Question of The Day. Sunday 14th of November.

[Norachan]

We're half way through November already. But at least it's nearly payday.

What was the worst job you ever had? And what do you imagine must be the worst job ever?

The worst job I ever had was working in a department store food court/restaurant. It was grim, really busy and I had to wear this disgusting brown and orange uniform.



I think the worst job ever must be saturation diving. That's when you go deep under the ocean for days and days and days to work on pipelines. You can't come up too quickly as you will get the bends, so they make these little underwater capsules for the divers to sleep and eat in while they work. Can you imagine that? Pitch dark with sea monsters swimming past you and you have to live in a little metal capsule. Give me my brown and orange restaurant uniform any day.

 

[Maria Bayote]

The worst job I had was selling those water filters nobody wanted to buy anyway, that I had to quit after 3 days. I am never good in sales.

To me the worst job one can have is that one we are not really happy with, something we are not passionate about. I mean, it is not a nice feeling NOT getting excited going to work everyday. It is like a jail sentence. Nevertheless, most of us have to do it (including me) just because we have to.

 

[Winchester]

I worked in a paper plant for 20 years. Not pretty. I was a handful of women in a male-oriented job and they never let me forget it. The Union president was the worst kind of Neanderthal, always causing trouble for the women, talking about us behind our backs, saying we weren't pulling our weight, which was total BS. And when the president can get away with it, well, so can everybody else. It was horrible and I used to stand in the shower and cry because I did NOT want to go in that place. 20 years and I hated every minute of it. Seven-day swing shift, one weekend off a month, and I worked pretty much every holiday throughout the year. We had off for Christmas, July 4 and Labor Day. I was never so glad to get out of that place. The only good thing about it is that they paid for my college tuition as long as I got good grades....and you can bet I had excellent grades bc it was that important. I was finally able to get out of there when I left to do my internship for college. Honestly, it was the worst job a woman could have.

 

[denice]

Working in a nursing home.

Saturation diving would be really bad. It pays very very well. There is also long periods of time with no work but money isn't a problem because of the amount earned while working.

 

[NY cat man]

I don't know if it was a job, at least in the usual sense of the word, but my time at Bethesda Naval Hospital has to rank right up there. Every day seeing those guys with their horrific wounds or burns; the sights, sounds, and especially the smells, those stay with you for life. Plus, the need to maintain a smiley face for their benefit, when in fact you wanted to run screaming from the place........ No wonder that I drank a lot when off duty, as did most of us.

 

[Lari]

One of my teaching jobs where I had an abusive principal. Even the summer warehouse job I had was better than that everyday misery.

 

[Jem]

The worst job I ever had was waitressing. I waitressed at two local restaurants and now know I am not a waitress. At first I thought it was the simply the staff/manager at the first place I worked that made the job miserable. And they did contribute to my misery...terrible people. But when I started at the second location...I was done after 2 weeks. Nope....just nope.

I honestly can't think of the worst job out there...there are so many that I would hate doing! LOL!

 

[Mia6]

Making cotton candy at a Giant Eagle grocery store, This was in the video department and I also made popcorn.
I started a fire while making popcorn and making cotton candy was horrifying. They only let me do it once because
I was so bad at it.

 

[gilmargl]

Two jobs come to mind: one where I never even bothered collecting my wages and the other when I didn't earn anything at all.

The first was at a café in SE London, run by a married couple, who spoke little English. I was expected to make sandwiches using the fillings from the previous days' leftover sandwiches. I might have been able to tolerate that but the husband couldn't keep his hands off me - or tried to use my hands to stroke himself while his wife did the washing up a few feet away.

The second was an evening job attempting to sell headed notepaper by telephone from an office in Leeds. I'm not ashamed to admit, I had no success at that rather dubious task. I was pretty desperate for money at the time.

However poor I was, I could never work in an abattoir, gutting fish, cooking lobsters or crayfish, at a mink farm, ......... the list is long. I'm probably privileged to have spent most of my life and student days, working in heated buildings, doing clean jobs, and being paid reasonably well or doing temporary work which, although perhaps not satisfying from an intellectual point of view, was always interesting, varied and allowed me to meet many, nice people from very different backgrounds.

 

[neely]

The worst job I ever had lasted only two weeks. My kids were young and I was looking for something part-time close to home. It was customer service and I absolutely hated it. They had a quota and I don't like to be pressured. They would listen into your phone calls and get upset if you spent too much time on the phone. Then they told me because I was so patient they'd give me the calls to their elderly customers. I didn't mind speaking to them but felt bad when I had to cut them off because of the rules. Plus I had to sit in one of those tiny cubicles with no windows. Once my children were a little older I decided to go back to work for what my degree was in, i.e. teaching. It was a pleasant change which I thoroughly enjoyed and plenty of windows!!!

 

[susanm9006]

The absolute worst job was a “fill in” temporary job that I took for additional income during a college quarter break. Three weeks that I would never ever repeat. It was as a ”record puller” for a large medical complex. In the morning I would get a large list of account numbers. I walked through aisle after aisle finding the correct number and pulling the file. Afternoons I put them back the same way. Totally monotonous and mind numbing.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

My worst job was working as a grocery store cashier. I worked there for 5 years. I was severely depressed the entire time, always in pain from standing in one place for 8 hours a day, the pay was crap, and having to deal with people all day was exhausting, overwhelming and overstimulating. The only reason I didn't quit was because I needed health insurance and I couldn't get a job anywhere else because I was a terrible interviewer. I can't hear certain music without feeling utter dread and sadness because they were songs that played non-stop on the Muzak system. I have gone into that grocery store too in the last couple of years and it is run by a completely different company now and I still experience feelings of panic being in there.

As for the worst jobs out there, any low-wage work would be a nightmare. Society thinks that people working at grocery stores, fast food restaurants, or other retail jobs don't deserve a living wage because it isn't "difficult" work, but it is definitely some of the hardest work out there. I now make almost 3 times as much as I did working at the grocery store but my current job is so much easier because I don't have to be around people and I work with data all day. Just because I had the privilege of higher education doesn't mean I deserve more money than other people who end up destroying their body working at these physically laborious jobs.

 

[Willowy]

Just because I had the privilege of higher education doesn't mean I deserve more money than other people who end up destroying their body working at these physically laborious jobs.

+1
Plus, just try to run a functioning society without them. Anybody who works full-time should be able to live off their salary without government aid.

I never had a "worst" job really. I worked at a call center, which is always kind of soul-sucking but the managers and co-workers were decent, and we were allowed to read books during downtime, so it wasn't terrible. And the pay was ok and they provided insurance that didn't take half my paycheck.

I babysat, which of course depended on the kids and the parents---it could be the worst few hours of your life or just a pleasant evening playing with some kids. I liked most of the kids/families, and if I didn't, I managed to be busy whenever they called.

I delivered newspapers, which feels pretty bad at 4 in the morning when it's -20 and the wind is blowing snow sideways into your face, but altogether wasn't awful, most mornings it was simply a pleasant walk around the neighborhood, and then since I was homeschooled I just went back to bed afterward.

And then I lucked into a career position with the Post Office, and I've had a few different positions in those 20 years. While not every position and postmaster were my favorites, altogether it's been positive, and the pay and benefits are great for the area. And I really like where I am now.

So I've been very lucky, no truly terrible jobs.

As for what I imagine to be the worst jobs ever, anything involving killing animals would be right up there. Any demoralizing/humiliating job where people treat you badly and also has low pay would be horrible. For me, anything involving small spaces or high areas would be the worst. But I assume that saturation divers and radio tower climbers actually LIKE that kind of thing.

 

[Boris Diamond]

I was desperate for money and took a job at a restaurant where the entire staff had just quit. The owners were, well, awful! It sure brought the staff together quickly, as everyone was united in their resentment of these most unpleasant people. I worked there for three months until they asked me to be a manger - I had seniority at that point! I would not manage for these people and quit.

The most physically bad job I had was in a fertilizer factory. It made a big difference that the people I worked with were nice, though I did not last long there either, as the pay was poor, even though I had worked my way up to being in charge of bulk sales. During spring planting season, I sometimes had 15 hour days!

 

[strider rose]

worst job i ever had was walmart ! they framed me then fired me .... to me thats the worst job anyone could have

 

[Tobermory]

My worst jobs were not about the work itself. They were because of managers with no leadership skills or those who were verbally abusive or fostered a toxic work environment among the staff.

There are probably a lot of jobs I’d hate, but anything where humans or animals were suffering would have to be at or near the top of the list.

 

[LTS3]

My worst jobs were not about the work itself. They were because of managers with no leadership skills or those who were verbally abusive or fostered a toxic work environment among the staff.

There are probably a lot of jobs I’d hate, but anything where humans or animals were suffering would have to be at or near the top of the list.

All the jobs I had were fine, it was just the toxic work environment that made the job worse than it really was.

 

[eternalgaze]

The worst job I ever had was working on a cardiac step down unit as a brand new nurse. 3 weeks later they made me charge nurse on EVENINGS (the craziest shift) and I discovered that perhaps nursing was not my thing. What stress! Even working at Ray's Kingburger was better than that . Second worst was the two weeks I spent as an answering service operator. It was before smoking was banned everywhere, and was in an itty bitty room lined with women answering the calls (just like in Mrs. Maisel!!!) and the smoke from their cigarettes was so thick you could barely see--with no windows. And I don't know what the worst job could be...???

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Dairy Queen was the worst for me. I am not a big ice cream eater. I didn’t work there long but the smell of sweet mixed with fryer grease made me nauseous for years! I was also working more than I should have. Being under 18 I technically wasn’t supposed to work past 9 or more than a certain number of hours. I worked 5-9:30/10 5 days a week and stayed up till after midnight with homework. I had an extra class before school too. My parents always said school first so I quit. I had gotten the job to help pay for a camaro I found for sale. They decided the insurance was too much for a teen driver. So there was no motivation to stay.

I think the worst ever would be under water on a sub or something. I prefer naturally available air thank you very much!!