What’s the worst job you have ever had?

[Floopyfloop]

What has been the most soul destroying job you have ever done ?

Retail management hands down. I will never, ever go back to it.

Cleaning aeroplanes. It was only a summer job while I was a student but it was grim (the things you find in the seat pockets!) and the hours were horrendous (what 20 year-old wants to start work at 4am?) Am aware that there must be much more difficult and unpleasant jobs out there though so I suppose I’ve been lucky!

Telesales. I lasted 8 weeks but wanted to leave after day 1

In a supermarket, being in charge of the rotisserie. All day spent cooking chicken and clock watching. I absolutely hated it and walked out mid-shift after a couple of months. It was that or do something very regrettable.

Sex work when I was a teenager. Was terrifying and desperately tiring. Was ‘high end’ due to good looks and being able to pull off ‘classy’ so would generally need to spend anything from 4 to 8 hrs with a client. Usually taken for drinks first and often expected to take drugs and have sex multiple times. Saw a few famous people which is odd because if I see them on tv now I feel very strange and sickly because I know they paid me for sex when I was 16/17/18 years old.
Now I have a very boring job in academia and grow herbs and tomatoes, couldn’t be happier.

Waitressing at a wedding. Did it once and never again. Got paid £2 for 5 hours work and actually cried.

Fancy lingerie shop where I was employed as a sales assistant but the existing staff were so cliquey I wasn't allowed to do anything other than put stock back on hangers. Quit after 5 weeks when they said I wasn't entitled to annual leave as I was part time.

A&E as newly qualified, especially on a Friday/Saturday night. I was kicked, punched, spat at, pissed on, groped and subject to obscene verbal gibes.

Did it for 12 months and wouldn't go back for all the tea in China.

I did a holiday rep season at the most horrendous resort in a grim part of Gran Canaria. Basically was shouted at by holidaymakers who were having the worst holiday of their life for 3 months straight. Got food poisoning myself from the hotel twice before I stopped eating there even though meals were part of my salary.

I worked in two call centres. One was bad enough, but the second one was just awful. We couldn’t help the callers most of the time, just explain the company policies, which meant we had to listen to barrels of abuse. I lasted 5 months, which was longer than most of the ones I started with. There was only 1 or 2 still working there when I left from my training group of 13.

Care centre for me. I went into a residents room and they have removed their colostomy bag and smeared...everywhere....

It's such an undervalued job. One that requires some seriously special skills and people to perform it well. Sadly, I am not that person.

Pot pouri packer.

Tiny bloody splinters, stunk to high heaven and stained my hands, fiddly bow, packing in a freezing cold warehouse. Paid in piece work. I have never, ever, gone near the stuff since.

Quite a few weekend jobs when I was 14/15 and still at school. Some time ago when either there were different rules about age of employment - or the places I worked just didn't care.

Waitress at the Wimpy. My god it was unsanitary. Lettuce under the leaking dishwasher, broken fridges and the 2 guys that ran it were total and utter pervs. Think I earned £7 plus tips for a 6 hour stint.

Gluing bits of plastic to other bits of plastic to make... never entirely sure... possibly display shelves for shops. Local factory who had no hesitation in giving clueless teenagers industrial glue guns.

Still got the scars!

Totally understand where you're coming from. I've got a lot of experience in Intensive care and emergency medicine so I'm used to blood and gore but I couldn't cope with dementia patients.

TA in a secondary school. Worst job ever. I had graduated with an English and History degree the year before, wanted to get some experience as a TA before doing my teacher training (had a young baby at the time) - got treated like shit by the senior teachers, my own skills were totally disregarded and the kids were mostly a NIGHTMARE.

Working in a pet food factory. The job itself was ok, unfortunately no one could train me as I only speak English, so couldn’t actually do the job. Stuck it for 10 days doing nothing and left.

Two night shifts at a care home as a newly qualified nurse. It was run by a psychopathic manager who tormented the residents and ended up in the newspaper and in front of the NMC a few years later. I finished my second shift and never returned. The things that were going on were very strange and the other staff were terrified.

Working in a care home for people with dementia. Got sick of being hit and scratched.
And the management were horrendous. Money grabbing bastards.

Postdoc. Seriously stressed all the time, constant guilt, and for no real reason. Now at the stage where writing grants is sucking the life out of me, despair at them getting rejected, fear of "what if they're accepted", guilt that I'm not getting enough done, feeling like I'm not contributing enough, that im not competent enough. Wake up thinking about work, fall asleep worrying about work, dreaming about work.

Mine was when I was in uni, I took on a two week full term short term contract job that paid really well. It was in a mop factory. We had an entire truckload of mops that had crashed and we had to individually inspect each mop, unthread the head, check it then screw the head back on. It was excruciatingly boring.

Also 99% the staff smoked and there was one glass room in the centre of the factory where they could go at lunch. You couldn’t even see the people in the room, as it was so smoley and packed in there so I sat in the other non smoking lunch area with a warm sandwich with a man called frank who pretty much had one working lung so couldn’t smoke so he stared wistfully at the grey cube!

There was a lady called Rita there who made a stunning brew for us all though!

Air hostess for Dan Air. I looked great in the uniform because it was my colour but the job was horrendous.
It was exhausting, up and down that damned aisle watching people getting more and more pissed. Being groped almost non stop.
Working with utter bitches from hell who were only interested in bagging a rich husband - fake hair, boobs, nails and plastic surgery all over the place.
Would stamp on your feet rather than look at you. The jealousy and bitching were off the scale.
I lasted 6 months before going back to nursing for a rest.

At uni - Telesales, proper cold calling for a hotel brand loyalty card. Lasted a week, got a breakfast shift at McDonald's instead. So much better, saw me all through uni.

I've had a few, all summer jobs whilst a student.

Typing out final demands to people who owed a large electrical company. The stacks of chits were several feet high and you just took one off the top and filled in the name and address and amount owed on a proforma. Again and again and again, all day. Knowing many of those people had no means to pay what they owed.

Working in a hospital laundry, checking the supposedly clean surgical linen for unwashed off body parts/blood/etc.

Sitting at a desk in a foyer greeting people coming to visit the business and answering the phone. Except noone came and the phone didn't ring. Actually that one wasn't too bad as I just read the book I took to work with me.

Door to door sales, no wage just pure commission. Absolutely horrible being in areas and seeing them try and confuse the elderly. Was there 2 weeks. Never again

Worked in a frozen food factory for 6 weeks.
My first job when I started was smelling trays of prawns to check if they were off. Completely lost all sense of smell after about 20 minutes.

I also worked for a cinema chain who were unbelievably tight fisted. They counted the cups and paper bags in at the start of every shift. I once gave a lady who was choking on some popcorn a cup of tap
water and then I got a disciplinary for it!

I had my annual leave booked 11 months in advance and they rang me while I was in NYC to tell me I should have been in.

I told them I wouldn’t be returning.