. And then a customer came along and demanded to know why my register wasn't open. I told them.

Yeah, that's about the closest i've ever came to going on a murderous rampage or at least ditching the job. But I kinda need the money to pay for things and after looking for several months I haven't come up with anything else.


Ugh.

Want more? :p
lol aww thats gross :p

yeah, more if you got em! ;) (i need distraction today :P)

Ahhh... the worst jobs and stories always involve dealing with members of the public.

I work as a Lifeguard in England, and could tell so many stories about customers being completely incompetent of their duties in being a parent.

For example, about a year ago, a gentleman came swimming with his two kids (one aged 3, the other about 5). Both were non-swimmers. The man decided to place his children into the water, told them not to go too deep, and then sat down in the spectator stands and watched them.

Following protocol (in the UK, by law, anyone under the age of 8 must be accompanied by an adult in a swimming pool) I went up to him and explained that he must be in the water with his children.

"Fcuk off you pest" he said to me immediately.

Oh the joy. Thus proceeded several minutes of him literally screaming at me, swearing, accusing me of calling him a bad parent (which he was, but I didn't actually accuse him) and it got to the point where I had to press the panic alarm for immediate assistance, as he started stepping up to me in a threatening manner.

He eventually left, and he got a refund (which annoyed me, but in a situation like that, the best thing to do is give the £5 refund to prevent further confrontation).

Easily the worst incident I've experienced (not including accidents/drownings).

But the job isn't so bad.

lol aww thats gross :p

yeah, more if you got em! ;) (i need distraction today :P)

Sure sure...

The slapping one is a little bit milder, but eh. It was an old guy and he had his change kept in an old vitamin tub...when I went to pick it up (it was lying amongst his groceries), he slapped me across the face. Hard. We actually sell those sorts of vitamins though, so it was an honest mistake on my part...how was I supposed to know? But yeah, he was old, so he got away with it. Stang like shit though.

Hmm, oh another sucky time was when I had to clean out the main freezer...everything was moved into the backup one and this one was kept empty...but the duty manager refused to turn off the freezer for some reason. It took me two hours to clean out in sub-zero temperatures, wearing nothing more than a business shirt, pants, and some rubber gloves. My hands were blue afterwards. :( Sent off an anonymous complaint for that one though, because they didn't have a jacket for me or anything.

Oh, and the very first customer I served I remember well...I was going a bit slowly...and the woman was making snide comments...and after I apologised to her and told her it was my first day I got an "I know. Shut up and do what you're paid for." Bitch.

I get all sorts of crap from the customers. Most people are great, 'specially the regulars who recognise me and I can have a conversation with but because my workplace is in a very affluent area, a few of the people look down upon their nose at me and everything...most have that upperclass british accent which really adds to the insult for some reason (a lot of Brits come to that particular area to retire for some reason). Some flat out refuse to adknowledge my typical "How are you today?" greeting by turning their heads in a stereotypical fashion. That really gets to me. I shouldn't let it, but eh. I guess i'm scum to them. And there was another time when I smiled and nodded in greeting at a woman who was talking on the phone (didn't say a word)...she then put her finger to her mouth and gave me a real dirty glare...and then began lamenting to the person on the phone about how she might have to sell her yacht. Excuse me while I go cry a river for her.

And i'm really fucking tired of people feigning interest by asking what i'm studying and getting laughed at after telling them that i'm studying Arts. :mad: Grrrrrrr. I started saying i'm studying politics, which commanded more respect, but then that inevitably gets me into a political discussion, which is bad, for a number of reasons.

Hm, as for others, i've had Mormons, Jehovas Witnesses and born-again fundies try to convert me (see http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=381230), and i've been offered two jobs, one as a security guard, and one as "landscape renovator". Oh yes, and you may remember me being incensed not long ago because my boss forced me to cut my hair.

I'm not making any of that up.

Oh, and some more, from way back:

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=380422

Wow, looking through those old threads of mine made me realise how much NS has gone downhill for me... :( http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=395863 I mean, look at that. That's just class.

I started saying i'm studying politics, which commanded more respect.

Does it really? Im doing a politics AS (6th form grrr) and all i get is laughter. Mainly because i was stupid enough to pick it as a subject.

Liasia']Does it really? Im doing a politics AS (6th form grrr) and all i get is laughter. Mainly because i was stupid enough to pick it as a subject.

Yeah, well, the general consensus I get is Arts=Stupid, Politics=Wow, you have some career direction.

Eh.

Worst job ever was cleaning woman in a hospital.

It was a holiday job, shifts were 5-11 am, you had to clean the entire ward in that time, if you didn't manage it you had to stay longer without pay. Normally, you didn't manage for the simple reason that while you were cleaning one bit, someone else was messing up another part again.
The worst thing really was that the moment you wore that uniform (and I HATE all kinds if uniforms anyway) you just ceased to exist. People didn't greet you any more, they avoided eye contact, they didn't answer.... you were simply no longer there as a human being.
Only had to do it for 6 weeks, though.

Yeah, well, the general consensus I get is Arts=Stupid, Politics=Wow, you have some career direction.

Eh.

Yes, but unfortunately that direction is into politics.

Liasia']Yes, but unfortunately that direction is into politics.

I'd rather foreign affairs, actually.

...not likely to happen because of my views though, etc, etc...

-snip-

hahaha :p
people round that way seem like a bunch of assholes... seriously... though that might be cos i always try to be polite (and chatty back if need be) to cashiers round here. i mean, i know you get your fair share of assholes and weirdos wherever you work (directly with the consumer at least) but still...
ah, have a conciliatory fluffle :fluffle: ;)

Wow, looking through those old threads of mine made me realise how much NS has gone downhill for me... :( http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=395863 I mean, look at that. That's just class.
awwwwww now you're making me miss the good ol' days with TIN :( :(
god, threads like that were hilarious :p

If you want to find the worst jobs in the world, there's only one place to find them: day labor. These are jobs that are so bad, you couldn't pay someone enough to do them, so instead they pay next to nothing and the only people that will do them are the ones that are really desperate. They are labor intensive, sometimes dangerous, and generally icky and nasty.

I think the worst one I remember was spending the day crawling under a house and ripping out fiberglass insulation. It involves taking a flashlight, crawling into dark, tight places with lots of bugs and having to deal with fiberglass itching the crap out of you for the next three days.

I think just about anything else I have done is better than that.

Working as a supermarket checkout person was pretty crap. My co-workers were stupid and boring, my supervisors were sexist and stupid, the customers were irritating and boring. I hated it.