Jobs you've loved, jobs you've hated

[Audrey]

The vanity sizing thread got me walking down memory lane, remembering some jobs I had way back when.

 

One of my favourite jobs was working for a tailor. I loved all the fabric, learning about haberdashery, fit, cut and impeccable workmanship. My other favourite job was morning baking staff at a cool little hippy restaurant. I had to be in at 3am, but it fit my schedule and I got free breakfast every day. It led to my favourite apartment ever (right over the restaurant). Good times.

 

My least favourite jobs have been working at a Gap (it felt like such a lie), and working at a donut shop (the graveyard shift was very creepy and scary).

 

What have been some of your favourite and not-so-favourite jobs you've ever done.

[mazakaal]

Hmmmm. Favorite jobs would have to include working in the library. I've worked in two - a small local one in my hometown and a university library when I was a student.

 

Least favorite job was working at Pizza Hut. I only made it a couple of weeks one summer. Then I quit and got a job serving popcorn at a movie theatre. I don't know why I disliked the job so much. Maybe I was just too tired for a lot of activity by that time of the day as I was working full time days at the phone company. Standing behind a popcorn counter was a lot easier.

[bairnmama]

My all-time favorite job was valet parking. I got to drive awesome cars, make lots of tips, and get paid to keep in shape running after all those cars at parties. When I had a regular spot on the door of a certain hotel, there was even this guy that would spot you a $100 bill if you recognized him on sight and greeted him by name. Too bad he never arrived during my shift.:glare:

 

I hated the job I had in the accounting dept of a clothing manufacturer, though. I basically entered invoices into the computer all day, every day. Except when monthly reports were due... then I got to have 7 different people tell me 8 different ways to do each report. I even had a co-worker tell me to quit working so quickly. I needed to take my time and drag out the work so that I wouldn't be given the unfinished reports of other co-workers. It was the only job I got fired from.

[Shelly in IL]

I worked in a highly military area which meant constant ebb and flow of house traffic. I love houses, I love meeting people and helping them with finding a home.

 

Absolutely hated retail.

[Carrie12345]

My favorite job was in a photo lab. I loved the work, and was surrounded by artsy people.

 

Least favorite was a neighborhood deli. They broke every labor law there was, but I had no car and it was within walking distance. Pizza Hut kitchen work was a close runner up. At least I got breaks there!

[Ottakee]

Favorites would include doing foster care (hardest job you will ever love) and working as a cook in a nursing home and assisted living center.

 

Worst job was working in the kitchen at a rest. that was DIRTY, had mold in the fridge, we got NO breaks, no discounts on food, etc. I think I lasted 1-2 weeks.

[BikeBookBread]

Best job: secretary to executives at a major financial institution (a credit union), not because they were "powerful" people but because they were some of the most lovely people I have ever met. They were kind, fun-loving honest and unselfish.

 

Worst job: insurance adjuster. The stress was unreal: always and only interacting with people who have incurred some sort of loss, whether big or small, wore away at me. It is the only job from which I literally walked away.

[Pam Wilhelm]

Best job: Nurse at a Christian Science Nursing Facility.

 

Worst job: Pizza Butt.

[gingersmom]

My worst job was working at Bed and Bath. I was in high school. We had no customers but were told to straighten the already straight towels for 8 hours. I quit that to get a job at a kids shoe store. I lasted one week.

 

My best job was writing for a small magazine. I answered a three sentence help wanted advertisement in the New York Times. I landed working there for 5 years.

[TheCoffeeChick]

Favorite -- The children's section of the library. I got to do morning storytimes, afternoon crafts, and be around books all day long! It was actually part of my job to read so many new children's books each month.

 

Worst -- When I was 15 years old, I got a job at McDonalds and because I wasn't old enough to work behind the counter it was my job to keep the lobby, bathrooms, and playplace clean. You'd think the worst would be the bathrooms, but you'd be wrong. It was the playplace. It's amazing the places all the little ones would go potty. :glare: More than one occassion I had to clean feces off the slides. :ack2: And there is a reason most playplaces don't have ball pits anymore - many kiddos thought it was a urinal.

[The Girls' Mom]

Best job was in accounting at a credit union, although I didn't appreciate it at the time :glare:

 

The worst was an admin assistant for a family owned company. It was a man and his sons. They were very macho types, and also had a tendancy to fight with each other. They also liked to try to one up each other, and pretty much always gave me conflicting tasks. The last straw for me was when my title of admin assistant became "personal" assistant and I had to handle scheduling of his proctologist appointments. :001_huh:

[Leanna Tomlinson]

My best and worst jobs were in the same place. In nursing school I worked as a nurse's aid at our university hospital.

 

Worst Job: This very naive 20yo was placed on the floor where prisoners were kept. Let's just say some of the inmates thought it was hilarious to make me blush....

 

Best Job: After a harrowing summer on the prison floor, I was moved to the "feeders and growers" nursery for a weekend position. I got to spend two nights a week feeding the cutest preemies in the world. These babies were no longer sick or fragile, just small, hungry, and adorable. :)

[TXMary2]

My best job was the 5 years I was a Senior Sales Director for Mary Kay. I was self employed, earned cars, always had money -but then I started homeschooling and couldn't balance it all. Another job I loved was working for the Shoreline Amplitheatre......free concerts!!

 

Worst job- as a teen I worked at McDonald's - very high stress as a cashier and an introduction to just how rude many people are! Also worked as a cocktail waitress in a sports bar. I was a single mom and was there for the money. It was the most humiliating and embarassing job I ever held.

[Harriet Vane]

My two best jobs: one was at a small Christian bookstore owned and operated by the kindest couple on the planet. I treasure their many, many kindnesses to me, and I remember fondly the atmosphere they created at their store.

 

The other best job was at a publishing house, when I was a "grown-up." I had come from a very negative job environment, and the new job at the new publisher was a breath of fresh air. I made many friends there and liked the work.

 

My worst jobs: One was as a teen, at the local Dairy Queen. Misery. It was long hours standing, monotonous, and I was very different from my coworkers. They were nice enough to me--we got on well enough together--but I was definitely not one of them. My second summer with DQ was for a different manager, and they (married couple) were truly awful. My other worst job was at a publishing company that expected long hours and hard work while paying me the same hourly wage as when I had been a janitor. The overwork and pressure were incredible, and the real kicker was the expectation that I noiselessly complete the work of the department hypochondriac who was a pet of the editorial manager.

[FaithManor]

My best job: Choir/Band director and Science Lab instructor at a parochial school. I had the best principal in the whole world and the most marvelous faculty to work with. Rarely a discipline problem of any kind - it was an ideal teaching environment and children were not just passed from grade to grade regardless of ability. They had a marvelous reading specialist who spent all day working one on one with children struggling with reading, a speech therapist who was the cat's meow, and the kids were loved and they knew it. The principal was very hands on...she even spent a lot of time working in her office with two aspies. She and her secretary made a "happy" place for children to go when they really needed counseling and comfort a lot worse than school that day. It was not an uncommon event to see one of them sitting on the couch with an arm around a little one while the tears flowed.

 

Worst job: Customer service Rep for a publishing house. In our department, we had two completely lazy individuals, one of whom spent at least four hours per day on the phone to her mother complaining about her life and lack of boyfriend/husband. The manager was related to each of those families so the slackers were never fired or reprimanded. I ended up being assigned all of their work in addition to my own. I put up with it for one year and then quit.

 

Faith

[elegantlion]

Best job: working as a veterinary assistant at an animal hospital. Kept that job for five years. The vet that owned the practice was great and tough. He had been a fighter pilot before becoming a vet, he had the best stories. After a few years I was like Radar O'Reilly from MASH and could anticipate his needs and thoughts before he had them.

 

Worst Job: Insurance underwriting. I took the job for the great benefit package. I worked there as a temporary employee and remembered crying when I decided to take the job. I hated office work. I hated lumping people into neat little categories. The agents hated us, and I think I lost part of my hearing at that job because the office was noisy and I was on the phone all the time.

[DawnM]

Well, I have only ever done two jobs, so it really isn't all that interesting to ask me.

 

Favorite job: Teaching and Counseling at the high school where I worked for 11 years.

 

Least Favorite: Working as a school counselor in a federally funded program for 3 years. The job itself was great, but I had to share office space with a really, really BAD boss.

[TXMomof4]

My least favorite job was working in a retail clothing store. I was in college, but watched these young girls come in with their moms and spend hundreds of dollars on designer clothes that were not worth the money at all. Remember Girbaud jeans? - made from the lowest quality denim available, but sold for the highest price. Irks me still!

 

My favorite job was being an opthalmic assistant in an opthamologist's office. We were doing a study on Lasik and I was in charge of compiling all the results - it was fascinating. Plus I had lasik done for free - can't really beat that perk!

[BMW]

Best Job: I didn't realize it at the time, but working for UPS was great! Fast paced, pressure (I like that, actually), incredible pay, full benefits for part time work. It wasn't my "happiest" job, though.

 

Worst Job: retail clothing store... hanging clothes, tagging clothes, slllloooow days where I counted minutes and hours until I could leave. It was then and there I decided I did not want a meaningless job EVER.

[lvbnhome]

Best Job: Midwife for the last 13 years:) Love Moms, Babies, Families

Worst Job: Any DESK job...that I ever worked (secretarial and/or accounting)...just hate sitting:)

[hsbaby]

My favorite was working as a counselor in a group home for at-risk teenage boys. My worst was working in a group home for at risk teenage girls!!

[Gooblink]

Best job is a tie between waitressing in a diner and producing/selling high-tech career fairs.

 

Worst job: Division Director of an IT Professional Services firm. I despise people management - both customers and employees.

 

I love sales, but if I ever sell again, it's going to be a product (something mundane and predictable, like copier paper), not a service.

[HistoryMom]

It was then and there I decided I did not want a meaningless job EVER.

 

This is why I think every teenager should be required to work in food service -- waitstaff, fast food, something. You learn a lot about how people struggle when they don't have an education. A couple of years at the McDonald's showed me that I really DID want to go to college. Then when I dropped out, a summer as a waitress was enough to send me running back.

 

Worst job: Copywriter at an ad agency where people were hired and fired with amazing rapidity. I was hired along with 8 other people, and I was the only one who wasn't fired by the end of that year. The owners were just awful people.

 

Best job: The one I have now: Co-owner of a technology support company. Flexible hours, in control of my own destiny, working with DH, and interesting challenges.

[AuntieM]

Best job: educational spokeperson for a zoo/aquarium. Think Joan Embery.

 

Worst job: fundraising for the symphony. Love the symphony, hate asking folks for money. One day. One miserable day. That's all I spent at that job!

[Nakia]

Best-The job I have now. I am a nurse on a Mother-Baby unit. :D

 

Worst-The summer after 11th grade, I got a job at a huge Methodist conference center's central laundry facility. It is a huge compound type place with several large hotels, several small motels, and about 40 apartments. There was so.much.laundry!!!!! The washers and dryers were huge, and I always had bruises on my arms from pulling the linen in and out and bumping them on the sides. It was just really hot and awful.

[Cinder]

My least favourite jobs have been working at a Gap (it felt like such a lie), and working at a donut shop (the graveyard shift was very creepy and scary).

 

 

 

I also did time on the graveyard shift at the donut shop! Fortunately during my very short time there we didn't get any unsavory characters. The police captain made a point of stopping in for his break several times a week. And other police officers often stopped in. Of course we gave them free donuts--the boss wasn't there. He didn't give food away to anyone.

 

Cinder

[Mejane]

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Edited October 19, 2010 by Mejane

[Cinder]

Okay, now that I think of it, the donut shop wasn't my worst job. My best and worst were the same job: executive assistant to the #2 commander at a small air force base. First boss had high expectations, challenged me, and treated me with respect. I was still in that job when he moved on and we got a new commander. New boss had serious personality problems. (We discovered he also had serious personal problems at home.) He constantly yelled and blamed us for screwing up things that weren't our fault. It was quite a relief when the AF changed the command structure and this guy got "promoted" to a new position.

 

Cinder

[TravelingChris]

My worse job was the one I got right out of college- I was an assistant to a center director at a research library. Why was this job so horrible- there was hardly any work to do at all during the month. I did one mailing a month that they thought would take days but took only about a day and a half. I occasionally did photocopying and answered the phone maybe on average once a day. I did a few more minor things. Then the job got worse- I got student intern that I was supposed to find work for. Neither of us had anything to do most of the time.

 

My best job was a volunteer position I had- assistant crime analyst. That was very interesting and worthwhile. Our unit dealt with robberies, burglaries and sex crimes and we tried to identify patterns and then alert people who needed to know.

[TammyinTN]

Best job--working for our local peds office when hubby was in college. He was awesome.

 

Worst job--I worked shift work at DuPont as a temp employee.

[newbie]

Job loved- Salon owner/esthetician

 

Job hated/Banking

[Annie G]

best job- currently working part time as a cake decorator for Walmart. Weirdly enough, they let me set my hours, value my talent, and allow me to be very creative. Few of my co-workers feel the same.

 

Worst job: This past census season one job I did was hand-delivering and taking census info. I saw some really sad situations, mostly involving helpless children. It was awful.