Soul destroying jobs you've had

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I've never had a job that was soul destroying, and very few posting here have either. A job that's a bit repetitive or a bit squeamish, or maybe having a boss that's a bit overbearing is something we'll all have to deal with from time to time, it's a part of life.

To me, a soul destroying job would be something like a teacher working in a deprived area, an emergency crew that encounters fatal incidents or a nurse in a children's hospice. But the people who do these jobs are not soulless, they are heroes doing extraordinary work.

Tl;dr, soul destroying jobs me hole.

Nice post Mr Tough Guy but I'd imagine anyone who has had a job that has led to them being systematically bullied in the workplace would consider that job to be 'Soul Destroying' whether it's working in a hospital or else just stacking shelves in a shop. It's not happened to me thank God nor have I had any bad jobs experiences but I'm sure it's happened to plenty of people working under little Hitlers!

Tl;dr, you're talking thru your hole

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The OED defines 'soul-destroying' as an adjective that means 'unbearable monotonous'.

In that case I'll have to nominate the five-week temp job that involved (by hand) putting a roomful of purchase orders in order by date and time, then when that was 90 percent done, turning around and following new orders from their corporate office that wanted them alphabetised by company name first and then sorted within company by purchase order number.

The Backwards Man wrote: »

What would anybody that contributes to the OED know about work?

Pfft.

You say it's only words.

But what if words are all I have to take your heart (soul) away?

jennyhayes123 wrote:

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

Blue Whale wrote:

I rang eir a few times..wasn't impressed by their customer service, what is it about their work environment that is so bad?

Dya know it's not even the customers so much for me, was the company attitude and constraints I loathed. Made it so hard for me to do the job I felt was needed. I can't go into too much detail, I don't wanna get a slap for running the company down, probably not allowed in thread. Just let it be known there are actually good agents working there that want to help, but it's usually knocked out of you sharpish!

There's not much more soul destroying than working in an airport. Watching people take off on holidays while you're stuck in the grey and rainy airport is torture.

kfallon wrote: »

The people you work with, the people you have to interact with and the atmosphere make up a lot of how you feel about the job! I don't think you can define the job by just the tasks involved, there are always other factors.

I once worked in a scrapyard in Co Armagh

• Dis-organised, messy, often muddy environment
• Poor damp filthy office/eating quarters (mice and rats were a constant issue)
• 50+ hours minimum during the week plus the odd weekend
• Daily abuse from some customers
• Daily verbal abuse over the phone
• Poor manegerial decisions that would result in further abusive threatening calls
• Miserable weather 70% of the time
• Personal delivery service to customers that you were never paid for
• The staff were complete headcases (fights did break out in the yard. I did see someone once try to swing a hatchet as intimidation and lodged it into the door instead)
• Management looked after their own family rather than the already neglected staff
• Pay was non existent

Management were all cliquey. Big shots regularly pushing us to breaking point until something went wrong, usually of their own doing, then it was left to us to clean up the mess while they buried their heads in the sand

There was one incident where on the 23rd of December 2 of us were taking a starter out of a lorrey as it pissed sleet on us. Our vain attempts to keep the dry had failed. Clothes were naturally destroyed and we were frozen. Management/family looking on from the shed laughing at us. I asked myself how on earth did I end up in this situation

I used to dread getting up in the mornings. I hated the thought of the place. It did nothing positive for me.

I worked very hard to get out of that place and have never looked back

Apprentice boil sucker. As an apprentice I got all the dirty jobs.

sup_dude wrote: »

Most sole destroying job I worked in had me working 60-100 hours a week of a labour intensive job.

You obviously had the wrong boots on trout..... :pac:

kfallon wrote:

You obviously had the wrong boots on trout.....

Oops!

kfallon wrote: »

Should have joined the Provos..... :pac:

Seriously tho, I reckon the bit I've bolded shows how much someone really dislikes/hates their job. Very few times have I dreaded coming into work but to have that feeling every day would be awful imo! Utter relief leaving the job in the evening and then that sick feeling in the morning when the alarm goes off!

Work was far enough away too which meant I had too much time to think of how much I wanted finishing time to hurry round. It got to the stage where I got home and felt nothing; after being degraded for so long you realize that even when you're back home you have to do the same thing over again the next day, knowing you'll have to deal with the same rubbish over and over again with no one to turn to or nowhere to go

It's not a nice position to be in and wouldn't wish it on anyone

Inspecting toppings in a pizza factory, closely followed by inspecting metal detectors in same pizza factory. Had to leave after bursting into tears eating my lunch there one day.

On my CV it says that I managed a canteen in a busy chain store, taking sole responsibility for purchasing and stock, staffing, hygiene and cleanliness etc.
The reality was that I was the dinner lady. I worked alone preparing unimaginative dinners and limp sandwiches for a staff of about thirty. The staff were very cleanly divided into two groups.
The first group were late teens and early twenties, skivvies who were using the job to pay their way through college. They were full of plans for their future, they wanted to get a masters when they were finished their degree, they wanted to travel. Unfortunately in the seven months that I stuck it out most of them found it impossible to balance the job with college so they dropped out of college and continued to work. The shop got a ready-made workforce willing to work for nothing because they have no qualifications and no prospects and are so focussed on the gossip from last Friday night and the promise of next Friday night that they are making no plans to improve their situation. Then they get pregnant or buy a car so they have financial commitments so they can't leave their job. The talk of MAs and exotic travel dried up. I watched this unfold so often in just over half a year that it really got to me.
The second group were the managers. They had risen to this lofty position by pure brass neck. They knew they were out of their depth so most of them felt the need to assert their right to boss others around by belittling the staff and each other. One of them used to bang his empty mug on the table without looking up from his sleazy tabloid newspaper to get me to leave whatever I was doing and pour his tea. Another one used to call me 'Love' so I waited until he was the only one there and he said it again. I lightly said "It has been a long time since anybody had the nerve to call me 'Love,' I'm not sure I like it." The next day he waited until there were a few people there to loudly point out a missing apostrophe on the menu I had displayed. I haughtily reminded him that I had a masters in English literature and plurals don't automatically need apostrophes. His sweet, sweet fury and humiliation kept me warm over the cold miserable weeks before I quit in the middle of a shift.

sup_dude wrote: »

Most soul destroying job I worked in had me working 60-100 hours a week of a labour intensive job. It could be much long than a week before you got a day off though. The boss I firmly believe was a sociopath or psychopath. I was nearly hospitalised with exhaustion, and two years later, my hands still don't function properly and I need to stretch and crack them to get them open in the morning. There was no pay except very cold, damp accommodation. I ended up "fired" when I was meant to be on medical leave (which she wouldn't let me off for), because I kept dropping things and walking into things, and I ended up in tears in front of her trying to explain why I wanted more than my ten minutes lunch break, having dropped my lunch all over the floor.. I had got badly injured the month beforehand and it took me several minutes to even realise I got hurt because I was too tired. The girl I was working with ended up in hospital after she wasn't allowed time off when she broke her back... causing her back to go into spasms one night. She rang her friend to come take her to the hospital so the ambulance wouldn't alert the boss, and only told the boss she was gone the next morning.

The job I work in now isn't great and push the limits of what's legal. People are horrified when I tell them, but compared to the last place, it's easy.

So, you were literally a slave? What was the actual attraction of this job with no days off, endless hours, backbreaking labour and zero pay? I'm having trouble understanding why you would start, let alone continue, in a job like that.

Wompa1 wrote: »

Every single one.

My last job was probably the worst...I worked 100+ hours most weeks. My son was born on a Sunday. I was back working at 7am Monday morning.

My first reaction when I read that was,'you poor poor girl,those Magdalene laundry fcukers'.
Take it that you were actually the daddy tho,which makes it sound a little less cruel,but well ****ty scenario none the less.