SURVEY SAYS – What’s Your Worst Job?
The answers, as you might expect, were varied – and interesting. Of course, what makes a job “worst” can come from a variety of factors. Sometimes it’s the job itself (there’s just no redeeming some tasks):
Working behind the counter at the bakery when I was 14. I was told it was my job to scrub all the trays in the world’s tiniest sink with no hot water and ‘don’t mind the mice”. I felt like a character in a Dickens novel.
Hay Hauler – nothing compares to bucking bales in the sweltering summer heat with humidity so thick you could cut it in two.
Working as a field hand picking tobacco in the blazing sun with temperatures over 95 degrees when I was a young girl was the worst job.
While in college, I had the opportunity to work at General Motors for two summers, which paid so well that I funded the remainder of my college education. The factory had no air conditioning, so it was 100 degrees in there and I had to rotate shifts and jobs every week to fill in for vacations.
Working as a stable hand cleaning stalls at 4 a.m. in the winter. Even with a scarf covering your face, you can still smell the wonderful odors that emanate in a stable.
“I was the night clean up person at a grill. Scraping all the burnt food off the grill and cleaning up the spilled grease. I always went home with a coating of grease on me.
The worst TASK I ever had was when I worked at McDonald’s in high school. I liked the job, but one day I was asked to clean the ladies rest room. Some woman had a “”gastro-intestinal explosion”” in one of the stalls. Yes, it was as bad as you can imagine.
Working third shift loading trucks at a snack food company. For years I had nightmares of being buried by boxes of chips when the conveyer would not shut off.
Others, of course, are a function of mere boredom/repetitiveness:
Microfilmed (am I dating myself or what!) the card catalogs at libraries - public and medical libraries. Talk about boring.
Telephone operator - boring
My first summer job in the early 1970's was addressing envelopes by hand for a marketing campaign. Luckily I only worked 6 hours a day, but it was still extremely tedious and mindless. I now have arthritis in my hands and can barely write a note. Do you think I can go back after all these years a file a workers’ comp claim???
The job I just left. I had worked for this company for almost 10 years, enjoyed most of the 9 1/2 years until the last 10 months, I was given a different job of doing the same thing over and over and over again....was very hard to come to work each day. Everything was automated and all I had to do was push buttons on the keyboard, then modify the document, have it reviewed, make any necessary changes then print and send to prospecting clients, day in and day out. Before that job, I worked in a department that was constantly changing, making it interesting.
Others are just about being a bad fit:
It isn't a real job, but I hated selling Girl Scout calendars as a child. I thought they were overpriced and unappealing. I don't like selling anything, so this made it torture.
Selling newspaper subscriptions door to door. I lasted one night.
When I was in college, I took off 6-months to work as a nanny in Italy. I know, living in Italy, boo hoo, right? But seriously, working for that family was tough. They thought I was the worst kind of American scum, and treated me accordingly. (But yet, they had no problem turning their little children over to me 12 hours a day. Very telling.)
Baby sitting for three young girls. The youngest of which cried during most of my time there. It turned out she had pinworms and was in pain. There was nothing I could do about it.
A "Kelly Girl" temp during college -- most of the assignments I received were horrible (job duties, working conditions, etc.)!
Working as a car hop. (That really gives you a clue to my age, doesn't it!) No hourly wage, just tips. I had to pay for any customers who stole the A & W mugs in my section.
While there were (obviously) samplings of jobs in all those categories in this week’s polling, it’s also true that when you get right down to it, what can make a job truly awful – or wonderful – is a function of the people you get to work with and for – and this week’s responses had plenty in those categories as well:
I've never had a bad job. Just a bad job environment once. It was awful. I've never had a problem working with anyone but this place was unbelievable. There were at least four people that made my life hell everyday. I lasted three years. It felt so good when I finally walked out of there for the last time.
I worked for a life insurance company where some agents were ripping off college students and I had to write letters backing up the agents. Several of us helped to get the problem recognized and it was eventually stopped.
In 42 years I've only had 4 jobs, but the worst part of my first job was when my boss had told me to lie to United Way about the donation level for his district as a District Leader. I cried and quit my job, but the company would not allow me to quit. This boss was eventually fired, not over this but for even better reasons. I guess it wasn't that bad of a job, just a bad boss.
Summer internship for an ex-marine who had served two tours in Vietnam and liked to see what his reports "were made of!"
Early in my career, I worked as an administrative assistant to the president of a paint retailer. The office staff was dysfunctional beyond belief, with the girls in the office always yelling at each other, at the president, and at customers. I couldn't get out of there fast enough - great motivation to find a better job where people were actually pleasant!
Are you kidding? Recordkeeping for clients who neither understand what we do nor value the number of headaches we prevent for them.
I hate to admit it, but probably the one I have right now. Pair an incompetent boss who holds a grudge and takes everything personally with upper management who knows there is an issue but chooses not to care, and you've got a recipe for perfect misery. If it weren't for the benefits, I would have left a long time ago...
In fact, there were a LOT of comments this week that their worst job was “this one” – though it wasn’t always apparent whether that was a function of the current environment, or whether the current environment was keeping them in those jobs – or both.
That said, there were a lot of very positive comments about how these bad jobs help us appreciate what we have when we find that great fit, including the reader who noted, “Only in America can you go from being a field hand to a financial advisor. With all our challenges, we live in a wonderful country.”
However, this week’s Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who made me laugh out loud when they referenced the job where she was “Working as a temporary secretary at a car dealership where the owner thought he was God and treated everyone like we were in hell.”
Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey! You’ll find some more verbatims (and some expansions on some of the ones above) in the pages that follow.
In 42 years I've only had 4 jobs, but the worst part of my first job was when my boss had told me to lie to United Way about the donation level for his district as a District Leader. I cried and quit my job, but the company would not allow me to quit. This boss was eventually fired, not over this but for even better reasons. I guess it wasn't that bad of a job, just a bad boss.
I've never had a bad job. Just a bad job environment once. It was awful. I've never had a problem working with anyone but this place was unbelievable. There were at least four people that made my life hell everyday. I lasted three years. It felt so good when I finally walked out of there for the last time.
Managing 14 people in a call center.
It isn't a real job, but I hated selling Girl Scout calendars as a child. I thought they were overpriced and unappealing. I don't like selling anything, so this made it torture.
telephone operator - boring
"I was the night clean up person at a grill. Scraping all the burnt food off the grill and cleaning up the spilled grease. I always went home with a coating of grease on me. (of course the best part of
that job was you could eat for free and we always had a hot fudge sundae after finishing clean up.)"
I have enjoyed at least some aspects of all of my jobs, primarily the interaction with people. Each job had its negative aspects, especially the current job, but I have been able to circumvent the negatives and continue to contribute. That is why I have survived almost 9 years in a very difficult HR environment within a great company.
I hate to admit it, but probably the one I have right now. Pair an incompetent boss who holds a grudge and takes everything personally with upper management who knows there is an issue but chooses not to care, and you've got a recipe for perfect misery. If it weren't for the benefits, I would have left a long time ago...
Working the largest souvenir shop at Disney World, some of the customers were unbelievably rude. One even hit a coworker on the head with a flag because he did not want to wait his turn in line.
Actually, the worst job I had was at a public relations firm back in the late '70's; the boss chased me around his office - but -- it was also one of the best jobs I've ever had in that ALL that I brought to the table was used on a day-to-day basis; I really felt a working part of that team!
The one I'm in now.
Working third shift loading trucks at a snack food company. For years I had nightmares of being buried by boxes of chips when the conveyer would not shut off.
Microfilmed (am I dating myself or what!) the card catalogs at libraries - public and medical libraries. Talk about boring.
I worked for a life insurance company where some agents were ripping off college students and I had to write letters backing up the agents. Several of us helped to get the problem recognized and it was eventually stopped.
This one.
Waitressing. But it paid my way through college, so I don't have to do it today.
When I was 12, I cleaned the glass cases in a music store!
The job I just left. I had worked for this company for almost 10 years, enjoyed most of the 9 1/2 years until the last 10 months, I was given a different job of doing the same thing over and over and over again....was very hard to come to work each day. Everything was automated and all I had to do was push buttons on the keyboard, then modify the document, have it reviewed, make any necessary changes then print and send to prospecting clients, day in and day out. Before that job, I worked in a department that was constantly changing, making it interesting.
Business to Business Calls to try to sell benefits.
12 months as a Cleaning Service employee while going to college
I never accepted a job I thought I would not like or at least have fun while working.
Selling newspaper subscriptions door to door. I lasted one night.
I really had no "worst job". They have all been appropriate for where I was at the stage of my life. As I get closer to retirement, I realize that retirement could be the worst or best time of my life. It's going to take at least as much effort, organization, and time to make retirement work as it takes to make my current job work - although in different ways! However, I know I will not be dragging myself out the door when it's 20 below zero for anything!
Husband
Banquet busboy for a low-end hotel chain, stuck in the windowless bowels of the structure. The clientelle was obnoxious; pay was low; management was horrible. Made a nice benchmark for future employment.
Baby sitting for three young girls. The youngest of which cried during most of my time there. It turned out she had pinworms and was in pain. There was nothing I could do about it.
Early in my career, I worked as an administrative assistant to the president of a paint retailer. The office staff was dysfunctional beyond belief, with the girls in the office always yelling at each other, at the president, and at customers. I couldn't get out of there fast enough - great motivation to find a better job where people were actually pleasant!
The one I am currently in. Each day is worst than the one before. So every time I come in here, that's pretty much the worst day of my life. (yes, I know I stole that from Office Space but it's sort of true!)
"I once worked for a week at a grocery store (Winn-Dixie) and hated it so much, I quit. But most of my jobs I've liked after a period of adjustment. The worst TASK I ever had was when I worked at McDonald's in high school. I liked the job, but one day I was asked to clean the ladies rest room. Some woman had a ""gastro-intestinal explosion"" in one of the stalls. Yes, it was as bad as you can imagine. ""It"" was everywhere, and I was tasked with scrubbing down the walls, floor, toilet, etc. Took a good 30 minutes...in rubber gloves and mask...
I begged them to send a woman in, but they appointed me. So I did it. And right when I was finishing a bus-load of incontinent ladies pulled into the parking lot, and they ALL filed into the restroom. They had ignored the ""restroom closed"" sign. There were only two stalls. I was in one, and the other was ""free."" So they start using the other one before I have a chance to try to get the heck out of there.
Not knowing what to do, I finished up and kept quiet hoping for a ""break in the action"" where I could make a hasty retreat without being seen. After 10 minutes with no break in the chain of incontinent ladies, one of them started banging on the door to the stall I was cleaning and saying, ""we need this stall...you need to get out."" They thought I was just another lady taking her own sweet time. So I finally mustered up the deepest voice I could and said, ""MAINTENANCE!"" They all got quiet and I could hear whispers in hushed tones. I gathered up all of the cleaning supplies and the bucket, opened the stall door, looked at the floor and walked straight past them to the bathroom door and out.
I proceeded to scrub myself as much as possible when I got back to the kitchen and then cursed the managers who'd sent me there. But it did pay off. For the next year, I got my pick of shifts and got preferential treatment. So dealing with s*&^ does pay. And after that, I figured if I can clean up someone else's carp, I have no problem cleaning up my kid's. And I had to do that a NUMBER of times when they were babies. So it was good training for something I had to do later in life ;-)"
While in college, I worked as a cooler (bouncer) at a bar during their "double-bubble" time. Most of the patrons that jammed into the bar were college students.
Are you kidding? Recordkeeping for clients who neither understand what we do nor value the number of headaches we prevent for them.
Working as a stable hand cleaning stalls at 4 a.m. in the winter. Even with a scarf covering your face, you can still smell the wonderful odors that emanate in a stable.
Working as a temporary secretary at a car dealership where the owner thought he was God and treated everyone like we were in hell.
When I was in college, I took off 6-months to work as a nanny in Italy. I know, living in Italy, boo hoo, right? But seriously, working for that family was tough. They thought I was the worst kind of American scum, and treated me accordingly. (But yet, they had no problem turning their little children over to me 12 hours a day. Very telling.)
A "Kelly Girl" temp during college -- most of the assignments I received were horrible (job duties, working conditions, etc.)!
Working as a car hop. (That really gives you a clue to my age, doesn't it!) No hourly wage, just tips. I had to pay for any customers who stole the A & W mugs in my section.
While in college, I had the opportunity to work at General Motors for two summers, which paid so well that I funded the remainder of my college education. The factory had no air conditionining, so it was 100 degrees in there and I had to rotate shifts and jobs every week to fill in for vacations. The job os Laborer was the worst one, consisting of cleaning up huge oil spills from the big parts-making machines. Although this ties with the Quality Assurance job because no matter how slowly I performed this job, I finished in 2 - 3 hrs. and was bored to death for 5 - 6 hrs. These lessons kept me motivated through school and my career because I knew exactly what I DIDN'T want to do for a living!
My first summer job in the early 1970's was addressing envelopes by hand for a marketing campaign. Luckily I only worked 6 hours a day, but it was still extremely tedious and mindless. I now have arthritis in my hands and can barely write a note. Do you think I can go back after all these years a file a workers comp claim???
I guess working for my parents running their local grocery store. Bad enough I was a teenager always butting heads with my father, working for him made our relationship even worse...and the work itself was lame, but as a 17-18 year old, there aren't many doors open to great career ops.
Summer internship for an ex-marine who had served two tours in Vietnam and liked to see what his reports "were made of!"
Working for the US postal service
Working as a field hand picking tobacco in the blazing sun with temperatures over 95 degrees when I was a young girl was the worst job. Only in America can you go from being a field hand to a financial advisor. With all our challenges, we live in a wonderful country.
My 1st job...When I was 14 I worked at a nursing home, summer and Saturdays. My job...everything no one else wanted to do; so I passed food trays, washed dishes and floors, folded laundry. All that for $.75 an hour and all the Spam with pineapple and corn flakes on it that I could eat! UGH!!!
Working as the executive assistant for a non-profit CEO whose own COO coined his nickname as being "Satan."
Public high school teacher
My worst jobs were always volunteer positions, so while there was no payment involved thankfully the pain didn't last long. You haven't lived until you've worked at a popular food booth at a school carnival fundraiser, manned by former alumni who inform you of the "rules" before you start (no free food, etc.). Can't wait to see what job I get this year.......
Baby-sitting. Tried it once for a neighbor one evening when I was a teenager. Absolutely horrific experience - the cat killed a mouse leaving a swath of blood throughout the kitchen while one of the kids was crumbling an entire loaf of bread on the living coffee table, parents were late AND paid me by check. Never babysat again!
The one right before this one(!).
I worked as an assistant manager for a discount department store in the 80s. The store manager was very sexist and made it clear that I needed to wear a dress or skirt, along with heels. Since my job included helping to unload trucks, getting on ladders to remove bikes hanging from the ceiling and constantly going up and down steps to the cash office or to layaway, this was not practical attire. I started to dress like the male managers in dress pants and polos and quickly found myself out of a job.
Working behind the counter at the bakery when I was 14. I was told it was my job to scrub all the trays in the world's tiniest sink with no hot water and 'don't mind the mice". I felt like a character in a Dickens novel.
The worst job I ever had was telemarketing for a basement waterproofing company making barely minimum wage, hoping commission bonuses would make up for the low pay. I was offering a free basement inspection and, yes, it really was free. Well, I couldn't get any takers as they all believed that "you can't get something for nothing" and after maybe 6 weeks of not making one sale, it was time to move on. Good Riddance!!
Hay Hauler - nothing compares to bucking bales in the sweltering summer heat with humidity so thick you could cut it in two.