What’s the worst job you have ever had?

[Floopyfloop]

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

I worked in a vegetable oil factory, it was boring as heck, I kept getting put on a line where I literally just watched bottles of oil go past on the conveyor belt and watch the score board to see that the correct amount was being despatched, it didn't last very long, I was there 5 months

I just remembered another one I had, I had beeb made redundant after 11 years so took a couple months off then joined an agency, told them specifically what I wanted to do and they sent me of to a warehouse for a weeks office admin temping, turns out it was working in their warehouse collecting goods to be dispatched, basically climbing up ladders and a lot of running around, I left at lunchtime 😆

The agency was fine with it and got me another temping role the following week, again in a warehouse but actually doing office work

a temp job at Next Sale. I’ve never played rugby but this is how I imagine 8 hours in a scrum would feel.

Being a solicitor for 13 years - hated it - was clever enough but very controlling environment, long hours, was told off for being too friendly with the support staff, dull and when you look at the actual hours you work, the large salary is not so large after all. Every day felt like imprisonment. Hated it. I worked in a cigarette shop when I was 16 and enjoyed it more!

I spent a summer passing lipsticks through a sort of Bunsen burner thing to shine them.

Cooking Sunday lunches in a pub restaurant. I don't even know why I agreed to do it in the first place. I'd done a few waitressing sessions for a bit of extra money as I was newly divorced, and then the weekend chef left suddenly. I think the owner thought that since I was over 30 and must have cooked a few roasts in my time, I would be able to do 50+ Sunday dinners, so he twisted my arm. I was literally on my own in the kitchen doing all that lot, and running stuff through the sodding dishwasher as well. Hot, grim and exhausting, and I have no idea why people actually choose to be a chef for a living. The owner used to share all the tips out among all the staff except me. I did three or four weeks and that was that. Never went back.

Marketing support for a political party. Was my first job after graduating and was soul destroying. Screamed at on a daily basis. Walked out after 3 months

I started a telesales job... left at lunchtime on my first day and never went back! Fair play for lasting 8 weeks!

Selling a beauty voucher on the street to random members of the public that required them to hand over cash on the spot in exchange for the voucher. No idea if they ever received any services in exchange for the voucher. All the sales people were paid in cash at the end of each day. We were encouraged to use whatever sales tactics we saw fit including sweet talking our way into secure office buildings and then literally going door-to-door within the building. I knew it was dodgy but it was lucrative so I kept up with it for a whole summer when I was in uni. In hindsight, I reckon the whole thing was probably money laundering if not straight-up fraud

Packing geese is a deep freezer warehouse and being asked to do double shifts despite there being no hope of them arriving for Xmas eve.

Content writer for a company that sold small businesses.

I've never worked anywhere so joyless. On my first day, one of my new colleagues said ' I'm XXX and I don't like people,' and then turned her back on me.

Another colleague said later that week 'Who are we kidding? We're a bunch of washed up has-beens in a Hampshire backwater.' He was only 40 and so resigned to it. 🙁

I didn't stay long. It was grim.

Customer services in a contact centre for M&S, I was shouted at, sworn at and called a c**t so many times. One knob head told me he hoped my mum died a painful death, all over the amount of cream on a cake! Absolutely soul destroying job it was 🥺

I just remembered another awful one.

I always wanted to work in book publishing and finally landed an admin-type job at a boutique publishing house that was run by a relatively well known figure in the industry.

On my first day, the owner approached me and explained to me that alongside my job he expects me to type out on index cards (using a typewriter) recipes for his personal recipe collection, based on his clippings from culinary magazines etc. I nodded and did not question this, and no one else in the office intervened. But because I couldn't do this while performing my actual job, I had to come into the office early every day to work on his recipe cards.

I'll never forget when he stormed into the stationery room one day, where I was busy typing up his cards, and said "Where's my recipe card for Beer Can Chicken? I'm cooking it tonight!" I was like "sorry im working on it!"

I was a fairly experienced PA, went to work for quite a large, family-run company. Apparently part of my job was cleaning out the MD’s car after his kids had been in it and left all their litter and shite in it (because apparently it hadn’t occurred to him not to raise his kids like animals).

I seem to remember objecting mildly to this and getting the sack the next day. I sent him an email telling him exactly what I thought of him. I contemplated copying the whole company in but chickened out - now I wish I’d done it.

When I was in my early 20s I was a box maker on a factory production line when I was 'in between jobs'. Absolutely soul destroying. I was promoted to colour photocopyist which was marginally better but still boring as fuck. Fortunately I only did it for a few months as I got a permanent job

Plastering, I was good at it but hated it, done it for 20 years. Plastering has a nickname amongst other tradespeople, they call it "A disease".

Gerrards (northern chain bakery) factory,

poor health and safety, dirty, staff were absolute bitches to us cleaners (one set me up with a practical joke that nearly got me sacked on my second day) no health and safety training at all, on my 3rd day I was told to reach under a huge machine to clean, a chain came loose that was attached to a circular mixer and smacked me in the head,
knocked me out and I was rushed into hospital pouring with blood and I had stitches.

they then had the cheek to ring me the next morning to demand that I came back in the next day for work and that they needed a meeting to discuss my poor attitude to health and safety!!

I never went back!

Car sales.

Meat factory, it was so cold, I still can’t eat any BBQ or tandoori flavoured meat. I used to go to an agency each morning and hope to get picked for a days work.

PA to the owner of a small private auction house.

Architectural technician

A call centre.

In the recruitment process, the job was sold as being like any ordinary clerical role. Instead, it turned out to be taking inbound calls from customers (usually small & medium businesses) who'd been mis-sold energy supply contracts by sales reps who worked for an external agency and downright lied to the customers about the savings they'd see. I felt so bad for the customers. Bloody awful job.

Telesales for a local newspaper was the worse. The whole team were super stressed and would lie to make sales!

Holland and Barrett when I was 18. Absolutely the worst experience I've ever had. I still refuse to shop there because they treat their staff like shit (I know someone who recently left a job there and nothing has changed in 12 years).

Winkle picker. It was cold, wet and dangerous(you have to climb about on rocks and over seaweed and in some places you could easily slip and bang your head or get caught by the tide and drown).
The only advantage was that it can only be done when the tides are right, so you get half of every month off. I used to pick cockles then, which is a bit safer.

Definitely the winter I spent aged 18 door to door cold calling trying to sell fucking ‘how to read’ books for toddlers. No matter the age of the person or if they even had children, I was still expected to sell. Looking back it was an MLM company, but I was naive. Lasted one day and never went back.

that, or JD sports. Bitchy awful staff, management who were on drugs on shagging the floor staff (during shifts!) endless days of folding the clothes a specific way., I left when I was discipled for not tackling an armed thief. For bare minimum wage there’s no way I’m taking on a man with a knife!!