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Hardest job you've had?

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    #92
    TheToughest
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 11 ✭TheToughest


    blue note wrote: »
    Working as an accountant now and it's by far the hardest of the lot. Constant deadlines, requests coming at you from everywhere, a demand for everything to be done perfectly and in no time. And the busier the day the less you sleep that night. God I'd absolutely love a job where I could work hard for the day again and then leave it behind me when I go out the door.
    Corvo wrote: »
    Agree with the above. Worked in a factory for a few years but did a lot of heavy lifting as I was in the steel section, and you walked out the door at 5 or 6pm and the day was done until the following day.

    Now in an office role for the past number of years and you'd fall asleep at 11pm only to wake at 1am with numbers flying around your head and the constant anxiety that everything is in order for a certain client. And I thought it was just me, until I noticed a colleagues under serious strain and absent with stress.
    diomed wrote: »
    Retired from that now.
    The grief usually starts with someone saying "I have a lovely little job for you. You'll like this. It will suit you."
    And you end up with something that was ignored for five years and has to be done in a week.
    Ipso wrote: »
    I worked in a fish processing factory for a while; summer, college holidays, weekend etc
    I used to hate it but the work wasn't hard, now doing accounting.
    I read a quote from someone recently who described the desk as being more like a coffin. I'm starting to see what he meant.
    Started a part-time evening degree in accounting in September to get me out of the utterly soul destroying job I'm currently in. I got to say, ye aren't selling it well. :D

    Currently working in the green energy sector as a general operative (dogsbody). Mind numbing work in a large open shed, I'm constantly wet so you can imagine how fun that is in this weather. I spend most days trying not to get frost bitten. All for a little over minimum wage. Management are pricks of the highest order. Asked for a jacket two weeks ago and still haven't got one.

    A nice warm office sounds like heaven to me.


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    #93
    PowerToWait
    Registered Users Posts: 1,775 ✭✭✭PowerToWait


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


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    #94
    James 007
    Registered Users Posts: 962 ✭✭✭James 007


    When I was a young lad the old man had me and my brothers out 'fencing sheep' all summer. Fields were divided by a mix of trees and furs bushes and patches of fencing. Cutting furs bushes and plugging holes in the gaps was the norm instead of putting down some proper net fencing with some poles.

    Next job was collecting the sheep without a proper dog and treating the sheep for maggots. This normal began by cutting the infested area using a scissors and cutting off the maggot heads, then treating the sheep with something similar to domestos. The stink sometimes was reaching.

    Roll on the summer college years in London, one summer in Heathrow Airport working as a staff boy, next summer working at Westminster tube station labouring, underground using germ jiggers, now that was tough work, but a great work out.

    Final summer of college working on Long Island, The Hamptons, now thats the place to make money. Landscaping was my gig here, as well as working in a Cafe in Amagansett and on occasion flipping burgers and making ice teas with all the hot chicks queing up, easy money here.


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    #95
    Odelay
    Registered Users Posts: 3,799 ✭✭✭Odelay


    James 007 wrote: »
    When I was a young lad the old man had me and my brothers out 'fencing sheep' all summer. Fields were divided by a mix of trees and furs bushes and patches of fencing. Cutting furs bushes and plugging holes in the gaps was the norm instead of putting down some proper net fencing with some poles.

    Next job was collecting the sheep without a proper dog and treating the sheep for maggots. This normal began by cutting the infested area using a scissors and cutting off the maggot heads, then treating the sheep with something similar to domestos. The stink sometimes was reaching.

    Roll on the summer college years in London, one summer in Heathrow Airport working as a staff boy, next summer working at Westminster tube station labouring, underground using germ jiggers, now that was tough work, but a great work out.

    Final summer of college working on Long Island, The Hamptons, now thats the place to make money. Landscaping was my gig here, as well as working in a Cafe in Amagansett and on occasion flipping burgers and making ice teas with all the hot chicks queing up, easy money here.

    What are germ jiggers????


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    #96
    James 007
    Registered Users Posts: 962 ✭✭✭James 007


    Odelay wrote: »
    What are germ jiggers????
    Apologies, i made an error in that text, german jiggers is what i meant to say, its a concrete breaker thats light enough for you to hold it like a rifle with your shoulder weight against the butt of the jigger.


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    #97
    James 007
    Registered Users Posts: 962 ✭✭✭James 007


    https://www.google.ie/search?tbm=isch&q=german+jigger&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ2oWL44LYAhUGJ1AKHdLTC4IQvwUIOygA&biw=1366&bih=623&dpr=1


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    #98
    Purple Mountain
    Registered Users Posts: 13,062 ✭✭✭✭Purple Mountain


    freshpopcorn wrote: »
    Being a moderator at 2am when people keep on re-registering!

    Happy Christmas!

    To thine own self be true



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    #99
    NollagShona
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,360 ✭✭✭NollagShona


    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

    Amen


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    #100
    Mister Vain
    Registered Users Posts: 6,041 ✭✭✭Mister Vain


    I used to work in a factory that packaged washing powder and bottles of Comfort. Big heavy bastards flying down a ridiculously fast conveyor belt that had to be packed in boxes and put on a pallet. The floor manager would stand there with a stop watch and time everybody to see how many you were doing a minute. You would get a roasting if you weren't as fast at the person next to you. A fecking slave camp of a place.


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    #101
    ArchXStanton
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,912 ✭✭✭ArchXStanton


    Labouring for farmers in nth.county Dublin...im convinced that's were the name muck savage came from,pure slop and sh!te


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    #102
    Corkgirl18
    Closed Accounts Posts: 894 ✭✭✭Corkgirl18


    Working in a very tough school.
    Being cursed out of it multiple times a day, constant disrespect, threats and crazy behavioural issues from students.
    Trying to get in contact with parents who literally don't give a s**** about their kids. Reporting issues of abuse/neglect to Tusla etc and being told they aren't going to do anything.
    Definitely not the most physically demanding job I've had but it was very tough mentally.


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    #103
    ozzy78
    Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭ozzy78


    ArchXStanton wrote: »
    Labouring for farmers in nth.county Dublin...im convinced that's were the name muck savage came from,pure slop and sh!te

    Worked in Audi factory in Germany as a summer job. 8 hours on the production line doing the exact same laborious, but also monotonous task. Pay and social life definitely made up for it though :)


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    #104
    Mister Vain
    Registered Users Posts: 6,041 ✭✭✭Mister Vain


    Ever see those people that have to stand next to the escalators in shopping centres all day? Christ that must be boring.


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    #105
    TerrorFirmer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    I did almost a decade in retail and actually found it OK. You couldn't make up the stuff that customers come up with, but I generally enjoy working with people. Did a while in the public service as well in a public facing role and enjoyed that as well even though people really took the piss.

    Worked in the local Supermac's when I was 15, and again, perfectly fine job and didn't mind it, but will never forget one Sunday, it was just me and the manager, and it was so deathly quiet she decided to head off for half an hour.

    About five minutes later a bus of about 30 tourists came into the place. Picture in your minds eye a single awkward, spotty 15 year old trying to physically and emotionally take , prepare and serve the fast food orders of 30 Americans. I was almost in tears.


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    #106
    Foxhound38
    Registered Users Posts: 2,547 ✭✭✭Foxhound38


    Recruitment Consultant


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    #107
    Elemonator
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,271 ✭✭✭Elemonator


    I'm still a law student but I have done legal internships to secure a training contract. The **** you see is unreal.

    I'll never forget being in the local court and a man was up for minor vehicle offences. The judge called him up and before the judge even got started the man asked if the DPP were here to prosecute the case. The judge informed him that the DPP did not need to be present as the Guards were there to prosecute the case. The man then asked the judge to stop talking legalese and that he did not recognise the judgment of the Court because the DPP were not here. He then asked the judge if he was qualified to judge on such a case! The case moved on and moved onto whether the driver was manipulating the car. The driver then says he wasn't manipulating the car. Judge asked what was he manipulating and the man answered a motor vehicle and therefore could not be charged. I was trying my best to keep a straight face.

    I also work retail to put myself through college and I swear its actually not that bad. You do get the difficult customers sometimes. The demands the retailer place on you though are far worse, between 24 hour operations prior to Stephen's Day Sales and being told we have to come in to help prepare the shop for unscheduled sales while in college, extra hours when short staffed and extremely high demands when I could earn the same in another retailer for a less demanding job.


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    #108
    oholly121
    Registered Users Posts: 193 ✭✭oholly121


    Foxhound38 wrote: »
    Recruitment Consultant

    Quite possibly the worlds worst job :)


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    #109
    redcup342
    Registered Users Posts: 1,387 ✭✭✭redcup342


    Call Center Worker doing tech support.

    You get all sorts of crazies calling you.

    Plus they timed how long it took you to take a sh*t and said "We aren't enforcing toilet times but you do take a long time in there"


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    #110
    Tzardine
    Registered Users Posts: 3,884 ✭✭✭Tzardine


    Mister Vain wrote: »
    Ever see those people that have to stand next to the escalators in shopping centres all day? Christ that must be boring.

    What is the story with this? It must be an insurance / risk assessment thing. I have never seen them actually do anything (other than look miserable)


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    #111
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 15,814 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Working in retail when I was younger, just hell on earth. Doing tech support for one of the big companies was pretty awful aswell and both jobs made me wish for the days when I used to dig graves by hand.


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    #112
    Liam28
    Registered Users Posts: 118 ✭✭Liam28


    Tzardine wrote: »
    What is the story with this? It must be an insurance / risk assessment thing. I have never seen them actually do anything (other than look miserable)

    A few years ago a kid died after falling off the escalator in Blanchardstown Centre, so ever since they have someone minding the gap at the top of the escalators, in that shopping centre anyway.

    Everyone goes on about retail hell in this thread, but no examples of why it is such a bad job? How hard can it be to deal with customers? That is what the job is about. Can't be on the same level as some pf the physically / mentally / emotionally excruciating jobs on here.


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    #113
    LirW
    Registered Users Posts: 4,825 ✭✭✭LirW


    Everyone goes on about retail hell in this thread, but no examples of why it is such a bad job? How hard can it be to deal with customers? That is what the job is about. Can't be on the same level as some pf the physically / mentally / emotionally excruciating jobs on here.

    Not many people choose retail as career but because they need the money and it's relatively easy to get into without a long CV and skill. These people need to eat and pay their bills and for many, any job will do. Doesn't say though that they enjoy being there.


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    #114
    Mister Vain
    Registered Users Posts: 6,041 ✭✭✭Mister Vain


    Liam28 wrote: »
    A few years ago a kid died after falling off the escalator in Blanchardstown Centre, so ever since they have someone minding the gap at the top of the escalators, in that shopping centre anyway.

    Ahh that would explain it. It was actually there where I saw it. I never heard about that death, very tragic.


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    #115
    RDM_83 again
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,116 ✭✭✭RDM_83 again


    One thing all the people talking about missing physical jobs aren't taking into consideration is that riding that desk can be soul destroying but in the longer term e.g not a year or two it's going to wear you down people in there 40's and 50's with knees and back gone, wrists fcuked generally in roles that don't provide decent medical insurance.

    Edit:also lungs damage from dust inhalation over decades for some construction types


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    #116
    raze_them_all_
    Registered Users Posts: 6,744 ✭✭✭raze_them_all_


    Liam28 wrote: »
    A few years ago a kid died after falling off the escalator in Blanchardstown Centre, so ever since they have someone minding the gap at the top of the escalators, in that shopping centre anyway.

    Everyone goes on about retail hell in this thread, but no examples of why it is such a bad job? How hard can it be to deal with customers? That is what the job is about. Can't be on the same level as some pf the physically / mentally / emotionally excruciating jobs on here.

    I've done labourer, bouncer, outdoor instructor, plumber, and a few other jobs, for the last 5 months I've done night shift in a shop while waiting on another job to start in january.


    The amount of drunk, high, random weirdos, coupled with the hours of tedium, knowing the job is going nowhere and bad pay (unskilled job so no shock) means iot can be very tough


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    #117
    valoren
    Registered Users Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭valoren


    I worked in a call center for a chain of hotels just out of college. I looked at it as a means to an end until something else relevant to college came up. The working day was between 3.30pm and midnight and was primarily for US and Canada market fielding calls from a toll free number. It was non-stop. Call after call after call.

    To keep sane I started to keep note of my average daily calls and it came out as 120. It was mind numbing. You were effectively a human Trivago working with a shoddy application a 4th year IT student could have created using Visual Basic. You were at times silently monitored by supervisors on random calls who would mark you on 1. Greeting the customer 2. Establishing a rapport 3. Pretending to give a sh1t.....

    The worst part and the straw that broke the camels back was while I was constantly on calls, one evening I took to watching one of the french lads who was fielding the language calls as he was sitting opposite me. His English was rudimentary so he wasn't on the US/Canada slog. At one point he even put his feet up on another chair while reading his book. He must have taken between 10 and 15 calls that day. About 2 calls per hour. And he was getting paid more because it was for a language. While it was one thing to be constantly on the phone, that it was soul destroying, and was a temporary thing but to see that the same job was such a cushy number for someone else was the hard part.


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    #118
    Foxhound38
    Registered Users Posts: 2,547 ✭✭✭Foxhound38


    oholly121 wrote: »
    Quite possibly the worlds worst job :)

    All the high-flying perks of a call-center job combined with all the worst parts of being in HR, sales and at times psychotherapy!

    Never again


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    #119
    5rtytry56
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,828 ✭✭✭5rtytry56


    Doing over the phone Tech Support in a Conference Call ( One tech - me, talking to generally 4 other customers) in that computer company.

    But then I went back into Third Level for one more full time year - I actually regret this MORE


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    #120
    Liam28
    Registered Users Posts: 118 ✭✭Liam28


    LirW wrote: »
    Not many people choose retail as career but because they need the money and it's relatively easy to get into without a long CV and skill. These people need to eat and pay their bills and for many, any job will do. Doesn't say though that they enjoy being there.
    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?


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    #121
    wakka12
    Registered Users Posts: 9,786 ✭✭✭wakka12


    I-like-eggs,mmm wrote: »
    I’m surprised nobody has mentioned nursing. A highly stressful and demanding job. Thankless too. There’s too much to mention that I wouldn’t know where to start.

    13+ hour shifts. Being treated like a slave. Abusive and aggressive patients including their families too. Having to wipe sh*tty arses all the time. Patients ripping off their colostomy bags and throwing them at you. Usually no time to take breaks. Worked to the bone. If we don’t document at least twice what we did, it’s considered not done which can get you in big trouble. There’s just so much...

    I’d take being a kitchen porter over being a nurse.

    Kitchen porter isn't a bad job at all! Stick on an interesting podcast..shift flies by
    The worst thing is you don't really talk to anyone for the day..which is a bit lonely.


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