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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask what is the worst job you ever had?

114 replies

Joey1471 · 21/02/2018 13:04

I would say the worst job I ever I ever had was selling door to door , 90% of them refused to even consider buying anything , plus it was raining too.

OP posts:

Standardpubquizname · 21/02/2018 13:56

Working for a catering company as a student, not sure if it was an awful job or I just wasn't ready for the pace of it. We were expected to pick up a complicated number system to serve big tables at corporate parties, work at a fast pace and make various hot drinks all with pretty much no training. The attitude of the people running it was not great tbh and it was quite telling looking back that they had such a huge turnover and mostly recruited students

BendydickCuminsnatch · 21/02/2018 14:02

That sounds awful OP! I always try and be nice to door sellers (although send them on the way quickly I'm afraid!).

My worst job was working in a callcentre - customer care, not cold calling thank God. The customers were absolutely vile most of the time, half the time I barely got through the security questions (confirming personal details) without some aggression, passive or not. It was customer care for a lifesaving medical device as well, astonishing how horrible people can be when you're just trying to help them keep some important equipment in good condition! Thank god my escape plan worked. Was there 3 years, about 2.75 years too long!

LastNightMyWifeHooveredMyHead · 21/02/2018 14:04

Personal assistant to a billionaire's wife. Soul-destroying (and I say that as someone who used to clean nightclub loos for a living )

purplewaterbottle · 21/02/2018 14:06

I worked in a bingo hall and lasted a single shift. It was horrible! So grotty and no loo breaks. Plus we had to speak into a microphone which nobody had warned me about!

PasDeDeux · 21/02/2018 14:08

After graduating I had a series of temporary jobs, mostly office based. One of the jobs though was the most miserable I've ever had. It was a JCB loaning company (or something like that) and they had a storage room in the warehouse downstairs that had no proper insulation so it was freezing cold in there (was also January) and they basically hadn't filed anything properly for god knows how many years. I had to go through hundreds of folders trying to find the corresponding one to the hundreds of files I had. There was a pile on the floor which the previous temp had dumped in exasperation. Luckily was not there for long, I get so miserable when I'm cold (i know i know, violin alert).

TheQueenOfWands · 21/02/2018 14:08

Home carer. I lasted four hours.

Worked in nursing homes with no issue, but one to one isn't for me.

lovesugarfreejelly63 · 21/02/2018 14:12

Working in a bar (I am teetotal),hated it at the time, but needs must.

HopelesslyHopeful87 · 21/02/2018 14:13

Working at a soft play centre. I think that's all that needs said.

MrsHathaway · 21/02/2018 14:14

I worked in a rough ish pub. Most of the time it was lovely: friendly, loyal locals, nice rolling conversation, amazing chef.

But late on a Saturday night it was just hell. The "highlight" was when a regular threw a punch at the heavily pregnant landlady, and the entire pub piled in. I cowered behind the bar with her until it was all over.

Charmatt · 21/02/2018 14:14

My first two jobs were working in a butcher's shop and as a waitress. I worked in the butcher's shop on Saturdays and during the holidays from the age of 15. I was then a waitress from the age of 17 to 21 while doing A levels and my degree.

The butcher's shop was hard work, messy and lots of cleaning up, in conditions using boiling water and in and out of a fridge unit. It set me up for life, knowing that a hard days work means you've earned your money. Staff were great and I was really well supported.

I then went to work for a pub chain - again on my feet all day, but with a younger staff. It started off well, but we had two sets of awful managers who didn't care about anything but targets. We were treated like something off the bottom of your shoe. The managers would sit and drink at the end of the bar, leaving everyone else to work and make misogynistic comments about the girls. One weekend I was groped in the bar by a drunken man and complained to the manager, who dismissed it and insisted I keep serving him. I decided I was not going back and went home and wrote my resignation.

The waitressing job was by far the worse job!

TitaniasCloset · 21/02/2018 14:15

Lastnight what was it like working for the billionaires wife then? Tell us some shocking stories so we can oooh and aah over how the other half live

Worst job I ever had was the call centre for a debt collectors. Just so depressing, I jacked it in after a few months.

crackerjacket · 21/02/2018 14:16

Had some fairly crap jobs temping in factories when I was a student, packing CD cases etc but to be honest one of the worst jobs I had was recently.

The pay was shit, the location was unbelievably bad (on the top of a mega steep hill, fun in winter) and they really wanted me to jump through hoops: wanted me to learn Photoshop, do expense reports in other languages and also take the tea towels home to wash! The company had a reputation as a really good one too

CurbsideProphet · 21/02/2018 14:17

Teaching Assistant in a secondary school for boys. Pupils and teachers were awful to me and I hated it.

beepthemeep · 21/02/2018 14:18

Dressing up as a cuddly animal to promote a shop. In a shitty outfit that did not resemble the cartoon character it was ripping off.

Young kids were terrified and screamed. Older kids mocked and taunted. Teenagers flicked lit cigarettes. Adults looked on in pity.

It was hot. It was hard to see where I was going and i spanged off a lamp post. It stank of furry sweat.

All for the grand sum of £20 a day.

Feel sorry for the people in those suits, ladies and gentlemen. It's so much worse on the inside.

crackerjacket · 21/02/2018 14:18

LastNightMyWifeHooveredMyHead

Please tell us more!

beepthemeep · 21/02/2018 14:20

(Ps: I felt better about it many years later when I saw the poor sod at Hammersmith tube station who had to dress up as a 6 foot bright pink papier mache cock, complete with protruding pubes, to promote awareness of prostate cancer. It could have been worse after all!)

iklboo · 21/02/2018 14:20

Parcel delivery company in the 80s. I worked 50 hours a week for £40 (not YTS). I was 17 & expected to open up, run the office, take all the calls and order details, page the drivers (boss too tight to install radios) with all the correct info, deal with complaints, mail shot potential customers etc. I was in a trading estate lock up on my own all day while boss was out schmoozing. I got 30 mins for lunch.

The last straw was when boss decided suddenly that I had to accrue holidays before I could take them. But only decided this while I was on a pre-agreed holiday. He docked three and a half day's' pay out of that week's wages so I came out with next to nothing (we got paid at the end of each working week).

Dad went spare on my behalf and I handed in my notice the next day. Boss told me I was an ungrateful little bitch. I got my coat and walked out right then.

Isthatwhatdemonsdo · 21/02/2018 14:39

Working on the checkouts at Sainsburys. I'd rather eat my own arm than ever do that again.

EverythingIsAwwwwsome · 21/02/2018 14:43

The worst job I ever had was sorting ancient paper work for a very old fashioned office. Literally there were towers of it right up to the ceiling. I had to go through it all and sort and file it into boxes. Thing was it was all so old that generations creatures were living in it and I had to work in a very dark, damp, unheated room. I had a silver fish family fall out on my knee at one point and God knows what else was living in there that I couldnt see! I didnt really speak to anyone for weeks either other than a quick hello as I made my way thru the warm office to the back storage room. When i left no one noticed or said goodbye. Just writing this is making me shudder-and itch.

milkmoustache · 21/02/2018 14:43

Working in the dole office. The other staff were horrible.

ghostyslovesheets · 21/02/2018 14:48

working in a pub at as a student

horrible place - should have guessed what the LL was like when my official uniform shirt had 3 top buttons missing (I sewed them on - he was less than pleased)

I walked out the day Nelson Mandela was released having watched his walk to freedom over a barrage of monkey noises and racist shite - awful place

Algernonplonkerthethird · 21/02/2018 14:49

VAT officer. Not what I applied to the Civil Service for! Stuck it for 2 years until a position came up that suited my abilities and degree. Was very occasionally 'hit on' by people I went to visit (early twenties and prettier than I am now )

Algernonplonkerthethird · 21/02/2018 14:50

Not that it made that right! I hated it!

The80sweregreat · 21/02/2018 14:51

milk, thats sad to read about the job centre.

a cleaning job i had once i loathed and lasted about 2 months. the amount i had to do on my own was mind boggling and the manager was a slave driver - going on about why i couldnt clean a large area and the loos in about 20 minutes when it was really a two person job and she wanted it spotless and all done in no time at all. they have gone through so many different cleaners since i left , so i think its them with the problem.

treaclesoda · 21/02/2018 14:52

I had a couple of jobs as a student that were not only terrible, but the management seemed to repeated 'forget' to pay me. It took a few weeks of not getting paid and being promised that it would be sorted out next week to realise that I was being taken for a mug.

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