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"Picking Daffodils": 32 People Reveal The Worst Job They've Ever Had
Interview With Expert
There are good and bad jobs, and then there are the absolutely terrible ones that nobody wants to talk about. You might have heard folks complain about their horrible boss, late working hours, or low salaries, but some people have truly experienced even worse workplace conditions.
That’s why when folks were asked about the worst job they ever had, there was an outpouring of crazy work experiences. Some of the career paths definitely seem questionable, but it makes one wonder how anyone can bear to retain such difficult jobs.
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#1
50 years ago i worked part of a summer in Alaska during Salmon run season in a salmon canning factory. i often worked 16 hour days, because when they are hauling in so much fish, it had to be processed very quickly. one of my jobs was to collect dented cans from the assembly line, open them up with a hand operated can-opener and pour the contents of boiled salmon into an undented can and put it back on the assembly line.
i would leave at 1 a.m., which incidently was full day light, and with my clothes literally stiff with fish juice i would walk back to where i was camped, followed by dozens of cats. i made a lot of money and never ate fish again.
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#3
Personal assistant to an incredibly rich family. Their “we can do whatever the hell we want because we own everything and everyone” attitudes went far beyond what I’m comfortable disclosing.
Some people definitely love their careers, but this isn’t really the norm. According to a study of over 2,000 employees, nearly 38% of them say that they wouldn’t wish their job on their worst enemy. Meaning that they probably have to struggle through difficult work conditions that might have put a lot of stress on them over time.
The research also found that around 40% of respondents wished someone had warned them not to take their current job. It’s disheartening to realize how many people don’t enjoy the work that they do and that they feel the need to escape. It’s also possible that these kinds of terrible jobs, like the ones mentioned on this list, are harder to leave for a variety of different reasons.
#4
Lifeguard. It was hours upon hours of boredom intermingled with seconds of sheer terror.
#5
I worked at one of those Payday Loan places. It was awful. You basically make your money from people not being able to pay back loans. You also have to be able to repo things. I remember the boss telling me that I should start carrying a gun for protection.
Ryan-James O'Driscoll 2 weeks ago
When I was young and naive, I was short on money and turned to payday loans to help. I had no credit rating and little to no understanding of the pitfalls. Because I paid it back, they offered me more and more, rewarding me for continuing to use them. It was almost like a game. They loaned me money until I couldn't pay it back anymore. Then I defaulted. I don't have an issue with short term loans. I think they can help people in a pinch who do not necessarily want to take out a significant line of credit. I take issue with how predatory these companies were, taking advantage of people who had no other choice.
As you can see, some of the stories people shared detail the long hours, low salaries, bad managers, and other reasons why their jobs are terrible. All of these or just one bad condition can make it tough to stick around in even a good organization.
To understand more about bad workplaces and how to deal with them, Bored Panda reached out to Peter Duris. He is the CEO and co-founder of Kickresume, which is an AI-based career super app that helps job seekers get hired with resume and cover letter tools, skills analytics, and automated job search assistance.
Peter told us that “having a poor work-life balance, a salary that you’re unhappy with, or an oil-and-water relationship with your boss can make your job unbearable. In one of our recent surveys, 50% of the respondents told us they would feel less anxious if they had a better work-life balance. So, spending too much time in work mode usually takes a job from bad to awful.”
“It’s [also] not just the managers who can affect you at work. Having difficult relationships with other colleagues or even workplace bullying can often make people leave. Whether it’s a combination of these issues or just one of them, these problems are what can either make or break a job,” he explained.
#7
Working at Circuit City during its death spiral in 2008. Imagine watching a company actively decompose while you're still required to sell extended warranties on products that might outlive the actual store. Management got increasingly desperate and unhinged as the end approached.
The best/worst part was when they made us put up "EVERYTHING MUST GO!" signs but told us to keep telling customers we weren't closing. Like, my brother in Christ, there's literally a guy with a clipboard inventorying our ceiling tiles for liquidation.
DeShotz 2 weeks ago
It is mind blowing how many mistakes were made to cause the downfall of Circuit City. They stopped selling appliances (and they were the number 2 appliance retailer in the US at the time). They laid off their top performing sales people TWICE to save money paid out on commissions and were surprised that sales plummeted and never recovered both times. A lot of the corporate leadership talent went over to work on a little side project called CarMax. They didn't know what to do with the Internet. Bad and inconvenient locations to save on real estate costs, sinking money into investing in DIVX, etc., etc... It has to be a case study on how to destroy a business.
#8
I was a furnace helper in steel factory. We made bumper mounts and hinges for trucks hoods and other heavy steel parts. I unloaded red hot parts from the furnace with a pair of tongs, I used to catch fire two or three times a day. I hated that.
#9
Roofing. That is absolutely the f*****g worst.
Donald 3 weeks ago
I did roofing for one summer when I was 21, not the best job for a ginger but I needed the money. I was in the best shape of my life and young but the guys who had been doing it for years ran circles around me. Never mess with a roofer, they are all freakishly strong and jail is usually more appealing than waking up for work in the morning.
Even if a job has a ton of red flags, people still tend to stay there and wait it out. One of the main reasons for this is often due to financial obligations like having to take care of one’s family. In the current job market, it’s also tough to get another role easily, so folks might be afraid of jumping ship without any security.
Sometimes a person has put in many years in the same company and achieved a higher salary as well as seniority. In such cases, it can be tough to leave the only workplace you’ve known for a long time and get out of that comfort zone. Even if a person knows that their job is bad, they may probably still stick around for these reasons.
#10
I strung Tennis Rackets. Hard on hands. Didn’t last long got strung out.
#11
Pressure washing chicken houses. In winter. 6 days a week (and guess whats not open on Sundays? BANKS) covered head to toe in chicken EVERYTHING, barely able to breathe with the wet rag over your mouth and nose, wretched stench of chicken feces and carcass everywhere, cold and wet dragging 50-100 yards of hose back and forth, peeling decayed, stuck chicken bodies off of metal grates....sooo much worse than trash collection.
#12
A nannying job for a wealthy family. The mother was condescending and insanely critical. I quit after two weeks.
liam newton-harding 2 weeks ago
I don’t have the time to be a mother to my children…but I will criticize every aspect of your “parenting”, servant girl.
As easy as it can be to tell someone to quit their toxic job, in reality, it’s not that simple. There can be so many factors keeping a person chained to a workplace they dislike. That’s why we asked Peter how exactly to handle a situation like this.
He said: “I believe that there is no job worth sacrificing your mental well-being, but we recognize that it’s not an easy choice to make. Employees who are stuck should definitely try to speak to their managers or the HR team. A conversation can go a long way, and you might be offered valuable advice and support that can really help you.”
“If you truly can’t stand your job, there is nothing wrong with looking elsewhere. 68% of those we surveyed told us that a new career would alleviate their Sunday Scaries. It suggests that a fresh start with better conditions is believed to be an answer for the majority,” he shared.
#13
Student teaching. Put me right out of the business. I see why so many new teachers break so quickly. Parents, kids, endless paperwork, worthless administration and never any respite.
Dorma Hughes 3 weeks ago
Student teaching is the easy part. It gets worse when school system politics gets involved.
#14
Bottling wine in southern France.
Big wineries would pay an outfit like ours to do it in the summer after the grape harvest. The crew would show up in an 18-wheeler with an assembly line in the trailer. Pallets of empty wine bottles would be waiting for us.
The n00b (me) would be placed at the start of the line to manually load bottles on the conveyor belt. The trick was to put a bottle between each finger of both hand and load as fast as possible. Shift started at 4am and wouldn't end until 10pm, sometimes midnight.
Bottles would shatter often on the line, wine spilling (something to do with the speed of the line - can't recall). Line would stop, foreman would yell at me, had to sweep glass (sometimes without gloves, glass shards in hands, face etc - no googles - to be expected), and start again. No OSHA in France.
I sucked so bad at the beginning the foreman hated my guts. He'd pull me my slow a*s off the line and assign me on "box duty". Basically to ready cardboard boxes to be packed. A pallet of cardboard boxes would take an hour. There were (sometimes) up to 4 pallets.
I'd come home with messed up, bloody hands, covered in blisters. And reeking on wine. I did this for a whole summer. I was 18 and barely made enough to buy me a used car.
I also have f****d up stories about the grape harvest.
When I hear people bloviate about wine, I have to grit my teeth and walk away. Brutal work. Thankless. Made me hate wine.
Stay in school, kids.
#15
Assistant Manager at Walgreens. Lord!! This was a few years ago but you work days, midnights, afternoons and they switch almost weekly. You never feel rested. You work holidays and weekends. You deal with all the complaints and you fill in for employees who call in. And, they transfer you a lot. I lasted a little over a year. It was the only time I quit a job with no notice and no job lined up. Gives me the willys just thinking about it.
Nearly one-third of our life is spent at work, so it’s not great to learn that so many people have had truly bad job experiences. Hopefully, more folks will feel empowered to quit career paths they don’t enjoy, and the work culture will start improving so that people don’t have to dread going to the office anymore.
Have you ever had a terrible job? Share your experience in the comments.
#16
Telephone sales when I was 18. Lasted a week and quit. My dad, who grew up during the depression and felt there was no such thing as a bad job, listened to my reasons, and agreed with the decision.
#17
Stocking shelves at a supermarket. That part was alright but when we were done, we were supposed to just walk around to show presence to dissuade potential thieves. It sounds simple but I can't even explain how incredibly f*****g draining it was to mindlessly walk around through a store for hours.
FlamingoPanda 2 weeks ago (edited)
I once had a short stint as a walking billboard. 9 hours of walking around a shopping centre with a branded tshirt on telling people to go to the store that was paying me to advertise them. Don't think it got the store more business though but it helped a broke college student through the festive season. Most bored I have ever been at work.
#18
Roustabout in the oilfields in California back in the 80s. I still have PTSD from that s**t 40 years later. So many close calls.
#20
Picking Daffodils. Bent over all day with your feet bent at out ward because of the mounds on either side of the row you were currently picking. I could barely walk after 2 weeks. Thankfully another job called and I never went back.
Nicole Weymann 2 weeks ago
Hereabouts these stories come from the strawberry or asparagus harvest.
#21
All 8 of them. Hated every minute of every job. 39 years, then retired. So happy now.
#22
Call center for parking fines, not too many happy calls.
#23
Dishwasher. Got no respect, got paid s**t, the job sucked, c****y bosses.
MotherofGuineaPigs 3 weeks ago
I did this in college (among other min wage jobs. I worked at a steak house just to be sure I could eat that day.
#24
I once applied for an "assistant sales manager" position. Went in for what I thought was an interview and they put me to work immediately. They put me with another guy and we hit the local parking lots selling items from the trunk. Speakers, watches etc. Quit about two hours into it.
#25
The job im at now- i serve food to old people at an assisted living home. Most of them are cranky a******s, cant blame them though, it sucks so much.
#26
Convenience store with no AC. The candy bars would flop when you picked them up.
Mike F 2 weeks ago
I worked in one (very small) when the ac went out. The maintenance guy they sent out had to call in to the office to confirm. They asked him if it really was out, his reply was "it's hotter than a freshly fu¢ked fox in a forest fire in here, we gotta do something quick"! I lost it.
#27
Working in McDonald's. 7 years under the golden arches. Treated like s**t, cleaning up s**t. Attacked by an [addict].
Huddo's sister 3 weeks ago
My sister's hand got burned in a fryer when she worked at Macca's. Then the manager blamed her and the type of shoes she wore even though there was oil leaking onto the floor from the fryer that she slipped in.
#28
Folding laundry in a county jail honor farm for 25 cents a day.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 3 weeks ago
The American prison system is *literally* legal slavery. Like, they added it after slavery was made illegal so they could keep their free labor.
#29
Helping build a house for a family member over the summer as a 14-15 yr old
- took up the whole summer vacation(2 months)
- was an unusual amount of sun that summer, the workplace was without any shade
- loading bricks into a wheelbarrow, move them to another place 20 metres away, stack them there, then try to toss cement bags of 50kg(my own weight at that time) into a cement mixer, shovel sand into cement mixer, unload cement mix into wheelbarrow, shovel that mix into a container thats usually somewhere up above on a construction. repeat for 10+ hours every day
- havent spoken to that family member pretty much ever since
- unpaid.
Sven Horlemann 2 weeks ago
When my stepfather bought a place and build a house, he needed me and my step brother (his son) for certain jobs. He just came to me and asked "What do you wish for?" And as a guitar player, I named a pedal. So he bought me that. There should always be some appreciation.
#30
Sole graphic designer for a trade show company. I learned a lot from it but it was a terribly toxic environment. 60-70hrs a week easy; worked weekends, holidays, during PTO, etc. I had three coworkers whose therapists told them to quit. Funny enough two of them were getting their therapy paid for by the company. I was eventually fired for a random social media post that was a doodle of a broken flying robot head saying “I quit”. I don’t even remember why I drew it, I doodle a lot.
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distant_echo 2 weeks ago
Call center rep for an insurance company. I hopped on out of there real quick (you aren't even required to put in a notice to quit). Worst. Job. Ever.
distant_echo 2 weeks ago
Call center rep for an insurance company. I hopped on out of there real quick (you aren't even required to put in a notice to quit). Worst. Job. Ever.
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