Hardest job you've had?

WHIP IT!

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

The first thing I thought of when I saw this thread was the one horrific night I spent as a kitchen porter when I was about 18/19. I actually did it as a favour for a mate who was a chef. I had no idea what a porter was to be honest!

Awful, awful experience. Boiling hot, a never-ending pile of filthy dishes - and there an hour after everyone else was gone home cleaning the kip.

I went home with a cheque for (I think) €22 and said "never, ever again"... my mate actually told me, quite seriously, the next time I saw him I hadn't done a very good job on the kitchen floor! F*ck that, lads...

Purple Mountain

I did my stint in a call centre in my early 20s.
At first it was good craic with people of a similar age and lots of nights out etc.
However when they introduced 'traffic managers' things got really sh^tty.
Their job was to be big brothers, watching call times, after call times and the dreaded personal breaks.
The day I got questioned about a longer than usual toilet break was the day I knew I had to hand in my notice.
I got great satisfaction in explaining in detail that my women's problem meant an extra longer pit stop that day! That shut them up fairly pronto.

ArnoldJRimmer

Worked as kitchen porter for years and loved it. Hard work, but just used to stick on my own music, and had good craic with the staff. Didn't even mind cleaning the jacks, apart from when some scummer puked in two cubicles, three sinks and three urinals.

The job I hated the most was one that was so boring it was soul destroying. Worked in quality control for a large life assurance company. The job was basically checking that forms had been filled out correctly, signed and dated etc. then entering that information on the system. Even on a busy day, I had to try and cram what was 45 minutes work into a 8 hour shift. On a quiet day, could be 10 minutes work. There was no internet (although we did have the company intranet to browse) and we were expected to look busy all the time. I actually took to coloring in excel spreadsheets to pass the time

Harry Palmr

Blimey this is a grim read. Physically my current job is easily the hardest - there's no glamour in horticulture but trench foot conditions in winter and semi-dehydration in summer seems a pretty good deal compared to working in a hotel!

Purple Mountain

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

I actually took to coloring in excel spreadsheets to pass the time

Cheasus!

the_pen_turner

ArnoldJRimmer wrote: »

Worked as kitchen porter for years and loved it. Hard work, but just used to stick on my own music, and had good craic with the staff. Didn't even mind cleaning the jacks, apart from when some scummer puked in two cubicles, three sinks and three urinals.

The job I hated the most was one that was so boring it was soul destroying. Worked in quality control for a large life assurance company. The job was basically checking that forms had been filled out correctly, signed and dated etc. then entering that information on the system. Even on a busy day, I had to try and cram what was 45 minutes work into a 8 hour shift. On a quiet day, could be 10 minutes work. There was no internet (although we did have the company intranet to browse) and we were expected to look busy all the time. I actually took to coloring in excel spreadsheets to pass the time

i would have thought being brought back to life as a hologram would have been at the top of your list

.......

This post has been deleted.

al87987

Banana humping (carrying) in Australia for me. Up at 4:30 and bus by 5 to start work at 5:45.

11 hour days, when I started it was the middle of summer and 35 degrees.

Carrying banana bunches all day that weigh between 65-85 kg across your back in that heat is exhausting. I got sick everyday for two weeks until my body acclimatised. Throw in massive spiders, venomous snakes, scary cassowary's and the occasional 5 star hurricane and it really was the job that had everything.

Most people quit within a day or two. They don't even bother learning your name because they assume you won't be around. My friend flew back to Ireland after one days work and numerous other huge lads I saw crying and giving up. I was fairly undersized for the job but once I got the hack of it I properly loved it. Ended up staying 5 and a half months.

Hardest job I've ever done but undoubtedly the best experience of my life.

madmaggie

I worked in a garden centre one summer. Part of the area has a glass roof, I was boiling, dragging cans of water to keep the plants from wilting, then out to drag trolleys of plants. Plus the manager yelling at me on the ear piece. I hated that job.

wakka12

LirW wrote: »

Worked in a Cafe/bakery chain a few years back. I really needed a job, any job and ended up working for the same company my sister worked for.
The shop I was placed at was in a very fancy area and was just down the road of the company owner. The contract was bad, the hours were pretty bad but the worst things were the customers. I swear to god I were driving me insane.
The lady, that ran that particular shop was known for spoiling her customers rotten up to the point where they would only accept this very thing they'd always get from her. So there was this guy who wanted his eggs in this very particular way or he'd send it back. Or another guy who would only accept a certain consistency of the foam topping his cappuccino. I had to take abuse from upper class elderly people because I didn't put enough cream for the cake on their plate.

The company wasn't providing enough fresh fruit and veg and if we'd run out, we'd have to run to the shop and buy it from our own money (key ingredients, mind you!) or we have to use what's there and cut the moldy part off.
And to top all of that off, we'd have the bosses calling around a few times a day because we were just down the road and taking abuse from them because the cakes weren't aligned the way they wanted it on that particular day.

Sounds very fancy altogether :pac:

pconn062

Either working in a call center (lasted 11 months) or working in a shoe/sports shop (lasted 5 months). Dealing with the moronic general public and power tripping managers who only earn 80c an hour more than you. Thankfully my best ever job is my current one.

I feel sorry for anyone working in hospitality/retail, the general public can be incredibly rude. Funny story from the weekend, I play in a wedding band and at a wedding at the weekend it just happened that the uniform we wear (white shirt/waistcoat/tie) was identical to what the staff in the hotel were wearing. So halfway through the wedding while we were on a break, I walked back into the room and this aul biddy wagged her finger at me and called me over. She points at her table and said

"I just want to draw your attention to something, one is the dirty cloth on the table and the other is the table cloth on the floor".

Said in her most awful faux posh voice. It was great to be able to inform her that I wasn't actually a staff member but was actually in the wedding band. She nearly tripped over herself apologising and I made her feel as awful as possible! But to think that she was actually OK with talking like this to some young staff member who was probably on minimum wage.

ArnoldJRimmer

pconn062 wrote: »

Either working in a call center (lasted 11 months) or working in a shoe/sports shop (lasted 5 months). Dealing with the moronic general public and power tripping managers who only earn 80c an hour more than you. Thankfully my best ever job is my current one.

I feel sorry for anyone working in hospitality/retail, the general public can be incredibly rude. Funny story from the weekend, I play in a wedding band and at a wedding at the weekend it just happened that the uniform we wear (white shirt/waistcoat/tie) was identical to what the staff in the hotel were wearing. So halfway through the wedding while we were on a break, I walked back into the room and this aul biddy wagged her finger at me and called me over. She points at her table and said

"I just want to draw your attention to something, one is the dirty cloth on the table and the other is the table cloth on the floor".

Said in her most awful faux posh voice. It was great to be able to inform her that I wasn't actually a staff member but was actually in the wedding band. She nearly tripped over herself apologising and I made her feel as awful as possible! But to think that she was actually OK with talking like this to some young staff member who was probably on minimum wage.

I had a similar experience in a pub where they thought I was the manager. I let them rant on for ages about how terrible the service and the food were before responding, 'I'm really sorry to hear that, you should probably let a member of staff know,' before walking away

Ipso

Foxhound38 wrote: »

Recruitment Consultant

And you still have hell to look forward to.

Galwayguy35

PowerToWait wrote: »

Picking stones is a thing. A miserable, back breaking thing.

+1

Grew up on a farm and it was the bog and picking stones in the summer. digging out the potatoes was another one, the clay would be feezing in October when we used to be at it.

Mister Vain

Liam28 wrote: »

Fair enough, I can accept people don't enjoy retail, but my question was specifically why? What do customers do that make it hell? I have not seen a single example in this thread.
I understand the low pay, sh1t managers, no prospects element, but just take the money and go home at the end of the shift.
The night shift in a shop I can imagine, but how bad can your average Tesco customer get?

Still waiting for an answer to this myself. I would have imagined the vast majority of people just go in, pay for their goods and leave. I can understand having to deal with gobshytes in call centre's, but is it really such a regular occurrence in retail?

Galwayguy35

Liam28 wrote: »

Fair enough, I can accept people don't enjoy retail, but my question was specifically why? What do customers do that make it hell? I have not seen a single example in this thread.
I understand the low pay, sh1t managers, no prospects element, but just take the money and go home at the end of the shift.
The night shift in a shop I can imagine, but how bad can your average Tesco customer get?

I never worked in retail but from just the one example of seeing a customer tearing strips off the cashier for something that wasn't her fault I can well believe how bad it gets.

PandaPoo

Liam28 wrote: »

Fair enough, I can accept people don't enjoy retail, but my question was specifically why? What do customers do that make it hell? I have not seen a single example in this thread.
I understand the low pay, sh1t managers, no prospects element, but just take the money and go home at the end of the shift.
The night shift in a shop I can imagine, but how bad can your average Tesco customer get?

I've been working a week in a pharmacy, between people coming in for their methadone and trashing the place, threatening us, other customers screaming at us, calling us names until they get their own way, people stealing 100's of euros worth of perfume and giving you the finger on their way out...its pretty crap. I enjoy it though, apart from the 9 hours on my feet.

Galwayguy35

Probably the hardest job I had was working for a silage contractor one summer, long days and just a few hours sleep and back at it again the next day.

mullinr2

My hardest job as a teacher, was working in a secondary school in Tallaght. My subject didn't help the matter either - religion. Kept at it for the year, then left. The Leaving Cert Applied students are on another level. Mental f**ks. Teaching for all its perks like holidays, can be mentally draining, most people do not realise that

G_R

Liam28 wrote: »

Fair enough, I can accept people don't enjoy retail, but my question was specifically why? What do customers do that make it hell? I have not seen a single example in this thread.
I understand the low pay, sh1t managers, no prospects element, but just take the money and go home at the end of the shift.
The night shift in a shop I can imagine, but how bad can your average Tesco customer get?

I’ve just given you access to the Ranting and Raving forum. Go read a thread called Cries of Retail and come back to us

Mister Vain

You haven't worked until you've worked on the bog. Footing turf would challenge the fittest of athletes.

Ipso

Mister Vain wrote: »

You haven't worked until you've worked on the bog. Footing turf would challenge the fittest of athletes.

And a nice dose of midges to go with it.

khaldrogo

Labouring on a building site at 16 yrs old........12 hr days sometimes.......lost about 2 stone in 6 weeks

Purple Mountain

PandaPoo wrote: »

I've been working a week in a pharmacy, between people coming in for their methadone and trashing the place, threatening us, other customers screaming at us, calling us names until they get their own way, people stealing 100's of euros worth of perfume and giving you the finger on their way out...its pretty crap. I enjoy it though, apart from the 9 hours on my feet.

There's a comedy sketch in there somewhere!

fatbhoy

al87987 wrote: »

Banana humping (carrying) in Australia for me. Up at 4:30 and bus by 5 to start work at 5:45.

11 hour days, when I started it was the middle of summer and 35 degrees.

Carrying banana bunches all day that weigh between 65-85 kg across your back in that heat is exhausting. I got sick everyday for two weeks until my body acclimatised. Throw in massive spiders, venomous snakes, scary cassowary's and the occasional 5 star hurricane and it really was the job that had everything.

Most people quit within a day or two. They don't even bother learning your name because they assume you won't be around. My friend flew back to Ireland after one days work and numerous other huge lads I saw crying and giving up. I was fairly undersized for the job but once I got the hack of it I properly loved it. Ended up staying 5 and a half months.

Hardest job I've ever done but undoubtedly the best experience of my life.

What was the pay like?

What encounters did you have with spiders, snakes and other things that want to eat you?

What were the storms like?

higster

Year before leaving cert, father stuck me in a meat packing factory for the summer because he knew I was doing feck all at school.

12 hr shifts cutting the left back foot off thousands of lambs. By jazus I studied the following year...

And as a farmers son I totally relate to the turf turning/footing (my poor back), potatoe picking in October (my poor fingers), filling and leveling drains with chip stones, field stone picking/seeding, silage contracting (looooong days), hand cutting silage pits, shoveling out tons of cow sh1te from sheds in the winter, weeding vegetable garden in spring/summer and so on. The father now has machines for all that craic...we were (5 sons) cheaper back in those days he tells us. NOTE not one of us is a farmer.

PandaPoo

Purple Mountain wrote: »

There's a comedy sketch in there somewhere!

A woman wanted a refund because she bought a hair straightener and apparently it's faulty...it makes her hair too straight. Honestly she screamed the shop down, called me useless along with other names. People are crazy.

Surreptitious

I never minded retail. I think it was because they were upper end goods but never had a dodgy customer and had good sales figures. It can be boring though and usually the women can be right bitches. I'd say working in Penney's or something would be a different story.

wally1990

PandaPoo wrote: »

A woman wanted a refund because she bought a hair straightener and apparently it's faulty...it makes her hair too straight. Honestly she screamed the shop down, called me useless along with other names. People are crazy.

This is why I couldn't do retail type jobs or facing the public , some people are nuts

jimbobaloobob

Worked on a fishing trawler for about 6 months. In that time i think i slept 4 hours, we seemed to always work and the lack of sleep just seemed to make it more dangerous. Cold, wet and sore described that 6 months, yet it gave me some of the most amazing experiences and sights to see. Whales and giant sting ray breaking the surface of the water alongside the trawler. Sharks. Some of the fish species that would be caught. Paid pittance too but i think ill chalk it down as experience.

Cleaning grease traps from rotary chicken ovens back in the 90s used to dry wretch as i had to slide my arm up the pipes and pull the grease and fat out of them. Even now it makes me feel like gagging.

But as someone said earlier, worst is self employed. Everyone thinks your making a fortune, your always waiting payments and looking for the next penny to pay a bill. No thanks from anyone including government. Cant wait to find a way out of it.