Hardest job you've had?

PandaPoo

I recently started working in retail again, just a temporary Christmas job. It's 9 hour shifts, on my feet the entire time and holy sh*t, it's tiring.

I don't know what is harder, the customers I deal with and their batsh*t craziness, seeing people steal numerous times a day and nothing done about it or the standing all day, sometimes for hours with nothing to do.

I know it's not comparable to being a nurse or a builder, which would both be a lot tougher...but I thought it would be really easy!

What is the hardest job you've had? Mentally or physically...

Archeron

Chewing bread for the gummy ducks in St Stephens Green, gets damn cold in winter.

PandaPoo

Archeron wrote: »

Chewing bread for the gummy ducks in St Stephens Green, gets damn cold in winter.

At least you had your career in comedy to fall back on!

boardsuser1

Delivering to Dunnes and Super Valu

Redser87

Part time job in a toy shop coming up to Christmas. I am always kind to retail workers as I know how tough it can be!

Tilikum

Sucking farts out of the cinema seats here in Galway’s eye cinema.

Exhausting.

freshpopcorn

Being a moderator at 2am when people keep on re-registering!

juneg

Working in a bar on christmas eve and stephens night!

KatW4

Redser87 wrote: »

Part time job in a toy shop coming up to Christmas. I am always kind to retail workers as I know how tough it can be!

I had the exact same job at the age of 16. I hated every second of it.

Dr.Sanchez

Going to sea during my very brief stint in the Navy, followed by working on an oil rig in the North Sea.

Neither particularly physically difficult, more so mentally. I feel sorry for anyone in the Navy nowadays, spending half the year at sea for something like €2 a day extra. At least on the rig there was a cinema and the pay was good.

justfillmein

Redser87 wrote: »

Part time job in a toy shop coming up to Christmas

try working in a toy shop that had only opened up a while before christmas and parents going mental because we hadn't the stock in that was in the catalogue:p

mikemac2

Kitchen porter. Your back will be broken standing over a sink for hours, cleaning floors, washing bins, having chefs roar at you and the waiting staff moaning about low tips while you are dripping sweat :rolleyes: I got no tips

Waste food was put in a bin and the pig farmerr would arrive to collect. 17 year old scrawny 9 stone me would struggle to lift a bin full of food & liquid that weighed more than I did while the ignorant farmer wouldn’t help and told me I was slow :mad:

If you ever wondered why there are so few Irish people in Irish hotels it’s because pay is low, management are bullies and anything like stocking shelves in Tesco is a far more attractive job

MAJJ

mikemac2 wrote: »

Kitchen porter. Your back will be broken standing over a sink for hours, cleaning floors, washing bins, having chefs roar at you and the waiting staff moaning about low tips while you are dripping sweat :rolleyes: I got no tips

Waste food was put in a bin and the pig farmerr would arrive to collect. 17 year old scrawny 9 stone me would struggle to lift a bin full of food & liquid that weighed more than me while the ignorant farmer wouldn’t help and told me I was slow :mad:

If you ever wondered why there are so few Irish people in Irish hotels it’s because pay is low, management are bullies and anything like stocking shelves in Tesco is a far more attractive job

Yep same for me, no pigs but same crap. Also, non stop all day orders, stock, also glasses in bar and kegs. Almost, 30 years ago and I remember how tough and bad it was.

Gunslinger92

Cleaning hotel rooms. Some people are just pure filth. My mom did the job for 20 odd years, I'll never fathom how she put up with it

PandaPoo

Gunslinger92 wrote: »

Cleaning hotel rooms. Some people are just pure filth. My mom did the job for 20 odd years, I'll never fathom how she put up with it

I can only imagine.....tell us some of the worst things!

Lia_lia

juneg wrote: »

Working in a bar on christmas eve and stephens night!

Yeah, this. Also hotel work in general. Working 7am-11am, going for a nap, back in 6pm-2am and then the same thing the next day! One day off a week during the summers. But sure when you're young (under 25) it's grand.

Between the ages of 16-18 I worked in a kiddies club in a hotel. There would often be 6 of us in charge of about 70 kids. Was mental.

One of the jobs was dressing up as a clown (!!) with full clown makeup at 7am and entertaining the kids whilst them and their families were queuing for breakfast. Not fun when you are a hungover 17 year old. I did love the job at the time but couldn't do anything like it now..

Gunslinger92

PandaPoo wrote: »

I can only imagine.....tell us some of the worst things!

A room quite literally smeared in ****.

Used sanitary products just fecked in the bin (if at all), not even an attempt at wrapping them up or anything.

This isn't related to cleaning, but one time I had to go into a room full of guys on a stag and one of them was spread-eagled on a bed, bollock naked

justfillmein

mikemac2 wrote: »

Kitchen porter.


If you ever wondered why there are so few Irish people in Irish hotels it’s because pay is low, management are bullies

funny enough, I worked in a kitchen years ago for a while and I swear to this day it was the best buzz I ever had in a job. maybe it was because of the other staff, because it was actually hard work. but the day always flew past.

I did notice how some of the chinese staff were treated. they were always the last ones to leave, even when myself and others had said we would stay til all the work was done. I hated that

jonon9

Installed a new patio for a client two years ago, their back garden was a big heap of mud, rock and grass I had to dig out roughly 6 ton of earth and this is the kicker they had no side gate neither did there neighbors so I had to bucket the earth out through the house. Managed to get it done in one long day. And the next day was bring stone in to create the base. It was grueling.

mad m

Down a manhole one Christmas trying to clear a choke as some poor ****er was getting flooded by ****e as he was last on line.

AllForIt

Working 60 hours a week as an assistant cook in a very busy restaurant in a swanky part of London. They paid me a pittance as well it was downright criminal. On weekends I worked for 10 hours straight sat and sunday without a break and in summer I would make my way home some evenings with my jeans completely wet such was the temperate in the sweatbox kitchen.

han2000

Worked in retail for 8 years, been working in an office for a year now thankfully. I've seen retail (or more specifically customers) crush the spirits of some of the happiest people I've known.

Mongfinder General

mikemac2 wrote: »

Kitchen porter. Your back will be broken standing over a sink for hours, cleaning floors, washing bins, having chefs roar at you and the waiting staff moaning about low tips while you are dripping sweat :rolleyes: I got no tips

Waste food was put in a bin and the pig farmerr would arrive to collect. 17 year old scrawny 9 stone me would struggle to lift a bin full of food & liquid that weighed more than I did while the ignorant farmer wouldn’t help and told me I was slow :mad:

If you ever wondered why there are so few Irish people in Irish hotels it’s because pay is low, management are bullies and anything like stocking shelves in Tesco is a far more attractive job

Bad Ass Cafe?

Pretzill

Have never had a tough job - can relate to being on my feet all day but I was at the age that it didn't bother me. Can also relate to busy Christmas shifts but there was craic to be had - and always enjoyed the downtime!
Also worked in retail and remember the robbers and the almost daily attempts to stop the pilfering - they did get away with some things the bastards!

I remember working 36 hours in a row to meet a deadline - that was probably the hardest - we were so tired -

job seeker

justfillmein wrote: »

funny enough, I worked in a kitchen years ago for a while and I swear to this day it was the best buzz I ever had in a job. maybe it was because of the other staff, because it was actually hard work. but the day always flew past.

I did notice how some of the chinese staff were treated. they were always the last ones to leave, even when myself and others had said we would stay til all the work was done. I hated that

I trained as a commis chef. Biggest load of bollox ever! Sh1t working conditions, awful pay, constantly being worked to the bone, working around the clock and no breaks.. I'm in the process of changing my career path and I never want to stand in an industrial kitchen after that.. Complete horse sh1t.

anewme

Worked as a lounge girl. Aged 16 or so. Not able for it. No one should put up with it. Would sub my nieces rather than let them put up with this ****.

job seeker

I'm seeing a hospitality trend here.. Hardly surprising though..

OnDraught

Working for an oil distribution place beside the Point. Bottling 2 stroke oil for hours was the worst. The fumes would have you sick as a dog. Filling and moving massive drums of whatever was in them was back breaking and equally as sickening. Climbing up empty barrels 40 feet in the warehouse to knock down the ones from the top was stupidly dangerous. I was 16 and it was 1999. Got paid a few pounds an hour in cash and had to leg it up the quays from the Point on a Friday without getting robbed.

I thought it was great at the time. Every job I've had since has been a piece of piss.

justfillmein

job seeker wrote: »

I trained as a commis chef. Biggest load of bollox ever! Sh1t working conditions, awful pay, constantly being worked to the bone, working around the clock and no breaks.. I'm in the process of changing my career path and I never want to stand in an industrial kitchen after that.. Complete horse sh1t.

I was a porter and wasn't there long so I probably would have a different view if I had been there a long time.
I do still look back and think of how much I enjoyed that job at the time.
I was younger and one of the first jobs I had had so maybe it was just the fact of having a job at all:)..

monkeysnapper

I once had a job as a duty manager for a local supermarket , that wasn't so bad but owner was also local undertaker and often would come looking to help out in the other side of the business , freaked me out !!!

On a funnier note,we had a meeting one day and he was asking us managers for a slogan/ideas for paddy's day float , I told him " under the tree at spar" and have a big model corsp under a tree , my idea was met with a lot of distaste. I thought it was good.

Vladimir Poontang

Retail.

Makes you hate the public because most of them are utter *****.