your worst job ever...?

[freakygirl]

I'm sure we all have one in mind.

For me, my worst job ever was my part-time stint as a student-caller at my school earlier this year (I took the job because I needed the money and I didnt think it will be THIS bad).

Basically, I sit in a call center and call parents of students and alumni to ask for donations to the school (yes, I was one of THOSE annoying people). I had to follow a certain 'script' which tells me what to say, and it felt really awkward and phony because I dont even believe in any of the stuff I am saying to them!

Also, we have to meet a quota in each of our shifts, and we're in deep s*** if we don't because our performance evaluations are based on those. I worked in 4 hour increments, but each felt like an eternity.

That job compromised with my morals too. For example, we were supposed to ask for money 3 times in each conversation. But how the hell am I supposed to do that when the person tells you they just went through a divorce, they are on welfare, they got laid off, etc? Yet we were forced to, because that's the only way we can meet our quota and not get in trouble.

One time a parent was yelling at me on the phone, and it left me very upset. I went to my supervisor and asked if I could leave early because of my emotional state, but he refused, dismissing the reason as the result of my inexperience and told me to just "tough it out and keep working". WTF! I told myself I'd quit after 2 months, but after that incident I couldnt even stay there any longer - I left just after 6 weeks of complete hell, and even then I felt like I already stayed too long.

[taro-chan]

I have one for you.

I was doing software design for one of my co-op placements. First day was my boss explaining how the thing worked in the most boring monotonic voice ever. I swear I almost passed out. Then for the rest of the week, she made me read the 300 page manual. Fun.

Then I was tossed into the software coding that I was supposed to do. She kept insisting that her VB code was "Object Oriented Scripting". To this day, I have no idea what that is. So I just ignored her and continue to try to understand her code and do some hardware calibration. (it was embedded software). So as I try to understand her existing code, I realize that there was no comment lines. (ie, explaination of the code in the code.). Let's just say her function and class names in C+ were not clear.

Whenever I read a section of the code, I would add those lines. All the while she would complain why I was so slow. I told her her code is not clear and its bad practice bah bah. So I was told to make a component addon. Every single day she would come and change the specifications. I mean, come on. You just wasted my day right there. I would redo and redo the code. Even when I sat down and discussed it, the next day she would change her mine. I wasn't impressed.

The data from the hardware came as binary. She would manipulate it to decimal and hexidecimal. Fine. But then she would go label them in arbitary names and would always be inconsistant. When I tested code, sometimes my expected results were completely different b/c of the data. I would spend hours running through my code looking for the error, then she comes by and tells me its in Hex. =\. And when I told her I was going to rename the variables, she argued against it saying its good convention. I just rolled my eyes and kept on coding.

Oh, another thing. She is one of those Computer Science Majors that refers to themselves as "Software Engineers" and would have a class file called Misc.c for her random classes when they clearly fit into other class files.

Ugh. Worst co-op placement ever.

Oh, at one time, they owed me 6 paycheques. (12 weeks)....

[AirBosh]

I use to work the 'graveyard' shift which starts from 12:30am - 8:30. Althou the job was easy and I didn't do anything.

The shift was tough to adjust. Everyone says they could do the graveyard shift but could you imagine yourself working at 4am in the morning or going into work sun/mon at midnite while everyone else is sleeping and has work on monday morning. How bout coming home and trying to sleep in the morning.

In the long run most people don't last more then 6months on midnite althou there are exceptions. I did it for 2.5 years, althou I changed shift. I always felt crappy or out of sync with the world when I worked that shift.

Thinking about it just brings back those horrid memories. hehe but i enjoyed the 15% increase in pay for working midnite....

[dgmorr]

Working for a box factory back at the end of highschool. I worked there for about a month and a half before I quit. Worst working conditions ever. Not climate controlled. The could not air-condition the place or the cardboard would warp when it gets into the hot summer weather, and the other way around. During hot days it could feel like...50-60 degrees with the humidity in the building. I lost 20 or more pounds from just standing there. My clothes would be drenched within 30 minutes. My shirts were all crusted with a white film (probably salt from the sweat). Every week the shift rotated. One week it would be 7-3, then 11-7, then 3-11. It was terrible. Please don't speak of it anymore. I don't know how the guys there could do it for 10-30 years!

[ylikone]

Working on ISP customer support lines. Enough said.

[CodecX81]

My worst job? Best Western -Collingwood, evening shift.

I've purposely mentioned the location name, keep reading and you'll find out why

I was actually working there, partly for the money, partly for a favor of a friend. He was the General Manager of the place and the last Front Desk clerk had bailed out on him & I was fresh out of college, looking for a job in my field, so I took him up on this offer for the interim.

So, it started off really nice actually. My co-worker that trained me was really nice and I caught on quick. I got along with the facilities and housekeeping folks and offered help whenever I could.

Then I met the person who worked under my boss. She was like an assistant manager. A really moody woman and just generally unfriendly.

I worked there a month when they got another employee to work the night shift, so we overlapped. All of a sudden, I noticed there was a really weird political office cliquey thing..

It started, one night I was doing the closing reciepts, sorting the cash transactions from the credit card transactions, etc. Basic accounting stuff. Nothing fancy. But you were supposed to have it done by the end of your shift.

Another end of shift duty was to make sure the pool was locked up for the night. So I go to close the pool and come back, shes doing the reciept sorting & on the phone with *someone* (I later learned it was the asst. manager) she was scowling and just moody with me.. so I was like

"Okay, so.. If you are going to do that, I'm done. kay?"
"Yea sure, its okay go" she said and I went home.

Next morning, the woman who trained me asked,

"Why did you leave last night without finishing the reciept count?"
I gave her a look, and explained what happened.. She and she warned me about how things can go sometimes & to be careful..

The asst. Manager came in later, reemed me out for it, and took the newer employees word over mine. So I called up the Boss and explained, he took over and she got SUPER pissed that he took my side.

That weekend the OWNERS come for a review of operations, I had only been there not even half the summer so I didn't think anything of it. They ordered lunch and it was an insane amount of food from the wendys next door.. full combos for 5 people, plus like chili, salads and baked potatoes.. a lot for one person, but I ordered and brought it all, reciept in hand.

No problem.

The next day, I answered the phone like

"Good morning, best western, *me* speaking."

and it was the owner. she yelled at me saying it was supposed to be said like
"Good morning, Best western COLLINGWOOD, *me* speaking, how may I assist you today?"

So whatever, apparently she had called before and I said the same thing and I was deemed insubordinate. Collingwood should be said because the customer would get confused if we just answered "Best Western" blah blah blah.

The next day I came in ready for work, and I was handed an envelope with my termination papers. (lol)

They said a 16 yr old was too young to be working with cash (I was 19 at the time) and it was a mistake on their behalf to hire someone so young & inexperienced (how experienced does one need to be to run a front desk?)

The paper wasn't signed by the boss, it was signed by the asst. manager.
So I called the boss and turns out, he was canned right after me when he called them to ask what the hell they fired me for.

The assistant manager wanted to be in power and we were both gotten rid of... It was so completely full of BS & I had also gotten an interview from IBM a couple days later, so I left it at that.

Such an idiot race--The Business Community of collingwood. LOL

I turned out OK, as for him, he started up his own landscaping business and he's doing quite well for himself.

[me!]

not exactly the worst job but at least a job where I got pwned by Canada Post.

I was working during the Christmas time sorting mail and I got to start working that night (graveyard shift). At the end of the shift they called me in (plus a few others) and told us they didn't need us anymore since they overhired.

I found out that the CPP, EI, income tax, and other miscellaneous deductions totally wiped out any pay i would have gotten and the said they don't have a cheque for me because the deductions were greater than my pay.

[McLaren]

They ordered lunch and it was an insane amount of food from the wendys next door.. full combos for 5 people, plus like chili, salads and baked potatoes.. a lot for one person, but I ordered and brought it all, reciept in hand.

What does ordering full combos with chili and baked potato have to do with the story? You trying to say that they went all out at wendy's or that they are just plain ass cheap for getting lunch at wendy's?

[CodecX81]

What does ordering full combos with chili and baked potato have to do with the story? You trying to say that they went all out at wendy's or that they are just plain ass cheap for getting lunch at wendy's?

#1 they had me do it because they saw me as a lackey. Why didn't they get someone from facilities to do it? They do all the other manual labour.

#2 You go to Wendy's and order 4 combos, 4 chilis 4 potatoes and 2 salads. and hold all that stuff, walk like 400 meterswhile making sure the drinks don't spill from their cup holder thing.

[Montecore]

My worst job was setting up for carnivals , back then I drove a black pickup truck where they loaded all the heavy equipments used to set up the carnival . Had to start work at 4am each morning , just to get the cages cleaned and checking games, rides etc... my uncle and I use to drive across Canada setting up Carnivals until he finally retired at age 66.

[deep]

I worked for one week as a teenager at Electrowire. Jobs ranged from putting three strips of electrical tape on a miniscule piece of cabling (incredible old ladies could do the quota, 160 of those per hour, and I think I managed about 40 with millions of blisters) to holding a 100lb bus harness over your shoulder while doing macrame on the ends of it with a nylon weaver with the other hand. The average temperature for the week was about 45.9C, and we got to go home for a whole 2 hours one afternoon because the temp FINALLY hit 46C, which is deemed unsafe conditions.

Everybody there spent at least 75% of their pay on drugs, which was the only thing allowing them to work there. I had to jet.

[[H]ackerK]

I use to work the 'graveyard' shift which starts from 12:30am - 8:30. Althou the job was easy and I didn't do anything.

The shift was tough to adjust. Everyone says they could do the graveyard shift but could you imagine yourself working at 4am in the morning or going into work sun/mon at midnite while everyone else is sleeping and has work on monday morning. How bout coming home and trying to sleep in the morning.

In the long run most people don't last more then 6months on midnite althou there are exceptions. I did it for 2.5 years, althou I changed shift. I always felt crappy or out of sync with the world when I worked that shift.

Thinking about it just brings back those horrid memories. hehe but i enjoyed the 15% increase in pay for working midnite....

Hey I actually enjoyed my 'graveyard' shift as a software tester (we have the least priority on the simulator, developers get the day time). It was actually fun. get to sleep in, go fishing w/ my buddy around 4ish (when he just finish univ classes) and back to To around 10ish, and go to work at 11...

Loved that job...

[coopaloop]

Let me see....My worst job ever....Hmmm..
I think it was picking the Fly Sh*t out of the black pepper at the food court.

[me!]

My worst job was setting up for carnivals , back then I drove a black pickup truck where they loaded all the heavy equipments used to set up the carnival . Had to start work at 4am each morning , just to get the cages cleaned and checking games, rides etc... my uncle and I use to drive across Canada setting up Carnivals until he finally retired at age 66.

that reminded me! of my other worst job. It was cleaning out the pens at the petting zoo. it was a graveyard shift again, and they had animals there we had to work around. pigs, goats, sheep.. Lucky they moved the cows and horses back to their stalls. But we still had to clean up after them too.

A whole days worth of crapping can really be the *****s.

[bubble.tea]

? so this asst. mgr got you AND the BOSS? fired?

wow...that's some power wielding freak you've crossed paths with in life.

worst job....hmmmm funny I REALLY can't think of one right now...and I already read this thread at noon....I'll let it simmer some more...surely I can't have been this fortunate can I?