What's the Worst Job You've Ever Had?

[maqroll]

I worked as a rod man for a surveyor for several months, standing on the sides of highways, trudging through muddy wooded hills in the freezing rain, prying open manhole covers in 95 degree heat, walking around the edges of the roofs of tall buildings in the snow and ice...pretty crap job. But I didn't have to sell anything or deal with customers, so in that regard, it was better than some other jobs I've had. 

 

But that one stands out for the monotony and crap conditions...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CrackpotForeigner]

As a student I took a job photographing and writing reports on the condition of traffic lights and road signs as part of a survey for the council/roads dept.

 

Doesn't sound too bad, but I found it excruciatingly boring and actually stressful. Although the stress was probably from not having a damn clue what I was doing

[hogso]

Labouring on building sites. Very early mornings, very hard work, and the guys I worked with insisted on going straight to the pub after work every day, when I just needed to sleep.

I did it for 2 summers during holidays from uni. Came to a rather unceremonious end when on our way to a job in Swindon one morning, coming off the slip road from the motorway, traffic comes to a stand still, apart from the woman behind us who hit the back of our car at about 40mph, we guessed it must've been. So that made it suck even worse.

Although there were some good times, and it was actually often quite fun. I haven't had many jobs though, 4 in total, and from them that's the worse.

[legov]

As a student I took a job photographing and writing reports on the condition of traffic lights and road signs as part of a survey for the council/roads dept.

 

Doesn't sound too bad, but I found it excruciatingly boring and actually stressful. Although the stress was probably from not having a damn clue what I was doing

 

Out of interest, which country/city did you study in?

Edited November 24, 2013 by legov

[Genie]

As a student I worked in a factory that used to make the internals of car glove boxes. You'd coat the plastic moulding with glue, then cover with the black felt stuff then blast it with an electrostatic wand which made the felt stand up. You'd be getting electric shocks all day long. Then at the end of the day you'd have to scrape dry glue of all the tools. Jacked it in after 1 day.

The company was a very large automotive supplier based in Lichfield.

[Risso]

Again as a student (common theme here) I had to clean meat slicing machines in a refrigerated plant, with a high pressure hose.  It was freezing, smelly, and disgusting, and it was a 10 hour shift 10 at night until 8am.  

[coda]

Tried a factory job but didn't even last a day. It was like a Dickensian workhouse so I legged it at lunch and billed the agency for my time. Years later I'm still waiting for my pay on that one.

 

Left a call centre after three days training and one day actually doing the job. I went for for a shit about an hour into the day, as you do, only to return to a phone call from the manager asking why I'd spent six minutes with my phone off. **** that.

[Ingram85]

Redhill Garage in Kings Norton. Was my second job after leaving college. Must have been about 19 so nearly ten years ago now. Phone operator sending trucks out to breakdowns. Worst bunch of people ive ever worked for. Lasted 6 months. **** company. **** people. **** job. 

[The_Rev]

General dogsbody when I was in a factory aged 18. My main duties appeared to be filing rough edges off of bits of metal which had been cut by machine, sweeping the floor and getting coffee for anybody who was over the age of 30. While the lads I worked with were a good laugh the highlight of my day was going for a shit and spending an extra five minutes in the bog so I could read the football reports in the back of the paper.  I enrolled myself into a welding class at night school so I could get promoted to a welding job. That wasn't much better. I'd left by the time I was 19. 

[lapal_fan]

I was lied to in an interview, I was told I was going to do energy assessments around the country, work from home etc etc, all with a £30,000 basic wage and I'd get a great package if/when I upsold anything on site.

 

Turns out they had no clients, the company had 12 people working in it and I was cold calling people for 5/6 months whilst driving all the way to Gloucester every day and I couldn't claim diesel because I was based from the office.

 

I got sacked after they went through my emails discussing getting an interview for another job, so I was sacked in Feb on a Tuesday morning and then got a job on the same night at 9:00pm.

 

Stressful, but it's worked out for the best, like my current job etc.

 

Cold calling people is soul destroying, I think you have to be a certain character to do it, but I'm not that person.

 

But my god, they were a bunch of gobshites, liars and words removed. 

[R.I.C.O.]

I've had loads of crap jobs.

 

Between 1st and 2nd year at uni, I worked for Tesco stacking shelves. My manager was a miserable bastard. The only thing that kept me going through that summer was that I was going to be out of there come the September.

 

I got a summer job one year working in an old man's pub in the countryside, where the clientele were a mixture of drunk old boy farmers and the local traveller community. If you wanted to experience just how racist middle england still is, go and work in one of those places.

 

When I finished my masters degree I was scratching around for jobs and found one working for HMRC. All I did was process P45s, for three months. It was a souless, sterile environment.

[mjmooney]

I worked as a rod man for a surveyor for several months, standing on the sides of highways, trudging through muddy wooded hills in the freezing rain, prying open manhole covers in 95 degree heat, walking around the edges of the roofs of tall buildings in the snow and ice...pretty crap job. But I didn't have to sell anything or deal with customers, so in that regard, it was better than some other jobs I've had. 

 

But that one stands out for the monotony and crap conditions...

 

Sounds like: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QynK5IDalmA

[NoelVilla]

Chicken slaughterhouse. Was there for 14 days. Thanks for reminding me.

[Danwichmann]

Worked in a bookies for a year. Had to deal with absolutely horrible people, all day everyday and watch them completely f*ucking their lives up. Easily the worst job I've ever had. 

[jonno_2004]

Worked in the produce section of Tesco for around 18 months when I was in Sixth Form - Friday/Sat 5-9.30pm and Sunday 12-6. Not the best shifts when all your mates are out enjoying the weekend, given I was earning around £25 per shift and driving a reasonable distance in, factoring fuel costs into the bargain meant that even financially it wasn't great at a young-ish age.

 

Was actually decent banter for first 6-12 months but given the high staff turnover rate it was a shame when people start leaving - one of the nicer fellas (or so I thought) was made team leader and I've never seen such a personality change; he actively tried to f*ck me over after I challenged him for the reason as to why he got the announcer on the customer services desk to call me off one of my breaks, the final straw came when the store manager gave us permission to nip into the canteen to watch some of the RWC final in 2007 and he spent the next few weeks trying to verify whether I was in there and initiate disciplinary (being team leader, he still had no authority to do so).

 

All rather meek stuff to be honest - but being my first experience in employment it certainly wisened me up, so to say.

[Xann]

First day at college at 16, a group of us got chatting.

 

One of them had friend that worked at McDonalds that I sort of knew.

 

In the spirit of new found camaraderie, the group marched down there.

 

3 weeks later I left to work in a hobby shop.

[Dr_Pangloss]

As a student I worked various jobs in catering, including being a kitchen porter, working on functions and doing deliveries. Kitchen porter was probably the very worst thing though, cleaning up 1000s of cups, plates etc and a number of people I worked with were complete words removed.

 

Catering is a miserable industry.

[Genie]

I knew someone who went for an interview at McDonalds and DIDN'T get the job

[R.I.C.O.]

As a student I worked various jobs in catering, including being a kitchen porter, working on functions and doing deliveries. Kitchen porter was probably the very worst thing though, cleaning up 1000s of cups, plates etc and a number of people I worked with were complete words removed.

 

Catering is a miserable industry.

 

Ain't that so! Added to the long-list of crap jobs, when I really needed money during my skint days post-uni I worked for a catering agency, one year I stupidly signed up to work at the Cheltenham races for a week, which involved five days of 4:30am starts to get a works coach from Manchester to the race course, in the freezing cold, to work in a drafty marquee.

 

What really sucked were the people. Some truly nasty, despicable characters. People with far too much money, who refused to tip the waiters a couple of quid for working their arses off but wouldnt think of spending thousands on betting on some stupid horse. Needless to say, I refused to go back the following day.

 

Catering is an awful industry. Its a dickensian industry that hasnt changed much since the victorian era. Modern slave labour.

[Dr_Pangloss]

 

As a student I worked various jobs in catering, including being a kitchen porter, working on functions and doing deliveries. Kitchen porter was probably the very worst thing though, cleaning up 1000s of cups, plates etc and a number of people I worked with were complete words removed.

 

Catering is a miserable industry.

 

Ain't that so! Added to the long-list of crap jobs, when I really needed money during my skint days post-uni I worked for a catering agency, one year I stupidly signed up to work at the Cheltenham races for a week, which involved five days of 4:30am starts to get a works coach from Manchester to the race course, in the freezing cold, to work in a drafty marquee.

 

What really sucked were the people. Some truly nasty, despicable characters. People with far too much money, who refused to tip the waiters a couple of quid for working their arses off but wouldnt think of spending thousands on betting on some stupid horse. Needless to say, I refused to go back the following day.

 

Catering is an awful industry. Its a dickensian industry that hasnt changed much since the victorian era. Modern slave labour.

 

Yep the customers are very often odious individuals, one thing I've learned from my experiences in catering is to treat catering staff well when I'm at events.

 

For me also the people I worked with were complete words removed. Where I was at the management were complete and utter dribbling, thick, morons. They also got a kick out of treating people who worked for them like children. Which is way it was extremely satisfying to get my own back in whatever way I could, lol.