[pickle]

In your life have you ever been employed doing something so objectively awful that you couldn't force yourself to do it another day? My dad asked me this at lunch today, and the best i could do was the army. I look back fondly on my time in the military, but at times it was a soul crusher. Also, is the bad job so bad that it's worth just fucking off despite the risks of unemployment, bad reference etc. Have you ever rolled out on a job middle finger in the air?

[Crunched]

I went to the doctor yesterday for persistent and severe IBS. For the past few months I have been shitting my guts out nearly constantly M-F. I wake up in the middle of the night with severe stomach cramps and need to shit. Friday I go in for an ultrasound, and in a month I see a gastroenterologist.

This is the second doctor's opinion I've got. The prediction from both? It's caused by job stress. So, not really a funny work story. Still a bunch of shit.

[worldrevolution]

When I was 16? 17? I went with a friend to apply for a job he was interested in, data entry or something I thought because we were tested on typing skills and such. My friend failed but I got it..neat I thought. Got there the first day and it was a call center for like catalogue sales, accepting calls, pushing orders. Ugh. No way I'd be one of those people. I played along for like an hour and when the coast was clear I wrote a note that said "sorry, but no thanks" and left. A month later I got a paycheck for like 1 hour of work from them. Baller.

[NinjaBoiX]

I briefly worked for TNT, a delivery firm, taking calls from the drivers. The office was in the middle of nowhere, and staffed almost expressly by 60 year old women. My first day, I took about 2 one minute calls every hour, with the rest of the time taken up by stories of cute grandchildren and what have you.

Anyway, the next day, I brought in a magazine, just to occupy the time between calls. I was immediately told that this wasn't allowed, and all of could do to pass the time was to stare out of the tiny, caged windows at the grim industrial park.

Suffice to say, I didn't last a third day. My god, worst job I've ever had.

[soundscream]

Yes. At age 17 I worked as a cart attendant at a super market called Edwards. It wasn't so bad, but they made me wear black dress pants a white dress shirt and a bowtie as my uniform, even in the summer heat. About 6 months in they started making me do janitorial work, something I wasn't hired for and wouldn't do for 5.15hr. They called me to the office one day and said I was getting a raise for my good work. I was all about damn time. Then they said it was a 5 cent raise..... (-_-). I took of my bowtie placed it on the desk and said I'm done here.

[Septimius]

My girlfriend was harassed and discriminated by her boss when she asked for clarification on something she didn't understand. Suffice it to say, she doesn't really want to go back to work. I've stepped in, and I'm meeting with him. He does this shit to other people all the time, so this stuff ends now. Even talked to the regional manager, and we'll be taking it further, too. Exciting!

[pickle]

I went to the doctor yesterday for persistent and severe IBS. For the past few months I have been shitting my guts out nearly constantly M-F. I wake up in the middle of the night with severe stomach cramps and need to shit. Friday I go in for an ultrasound, and in a month I see a gastroenterologist. This is the second doctor's opinion I've got. The prediction from both? It's caused by job stress. So, not really a funny work story. Still a bunch of shit.

damn man that sounds terrible. sincerely hope you can get relief.

[ScreenSplitter]

I work as a bus boy/bar staff at a restaurant. The pay is pretty low and the hours fluctuate, but it pays the rent. I had a lot of trouble with the boss getting frustrated with how slowly I worked when I started, but she's eased off a little in the last few months. They're usually really good with when you need time off too.

Working at GAME was pretty soul-crushing though. You constantly had managers breathing down your neck to push sales and get a certain amount of accessories sold.

[CiSTM]

I did phone surveys for one day as teenager, never went back. They actually didn't even made people sign contract on first day since many don't come back. Other then that I have pulled through even in shitty jobs. And I have had more then few shitty jobs, including shoveling shit.

[Longshot]

I currently recycle plastic for a living and I'm at the end of my tether, it's supported a comfortable lifestyle for almost 3 years but operating machinery in a stinking factory isn't for me, trying to tee a few things up before I leave at the end of the year, probably gonna study part-time at night or something.

[Angry Fork]

I quit my first job after about 2 weeks when I was like 14, it was in an upscale restaurant. At first they put me as a bus boy, I was carrying about 30 plates stacked on top of one another they were hot because they'd just been washed and heavy. I was taking them to a filled party room where people had just come back from a wedding or something, there was a ridge/protruding piece in the floor when entering the room and I tripped over it, fell and crashed all the plates. Probably the most embarrassing moment of my life. Everyone just looked at me and the people playing music stopped playing I laugh thinking about it now but it was so bad. A lot of the plates broke and I was bleeding on my arm a bit.

The next week I was put in the bathroom as the person who hands towels and shit. It was such a pointless position and I knew it then because people could just get it on their own there was absolutely no need for me to be there it was just something to make the place look more professional. And I wasn't allowed to sit down so I had to stand for 6-7 hours straight doing absolutely nothing. I didn't have a phone or book or anything you'd just have to stand there and day dream or play with the faucets for 6 hours or more, it was horrible.

The best thing about this however was I made crazy money especially on weekends. People would always put a dollar tip and it was a huge restaurant so people kept coming in. I'd make like 300$ just standing there handing towels for one night. But at 14 all I wanted was enough money to buy games and magic stuff because I was into that and eventually once you get enough money you feel like there's no point in getting more. If you have 1,000$ at 14 and you feel like you absolutely do not need anymore then you wonder why you're doing something that makes you feel terrible for more money.

I was also feeling really bad about how I was making money because I knew I didn't really deserve it since it wasn't real work in my opinion. It felt like I was robbing people and making them feel guilty for me so they'd give me a dollar. So in the 2nd week I was really tired my legs were dead I just wanted to go home and sleep so I left without telling anyone and didn't go back. I felt bad because my brother got me the job since he was friends with the manager there but it felt easier to just leave than telling everyone how I felt.

[Dead Man]

Worst job I had was cleaning industrial kitched ceilings. The job was spraying shit from a high power nozzle at the ceiling while 20 years of cooking detritus dropped off the ceiling onto your head. I lasted one day.

[Amory]

Nah, never quit a job on the spot without a plan forward. I've thought about it plenty of times, though. I used to work customer service at a grocery store, and just basically stood there all day wondering why these people were screaming at me because they bought strawberries that got moldy after a couple days. It's like, dude, I'll let you get some more strawberries, I really don't give a shit. Calm down.

[Crunched]

damn man that sounds terrible. sincerely hope you can get relief.

Yeah me too :p

I work in dietary at a hospital, which doesn't sound like much. But it sucks being around sick or dying people and not being able to do anything for them. I am contractually obligated not to do anything except bring them food and explain diet options. One time i helped a guy with downs get a sock unstuck from a chair and was reprimanded for it.

It's not just that though... Everyday i am exposed to people who don't know how to take care of themselves at a basic level, and no one seems interested in helping them. 60-70% of all the people I see hospitalized are diabetic, many of them in renal failure. Yet other dietary people bring them high-carb choices indiscriminately. I have tried to explain that this is wrong, but they don't understand. I think it is part of our job to help improve the welfare and life quality of our patients, but no one else seems to agree. 'They will just eat this way at home anyway,' or 'just do it or they won't stop complaining.' A few years ago i had a woman request a bottle of coke, and when i got to her room i saw she had no fingers or toes, her hands and feet were little more than wrinkled black stubs, and a 'courtesy cart' was waiting outside her room. We call them courtesy carts but they used to be called grievance trays, left outside for family members of patients who have recently died or are about to die. This lady rotting away from diabetes, and all she wants before she dies is more sugar.

It's a super depressing place to work. It's frustrating not being able to help people even when i might be able. I've been here five years, we've had a wage freeze for the past three (no raises - - except for managers). I make $9 but am frequently asked not only to pull two consecutive shiftsbut two simultaneous shifts. No pay increase. This week i was scheduled 7 days. I have been trying to get out for so long. And i just found out they are hiring four new positions on starting at $14.

On top of all that, i am pretty sure two of my managers want to fuck me. One of them has 'accidently' bumped into my ass or my junk more times than i can count. And the other, the head of the entire department, talks to me about her family troubles, looks me up and down every time i see her, and exercises every bit of her power to make me feel insignificant, like we are in some vague bdsm play.


Will add this too: when learning i had applied to transfer to a different department, the department manager immediately wrote me up on a step 2. With a step 2 you can't transfer. But the thing is, i was never written up for a step 1! I went to HR about that and ended up with just a warning write up, but then as if to retaliate i was scheduled so that i am working two weekends i requested off, and the two i ddn't need off i have off. Exactly the opposite of what i requested. Now i need to find someone to cover those shifts.

[ruxtpin]

hospital life

I feel ya' - working the medical field can be stressful as hell.

I worked for 5 years as an x-ray technologist and, more than anything else, the thing that bothered me most was seeing people continue to do the same things that would kill them. Like the 500 lb guy on a ventilator in ICU with organs failing; the terrible shape he's in due in part to the fact that his body can't handle the obscene weight. Yet look in the corner of the room and you see family members with boxes of ho-ho's and ding dongs. People, you're killing yourselves here (and me too, because lifting of 500 lbs of dead weight for morning x-rays is not pleasant).

On a lighter note... I didn't know I'd be performing enemas on folks until I got in to school. I always found with enema exams that they we're either super smooth or super difficult. I mean, the tip of the enema is - literally - a balloon that you blow up so it stays in the rectum; you know you're in for an unpleasant test when the patient blows the inflated balloon out of their anus multiple times. I can't even imagine what that would feel like.

When I was in school, one of my fellow classmates - a female - was performing an enema on a female patient and put the tip in the wrong hole, inflated the balloon, and the patient still said nothing. Wasn't until the radiologist came in to start the test and watched barium flowing where it shouldn't, that they realized she tipped the wrong hole.

[injurai]

There is a line between working a shit job because It will eventually move you up in life, vs working a job that is emotionally devastating and is part of the downward spiral that you trapped in. Sometimes its both at the same time.

[Crunched]

I feel ya' - working the medical field can be stressful as hell. I worked for 5 years as an x-ray technologist and, more than anything else, the thing that bothered me most was seeing people continue to do the same things that would kill them. Like the 500 lb guy on a ventilator in ICU with organs failing; the terrible shape he's in due in part to the fact that his body can't handle the obscene weight. Yet look in the corner of the room and you see family members with boxes of ho-ho's and ding dongs. People, you're killing yourselves here (and me too, because lifting of 500 lbs of dead weight for morning x-rays is not pleasant). On a lighter note... I didn't know I'd be performing enemas on folks until I got in to school. I always found with enema exams that they we're either super smooth or super difficult. I mean, the tip of the enema is - literally - a balloon that you blow up so it stays in the rectum; you know you're in for an unpleasant test when the patient blows the inflated balloon out of their anus multiple times. I can't even imagine what that would feel like. When I was in school, one of my fellow classmates - a female - was performing an enema on a female patient and put the tip in the wrong hole, inflated the balloon, and the patient still said nothing. Wasn't until the radiologist came in to start the test and watched barium flowing where it shouldn't, that they realized she tipped the wrong hole.

Shit, that sounds awful. I once overheard one nurse arguing with another about where a catheter goes. 'It goes in the vagina!' 'No, it goes in the urethra!' 'The urethra is in the vagina!'

I had to walk away.

[ruxtpin]

Shit, that sounds awful. I once overheard one nurse arguing with another about where a catheter goes. 'It goes in the vagina!' 'No, it goes in the urethra!' 'The urethra is in the vagina!' I had to walk away.

lordy. haha - I dated a nurse for a while who told me that the stomach was located on the right side of the body. I tried arguing with her, but gave up. I've seen enough medical drawings and x-rays to know that the stomach primarily locates itself on the left (or if you we're viewing someone in an AP position, then it would be your right - but still that persons left).

I can safely say I didn't have any colossal screw ups. I got stuck with a needle once, which was a little nerve racking. Co-worker knocked a water fountain off the wall while driving a portable x-ray machine.

oh... I did have to x-ray a prisoner's penis because he (or another prisoner) had jabbed a pen through the tip. Problem is, there isn't a "penis x-ray." There are orders for the pelvis and hips, but there isn't an x-ray order for the penis.

Note: For anyone who doesn't know - x-rays are taken on cassettes. They go from large 14x17 inches (for chest x-rays, legs etc), to rather small 8x10 (hands, feet, babies, etc).

So I get a call from the ER doctor asking if he can order a "lower extremity" x-ray, then explains what he needs - an x-ray of this guys penis. I'm like 'Sure, I'll meet ya' in the room in just a second' - but before I hang up the doctor goes, 'oh yeah, don't worry - bring the smallest cassette you can find, 3 inch maybe' and starts laughing - I almost died. Of course the patient didn't hear any of this, but it was ice cold!

[ChiTownBuffalo]

In the early '90's in Colorado. This restaurant existed:



If you've never been to it. It's kind of like Long John Silver's.

I worked there as a teenager. It was horrible. At the time, we still hand battered all the fish filets. So, my job, was to be in a back room with boxes and boxes of filets, cleaning them, scraping them, and basically removing any detrius leftover on them. I was covered in fish guts, skin and would constanly find scales in my hair after work, and even sometimes out of my nose when I sneezed.

I learned very much to wield a filet knife, managed to not cut my fingers off an maintain a pretty decent stint as a youth violinist.

Then, one day, we found out our filets would not be coming to us flash frozen and pre battered! Great day! No reeking of cod and whitefish smegma! And Lent was coming up, so no slaving away during that nightmare rush on Fridays.

No so fast my young friend.

In order to drum up business, they launched a new ad campaign, and introduced a new mascot.



Well, the mascot has to go to the people, and prance around and convince them to come inside and gorge themselves on fish, chips, chowder, and really fucked up tasting iced tea.

So, arrived a costume:



Well, only two people could fit in the costume, myself and Carol. And I thought, oh, we would trade off.

No. This did not happen. I was given exclusive costume duty. Why? I have my theories as to how Carol avoided costume duty and the Assistant Manager gave them to me:



So, with the costume, inexpicably smelling of deep fryer fish. I stood on corners, during the summertime, doing a pirate shanty dance. There was a corporate training video of it out there somewhere. I would have beverages, cigarettes, diapers, anything and everything thrown at me by passers by. And when I didn't have to be on the corner whoring by costumed bird ass and dignity. It was inside, trying to entertain small children. Who would throw food on me, piss or vomit on me.

Never once did they wash that thing.

Then one day, I just stopped coming to work.

Bruce, my assistant manager, called my house once, demanding to know where I was. And in front of my parents, I said "Fuck you Bruce." And hung up the phone.

My father, in his bottomless concern for me said, "Now I have to pay for clam chowder. Why can't you learn responsibility?"

[Autumn Wind]

My father, in his bottomless concern for me said, "Now I have to pay for clam chowder. Why can't you learn responsibility?"

Wow! That's something...

Anyway, let's see. The worst job I probably had was working at Walgreens. The managers were very cranky all the time and I quit by putting a note in the register saying working here to make me kill myself and I was done. I was 16 at the time. Lasted 6 weeks.

The second worst job I had was at Radio Shack where a manager made us meet impossible commission goals. We had to sell cell phones but it would take forever to sign someone up thus I just spent time greeting customers and watching the TV we had. The only reason I quit was because my manager was trying to set me up on a theft I feel. I lasted about 8 weeks.

The third worst job I had was working with my dad in produce at a grocery store. Lasted four months. Basically the manager expected me to be like my dad when I wasn't he'd chew out my dad and my dad would chew out me.

[ultron87]

I once had to clean up a bathroom stall that was coated from about waist down in literal shit. And there were soiled boxers left on the ground.

If that had been more than a one time occurrence at that job I could not have done it.

[gurudyne]

Factory QA. Stand at conveyor belt, watch two hundred and fifty thousand pamphlets sealed in plastic go by and pull off the ones that have holes in the plastic. Machines were loud enough that we had to wear earplugs. Mind-killing work with no AC in the summer, no heat in winter and no conversation.

[diffusionx]

I worked a temp job at this warehouse for a few weeks. It was the 6am-2pm shift. It was basically me standing in front of a conveyor belt for 8 hours and stacking pallets of juice. The machine got jammed up all the time, it was truly mind-numbing (I had to invent games to keep myself occupied, like Principal Skinner in his basement), and I was the only one who spoke English on the floor.

One day the white man boss came down from on high to tour the facilities and saw me struggling at the end of a shift with a jammed conveyor belt. He asked me if I was feeling alright and I told him the machine jammed all the time and it was hard to do the work efficiently. I was relieved of my duties. They actually called me up a few weeks later asking to come back and I politely declined.

[Pecan1]

Working cleanng out chicken houses. Basically scrape feet of chicken shit off the ground and dead chickens and shit. smells really good. and the pay is ecellent

[ReBurn]

I think I've been pretty blessed, because I've never had a job that I actually hated. Throughout high school I worked as a grocery clerk and stock clerk. I got to meet lots of cool people and those jobs are great exercise. In college I was an assistant manager on grocery stores and became a data analyst for a grocery chain. That was cool, too. Then I was a software developer and moved through various architecture and management roles.

I've enjoyed working. I have a good time doing what I do.

[mackattk]

Making $9 an hour, working here for five years. And i just found out they are hiring four new positions on starting at $14.

This is what pisses me off so much, and it happened to almost every job I have been in. I start out at a low pay, work my ass off to get a few raises or whatever, and still don't get paid as much as what new employees will get starting off.

[jorma]

Worked weekends at a flea-market in Stockholm as security/janitor.

If you drew toilet duty you'd have to clean toilets looking like this:


And being pretty much the only white dude in the staff working the floor, and also among the regulars, i was called racist on a daily basis - essentially whenever i told someone off. Or tried to tell someone off, i was like 17 so I had zero authority. If somone ever gave two fucks about anything i said, that was well above expectations.

Easily the worst job i ever had. The pay was good though. I liked the pay. I also got extra cash when i guarded the rear entrance. My job was to tell everyone they could not enter through the rear entrance unless they had a stall. But since noone gave a shit about anything i said they'd just throw the entrance fee at my table and walk in anyway. That money went to me. I deserved that money.

[InvincibleAgent]

I've been frustrated at individuals everywhere I've worked.

But I guess the one task that really had me hating my life was frame inspection. We look at these aluminum frames and load them in after checking that they don't have scratches, and aren't bent. It's a lot better now than it used to be.

We used to have to scrub every surface of every frame. And there was about a 30% failure rate. That means we had to do 30% more work because some jerk at our frame supplier couldn't do their job correctly.

And these things are heavy. And we used to have to bend down on our knees to scrub them. 2 knee-bends would yield, on average, 14 frames. That set you up for 3.5 panels. One framer was responsible for approximately 1,000 panels in one 12-hour shift. That's 572 knee-bends over the course of 12 hours.

I was close to quitting. Luckily I didn't ALWAYS have to do that or I would have. And later they dropped the scrubbing requirement. And we switched frame suppliers.

[Alucrid]

Working at a supermarket and having to clean the bathrooms.

The horror...

[BreakyBoy]

Not my worst job ever, but the one job I did spontaneously quit on was my 5 year-ish stint with Best Buy. This one has a happy ending, so maybe it'll help to balance things out a little here, and provide some hope for those wanting to do something similar to get something better for themselves.

At that point, I was the acting DCI (i.e. department manager) of Geek Squad in all but name. The previous DCI had been fired for being an asshole to a fellow employee on camera, and finally getting called out on it. By then, I'd already been more or less in charge since no one respected the asshole anyway.

In any case, I lasted a few months after he got let go, and all I got were complaints about how we weren't meeting revenue goals, and the paperwork wasn't in on time, and all bureaucratic bullshit that I found difficult to keep up with since I was still responsible for my actual job as the senior tech. You know, fixing all the shit no one else can fix, or training other techs to hopefully learn to do the shit so I wouldn't have to anymore.

So, after months of abuse, and juggling, I thought my reward would be at least to move up into the actual DCI role. Nah, the store manager decided to call up his old friend from another store and give him the position instead. So, I heard about this, and I went about my business. Basically, I ran around putting out fires. Angry customers, broken computers, scheduling, budgeting, meetings, etc etc etc.

I was one of the last people in the store along with the services manager as we were finally done for the night, and as I left, I looked at him and said "Hey <redacted>, I think I'm done here. I'm giving you my two weeks."

Manager: "Really?"

Me: "Yeah, I've busted my ass, and I've been treated like shit for it. I've put school off for this place, and it occurs to me there's no future in it."

Manager: "So, you're going back to school?"

Me: "It's mid-semester, and I need a job, so probably not."

Manager: "So, you have another job lined up?"

Me: "Nope."

Manager: "You sure you've thought this through?"

Me: "I don't need to. I know I'm better than this."

I ended up having my last day a week later. I think they were afraid I'd snapped and was going to burn the place down. I did my job, and I did it well until the last.

I took two weeks off to breathe, and I went job hunting. It took dozens of applications and interviews, but I landed an IT support job less than a month after that. I did my thing, demonstrated my skills whenever I had the chance, and I've steadily moved up and around to network administration, then R&D for new products, and now they've decided to take a shot at me doing software development over candidates that had full bachelor's degrees (I barely have an AA myself), and years of experience (all my experience is non-professional, personal projects and the like).

It's really what I've always wanted to do. It's stressful at the moment, since I'm still trying to pull my weight with the team, but I feel like I've finally arrived at the sort of job I was always meant to have.

Edit: To add to the bathroom horror pile, I had to clean my fair share of shit off the walls/ceilings in the bathrooms when I was at Best Buy. Thank god they had drains in the floors.

[hanzo]

I used to clean cages for animal research facility. Nasty work. I think everyone needs a down and dirty job. We need to know how it is to work these jobs.

I think the younger generation is getting lazy and spoiled. People were leaving jobs to do occupy wall street. No one is out there to hand you anything.

[Crunched]

I used to clean cages for animal research facility. Nasty work. I think everyone needs a down and dirty job. We need to know how it is to work these jobs. I think the younger generation is getting lazy and spoiled. People were leaving jobs to do occupy wall street. No one is out there to hand you anything.

Pootstraps.