what was your worst job ever?

[sniffa]

me - i was a garbage man one summer. it wasn't so bad about %50 of the time. the worst parts of that job

- some of the neighborhoods (usuaLLy some of the projects) had hundreds of cockroaches swarming over aLL the garbage. when you'd dump the barreLs in the bin the roaches wouLd come swarming out trying to escape the compactor - whiLe i and another guy wouLd be hanging on the outside. i did Learn quickLy though, to aLways check my boots, cuffs, etc for any critters that may make the trip home with me.

- normaLLy everybody got to go home once the trash was aLL coLLected, so there was motivation to work fast; some days, the trash wouLd be finished in 4.5 - 5 hours and you get paid for 8. as a summer temp (who was paid 1/4 of what the starting wage of a reguLar worker) i was initiaLLy not aLLowed to Leave with everyone; i had to stay for 8 hours. the job i usuaLLy had from 12-3 was cLeaning the insides of the garbage trucks - some garbage wouLd aLways be stuck in the crevices and working parts. the most common item i'd have to dig out were syringes.

- the fucking syringes! aLways had to be extra carefuL with every bag of garbage, as syringes were commonpLace.

[Richardo]

1. *was*?

I'm in it NOW.

(JK, boss!)

[underpants]

5. Ri--CHAR--DO!!!!!!!!!!

[Richardo]

10. "M-m-m-m-mister Spacely, sir!! Such a surprise to see you here today sir!"

[underpants]

2. Crack whores apprentice

My worst was probably a temp job cleaning up after a Dead show. After going through the seats (and not finding a damned thing) they started us towards the bathrooms-I quit on the spot.

[burythehatchet]

3. Had a temp job doing odd jobs at a funeral home

quit after lunch on the first day. Funeral director made a pass at me, had McD for lunch, after lunch I walked in on a body with the skull open, puked, went home.

[jonnyblitz]

4. MacDonalds on Winter street near Filenes in downtown Boston

for a month or so while I was on delayed entry program waiting to go in the navy. It was breakfast shift and it was HARD! The navy was much easier. :shrug:

on edit: I am not even sure if it was Winter ST now that I think of it, it was so long ago. It was around the corner from Filenes anyway near downtown crossing T-station.

[kittycat1164]

6. I grew up in downstate Illinois

and walked beans one Summer. I was about 12 and stayed at the farm I was working on for 2 weeks. I'm a city girl and drinking *really* fresh squeezed milk was NASTY (grimacing even thinking about it) And it was tough work too, more than I was use to at least. Gawd I hated that 2 weeks.

[Bertha Venation]

11. walked beans?

I'm ignorant. What's walking beans?

[kittycat1164]

15. weeding the bean field

whenever they plant, not all the seeds are beans, so when the field matures there are other plants intermingled. When you walk beans, you walk through the fields, line by line and pull the other plants out.

[Bertha Venation]

17. Sounds like a tough job. Especially when you have to drink

*fresh* milk. :shudder:

[kittycat1164]

21. It wasn't even cold fresh milk!

eeeeewwwww warm! shudder shudder shudder

[Dzimbowicz]

20. That sounds like my first job

I was thirteen and wanted to earn some money. My best friend lived on a farm and his father hired me to work with his son for two dollars a day with lunch included (yes, this was a long, long time ago). We walked rows upon rows of soybeans pulling weeds...
However, the worst part of the job was slopping the hogs. The hogs were smart enough to know what we were doing and would swarm over to the person with the bucket. Now, a large porker can knock one down quite easily, so we had to have a diversion. My job was to take an empty bucket and run across the hog pen to get them to chase me while my friend filled the slop troughs. When I realized just how fast a hog can run, I began to set some speed records; and that was over muddy, fecal-covered ground!

[LiberalEsto]

7. It's a tossup

between the campus dining hall, serving vile greenish scrambled eggs at 5 a.m. and dumping leftovers from trays, etc.

and the Sunday night shift at a wretched little newspaper where the night editor was literally having a mental breakdown and giving us strange asignments and I was forced to swill from a big bottle of Pepto Bismol every time I saw him heading toward my desk.

[LDS Jock]

8. Moving refrigerators by myself up stairs

for $6/hr. I was desperate for money, and did a daily pay place. This was the assignment I got. A new apartment complex needed their refrigerators moved in. I took them off a truck with a dolly and with that same dolly moved them into the apartments. Some on the first floor. Some on the third floor, moving them up the stairs all by myself with only the dolly. My back was killing me. Of course, it was only for one day which isn't too bad. I don't wanna do it again though.

[Bertha Venation]

9. Delivering phone books on foot, door to door. n/t

[babylonsister]

12. Drywall finisher apprentice in

Steamboat Springs, CO, in the dead of winter. I remember hitching to work in -58 degrees, only to be told we couldn't work because the mud was frozen. Oh, and I could never master those stilts.

[trotsky]

13. Corn Detasseling

In the cornfields by 7am, finally went home at 6pm. In the morning you get wet & cold, in the afternoon your body sweats until there's not a drop of water left in you.

All for minimum wage, which at the time was like $3.25 an hour.

Still, for a 13/14-year-old kid, it's more money than you can make doing anything else.

[kittycat1164]

18. been there too, but walking beans was worse for me. n/t

[trotsky]

22. Yeah.

One year there wasn't as much corn to do, and so we had to walk a bean field. The one we did wasn't as bad as what you faced though!

Prior to the corn being ready to detassel, we also had to do "roguing" which was similar to walking beans. You walked the rows of "male" corn looking for misfits - plants that were much taller or much shorter than the norm - and took 'em out. Ever tried to pull a 7 foot stalk of corn out of the ground?

[kittycat1164]

25. But to this day, I miss walking out to the field for fresh corn

mmmmmmm, Illinois sweet corn.......

[Beware the Beast Man]

14. Dipping wicker craft brooms in cinnamon oil

Okay, maybe not the worst job I ever had, but definitely the oddest and most monotonous. I worked there for three days, and had to throw away the clothes I wore because they reeked of cinnamon.

[Texasgal]

16. Worked at Whataburger

For those northerners that don't know, it's a fast food chain.

The manager was gross and constantly tried to hit on me, and I came home everyday smelling of GREASE! I lasted a summer, not bad I suppose for a 16 year old girl. I'll never do it again.

[MsAnthropy]

19. My first job at 16 was 31 Flavors and it lasted two weeks

since the owner was a molester. One of my teachers found out and made me quit. He was continually passing behind us as we bent over to scoop the ice cream.

[Patiod]

23. I had a pizza-parlor boss who did that while I was scrubbing pots

Sometimes he'd put ice down the back of my pants.

[sniffa]

28. i had a maLe boss once

who Loved to do that... as weLL as grab me, and pat my ass, hug me. it made me very uncomfortabLe. :scared:

[LDS Jock]

36. but youre so cute

I'm sure he couldn't help it. I know I couldn't have.

[sniffa]

38. but you'd be different

you're not 30+ years oLder than me and creepy. :loveya:

[achtung_circus]

24. I've done a lot of things that might be considered nasty,

(slaughterhouse, artificial insemination technician for cows, lugging 50# boxes ad nauseum,) but there was always an upside.

EXCEPT the 3 days I spent one summer as an encyclopedia salesman (at the age of 17). It was clean work but I learned very early that I was not and never would be, a salesman.

Perhaps that was the upside.

Oh and I got laid by one of the women whose doors I knocked on.

[Richardo]

26. "Dear Penthouse: I never thought I'd be writing...."

:)

[jandrok]

27. I worked for Rent-A-Center for a couple of weeks......

But they failed to tell me how much of the job was devoted to collections. When I interviewed the position was presented as a rosy management trainee position. Sundays off, decent pay, not bad for a retail job.

Problem was, I spent most of my time tracking down 30-60-90 days, and then doing repo if I couldn't haggle a payment. It sucked. My final straw was going out one night to a rough neighborhood on the East side of Houston, right off of I-10 and Loop 610 area. I had to repo a television set from a guy who hadn't paid his rent in several months. It was getting dark, it was cold, dogs were barking, bad news all around. I knocked on the door and said somehting like "Hi, I'm Mike, I'm with Rent-A-Center, I'm here to take back the television that you have, or ask that you make payment". Nice and calm, professional even. What I got in response was an angry voice coming from the other side of the door telling me that what I was going to get "was this shotgun, Mothereffer...." I politely told the gentleman that he could keep his TV. I drove back to the office, handed them my keys, and walked out the door.

I learned a lot from that experience. I probably would not have lasted long anyway as the whole karma of the company was bad, but that incident really put things in perspective for me.

Mike

[Richardo]

29. Welcome to DU, jandrok!

:toast:

[jandrok]

31. Hey thanks very much for the welcome!

I do appreciate it.

Cheers!

[sniffa]

30. weLcome to the Lounge

it's where the cooL kids at DU hang out. ;)

[jandrok]

32. That's the impression that I got, thanks for the greeting......

[Not_Giving_Up]

46. Another Texas has found their way here!

Welcome!

[lpbk2713]

33. Bagboy at a grocery store.

The job itself wasn't so bad but the manager was one of these individuals who enjoyed being a real prick. He had just gotten out of the Army where he was a captain in the MP's. He was truly a sadistic SOB and I took a lot more of his shit than I should have because it was my first job and I didn't know any better. I'd like to meet up with the asshole today and even things up a bit.

[Bullwinkle925]

34. Assisting Flexible Sigmoidoscopies!

With a cheapskate arrogant Repug Gastroenterologist whom I walked out on.

[skygazer]

35. Chambermaid

In the late 70's in Maine. A girlfriend and I had run away from home and got jobs at a motel. We had no money so we went in on the first day hungry and this place was completely unorganized. They didn't have enough help and it took us from 7 in the morning until about 2 to get all the rooms done THEN they shipped us up the coast to yet another motel and wanted us to help finish that one up.

Around 5 that afternoon, my friend collapsed on the floor - the boss was walking by and saw it and gave us ten bucks to get something to eat. We finished work at 7 that night. It was awful! People are total slobs in motels sometimes.

Every day was like that. We worked for a week then my dad found out where we were and came and got us.

[Krupskaya]

37. Working at a bottling plant as a temp...

...in a right-to-work state. I deserved everything I got for it, which granted wasn't much, but knowing what I know now, I'm ashamed of what I did.

[warrens]

39. Dishwasher in a corporate cafeteria

Truly, truly awful. My grandmother died and I had to go to Canada for the funeral. I was so happy when they said I was fired.

[SKKY]

40. McDonalds, without a doubt.

[Zomby Woof]

41. Jizz-Mopper at Matcom's Bar, Grill, & Adult Video Booths

x( Especially after GOPisEvil visited.

[GOPisEvil]

47. After what you did to my hat,

I had to have my revenge!

By the way, I'm waiting for Pitt to show up and talk about rowing onto the lake of shit. He always wins these contests.

[Menshevik]

42. technology sales at office depot

swear to god, every customer was a spawn of satan (it was a very affluent area) and my managers were jerks. I worked there in between college and grad school and hope I will never have to go back.

[rbnyc]

43. Shoveling burnt human-hair wigs out of a burnt wig factory.

OK, I actually did not do this. It was a friend of mine. But it's one of the worst jobs I've ever heard of and the first thing I thought of, so I had to post it.

Personally, the worst job I ever had was selling shoes.

[sniffa]

44. i worked in a shoe store

it shouLd have great for me, but my coworkers sucked ass!!!

[rbnyc]

45. Mine too!

Stuck-up bitches!

[LynzM]

48. Inbound telemarketing

Of transfers from AOL... so think about what that customer base is, in general. People at AOL get sick of talking to them or can't help them, and would transfer them to us without warning us. We can't help them, can't transfer them back, and have to try to SELL them something. Ugh. Ever get called a 'fucking dumb bitch' just for answering the phone? I dreamed the fucking script. Did it for 6 weeks before I decided I was quitting or getting promoted. Got promoted off the phones... company still sucked, though.

Second worst was scrubbing pots for a campus dining hall, once they figured out that I was a hard worker... made a good friend with a similar work ethic, though :)

[Not_Giving_Up]

49. A dog kennel

No, the animals weren't all bad, but I went home at night and heard that echo of constant barking in my dreams.

I did have a boxer try to eat me for breakfast one day. He sunk into one hand, I got him off, then he sunk into the other and wouldn't let go. The other girl that worked there was deaf and on the other side of the kennel, so she couldn't hear me screaming. (She read lips and had learned to speak, had a hearing aid in one ear, but it didn't do much for her) She just happened to walk by, got the dog off of me, and got me to the ER. I spent weeks without the use of my right hand.

[Kellis]

50. In highschool

I worked as a tele researcher....omg-it was terrible-and only $7 an hour too.ha.I Didn't last very long there.