Tell me about a time you had a humiliating job

[Anonymous]

my job is like this. It's actually in theory quite senior but i have no 'real' power or remit and most days feels like standing awkwardly in the corner of a party you aren't invited to.
I used to be good at my job. Now I feel like swift's monster on a hill 'too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city'.
is a real bummer.

[Anonymous]

Through college I used to work as a pharmacy tech at CVS. Personally, I didn't find it humiliating, a bit dehumanizing because people and corporate treated you like robots, but I did feel that for the pharmacists. All that schooling (4 years of graduate school, which was so competitive to get into) and they were told that if a customer approached them to ask where baby wipes were, they had to stop everything they were doing to walk them over to baby wipes. They were constantly disrespected by store managers, were not allowed a chair to sit on unless they were pregnant, and a half hour lunch was oftentimes unheard of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Through college I used to work as a pharmacy tech at CVS. Personally, I didn't find it humiliating, a bit dehumanizing because people and corporate treated you like robots, but I did feel that for the pharmacists. All that schooling (4 years of graduate school, which was so competitive to get into) and they were told that if a customer approached them to ask where baby wipes were, they had to stop everything they were doing to walk them over to baby wipes. They were constantly disrespected by store managers, were not allowed a chair to sit on unless they were pregnant, and a half hour lunch was oftentimes unheard of.

that is crazy

[Anonymous]

telemarketer

[Anonymous]

Receptionist at a swanky health club. Omg. Almost as bad as my current job, for which I am apparently very highly paid and respected but treated worse.

[Anonymous]

Not really humiliating, but scut work (that helped me put myself through grad school). I used to be a 'counselor' at a group home for the developmentally disabled. There were 10 residents, and 3 counselors, but one of them had a baby, so it ended up being 10:2. It was 15 hour days of making breakfast, lunch and dinner, helping them eat, cleaning up, making sure everyone did all they were supposed to, clean up poop filled water that a resident was sitting in as she took her bath, making sure the one that said she brushed her teeth whose mouth smelled like she could slay armies with it had in fact brushed her teeth, that sanitary pads were put on the inside of the underwear and not outside, and clean up bloody clothes, sheets, etc.

Never been more exhausted in my life. It was one of 3 jobs I held while going to grad school.

[Anonymous]

As a teenager, I worked bussing tables at a wedding venue. Harassed by the kitchen staff, harassed by drunk old men, yelled at by a bride because the salt shaker wasn't completely full. It was dreadful.

[Anonymous]

I had a job with a director title but I was treated like an assistant - and the person I had to work most closely with really didn't like me. Didn't like my work, didn't like me as a person.

On top of that, it was a job with an advocacy org where I went in knowing I had SOME policy disagreements with them - but one of the first things I had to work on was something where I felt mortified to have my name on it. And my name was all over it.

It was bad.

[Anonymous]

Bartender and waitress, from age 18-27. Sexualized, demeaned, snapped at, cursed at, disrespected - every day.

I have an MBA and work a cushy corporate job now and am so grateful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Receptionist at a swanky health club. Omg. Almost as bad as my current job, for which I am apparently very highly paid and respected but treated worse.

op - tell me about your current job bc same!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Receptionist at a swanky health club. Omg. Almost as bad as my current job, for which I am apparently very highly paid and respected but treated worse.

I worked retail in an expensive resort town. It wasn’t humiliating on the daily but those customers sure let me know that I was the help. They’d leave the dressing rooms and absolute mess.

[Anonymous]

I served breakfast in the university cafeteria from 5am-10am 3 weekday mornings plus 2 weekends per month. I'd often stay out at parties until it was time to go home and change for my shift. Nothing like meeting a cute guy at a party then serving him breakfast in the cafeteria line 2 hours later with my hairnet on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I served breakfast in the university cafeteria from 5am-10am 3 weekday mornings plus 2 weekends per month. I'd often stay out at parties until it was time to go home and change for my shift. Nothing like meeting a cute guy at a party then serving him breakfast in the cafeteria line 2 hours later with my hairnet on.

Another U food service here. I didn't think it would be humiliating going in since I'm a hard worker and it was a journey to get to college, but serving spoiled college kids and seeing your professors come through... it was more humiliating because of how they probably perceived me.

[Anonymous]

Cashier at a truck stop on the late shift (it was a second job). I was 16, working two jobs as I was trying to earn enough for college, and I'm shocked that the experience didn't turn me away from men forever. So many disgusting, vile, dehumanizing pigs with no respect whatsoever.

Not surprising that a big part of my law career involved training managers about sexual harassment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Receptionist at a swanky health club. Omg. Almost as bad as my current job, for which I am apparently very highly paid and respected but treated worse.

op - tell me about your current job bc same!

Management, but basically a glorified executive assistant, standing by waiting for orders, afraid to do anything on my own because of micromanagement and negative feedback. It’s worse than having to pick up dirty towels—at least when the clientele said “do you know who I am” they actually were VIPs, not incompetent bureaucrats.