List your worst-ever jobs here. What horrible stuff have you done to pay the bills?

[woolybear]

My bad jobs haven't really been the jobs themselves but bad bosses. Unfortunately I've had a few of those. The first to come to mind was my very first "real job". (Not babysitting or paper route.) I was 16 and worked at a fabric store. I tried to do everything the way I was supposed to, but if I didn't they should tell me up front, no? (The lesson I learned from that was how to be a better boss--communicate, explain, give people a chance, etc.) Anyway, I was also very honest. One day I came in to work (I think I had worked there about 3 weeks, maybe). The boss pulled me aside told me a list of things I'd been doing wrong, including expecting my co-workers to do all the work, stealing from the register, making mistakes. They gave me one night to do better. I stayed that night, did what they wanted (including all the work that my co-worker was supposed to be doing) and they told me I could stay. I told them, "I quit."

[Renee in NC]

Dh and I ran a chicken slaughter plant, which included operating a "lung gun" which is exactly what it sounds like.;)

 

In college, I worked at a poultry research farm where I removed the bursa from infected chickens. This is located in the, um, rectum of the chicken.:tongue_smilie: I also worked at a chicken production farm and pig farm.

 

Dh worked at a liquor store, then as a fry cook at a restaurant. We called him Sponge Bob.:lol:

 

We've collected scrap metal to sell.

 

I've sold plasma for money before, too.

[Splinter]

I had a few rough summer jobs during high school and college. Thankfully everything since then has been a lot easier!

 

The worst job I had was the summer before my senior year of high school. I spent the summer driving around in a pickup truck with a middle-aged chain smoker, putting up chain-link fences by hand in rural New Brunswick.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Dh and I ran a chicken slaughter plant, which included operating a "lung gun" which is exactly what it sounds like.;)

 

In college, I worked at a poultry research farm where I removed the bursa from infected chickens. This is located in the, um, rectum of the chicken.:tongue_smilie: I also worked at a chicken production farm and pig farm.

 

Dh worked at a liquor store, then as a fry cook at a restaurant. We called him Sponge Bob.:lol:

 

We've collected scrap metal to sell.

 

I've sold plasma for money before, too.

 

:ack2: The chicken thing is more than I could do, I think. And I am referring to the lung gun, the bursa removal, and the infected chicken rectums.

[jubilation]

Oh lovely, my first ever post on this forum will involve fecal matter... :001_huh:

 

My worst job ever was working 12-hr nights doing laundry in a nursing home, which meant that I was the girl who scrubbed the poo off the bedpads after all the incontinent patients were turned every 2 hours. It was a pretty disgusting job. But I chose that job because it was across the street from my tiny apartment, and the schedule allowed me to stay in college during a very rough time in my life.

 

I also worked as a hotel housekeeper for a while, cleaning yucky toilets and nastier discoveries in some rooms. I think some folks expected the housekeepers to be impressed with the creative places they could toss used prophylactics. I always, always, always wore gloves.

 

Those jobs (and other, less gross jobs) allowed me to get through college, and to get a degree that allows me to work part-time and be here with my kids most of the time, so they were worth it. Character-building, too. :001_smile:

Edited August 17, 2011 by jubilation
correction

[joannqn]

When I was 18, I got a job working part-time at a department store's home department. I made just enough to pay my half of the rent on a two bedroom roach-infested apartment in a ghetto-ish part of town. The night I was suppose to move in, I opened a closet door that must have had 200-300 baby roaches on it. My friends and I set off several bombs, and I slept elsewhere. My roommate and I were constantly spraying this stuff that left a residue along the ceilings where they liked to hang out, laying boric acid in all of the kitchen cabinets, and bombing every month the apartments didn't spray. What was worse is that I had no furniture; I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor for months having nightmares of them running over me. The bathroom grew mold so bad we had to bleach it with straight bleach weekly. I often came home from work (on the bus) after 11pm and walked through drug deals on the street to get home. I carried pepper spray with me at all times. After the holiday season, the job cut my hours down to 9 per week. I tried getting a second job but the first refused to give me a stable schedule or work with a second job schedule. Because of the holiday pay stubs, I didn't qualify for assistance. The welfare office told me I'd qualify if I had a kid. The only reason I ate sometimes was my roommate brought home stuff from the bakery where he worked (the stuff they were tossing). A couple months after I finally got out of there, the whole complex was condemned.

 

I worked at Denny's for a while as a hostess and then waiting tables. One sleaze liked to grab my rear as I walked by. A rather nasty looking older couple propositioned me to join them for teA after work.

 

I worked as a waitress at a strip club for a while. The boss got mad if we didn't sell enough $10 sodas and constantly got on our case to go ask again. The strippers got mad when we interrupted their "clients" while they were trying to sell a lap dance or shower dance in the other room.

[Jackie in NE]

While getting through college, I washed dishes for the dorm cafeteria. I was the guy who sprayed all the gross disgusting food off the plates before they went into the "dishwasher", which was just more hot water spraying all over. There was food on the walls, food in my hair, food everywhere. When I left each shift, my hair (long and permed) was just crawling with food particles. And the smell! I can still remember it. College kids are pigs! :cursing: Also worked as a butcher for a week. My boss leered at me all week, and then asked me out on a date :ack2: I took off my butcher's apron and left! Digging ditches..... best job I ever had because I worked shoulder to shoulder with my Dad. Loved it. Fun thread, thanks for posting.

[CourtneyMI]

Lets see...my job right now sucks big time. I am a bill collector for about 70 non profit hospitals all over the country. Suffice it to say, I am not anyone's favorite person to talk to. I am called HORRIBLE names all day long and I am treated very badly by almost everyone we call. I do my very best to be respectful of everyone we call and everyone I talk to but I have to say, it is becoming exceedingly difficult.

 

I also worked as a nursed aide, which wasn't as bad as everyone thinks it is but I realized that I could not be a nurse. It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse for sure.

 

DH, right now, has an awful boss. She is just a horrible person. Apparently, she hit on him when she first met him and when he didn't respond, she decided to treat him like $&@/ all the time. It's borderline harassment at this point and he is terrified to walk into work everyday, thinking he will lose his job. We just keep telling each other that this, too, shall pass. And I have to remind him that we are just lucky to have jobs right now.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

This has been a truly awesome thread. Thanks to everyone for participating.

 

I hope that someone limping along with a paper route, or worrying about a dear husband who is looking older every day from too-hard work (or not enough work), will realize they are not alone. Other homeschooling families are made up of sacrificial workers and layers-aside of dreams. Nobody is in this alone.

Edited August 17, 2011 by Tibbie Dunbar

[Annie Laurie]

I briefly worked at a fastfood restaurant in high school. I couldn't stomach it for long.

 

I worked in a daycare through college and enjoyed most of it, but changing other people's babies' poopy diapers is not fun. And I drove the daycare van to pickup and deliver corporate mail to all the daycare locations (big daycare chain) and had to listen to lots of annoying gossip.

 

Oh, not paid, but I was on the school newspaper in highschool and I *hated* soliciting businesses for ads. I am so bad at sales. I worked at B. Dalton bookstore at one point and was the person with the lowest sales for the book club membership thingy everyone was supposed to push.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Lets see...my job right now sucks big time. I am a bill collector for about 70 non profit hospitals all over the country. Suffice it to say, I am not anyone's favorite person to talk to. I am called HORRIBLE names all day long and I am treated very badly by almost everyone we call. I do my very best to be respectful of everyone we call and everyone I talk to but I have to say, it is becoming exceedingly difficult.

 

I also worked as a nursed aide, which wasn't as bad as everyone thinks it is but I realized that I could not be a nurse. It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse for sure.

 

DH, right now, has an awful boss. She is just a horrible person. Apparently, she hit on him when she first met him and when he didn't respond, she decided to treat him like $&@/ all the time. It's borderline harassment at this point and he is terrified to walk into work everyday, thinking he will lose his job. We just keep telling each other that this, too, shall pass. And I have to remind him that we are just lucky to have jobs right now.

 

Oh, Courtney. I can imagine how terrible it is to be the bill collector in this economy.

 

:grouphug:

[Joanne]

Worked hard, but didn't hate it:

 

Various restaurant jobs.

 

Worked hard, and eventually hated it, but it was my own fault because of my own issues with hard-care, outrageous alcoholism:

 

Manager, KFC.

 

Hard, Crappy, Awful jobs:

 

Me: Running poker tournaments in bars for large, free leagues in metro Houston area, cleaning building in Katy, Texas @ 1:30 a.m., after running poker tournaments. ;)

 

DH: Fixing windshields. I'd put driving school buses in this category for him, but he would not. He liked that job.

[scubamama]

Forklift operator at 17 in an amusement park warehouse. It was hot, stinky, and I was harrassed all day long by men. It was heavy work.

I also was a catering supervisor there on the weekends - I prepped picnics for corporations/churches/families/firefighters/etc. I had surly 12 and 13 yo's as my employees and the customers were pigs for the most part. I made millions of hamburgers and hot dogs over a open pit and made tons of fried chicken. We found mice in the fryer all the time after already making chicken - serve it anyhow! we were told (yuk!) I went home coated in grease and insults from surly customers. Nasty teens were always found having s** near the picnic grove. Sick.

We had to shovel the hot ashes out of the pits and fix the broken fryers by ourselves - as teens! I burned all my eybrows and lashes off more than once.

I was a CNA. I am a RN. Working as a CNA in a nursing home was terrible in ways I can't descibe.

 

So glad those days are over!

[DusksAngel]

DH worked in a chicken processing plant. You really don't want to know some of the details, but let's say chicken fat will forever make me want to gag.

[awoogala]

Dressing as Barney and other characters for rich kids' birthday parties. Getting kicked, pinched, etc., while the parents laughed at their behavior since they felt entitled, since they were paying me. Oh, it was also summer. 90 lbs. of sweaty, smelly fur and foam. Almost passing out regularly. ugh.

 

Also- walking ponies and horses at fairs and parties. Again, entitlement meant little Suzy was giggled at when she pulled the horses hair, etc. Ponies and horses get grumpy and like to bite when they get tired of kids grabbing or screaming. Add to that, their head is usually at breast level when they do. OUCH. Top that off with 90 degrees (again SUMMER), and mucking the stalls when I was done.

 

Sandwich shop in a college town- 11pm-3am shift. Drunk, obnoxious, and sometimes frightening people. Alone at closing. FUN.

 

Retail/mall/Christmas. Everyone who has done that one understands. ;)

 

oooh.. and my "almosts": almost posed for an art class, chickened out at the last minute.

and almost: got hired for massage "therapy" then got alll the details about "releasing" the clients. freaked out and ran. Then went to school and became a REAL Massage Therapist, so i'd never have to feel like that again.

Edited August 17, 2011 by awoogala

[jenncslp]

So many interesting jobs...

 

-Worked as an optician until I found out the optometrist was drinking on his lunch hour and my keys wouldn't close the doors the first night they left me alone.

-I worked at a food service place where one of my jobs was to call stores all morning to get their "Banana Report"-fun job, were the bananas too green, too ripe-man, some produce managers got angry.

-I worked at a child care center, after about a month and a half the director and lead teacher decided to go on a trip together and left me in charge. There was a lice outbreak and the lighting fixtures caught on fire, not fun.

-I reprogrammed credit card terminals over the phone...strange men would answer (my friends nicknamed it my 1-900-JENA job, they even made me change my name).

-Loved working in the Hearing Clinic-One of my jobs was to call to confirm appointments and the conversation would go something like this: Me: Hi, I was calling to confirm your hearing appointment for tomorrow at 10 am. Them: WHAT? Me: I was calling to confirm your hearing appointment for tomorrow at 10 am. Them: WHAT? Me: I WAS CALLING TO CONFIRM YOUR HEARING APPOINTMENT FOR TOMORROW AT 10 AM. Them: Honey, I don't know what you're saying, but tomorrow I'm going for a hearing appointment at 10 am and hopefully I'll be able to hear something soon. Me: THANK YOU!:lol:

-And I did a lot of research studies in speech and hearing. One of my favorites (after it was over) was to sit in a pitch black room. They would start playing sounds like bombs were going off and I would have to hit buttons to denote where they were coming from (sound localization study for the army).

 

...and there were many more. :)

[LucyStoner]

I have not had any bad jobs while parenting. I have been lucky in that regard. My career has not always been easy but it has paid well enough and I used my mental skills while making a difference (I work for non-profits in management and development).

 

However, as a first generation high school grad on my mom's side who worked from the age 12 and have the tax returns to prove it, I have had all sorts of jobs.

 

Working in a home daycare for a very sketchy woman

Scooping ice cream for obnoxious college guys

Working for a dating service

Working for a string of lawyers who were all insane and/or unethical in one way or the other.

Typing people's last wills and testaments from home. Would not have been so bad but it was my 4th job when I was taking 20 credit hours a quarter and it ate up all my sleep and cost me my health and sanity. :)

Doing all night inventory at department stores.

Nannying for a set of parents who expected me to be the only discipline in their children's lives.

Cleaning hotel and inn rooms with all the nasty stuff you can find in said rooms that people don't have the decency to throw away for themselves. And trust me the ones that leave used condoms on the floor, they don't leave tips.:tongue_smilie:

 

The only jobs I had before I got into my field that I really liked were babysitting, housecleaning (great $ and I enjoy cleaning), tutoring and teaching sex-ed. Oh, and working in an arts ticket office.

Edited August 17, 2011 by kijipt

[Joker]

My worst job ever was working in a daycare when I was 18. I had a room of 12 two year olds. :001_huh: They had this huge playhouse in the middle of the room and the problem was I couldn't always see what was going on so there was always someone biting someone else (and it always happened while I was changing a diaper). The final straw was actually when I saw a school aged boy brought into the nursery. They put him in a crib and when he wouldn't stop crying they threatened to put him in a diaper - he was about 8. I worked until his mom showed up and told her what happened. Then, I quit. That job is the reason I never wanted my kids in a daycare.

[FO4UR]

Daycare.

 

I loved it and hated it. I worked in 3 different places. One was not so bad, and I stayed there all through college. I had a great rapport with the parents and the kids were all generally well-loved and cute as buttons (even though they wiped their snot on me a time or two...). The other 2 were horrible horrible places with a bunch of neglected kids acting out. It was honestly somewhat traumatic for me to see that. The owners/operators of both of those just...shouldn't be in the childcare business.:glare:

 

I've done childcare in my home, and that was OK until I had a family with an under-diagnosed child and a mother in denial. I can't emotionally handle caring for children for whom I have no real power to nurture. I can't look a child in the face, know he needs help, and sit around waiting for his momma to check her pride at the door so her dc can get the therapy he needs. I.Can't.Do.IT!!!! I provided childcare for this particular family when my dc were 3, 1, and newborn. It was sheer insanity, but it paid for groceries.

 

The real whoppers have been dh's jobs though...and I don't think it would be wise to share those online so much...in fact we signed a paper for one such job that stated that we wouldn't say anything negative about that job...and I think that might say enough... I will say that one church we served had a parsonage as part of the salary package, and it was SO bad that the house was condemned and torn down months after we left. :glare:

[WTMCassandra]

Telemarketing for a mega-church while in high school. And I'm an ISTJ!!!! Hated. Every. Moment. One time when I called and asked for a man, the woman who answered said she had just gotten back from burying him--her husband. SOOOOOO Horrible! I apologized profusely, got the heck off the phone, and went and told the supervisor in no uncertain terms to Take Her Off the Call List. I hope he did. Sigh.

[Word Nerd]

When I was still single, temporarily living at my parents' house, and trying to find work related to my degree, I took a job as a customer support technician for an outsourcing company. We had very little training, though some techs actually knew what they were doing. Our primary goal was to get through as many calls as possible, and we were allowed a set number of minutes per call. We used a troubleshooting database, but whether we actually solved any problems was secondary. Many calls were monitored, and if you ever told anyone that you did not work directly for Compaq, you would be terminated immediately. One caller asked me outright, and I didn't answer rather than lying. I only lasted 3 weeks before I quit.

[Mosaicmind]

The jobs I had in highschool weren't bad. I worked at a cafe as a waitress and at a grocery store as a cart pusher/cashier/stocker/produce person.

 

I also donated plasma and blood for money when we had lots of little kids and very little money. Of course, after the upteenth time of me fainting on the table because I couldn't take it, they asked me not to come back. I have also driven a school bus, which was horrible because kids can be down right disprespectful; I felt like I was back in middle school.

 

My kids and i have delivered newspapers. We had an early morning route and a weekly route where we delivered 1500 papers over two days. Dh has worked at an old fashioned butcher's shop and learned how to to cut up chickens properly, pick out good cuts of meat, and do whatever else you do at a butchers.

 

We both also worked harvest in OK when we were younger. Geesh!! You work from 5am in the morning until midnight each night. It's great pay but kicks your bootie.

[linguistmama]

During college I cleaned bathrooms on campus. The women's would always be spotless, it only needed to be cleaned because of germs in a public restroom. The men's was always unbelievable! I couldn't imagine how anyone would even use it. There were always paper towels and campus newspapers everywhere. And always poop smeared all over at least one stall. Often there was blood smeared in stalls as well. I tried not to speculate how that would happen! :001_huh:

 

I worked at walmart for several years. Black Friday is a tool of Satan, I swear! I could not believe the things people would do. One year I worked in the toy department which was crazy at holiday time. The store was letting customers in, but had the specials were wrapped in black plastic on pallets for us to open at the right time. I was standing next to my manager when she got punched in the face over a $10 remote control car!

 

DH is from a poor part of rural Mexico and has some truly sad stories.

 

My mom is an RN and worked at the state hospital for many years. They never had enough staff to deal with the mentally ill patients when they became violent. Later she was a nurse at a prison. When I expressed concern for her safety she said that this job was far safer because prisoners were always escorted by an armed prison guard when they needed meds from her! She never had to face things by herself.

Edited August 17, 2011 by linguistmama

[SonshineLearner]

Worked at a imitation crab factory a few nights. Graveyard. UGH :(

[chepyl]

I worked in a daycare infant center (6 weeks to 2 years old). This solidified my resolve to NEVER put my kids in daycare! I was an good employee and caregiver, but the people I worked with....ugh! And the parents! I love babies, but I hated that job!

[Swirl]

I worked as an insurance underwriter. I hated putting individuals into neat little statistical boxes. Insurance agents despised us. The running joke was if you needed a heart transplant go to an underwriter, they don't use theirs anyway. So much the opposite of who I am.

 

I can't believe you didn't like being an underwriter. :eek: I was a commercial underwriter before I had my first child, and I thought it was the best job- EVER. I was just thinking the other day how much I missed that job. :D

[Heather in Neverland]

I bartended in a bikini to pay my way through college. It was awful but I made loads of money.

[Lady Florida.]

Fortunately, I can't say I've ever had a horrible job, but my worst was due to boredom. I mentioned in the best jobs thread that I quit teaching for a while and had several different jobs. One was as a bookkeeper for a small electrical company. They had contracts with some local builders to do the wiring, did home wiring for individuals, and sold supplies out of the small store. My office was in the back of the store.

 

I worked from 8-4, and most days I finished my work by 10. On paydays, if I was lucky, I could stretch it to noon. If none of the electricians were on site I sometimes answered the phone or sold items to walk-in customers, and once in a while the owner would have me call his suppliers to place orders. I read A LOT during the year I worked there.

 

As anyone who's ever had a boring job knows, the less work you have to do, the slower the time passes.

[Chris in VA]

Dh and I ran a chicken slaughter plant, which included operating a "lung gun" which is exactly what it sounds like.;)

 

In college, I worked at a poultry research farm where I removed the bursa from infected chickens. This is located in the, um, rectum of the chicken.:tongue_smilie: I also worked at a chicken production farm and pig farm.

 

 

 

I think this wins. Or at least comes in Top 5. Ewww....:D

[Chris in VA]

Worked at a imitation crab factory a few nights. Graveyard. UGH :(

 

So what is that stuff made of, anyway? Inquiring minds want to know...:lol:

[Lady Florida.]

I've worked for a veterinarian who did a lot of boarding. I loved many aspects of the job, but I didn't have pet hair, urine, blood, or feces on me by 8:30 a.m. it was a really slow day.

 

 

 

Funny how we all see things differently. I listed my vet tech job as one of my best in the other thread. I agree it was a dirty job, but I loved it.

[Dad 4 Boys]

Me: Telemarketing sales job, selling circus tickets by cold-calling my way through the phonebook.

 

DH: Car sales.

 

I did car sales as well. It was absolutely the worst.

[mytwomonkeys]

when i was 19 (1990) i did cold call telemarketing for household surveys. worst.job.ever. people hated me & could be so terribly mean. i hated calling them. eventually my best friend and i (she worked there too) just called each other and pretended to be customers and we'd fake the surveys.

[TXMary2]

Most recently (2008) I worked as a Walmart cashier. Working with the public is horrible. So many rude, condescending and arrogant folks who assume all Walmart cashiers are uneducated idiots. We of course set the prices and we are to blame when their credit cards are declined and checks rejected. I worked as seasonal employment and they loved me and asked me to stay. I stayed an extra 3 months before I just couldn't take it anymore. I paid off the bill I needed to pay so there was no point in continuing.

 

In the past, as a single mom I waitressed at a sports bar - great tips but I can't tell you how many married men hit on me or touched me. I had to mentally cleanse and remind myself that not all men were the same even though I was a single mom because of a cheating spouse that left.

 

I also was an Olan Mills phone sales person and a tow truck dispatcher when I was 18-19 years old.

[mytwomonkeys]

My worst job ever was working in a daycare

 

oh gosh. i blocked that out. yes! that is a terrible job! i never considered daycare for my own kids based on my awful experience working at la petite, lol.

[Miss Peregrine]

The job itself was not bad but I was sexually harassed and touched inappropriately by the boss' son(is that how you pluralize boss? I have no idea)

 

I finally quit and was called lazy by my step-dad for a long time because I was afraid to get another job. I was only 16. :sad:

[bcnlvr]

I worked as an equipment cleaner at a health club. Every time someone got off a treadmill or elliptical, etc, I got to clean it for the next person. Every 30 minutes or so, I also had to go over to the strength section and clean the weight machines, too. The smell=ewwww. I definitely wore gloves. And don't even ask me about my mononucleosis story (yes, I caught it at that club and I quit as soon as I found out....disgusting).

[Jennifer in MI]

I've detassled seed corn. Hot & itchy. :(

 

I knew there hard to be at least one other! I had blocked out the ITCH!!!! Ugh. How about the wet mornings that never really dried no matter how hot it was?

 

Yup. And I also worked cooking for farm hands one summer. The house wasn't air conditioned, and I thought it was easier detassling the corn! At least a breeze might come through the field, but it never came through that farm kitchen!

 

e.

 

I guess I can see how that would be worse!

 

Dh and I ran a chicken slaughter plant, which included operating a "lung gun" which is exactly what it sounds like.;)

 

In college, I worked at a poultry research farm where I removed the bursa from infected chickens. This is located in the, um, rectum of the chicken.:tongue_smilie: I also worked at a chicken production farm and pig farm.

 

We've collected scrap metal to sell.

 

I've sold plasma for money before, too.

 

Yuck!!!! Yup. You win!

 

Daycare.

 

I loved it and hated it. I worked in 3 different places. One was not so bad, and I stayed there all through college. I had a great rapport with the parents and the kids were all generally well-loved and cute as buttons (even though they wiped their snot on me a time or two...). The other 2 were horrible horrible places with a bunch of neglected kids acting out. It was honestly somewhat traumatic for me to see that. The owners/operators of both of those just...shouldn't be in the childcare business.:glare:

 

I've done childcare in my home, and that was OK until I had a family with an under-diagnosed child and a mother in denial. I can't emotionally handle caring for children for whom I have no real power to nurture. I can't look a child in the face, know he needs help, and sit around waiting for his momma to check her pride at the door so her dc can get the therapy he needs. I.Can't.Do.IT!!!! I provided childcare for this particular family when my dc were 3, 1, and newborn. It was sheer insanity, but it paid for groceries.

 

The real whoppers have been dh's jobs though...and I don't think it would be wise to share those online so much...in fact we signed a paper for one such job that stated that we wouldn't say anything negative about that job...and I think that might say enough... I will say that one church we served had a parsonage as part of the salary package, and it was SO bad that the house was condemned and torn down months after we left. :glare:

 

I did daycare in college. I think I blocked it out too. It was just horrible.

[lailasmum]

I've done few not so nice jobs.

I did a summer of fruit picking and packing years ago. Would start vary early and end upcovered in sticky rotten fruit and with dreadful back ache. Plus it paid seriously badly.

 

My main job before kids was working in theatre. One dressing job I had involved removing the clothes, dripping with sweat, from a conductor twice a show. Was just disgusting. Then I went into stage management which was well paid but being treated like every bodies dogs body and dealing with egos and bad attitudes day in day out made me hate it, plus its pretty dull doing the same show 8 times a week for months.

[BinahYeteirah]

Did anyone else detassel seed corn?????? I did that throughout middle and high school. It paid VERY well!!! HORRIBLE work conditions though!!!

 

YES! It was the only "real job" that would hire fourteen-year-olds. I especially loved grabbing those corn plants that happened to be covered with thousands of little black bugs, which then squished all over as I yanked the tassel out. I also loved that special corn rash I got on my arms.

 

I only lasted one summer. The next year, at fifteen years of age, I moved up in the world-- to fast food.

[Orthodox6]

First-ever job, summer before entering college: Eight hours per day, circling numbers with a red Bic pen on giant computer-fold sheets, for a mortgage loan company.

 

Working 12 hours per day for several months and working on a second B.A. degree. The full-time job was as a tax examiner for the IRS; the half-time job was working in the manufacturing department of a goldsmith's shop. I'm listing this episode of life as "bad" because of the killer hours. The actual jobs, I enjoyed.

[mcconnellboys]

Working for my own family was some of the worst work I ever did!

 

The first job I ever had was in my family's grocery - in the meat department. This was when stores still dealt in organ meats (brains, eyeballs, and other unsavories)....

 

I had to help wash up the saw parts on Friday and Saturday nights. I hated it so much I still can't stand to wash dishes.

 

Bits of meat would go down the cooler drains and my uncle gave me Red Devil Lye to pour down the drains. This was the substance that was later implicated in blowing up in peoples faces. I was 12....

 

Also at about this age, they decided one day that they needed to "dust" behind the big frozen food coolers. There were masses of open wiring behind these and touching them would have resulted in electrocution. They tied an apron to my front and back and made me scoot down the wall behind them to pick up all the dust. I finally balked and refused to do any more....

 

There were other awful things they made me do over the years, but these are a couple of the worst I can recall....

 

Another weird job I did in college involved research work. I sometimes was paid and sometimes received credit for it. I worked in the zooarchaeology lab where various types of animals were macerated. The smell gets into your nasal passages and you can't wash it out, even with something like Irish Spring. At least it made a good way to lose weight....

 

While working in the lab one summer, another girl who needed some credits came in to work with me. Her regular job was interviewing applicants at a plasma donation center. I had no idea at the time of the sort of clientele who frequented that place. I applied, but was given a job assisting (with the needles) on the floor at first. I was in constant fear of a needle prick (and this was before all the HIV/AIDS stuff came into the news). I was also in fear of most of the clientele.... The company laid off a bunch of people just a couple of weeks after I started and I was included since I was the last hired. I took it as an omen that such a job was not for me and didn't return when I was later called back....

 

I had a job for a while doing survey work for a country music radio station, LOL. I rilly, rilly don't like country music much, even though I grew up with it....

[m0mmaBuck]

It wasn't for money but I grew up on a dairy farm so there were a lot of nasty jobs involved with that. My least favorite, though, was picking rocks/boulders out of the fields before tilling them for the spring planting.

[SeekingHim77]

I worked as a cashier at McDonald's for a witchy boss. She was terrible and working for her was exhausting. If there weren't any customers and everything had already been done, she would make us remop the still wet from all ready having been mopped floor. Because the floor was always wet, falling was an issue.

 

I taught preschool at a church that wasn't my cup of tea. The Pastor's wife was my boss and she was just not a nice person. They required us to teach 2 yr. olds by forcing them to sit down at a table and do paperwork. Needless to say, I only finished the year out and quickly turned in my resignation. I still get the shudders when I think about that job. The women there were so joyless and I hated teaching that way!

[Mommyfaithe]

I worked for the rag man when I was 12. His schlock store was next door to my mom's antique store ( aka junk store...or cr@p shoppe:D). Anyway, in the back room of the schlock store was a pile of clothes about 25 ft wide and 7 ft tall. My job was to pick through the clothes, find ones that were sellable, iron them and put them on hangars so people could buy them! Serious. I did this every day after school and on Saturdays. I think hen paid me $10 a week.

 

I also worked at Burger King once for 2 days...my face broke out and I quit.

Shallow...but true.

 

Faithe

 

Eta...I also worked in telephone sales in high school. We made 50 cents for a lead and $5 if the guy made a sale. It was for a drapery/ slip cover company. It wasn't my worst job, but so monotonous. I got to the point where I could read and do the schpeil at the same time. I can still recite the entire thing.

Edited August 18, 2011 by Mommyfaithe

[phathui5]

Overnight Walmart Remodeler- 10pm-7am. Building shelving units, moving pallets of products, taking everything off a shelf and setting a new shelf with the product, standing around waiting for the trucks to be unloaded. Then going home and taking care of the kids while dh was at work.

[melbotoast]

Selling knives (Cutco).