What is the worst job you have ever had?
Discussion
Spent the summer holidays one year as a contract cleaner at a Tesco store.
Had to be on site at 5am to ensure the store and car park was clean. I used to use something called a billygoat to hoover the carpark. Problem was, stones hitting the back of the collection bag used to throw up loads of dust and I spent most of the summer feeling like I had a cold after breathing in all the dust (no dust mask was provided). Then had to keep the store clean during the day, mopping stairs, cleaning the public toilets, cleaning up after customer or staff breakages etc.
Have also worked as a shelf stacker, call centre worker, bar attendant - all could be crap at times.
Had to be on site at 5am to ensure the store and car park was clean. I used to use something called a billygoat to hoover the carpark. Problem was, stones hitting the back of the collection bag used to throw up loads of dust and I spent most of the summer feeling like I had a cold after breathing in all the dust (no dust mask was provided). Then had to keep the store clean during the day, mopping stairs, cleaning the public toilets, cleaning up after customer or staff breakages etc.
Have also worked as a shelf stacker, call centre worker, bar attendant - all could be crap at times.
Edited by Moonhawk on Saturday 24th February 08:49
Wildlife researcher. Mostly these were internship type roles so living expenses only, as they would have rich kids queuing up to work for free all the time. Lots of moving around, living in hostels and doing long hours. Very little health and safety, not great for lone working in remote locations, conducting surveys or emptying traps. At one point I was driving 1000 miles a week.
And the work was often heavy. At one rather well known institution, my job was to hoover fields to collect insects. This involved something called a d-vac, which contained a 2 stroke motorbike engine strapped into a frame which you would wear on your back.
Once back at the lab I usually worked with absolute alcohol in poorly ventilated conditions, so getting home could be quite interesting.
At one institution I wound up drinking antifreeze by accident, on my own in the field, thankfully not enough for lasting damage, and I was approached by random walkers/weirdos a few times. E.g I remember hiding in undergrowth from 2 chaps who were walking round one of my study zones hacking at things with machetes and giggling for about an hour. At another location I returned to the van to find a mattock leaning up against it. I threw it in the back and drove off sharpish.
Then there were the falls. And the damage done to my knees. And the animal attacks, mainly cattle but also donkeys. .. and dogs, and geese ... I forgot the geese. Oh and barbed wire and electric fences. And the rain, mud and floods.
I do still miss the freedom and being outdoors, but I value being paid and not damaging my knees any more.
And the work was often heavy. At one rather well known institution, my job was to hoover fields to collect insects. This involved something called a d-vac, which contained a 2 stroke motorbike engine strapped into a frame which you would wear on your back.
Once back at the lab I usually worked with absolute alcohol in poorly ventilated conditions, so getting home could be quite interesting.
At one institution I wound up drinking antifreeze by accident, on my own in the field, thankfully not enough for lasting damage, and I was approached by random walkers/weirdos a few times. E.g I remember hiding in undergrowth from 2 chaps who were walking round one of my study zones hacking at things with machetes and giggling for about an hour. At another location I returned to the van to find a mattock leaning up against it. I threw it in the back and drove off sharpish.
Then there were the falls. And the damage done to my knees. And the animal attacks, mainly cattle but also donkeys. .. and dogs, and geese ... I forgot the geese. Oh and barbed wire and electric fences. And the rain, mud and floods.
I do still miss the freedom and being outdoors, but I value being paid and not damaging my knees any more.
Edited by oldbanger on Saturday 24th February 12:42
ArgfromTowie said:
The worst job I have ever had was door to door selling , 90% of them wouldn't even consider buying anything , plus it was raining.
Did that in the Summer holidays when I was 15. It was a great laugh, doing it with a mate or girlfriend at the time.Getting picked up and ending up somewhere we'd never been before like Blackheath or Catford. Best results were on a few tower blocks in Islington, couldn't sell stuff fast enough and it was a lovely August day.Made loads if money selling ironing board covers, dusters etc. Great for going out and buying clothes and records.
We were told to say it wss for charity, which was a bit of a fib. 
A few years later, we saw Steve the organiser on the telly. Can't find the original but this is on Youtube. He was 'Robin Asquith'.
https://youtu.be/DBi0OCWHmj4
He talked to us about all the ICF lads he had working for him the previous year and how they would just fight everybody.
Great little Summer holiday job.
Worst was two and a half days during the Summer holidays at the Monument McDonalds. What I imagined borstal must have been like.
Frank7 said:
One that I recall vividly was when I was doing “The Knowledge” to gain my Black Cab driver’s licence, and I did a couple of days per week with an HGV driver agency.
One day I picked up a 40’ container, and had to deliver it to a company in Brentford, Middx.
When I got there, and they broke the seal on the doors of the container and opened it, it was completely full of cartons of tiles, from Portugal.
There were two guys there, plus their manager, he said to me, “You hand them to my guys, and we’ll stack them on a pallet.”
Each carton weighed 10 or 12 kilos, and the container was full, from the floor to halfway to the roof, and all the length of the container.
I said, “Maybe you don’t understand, I do the driving, you do the unloading.”
The manager phoned the HGV agency, they gave me two choices, help hump all the tiles off, and get paid, or don’t help, and get no pay for that day.
I said, “And now you have two choices, I’m not unloading these tiles, and I accept that that means I won’t get paid, now, I can either leave the tractor unit and trailer here, and make my own way home, or I can drop the trailer, and bring the tractor unit back to your depot.”
They opted for me to drop the trailer, while they sent another driver, with another tractor unit.
Many moons ago , we received a container of internal doors (550) that had to be hand balled off , the driver did his nut because there was no forklift and refused to muck in , off he went to his cab to complain to his boss who I ended up speaking to , just told him and his driver to take the container back to the dock and come back with a driver who wouldn’t moan.One day I picked up a 40’ container, and had to deliver it to a company in Brentford, Middx.
When I got there, and they broke the seal on the doors of the container and opened it, it was completely full of cartons of tiles, from Portugal.
There were two guys there, plus their manager, he said to me, “You hand them to my guys, and we’ll stack them on a pallet.”
Each carton weighed 10 or 12 kilos, and the container was full, from the floor to halfway to the roof, and all the length of the container.
I said, “Maybe you don’t understand, I do the driving, you do the unloading.”
The manager phoned the HGV agency, they gave me two choices, help hump all the tiles off, and get paid, or don’t help, and get no pay for that day.
I said, “And now you have two choices, I’m not unloading these tiles, and I accept that that means I won’t get paid, now, I can either leave the tractor unit and trailer here, and make my own way home, or I can drop the trailer, and bring the tractor unit back to your depot.”
They opted for me to drop the trailer, while they sent another driver, with another tractor unit.
He sat and sulked in his cab while we grafted for over two hours , cheeky sod had a cheek to ask for a brew when we stopped for tea , one of the young lads shouted you can have a cup for every door you’ve unloaded, yet another strop as he went back to his cab.
Funny old breed HGV drivers...
While I can't compare with some of the outright dangerous jobs described here, I worked as a shelf stacker for a large supermarket when I was in uni. I was saving for a house deposit and when I got a proper job in the industry related to my degree, I kept going at the supermarket until I had my deposit saved up. The shelf stackers were all young lads and older women, being an equal opportunities employer if you were a bloke you'd get the back breaking jobs, the women would get comparatively light duties but we were all being paid near enough the same amount at near-minimum wage.
The young lads were all the same, either in uni or off to uni as soon as their A levels were finished and we were treated like s
te as a result. The management were all lifers who would never achieve anything more than being shop floor supervisors and they hated anyone with ambition. For many of them it was their first job and they had no clue about their rights so there was some total piss-taking going on. The store manager was openly derisory of his lifer staff and they hated him for it. As soon as I finished my final exams at uni, I applied for a delivery driver job at the store as it was guaranteed full time hours, but they gave it to a bloke a few years older than me and when I asked why I hadn't got the job they said they knew I'd leave within a few months and they'd just end up training the other guy and besides, if they gave him that job there and then, they knew he'd work it until he retired. He was only about 25, how depressing.
I remember once being called into the managers office so the shift supervisor could try and bk me for not having commitment or company spirit. I laughed out loud and completely agreed. Unfortunately for him I was fast and good at my job, not hard to achieve given that it was work even a moron could do reasonably, so he was reluctant to sack me. I don't miss the st hours, the customers, the rubbish B grade pop music on a loop, the company spirit pep talks etc. I couldn't believe that some people had been doing that job for 30+ years, day in, day out. Horrific.
The young lads were all the same, either in uni or off to uni as soon as their A levels were finished and we were treated like s
te as a result. The management were all lifers who would never achieve anything more than being shop floor supervisors and they hated anyone with ambition. For many of them it was their first job and they had no clue about their rights so there was some total piss-taking going on. The store manager was openly derisory of his lifer staff and they hated him for it. As soon as I finished my final exams at uni, I applied for a delivery driver job at the store as it was guaranteed full time hours, but they gave it to a bloke a few years older than me and when I asked why I hadn't got the job they said they knew I'd leave within a few months and they'd just end up training the other guy and besides, if they gave him that job there and then, they knew he'd work it until he retired. He was only about 25, how depressing.I remember once being called into the managers office so the shift supervisor could try and b
k me for not having commitment or company spirit. I laughed out loud and completely agreed. Unfortunately for him I was fast and good at my job, not hard to achieve given that it was work even a moron could do reasonably, so he was reluctant to sack me. I don't miss the st hours, the customers, the rubbish B grade pop music on a loop, the company spirit pep talks etc. I couldn't believe that some people had been doing that job for 30+ years, day in, day out. Horrific.Had a job helping the fruit and veg delivery man, I was only 12. There was nowhere to sit in the van other that a wooden box in the cab, no passenger seat.
Started at 6;00 am, finished about 7:00 pm on a saturday round. Turned out that the wooden box had been leaning on the tomatoes, he stopped my pay for the damage to the tomatoes, so I didnt get paid at all.
Started at 6;00 am, finished about 7:00 pm on a saturday round. Turned out that the wooden box had been leaning on the tomatoes, he stopped my pay for the damage to the tomatoes, so I didnt get paid at all.
Worst Job:
Worked in a call centre during one of my summer holidays from Uni. We had to cold call hundreds of businesses all day long and try to sell them Gas/Electricity/Telephone contracts. Everyone we phoned was furious at us for calling. They were abusive, rude, said they were going to report us to OFCOM etc etc. All day every day.
At the end of each week if we hadn't sold enough 'appointments' we would be sacked. It was that simple. It was hell on earth. awful place.
Second Worst:
High pressure cleaning of farms after Foot and Mouth Disease. Another Uni summer holiday job. 7 Days a week, no days off.
8am to 8pm in a white suit pouring with sweat whilst getting splashed in the face with blood, faeces, filth, putrid effluent, guts and worse. Interspersed with periods of shovelling dead animals in a JCB. All whist enjoying the smell off animals being burnt on a bonfire.
Disclaimer: The money was amazing and I actually quite enjoyed the work strangely enough. Was getting almost £1000 a week (as a student).
Worked in a call centre during one of my summer holidays from Uni. We had to cold call hundreds of businesses all day long and try to sell them Gas/Electricity/Telephone contracts. Everyone we phoned was furious at us for calling. They were abusive, rude, said they were going to report us to OFCOM etc etc. All day every day.
At the end of each week if we hadn't sold enough 'appointments' we would be sacked. It was that simple. It was hell on earth. awful place.
Second Worst:
High pressure cleaning of farms after Foot and Mouth Disease. Another Uni summer holiday job. 7 Days a week, no days off.
8am to 8pm in a white suit pouring with sweat whilst getting splashed in the face with blood, faeces, filth, putrid effluent, guts and worse. Interspersed with periods of shovelling dead animals in a JCB. All whist enjoying the smell off animals being burnt on a bonfire.
Disclaimer: The money was amazing and I actually quite enjoyed the work strangely enough. Was getting almost £1000 a week (as a student).
Lord Marylebone said:
High pressure cleaning of farms after Foot and Mouth Disease. Another Uni summer holiday job. 7 Days a week, no days off.
8am to 8pm in a white suit pouring with sweat whilst getting splashed in the face with blood, faeces, filth, putrid effluent, guts and worse. Interspersed with periods of shovelling dead animals in a JCB. All whist enjoying the smell off animals being burnt on a bonfire.
Disclaimer: The money was amazing and I actually quite enjoyed the work strangely enough. Was getting almost £1000 a week (as a student).
Anecdotally, I live not far from someone who got the contracts for a lot of this, they went from minor farmer/transporter to owning a few hotels, a yacht building company and several other extravagances. Huge amount of money. Bankrupt now of course.8am to 8pm in a white suit pouring with sweat whilst getting splashed in the face with blood, faeces, filth, putrid effluent, guts and worse. Interspersed with periods of shovelling dead animals in a JCB. All whist enjoying the smell off animals being burnt on a bonfire.
Disclaimer: The money was amazing and I actually quite enjoyed the work strangely enough. Was getting almost £1000 a week (as a student).
andy_s said:
Lord Marylebone said:
High pressure cleaning of farms after Foot and Mouth Disease. Another Uni summer holiday job. 7 Days a week, no days off.
8am to 8pm in a white suit pouring with sweat whilst getting splashed in the face with blood, faeces, filth, putrid effluent, guts and worse. Interspersed with periods of shovelling dead animals in a JCB. All whist enjoying the smell off animals being burnt on a bonfire.
Disclaimer: The money was amazing and I actually quite enjoyed the work strangely enough. Was getting almost £1000 a week (as a student).
Anecdotally, I live not far from someone who got the contracts for a lot of this, they went from minor farmer/transporter to owning a few hotels, a yacht building company and several other extravagances. Huge amount of money. Bankrupt now of course.8am to 8pm in a white suit pouring with sweat whilst getting splashed in the face with blood, faeces, filth, putrid effluent, guts and worse. Interspersed with periods of shovelling dead animals in a JCB. All whist enjoying the smell off animals being burnt on a bonfire.
Disclaimer: The money was amazing and I actually quite enjoyed the work strangely enough. Was getting almost £1000 a week (as a student).
I watched it happen. I worked for a small time 'father and son' engineering company who as soon as farm cleaning was announced, went out and bought a massive heap of diesel pressure washers and sent loads of people onto farms to endlessly pressure wash all day long.
Anyone who had the foresight to do that made massive, massive, amounts of money in a very short space of time.
The government started throwing money at them all like you would not believe.
Mastodon2 said:
While I can't compare with some of the outright dangerous jobs described here, I worked as a shelf stacker for a large supermarket when I was in uni. I was saving for a house deposit and when I got a proper job in the industry related to my degree, I kept going at the supermarket until I had my deposit saved up. The shelf stackers were all young lads and older women, being an equal opportunities employer if you were a bloke you'd get the back breaking jobs, the women would get comparatively light duties but we were all being paid near enough the same amount at near-minimum wage.
The young lads were all the same, either in uni or off to uni as soon as their A levels were finished and we were treated like ste as a result. The management were all lifers who would never achieve anything more than being shop floor supervisors and they hated anyone with ambition. For many of them it was their first job and they had no clue about their rights so there was some total piss-taking going on. The store manager was openly derisory of his lifer staff and they hated him for it. As soon as I finished my final exams at uni, I applied for a delivery driver job at the store as it was guaranteed full time hours, but they gave it to a bloke a few years older than me and when I asked why I hadn't got the job they said they knew I'd leave within a few months and they'd just end up training the other guy and besides, if they gave him that job there and then, they knew he'd work it until he retired. He was only about 25, how depressing.
I remember once being called into the managers office so the shift supervisor could try and bk me for not having commitment or company spirit. I laughed out loud and completely agreed. Unfortunately for him I was fast and good at my job, not hard to achieve given that it was work even a moron could do reasonably, so he was reluctant to sack me. I don't miss the st hours, the customers, the rubbish B grade pop music on a loop, the company spirit pep talks etc. I couldn't believe that some people had been doing that job for 30+ years, day in, day out. Horrific.
While I agree working in supermarkets isn't great, you sound right chippy. The young lads were all the same, either in uni or off to uni as soon as their A levels were finished and we were treated like s
te as a result. The management were all lifers who would never achieve anything more than being shop floor supervisors and they hated anyone with ambition. For many of them it was their first job and they had no clue about their rights so there was some total piss-taking going on. The store manager was openly derisory of his lifer staff and they hated him for it. As soon as I finished my final exams at uni, I applied for a delivery driver job at the store as it was guaranteed full time hours, but they gave it to a bloke a few years older than me and when I asked why I hadn't got the job they said they knew I'd leave within a few months and they'd just end up training the other guy and besides, if they gave him that job there and then, they knew he'd work it until he retired. He was only about 25, how depressing.I remember once being called into the managers office so the shift supervisor could try and b
k me for not having commitment or company spirit. I laughed out loud and completely agreed. Unfortunately for him I was fast and good at my job, not hard to achieve given that it was work even a moron could do reasonably, so he was reluctant to sack me. I don't miss the st hours, the customers, the rubbish B grade pop music on a loop, the company spirit pep talks etc. I couldn't believe that some people had been doing that job for 30+ years, day in, day out. Horrific.Hardly as bad as anything on here really, but being a naive 16 year old, working on the returns desk of PC World in the dot-com boom era really was an eye opener in how horrible people could be, and how terrible I was at dealing with them.
Imagine boxing day, dealing with a massive queue of a certain class of person, who had just taken out a 37 year finance deal on a ste Packard bell computer (and all the accessories that were flogged with it), who didn't have the foggiest idea on how to use a PC, telling me that they had figured out that the computer was broken, when all they had really done was just tried to find some porn and installed one of those 0891 premium line diallers that people used to fall prey to. Rinse, lather, repeat.
The public would just shout, scream, throw tantrums and do pretty much anything. I've had death threats, stuff thrown at me, mini protests and people just plain trying it on - all in just a bloody retail store.
I was earning OK money for a 16 year old at the time working on the weekends, but how the full timers dealt with it, I'll never know.
Imagine boxing day, dealing with a massive queue of a certain class of person, who had just taken out a 37 year finance deal on a s
te Packard bell computer (and all the accessories that were flogged with it), who didn't have the foggiest idea on how to use a PC, telling me that they had figured out that the computer was broken, when all they had really done was just tried to find some porn and installed one of those 0891 premium line diallers that people used to fall prey to. Rinse, lather, repeat.The public would just shout, scream, throw tantrums and do pretty much anything. I've had death threats, stuff thrown at me, mini protests and people just plain trying it on - all in just a bloody retail store.
I was earning OK money for a 16 year old at the time working on the weekends, but how the full timers dealt with it, I'll never know.
devnull said:
Hardly as bad as anything on here really, but being a naive 16 year old, working on the returns desk of PC World in the dot-com boom era really was an eye opener in how horrible people could be, and how terrible I was at dealing with them.
Imagine boxing day, dealing with a massive queue of a certain class of person, who had just taken out a 37 year finance deal on a ste Packard bell computer (and all the accessories that were flogged with it), who didn't have the foggiest idea on how to use a PC, telling me that they had figured out that the computer was broken, when all they had really done was just tried to find some porn and installed one of those 0891 premium line diallers that people used to fall prey to. Rinse, lather, repeat.
The public would just shout, scream, throw tantrums and do pretty much anything. I've had death threats, stuff thrown at me, mini protests and people just plain trying it on - all in just a bloody retail store.
I was earning OK money for a 16 year old at the time working on the weekends, but how the full timers dealt with it, I'll never know.
Doesn’t sound like it’s got any more fun, Imagine boxing day, dealing with a massive queue of a certain class of person, who had just taken out a 37 year finance deal on a s
te Packard bell computer (and all the accessories that were flogged with it), who didn't have the foggiest idea on how to use a PC, telling me that they had figured out that the computer was broken, when all they had really done was just tried to find some porn and installed one of those 0891 premium line diallers that people used to fall prey to. Rinse, lather, repeat.The public would just shout, scream, throw tantrums and do pretty much anything. I've had death threats, stuff thrown at me, mini protests and people just plain trying it on - all in just a bloody retail store.
I was earning OK money for a 16 year old at the time working on the weekends, but how the full timers dealt with it, I'll never know.
When recently replacing our tv in the Lounge we went off to the pc/tv electronic retailer everyone knows to get some s
t service. Luckily they didn’t disappoint, we ended being ‘served’ by a basket case, he was mid to late 20s, quite depressed, told us all about his unhappy life , his 2 children and equally unhappy missus. How the manager did cocaine in the staff loos with the cleaner or where the other manager hid his alcohol, how they didn’t get any discount on products and how we were the nicest people who d been in that day, presumably because my missus took pitty on him.
Infact any time I’ve had the displeasure of visiting I’ve never seen the same people twice and getting any service at all can turn into a frustrating exercise .
I worked for Refuge Assurance as an agent for a couple of months, driving my knackered old Capri round collecting money from pensioners in some horrendous areas, £1 a week some policies, been in effect since the forties, got chased by some lads in a Fiat Mirafiori through the back streets of Moss Side, after the cash I was carrying, probably under a tenner. Used more in fuel and wear and tear than I made, office was run by a right old bh and staffed by a cabal of old ladies, not a computer in sight, everything still manual. Worked with a really fat guy called Paul who had a massive Canadian Charcoal pit meal every single day.
h and staffed by a cabal of old ladies, not a computer in sight, everything still manual. Worked with a really fat guy called Paul who had a massive Canadian Charcoal pit meal every single day.Picking blackcurrents at 13. Everyone else were middle aged women. I'd never heard such talk! All for 3d a pound I think.
But that all paled into insignificance at 19 repairing televisions. It would be around 1973/4. Most people rented their tv. There were 2 of us working out of the shop, 8 calls a day. No tools supplied apart from a knackered meter , and a screwdriver and a pair of pliers! That was bad enoiugh, but the state of peoples houses..... we used to say that you needed to wipe your feet to leave the house! Dog faeces and piss on the carpet. The carpets would squelch underfoot. That smell. Oh God, that smell. One old lady had parafin lighting and heating. Electricity for the TV only as far as I could see. All the stuff never seen by social services. The manager used to get really sh*tty with me if I called social services. Some of the old folk were great though - they used to love seeing me. Caravan people were the ocd ones...... One or two lonely housewives could make me late......
Terrible job. Lasted about 8 months. Terrible Simca van too! All for £26 a week before tax. Could write a book about it!
But that all paled into insignificance at 19 repairing televisions. It would be around 1973/4. Most people rented their tv. There were 2 of us working out of the shop, 8 calls a day. No tools supplied apart from a knackered meter , and a screwdriver and a pair of pliers! That was bad enoiugh, but the state of peoples houses..... we used to say that you needed to wipe your feet to leave the house! Dog faeces and piss on the carpet. The carpets would squelch underfoot. That smell. Oh God, that smell. One old lady had parafin lighting and heating. Electricity for the TV only as far as I could see. All the stuff never seen by social services. The manager used to get really sh*tty with me if I called social services. Some of the old folk were great though - they used to love seeing me. Caravan people were the ocd ones...... One or two lonely housewives could make me late......
Terrible job. Lasted about 8 months. Terrible Simca van too! All for £26 a week before tax. Could write a book about it!
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