Worst job you ever had
 

What do you do now and what was the worst job you’ve ever had?

For the worst job you’ve ever had only, give us a description.

I’m a managing director for FedEx as my career currently.

The worst job I’ve ever had was when I was in college. I had a summer job cleaning out portable toilets. The pay was good for a college student so I did it every summer with the same employer for 4 straight summers. The description is obvious what I was required to do Lol.

Did you ever meet Fred Smith? We met him and just really admired him and his work ethic.

Yeah I met him. When I was a center manager, I met him. If you made the president’s club, FedEx would plan fun resort trips for those store managers whose stores made the president’s club. Fred Smith would also come out to meet those managers that made the club. He’s down to earth too.

God what a tossup lol.

Probably bartending for this weird old man who was alternating between sexually harassing us and ordering us to wear less clothing, and accusing us of stealing. I think I lasted a week.

I heard one of the women he hired (it was a revolving door for obvious reasons) had been an exotic dancer…so when he mentioned showing some skin, she wore one of her exotic dancer outfits. He wasn’t too happy…be careful what you wish for.

Honorary mention to unloading trucks at a thrift store. Sometimes I have flashbacks now if I’m handling donations at work (shudder)

Lmao!

I loved and hated my job at Six Flags/Astroworld in Houston. Loved it because of meeting new people. Hated it because we had to load at least 2 people per "antique taxi" and all these kids, who had planned on driving alone, would throw themselves on the ground and scream and their mothers would scream that we had ruined their whole vacation. All the time, over and over.

I insisted on a transfer and got put in the new gravity house. Loved the performances. Hated that it had just been built and we were sick as dogs every night from the paint and varnish fumes.

I am currently a birth and postpartum doula. I love it, but it certainly isn't easy.

My worst job was calling alumni to raise funds for the university where I was a grad student. It was torture.

Wow. You have a really interesting job. I can see how that can be stressful at times.

I’m currently a veterinarian.

I really didn’t have any previous jobs that I didn’t enjoy because I’ve always worked with either animals or something involving science. If I were to pick one, I’d probably pick a science museum I worked at part-time while I was in undergrad. I worked in this mummy exhibit and sometimes guests would walk through it without stopping, so then I’d be sitting there with a mummy waiting for people to stop and ask questions. If it was a really slow day, it would just be me and the mummy. That got really boring.

On the floor laughing @ that truck situation. GC is theater of the mind Lol

PB, do you have a favorite designer or an artist that you’re influenced by? Who’s your least favorite?

I'm not sure that mine is quite as bad, but my wife and I agree on what my worst job was.

I'm a software developer, and while not all of the stereotypes are true, they exist for a reason. I went to work for the national Headquarters for a Union. They made a point of making sure that everyone worked the same hours. So I was expected to work exactly 8-12 and 12:30-4:30 every day. My office was supposed to be completely cleaned when I went home including *all* papers off the desk. Leaving the office even 10 minutes *late* was grounds for a writeup.

I only managed to stay there 3 weeks until the union and I decided we were *not* a match and I quit to look for another position.

I currently teach Physics, so working with teenagers has up and downs, but is never boring!!

I had two jobs that tie for worst, but in different ways. The first one was when I was in college, my senior year. I worked at a restaurant for my husband's uncle. He was super pervy. When a girl worked alone in the afternoons, he would call her back to his office, pull her on his lap, then fondle her. Being a college kid at the time, I didn't know how to handle it. My husband didn't believe that his wonderful, rich uncle would do these things. I found another job with better hours and more pay, and used that as an excuse to leave the family business. My husband and I divorced a few years later.

My other bad job was working in a school for a principal who was a bully. She drive most of the good people out her first year. Many people were suicidal and having breakdowns. Her higher-ups thought she was wonderful for "cleaning house." I left at the end of the year for a better work environment.

I have worked for demon principals like this. All 4 sons and 1 daughter are now teachers, and my husband (also a teacher) and I have warned them that the happiest high school can be destroyed in less than a year by a psycho principal.

Unfortunately I’ve never had a bad job. I’ve had 2 jobs in my life post college. My last job lasted 31y (Moved to California for the job) until I retired last year. The employer benefits were unbelievable.

Wow! This is crazy! I never have been able to understand how assholes end up in positions of power. They strive for those positions for that very reason, to bully people in lower positions. Drives me nuts.

Because they don't act like assholes to the people who choose the administrators. They suck up to them.

People at the top of professions are like senior officers in the military. They have all the education and book knowledge…but either 1) they’ve never actually done the job personally or 2) they did the job, but it was so long ago that they don’t remember the day to day details and how it REALLY was.

(Also true for a lot of Directors of Nursing…the only ones I’ve met who really got it were the ones who actually went on the floor to help out when we were short staffed. Amazingly, they were much more understanding after that lol!)

I’m not sure how it is in the field of education but when one person is causing problems like that in peoples lives, at FedEx that would be a serious HR issue and would be dealt with immediately.

I couldn’t agree more.

I wish! They're often really good buddies with their superiors. In one district where I taught, administrators had a wife-swapping group and they were pretty open about it because they knew they'd never get in trouble.

Telephone solicitation for carpet cleaning services. Only lasted two weeks as it was a horrible job. Met another person my first day on the job and we hit it off. She only made it three weeks. Just over a year later she became my sorority sister.

I did telephone solicitation once. The manager tried to talk me out of it, saying that I was "too smart" for the job. After one night, I agreed with her. I called to tell her that I would not be in again, and she could keep the last night's pay which was due to me.

The most disgusting job was for a county row office. I lasted 3 years, although that seems impossible to me now. The last straw was when the County Officer/Politician told me that his friend really "liked" me, and I was to cozy up to Politician's Friend. I refused. When he pushed, I gave notice, and had my father pick me up after work to that last, horrible week.

I totally forgot about the job I had at Auntie Anne’s Soft Pretzels. I think I was like.. either a senior in high school or a freshman in undergrad. But, I didn’t even last a full shift. I went to lunch and I didn’t come back. I learned how to make giant pretzels though. :)

In the field of education? Wow, that’s crazy and unheard of. I can believe it though.
Lmao! Why didn’t you at least give a notice? Those pretzels are good as hell though. Did they at least give employees discounts on the pretzels?

I don’t know, I just didn’t want to be there. When they gave me an apron and a sun visor with a picture of a pretzel on it, I was like… “I’m not doing this. I just can’t.”

No, the pretzels were free. I remember I took a “glazin raisin” pretzel with me to eat on my 30 minute lunch and like around 10 minutes into it, I left.

Lmaoooooo!!!!! You told them that? I never had the raisin pretzels there. I always get the jalapeño ones. What were the raisin pretzels like?

CG you are funny as hell! Lol!!!

No, I said that in my mind.

They’re like a regular plain pretzel with glaze and raisins on it. I like the glaze but I don’t like raisins so I picked the raisins out.

Lmfao!!!! @ your description and the mental image of you doing that. Loool!!!!

This is an awesome question, Phrozen Sands. But it opens up a can of worms for me! I'll share when I have a minute...

Bet.. sounds good.

lol
And I thought I was easily amused. I don’t see any humor in what I’ve said but if I can put a smile on someone’s face, then that makes me happy. :)

There are only two jobs I lasted half a day in, both were when I was in high school.

The first one was doing telemarketing, yes I'm sort of aging myself here. But it was calling people to try and get them to sign up for a free lawn assessment. I was one of a batch of new people hired. I was AWFUL, besides the hang ups because back then people weren't near as grumpy about telemarketers, but no one wanted the free assessment, I see others around me at least get one or two people during their 4 hour shift. Me zilch, nada, nothing. I then realized I am not destined to work in the sales field. I didn't return and I highly doubt they missed me.

The second job again file this under half day wonder too. So my BF at the time worked part time at this print shop near where we lived. I had met some of his co-workers who were a bit older than us but were still really cool people. They needed some extra help because there was some big job they needed to get done. He said I wouldn't have to work on some of the heavy equipment that could take off a finger so I figured what the heck. Horrible!! It was me (I think I was like 18 and some other younger teens who apparently were kids of the managers who worked in the office). For whatever reason the staff person in charge I still remember her name Terri just didn't like me I guess, she was super cool with the kids who were nepo-babies, me I couldn't do anything right and she just constantly rode my ass hard even though I was doing the exact same thing as everyone else, so honestly it wasn't as though I was trying to do a poor job. What then sealed the deal, is all of the sudden the nepo-babies are invited to have lunch which was I guess maybe their parents ordering pizza for all of them except me. Ok fine, but they got a break, I was expected to just continue working. After about 4 hours I was legit starting to get a bit lightheaded since I clearly didn't get a break nor have an opportunity to even get some water before Terri was conducting the Spanish Inquisition on me. Finally, I told my BF, I needed to step out and get something to eat (this was when task-master Terri was on a break herself). I never came back. About 2 hours later my BF calls to check to see if I'm ok, and I told him, Terri was just rude to me for no reason, and I wasn't returning. A few days later my BF and his two co-workers I was friendly with we all went out for drinks and they were asking about what had happened. I told them both, and they both said Terri can be a bit abrasive. Yah think!!

Even though they weren't great experiences clearly I learned life lessons from both considering I remember them quite clearly.

Terri needs to be canned.

My guess if she hasn't retired she's still probably there making new or temp workers lives miserable.

I did that back then, too, except I managed to hold out for the whole week- I just didn't come back in on Monday ("ghosting" as the kids would call it today). I think the product was vinyl siding? Or roof replacements? Sometime like that They just photocopied pages of a cross-directory (like a phone book, but it's listed in phone number order instead of by names), and we all sat there in a room with our pages and a phone, and something to write down the information if we were able to set up an appointment. I don't remember if I ever made any....maybe one, the whole week. They sent me my check for the 20 hours in the mail, and it helped me do my Christmas shopping that year, but I never had any desire to try it again.