To ask what your worst ever jobs have been?

@AntikytheraMech bloody hell 🤮 was that for fishing bait ?

Honestly? It was the job before my current one. A very well paid job as Head of HR in a Civil Service Department. The role was new when I was appliance they had clearly put zero thought into what was needed. I ended up with about 3 senior roles’ workloads and had a minor breakdown - first time I have ever been signed off sick in over 30 years in work.

After a review of the HR department they realised they needed 3 people at a slightly lower level than me and as a result couldn’t afford me too (I had actually told them this on several occasions). I snatched the offer of redundancy like it was a lifeline.

I now have a wonderful job, much more satisfying and much less money! Although I am about to get promoted so hopefully that will make a difference!

Years ago when I was a teenager. A bread factory, conveyor belt job. My job was to put 4 rolls on a piece of cardboard over and over again for 8 hours. I managed 1 day (which felt like 10 years!) and never went back.

No, I was making the point that the staff can be horrible in the post office ( well , the one I encountered the other day wasn’t particularly friendly or helpful Unfortunately! )

Not myself, but a colleague. He worked at a clinical research company doing drug testing. They were trialling that Alli (orlistat), weight loss medication. It makes oily/fatty food pass through and not get absorbed. 1 side effect can be passing oily poo and oily seepage.

My colleague had to issue all the male participants with white Y fronts daily and his job was to inspect the underpants and measure the amount of oily seepage and shart in them. 🤢

Cleaner in secondary school 😆

Working in a garden centre in mid Sussex (family owned) absolutely toxic environment from the top down. Never again!

Well obviously I wasn’t referring to the polite customers 🙄

I didn’t mind the pot wash part for a restaurant I worked in once , but the cleaning was a nightmare and they wanted it spotless with just one cleaner to do everything. It really needed two.
Was an eye opener as to how places are not that clean because they don’t hire enough staff to do properly.

Working for a large cleaning company, cleaning a school. I was supposed to spend only ten minutes per classroom in order to clean the entire school within my shift - I just could not do it that quickly so I ended up working late every day to get the job finished. Then I got pig flu and was off sick for two weeks and they fired me, which was a relief tbh.

A care at home agency. Not enough time with clients to give proper care to them and Literally no travel time between clients. So even if it was a 3 mile journey to your next client, you were expected to do it in zero minutes. Dunno, teleport or something. I was chasing my tail and so stressed. The final nail in the coffin came when my colleague said I was to follow her in my car to the next client, she got on the motorway and bombed off at about 100mph. I couldn’t keep up at all so lost her. My manager then called me screaming at me about being late and not keeping up. So I quit there and then. Think in all I lasted one weekend.

I didn’t understand why it’s 8 to 12 hour shifts for so many jobs when they could split it up. Probably lots of reasons why it’s not the case, but now we have to work till our 70s how do they expect people to do such long shifts on your feet all day.

Saturday job hotel laundry bleaching skid marks off towels

Hotel receptionist, working min wage, dealing with drunk obnoxious people, no breaks, work nine days in a row to get a weekend off.

A temp in a hospital, unloading the industrial steriliser dishwashers, you had to count up the pieces for each set, which was labelled for the operation. If there was a piece missing I had to tell my boss. I’ve never forgot what the D&C surgical tools look like.

Checkout at one of the big supermarkets.
It was in the eighties, we had to ring up every item with one hand. Pass the goods and pack them into the trolley with the other hand. Then count back the change into the customers hand coin by note ( 10 pounds 46 pence, you gave me twenty here's your change 10. 48, 10.50, 11, 12 ,13, 14, 15, 20 pounds... nightmare!)
We had cameras on us and any till discrepancies at end of day were hauled before managers.

There was shoplifting galore, sticker changing, and we were supposed to confront any suspiciously priced goods. This was a tough inner city area and some customers were really intimidating.

And a nasty nylon dress uniform to cap it all off.

Hated every minute of it.

I don’t know, I lasted one morning in a call centre selling insurance when I had left school. Looked around as I was approaching my lunch break and saw everyone looking as dead as I felt, went for lunch and never returned. It was soul destroying and I only did it for 4 hours, my worst ever job!!

It’s always retail , hospitality, nurseries and care homes that crop up on threads like this and I feel that anything customer facing seems to attract the worst kind of managers or owners who look down their noses at the ones actually doing the work. I know that customers can be horrible and it’s hard going, but no need to be nasty to staff. It’s a real bug bear of mine and I’ve worked in a few jobs like this myself.

Jane Norman, Oxford St in the early 2000s - arsehole manager, horrible customers and horrible clothes!

I was made to feel bad for walking out of a job within another one lined up ( early 80s) but it was the best thing to do. Easier because I didn’t have any bills to pay and lived at home and only young. It’s much harder to do when you rely on that income and you know getting another job won’t necessarily be easy to do so many people must be stuck in jobs they hate :(
it must be so soul destroying.

Receptionist at a car dealership in the early 90s. The manager was a bully and hiding from a disgruntled customer so I led the customer to his office on my way out the door.

I worked in county linen for a while when I was a student.
Sorting the dirty laundry when it came in was by far the worst thing I have ever done! I could not believe how awful and how many bodily fluids stained the laundry 🤮 plus they gave us no gloves or ppe at all.
I also discovered that I was allergic to the washing detergent, the skin on my face went red raw and eyes swelled up! So I didn’t stay for long.

I had a temporary job in a school as a year 3 teacher. I have taught in many schools but never one as dreadful as that. It was (just) pre-SATS and the head had been seconded elsewhere by the LA who were impressed by all the hand -made "topic books" the kids had on display with lino printed covers and sewn in pages. I was teaching the deputy head's intended class while he "acted up" to cover the secondment.

The kids were fine but the rules were appalling. Every display had to include no more than 3 colours and lino print had to be included. Staples had to be at right angles to corner. Every display had to include draping and no primary colours were allowed.

You were not allowed to teach ANYTHING that wasn't related to the topic, except maths and spelling tests. For example if the topic was World War 2 you could only teach about letter writing by doing a letter home from evacuees. You couldn't do any focused literacy skills building.

All exercise books were blank pages, the kids had to paperclip a line guide behind each page, and then had to do a 1cm deep coloured line margin, write the long date and title and underline in colour. Of course the lower ability kids spent the whole lesson doing this bit and never got to actually do the work. Then the icing on the cake - if it was a 6 week half term, the children spent 3 weeks actually working on the topic and then 3 weeks copying all the work out into those hand made books that so impressed the LA. It was criminal. Those kids were being terribly failed.

I realised that things were bad when my temporary job was made permanent and advertised in the bulletin and nobody mentioned it to me! I didn't apply for it, I have some dignity!

I got the last laugh as the SATs results in that school at the end of that year, after I left, were the worst in the whole LA, and there were half as many passes at level 4 in maths and English as the next worst school (iirc it was something like 15 percent). It was the worst case of "all fur coat and no knickers" teaching I ever came across. I moved to a normal school where teachers were allowed to actually teach and there were no lovely topic books on display, and was very happy there.

I can’t understand why children’s nurseries seem to have such horrible people running it.
Is it the culture, the stress , the scrutiny?

I once worked in a day nursery
40 hours a week for £37.50 a week (it was an apprenticeship but they refused to let me go to the college one day a week)
Never worked somewhere so bitchy in my life
They would go mental if I needed the toilet and wouldn't give me my breaks

I worked nights in a factory
Checking for mouldy carrots and potatoes for their supermarket orders
I lasted a week-ive never worked somewhere that was so picky and micromanaging in my life
And they kept the lights so dim I could barely see anything

Where I am now
Think golden arches
I'm bloody good at my job but I'm always in the wrong
It's a case of my face doesn't fit and the manager hates me
I've been told to stay on dining area,which is fine,but then I'm getting screamed at because I'm out on dining area and they need me to put together orders or drop fries
I then get into trouble for putting orders together or I'm caught dropping fries
She wants me out-im staying until at least May (I'll have been there ten years and I get a tiny bonus) and then I'm off
They tell me I'm the best out of 5 of us (that do dining area) but the awards for doing a good job always go to someone else and two others have been promoted over me (manager laughed when my name was put forward)
I'm not having it and will be telling everyone why I'm leaving