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While everyone is on the hunt for a dream job, or at least a job that does not require all you’ve got and then some more out of you, the people on Reddit shared their experiences with... the worst jobs ever. And, yeah, that’s the cue for us to say that you wouldn’t believe these worst jobs unless you read about them yourself, but that would sound a bit pretentious simply because only a few of the lucky ones haven’t had the actual experience of working a job from hell. However, we are pretty sure the ones shared by the people on Reddit that made it onto our list are the world’s worst jobs, nevertheless.
So, what jobs count as the worst jobs to have? Well, for one, there are the useless jobs, like speckling freshly washed potatoes with dirt so they look… fresh enough? Not too clean? Mildly appetizing, but not entirely? Still, working as a potato speckler isn’t so bad, just mind-numbingly boring. What’s really bad is having to enter an active volcano to harvest sulfur, or having to fill the shoes of a whole entire company (and get as many scolding as ten employees would. On a daily basis). And that’s just to name a few thoroughly unusual jobs not even your worst enemy deserves to have.
Now, although reading up on the worst jobs in the world might be entertaining, bear in mind that there are people who actually have to do them. I guess what we want to say is that those who work these jobs are basically real-life heroes. So, scroll on down below, read the submissions, give the worst possible job ever a vote, and share this article with your friends, if you’d like.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
ajstrange1 wrote:
"Picking Mangoes in Australia, many people are unaware that if you snap off the stalk on a Mango, poisonous sap flys out which makes you blister quite dramatically. Also the best job because of the beautiful scenery."
dezradeath replied:
"Australia: where even the fruit can kill you."
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
My dad used to be a picker in his teens/20s. Never picked mangoes but he said cherries were the worst because you had to try and pick them but make sure the stem stayed on.
RELATED:
#2
"Worst job: Military.
Why: The people. I know I'll get some hate for this, but I'm convinced that the average IQ of the military is about 15 points below that of the general population. Keeerist, being surrounded by idiots was a miserable existence. Not to say there aren't some sharp dudes in the military. There are. But OMG, the per capita number of idiots is through the roof."
#3
"EMT/Paramedics: Often the first ones to terrible scenes, to scenes that are out of control. One place might have them fending off someone with a knife, another might have them trying to resuscitate a dead baby.
I knew a guy, EMT. He said the stuff with babies is the hardest. He had one where he went to a car accident and they were trying so hard to keep the baby alive but it was just too badly injured. He said the entire crew got back to station and just collapsed into their chairs and started sobbing."
#4
"Hotel housekeeping. If it comes out of the human body, I've cleaned it up. I started in a by-the-hour motel when I was 14, owned by a woman who didn't bother with hazardous waste procedure and cleaned up what looked like a murder scene with nothing but bleach and kitchen gloves. I walked into that room, and was absolutely positive that when I pulled the shower curtain open there was going to be a body in the bathtub. Thankfully there wasn't, just blood everywhere. Owner refused to let me report it, made me clean it, and I didn't want to get in sh*t for bleaching a murder scene at 14 so I never did call the cops."
Angeline Shalyn 1 year ago
I was just about to look for housekeeping lol I did it for 3 years and yes I agree, if it has come out of the human body I've seen it and had to clean it
#5
MrHowardQuinn wrote:
"Can't believe roofing isn't on here."
krumplestiltskin replied:
"Pretty much like being a human egg on a griddle all day with a side order of humping shingles around and trying not to fall and break your neck."
#6
"My first job after living in Eastern Europe, I didn’t know the labour laws in Canada when I was 15 and signed up for $25/day to work at a summer camp. I lived there for 2 months, up at 6am to help with breakfast and working until 10pm to clean up after everybody had gone to bed, and was given 3 meals a day. They gave me a day off every two weeks, and by a day I mean 24 hours. I was off at noon one day and had to be back at noon the next. We were too far in the boonies to go anywhere in that short a time.
At the end of the summer, they told me they wanted to give half my paycheck to one of the volunteers because it was the ‘Christian thing to do’. I was cornered 20 minutes before I left and pressured into agreeing. When I finally caved, they’d given me the cheque that was already made out for the lesser amount. Somehow the cheque they gave me was only for $450 dollars, they said they were deducting the food expenses.
This was a Christian summer camp for the severely mentally and physically disabled. I was bathing and changing the diapers of fully grown, severely disabled adults. On some days they told me to give medicine and food to a guy who was tube fed, and change catheters for another guy. I don’t think you can even do that before you’re 18 and have some sort of certification.
They never gave me a copy of the contract so I had nothing to pursue them with. That camp should be shut down, IMO."
#7
binder673 wrote:
"Pyramid Scheme selling Kirby vacuums for in house demonstrations. Got out of that within couple weeks."
Hua_Xiong replied:
"Well I'm sure that sucked."
Panda Kicki 1 year ago (edited)
I love such demonstrations. But I think we got blacklisted. When he asked for a carpet to vacuum, we brought out a large one that usually goes larpimg with us. Years in a tent with muddy boots all over. Asked if it was to much, he denied it and the goal was for him to vacuum until he could hold a paper on the tube and it stayed white. 3 hours later it was still grayish, as layers from years of campings still let go one at a time. He called his boss and asked to be allowed to leave. By the time that was granted it was midnight and I had gone to bed. Hubby had borrowed the vaccum and cleaned the rest of the larp carpets. Never had a single one since, our first and last salesman.
#8
ItStillIsntLupus wrote:
"Those poor dudes that have to empty septic tanks."
"Edit: TIL that a lot of those dudes love their jobs and make BANK $$$, so honestly that makes me very happy for each of them. The more you know."
starbies32 replied:
"Had a guy come and pump ours once. I was standing several feet away and commented on how badly it smelled. This dude STUCK HIS WHOLE head in the tank, inhaled and said “Smells like money to me!”"
#9
"I used to clean public washrooms in a busy area. It is amazing how little respect some people have for public toilets, or lack any ability to clean up after themselves if they make a mess. Ever come across a toilet stall you were about to go into but then stopped because it's covered in poop? Some poor worker has to try and wipe all that away and get it back to normal."
#10
"Lifeguard. It was hours upon hours of boredom intermingled with seconds of sheer terror."
#11
"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."
Shyla Bouche 1 year ago
"I used to catch fire two or three times a day. I hated that." I can't imagine why....
#12
Szyszek13 wrote:
"I think suicide line... You just can't save everybody."
kkay3 replied:
"I volunteer for a suicide line. People call in because on some level they want to survive. Only 1% of our cases hit the point of active rescue."
#13
"Cutting fancy glass for use in mosaics.
A glass cutter is basically a pen, with a small metal wheel on one end, and a metal ball on the other.
Fancy glass is thick, heavy expensive and sharp. The weight, thickness and texture changes drastically. One may be a 3 centimeter smooth green glass sheet, the next may be a textured 5 centimeter piece of orange.
There is NO training.
Glass dust is a thing.
My finger tips were swollen with tiny, shards of glass and I broke much more glass that I was worth.
It was a short gig."
#14
"The sulfur carriers in Ijen, Indonesia. They climb down into an active volcano and hack out big stones of sulfur, load up 160 lbs onto their backs, then haul a thousand feet up out of the caldera. For about $10/day, depending on how much they manage to carry."
sofacushionfort 1 year ago
“Aclà“ a 1992 movie about sulfur miners, the second-most disturbing Italian movie you can watch (and bear in mind that first place goes to “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom.”)
#15
"I sprinkled mud onto potatoes that had already been washed so that they would look freshly dug when they hit the supermarket. Most depressing holiday job I've had."
#16
"Probably working for a moving company. Everybody dreads moving day, for me that was every day."
TheElderNom 1 year ago
We just moved and it's the first time I've used a moving company. I am so impressed with the movers they were so fast and efficient it blows my mind.
#17
"I was a cashew flicker at a candy factory. Literally. I flicked the bad cashews off a conveyor belt."
#18
"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."
bob cameron 1 year ago
The only job I walked away from. Kids with hormones running foot races at 100mph, administration that was spinless , and the list goes on and on.
#19
"I was the Fat Man in a ham processing plant. My job was to take the fat that the de- boners and trimmers had cut off the pig hind quarters. I took the buckets to the front of the room and emptied them into boxes, which I then weighed and sealed up. When I was needed again the supervisor would yell "Fat Man" and I would do it over again. I was a little overweight at the time."
#20
"Call center work. People are orders of magnitude more likely to verbally assault you over the phone than in person. And at the time, my social anxiety and depression were undiagnosed and untreated.
I eventually had a nervous breakdown and quit."
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
My friend got a new job in a call centre for an energy company this January. She had similar issues and had to quit after only 3 months.
#21
"Under water welder. The pays great but the mortality rate is 40x higher than anything, look up 'Delta P' its a horrific thing to think that can happen suddenly without warning."
#22
"Air Traffic Control.
I’ve heard it’s the most stressful job in the world. Surpassing even top-level government jobs such as the presidency.
Mad props to those workers."
#23
"911 Dispatchers: High burnout rate, often dealing with stressful situations over the phone.
I believe that one said the burnout rate is 100%. Like after 3-4 years, 100% of 911 dispatchers will change careers. Not sure if that’s accurate. He also said every 911 dispatcher is on some form of anti anxiety/depressant.
One said she dealt with a lot of guilt as a lady called her about her ex boyfriend with a restraining order breaking in. Despite telling her to get into a closet and sending the police as quick as she could, she got to listen to the panicked cries of the woman followed by gunshots, which killed her."
#24
"Dancing Bear.
I was a waiter at a kids restaurant, which had a bear as its mascot. The new guy had to "be the bear" on their first day, which meant putting on a massive bear costume over our waiter's uniform, including a huge fur head that you could barely see out of. You were then led around the place to wave at the parents and play with the kids, once per hour. If you spoke you were fired, as some of these kids were return customers who would recognise a waiter's voice.
Wanting to impress my boss, I really hammed it up. I danced, I gestured, I goofed around, I sat on a mother's lap, I ruffled a father's hair while he growled "get off me or I'll stab you". The boss loved it so much that he made me be the bear every day I worked there.
Which would be great, except it was August, and so hot that the restaurant's aircon broke. The bear suit hadn't been washed in the history of the restaurant, so served as a memorial to the sweat of a hundred fallen waiters. Little kids would run headfirst at the bear and headbutt my testicles with depressing regularity. And all it earned me was the disgust of my wait team, who thought I was "goofing off work" by being the bear, since it was clearly easier than carrying two plates of reheated lasagna across the room and refilling drinks."
#25
"Internship at a public relations firm in college. Was promised agency experience, writing opportunities, and valuable experience.
Turns out what they actually meant was "sitting in a room for 8 hours cold-calling CEOs from an outdated call list and trying to trick them into a sales presentation."
Might I add, about a month into the job they hired a new intern manager, who was the epitome of Massachusetts trash. Drove to work every day from the Cape on his Harley (2+ hours one way), lauded his degree from Bunker Hill Community College, chainsmoked, and DJ'ed on the side at trash north shore nightclubs. He insisted on sitting in the room with us, for 8 hours to check if we were actually making calls, all while berating us for being poor employees and cheap labor.
On my last day of the internship, he called me into his office and told me "the only reason you are still here is because we didn't have to pay you. You'll never be successful like me. You're not cut out for the business world, if I were you, I would drop out and try to find a trade you'll succeed in."
Even as a 19-year old, I knew an idiot when I saw one. I looked him square in the eye and said "you can go f*ck yourself" and walked out with the other interns. He then wrote a letter of complaint to my school to try and have my internship credit revoked, but luckily my advisor knew the situation and cut him out.
Dan the DJ, if you're reading this, I want you to know I took your advice and did my best to never become you."
#26
celticsoldier566 wrote:
"Currently in retail sales and it is soul sucking. If I didn't know I was leaving soon I don't think I'd even be able to get out of bed in the morning."
elmostaco replied:
"This is one of the reasons I left my retail job as well. I found myself dreading the thought of waking up on bank holidays and weekends as well as being verbally abused by customers with a "know-it-all" complex."
#27
"500's at a Toys R Us. Essentially what our job description entailed was to manage big ticket items out back, unload trucks of inventory and put it away, etc. Even though that is the description, we used to call it 500's because you would do all 500 other possible jobs in the store. They would have us cover for cash, work the floor, clean like a janitor, straighten up the products on the shelves, answer phone calls, the list goes on. It was such a tiring job that by the end of a longer shift you would just want to collapse."
#28
"I had to pick tomatoes. It was so hot in the greenhouses and the wasps were everywhere. Seriously, do wasps bring anything to the table or are they useless, angry d*cks?"
#29
"Ugh, I did Cutco knives back in 2008/2009. I really needed the money and ya, it was the worst. At our meetings, we had people claiming they put down a down payment on a house and how easy it was to sell. Um ya sure buddy. Now this is in 2008 when the economy tanked and they wanted us to push the $3000 sets. No one I knew could afford that
It felt like a cult and I still feel bad for doing meetings with family members."
#30
toddylady wrote:
"The people that have to clean up crime scenes/places people have died."
Commenter No. 2 replied:
"I almost got a job doing that. $16/hr with terrible benefits.(no health insurance) Was told the worst case they had 3 months earlier was when a morbidly obese work from home computer programmer died in his home and wasn't discovered for 5 months. They needed shovels to get him out. Every window was covered in flies and he had leaked into the subflooring so that had to be replaced as well. They did restoration too."
#31
Cunnilingus_Academy wrote:
"I've seen clips of people diving in raw sewage without any equipment to clear blockages in developing countries."
thesneakersnake replied:
"In that case the P in Delta P stands for poop."
#32
"Coroner staff: You’re getting death from all angles but you also have to deal with murders, suicides, disasters, etc."
Glengoolie Blue 1 year ago
That's like a chef complaining about working with food. It's dead people, you know that going in.
#33
"I actually didn't take the job, but it would have been the worst by far. I applied for a position in an industrial bakery as a "Sanitation Technician." As advertised, the job would entail disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling equipment, but when I showed up for my "interview" (really an informal orientation) the nice lady told me I would actually be standing at one end of a conveyor belt and given one simple task: To pick up trays of bread coming off the conveyor belt, rotate them 90 degrees, and place them on a different conveyor belt, for the entire duration of my 12-hour overnight shift.
It would've nearly doubled my pay, but I just could not do it. I put my little hat back on and went back to rolling burritos. Even in the darkest, most horrible open-to-close days of my time at the burrito restaurant, I would console myself with the thought of that job and how much worse things could be."
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
I hate it when you go for what you think is an interview but is really an induction. So awkward when you have to say thanks but no thanks.
#34
"My first job as a legal secretary. I worked for a blow-hard, rude, obnoxious, disgusting lawyer. (Yeah, I know... insert lawyer jokes here.) It was a small-town, three-lawyer firm with a six-person support staff. The owner of the firm would regularly lose his cool, scream at and berate the staff, and fire people in a tyrannical rage for next to nothing. I worked there about two years and saw no less than 20 people get fired by this guy.
The support staff stuck together and was mostly a good group of people (well...except for the woman who broke into her ex's girlfriend's house and disemboweled her with a tent stake, but that's a whole 'nother story). I finally fell victim to this guy's rage when I couldn't find the address to deliver a package...which I was doing as a favor to his personal secretary because she was having a near-breakdown trying to meet a deadline before he left on a business trip.
Sued the bastard for unemployment, he fought it tooth and nail, and I won."
#35
"I worked at a Culver's 3-4 years ago. So many sh*tty things but here are a few of the worst.
We had a senior discount. There was TONS of old people particularly between 12-2pm. It was insanely busy. If you forgot to add their senior discount (even if they didn't ask for it) you'd get yelled at and berated over literally 30 cents.
We had basket meals and snack pack meals. Baskets were larger meals and obviously more expensive. People would constantly order baskets, give me their money, and then AFTER I had cashed them out they would get pissed that I put in the basket because that was "too much to eat." Then I would have to refund them and get a manager and all of that. So they were pissed they had to wait on top of everything else.
I was also in high school and had to get up early, and my sh*tty manager would force me to stay until 11 when I was only scheduled until 10. She would talk sh*t about me to the other high schoolers saying how lazy I was because I wouldn't stay and help, even though I had to go home and do homework, plus showering and getting ready for school the next day. One time, one of the idiot high school boys mopped with a dirty mop and she told me to re-mop the floor while the kid was still standing there. She actually expected me to do it when he was the one who f*cked up.
Anyways sorry for the giant wall. I just really f*cking hated that job."
#36
"Checking abandoned houses in Detroit for occupancy and condition. During the worst of the recent recession."
#37
Commenter No. 1 wrote:
"Investigating cartel activity. There's a lot of f*cked up sh*t that is connected to the cartel."
CaminoFan replied:
"That career seems like a one way ticket to being burned alive and recorded. Or worse."
#39
"I worked at a slaughterhouse for a little while. They killed steers there but got pork shipped in. The hams came in a gigantic cardboard vat, probably 5' wide and 4' deep. They were heavily waxed on the inside to make them waterproof and had steel banding running around the outside kind of like an old keg or barrel. Once we fished out most of the hams and trimmed them there was always a couple feet of blood at the bottom. As the new guy it was my job to dangle over the edge with a meat hook in one hand fishing for the remaining hams and scraps. Usually it was about an hour in shoulder deep blood with your face next to the surface."
#40
"Managed a local restaurant. Worked 10 to 12 hour days, often with closing and leaving at 1 AM only to be back to open at 8AM, six days a week with an 8AM meeting on my only one full day off."
#42
Koomda wrote:
"Security in Tesco."
MeMuzzta replied:
"I often wonder wonder how security at supermarkets don't go insane from severe boredom.
I was in asda the other day twice and the same guy must have been sat there all day. I could see the sadness and boredom in his eyes."
#43
"IT help desk for Apple. Had to talk on the phone with f*cking idiots all day while hating every decision I've ever made."
#44
"I took a job with a marketing company working at the mall trying to get people to take surveys. Literally hundreds of people walked right by, refusing to make eye contact with me. It was like being a ghost.
Horrible job. Hated every second of it. I quit after six hours."
#45
"Worked at a call center in the 2012 election, basically my job was to call people and try to get them to vote for Obama. During dinner time. In Kansas."
#46
"Rent a Center. The unreasonable amount of sales and yodelling I had to do. Cleaning the returned appliances for Re-renting. Nasty a*s f*cking people. Washing machines covered in old detergent, dirt, hair, god knows what else. Fridges filled with spilled food and liquid and mold. Delivering to hoarder homes. Smelly homes. People are gross. If I know anyone is coming over I clean my house. These people don't."
#47
"Pizza Hut inside Target.
I HATED cooking chicken tenders because the oven is specifically made for pizzas, pasta, and bread sticks. You have to put the chicken tenders one full time through then one half time (about ~11 min total. It's 7 min for one pass through the oven) and even then it's still not guaranteed to be warm enough.
Well, one of my first few weeks there, a customer asked for chicken tenders. I had practiced it enough so I informed the customer about the oven and time it takes to cook and that it may be cold when finished and to let me know if it is and I'll warm them up.
I gave customer the tenders, he sat down for a minute and came back and told me they were cold. I apologized and ran the chicken through the oven again. Gave back the customer the food and apologized again. After 10 min and he was FINISHED, he came back and complained they were cold and asked for a refund.
I was really upset at this point because I thought I was being upfront, honest, and polite with him. The f*cker said something like "You should be trained better" and left after I refunded him.
I only stayed there for 4 months. Glad I got out."
"Edit: Sh*t, I forgot the best part. My last day of work I had a full 8 hour shift. Halfway through the day, management asks if I can stay for the next shift (4 hours) because the next person called out. So they wanted me to work a full 12 hours on my last day. F*ck no. I declined because I realized my new job I'd be starting would make up a whole paycheck in a day."
#48
iCollect50ps wrote:
"Mcdonalds. Really felt out of place. Competitive fast food not fun."
Commenter No. 2. replied:
"Did it last summer and it was dreadful. I worked with some really cool people but my boss was like a mini hitler. Take a break 15 seconds too long, we need to chat about it for the next half hour. Mess up an order on your first day after having zero training, looks like you need to be shouted at. Customer is being aggressive and rude to you, he would take their side and give you a bollocking afterwards. Sh*t but necessary job."
#49
"Help desk for a mortgage company. It started out as a basic IT job where I would only fix legitimate system issues which I enjoyed (as much as one can enjoy work) but for some reason it mutated into a job where I would help people who didn't know how to do theirs do anything they asked. This included things like calculating payments, reading credit reports, and tons of basic underwriting stuff. Whenever I would push back and try saying this wasn't what our department does the idiots would cry about it to my boss (I was supposed to be the manager but I had no real authority, it was just a meaningless title) and it would become something we do."
#50
"Worked at a sh*t pizza place making below minimum wage, doing all the b***h work, and never once got a pay stub. Management never worked and blamed everything on the bus boys."
#51
"Delivering ice in west Texas / eastern New Mexico. I was making $6.25/hr and working upwards of 70 hrs/week. I was a "helper" and basically lumped ice bags all day in the middle of what amounts to be a barren desert. My hands were absolutely destroyed from being wet / cold / hot / dry. The ice bags had a metal tie at the end that would shred through my fingers. That job is what motivated me to go back to school."
#52
"NHS mental health - receptionist, supporting a team of social workers.
Nasty, spiteful and generally incompetent, not to mention lazy: I'm supposed to keep a track of each of the social workers whereabouts, the guidelines state that once they've finished a visit, they should ring the office to 'check-in' Several rarely do, and when I ring them (+10 mins) they beret me for 'checking up' on them, when I don't ring, I'm not following guidelines...
If they answer their phone, they can generally be heard to be in our local supermarket / cafe or even a pub; amazingly, however long after their last reported call, they always reported that they were just about to start their lunch.
One of my tasks each week is to check their flexitime proposal for the following month, each month they f%@k up the sheet to make it unreadable, then claim that I should have spotted that their proposed timetable was x number of hours short (it's NEVER over, of course!). None of them can add up to 37.5, it seems.
The other (more favoured) receptionist messed up a telephone message, I got the blame, despite it being a day I wasn't working. This is just one example of a cock up she made - which generally somehow would be blamed on me.
This receptionist claimed to have trained me to do a specific task, while in fact, the hours that had be allocated to do this, she spent b!tching with one of the Assistant SW's. The boss chose to believe her on this and I was reprimanded for still not being able to do a particular task....
Then there was the constant sniping, gossiping and bitching, and even bullying by certain members of staff.
My parents would never have allowed me to leave a good job such as this, I've never been so grateful as when the manager decided I 'wasn't a good culture fit.'"
#53
"I was a Martial Arts instructor in high school (I trained starting as very young so I had my black belt at 13).
I'm a female and the disrespect men in martial arts have for women is nothing compared to the sh*t other women give you.
Working with the kids was great but coworkers was crap.
It's usually fellow female martial artists who were older than me (some of my coworkers my age were pretty much in the same boat). Things from thinking you are incompetent, harassment and inappropriate comments was most of what I would get. Saying things about you while you are teaching in front of kids and parents was the worst but you had to be respectful of those ahead of you.
Most mothers were wonderful to me, I was also super good with kids though and worked with a lot of kids with challenges. Of course there is always that one parent who thinks Jimmy should be getting special treatment or shouldn't have failed his belt exam.
I stopped when I went off to college and quit training completely and I honestly will probably never go back. I look back and realize I would have rather worked at McDonalds or something than put up with a lot of the stress it gave me."
#54
"Being poor means being willing to do f*cked up things for tiny bits of money, so I've had more sucky jobs than I can count. But the one that stands out to me most is door-to-door political fundraising/canvassing.
This was back in the early '90s. The way it worked was you had a clipboard, a pen, a petition, and some envelopes. The whole crew would meet at the office and then pile into the 15-passenger van(s). The supervisors would drive us out to a territory ("turf") anywhere from 10 min - 2 hours away from the office. Then, they would divide us into pairs and give each pair of canvassers a map marked with the pair's assigned turf.
IIRC, we started knocking on doors around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. and kept at it until 8:00. In that time, we were supposed to knock on people's doors and talk to them about whatever issue we were working on at that point (when I did my brief stint it was nursing home reform legislation). Then, we were supposed to get the occupant to sign our petition and make a contribution (preferably check or charge) on the spot. Our nightly quota was $120.
If you think that people hate having telemarketers call their houses at dinnertime to ask them for money, just imagine how much they love it when those same telemarketers show up unannounced on their front doorsteps.
Between sh*tty weather, vicious dogs, crackheads and tweakers answering the door, people's pervasive hatred of trespassers and solicitors, and constant fear of being fired for missing my quota, "field canvassing" was definitely one of the worst jobs I've ever had."
#55
"I worked for a company that digitally archived military technical orders (ie: instruction manuals). My job was to compare the original to the scanned copy to make sure Z's didn't come in as 2's or 1's as l's, etc. it was miserable, tedious work, made all the worse by the fact that TO's, as anyone in the military will tell you, are some of the most dry, boring documents you'll ever read.
But that wasn't the end of it because the office also had a strict silence policy. They didn't want us talking to each other except for business related work and we were only allowed to listen to music on headphones, and only music. Talk shows were forbidden because we might laugh and distract our coworkers. I only wish I was joking. I would listen to talk shows anyway and got called into HR because they'd received complaints that I was "laughing quietly to myself" and that that was unacceptable and that I would be in serious trouble if I was caught again. Basically you were never allowed to do anything except stare at your monitor.
Oh and did I mention I got paid $9 an hour for this job and had to start work at 7 AM? If I was given the choice between going back to that job or being homeless I'd take the cardboard box."
#56
"Dealer in a casino:
You learn a lot about different games and get to "play cards" all shift. You also make some pretty good coin with tips and what not.
However...
You get to meet some of the worst people on the planet. When people start losing money at your table... several hundred to several thousand at a time...suddenly that fun atmosphere becomes soul-suckingly tense... to the point of "You better hope you're not walking alone when you're off tonight". But...you get to call your pit boss over and say "This patron just threatened me" - boom, booted out of the casino, banned for 6 months to a year and possibility of criminal charges. Sometimes... I got a nice justice boner working there.
TL;DR - I wouldn't recommend working at a casino as a dealer, its definitely not for everyone. However, if you're a student and want to make some good money... its a good job... but it comes with a price. I'm sure some other dealers will agree."
#57
juiceboxheero wrote:
"Door to Door solar panel salesman for a corrupt home energy company. Nothing better than knocking on someones front door right in the middle of a Patriots game."
Commenter No. 2 replied:
"I did door-to-door for home renovations (windows, doors, siding, etc) right after the 2008 market crash. I can't tell you how many people told me they weren't going to be able to make their next mortgage payment let alone spend $20k on new windows. Soul-crushing."
#58
"I worked in a pub restaurant owned by a married couple, both were ex-RAF and the wife was a trained chef. She was one of the most awful people I’ve ever met, she bullied me for having a learning difficulty and would frequently cuss out the staff, get drunk on the job, and throw things at us. She was only ever nice if you had a spare cigarette for her.
The worst part was that she was quite a well known figure in our community, so no one believed me when I talked about how horrible she was."
#59
"Medical office. Doctor’s wife ran it. On my first day she ranted about how cliques we’re forbidden in the office, made me listen to her “handling” her ex husband over the phone as example of her management style oh and hidden cameras and microphones everywhere. We couldn’t prove it but it was so likely. Her paranoia ramped up as she brought in her bestie who hated me on sight then brought in the best a*s kisser I have ever seen. The three of them formed a clique. I left 2 months later. I just quit without another job waiting because it devolved into daily abuse and yelling."
#60
"I worked at a bowling alley for one shift. I was trying to make some extra cash by working there part time nights and weekends, and a former coworker of mine was the manager, so I thought that it would be okay.
Where do I begin? I had to wash my hair several times to get the smells of grease and cigarette smoke out, and my clothes went straight into the trash. My new coworkers were all addicted to various substances and could barely function to train me to run the lanes and registers. The clientele was not much better, and I ended up with a police escort to my car at the end of my shift because they were concerned for our safety as we left. So yeah, I called the next morning and told them that I wouldn't be back. What a nightmare."
#61
"Worked at an Ihop in a low income town. I hated everything about it. Everything. The awful management is what made it so bad.
-The first red flag came up when I walked in, filled out an application, walked outside, got in my car, and had a voicemail message asking me to come in for an interview.
-The second red flag came up at the interview when the two questions I was asked were "are you legal?" on account of me being an immigrant, and "when can you start?"
-The third red flag was when I needed to request a warm damp cloth to clean the DVDs I had to watch for training. That is three red flags before I even started work.
The kitchen staff were able to get away with anything and would routinely send out food on unwashed dishes or without cooking it correctly. The front of house staff would have inappropriate conversations on the floor. The night crew would just leave without doing side work, and as management never worked nights it was never picked up on.
Oh, and one of the dishwashers nearly killed a guy. So there's that."
#62
"Being an auto tech for a really sh*tty dealership.
Two years in school and student loan debt so I could pull weeds out in the sun for minimum wage because there's "not enough work". Never mind that we had several techs sucking down 60 billable hours a week of sweetheart customer pay work.
'Landscape for the next six hours and we'll call you if an oil change comes in lol.'"
#63
"When I was a student I did some stuff for an employment agency. One day, I was sent to work somewhere we had to assemble shoes. (Put laces in them and so.)
We weren’t allowed to talk. Or sit. So I spent 8 hours standing up, running laces. The supervisor there was German. He yelled at me a lot, because I am not going to be silent just because some dude tells me I have to be.
ARBEITEN!
That’s what he kept saying. He didn’t even bother to make full sentences.
Yeah, after that day, I declined to ever go back there again. The agency seemed surprised, or even mad. Guess they had a little trouble finding people that were willing to put up with that crap."
#64
"I once worked for a candle factory. Everyone was on meth and the smells were extremely overwhelming. This factory was a giant metal building where candles were manufactured, stored, packaged, and shipped. I worked on the shipping side of the building and there was a loft where all of the packing peanuts were stored. When I joined on, the going joke was "don't go into the loft unless you want to get pregnant" I eventually found out it was because the meth heads would go into the loft to do their drugs and have uninhibited s*x with each other among the packing peanuts. (Keep in mind most of these people were married, but not to each other.) Well it turns out 3 or 4 different women had gotten pregnant on the job in the loft from men that weren't their husbands. The worst part was it was normally super hot and dusty up there so I can't imagine these people rolling around on the splintery wooden floors in the near triple digit heat all dusty."
What do you think ?
Laika-Mutton 1 year ago
Hotel Night Auditor-the security guard had a breakdown, stripped, and scared lobby guests, two guys got in a fist fight at checkout because one of them was having an affair with the other's wife, and some kids decided to do donuts in the parking lot-ended up going across the street and running someone over. On the plus side, never a dull moment-!
Laika-Mutton 1 year ago
Hotel Night Auditor-the security guard had a breakdown, stripped, and scared lobby guests, two guys got in a fist fight at checkout because one of them was having an affair with the other's wife, and some kids decided to do donuts in the parking lot-ended up going across the street and running someone over. On the plus side, never a dull moment-!
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