The worst job you ever had.

Bump to read later

When I was 13 worked at a racehorse track, the job was a lot of fun. But I had to help with the horses being put down, that was so sad because I spent a lot of time with the horses.

That's something I wanted to do for a long time, and I love horse racing, but the sport is so dangerous for the horses it makes my heart hurt.

(And to think I'm in Emergency Medicine now for PEOPLE. Psh.)

waitress. hated it. not altogether but for the most part is sucked.

had anywhere from 2-5 store managers working at one time and they could never coordinate similar ways they wanted you to work.

the other waitresses would steal tips. people think waitresses have any kind of control on how fast or slow food cooks, we don't.

consistent attitude from people who are hungry, sorry but you wanted to wait 20 minutes for a table, i am not the greeter, nor do i have control on how fast people eat to get them out the restaurant.

low tippers, no tippers. people, we DON'T cook the food.

I have other tables aside from you.

I am not chit-chatting for my health, i have to talk to everyone in order to not be rude, but i will get to you as fast as possible.

I have other duties, at the very least 2 hours worth of side work, and rolling silverware that no one sees but makes the restaurant run smoothly.

we get treated badly for the most part.

i had to be on my feet all day

shifts that were 4 hours were not really 4 hours, more like 7

they would make you work a double and not bat an eyelash

ugh, no tippers, rude people

rude co-workers who would let you help them, rarely help you

THANK GOD for a degree, that is all behind me.

please tip your waitress well 9/10 they are not the cause if you somehow have a bad dining experience.

Cotton chipping...outback Australia, in summer. This involved walking up and down the rows of cotton that had been planted and cutting out the weeds with a hoe. We worked from 4am until 2pm to beat the worst of the heat (40 + degrees Celsius). We would have been walking at least 15km a day. It was ok money, I was on my summer break from University at the time.

When I was 13 worked at a racehorse track, the job was a lot of fun. But I had to help with the horses being put down, that was so sad because I spent a lot of time with the horses.

That's something I wanted to do for a long time, and I love horse racing, but the sport is so dangerous for the horses it makes my heart hurt.

(And to think I'm in Emergency Medicine now for PEOPLE. Psh.)

Ahhh, yes. The difference is that many (most?) of the calls you respond to are self-inflicted by the human you are trying to save (morbidly obese heart attack victim, drunk-driving MVA, domestic violence / fight victims, etc ) Humans often put themselves in harms way and make REALLY stupid decisions. Yes, many accidents are just that...and you feel really bad for those folks (I do, anyway) but MOST people....very little empathy because there seems to be so little personal responsibility anymore.

I can remain pretty "professionally distant" with most patients....something I was never able to do as a vet tech and zoo keeper. Most injuries to animals occur at the hands or, or due to the negligence of, humans....and that used to just piss me off to no end. It's why I'm not a veterinarian now.

Working at a restaurant owned by the Dalai Lama's sister-in-law. She was so mean.

Packing lunch meat at Armor Star in the mid 70's. It was a scene right of I Love Lucy with the chocolate on the conveyer belt. I never complained about college homework again.

Sanding (refurbish) metal shelves 8 hours a day. The paint dust was so thick - you couldn't see 5 feet in front of you.

I honestly have nothing to add... not even my one short term fast food job compares. Thank you all for making me feel incredibly lucky for the career I've built... even the worst experiences, including physical assault and sexual harassment bordering on abuse nothing even maybe compares to these stories.

The one that I have that doesn't even approach these by a mile? Girl Scout Camp Counselor for 2 summers at 8500' elevation. 2 hours 'off' a day and 1 day off a week for 3 months straight. But seriously - I loved most of it, except the meager pay. :P


Edit: English fail.

Telemarketer for Sears selling maintenance agreements for major appliances. But I was the lucky one who was the "3rd call". I.e. - not only did you turn us down on the maintenance agreement when you bought your dishwasher, but you also turned us down the two prior times we called and tried to sell it to you again. THEN I get to call you one last time and say "ARE YOU *SURE* YOU DONT WANT IT?!" Needless to say I had the lowest quota of everyone, and one sale a month would hit it. But talk about a crappy job - calling angry people for a month with the hope that ONE person would eventually be a total moron and buy the thing.

I made it about 3 months. I used to stand outside the building waiting to go inside trying to *will* the universe to implode, at least in that one spot. The last week I was there I simply could not face calling another human soul, so I spent a few days calling my home answering machine (before the days of recording calls) and pretending to talk to someone (it was always fun to come home and have to listen to it again). My final day I spent calling other jobs and setting up interviews. Then I quit.

Just wanted to thank OP for this thread and everyone who replied. I was kind of moping about having to get up early tomorrow morning to go to my cushy desk job where I make a ton of money. Never again In fact, after reading all this I am tempted to go in tonight and get a head start!!!

I've been in libraries for the last five years. Started off as a shelver, which was putting books back on the shelves. For hours. And the pay was lousy. But ultimately, I didn't mind the job and was only in there once a week (high school).

I'm a library assistant now, and there have really been some less-than-charming moments. The other staff aren't keen on the student employees, and when there's nothing else to do (such as during the holidays) things get nasty. I was pretty much the only student employee during the entire summer, working 9-5 up to 7 days a week because there was no one else to cover the shifts, with the bored middle-aged women downstairs needing something or someone to complain about.

Thing is, the people who were actually working with me are lovely. It was just the ladies in the other departments who had different ideas about the way we should be doing their job when in reality they had no authority over us. Everything was getting done, in the way we had been trained and to the standards of our team leader. But if people think I'm making a mistake, I do appreciate being TOLD so the issue can be resolved instead of having to find out through the office grapevine that I'm the world's worst employee or something.

I get pretty angry when people question my work ethic. Things have calmed down now though, but even if they flare up again that summer more or less made me lose all emotional investiment in the job. It's just a means to an end until I get my degree. Any job doing is worth doing right, but at the end of the day I'm just using them to pay my bills.

Working overnight shift at Tim Hortons in a shady part of town (canadians will know what im talking about :P)

Canada has shady parts? o.O

Um, not sure if serious. But every country has shady parts?

Half joking. I vacationed in Toronto in a part of Etibicote that was supposed to be super shady - it was just really ethnic. (Indians/Arab/etc)
Given I'm just a few miles out of Detroit, I think the worst part of Canada pales in comparison. But those are only by my standards, of course.

I did door-to-door sales selling cable to customers for close to two years. I walked through ghetto neighborhoods and was chased at by dogs, angry residents carrying guns and knives and was once almost arrested for "disturbing the peace." I walked in temperatures ranging from 30 to 100+ degree temperatures for 8-10 hours a day. I walked through snow and tornadic activity, my buddy and I thought an apt complex we were working on was gonna get hit by a tornado. My boss had us by the balls, I missed my brother's wedding for crying out loud.

I then moved to working in telemarketing for about 6 months, and finally moved on to selling vacuums, Fairfax vacuums to be exact.

Yeah my life was sad for a while, I'm actually tearing up as I type this lol! At the end of it all I was left homeless and slept in a park for about a week.

That's a phase in my life I'd like to forget, I work in the medical field now and am light years away from the pathetic pay I was making back then.

Ugh! You win! I tried sales, door-to-door and lasted one month! I remember angry dogs, doors slammed in my face. yes, it is awful! Glad that you survived it and were able to move on!

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you what I was selling---fire alarm systems. We had to semi-memorize a spiel and show pictures out of a book about the devastating effects of fire on property and people, including half-melted faces and graphic burns--basically scare tactics. The whole presentation was about 3 hours and one didn't get paid unless you made a sale. The economy was bad and I think most people were just going to take their chances.

I've had TONS (seriously, dozens). I never stayed on more than a couple of weeks at the worst ones, though.

The worst job I've held for more than a month was at a law firm. The attorney in charge was a 50 yr old woman with extensive plastic surgery and a terrible temper. Imagine working for the worst of "Real Housewives...Whatever City". Yeah...no.