What was the worst job you ever had?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cashier at Walmart. I was 16, it was my very first job. I stood on my feet all day, made $6/hr, and got a big fat raise to $6.24 after 12 months on the job. I got treated like crap, which I understood, but it was worse to watch middle-aged and older people get mistreated by "managers" who were half their age (and intelligence). It really left its mark in terms of not just paying my dues in the working world, but also how important it is to treat all employees with dignity and respect when I became a supervisor in my own career.

That reminds me, I used to work at an amusement park in high school, and WHOLE FAMILIES would work there together. That was just sad to me.

When I first started working there, I believe I made $4.50 on weekdays and $4.75 on weekends. I went up to $5.25 the second summer I think. My family was quite poor so I was so happy to have lunch money every single day. And money to buy my own clothes.

[Anonymous]

Night shift in a foundry. 12 hours on a sweltering factory floor, going home at dawn covered in finely powdered graphite. Every time I blew my nose, the tissue was black. The bathtub had a constant black film on it, impossible to remove. I had to throw away all the clothes I had that summer.

I have huge amounts of sympathy for the working poor. I was a college kid and thought that $10 an hour was good money, and knew I was out of there in a few months, but I worked alongside middle aged and older people who had been doing the job for years. A lot of single mothers who turned their kids over to their parents the minute the parents came home from their day jobs, and then parked their kids in front of the TV for much of the day, because you gotta sleep somehow. There was one very young woman who started back at three weeks post-partum. No paid maternity leave, and she couldn't afford to take any more time off than that. Probably couldn't even afford that.

[Anonymous]

Admin Lab Mgr at NIH. I was 36. I'd never had a truly terrible job until that one. The work was fine. The people were absolutely awful. The lab was filled with nothing but *@&holes.
My first day my coworkers told me I was not needed or welcomed. I spent 3 years in that hell hole and found a much better work environment.

[Anonymous]

It was only a fee days a year so I cant complain but mine was churning out boxes of roses for Valentines day in a factory-like setting. Did this in college for sone quick cash. They treated us like crap, long hours, and my hands were sore for weeks.

[Anonymous]

Waitress at IHOP on the graveyard shift (11 PM to 5 AM). Did this my senior year of college and first year of law school. Not fun dealing with drunks at 2 AM.

[Anonymous]

Sweat shop where they made sweatshirts, sweatpants, etc. I used to temp and rotated there for a couple days in college. They wanted me back but no way - it was exhausting.

Wendy's. Wasn't SO bad, except I couldn't eat fast food for years after that.

Manufacturing furniture was actually kind of fun, especially when they needed night shift volunteers and you got the extra shift off-hours bonus. Lots of sexism, though.

One summer I was an intern at an electronic manufacturing plant. Spent the summer reviewing safety videos to weed out the collection that'd been stacked in a closet for years. Wasn't so bad, until we got to the eye injury videos. *Shudder*

Also worked shipping and receiving at a chemical manufacturing plant. Truckers don't shower often. Enough said.

[Anonymous]

So many to pick from.

I'll go with the tiny healthfood store that was opened as a front to sell cocaine. Supposedly the owner got busted, did a year's time, and took the store legit after that. But you'd walk in and swear it was still a front for something. It was a nasty basement space. All the product was moldy or had moths. Our biggest selling items were assorted detox teas to help you pass a drug test. He was a mysoginist, abusive jerk who yelled at everyone. We were all paid under the table. The store was regularly held up for just enough cash for the going rate for a bag of heroin. We were never permitted to close the store and call the cops when this happened for fear the robbers would "take revenge." (or maybe because someone he knew was dealing out of the apaprtments upstairs)

I was 19 and naive as a box of rocks. Lasted a summer.

[Anonymous]

Working as a cashier at a small family-owned drugstore at 16. The owner had anger and alcohol issues and would sometimes get mad about something and trash the store. THe pharmacist was ancient and would get me in the back and try to kiss me.

When I finally told my parents what was going on they made me quit.

[Anonymous]

Cocaine health store poster again. I've done manual labor, worked in my family's embroidery shop that had no AC and lotsa noise and gave me callouses, and even been a carny. Those were all sort of enjoyable in many ways that this was just not.

Second worst was the small appliance repair shop where I worked with an elderly guy in early stages of dementia who would come and make a transaction on the register while I was in the middle of mine, screwing up the drawer forever after. I also had to regularly clean disgusting amounts of stubble out of old guys' razors when they stopped working and couldn't understand why. Because I was young and female everyoen assumed I was an idiot about machinery. At the end of the day there was a pile of old guy stubble behind the counter. This still makes me gag a little to think about. Same time period as the cocaine healthfood store.

[Anonymous]

Happy to report that despite my attorcious spelling and typing skills, I got out of the cocaine healthfood store and old guy stubble biz. Lol. :/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cashier at Walmart. I was 16, it was my very first job. I stood on my feet all day, made $6/hr, and got a big fat raise to $6.24 after 12 months on the job. I got treated like crap, which I understood, but it was worse to watch middle-aged and older people get mistreated by "managers" who were half their age (and intelligence). It really left its mark in terms of not just paying my dues in the working world, but also how important it is to treat all employees with dignity and respect when I became a supervisor in my own career.

Wow! Wouldn't have guessed something like this at Walmart. How long ago was this?

This was 1996. There were, as another PP mentioned, whole families that worked there. There was more than one immigrant with multiple degrees, working there because they were still getting settled or didn't have the English skills to land a job more appropriate for their experience level, and even as a teenager I was disgusted by the disrespect shown to them. Managers just belittled people because they had accents and treated them like they were stupid. But, sadly, Walmart sometimes was the only place their could get hired. I remember one woman I was somewhat close to--she was a single mom and made me a little going away party on my last day, it was really nice. She always talked about going for some kind of CNA-type certificate and that Walmart was just until she "got on her feet." About 10 years later, I ran into her at the mall and was surprised she recognized me. And then I found out she was still working there :\

[Anonymous]

I took temp jobs the summer after college to raise $ for my room/board. tough job market that year. One temp job had me stuffing envelopes, many hundreds of them. At the end of the day, the supervisor told me that out of my envelopes, he'd seen 3 that didn't look perfect so I wouldn't be asked back. I was bummed about the loss of income, but secretly relieved. there is nothing more boring than stuffing envelopes, not to mention painful. (paper-cuts.)

[Anonymous]

A member of "support staff" for BIG LAW. Kirkland and Ellis in Chicago in the eighties. Brutal. Looong work days where I never knew when I could go home. Working on Saturday. High pressure. Attorneys yelling at me. Sexist Pig of a boss.

It made serving up Dairy Queen cones as a teenager look good.

[Anonymous]

I cannot compete with PPs.

I worked in food service in college, and although it sucked, I wasn't mistreated and didn't see anything gross.

I worked at an after school program for minimum wage and remember having to clean up after kids who peed themselves.

I also had one job in grad school that was eight hours a day of straight data entry. +

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Admin Lab Mgr at NIH. I was 36. I'd never had a truly terrible job until that one. The work was fine. The people were absolutely awful. The lab was filled with nothing but *@&holes.
My first day my coworkers told me I was not needed or welcomed. I spent 3 years in that hell hole and found a much better work environment.

LOL one of the posts on here was about the same place...agreed lots of a-holes.