Tobacco, lasted a half day. Owner didn't tell us hot to do the job (suckering) and gave us shit when we didn't do it right about four of us walked.
Worst jobs you ever had
- Thread starter D-Fens
- Start date
O
OnTheWayOut
I got a job driving forklift in a foundry that made cast iron pipes and fittings, the ones they use in sewers. First I was told they needed me to help make the sand cores that go inside the fittings. Then they needed me to remove the slag from the conveyor as the fittings came around still red hot. I wore wire rimmed glasses and my cheeks were burnt after a few hours.
Next day I went to the supervisor and asked when I would be driving forklift. He started making more excuses so I quit because I didn't like being lied to. Of course I lied and told them I was 18 to get the job when I was really 16. That karma crap is real at times.
Next day I went to the supervisor and asked when I would be driving forklift. He started making more excuses so I quit because I didn't like being lied to. Of course I lied and told them I was 18 to get the job when I was really 16. That karma crap is real at times.
Corporate drone.
Made very good money, but it was depressing watching all the bullshit that went on every day as everyone did everything possible to cover their asses.
If people had put as much effort into their jobs as they did in covering their asses, things would have been done in half the time.
Also seeing how most people just tried to play the company politics game.
Made very good money, but it was depressing watching all the bullshit that went on every day as everyone did everything possible to cover their asses.
If people had put as much effort into their jobs as they did in covering their asses, things would have been done in half the time.
Also seeing how most people just tried to play the company politics game.
Oh yeah. I saw the blood drums when I was there and yeah some guy had to shovel all that stuff up to. I had to hose everything down with super heated choloriine and the steam would fog up my mask so I couldn't even see where i was shooting. I could have hosed another employee and that stuff was hot.
You lasted longer then me though lol I was done after one day.
These are some of the shitty jobs I had in late high school or during my university days:
Door to door encyclopedia sales. Yup, you heard me right. And they did exist. Lasted a week. Not surprisingly, no sales. This is when PC CD-roms came out, so anyone who cared about this stuff, might as well buy CDs. CDs only had a fraction of the info, but at $50, I'm sure most people preferred that instead of various books sent to them at $200 each. I think the full set was about $2,000.
Busboy. Waiters whine about low and grunt work. Clearly they have never worked a rung down the ladder. Only some kind of restaurants have busboys, and the place I worked at 25 years ago had them. At these places, the waiters do the easy stuff and never get their hands dirty unless it's super busy and they have no choice, but to help clear tables. But during normal business, they do the easy stuff, while the busboy clears tables, hauls dishes to the kitchen, cleans up food that spills on the floor etc... Also, the waiters controlled the tip bucket, so they subjectively gave tips to the busboys, which was hardly anything.
Tool maker. Minimum wage making all the shitty store brand Canadian Tire tool sets. Half the people making the stuff were min wage students using these huge ass and super hot machines. And you wonder why this stuff is cheap and shit. Combine that with summer days and the machines would sometimes overheat. Nothing you could do except purge the machine of material (if it was still semi-operable), shut it off, and wait a few hours. Kill time by sweeping the floor until it was time to try the machine again. Easy job, but very physically demanding. Also, the union guys were the laziest fucktards you'd ever see. I was a summer student probably making 1/3 what they were making, yet I made more product then them on a daily basis. The machines were timed at 60 second intervals. Then longer you had it on, the more you made. Simple. At 10 units per interval, I made about 300-400 more per day according to our daily log books. Do the math yourself and you can see how much they were slacking off compared to the students.
For you business guys that love P/L statements, here's some rough math. Each pack had something like 8-16 small hand tools in it depending what the pack was. For sake of ease, let's say 12 units per pack
Me
- Minimum wage (around $6.00/hr)
- $48.00/day working 8 hrs
- Some kind of student hiring subsidy (no idea how much), which makes my daily wage even cheaper
- Made about 3,600 per day
- Even excluding the hidden student subsidy, 4,800 cents/day / 3,600 units = 1.33 cents per unit
- 12 units/pack x 1.33 cents = 16 cents labour costs per pack
Union Asses
- Making about $18.00/hr (from what I heard... some made more, some less)
- $144.00/day working 8 hours
- Made about 3,200 per day
- 14,400 cents/day / 3,200 units = 4.5 cents per unit
- 12 units/pack x 4.5 cents = 54 cents labour costs per pack
Door to door encyclopedia sales. Yup, you heard me right. And they did exist. Lasted a week. Not surprisingly, no sales. This is when PC CD-roms came out, so anyone who cared about this stuff, might as well buy CDs. CDs only had a fraction of the info, but at $50, I'm sure most people preferred that instead of various books sent to them at $200 each. I think the full set was about $2,000.
Busboy. Waiters whine about low and grunt work. Clearly they have never worked a rung down the ladder. Only some kind of restaurants have busboys, and the place I worked at 25 years ago had them. At these places, the waiters do the easy stuff and never get their hands dirty unless it's super busy and they have no choice, but to help clear tables. But during normal business, they do the easy stuff, while the busboy clears tables, hauls dishes to the kitchen, cleans up food that spills on the floor etc... Also, the waiters controlled the tip bucket, so they subjectively gave tips to the busboys, which was hardly anything.
Tool maker. Minimum wage making all the shitty store brand Canadian Tire tool sets. Half the people making the stuff were min wage students using these huge ass and super hot machines. And you wonder why this stuff is cheap and shit. Combine that with summer days and the machines would sometimes overheat. Nothing you could do except purge the machine of material (if it was still semi-operable), shut it off, and wait a few hours. Kill time by sweeping the floor until it was time to try the machine again. Easy job, but very physically demanding. Also, the union guys were the laziest fucktards you'd ever see. I was a summer student probably making 1/3 what they were making, yet I made more product then them on a daily basis. The machines were timed at 60 second intervals. Then longer you had it on, the more you made. Simple. At 10 units per interval, I made about 300-400 more per day according to our daily log books. Do the math yourself and you can see how much they were slacking off compared to the students.
For you business guys that love P/L statements, here's some rough math. Each pack had something like 8-16 small hand tools in it depending what the pack was. For sake of ease, let's say 12 units per pack
Me
- Minimum wage (around $6.00/hr)
- $48.00/day working 8 hrs
- Some kind of student hiring subsidy (no idea how much), which makes my daily wage even cheaper
- Made about 3,600 per day
- Even excluding the hidden student subsidy, 4,800 cents/day / 3,600 units = 1.33 cents per unit
- 12 units/pack x 1.33 cents = 16 cents labour costs per pack
Union Asses
- Making about $18.00/hr (from what I heard... some made more, some less)
- $144.00/day working 8 hours
- Made about 3,200 per day
- 14,400 cents/day / 3,200 units = 4.5 cents per unit
- 12 units/pack x 4.5 cents = 54 cents labour costs per pack
I work in an office since graduating university, and yeah, the corporate BS and asskissing can be nauseating.
It's always amazing when you see people act like asses to peers or people lower than them. But when high level people are around (directors or VPs), suddenly they are all glowing with smiles and laugh at all their jokes.
I always wonder how many execs can clearly see the bullshit sucking up, and how many clearly love it as it strokes their ego and think it's honest employee laughter.
McDonalds as a teenager.....what a hot, greasy, shitty job. I couldn't eat it for years. I don't think its as bad now though.....ya I'm getting up there in years 
I worked in retail for 2 years.I won't say which store but it's a big chain.The assistant manager and store manager got a % of store sales. Constantly on employees for not being pushy enough.If you want to see ass kissing,you should have been in the store when the district manger would show up.Incredible. The district manger decides who get promoted and who didn't.All the managers wanted to get promoted to get a bigger check at bigger stores. Hated it.
Been there - done that. I've seen so many senior S.O.B.s who lower themselves and grovel when the big dog is in town. What a pathetic sight! I was a senior manager in a Fortune 500 company and couldn't stand the B.S. any longer. I ended up going on my own, and while I don't make the same $$$, I'm a lot happier now that I don't have to deal with these sick pricks!
One woman at work is nice and all. But when the top dog crack a joke, I kid you not.... she laughs probably 3x longer than the usual joke, and then to make the boss extra happy she repeats his punchline and laughs again.
Nauseating.
And even worse, she's been at the company for about 20 years. Not some newbie trying to climb the corporate ladder. Probably sucking up to ensure she's doesn't get fired.
If anyone can remember the early-mid 1990's we were in a pretty bad recession. I was a university student at that time and decent summer jobs were pretty damn hard to come by. My parents paid most of my university costs but I was obligated to at least cover my tuition and books. So I took basically any job I could get. The worst was roofing. Hauling shingles up a ladder and being on a roof in 30C+ heat is no picnic. Lasted a week max.
Another bad job I took was opening pools. This outfit I worked for had the worst customers at least half the pools I helped open were in brutal shape. Dead possums, rabbits, rodents. Leaves and muck that smelled like shit. I had to throw about 5 t shirts and a couple pairs of pants out they were beyond filthy. Worked a month at that 10-12 hour days for $9.50/hr. At least it was all cash.
The sad thing is I don't think even 1 in 10 of today's youth could hack these jobs for more than a day.
Another bad job I took was opening pools. This outfit I worked for had the worst customers at least half the pools I helped open were in brutal shape. Dead possums, rabbits, rodents. Leaves and muck that smelled like shit. I had to throw about 5 t shirts and a couple pairs of pants out they were beyond filthy. Worked a month at that 10-12 hour days for $9.50/hr. At least it was all cash.
The sad thing is I don't think even 1 in 10 of today's youth could hack these jobs for more than a day.
My worst job had nothing to do with the job, and everything to do with the employer. The guy was a nightmare.
All your accomplishments were his rightful due, but you were raked through the coals for anything he considered a mistake. He was also the worst micro-manager I've ever had the horror of knowing. Add in zero interpersonal skills. He really should never have been in the position he was, but he was the son of the previous owner.
At some point we realized he was running the place into the dirt with his poor judgment, but he wouldn't listen to criticism, even with all the managers on the same page against him. I eventually had enough and left in 2007 with one of the other managers who had an in with another company, which I still work for and have become quite successful. My former boss did indeed run his business into the ground during the recession. He didn't have a hope, considering how bad things were going in 2007!
All your accomplishments were his rightful due, but you were raked through the coals for anything he considered a mistake. He was also the worst micro-manager I've ever had the horror of knowing. Add in zero interpersonal skills. He really should never have been in the position he was, but he was the son of the previous owner.
At some point we realized he was running the place into the dirt with his poor judgment, but he wouldn't listen to criticism, even with all the managers on the same page against him. I eventually had enough and left in 2007 with one of the other managers who had an in with another company, which I still work for and have become quite successful. My former boss did indeed run his business into the ground during the recession. He didn't have a hope, considering how bad things were going in 2007!
In one of my internships there was a fellow who said he once worked in a place where one of the employees was such an ass kisser that the rest of them said there should be handles on the bottom of his shoes in case he crawled up too far and couldn't get himself out.
