Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What's the worst job you've ever had?

234 replies

moogster1a · 13/04/2011 07:33

following on from the slave labour post, what's the worst job / lowest pay you've ever had.
I once had a job which involved collecting pig brains straight from the abbatoir ( they often introduced me to the lucky pigs before they went throught "the system") i then had to dunk them in liquid nitrogen and drive them back to the lab.
I always used to wonder what would happen if I had a car accident and the police would find a dozen or so brains scattered over the road.
Anyway, I digress, shittiest jobs, please.

OP posts:
Asinine · 13/04/2011 08:52

I worked in a urology department, I still have a phobia of men's trousers Grin

kreecherlivesupstairs · 13/04/2011 08:58

geek, it was the muzak that made me leave. Four hours of the same four songs. When I handed my notice in, the personel dept wanted me to write that the travelling was too exhausting as a reason. I didn't.

TrillianAstra · 13/04/2011 08:58

You know how in some clothes shops staff get a discount?

Not in Primark. You get a bag search at the end of every shift, and if you want to buy something (even on your day off) you had to go to the customer service desk and have it written down next to your name.

The fact that they think you'd like to steal from Primark indicates just how low the pay was.

gorionine · 13/04/2011 09:00

Was on a "paid" placement in a post office and after a month there I got my wages which were

TADA

a phone card of the grand value of £2.50 (equivalent when converted from CHF)! That was in 2004.

Had another job in a resataurant where I actually was paid the correct rate but gave my immediate notice afte 1 month (on the day I got my first wages in he bank) because my bosses, a couple, where giving contradicting "orders" constantly so you were told off by him if done what she sked and told of by her if doing what he had asked. After a week I was so distressed (crying with worry, knowing that nothing I would do -and I am hard working- would be up to their standard and I would spend the day being shouted at no master what. to have to go to work that my parents begged me to give my notice.

They used to lock the kitchen porter (who incidentally was also the laundry lady and their childminder) in the cellar some nights if they were not happy with her work! I was fed rice every single meal I had there.

When I left I contacted the work tribunal to dob them in on behalf of that poor portuguese woman who was far to worried to do anything to better her situation. This was not in UK just in case you are wondering.

EmmaBemma · 13/04/2011 09:04

The most miserable job I've ever had was two weeks at Macdonald's - I was rubbish though so they gave me the boot. My probationary period record sheet noted that I lacked "hustle" amongst other things, probably because I was smoking a lot of weed at the time.

I've also worked at a chicken processing plant - a slaughterhouse and packing place all in one. I slid chicken breasts and drumsticks into plastic trays for 8 hours a day. Sometimes I moved the trays from one conveyor belt to another. To mix it up a bit, sometimes I also got to take the trays off the conveyor belt and stack them in crates. The people I worked with were lovely but the job itself was the very definition of soulless, and I had terrible nightmares about nazi-style human processing plants for years afterwards.

lionheart · 13/04/2011 09:06

Crappest job working the summer for Post Office. Applied for mail delivery job with lots of other students thinking it wouldn't be at all bad, outside, good excercise. It wasn'tfor the guys. I was sent to where the women go, to a warehouse-- sorting office. On your feet for 8 hours a day standing by the conveyor belt, or tying sacks of mail and lifting them onto hooks. Bloody night-mare, not helped by the pep talk given by the manager who insisted that if we didn't work hard enough it was illegal because it meant we were, technically, holding up HM deliveries and therefore in breach of some law or other.

I did one day.

But some of the jobs on here. Shock

Udderly · 13/04/2011 09:07

My worst job was also in a bank and I also lasted about 2 years.

AngelsFingers · 13/04/2011 09:13

Not a shitty job but one I hated, making and wrapping sandwiches for a stately home cafe. To this day I hate making sandwiches.

Have also worked in restaurants where they are tight with food. We used to take it in turns to take guard whilst someone hid in the walk in fridge to eat!

Milngavie · 13/04/2011 09:14

Mine has to be the one I am doing now! Thankfully have handed in my notice now and can't wait to get out.

I was hired an admin, but that is not a true description at all!! I am basically doing an accountants role for an admins pay. Numbers and I don't mix which makes life difficult enough but then the company brought in a new system which is hell on earth and brought me to the brink of a nervous breakdown. I was off for 3 months!!! Came back because we need the money but applied for everything going until I was offered a new job.

Only 9 shifts to go.

LindyHemming · 13/04/2011 09:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

catinboots · 13/04/2011 09:19

As a student I worked in a wine cellar. I had to work my way around turning the bottles quarter of an inch (using a calliper-thingy for accuracy).

Not only was it boring as shit, I only worked with one other person; a three-hundred-year old man who looked like a mole where he hadn't seen the light of day in years.

borderslass · 13/04/2011 09:20

Working in a local cafe at 15 the job was bad enough but the pay was 70p an hour.

GandTiceandaslice · 13/04/2011 09:38

Working for collections at a large bank. I was told I was too nice to the "customers" even though I was a very good collector & exceeded my targets.
They introduced a script & wouldn't listen when I said each case was different. People had different reasons for their debt & you couldn't treat everyone the same.
I took my mat pay & left.
And when I was living in the middle east. A job with a computer training company. The 2 bosses were shagging & did no work. They also tried not to pay me. So I got the owner of the company to come in & pay me. They hated me after that.

onepieceoflollipop · 13/04/2011 09:47

One day I had to administer an enema whilst suffering from severe morning sickness. Once the deed was done (not the administering bit, I mean the end result) I felt so terrible that I shot out of the room and through the fire escape out into the snow. (it was snowing).

Normally enemas wouldn't bother me. Unfortunately no one knew I was pg so they thought my behaviour somewhat odd.

I did manage to compose myself and returned back to deal with the patient.

Spenguin · 13/04/2011 09:58

legalalien - Donoghue v Stevenson! I thought the same thing before you even mentioned your past!

BibiBlocksberg · 13/04/2011 10:01

OMG to some of the jobs on here Shock

One of the worst ones I had was in a big call centre for a well-known insurance company.

Being shouted at by angry customers all day who would have rather done anything with their money than buy insurance.

The thing that really made it unbearable were the stupid call targets though. Several times a day your 'team leader' would wave a sheet of paper under my nose telling me that, in so many words I was a poor excuse for a human being as I hadn't dealt with enough calls so far that day.

Had to endure a good cop, bad cop routine over being two mins late twice - two managers in a room, one screaming at me and the other trying to be nice as pie.

Horrible!! And I stuck it for 3 whole years before I got off my butt and found something else.

springbokdoc · 13/04/2011 10:02

Burger King. For two shifts. Utterly soulless.

Bar staff at a rough pub in Hammersmith which the local footie team used to go to and get absolutely hammered. Manager would only put on female staff with one poor chap who had to simultaneously try and protect us and break up fights. I think I handed in my notice shortly after the manager laughed as a guy went behind the bar with pants pulled down trying to approach the female staff.

ssd · 13/04/2011 10:02

the one I have just now

waitressing

minimum wage and shit attitudes

BUT it fits in with school hours so I'll be doing it a bit longer

MarioandLuigi · 13/04/2011 10:03

The worst job I had was in Morrisons Cafe. I worked clearing tables and loading dishes into the dishwasher. The floor was always slippy with grease and was so dangerous. The food was gross and the people I worked with were rude and would have conversations which stopped when I came near. I lasted 2 shifts and handed in my notice

KCMC · 13/04/2011 10:05

in a food factory had to taste end of life meat. manager hauled me up several times complaining i took too much time of sick Hmm then tried to demote me! needless to say i did not stay much longer!

zukiecat · 13/04/2011 10:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

boocha · 13/04/2011 10:18

The one I'm in now, doctors receptionist, I bloody hate it.
Never enough appointments and it's always my fault.

Scholes34 · 13/04/2011 10:19

Working for a small marketing agency, based in one of their small offices in the East End of London with three old blokes who had a dark room lined with Page 3 girl posters. I locked myself in there one day and drew bikinis on them all in black marker pen.

YouaretooniceNOT · 13/04/2011 10:21

Egg factory, newsagents vile bosses/people i wirked with
best were childminding etc

YouaretooniceNOT · 13/04/2011 10:21

IT was boring and the people i worked with were vile there too!

Swipe left for the next trending thread