What's The Worst Job You Ever Had?

h7nlrp2v0g5u48 · 17-07-2018 2:43pm #1

I remember back in the eighties working in a meat factory and it was the most disgusting job I ever did and could not wait to Jack it in as it involved the slaughter of sheep and my job was to separate the eddible parts of the sheep's organs from the organs you could not eat. At the time we were in a recession and to be honest it was hard to get a job that I liked so I took the first job that came up for financial reasons. So have any of you ever worked in a job you hated but took it say for financial or other reasons?

verycool · 17-07-2018 2:44pm

natashaob6 wrote: »

I remember back in the eighties working in a meat factory and it was the most disgusting job I ever did and could not wait to Jack it in as it involved the slaughter of sheep and my job was to separate the eddible parts of the sheep's organs from the organs you could not eat. At the time we were in a recession and to be honest it was hard to get a job that I liked so I took the first job that came up for financial reasons. So have any of you ever worked in a job you hated but took it say for financial or other reasons?

Were you fired by any chance?! :pac:

Kevin Finnerty · 17-07-2018 2:47pm

In a former life I was an AH Mod. Dealing with scumbags every day only upside was the free coke and hookers.

Hector Savage · 17-07-2018 2:48pm

I worked as a temp in the US in an insurance company, all paperwork.
To say it was soul destroyingly BORING is a f*cking understatment ... the amount of SH!TE I had to trawl through ... jebus!

ohnonotgmail · 17-07-2018 2:50pm

Working in an off licence opposite the SFX in Dublin. attracted every alcoholic in the area. Not to mention the chaos if there was a gig on.

Hector Savage · 17-07-2018 2:51pm

I also had a summer job in a wharehouse, and it was good craic , great colleagues and got to arse about on a forklift.

But once we had a stash of memory cards that were mislabeled as 256MB instead of 128 ... or something similar, we had to manually remove labels ... jesus it was ****ing AWFUL.

I woke up that night with my fingers twitching in a scraping motion, ****ing weird.

17-07-2018 2:51pm

i once found myself cleaning grout in a jacks using a toothbrush

cold-calling uk customers to sell life insurance was worse. much worse.

managing civil servants.....hmm id have to think about it tbh

Beta Ray Bill · 17-07-2018 2:51pm

I worked in bookies on Pearse street in Dublin.

It was appalling. Dreadful work, dealing with awful people.

One day this regular came in with docket with odds on it for a horse at 11/1, the live odds on the screen we had said 9/1.
I told him I had to change the odds on the docket and he went mental, and told me to "Just put it f**king on" so I changed the odds docket and put it on.

Horse came in and your man came to collect his money, he was €400 short as I'd changed the odds.
He told me I was f**king dead. He was a total scobe so I ignored it for the most part explaining to him that he told me to put it on.

Anyway 5:30pm rolls round and I'm leaving, guess who's waiting for me across the road with a load of his mates with sticks and sh*t.
Got chased to Pearse Train station.

Never went back.
Worst. Job. Ever.

D3V!L · 17-07-2018 2:51pm

I know a guy (not me) that was a pig and turkey fluffer :eek:

17-07-2018 2:52pm

D3V!L wrote: »

I know a guy (not me) that was a pig and turkey fluffer :eek:

filthy swine

ohnonotgmail · 17-07-2018 2:54pm

D3V!L wrote: »

I know a guy (not me) that was a pig and turkey fluffer :eek:

you do know what a fluffer is, right?

Red_Wake · 17-07-2018 2:54pm

I used to work in the jacob's biscuits factory.

I had to leave after I found out how they put the figs in the fig rolls. Disgusting.

Sky King · 17-07-2018 2:55pm

I worked for a global courier. On a typical day I had to put the message in the box, put the box into a car and then, (depending on how busy we were) I often had to drive the car around the world.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48 · 17-07-2018 2:56pm

verycool wrote: »

Were you fired by any chance?! :pac:

No as I couln'd afford to get fired and despite there not been many jobs around at the time I counted myself very lucky to have found work.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48 · 17-07-2018 2:58pm

Sky King wrote: »

I worked for a global courier. On a typical day I had to put the message in the box, put the box into a car and then, (depending on how busy we were) I often had to drive the car around the world.

That job would have drove me crazy. Pardon the pun.

jamesbere · 17-07-2018 3:02pm

I used to work as an archaeologist with my ex girlfriend, it was an awful job. She kept digging up the past

ArnoldJRimmer · 17-07-2018 3:09pm

Sky King wrote: »

I worked for a global courier. On a typical day I had to put the message in the box, put the box into a car and then, (depending on how busy we were) I often had to drive the car around the world.

The question is though, did you get heard?

ElKavo · 17-07-2018 3:12pm

Box factory. Nothing like the Simpsons! The box machines had faulty safety mechanisms which meant that you could have your hands crushed if you did not work quick enough! 12 hr shifts too which made this a very real possibility.

Lady Spangles · 17-07-2018 3:12pm

In a call centre in Belfast, just off the Falls Road. We were cold-calling senior citizens in England and selling them crap they didn't need. We were expected to be making calls constantly, had a few minutes to sell them stuff (they usually just hung up on us, anyway) and straight on to the next. What we sold changed frequently. But one, getting donations to some dodgy sounding animal charity, was a step too far for me. I'd been working there a month and I just unplugged the headset and walked out, unable to take it any more.

valoren · 17-07-2018 3:14pm

Left college in 2002 in the dip following the dotcom crash/911 recession. IT jobs were scarce and I ended up taking a job as a 'Reservation Sales Associate' with a worldwide chain of hotels. I only took it for the money which wasn't much anyway.

My rota was the US market so hours were 3.30pm to Midnight and the role was to field the toll free number to help people booking rooms. The 'sales' aspect was essentially to convince them to upgrade and extol the virtues of these better rooms. I hated it with a passion and the calls were just relentless. To keep my sanity I kept note of daily call volumes which amounted to 125 calls per day on average. I actually marked them on my note book in the same way a prisoner marks their days with an X. It looked like a matrix of X's with the dates for each shift.

The soul destroying aspect was that foreign language speakers were less busy. So much so that one of the french speakers took to reading a variety of novels with his feet up and was lucky to get perhaps 12 calls a day. Le Meh! It didn't help to know they were paid 20% more because they had the skill of speaking their native tongue. You also needed to log the time you used for the toilet, you were secretly listened to on occasion by supervisors for 'training' purposes and after getting sufficient warnings about my complete lack of enthusiasm I was let go to my immense and utter delight.

I still regard that day as a peak experience. A burden had been lifted. Now it wasn't like I'd been working in a coal mine but these kind of jobs run it close. To this day I actually hate using office phones and would never ever be rude or condescending to any call center workers ringing me.

Bitches Be Trypsin · 17-07-2018 3:20pm

Apache Pizza. Just so rude to staff and was underpaid more than once.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48 · 17-07-2018 3:21pm

I don't know about the worst job in the world but the most boaring job must be working as a security guard. I know there are risks involved and it can be a dangerous job but if i was doing a twelve hour night shift in a large building on my own I would go insane how would you put down the time?

fancy pigeon · 17-07-2018 3:22pm

Scrapyard in south Armagh. Where everyone hated everyone.

Never a dull moment in that place. As in there was occasional bouting in the yard with some of the questionable general public. I remember arriving in one morning to the remains of a scuffle and a hatchet in the door

Maximize the work, usually well beyond working hours

I look back and don't miss those days, at all

sjb25 · 17-07-2018 3:24pm

Call center job sh1thole!!! Only lasted a month

If customers weren’t giving you stick
Management was you wer on that call to long you were on that call to fast you had a piss for to long etc etc could never do it fair play to those who can

arybvtcw0eolkf · 17-07-2018 3:34pm

natashaob6 wrote: »

I remember back in the eighties working in a meat factory and it was the most disgusting job I ever did and could not wait to Jack it in as it involved the slaughter of sheep and my job was to separate the eddible parts of the sheep's organs from the organs you could not eat. At the time we were in a recession and to be honest it was hard to get a job that I liked so I took the first job that came up for financial reasons. So have any of you ever worked in a job you hated but took it say for financial or other reasons?

Wasn't Dublin Meat Packers out by Ballymun/Dublin airport by any chance?.

Sounds exactly like my first job too.

My worst job, probably owning/driving a taxi for five years. I hated it, it was by far the most stressful job I've had to date. You're treated horribly by almost everyone.

Other than that, just about every publican I've worked for treated staff (and customers) with total disrespect. You're only there to make them money, nothing matter outside of that. All but one have been horrible kunts.

valoren · 17-07-2018 3:35pm

natashaob6 wrote: »

I don't know about the worst job in the world but the most boaring job must be working as a security guard. I know there are risks involved and it can be a dangerous job but if i was doing a twelve hour night shift in a large building on my own I would go insane how would you put down the time?

I did the static security guard role during college and during the summer. It's boring for sure with the actual work involving staying awake, patrolling the site to scan the digital fobs but got plenty done in terms of course study and general reading e.g. I read the Lord of the Rings and was effectively paid to do so.

Joe prim · 17-07-2018 3:37pm

Hector Savage wrote: »

I also had a summer job in a wharehouse, and it was good craic , great colleagues and got to arse about on a forklift.

But once we had a stash of memory cards that were mislabeled as 256MB instead of 128 ... or something similar, we had to manually remove labels ... jesus it was ****ing AWFUL.

I woke up that night with my fingers twitching in a scraping motion, ****ing weird.

I know this is a misprint but which kind of misspelling it is could be hugely significant?

h7nlrp2v0g5u48 · 17-07-2018 3:39pm

sugarman wrote: »

First real job was working on sites mid recession after coming straight out of college, took whatever I could as work was hard to come by.

Absolutely grueling back breaking labour for anywhere between 12-18hrs a day with little or no breaks. 6 days a week. Now the money was fantastic, even 10 years later by todays rates ...but it killed me physically and mentally. All I ever did on my one day off was sleep. Had little or no contact with friends/family for the 12-18months I was there. Was often away from home for days at a time and I couldn't even spend the money I was earning. Would never do it again.

I worked over in the UK on a building site in Essex 1989. I worked as a labourer and I used to get all the sh***y jobs like shovelling rubble in to a wheel barrow and pushing it up a plank and in to a dumber. Like you I would be wrecked but the money was good. I hated it as I got home sick and their was one guy I didn't like and also had to have my tea break and lunch on my own as most of the workers on the site were English and at that time the Irish weren't very welcome. Boy was I glad to get back home.

Bredabe · 17-07-2018 3:40pm

So Many, but the ones that come to mind are, 'deli assistant' in a supermarket. Suited types coming in at 6.45am for rolls and micromanaging how it was made, what the fillings were and in what order the fillings were put in the roll.
Being stuck on the non-meat counter at lunchtimes, more micromanager roll buyers, ppl wanting me to make their pizza, cut just out of the oven chicken into what they decided was halves and my fav, filleting raw fish, while the q for the rolls and pizza's grew.

Call centre type work, where I was regularly threatened with physical violence on the phone if 'caller' didn't get the answer they wanted on the phone, drunk orders who would kick up they got an order they didn't place, ppl who called with queries who didn't read/have the right glasses or couldn't do mats, the most trying, the hard of hearing and bad line calls. Each and every call was recorded and recalled at random, alongside the 'snitches' who would tell management when someone did something outside of the 'training'.

ACADasltiv · 17-07-2018 3:42pm

Working in a potato factory. 10+ hours days standing on the grader where you would pick off any potatoes not worthy of being displayed on the shelves in Tesco and throw them down a shoot, to be sold on for cattle feed. Took me ages to realise the sprained wrists I was somehow waking up with were actually repetitive strain injury :pac:

BIGT4464 · 17-07-2018 3:43pm

Summer task, creosoting a fence 100m long, paid by the section, in the sun, the smell.

BIGT4464 · 17-07-2018 3:44pm

Although my year in Dell also sucked

Fighting Tao · 17-07-2018 3:46pm

Connecting a new housing estates sewer to the main town sewer during the summer. Really sh1t job.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48 · 17-07-2018 3:48pm

ACADasltiv wrote: »

Working in a potato factory. 10+ hours days standing on the grader where you would pick off any potatoes not worthy of being displayed on the shelves in Tesco and throw them down a shoot, to be sold on for cattle feed. Took me ages to realise the sprained wrists I was somehow waking up with were actually repetitive strain injury :pac:

Speaking of potatoes to earn some pocket money for the Summer holidays my friend and i used to work for a farmer picking potatoes and footing turf. I still suffer today from back pain as i would spent eight hours a day bending and in severe pain. I wouln'd wish it on my worst enemy.

yogi37 · 17-07-2018 3:50pm

In Australia, myself and a friend applied for a job in 'marketing'. Our first day in the office we were told we would be working 'out in the field'. Not til we got off the bus did I realise I would be spending the rest of the day knocking on peoples doors in suburban Melbourne asking them to sign up for monthly direct debits to a charity. Not even selling them anything. I somehow suffered through 2 and a half days before packing it in.

I got another job as a labourer for a company doing roadworks. I was literally digging trenches in 40 degree heat for 12+ hours at a time. That job was a dream in comparison to knocking on doors.

Malayalam · 17-07-2018 3:54pm

Night shift in a biscuit factory where I wore a stupid plastic hat and sat on a tall chair in front of a wide white conveyor belt that wound around the entire warehouse. I had a long handled spatula thing, and my job - my ONLY job! - was to turn over the chocolate biscuits that were facing down. I kid you not. 10 hours, 5 nights a week of brown dots moving hypnotically on a white background in front of my eyes. I was saving to go traveling, otherwise I would have lost my mind. :P

Church on Tuesday · 17-07-2018 4:00pm

Worked as a cleaner cleaning office blocks in Manchester a little while back.

People were sound, but the work was incredibly tedious.

h7nlrp2v0g5u48 · 17-07-2018 4:01pm

Malayalam wrote: »

Night shift in a biscuit factory where I wore a stupid plastic hat and sat on a tall chair in front of a wide white conveyor belt that wound around the entire warehouse. I had a long handled spatula thing, and my job - my ONLY job! - was to turn over the chocolate biscuits that were facing down. I kid you not. 10 hours, 5 nights a week of brown dots moving hypnotically on a white background in front of my eyes. I was saving to go traveling, otherwise I would have lost my mind. :P

Jaysus the lenghts some of us went to earn a few bob. Your employer took the biscuit when offering you that job.

tedpan · 17-07-2018 4:01pm

BIGT4464 wrote:

Although my year in Dell also sucked

Dell was a a great place to work, I earned loads of money in the years I worked there from 2002-2005.

My worst job was Smart telecom. A week of broadband training, which was not too bad, until I got onto the sales floor. They used the same network as magnet which gave you a very limited customer base. I was revved up and ready to go, then to be told that one day you will work your way up to sell broadband...

Anyway, I was given a desk in a room of about 100 reps and told we had to sell telephone packages, the target was 5 sales per day or 25 per week, based on 300 calls per day. Basic maths tells you 5x100 reps is 500 expected sales per day.

The management team had told us that 50% of the reps were hitting or overachieving their targets.

The majority of the poor people we were calling had been called at least once by other reps that day already and were basically being harassed.

On the first day, there were 8 sales on the entire floor, 5 the next day and I didn't go back for day 3..

Disgraceful company.

thomas 123 · 17-07-2018 4:03pm

Hotels for me.

Zero hour contracts and idiot "Managers".

if you weren't in the smokers crew you got the late shifts and where the first to have your hours cut when it came to quite periods.

yogi37 · 17-07-2018 4:03pm

ACADasltiv wrote: »

Working in a potato factory. 10+ hours days standing on the grader where you would pick off any potatoes not worthy of being displayed on the shelves in Tesco and throw them down a shoot, to be sold on for cattle feed. Took me ages to realise the sprained wrists I was somehow waking up with were actually repetitive strain injury :pac:

I did this for a few summers as a young lad. Did not actually mind it myself. There was probably a bit more variety for me than just grading spuds but thats what I did a lot of the time. I suppose I didnt mind it seen I was a 15 year old with £100 or so in my pocket on a Friday. I dont imagine I'd enjoy it as much now.

Galwayguy35 · 17-07-2018 4:07pm

Rubbish recycling centre, miserable work for miserable pay.

Freezing in winter and flies everywhere in summer.

JupiterKid · 17-07-2018 4:19pm

Working in Abrakebabra during a college summer or telemarketing. Awful.:(

Hector Savage · 17-07-2018 4:24pm

tedpan wrote: »

Dell was a a great place to work, I earned loads of money in the years I worked there from 2002-2005.

My worst job was Smart telecom. A week of broadband training, which was not too bad, until I got onto the sales floor. They used the same network as magnet which gave you a very limited customer base. I was revved up and ready to go, then to be told that one day you will work your way up to sell broadband...

Anyway, I was given a desk in a room of about 100 reps and told we had to sell telephone packages, the target was 5 sales per day or 25 per week, based on 300 calls per day. Basic maths tells you 5x100 reps is 500 expected sales per day.

The management team had told us that 50% of the reps were hitting or overachieving their targets.

The majority of the poor people we were calling had been called at least once by other reps that day already and were basically being harassed.

On the first day, there were 8 sales on the entire floor, 5 the next day and I didn't go back for day 3..

Disgraceful company.

Some companies really take the ****ing piss ...

evil_seed · 17-07-2018 4:25pm

Production line in medtronic. Twas awful brain numbing sh1te

Ipso · 17-07-2018 4:29pm

yogi37 wrote: »

In Australia, myself and a friend applied for a job in 'marketing'. Our first day in the office we were told we would be working 'out in the field'. Not til we got off the bus did I realise I would be spending the rest of the day knocking on peoples doors in suburban Melbourne asking them to sign up for monthly direct debits to a charity. Not even selling them anything. I somehow suffered through 2 and a half days before packing it in.

I got another job as a labourer for a company doing roadworks. I was literally digging trenches in 40 degree heat for 12+ hours at a time. That job was a dream in comparison to knocking on doors.

Ended up in something similar in Perth, started selling gym memberships. I’ll never forget when a fella in a wheelchair opened the door.

Hector Savage · 17-07-2018 4:35pm

I remember also (jaysus I've worked some ****E jobs) working in a pharmaceutical place.
It was a temp job while looking for decent work after I returned from traveling.
The job was basically watching pills go by and removing damaged ones from the conveyor belt - mind numbingly sould destroying crap - and the noise in the place was really terrible.

The manager was sound when I started , really dead on - too sound in fact.
After about 2 weeks I got a techy job
When I gave my notice, he turned into an ignorant rude prick - like he couldn't stand I was leaving for a better job.

Harry Palmr · 17-07-2018 4:41pm

Picking lobsters out of Jayne Mansfield's arse.

Look it up.

Lorelli! · 17-07-2018 4:56pm

Malayalam wrote: »

Night shift in a biscuit factory where I wore a stupid plastic hat and sat on a tall chair in front of a wide white conveyor belt that wound around the entire warehouse. I had a long handled spatula thing, and my job - my ONLY job! - was to turn over the chocolate biscuits that were facing down. I kid you not. 10 hours, 5 nights a week of brown dots moving hypnotically on a white background in front of my eyes. I was saving to go traveling, otherwise I would have lost my mind. :P

I never did shift work but worked in a manufacturing plant and some of the lads and girls from another department did the night shift. One week on, one week off. Id still see them cause of my times and you could always tell their mood was so different depending on the day or night shift.

TheValeyard · 17-07-2018 5:21pm

I like this thread. Makes me feel better abouty ****ty jobs in my youth.

BilboBagOfCans · 17-07-2018 5:22pm

Cleaning toilets.

What's The Worst Job You Ever Had?

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