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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what your worst ever jobs have been?

157 replies

Waspshaveavendetta · 01/08/2025 08:52

One of mine was working in a care home which I feel awful saying as it's not the residents' fault. It was the staff and management, the role itself was minimum wage or maybe 4 pence an hour more.
Zero benefits except for the Wagestream thing where you could access earnings before payday. On my contract I was told I would be entitled to a free meal on shift except this never happened once. I was able to take some of the residents' leftovers if there were enough left.

Because of the high-pressure environment, it brought out the worst in people and I had to tell some staff members not to raise their voice at me. Could be a very two-faced environment with backstabbing. Long days, I know it's 24 hour care but 12 hour days are too much. Seniors/team leaders on a power trip who spoke to staff like naughty children, very physically demanding work which caused me back pain, zero time to sit and speak to residents, literally did not stop all day.
Something to do every minute of the day, having to do all sorts of domestic and laundry tasks which were not in the job description.

Second one is my current call centre role. It thankfully pays a bit over min wage but it's still a relatively poor salary. Every single minute of the day is monitored, if you were in the wrong queue for 1 minute you are pulled up on it, very target-heavy, if you go to the toilet outside of allocated breaks your percentage goes down.

Sent cringey motivational messages by our team leader every morning. I have ear pain from wearing the headset every day, zero flexibility in hours, the good thing is it's hybrid remote and the lunch break is generous (unpaid though). No guarantee of finishing or taking breaks on time if you get stuck in a call. Constantly pressured to make a certain number of calls per day and expected to write after call notes in lighting speed, luckily I can do then quickly but many in my team especially older are struggling and being pulled up on it. Luckily I've got an interview for the Civil Service and really hope I get it!

OP posts:
shellyleppard · 01/08/2025 09:24

Used to work in a burger king/little chef restaurant combination in the 80's. Late shift I always always ended up cleaning the gents toilet's. Guaranteed that someone would always walk in with his tackle out despite the sign saying toilet closed for cleaning.. Also worked at Cheltenham race course washing pots. I lost most of my wages because the gold rimmed plates kept sliding off the rack 😂😂

HornyHornersPinkyWinky · 01/08/2025 09:23

Mine was strawberry picking in Australia years ago when I was backpacking. I lasted about a week, in which we had 3 or 4 days of torrential rain where I was soaked to the bone. It was so miserable, and the pay was shite.
I quit that job, and found work in a bar a couple of weeks later, which was great because we got good tips.

LionessesRawr · 01/08/2025 09:22

MyUmberSeal · 01/08/2025 09:02

Selling gas and electricity for N-Power door to door in 2002 when I was at uni. I lasted about 3 weeks and sacked it off. If I recall rightly, I didn’t even tell them I wasn’t coming back, mid shift, I left my folder of forms and all that bollocks, on top of the car that had driven the four of us to the area we were covering that day, and then I got the bus home.

Don’t blame you

MyUmberSeal · 01/08/2025 09:02

Selling gas and electricity for N-Power door to door in 2002 when I was at uni. I lasted about 3 weeks and sacked it off. If I recall rightly, I didn’t even tell them I wasn’t coming back, mid shift, I left my folder of forms and all that bollocks, on top of the car that had driven the four of us to the area we were covering that day, and then I got the bus home.

sandgrown · 01/08/2025 08:59

Delivering telephone directories. Very heavy . It was cold and we spent all our wages getting a brew to warm up !

LionessesRawr · 01/08/2025 08:58

I’d have to say probably Games Workshop. Oh my god the smell! The smell of unwashed man is vile. I had someone try and return a game for some credit and the case of the game was full to the brim with pubes and he was wondering why we wouldn’t accept it 🤮. See also game nights, we had to ban someone for leaving giant poo stains on the chair, he hadn’t wiped (at all) had jeans that were like a builders bum = giant skid mark. We binned the chair and he kicked off saying we had no right to ban him 🙃

Ineedanewsofa · 01/08/2025 08:56

Trainee recruitment consultant, placing temps in logistics and warehousing roles. Culture was horrendous (lunchtime coke in the loos anyone?), there was 0 training and 9 times out of 10 the temp didn’t show up to the job so spent 90% of the time being shouted at by pissed off clients. I lasted 2 weeks

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