Soul destroying jobs you've had

Worked in a sausage factory for a few months, it's just as well people didn't know what went on there when they chewed down on their nice crispy sausages.

Was a painter for a while as well, the money was reasonable but I wouldn't have been able to do it long term.

Worked in a call centre in Belfast for 1 year whilst in college. Despised everything about it - the abuse you got on calls, the supervisor constantly listening over your shoulder, the hours. Our job was to ring random numbers in NI and carry out silly surveys.

However, I am quite glad of the experience though. I now know what its like to have a horrible job, and can still remember the depressing nights where all I thought about was work the next day.

Love my current job now, and if I ever have a bad day, I just think about that call centre :P

This may not have been ‘soul destroying’ stuff but was my worst experience of work ever and was absolutely awful.
Couple mates and myself (about8-10 of us) worked down at Electric Picnic a couple years ago just setting up the stages and then taking them down again.
The first day we worked was the Thursday morning where we set up the speakers on the main stage, unloading equipment off a truck and did some wiring. We were basically standing around in blue hi-vis vest, waiting for someone to say ‘alri lads need 3 of you to follow me to X and do Y’. The weather was lovely and I was working with my mates so it was a grand day
The Sunday however, was a different kettle of fish altogether. We were summoned to EP at 8:00 to take down a couple stages. This time the manager decided to split us up, so we wouldn’t be with mates etc. which is fair enough. I ended up being put with a group of Romanian chaps of which, none spoke English so wasn’t ideal when handling heavy equipment together and trying to instruct each other. I was with these lads until 19:00 taking down this stage. We then walked to another stage for 19:20. The act wasn’t finished yet though so we had to wait 2/3 hours backstage. Usually this wouldn’t be too bad but it was some techno group who were pure s**** imo at least.
Afterwards we took down the stage, tough work but not the worst all the same. Took about 4/5 hours I’d say. Finished about 3am. I rang my mate when I was waiting for the techo crap to finish, to find out the majority of them were watching outkast on the main stage having a few bottles that their manager had snuck in. Aswell as this they received free food tokens to get a nice hot dinner while I hadn’t eaten in I don’t know how long. (had lunch packed but wasn’t allowed to bring my bag with me)
Myself and another random chap then had to follow this guy to lift stuff back to this stage from another tent. It was lashing down and the ground was like sludge. We weren’t allowed to let the precious equipment touch the ground even though it was on wheels. The guy who brought us decided to lead from the back telling us how to lift and shouting orders all the while not lifting a finger himself. We did that for a couple hours prob finished this about 5am.
Lastly this same guy who didn’t lift a finger brought me with him to pack up all the equipment in a spot called ‘rave in the forest’ I think but I could be wrong. When I got there I was finally reunited with 2 of my mates about 20 hours since last seeing them. We started clearing this place out but it was in some sort of pit and all the equipment had to be carried up a steep hill littered with cans and bottles, not to mention how slippy it was after the rain and a few nights of people jumping all over it. Once again our instructor guy was ordering us about, but we have enough at this point, I had been getting phone calls from my mates since about 4am asking where I was that they had been finished working a while now and were heading towards McDonalds. Myself and the other 2 lads decided we’d pull a runner. We started slying off as our instructor (my original bossy guy as the other lads instructor went elsewhere) was busy, before going full on sprint across random fields not knowing where we were. Unfortunately the guy saw us and started legging it after us shouting to get back before catching us (obviously hadn’t used too much energy all day since he covered 200m in about 30 seconds on bottomless ground). He was pissed at us but we manager to secure a deal that he’d let us go after another hour. To be fair to the chap he kept his word and let us go, thankfully. We were so exhausted and returned to the car park at 8am with the others all waiting for us.
We then drove home absolutely dying (had a few near misses driving home as the chap driving kept falling asleep on the wheel) and got home for 9am to go to school the Monday morning. We got €10 an hour for our work but we all received the same amount, suffice is to say that was the first and last time I worked for these cowboys.

nkav86 wrote:

Eir call centre, f**kin awful

I feel sorry for everyone working there. I had so much trouble from Eircom and then Eir. I hated ringing up every month and felt guilty doing it as I know these people probably hate there jobs as much as I hated ringing

Worked the technical support desk for a crap ISP I hated it. The crap you had to go through every day 2 people on the desk for 6000 customers on a pos network that was over contended 8hrs of taking abuse from customers who were locked into a contract and you could not help them. Worked there for a year and then I just stopped answering the phones until I got my marching orders.

Worked as a door man for a pub in a Dublin suburb was right about the time I gave up drinking so depressing the same heads every day have been in the pub since opening going form the pub to the bookies and back again smell of stale piss and beer off them.

When I was in the US, I was between secretarial jobs for a bit, and a friend sent me to talk to a lawyer she knew about a job. I'd done temp office work for courtroom lawyers in the past, and was considered very good at it because I had computer skills, liked legal stuff, was careful, and could spell anything. (Getting along with lawyers is sort of not the point; you don't become a Texas lawyer because of your magnanimity and pure heart. I could expand on the abuse I got but I won't. Despite that I was still tagged "gets along with lawyers".)

OK, a bit of background: Debt collection law in Texas is a bit crazy. Collectors who violate the rules are in serious danger of having the entire debt wiped out by the court, as in something that will probably happen. If the debtor can show a pattern of harassment, this is sure to happen. Collectors are barred from directly contacting debtors if the debtor makes it known to the collector that they are represented by counsel. If they contact the debtor anyway, it is considered harassment. The friend's sleazy lawyer acquaintance was a debtor representative.

He had set up a scam that claimed he could work with creditors to wipe out debt. The client essentially paid a fee for the lawyer to fax each creditor saying that the debtor was now represented by counsel. Then the waiting game started, with the object of outwaiting the creditors and making them settle for less than the original amount. My job was basically to read and file the letters sent to the lawyer's office by the creditors, and to let him know if any creditor offered a settlement of less than 20 percent of the original amount due. I also answered the phone and told creditors who called that all contact needed to be in writing. Otherwise all calls and letters were ignored completely. If the debtor received any contact from the creditor directly, the debtor was to let the lawyer know the details. In the meantime, the debtor's credit rating got murdered. The lawyer also used me as a free tech support person since I had done that work in the past.

When I was originally hired, the lawyer had me sign a contract of employment, something which was not usual in that place and time and had no formal status in employment law (it was considered just a voluntary agreement). Nothing about it seemed out of the way, though, so I chalked it up to "being overlawyered" and signed. Looking at it later, I found a clause that said that I was owed a bonus of something like a couple hundred dollars after 90 days of employment. A few months after the 90 days had passed, I presented my copy of the contract that we'd both signed and asked the lawyer about it. He went into a rage, accused me of forging my copy after it was signed (I'm still not sure how I was supposed to have done it), and had his secretary pull up previous copies in the computer to "prove" it. Naturally the previous contracts had the clause, and his other office people were surprised to find that they were also entitled to the bonus (that of course they had never received). Instead of paying any of us the bonus, the lawyer called the police to have me thrown out of the building (I was never actually told I was fired, lol). I told the police that I would be happy to leave if I was paid my back pay, never mind the bonus. They made the lawyer promise to send me a check, which naturally I never received.

I'll never work for or voluntarily have any other legal dealings with a lawyer again unless I personally hire them to represent my own interests. No other lawyers will touch your case if you have a legitimate grievance.

bodice ripper wrote: »

MOTHER****ING DUNNES POXY STORES.

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

Stockroom boy in Dunnes Stores back in the early 90's. Basically eight hours a day sorting clothes hangers for the girls out on the shop floor. And department store managers are easily amongst the lowest forms of life on Earth. Barely a Leaving Cert to their name with a laughably overblown sense of their own self worth.

This +100

3.5 years I would wish to have permanently deleted from my memory.

As a young looking, inexperienced college student I get treated very badly in the parttime jobs I take over the summer break. The resturant/club/bar/hospitality industry is already notorious for mistreating staff but to make matters worse Im also a quiet, nice person and very unconfrontational.

Ive gone through so many jobs because I keep leaving them because I hate how Im being treated.
Managers/owners deliberately not telling me how much Im being paid or when Im getting a contract etc for up to a week, often telling me they don't know need me and that I can go home when I come in for my shifts if the cafe/bar is quieter than expected. Which I think is so rude, why not ****ing text me before I travel there. Putting down on the roster that Ill be working say for instance 1pm -2pm but later if busy. Which is so annoying because I have to keep my whole day free for them and I will probably only end up getting 2 hours anyway .Always paying me late, not making sure I know when payday is or how tips are divided etc.
One cafe I worked with last summer tried to tell me at the end of my first week that the entire past 7 days work were training days and so I wouldnt be paid for them. Absolutely disgraceful they tried to pull that on me. Got my pay for it though, I just wasnt having it.

These all might seem like small things but theyre extremely disrespectful, and you don't want to come off as a rude or anything because you could easily lose the job. And you don't want that, because its extremely difficult for students to get partime jobs in Dublin with little prior experience.
And please, to older people, when you go to a restaurant or cafe and see a young looking college age student serving you, don't be rude to them. It just makes the ****ty job even worse, theyre in the position Im in.

Mec27 wrote: »

...why are people so hellbent on bigging up how ****ty their jobs are ....

Hm, maybe something to do with the thread title?

jimbobaloobob wrote: »

Had to shove my fist up it as far as my elbow with one of those veterinary gloves. Even now i get the shivers.

Sounds like a good Saturday night to me...... :pac:

"Application support" for HP in Galway - turned out to be 12 hour shifts on MS Office Communicator asking people in Guadalajara and Bangalore to do things. I lasted 4 weeks, moved back to Dublin and filled in my application for my masters on the train back.

Dunnet Stores a close second. Absolute wankbags to work for.