Worst job you ever had?

[Selassie I]

Mine pales in comparison, but it still sucked.

My Grandfather owned a big printing company in downtown Orlando back when printing companies still were important. I was just a puke kid and during the summers Granddad would give me a summer "job" there. That job usually consisted of nothing more than going out to lunch with Pops at noon and harassing the girls who worked in the front offices. I didn't do shit other than cause problems. I was a menace. The guys that worked the huge press hogtied my sorry ass one time so that I would learn to stay the fuck out of their way.

Anyway,,, late one summer my Pops actually made me work. They were printing millions of labels for an apple juice company's bottles... and I mean millions. I had to load these fucking things into boxes perfectly once they came out of a huge cutting machine. I went from talking constant shit and flirting with the girls to nonstop repetitive box loading. It was 8 hours of constant loading,,, and those labels had to be inserted perfectly into each box... that resulted in paper cuts all over my hands. Did I mention there were millions and millions of these apple juice labels? It never ended. All of the employees would take a moment out of their day to stop by and return some of the harassment I had given them... I deserved it too.

I hate apple juice to this day.

 

[BonifayRam]

Back when Jimmy Carter was president in what was the worse economy until now before the government sit at home & get paid aide.

Working construction in South Marion County Florida. Its always hot, all kinds of horsefly's & spotted long winged deerflys & trillions of sweat gnats. Digging footers in palmetto roots, unloading moving throwing cement blocks up to the 2nd floor scaffolding. Those were the days my friend all for a $1.65 an hr.:eek:

 

[Akrasian]

Shortly after college while working one job a friend of mine was going out of town for a while, and he hired me to manage some rental properties for him. I didn't realize he was just a step at most above a slum lord. So I got to collect rent from tenants with no money, and try to do repairs despite having no skills in that area. Finally the sewage pipe in the basement of one of the places corroded out, and the tenants didn't let me know for a week and a half - at which point I had to go down there with a shovel and multiple garbage bags to clear a path so I could fix the hole. It was about that time I decided to go to grad school.

Big advantage, after shoveling human ordure for a while every job I've had since then has been better at least.

 

[Memento]

My worst job was actually nice in comparison. I worked as a volunteer (with the promise that I'd get hired on) at a kitchen in a retirement home. The people there were really nice to me, and my boss was a cool guy as well who didn't get on me too much when I made a mistake. There was rap music on all the time when I worked, so that was cool. I never got to cook things, but I did everything else. Filled up juice bottles, got the supplies from the cooler and freezer, made deli trays, and cleaned everything - and I mean everything. A lot. That was pretty much every weekday, and I loved it.

The problem? Upper management. You see, I have autism. High-functioning autism, but autism nonetheless. And I had to ask when they were actually going to hire me on. They told me to wait until January. Then February. Then March. Then April. And all the while, they were hiring on other people who hadn't been at the job nearly as long as I had. Even my coworkers and boss were telling me that they didn't know why upper management wasn't hiring me on. Because I wasn't lazy, I wasn't late, I wasn't anything like that.

And then, one year after I had been "hired," I asked upper management point-blank if they were going to hire me and give me full pay like everyone else. The guy who interviewed me said, and I quote, "No, we were never going to hire you." I didn't bother to ask why. I knew. They were definitely discriminating against my mental illness, and I couldn't prove it. So...I left and never came back. Words can't even describe how miserable I was at that time.

 

[RhodyRams]

Of course double mops. Can't get the coverage without it, and then you just end up changing heads half-way through. Plus, I was mopping 'pitch'. Not sure if you've used that before, but it actually causes your skin to peel if you're exposed to it too long.

.. that doesn't even include "pitch itch"

 

[Oldgeek]

Worst job... in the early 80's I took a job working at a stove company in Belleville. The job was forming parts for gas and electric ranges in big presses. To say the company took safety lightly was a given as many of the machines had the guards removed or disabled. My least favorite was a 20 ton press where 4 guys reached under the press and placed you sheet metal and then pressed the "red go button" for the press to cycle. I learned to be quick even though they told us it wouldn't cycle unless we all were ready. They paid extra piece work so some guys were really pushing to run higher volumes. My head would have been about the thickness of a sheet of paper had it cycled. There were older guys there named "stubs", "three fingers Jack" and "Sparky". I lasted 3 weeks until I got a job at another company.

 

[LumberTubs]

I used to visit the homes of people claiming welfare benefits to make sure their claims were up to date and they weren't defrauding the system. I had to do 15 of these visits a day and, as you can imagine, the areas I was visiting were rough as hell.

I'd see all sorts of stuff. Some funny, some genuinely disturbing (children living in awful conditions, old folks stinking of piss, human faeces in communal stairwells etc).

I used to visit this one area quite often. It always reminded me of the low rises in The Wire. I've no doubt there were drug dealers there but much less visible. Anyway I'd always park up in the same part of the car park which happened to be near one particular resident who, unbeknown to me, had cameras pointing all over the place. I'd visit so often that this woman eventually reported me to the police because she assumed I was, shall we say, taking advantage of the services of certain female residents.

I also remember visiting one guy who lived on his own but had a friend there at the time. These two were intimidating as hell and the guy didn't appreciate the questions being asked. After a while, he reaches down the side of the chair he's sat in and places an axe on the table in front of him. Didn't say a word while doing this or even make any eye contact. I took the hint and made my own way out fairly quickly.

 

[Greg Stone]

I'd put a different spin on it. Working my way through college I had a walking community paper route that left me with bruises around my shoulder and swollen ankles. But when I recall it now I always describe it as the perfect college job because I worked one day a week for 20 hours. I was free to schedule classes and study time on the other six days.

It really comes down to who you are working for. I took a high level job with a St. Louis heavy contractor that operated in 39 states. The guy I worked for was OK, but his son worked for me and my secretary (yep, long time ago) actively undermined me while my boss did not allow me to replace her. The father and son were good guys but the dynamic stunk, especially when I found out that the father wanted the son to have my job but was vetoed by the CEO.

But that was nothing compared to the next job where the owner was a total POS who was harassing the hell out of a saleswoman. She came to me and confessed the whole sordid affair and I advised her to get the hell out of Dodge. Before Bob found out about that though he discovered that I was Jewish and as it turned out he loathed and detested all Jews. Despite the fact that I was the CFO and he was the CEO he refused to ever speak to me again. He hired my replacement and had that person fire me.

 

[Greg Stone]

I'd put a different spin on it. Working my way through college I had a walking community paper route that left me with bruises around my shoulder and swollen ankles. But when I recall it now I always describe it as the perfect college job because I worked one day a week for 20 hours. I was free to schedule classes and study time on the other six days.

It really comes down to who you are working for. I took a high level job with a St. Louis heavy contractor that operated in 39 states. The guy I worked for was OK, but his son worked for me and my secretary (yep, long time ago) actively undermined me while my boss did not allow me to replace her. The father and son were good guys but the dynamic stunk, especially when I found out that the father wanted the son to have my job but was vetoed by the CEO.

But that was nothing compared to the next job where the owner was a total POS who was harassing the hell out of a saleswoman. She came to me and confessed the whole sordid affair and I advised her to get the hell out of Dodge. Before Bob found out about that though he discovered that I was Jewish and as it turned out he loathed and detested all Jews. Despite the fact that I was the CFO and he was the CEO he refused to ever speak to me again. He hired my replacement and had that person fire me.