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

[Xela]

Serving popcorn at Showcase cinema in Erdington.

[islingtonclaret]

Tea boy for a teaching facility for charities. 4 days I lasted. Got in 7:30am. The conference dining area was downstairs, no windows. Make morning coffee for everyone. Done. Wait till 1:30pm for lunch. Make coffee for everyone. Done. Wait till 4pm for afternoon break. Make coffee for everyone. What do you do inbetween these bits (that take up about 15 mins of your time I might add).....absolutely nothing. Pretend to look busy walking around for hours and hours and hours.

 

I'll do an edit here as well to say that I know loads of people whose dream it is to do nothing and be paid for it, but I can't stand it. The clock goes backwards.

Edited November 24, 2013 by islingtonclaret

[Risso]

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.

 

It's got to be better than being an audit trainee at a Big 4 firm though!  

[Chindie]

Telesales for a burglar alarm company. Lasted a day. Shitty little room, full of desks with phones, you were given a pile of paper filled with telephone numbers and just had to ring them. We were trained to basically put the fear of god into anyone we called, which sickened me, and then I noticed a theme with the numbers we were calling. They were all elderly.

 

The pay was rubbish and was exceptionally heavily weighted to a commission, to the extent I think today it wouldn't be allowed by a regulator because it essentially was such a weighting towards sales it would easily encourage you to do anything to sell.

 

The managers (vile individuals) waltzed around placing incredible pressure on to you to sell, to the extent that more than once someone was absolutely screamed at in front of us all, or worse taken out of the office door and given an almighty dressing down, the kind of complete roaring slating you swear the fixtures and fittings are moving just a little from the sheer vocal force outside the door. As such, the atmosphere was vile. A few of my mates joined up at the same time and stuck with it, I found out that that was a common thing day to day, and if you didn't pull the weight on sales quick enough you were unceremoniously dumped, a blessing no doubt from what I saw in that single day.

 

I got home that day, having spent half of it being given what can only be described as an attempt at brainwashing that calling these people and trying every trick in the book (mostly just terrifying them) to sell them the shitty product was ok, and the other half ringing only elderly people (some of which were in a sheltered housing scheme, from my calls) who I couldn't bring myself to try to sell this thing to, I felt absolutely disgusted with myself and didn't go back.

 

I will never do a telesales role again. I have to ring clients once in a while for my current job, and I still dislike it just a little because of that day.

[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.

 

It's got to be better than being an audit trainee at a Big 4 firm though!  

 

Haha - no comment (well, until the 13th December anyway fingers crossed!)

[Dr_Pangloss]

Telesales for a burglar alarm company. Lasted a day. Shitty little room, full of desks with phones, you were given a pile of paper filled with telephone numbers and just had to ring them. We were trained to basically put the fear of god into anyone we called, which sickened me, and then I noticed a theme with the numbers we were calling. They were all elderly.

 

The pay was rubbish and was exceptionally heavily weighted to a commission, to the extent I think today it wouldn't be allowed by a regulator because it essentially was such a weighting towards sales it would easily encourage you to do anything to sell.

 

The managers (vile individuals) waltzed around placing incredible pressure on to you to sell, to the extent that more than once someone was absolutely screamed at in front of us all, or worse taken out of the office door and given an almighty dressing down, the kind of complete roaring slating you swear the fixtures and fittings are moving just a little from the sheer vocal force outside the door. As such, the atmosphere was vile. A few of my mates joined up at the same time and stuck with it, I found out that that was a common thing day to day, and if you didn't pull the weight on sales quick enough you were unceremoniously dumped, a blessing no doubt from what I saw in that single day.

 

I got home that day, having spent half of it being given what can only be described as an attempt at brainwashing that calling these people and trying every trick in the book (mostly just terrifying them) to sell them the shitty product was ok, and the other half ringing only elderly people (some of which were in a sheltered housing scheme, from my calls) who I couldn't bring myself to try to sell this thing to, I felt absolutely disgusted with myself and didn't go back.

 

I will never do a telesales role again. I have to ring clients once in a while for my current job, and I still dislike it just a little because of that day.

[AVFC_Hitz]

I've never had a job I've really hated although I did work for Clarks for a while in the Bullring. The back to school period was probably the busiest I've ever been, in any job I've done. Running around a busy shop for 8 hours and touching sweaty feet wasn't my idea of fun. However, I was 16 earning £5.95 an hour and the management were really good to us. 

[Wainy316]

3 months at the busiest Subway shop in the universe. Not even the three sandwiches could save it.

[AVFC_Hitz]

3 months at the busiest Subway shop in the universe. Not even the three sandwiches could save it.

 

I would have taken more.

[Wainy316]

3 months at the busiest Subway shop in the universe. Not even the three sandwiches could save it.

I would have taken more.

Ha ha. I did, believe me.

That's a woeful typo for somebody who got 97% on his grammar test.

[Chindie]

Telesales for a burglar alarm company. Lasted a day. Shitty little room, full of desks with phones, you were given a pile of paper filled with telephone numbers and just had to ring them. We were trained to basically put the fear of god into anyone we called, which sickened me, and then I noticed a theme with the numbers we were calling. They were all elderly.

 

The pay was rubbish and was exceptionally heavily weighted to a commission, to the extent I think today it wouldn't be allowed by a regulator because it essentially was such a weighting towards sales it would easily encourage you to do anything to sell.

 

The managers (vile individuals) waltzed around placing incredible pressure on to you to sell, to the extent that more than once someone was absolutely screamed at in front of us all, or worse taken out of the office door and given an almighty dressing down, the kind of complete roaring slating you swear the fixtures and fittings are moving just a little from the sheer vocal force outside the door. As such, the atmosphere was vile. A few of my mates joined up at the same time and stuck with it, I found out that that was a common thing day to day, and if you didn't pull the weight on sales quick enough you were unceremoniously dumped, a blessing no doubt from what I saw in that single day.

 

I got home that day, having spent half of it being given what can only be described as an attempt at brainwashing that calling these people and trying every trick in the book (mostly just terrifying them) to sell them the shitty product was ok, and the other half ringing only elderly people (some of which were in a sheltered housing scheme, from my calls) who I couldn't bring myself to try to sell this thing to, I felt absolutely disgusted with myself and didn't go back.

 

I will never do a telesales role again. I have to ring clients once in a while for my current job, and I still dislike it just a little because of that day.

That's positively constructive compared to that job. It was basically just abuse.

[Milfner]

I've stripped the decorations off artificial Christmas trees during January for the last two years. Soul destroying.

[jacketspuds]

Worked in Cheltenham drilling holes into paint tin openers. Lasted 1 whole day.

[PaulC]

Working for a stockbroking company when i was 17. They treated me like dirt.

[Brumerican]

Bomber pilot for the North Korean military .It was Seoul destroying.

[Brumerican]

And then there was the shoe recycling factory. Sole destroying.

[Kingfisher]

I had a little stint as the devil once, that was soul destroying.

[MMFy]

I can't say I've ever had a really shitty job.  I've had a couple of boring jobs I should have left long before I eventually did.  I have worked for a couple of absolute rocket polisher managers in the past though.

 

One waged a two-year war against me after I had reported him for letting me down badly on a job opportunity.  I was due to work in Tijuana for three months, teaching the local people how to use x-ray equipment to inspect ducting for aeroplane engines.  I turned down another job to do this, knowing I would pretty much earn £1000/week for the three months.  It never happened, and he then tried everything he could to stop it happening.  I reported him to a counsel within the company, but at the head office in the US, and the investigation filtered down to him rather than the usual  grievance procedure which never works anywhere ever.  He got a massive bollocking for his behaviour towards me, and I got a compensation payment.

 

After that, he stopped my overtime, took me off the shifts I had worked for years, lied about risk assessments (that never happened) to try and make me wear different clothes at work (seriously) and regularly called me to his office (a good 5 minutes walk from where I was working) just to give me demotivational bollockings.  It was known around the company that he had an issue with me and wanted revenge for me reporting him.  Two years later, I reported that another guy was doing a job outside of the procedure which had been agreed with the customer to prevent a product recall and he ignored it.  I tried to get evidence that the other guy was not doing his job right, and he used it against me, saying I had sabotaged a product.  I hadn't.  I got sacked.  It was the best thing that has ever happened to me.

 

I see the guy now and again in the local area.  He pretty much shits himself when he sees me but I just don't acknowledge him.  He is a cockmaster of epic proportions, who I wouldn't even give the steam off my piss, let alone the effort it would take to make eye contact with him.

 

Another manager at a different company a number of years ago had handed a couple of projects onto me with one of our more difficult customers.  I did everything that was asked of me  on the project, but he failed to notify the customer I was working on the project.  When it came round to the annual appraisal, he had printed out 92 emails from the customer, and sat with the technical director and HR manager, with the pile in front of him, asking why I had not responded to them.  I hadn't even been sent them!  My name didn't appear on any of the emails.  I walked back to my office, collected my laptop and returned to the appraisal, with Outlook on the screen, and proceeded to show all in the room the folder I kept for emails from that customer, and the response times/dates.  Not one email had been with me for more than two hours before I had investigated and responded.

 

His recourse?  He told me I should have contacted the customer to introduce myself as the new project engineer.  This was not possible.  This is a major, if not the biggest, automotive manufacturer in the world, and employs hundreds of thousands of people.  There was no way I could possibly even locate the correct contact, other than to go through my manager, which he should have done at the project handover.  Three weeks later, I was told there would be one redundancy in the team, and that my position was the one to go.  

 

Not that fussed, I was looking to leave at the time, and the redundancy pay-off made my relocation to the south west a bit easier...

[CrackpotForeigner]

Smashing up 1970's records in a Detroit recycling plant. (You guessed it.)

[villaajax]

None of my jobs have really been awful. To be honest, washing dishes was probably the most enjoyable job I've had because of the people I worked with.