What was the worst job you ever had? That you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy....

[bookmaven]

Mine's easy. One summer I had a month and half off between a summer stock job and my next year of grad school. I had two choices: I could either get a temp job, or spend the month and a half at home with my parents. Frankly, I'd rather fellate Satan than spend six weeks in the same domicile as my father. Anyway, a friend told me that someone he knew was looking for a receptionist for his dog grooming salon. The pay was okay, and the salon was located in the Ansley section of Atlanta, so these were people of at least SOME means. It was the WORST. Not the animals...the owners!! Fucking psycho housewives from Buckhead with heavily pedigreed dogs who made my life a living hell. "Mitzi has separation anxiety so she can't go into your cages. She can just stay here with you until the groomer's ready for her." The best, though, was the guy who brought his dog in and then popped into the gay bar that was right around the corner to have a drink while he was waiting. He met someone, ended up going home from the bar with them, and completely forgot his beloved Chelsea. I couldn't take the behavior of the pet owners, and ended up quitting after three weeks.

[+ MysticMenace]

CutCo Knives Sales Representative - had a very quick 7 day stint. 5 days for training and 2 days attempting to sell knives. That was something.

Actually, I think some folks did well doing this job, so if my worst enemy was unemployed, this would not be such a bad gig for them.

[jtwalker]

Telemarketer for a phony charity.

[Smurof]

Telemarketer for a phony charity.

Was phony a pun there?

[jtwalker]

Was phony a pun there?

 

Yep! :-) Good Catch!

[+ azdr0710]

all-night busboy at a nicer hotel's 24-hour restaurant during college......dorm roommate got me the job and I thought a tough, young dude like me could handle being up all day at school and up all night at work.......

 

lasted one night......

[seattlebottom]

A summer working at Mervyns.

[KrisParr]

Detasseling corn in the blistering Indiana summer heat. The money was tremendous; the pain, cuts, dirt, etc. however were almost unbearable. In case you’re not a country boy, read on ...

 

Detasseling corn is removing the immature pollen-producing bodies, the tassel, from the tops of corn (maize) plants and placing them on the ground. It is a form of pollination control, employed to cross-breed, or hybridize, two varieties of corn.

[+ MysticMenace]

Fellating Satan actually sounds kinda hot...

 

this satan?

[+ WilliamM]

Hostess cup cake assembly line as a Summer job. Filling the cream vat with a shovel so the cupcakes could be injected with cream.

 

The shovel had slightly sharp edges, and a harmless nick occasionally mixed my blood into the vat

 

I did not last long

[JayCeeKy]

One summer in college I worked in a factory that made ammonia. I came home every night with burning eyes, nose, throat and lungs. I lasted two weeks before I quit.

[john1973]

Selling hotdogs in Wrigley Field. I was carrying a heavy aluminum box filled with hot water while negotiating the steep bleachers. Lasted a few hours.

[rvwnsd]

I worked as a "reports manager" for a company that handled recruiting for companies that were doing massive hiring campaigns. Cool concept, terrible software, even worse computer network, and a collection of psychos starting from the closeted CEO (who was "dating" a lesbian) all the way down to the phone center agents. Every day the CEO would come tearing down the stairs and begin screaming random nonsense at anyone in his wake. A temp who was working for me locked himself in the bathroom after one of the salespeople wouldn't leave him alone. They also inflated receivables that were used as collateral on a loan from a bank I used to work for. (Yes, I turned them in.)

 

I resigned after eight weeks and was the very first person in my job to give two weeks notice. People usually just went to lunch and never came back.

 

On my next-to-last day, psycho CEO ripped into me and insisted I stay late. When I refused he screamed that they wouldn't give me a good reference if I didn't work late. I calmly asked "what makes you think this job is going on my resume?" The President of the company tapped me on the shoulder, led me to her office, produced two checks - a final paycheck and three weeks additional pay - and sent me home. She also provided me glowing references during two subsequent job searches.

[+ bashful]

A summer job at a plastics factory that made auto parts. I had to climb up and down four or five steps on each machine carrying up about 20 pounds of pellets to fill the hopper that dropped into the injection machine, were heated, and out came the part where someone else trimmed it.

 

It was hot, dirty, smelly, and paid lousy.

 

About two weeks later, got a call from another parts factory that pressed rubber onto rings for seals. Also hot, dirty, smelly, but was union so pay was great. They hired me back each summer. It paid for my entire college education. Also saw one of the biggest dicks. He worked in another area on my same shift and showered at the end of the shift, and never wrapped a towel around himself when he came out of the shower. He would take his time drying off his junk, sometimes putting one foot up on the bench. He had low hangers. Only a few guys worked that shift, so it was usually just us. He seemed to enjoy showing off, and always initiated conversation while I was watching, but he never invited more, and I was to afraid to also.

Edited February 18, 2021 by bashful

[maninsoma]

As a teen I worked as a busboy/dishwasher. When the restaurant was busy, the pace was grueling. I didn't know until my first shift that even though the restaurant closed at 10pm, that meant they would seat customers who came in prior to 10pm. Because people kept coming in until just before closing time, I ended up working more than an hour past when I thought I would be off work.

 

The bonus was that this position was also the restroom cleaner. It's amazing how dirty some people can leave a public restroom.

[HotWhiteThirties]

Working at a K-Mart during the Holidays some 25-27 years ago. I was a utility. I have never been in a work environment before or since where people were so miserable from the top down. It was totally depressing to me and sad. It's the only job I have ever just quit and walked away from without giving notice.

 

I left it to work for a small utility company where I literally dug ditches. I was much happier even though the work was more physically demanding. My hands stayed calloused and bloody that next year, but I wasn't surrounded by mediocrity and that was a welcomed change.

Edited February 17, 2021 by HotWhiteThirties

[+ Pensant]

Scraping rust off the high ceiling of a painting and anodizing factory and then spray painting it. I had to start at 11 pm and be out by 7, when the first shift started. It was a summer job and it was usually warm and humid. I was drenched and filthy every morning and had to spend time standing in a box on a forklift. It certainly paid well, but it was the hardest and loneliest job I ever had.

[+ sync]

It was while I was in the Traffic Department of an import/resale operation. No-one liked anyone. There were actual and regular fistfights among the salesmen, and one particularly memorable fistfight among the teletype operators. One of the vice-presidents was also the office manager. She was so hated some of us would begin our days with a perusal of the obituaries with our fingers crossed and high hopes. Whenever she traveled there was an office pool that either her flight out or her flight home would be "breaking news." I can still recall the sense of relief and well-being I experienced the day I decided to cut my losses, got up and walked out of that hellhole.

[marylander1940]

Working at a K-Mart during the Holidays some 25-27 years ago. I was a utility. I have never been in a work environment before or since where people were so miserable from the top down. It was totally depressing to me and sad. It's the only job I have ever just quit and walked away from without giving notice.

 

I left it to work for a small utility company where I literally dug ditches. I was much happier even though the work was more physically demanding. My hands stayed calloused and bloody that next year, but I wasn't surrounded by mediocrity and that was a welcomed change.

 

Store clerk.... was so boring... the clock would move counterclockwise or at least it looked that way.

[+ poolboy48220]

This wasn't THAT horrible, but just before finding my first career-track job (through the university co-op office), I worked for a week on 4:00PM-midnight shift in a Faygo (sodapop) recycling plant. it mostly involved wrapping stacks of empty bottles with a six-foot roll of plastic wrap so the forklift could carry them without them falling, but one night I was shoveling empty cans into the crusher. It's amazing what people will dispose of in an empty can. I came home that night & showered for about 45 minutes. The bonus was that I gave them my notice on quitting, and a couple weeks later I got a notice from the union that I'd been terminated for not showing up for work. I went to straighten it out, thinking I didn't want a black mark from the union on my record, and the supervisor thought it was hilarious.

[leeper]

Summer job while in college working in the un-airconditioned laundry of a large state-run senior facility. The temperature was about 115 degrees by the dryers, which I loaded and unloaded. I also hated loading the urine-stained, fecal-material loaded sheets into the large industrial washing machines. Nearly everyone who worked there was at least in their 50's and had been working there for years so no one talked to me.

[+ RJD]

My worst was a distinguished one-night career at McDonald’s when I was 15 years old. This is back in the day when you were required to wear dress shoes which turned into skates on the greasy floor. My shift started at 4PM on a Friday afternoon until closing, which was midnight. Then, the closing shift prepped for the morning shift, so we didn’t get out until 2:30AM. I worked every station that night except for the registers. When I needed to refill the sliced pickles from the 10 gallon barrel, I asked a co-worker what we used to scoop them out. He turned to me and held up his hand. Gloves weren’t a thought in those days. I was sent to the walk-in freezer to get more burgers and was instructed to stomp my feet when I got inside to make the rats scatter. I had to refill the ice in the beverage dispenser. When I opened the lid to the commercial ice machine there was a cockroach frozen in an ice cube.

 

My feet were throbbing by the time I got home. I slept until noon the next day. I was scheduled to be in at 4:00 again. I called at 2PM and quit. My take home pay for the evening was $17.56. I have flashbacks whenever I review my social security income statement because, being 15 at the time, that was the only declared income for that year and it still appears on my statement.

 

Side note: I’ve never eaten at a McDonald’s since.

Edited May 1, 2021 by RJD

[+ Lucky]

I had a factory job for the summer. I did the same thing over and over. But relief was at hand. My fellow employees finally told me that I was working too hard and thus showing them up. I cut back and worked four hours a day like they did.

[realeasymoney]

Common laborer at an oil refinery. Summer job during college. Digging ditches, unloading trucks, etc.

[Rod Hagen]

Busboy. Terrible.