Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

What's The Worst Job You Ever Had?

245

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,188 ✭✭✭Malayalam


    Cleaning toilets.

    Yes, as a girl I worked for 3 months as a contract toilet cleaner in a central train station in a city in Europe - men and womens toilets....I am cheerful by nature but that job was almost enough to make me lose my faith in humankind.

    673.jpg


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    Cleaning toilets.

    That really must have been a sh***y job.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    you do know what a fluffer is, right?

    I don't can you tell me please?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,408 ✭✭✭corner of hells


    I worked lift maintenance , it had its "ups" but it also had its "downs".


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    I worked lift maintenance , it had its "ups" but it also had its "downs".

    I had a friend who worked as a grave digger anytime he got himself in to trouble he dug himself a deeper hole.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,360 ✭✭✭Lorelli!


    When I was around 11, these lads asked my friends and I to deliver some leaflets for them around the estate and said they'd give us a pound each but when we finished, they wouldnt give us the money! :pac: Meanies :(:)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,678 ✭✭✭TrustedApple


    I worked doing lv2 tech support in a call center.

    10 hour days of being screamed at by people over issues with there computers phones tablets watches accounts billing you name it.

    I had to know each product inside out. targets were crazy have a issues fixed in less then 13 mins. The 1st few mins of the calls was going over what the last person might have done and ask the same quastions again.

    IT was also work from home and never meet anyone I worked with it was soul distrying 6 months!!.

    A on site job came up I asked can I go for it was told no I was needed on the phones handed in my notice the week later as I had allresdy got a new job.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,806 ✭✭✭The J Stands for Jay


    valoren wrote: »
    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.

    Just change the nature of the calls and you've got my story. No-one believes now that there was a recession at the time...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    Lorelli! wrote: »
    When I was around 11, these lads asked my friends and I to deliver some leaflets for them around the estate and said they'd give us a pound each but when we finished, they wouldnt give us the money! :pac: Meanies :(:)

    Myself and my friends got caught loads of times. When I was in primary school this man would be standing outside the school gate waiting for us after school. If he did that now he would be arrested. He would have hundreds of leaflets and would promise us if we delivered some leaflets for him he would pay us. We would dump them in the nearest bin. He must have been following us or else he was physic because we never got paid. We thought we'd pull a fast one but the last laugh was on us. To make matters worse we chanced our arm a few weeks later and got caught out again.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users Posts: 3 bells2018


    My list is extensive, but the worst job was in 2008 when I worked as a cleaner at the end of Elctric PicNic (the next day). I got the job though an agency from Dublin.
    To sum things up, the supervisors treated us like ****. They would shout at you as if you were a dog or something like that. There was no safety training and we had to bring our own gloves(!!!) to pick up the rubbish from the ground...
    There was a hailstorm during the day so a couple of people and I got under a tent as the hail was really hurting us. One of the "lovely" ladies was raging and came across the field to the tent we were in. Once there, she started to shout and scream like she was possessed by Lucifer himself, telling us to leave the tent immediately. I explained to her that the hail was husrting us and we would move as soon as it stopped (most people working looked for shelter ). There was no negotiation. She nearly grabbed me by the arm to pull me away from the tent. Oh boy...I told her not to get near me or I would call the gards, etc. Anyways, stayed inside the tent and only left when the storm stopped and did little work after this. Herself and the other ladies all carried those huge , strong umbrellas, btw.
    This was supposed to be a week's long job, but needless to day I did not show up for my next shift. It was hell on earth!
    All this $ht for only €60 net payment for 10 hours working.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,436 ✭✭✭dartboardio


    Red_Wake wrote: »
    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.

    Ha, how? My Mam used to tell me the figs were spiders legs and I believed her.

    Anyway.. not near as bad as all of yers, but a few months ago working as a ‘chef’ in a new place, little did I know he actually was just serving frozen chips goujons oven pizzas and onion rings etc. had me hacking onions and tomatoes off with a scissors when customers wanted a ‘margarita’ :o the poor guy didn’t have a clue. I was 19 and I’d know how to run the excuse for a restaurant better myself.

    He also pretended I’d have another lad in the kitchen with me but then left me completely alone, working until 2/3 hours after I was supposed to finish, scrubbing the place from top to bottom while they all joked and laughed at the bar with nothing else to do. They’d come in and **** all the dishes there with not even so much as a wipe. No sense of ‘kitchen respect’ what’s so ever. The place is an absolute joke. Wasn’t long leaving. I remember the last night I was there crying with the back pain and frustration of being in that ****hole, 5 min break for a 9 hour shift, all I do now is laugh at the poor ****er thinking he knows how to run his own business, reminiscing on the times he’d run in and tell me to ‘HURRY Up!!’ When he was the one taking ten orders at a time and putting in all them at once, hence making his own mess, and screaming at me to ‘deep fry a frozen goujon’ faster. The place didn’t even have an oven.

    Everyday I want to post a review on Facebook, from the employee perspective!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,436 ✭✭✭dartboardio


    I’m working in a call centre for the hse at the minute. And I do debate leaving everyday. The repetitiveness is very very very frustrating. Sitting in front of a computer screen all day.... but until I find what I actually wanna do I suppose...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    door to door sales selling frozen fish...with half the time dealing with disinterested people slamming the door in my face *utterly miserable


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,271 ✭✭✭Elemonator


    Nobody here has mentioned retail. I work in a store in Cork. We often had holidays booked for us with zero consultation, 4:00am sale shifts after preparing the place for sale late the night before, no breaks and other frequent employment rights violations such as no pay for bank holidays, disciplinary action over nothing, stupid short shifts of about 3 hours and to top it all off I had to deal with the most disgusting customers I have ever met.

    One particular scenario that would arise frequently was customers would tell you that it was illegal to not sell at the price displayed and that we were obliged to accept returns on non-faulty items. Quicky shut their mouths when I explained I am a trainee lawyer.................


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭indioblack


    Not my worst job but the post about retail made me remember -
    Worked in a builders merchants when I was 16. This was a long time ago. So this guy comes in and orders half a dozen items. It took time and the shop filled up with people waiting. I asked the guy if he had an account. "Yes", he replied. "What's your name?" I ask.
    "Everybody knows me", came the reply. "Yes," I said, "but I need your name."
    "Everyone in the town knows me". The Customer is Always Right - to hell with that.
    "Well I don't know you and if you don't give me your name you're not getting the goods"
    The manager came in, knew him, sorted it out and I got a roasting.
    Then he decided I was not an asset to the retail trade and I was "let go".


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    ^^^^^^^^^^^

    seems like you're man fancied himself as a small town celebrity


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 523 ✭✭✭Sal Butamol


    Retail is hell


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 12,887 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    Telemarketing for a local rag in a dodgy part of Dublin part time during my Masters. Soul destroying and my boss was a total shyster and did me out of commission I was due. Delighted to leave.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,844 ✭✭✭✭somesoldiers


    Putting Irish film cert stickers over English ones on DVDs and videos in a warehouse....mind numbing...while I finished college and was looking for a real job


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    I know I've spoken about it before on Boards so I'll not bore people now, but I did work as little better than a slave at one point. As you can imagine, it wasn't pleasant, but oddly not where I was most miserable.

    That award goes to being a cleaner (in private houses). I was studying and it was something I could work somewhat around my course, so I thought it would be a good idea. I actually enjoy cleaning my own home, it's just the tidying I don't like. However, what I didn't account for is that people are disgusting. People who take "if it's yellow, let it mellow" far too seriously and I would have to cover my face to walk in to flush the toilet, pungent smells of unknown origin, stains of unknown origin, mouldy food left under sofas so it could near walk off by itself, people leaving their kids baby teeth on the kitchen table... a lot of things I didn't want to touch or go near. It was a stomach churning experience.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    people leaving their kids baby teeth on the kitchen table...

    good god! surely not?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,555 ✭✭✭Ave Sodalis


    fryup wrote:
    good god! surely not?


    Yup, and I really, really hate teeth. Despite having to clean a weeks worth of piss off the rim of toilets, moving the tooth was the closest I'd come to retching.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    People are disgusting


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,707 ✭✭✭corks finest


    Jack hammering in a basement,non stop for nearly a month,old science lab,walls mass concrete,rooms tiny,noise, sweat,filth


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,555 ✭✭✭Roger Hassenforder


    Spent a day picking stones out of a field for a local farmer with a few friends years ago. He said he'd "look after us"

    He did, with a packet of polo mints between us.

    Learned a valuable lesson in negotiation and labour that day.

    Other crap jobs:
    • filleting herring and hanging them on hooks to smoke and make kippers , Jesus the smell from the overalls every Monday morning...
    •weeding and packing straw under strawberries
    •filling shampoo in bottles and screwing on the tops. By hand.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,555 ✭✭✭Roger Hassenforder


    Jack hammering in a basement,non stop for nearly a month,old science lab,walls mass concrete,rooms tiny,noise, sweat,filth

    Was it under a laundry?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,860 ✭✭✭Ragnar Lothbrok


    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 this for a few years too, after I first moved to Ireland. The long hours were grim, but I read a mountain of books so seldom got bored.

    Some sites were OK, quite comfortable and not much to do. Others were like horror film sets. I spent a couple of months doing 12 hour shifts in a factory that had burnt down - sat in a little sentry box with no electricity, no heating, no running water and no bathroom facilities for £3 per hour (bring your own toilet roll and plastic bag, ugh) :mad:

    Having said that, I still hated retail security far more, particularly a Dunnes Stores in the northside of Cork City, where the managers tended to treat you like you were something they'd trod in.

    At the time, I had two young children, so I had no choice but to put up with all the crap. Apart from this short period, I've actually been blessed to have jobs that I have thoroughly enjoyed.


  • Registered Users Posts: 289 ✭✭LolaJJ


    I spent about a year working for a department store where I would be dressed by the shop every morning and then have to hang around the areas where the clothes I was wearing were located, but posing as a shopper carrying loads of the department store bags. Was totally confidential too so when people asked me what I did I had be like "I'm in the office doing eh, paperwork"

    It was so incredibly boring and I didn't even get to keep the clothes, half the time they put them back out for sale


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    ^^^^^^^^^^

    and what was the point in that? in the hope people would buy the clothes you were wearing?

    seems strange..is that a common practice?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    Do Pig **** actually exist ? or is that just a made up bull**** job for shock value ?


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,958 ✭✭✭D3V!L


    Do Pig **** actually exist ? or is that just a made up bull**** job for shock value ?

    They exist alright. A cousin of my ex worked on an industrial pig farm in Cork. They had people that collected the semen from the pigs. All very scientific like :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    D3V!L wrote: »
    They exist alright. A cousin of my ex worked on an industrial pig farm in Cork. They had people that collected the semen from the pigs. All very scientific like :pac:

    Jaysus, and how long would it take ? I mean would they need to be whacking away at the pig for minutes ?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 851 ✭✭✭duffysfarm


    It works a lot quicker with 2 people. One 'stroking' and the other one prods the pig up the bum with an electric rod and and hey bingo there you go!
    Jaysus, and how long would it take ? I mean would they need to be whacking away at the pig for minutes ?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,860 ✭✭✭Ragnar Lothbrok


    duffysfarm wrote: »
    It works a lot quicker with 2 people. One 'stroking' and the other one prods the pig up the bum with an electric rod and and hey bingo there you go!

    Cannot remove this image from my mind now :mad:


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,106 ✭✭✭PlaneSpeeking


    Working for the Child Support Agency in the UK - death threats and once followed to the train by someone saying "you took my family bitch, I'm going to kill you" - over and over again.

    I hadn't btw!!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,780 ✭✭✭Aglomerado


    duffysfarm wrote: »
    It works a lot quicker with 2 people. One 'stroking' and the other one prods the pig up the bum with an electric rod and and hey bingo there you go!

    Bet he doesn't buy dinner afterwards....

    :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    duffysfarm wrote: »
    It works a lot quicker with 2 people. One 'stroking' and the other one prods the pig up the bum with an electric rod and and hey bingo there you go!

    ah jaysus!
    direct prostate stimulation! Im clenching here just thinking of it...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,555 ✭✭✭Roger Hassenforder


    duffysfarm wrote: »
    It works a lot quicker with 2 people. One 'stroking' and the other one prods the pig up the bum with an electric rod and and hey bingo there you go!

    A third whispering in his ear.....

    "Who's a filthy pig...you are, oh you filthy dirty little piggy...another reacharound? you filthy little swine....


    An xgirlfriend of a friend of mine was into breeding horses, when they brought a mare to be covered, sometimes she'd have to "lend a hand" with the stallion. They eventually broke up, I reckon because he could never get over the feelings of inadequacy when she, ahem, held him in her hand.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 252 ✭✭GuessWhoEh


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

    Frankie is that you?


  • Advertisement
  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,106 ✭✭✭PlaneSpeeking


    A third whispering in his ear.....

    "Who's a filthy pig...you are, oh you filthy dirty little piggy...another reacharound? you filthy little swine....


    An xgirlfriend of a friend of mine was into breeding horses, when they brought a mare to be covered, sometimes she'd have to "lend a hand" with the stallion. They eventually broke up, I reckon because he could never get over the feelings of inadequacy when she, ahem, held him in her hand.

    You b**tard!!!

    My boss now knows I wasn't looking at a Word doc!!

    I had to leave the room!!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,174 ✭✭✭RhubarbCrumble


    Dunnes Stores. Enough said.

    The majority of my workmates were sound and we all had a bit of a laugh together, but Jesus there are a lot of Dunnes managers that should have been drowned at birth.
    I think I met about two decent ones.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭indioblack


    I know I've spoken about it before on Boards so I'll not bore people now, but I did work as little better than a slave at one point. As you can imagine, it wasn't pleasant, but oddly not where I was most miserable.

    That award goes to being a cleaner (in private houses). I was studying and it was something I could work somewhat around my course, so I thought it would be a good idea. I actually enjoy cleaning my own home, it's just the tidying I don't like. However, what I didn't account for is that people are disgusting. People who take "if it's yellow, let it mellow" far too seriously and I would have to cover my face to walk in to flush the toilet, pungent smells of unknown origin, stains of unknown origin, mouldy food left under sofas so it could near walk off by itself, people leaving their kids baby teeth on the kitchen table... a lot of things I didn't want to touch or go near. It was a stomach churning experience.
    My sister works as a cleaner in several private houses. Most of the people she worked for were OK - but one she found was a nightmare. To use the probably un-pc definition, these people were middle class - good jobs, able to pay someone to come in and clean for them. This particular family may have had the thinking of, "Why have a cleaner if you have to do it yourself?"
    My sister understood this, but was angered at some of the basic lack of hygiene - her anger focused on the families son who was often drunk and threw up in the toilet cubicle. Not just vomit in the bowl, but sprayed around the surrounding area. This was left for the cleaner to take care of.
    Also, these people didn't seem to know what to do after they'd had a bowel movement - basic stuff like that.
    On a less extreme note, when I worked in a factory I was assigned to work with a group of people in an office. I'd worked on the shop floor all my life - so you had to have order, be organised and keep the work stations clean and tidy. I had to do all of this for these people because it never seemed to occur to them that it was more efficient to do it for themselves.
    They never grasped the benefits of good housekeeping in the work place - and it was their work place as much as mine.
    The factory had cleaners so they made no effort to be tidy. They couldn't empty waste paper baskets - I even had to find waste paper baskets for one area otherwise rubbish would just be thrown to the floor. One advantage of being on the shop floor - I knew where to "find" waste paper baskets.
    Who were these people?
    They were the quality department!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,750 ✭✭✭Avatar MIA


    Aglomerado wrote: »
    Bet he doesn't buy dinner afterwards....

    :pac:

    He WAS dinner :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    A third whispering in his ear.....

    "Who's a filthy pig...you are, oh you filthy dirty little piggy...another reacharound? you filthy little swine....


    An xgirlfriend of a friend of mine was into breeding horses, when they brought a mare to be covered, sometimes she'd have to "lend a hand" with the stallion. They eventually broke up, I reckon because he could never get over the feelings of inadequacy when she, ahem, held him in her hand.

    In Spanish there is a word for a horse wanker - mamporerro ..


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,336 ✭✭✭arctictree


    A third whispering in his ear.....

    "Who's a filthy pig...you are, oh you filthy dirty little piggy...another reacharound? you filthy little swine....


    An xgirlfriend of a friend of mine was into breeding horses, when they brought a mare to be covered, sometimes she'd have to "lend a hand" with the stallion. They eventually broke up, I reckon because he could never get over the feelings of inadequacy when she, ahem, held him in her hand.

    My sympathies are with the old nag that they bring in to get the mare aroused. He can spend hours at this caressing her while being kicked constantly. Just when she's ready and he's about to mount her, they throw him out in the field and bring in the stallion to finish the job!


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,860 ✭✭✭Ragnar Lothbrok


    arctictree wrote: »
    My sympathies are with the old nag that they bring in to get the mare aroused. He can spend hours at this caressing her while being kicked constantly. Just when she's ready and he's about to mount her, they throw him out in the field and bring in the stallion to finish the job!

    It's official: THAT has to be the worst job ever!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    Dunnes Stores. Enough said.

    The majority of my workmates were sound and we all had a bit of a laugh together, but Jesus there are a lot of Dunnes managers that should have been drowned at birth.
    I think I met about two decent ones.

    I used to work in Supervalu ... back in 1996, the wage was £2.83 an hour - but we had to stay an extra hour if we were on the last shift which I usually was since I was still in school - to clean up and we didn't get paid for that extra hour.


    My God the managers, special place in hell for those c*nts.
    I was there recently at the same branch and couldn't believe one of the weedy f*ckers was still there.

    22 years he's been in that ****hole, jesus I'd shoot myself.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,709 ✭✭✭Tombo2001


    Without doubt a kebab shop in Rathmines - the name of which sounds like the word magicians say when they are doing a magic trick.

    Did the night shift, queues of 14/15/16 punters at a time, at 3am.....all hungry for their doners; working your ass off for 2.20 an hour.

    To top it all off, I got let go after three weeks because apparently, according to the manager, I couldnt handle the pace.

    This was back in the day when there was 20% unemployment, and even the crappest job had 50 people waiting to do it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,174 ✭✭✭RhubarbCrumble


    I used to work in Supervalu ... back in 1996, the wage was £2.83 an hour

    I started in Dunnes in 1998. £4.12 an hour. That was amazing at the time. Roches and Quinnsworth were on a £3 something.
    My first weeks wages after tax was £121.07. I remember it well.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,809 ✭✭✭Hector Savage


    I started in Dunnes in 1998. £4.12 an hour. That was amazing at the time. Roches and Quinnsworth were on a £3 something.
    My first weeks wages after tax was £121.07. I remember it well.

    Yeah, we were the losers working in Supervalu, I remember colleagues at the time talking about Dunnes paying ~£4 an hour.

    The following summer I got a job at a wharehouse for £5 an hour! - at the time I felt rich!!

    :D

    And that was a boring boring job but great craic!


  • Advertisement
Advertisement