To ask what is the worst job you ever had?

[Joey1471]

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.

Worst job I had was a sales job, there was no fixed pricing or discount structure. I had no problem getting in front of buyers but when they wanted a price there and then I had to take the client's turnover figures back to the boss and wait for him to decide/agree the rate we could charge. And wait in some instances. I lasted 3 months, I still had no answer on a massive account the first one I saw, that was perfectly profitable at the prices I suggested.
I also did not gel with the sales manager who had had no direct field sales experience other than with this company, whereas before kids I'd been in sales and been a very good sales manager in the industry for over 20 years. The sales manager used to earwig all phone calls, monitor your car's location, and spend much of the day glued to games/social media on a mobile phone. I'm not sure what the sales manager did apart from a bit of admin that frankly was data entry level. I think the sales manager had it in for me because my car's camera monitor was faulty, the second day I was phoned as I pulled in to the office so I walked in and was told 'why are you here you are supposed to be 20 miles away?' Then another day it stuck and told them my location was still on the way from home to work (but I was 30 miles away on first appointment, oh how embarrasing to be phoned continually), another day it remained at home all day, and consequently I found I was being checked up on with at least 2 or 3 calls a day 'where are you?' etc even though they had my plan. Finally the camera broke down altogether and they accused me of breaking it (but I promise I did not know where in the car it was located!). Also you had to be in the office certain days at either 8am or till 5pm to help cover phones on a rota, was mightily inconvenient when people were on holiday. However at 5pm promptly everyone left and the phones were left to ring unanswered.
I had a huge company that had been my most major prospect (would have earnt megabucks in commission) ring my mobile - we had to use our own - just after 5pm a couple of weeks after I left as they'd been unable to speak to anyone the phone went to answer mode as they had decided to use and had an urgent request needed immdiate attention.
I of course told them, sorry I had left and couldn't help them. Pretty sure they took their business elsewhere!

While still at school, groomed for a local showjumper. Job involved arriving at 5am at weekends to plait-up if she was eventing. Two of her horses were lovely, unfortunately the big scopey jumper she used most often was an utter arsehole of an animal. I practically had to tie his halter to the ring to stop him taking chunks out of me, and hold one of his legs up while I brushed to prevent getting booted. It took both of us to do his tail, but she expected his mane neatly plaited (with thread, not rubber bands) by the time she had deemed to get out of bed. I still have scars from that shithead of an animal 30 years later.

As a student I did one night as a costumed cocktail waitress in a private gentleman's club. That was an eye-opener. Couldn't believe how much they paid for a few hours work, plus tips, sometimes £50s, however, no money is worth the degradation. One night was enough to leave my arse pinched black and blue, and was offered money in exchange for services other than bringing drinks to tables a number of times. It was not for me.

Working locally after having kids, was often dealing with Chef's invoices from the butcher covered in wet bloody handprints, ew! Not a bad job though, people were nice there.

I worked as temp mothers help for a baby with a hernia. If he was awake he was vomiting and screaming. I had to take a spare outfit to wear on the way home as I was covered in vomit by the end of the day.

His poor parents were broken from lack of sleep and he was only 6 months old, but they had been told the doctors wouldn't look at operating until 12 months as it might clear up by itself.

Selling advertising for a shitty local magazine. We had only a phone and a list of leads to cold call. No computer. I usually got to the end of my list by 10am (it was 9-5). I lasted a month before quitting in boredom. Only saving grace was my friend also worked there.

Peeling the shells off boiled eggs in an egg factory-by hand.
The shift was 5am to 1.30pm, the factory was kept at a constant temperature of 2 degrees so I was always freezing. And the regular factory workers frequently pelted me with rotten eggs because I was a student and they hated me as they knew I would be getting out of there at the end of the summer and they wouldn't (I didn't blame them for the egg pelting really-I would want to pelt someone with eggs if that was my job for the foreseeable future).

I worked in a well known restaurant. Actually more popular than well-known.
The chefs for some reason couldn't get it together for serving brunch . So poached eggs on toast would take 45 mins. Ridiculous. And when I'd wonder where the eggs for table 7 were (40 mins later) they'd tell me to fuck off. Like actually say "fuck off" in front of the manager. They also wouldn't let me tell them anything so if I put in an order for a fry for example but the customer asked for the toast immediately (obviously a repeat customer) the chef would refuse to listen when I'd say "can table 10 have the toast now please". They'd tell me to "fuck off" . And table 10 would sit starving without their toast while the fry took an entire hour to arrive.

Grown men of 50 and I was about 19. I'm not sure was it just me or did they treat everyone like that ... I think it was just me. Assholes.

Tips were amazing through so there was that

Student job in a tiny fish and chip shop on campus. Absolutely roasting, no ventilation or airflow at all so sweat poured off me all evening. The owner/boss was a dirty old man who liked pinching your arse just as you tipped a huge batch of chips into the fryer - burnt my arm badly when he did that once. His wife also worked there and would just roll her eyes at him then hit him with a rolled up newspaper when he got too much (or too drunk as he necked whisky all night long). I stank of chip fat constantly. Only stayed because he'd get so drunk he'd forget how much he owed me and would massively overpay me regularly!

Binman

Another PA to the wealthy here. Its soul destroying trying to live up to their constant demands.

The money they spend on stuff is shocking. £10,000 for a hand tailored suit that they had copied from the next catalogue. Why on earth they just didn't buy the one from next I will never know.

An Aston Martin umbrella that was £150 limited edition that looked identical to the Aston Martin standard umbrella in their catalogue.

And wearing £50 pairs of socks only once then throwing them away because they never fit the same once washed. I can confirm they wash just fine and I still have them now 20 years later.

Call centre for people with (rather large) public service pensions. Usually screaming that they've been taxed or their tax free lump sum wasn't big enough.

One screamed at a colleague that she never told him it was a bank transfer and he was expecting a courier to be there with cash and what was she going to do to sort it? Didn't she know he was going to buy a Jaguar today?! She had embarrassed him that he wouldn't be turning up with cash to purchase it. She was drawing me cartoon pictures of the conversation at the time as he wouldn't let her say anything before cutting her off so she wasn't really paying much attention while drawing for me. I could hear him screeching through her headset.

There was also the woman whose first husband had died, she received his pension until she remarried. She was calling because her second husband had died after several decades of marriage and she was demanding her widows pension be reinstated.

We weren't allowed to hang up on anyone so had to sit there and take the abuse until they hung up. Once they had we were then penalised because the call took more than the 90 seconds that we were allocated to deal with a call (which we couldn't end).

Cleaning toilets would be preferable to working in a call centre again.

Selling second hand clothes from a mouldy, damp, bitterly cold railway arch in Camden town.

Highlights included
-the big bosses sister who would yell at staff for talking to each other, even if it was totally dead and we hadn't had a customer for hours
-hearing Pete Tong's essential collection on repeat
-Frank Sinatra's greatest hits on repeat the whole Christmas season
-getting chest infections
-cleaning and polishing mouldy, dirty used shoes. Without gloves, and only cold water to wash boot polish off hands
-explaining that we did not have that item in the same style and colour but one size larger

Even thinking about it makes me shudder/shiver

Toffee factory. I was given a stool and a bucket of Brazil nuts and sat by a conveyer belt. My job was to put a nut in each Toffee as it passed along the line - for twelve fucking hours.

To my credit I managed a month. Never touched that Toffee since.

Funnily enough, all my student/starter jobs were fine (waitress, petrol pump attendant, office assistant); the worst job I ever had was a middle-management position for a large multinational cosmetics and beauty care company.

The company culture was shocking; you were expected to work all hours with no regard for other commitments, such as childcare. My boss was a frosty French woman who never cracked a smile or said anything nice; one of my colleagues was after my job, so did whatever he could to undermine me. The commute was punishing (up to two hours each way). I found out I was pregnant with DC2 within a few days of starting there, and I managed five months before I cracked and resigned. I didn't work for nearly seven years after that.

Oh god, so many! Looked after a very troubled child whose mother was mostly absent and that’s who he wanted so was mostly distraught. :(

Scrubbing massive metal vats with porridge glued on in the local psychiatric hospital.

Vasectomy clinic at the local hospital: I was told it was for the 6 week holiday but they lied, it was for the permanent girl’s 2 week holiday. I was not well treated.

Call centre where I had to call French companies to update the names on the records. I nearly died of boredom.

Cloakroom girl in a very dodgy nightclub where the owners kept offering me plant stems from their country to chew

Worked in a cafe in France from 8am-11pm, my feet were so painful when I got home (2 or 3 mile walk?), I sat in the shower and cried.