What's the WORST job you ever had ?

[gbb]

Prompted by the best job post...
It can be the job as a whole or even just one incident or aspect of the job...

Mine was at 16, temporarily between jobs for a couple weeks, walked to a local farm and asked if they had anything.
'Yes boy', ushered me to a shed (ooer missus) and showed me a stack of bales of hay and a pallet with plastic bags (pet food or bedding iirc)...pack those, box thee packs, penny a bag.

Fark me, I was roasting, choking in hay dust, looking at this unending load of hay to pack.
Did half a day, probably worked out i'd earned a literal pittance, walked off and never went back


Other than that, done some pretty shitty jobs, unblocking sanitary pad machines, toilets, cesspits etc...but that was just part of the engineering responsibility, cant say it bothered me.

 

[Gillstay]

Bermuda, people were everywhere, no tools, no one willing to sort out basic tools, very expensive, abrasive Americans, lots of racism and the nicest people the Portugese from the Azores were treated poorly. Went to have lunch with them at the back of the hotel and rats ran through the room as they sat at the table. Plane tickets cost me a fortune and the tax man chased me when I got home despite my obvious losses.

 

[Jameshow]

Emptying used cooking oil into tanks....

I did a few days until the agency found me nicer work. I'm sure they used it to screen casual staff before moving then onto better jobs....

 

[geocycle]

Washing syphilitic skulls with a toothbrush. Medieval monks had dirty habits.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

The last voluntary job I had. We were to set up a new charity shop and at first, it worked, but there was one guy who was just... Even now I wonder what was actually going on with him.
Most people were nice, as was a woman who did have issues, but we ended up working most of the shifts together as they could not get the people. Also we were making a pittance as we were in a supposedly 'poor' area, so things were sold for very little. The charity owned the property so we did make a meagre profit, but, still...

In the end, things came to a head (admittedly not helped by me, I'll admit) and I was pushed out.

The shop struggled on for a while, but soon closed too.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I think it was one of these things that worked on paper, but in reality, didn't.

 

[PeteXXX]

Can I be the first person to mention Jane Mansfield and Derek & Clive 'Worst job I ever had' ? 🤔

I'll let you look up a link, bearing in mind it's very NSFW!

 

[sevenfourate]

Feeding Plastic bottles for the pharmaceutical industry onto the rotary bed of a printing machine in the Summer Holidays when I was in my teens was pretty uninspiring…….

Swelteringly hot, loud as hell - which also effectively made it solitary work with Ear defenders on - fairly fast paced and boring as sin. I used to go in, switch off and think of the money. And not much else.

The only god-send was I found out there was a speed setting dial underneath. And if you whacked it up - you’d have to work like an idiot for not many minutes before the machine went into thermal overload and cut out through the heat. Giving you 1/2 hour to an hour of doing nothing 🤣

I now go in that Factory in my Engineering capacity looking at and quoting work. And there’s people I went to school with - who have been on and are still working at those same type of machines 40 years on nearly. The same one I just about managed 6 weeks on 😳

 

[All uphill]

Feeding Plastic bottles for the pharmaceutical industry onto the rotary bed of a printing machine in the Summer Holidays when I was in my teens was pretty uninspiring…….

Swelteringly hot, loud as hell - which also effectively made it solitary work with Ear defenders on - fairly fast paced and boring as sin. I used to go in, switch off and think of the money. And not much else.

The only god-send was I found out there was a speed setting dial underneath. And if you whacked it up - you’d have to work like an idiot for not many minutes before the machine went into thermal overload and cut out through the heat. Giving you 1/2 hour to an hour of doing nothing 🤣

I now go in that Factory in my Engineering capacity looking at and quoting work. And there’s people I went to school with - who have been on and are still working at those same type of machines 40 years on nearly. The same one I just about managed 6 weeks on 😳

My worst job sounds very similar to yours...but must have been years earlier, about 1975.

I was living near Bungay and got a 10 hour, 5 nights a week job just outside Beccles. The factory was making brown plastic bottles for pharma. They had had quality issues and had rigged up a 100w bulb over which the bottles passed. My job was to stare at the bulb and spot any bottles with cracks.

After the first shift I could barely see anything; I stayed another three weeks but rarely looked in the direction of the blasted bulb.

Edit: writing this has brought back the tangy smell and noise of the factory.

 

[gbb]

Washing syphilitic skulls with a toothbrush. Medieval monks had dirty habits.

That one has to be right up there

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Washing syphilitic skulls with a toothbrush. Medieval monks had dirty habits.

Did you use holy water?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

That one has to be right up there

Oh I think people would pay good money for that in London! 😆

 

[gbb]

Bermuda, people were everywhere, no tools, no one willing to sort out basic tools, very expensive, abrasive Americans, lots of racism and the nicest people the Portugese from the Azores were treated poorly. Went to have lunch with them at the back of the hotel and rats ran through the room as they sat at the table. Plane tickets cost me a fortune and the tax man chased me when I got home despite my obvious losses.

Actually reminds me..
Went to Uruguay to install machiney, we had given them air pressure/volume and electrical specs beforehand...arrived, started...air supply was pitifully inadequate, electric supply had no neutral...THE two most important things were missing, despite me giving them very detailed specs.

They brought in a bigger compressor (with enough oomph...but still only just enough) and while im not an electrician, worked with their guys who in Spanish / broken English explained between us what the problem was and how they proposed to fix it...I had NO IDEA what they were talking about.
On connection with their electrical setup, a big critical circuit board blew on a machine (this went back to their neutral 'fix' that didnt work) so another few days while they sent it to Montevideo for repair
Several days of literal headaches...I even restarted smoking the stress was that bad.

Yeah, that was a bad one, i earned my money on that trip, the worst of my foreign work adventures.

 

[sevenfourate]

My worst job sounds very similar to yours...but must have been years earlier, about 1975.

I was living near Bungay and got a 10 hour, 5 nights a week job just outside Beccles. The factory was making brown plastic bottles for pharma. They had had quality issues and had rigged up a 100w bulb over which the bottles passed. My job was to stare at the bulb and spot any bottles with cracks.

After the first shift I could barely see anything; I stayed another three weeks but rarely looked in the direction of the blasted bulb.

Edit: writing this has brought back the tangy smell and noise of the factory.

Was this at Ellough ? For Fibrenyle ?

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Working from home during lockdown for a call centre, for BT through an agency.
I had always worked in hospitality before, for 35 years.
When everything in my trade shut down, I was made redundant, so after a few months landed this job.
I hated it, lasted less than 5 months, 2 of them were training
I still wonder how one can get sore legs after sitting down for 8 hours straight, when one can cycle miles without issues

The second worst is the one I'm doing just now, but it's by far the better paid one I ever had.
Working as a cleaner in a hospital, mainly toilets, dealing with all sorts of bodily fluids.
Boring as a boring thing too!
Been it it for 5 years now, will stay in it till retirement in a few years, the pay and benefits are too good.
I consider myself very lucky to have landed this job when I was almost 58.