What's the WORST, crappiest job you've ever had?

[lastlib]

Post it here.

For myself--I've shoveled cow manure and worked for the IRS. Everything else was a promotion.

[Archae]

1. At a sawmill, stacking lumber.

Stacked 2 x 4's on the night shift.

Lasted less than a week.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

6. Phone tech support

It paid decent, hours weren’t bad, but it was relentless and I had some of the worst managers in all my work history. I put in a long time there, mostly because of fear of unemployment after the Great Recession. When I managed to get out of the department, my work experience improved tremendously. Even still working in a call center environment- it was unbelievable to feel the difference in treatment, both from leadership and customers.

[Demovictory9]

90. like you, my worst job had nothing to do with the job duties, it was the supervisor

*bat crazy guy

[madaboutharry]

2. I worked in a law firm where one of the partners

sexually harassed all the women who worked there.

[Skittles]

5. what did they do about it

I always made men who attempted to harass me very sorry indeed.

[madaboutharry]

10. They did nothing.

People just quit and found other jobs.

[Skittles]

36. well....I couldn't just quit the military

no indeed

[AZProgressive]

3. I've worked several crappy jobs doing day labor

The worst was cutting tall weeds not so much the labor but the boss was the worst.

When I was in the Army I did a lot of crappy details.

[Skittles]

4. I worked at an answering service

a lot of the clients were rich fucking assholes

[leftyladyfrommo]

59. I lasted one week at an answering service.

That was 1969 and we had the old switchboard where you plug in the cords. Those were fun.

It's like old wringer washers that were way more fun than the new ones.

[woodsprite]

7. Calling for MBNA credit references in the DC area.

They lured you in saying they were interviewing for HR positions. Once you got hired, they said every new hire had to start their career there by calling to check credit references. You were expected to “complete” and verify 14 credit references an hour. Nobody would verify anything, especially if they were military brass.

I lasted 2.5 days before I walked out, which was a day and a half longer than the guy that was hired with me.

[Hoyt]

8. Roofing company building schools in hot, humid July in Ga. Don't handle heat.

[kskiska]

9. A temp job at an auto parts factory

working in the mail room weighing and mailing out bunches of catalog sheets to jobbers. I got loads of paper cuts on that one.

[Rorey]

11. Call center

I didn't last long. Inbound calls only. I was horrible at it. I used to just put my headphones above my ears and wait until the screaming stopped.

One day I had a family emergency, and I told my lead I would be gone for a few days. I took all of my things, knowing full well I was never going back.

[viva la]

12. An assembly job at a Dickensian factory

It was horrible work. But scarier were some of my coworkers. The local prison had given them work release, and and they worked right beside me. You would think that it would just be, you know, low level criminals, but one of them had killed his wife only a few years before. This was in the South, and wife murderers don't always get long sentences.
I was just out of high school, and he must have thought I looked gullible. He sidled up to me and said, "Can you score me some drugs? I'll make it worth your while."

I quit that day.

[hedda_foil]

13. Scooping up dead goldfish from the ick-ridden Woolworth's tank and throwing them out the back door.

[DURHAM D]

14. Life guard at city swimming pool.

The pool staff was under the supervision of the head of the city park. He was a serial sexual harasser. He was in his late 50s and I was 16. I told my Dad when the old bastard tried to kiss me, actually it happened twice. He physically restrained me.

So my Dad went to the mayor and the Chief of Police. They already knew about him and did absolutely nothing. My Dad spoke with the bastard directly. Then my Mother did. Also, my mother invited all the other young women who were working there to contact her if he continued.

He was removed as pool supervisor but today the city park and zoo is named after him. Disgusting.

My parents left that town when I was in college. My whole family hates that town. I have not and will not go to high school reunions and neither have my siblings.

[brewens]

15. Commercial hydroseeding. A lot of it was prevailing wage, so it was good money, but talk about

nasty in shitty weather. The mulch we used was like sawdust with a tackifier that was really slick when wet. So it was eating dust mixing, but what hit the deck when it was raining was slicker than shit! Out there spraying along highway jobs where they needed erosion control. Cold and miserable.

[pdxflyboy]

16. In November 1975

I worked for the Connecticut Highway Department for 9 months as a highway maintainer. The most junior of us got assigned to DA ( dead animal) detail. The worst part of this was when a German Shepherd was hit late Friday afternoon in the summer and we removed it at noon on Monday. Bad job for a dog lover like me.

[bottomofthehill]

17. Moving company

Fucking backbreaking work

[SeattleVet]

18. Cleaning the grease trap in a department store restaurant.

My first job while I was in high school. Hired as a dishwasher/busboy, and the restaurant manager told me and the other dishwasher to go down into the basement and clean out the grease trap. The he showed us where it was, and what it was. It trapped a lot more than just grease, and we both got really filthy and stinky. Hated that part of the job. Eventually moved on to do some short-order cook stuff, and worked the fried chicken stand, and the hot dog and pizza kiosk.

(Manager was a real charmer. He had fired a few high school girls when their registers turned up short, including a friend that I knew was totally innocent - there was no way she would ever steal. Best day on the job was seeing him being escorted off the premises by store security after they found some of the marked bills that they had salted into the registers in HIS pockets. No telling how many reputations he damaged.)

Not going to bother too much about the 'sleeping in a tent in a muddy horse pasture' when we deployed to a coal mine in Northern Germany when I was in the Air Force, since that was somewhat offset by our turning the chow tent into a beer tent every evening, with a regular delivery from a local brewery every 2 days. There were a few other military-related crap jobs that we all did, but nothing that came close to beating that stupid grease trap.

[Throck]

19. No bad jobs, only bad management.

[meadowlander]

43. I would dispute that.

Some of the jobs I've worked with virtually no visible management were still inherently miserable.

I addition to the pig farm I talked about below, I also temped one summer in a cardboard box factory where my job was folding cardboard boxes. I was probably 20 or 21 at the time but at the end of an eight hour shift I had papercuts all over both hands, my fingers were so stiff I could barely move them, my feet ached, my back ached and what did I have to show for it except a pile of empty cardboard boxes.

That was an inherently shitty job. And I can think of a lot worse.

[Celerity]

51. I think they meant THEY themselves have not had any bad jobs, not that bad jobs do not exist

I may be wrong, in which case I agree with you in pushing back

[Demobrat]

20. This.

This was me, except I was packing the chocolates into boxes instead of wrapping them.

https://m.

[elleng]

22. LOLOLOLOL!

[Demobrat]

28. We did get to eat as much chocolate as we wanted.

Trust me, it gets old fast. It was chocolate turtles. I can’t look at them to this day.

[elleng]

30. Gotcha.

Not one of my favorites.

[DET]

21. Chambermaid

I grew up in a popular seaside resort area and worked four summers as a chambermaid while going to school. Started at 16. My introduction to a long line of perverts was being flashed the first week on the job; the owners didn’t care. The most depressing stint was returning home after graduate school with no job and no plans - back to making beds and cleaning toilets. On a positive note, it taught me humility and that I can do anything if I have to. It also motivated me to get the hell out of there.

[former9thward]

23. Throwing cut up logs into a pulp making furnace at a paper mill.

When I opened the furnace door to throw more in it would spit boiling pulp back at me.

[Solly Mack]

24. Chicken plant

(I win)

[radical noodle]

27. Maybe a tie...

See #26

[Solly Mack]

29. You win

[meadowlander]

42. Sorry, pig farm.

Shoveling garbage in and worse than garbage out. At least chicken feed isn't actively repulsive.

But in fairness I lasted a year and a half there and only four days in a call centre...

Kindergarten substitute teacher I only managed one day.

[Solly Mack]

54. Not a feed plant or a farm.

A chicken plant is a processing plant that processes chickens. From living to dead to parts.

But I do agree pigs are worse.

I didn't last long either.

[bluesbassman]

25. Worked at a tomato cannery in Modesto. Not many "good" jobs there...

The worst one though was hosing down the elevator that moved the tomatoes up out of the sluice boxes up into the plant. Nothing quite like the smell of rotten tomatoes in 90 degree heat!

[radical noodle]

26. Pork slaughterhouse and processing plant

I worked in the office, but even that was horrid. I worked there for about 5 months and I hated every minute of it. I can't imagine the conditions in cut and kill, but there were very few days that went by without someone being injured out on the lines. The bathrooms were by the loading docks and we had to wade through blood to get there. Pigs that were DOA got tossed in the parking lot until someone came to haul them away (sometimes a couple of days later).

[NanceGreggs]

31. Reading this thread ...

... made me realize that I've never really had a crappy job - I'm just one of the lucky few, I guess.

[ProfessorGAC]

75. Said The Same, Below

I'm in that fortunate category with you.

[RobinA]

93. Same Here

I was thinking about what my worst job was, but then I realized after reading people’s experiences that McDonalds was a walk in the air conditioned park compared to most of this stuff. Carry on.

[bedazzled]

32. Goodwill - ugh

filthy donations, backbreaking labor, nasty customers and sexual harassment of amy cute young girls. Awful

[ItsjustMe]

33. It was one of my first jobs

I got a job at FMC Corp, a chemical plant. I was mixing and bagging pesticides for crops. I also bagged dusting sulfur, the sulfur would get into my eyes and burn. The California heat made the job more miserable. About a year after I left the company a coworker of mine was arrested for murdering two children. It turns out he was a serial killer, and he had murdered several children.

Convicted Fresno County killer and death row inmate found dead in prison
https://abc30.com/fresno-county-fowler-fernando-caro-death-penalty/1728929/


DNA Evidence Unlocks 30-year-old Fresno Cold Case
https://abc7.com/archive/7072760/

[NJCher]

34. Teacher

The college had a new president and Vice President of academic affairs. Both got in under shady circumstances. Both were pulling down half a million each in salary and bonuses/benefits.

In a meeting, one sat next to me and asked anyone who would listen if they liked her new shoes. She then told us they cost $600. I looked down at the shoes and started laughing. This led to a round of eye rolling, arm crossing, etc., on the part of others seated in the area.

After that, anytime a student challenged me on a grade, she would give me grief. I caught a student cheating on a test and failed him. He challenged it and she let him get away with it.

[Tribetime]

35. I married and slept with this ugly orange bastard for his money

Only to find out he's broke
M.T.

[luv2fly]

58. +1

for the morning chuckle 🤭

[Retired Engineer Bob]

66. Winner winner chicken dinner

You didn’t look too happy last night at the ball game.

[11 Bravo]

71. Drop the mic and walk away. You win the internet today!

[RainCaster]

37. Cooking human urine

Boiling jars of urine down to a nasty smelling concentrate, then separating out minute amounts of various isotopes.

[HAB911]

63. LOL, 24 hour collection samples?!

must be fun

[RainCaster]

65. I realized that radiochemistry was not for me

Plus the reagents seeped through the rubber gloves and destroyed my calluses. 8 years of guitar playing gone in 3 months.

[HAB911]

67. NOT ENJOYABLE

[Shermann]

92. PPE glove material has to be matched with the relevant hazard(s)

That's what killed Karen Wetterhahn. Unacceptable!

[womanofthehills]

38. Working as a juvenile correctional officer - night shift

Between jobs. The girls told me they wouldn’t hurt me because they liked me.

[JustAnotherGen]

39. Wireless Company Headquarters

Marketing - Product Manager.

[fierywoman]

40. Working as a waitresss in the restaurant at the North Shore (L.I.) Country Club --

the summer between my two years of graduate work at SUNY Stony Brook -- Bebe Rebozo was a member and it was the summer Nixon resigned (that alone was worth the unhappiness of working for such stupid ignorant turds...) (The night he resigned, the kitchen staff and the members watched from the same --tiny --t.v.; the members cried and the kitchen staff cheered.)

[vercetti2021]

41. Seasonal worker at JCPenney's

It was at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. I got a job at JCP for Christmas time since I needed money pretty badly for Christmas to buy gifts and whatnot. So I had training for 3 days before they finally let me do stuff in the back. Like taking major orders to people's vehicles and whatnot. Taking care of folding clothing, stocking floor items, etc. It was usually just myself during the evening hours. I hated it, it was so busy considering it was Christmas time and it got more busy as the week went on. I had to move items that were well over 100 pounds alone that were tucked away in tight areas in storage. Nearly killed myself trying to move a huge grandfather clock alone to some assholes truck and the man sat there and just watched me load it into his vehicle without any help outside of. God bless. I'm like yeah fuck you motherfucker. Also that was the only year I got so fucking sick of holiday music. I love it normally, but fuck I had enough of it.

As the end of the week came, someone I knew that worked there started up some bullshit rumor about me and it spread like wildfire, got me many cold shoulders and ignored help requests. I said fuck it and quit that same week I started. I turned in my uni and said send my check to my address and I left. I never stepped foot in JCPenney's again.

[bif]

69. Summer job at Penny's that lasted one day!

They told me I would be working in Package Pickup. When I got there they told me my real job. Going to the loading dock, load up a palette full of merchandise, and lug it through the store. Then when I got to the right department, I had to unload all of it. It was usually heavy items like TVs. After a whole day of this I told them I quit. And I told them to just keep my pay, I hated it that much.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

44. I worked as a dog groomer for 11 years,

Worked at animal shelters for 4 years, cleaned public schools, cleaned houses, and did NA in nursing homes.

I liked working with the people in the nursing home but couldn't handle them dying.

Crappiest job was Walmart. Need I say more?

[csziggy]

45. Cold calling people for a charity

We weren't actually asking for money, we were trying to recruit people to dun their neighbors for money. I did it one day and quit. It simply wasn't worth it.

Next to that for a crappy job was going door to door to get info for a city directory. Too many of the people in the neighborhood I was assigned to were students, immigrants, or welfare recipients that refused to answer the pretty intrusive questions. I lasted two days at that one.

I much more enjoyed shoveling horse manure - but then I was working for myself and did it almost daily until my back gave out after thirty years.

In fact, since you worked for the IRS you might like this story. I'd been audited three years in a row, with no significant findings - one year they had to refund me a little under $5. The fourth year the IRS auditor was told she had to come out to the farm and see the operation herself. My accountant told me the day but he didn't know the time, so I told him that I would be at the barn working.

They showed up part way through the daily shit shoveling session. My accountant (a former IRS agent) in his suit and tie, and the IRS auditor in a dress and high heels. There I was, sweaty, in jean shorts and tee shirt, covered in shit and hay pitchfork in hand with a wheelbarrow full of horse manure. I talked to them, showed them the barn and some of the horses, and they left.

My accountant called me later and told me I would not be audited again. The IRS woman had told him on the way back into town that no one would do that work just to write off expenses against other income. It's been forty years and sure enough, no more audits.

[pfitz59]

46. Summer job removing smoke-damaged rock-wool insulation

105 degree heat, with sweat oozing into every crevice covered in slivers of glass and clouds of soot. My school had been fire-bombed and one entire wing needed the insulation replaced. Paid for my gas and beer. I took many showers, and wound up chucking my work clothes.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

47. Manually bending steel wire parts in a hot, dark, greasy factory.....

that made wire display racks for stores. Summer job in middle TN between H.S. graduation and starting college. I'll never forget the guy that ran the wire cutting machines who looked like Charles Atlas and brought us youngsters little cups of moonshine once or twice a day!

As a professional in industrial instrumentation and air pollution control, one job in a Louisville pork slaughter house installing a chart recorder, and another starting up a wet scrubber in a Maryland dog food plant.

I should write a book about some of the most dangerous ones. At 74 and retired, those still shake me to this day and I have the scars from several.

And we have millions of Americans that want to bitch about taking a shot for the public good?

[no_hypocrisy]

48. At a small commercial bakery. Lasted just one day.

Just some highlights:

1. I was taken to my work station, given directions, and then left alone. I asked where I could wash my hands first. (They left that part out.) Imagine your chocolate chip cookies, brownies, coffee cake, etc. made by someone who hadn't washed their hands.

2. The apple pies. Another section had laid-out pie shells. The "homemade" apple pies (to be rivaled with Grandma's) were actually sliced apples in GodKnowsWhat in a big commercial can. And I had to stick my hand in that can and take out the sliced apples in my cupped hand and drop them in the pie shell. No gloves, no spoon, etc. Go back to #1 (hand washing).

Not only did I quit that day, I stopped buying the wares from that bakery. They are out of business now.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

49. Rigging

Rigging is the moving/setting up of heavy equipment, machinery, etc.

One day working at McCormick Place setting up for a trade show, it was so ungodly hot (they would not turn on the AC for us setup crew) that it reached over 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Guys were literally passing out. If that wasn't bad enough, one of the printing salespeople who was not part of any crew, got his leg run over by a fork truck and stuck. An emergency amputation had to be performed right there on the trade room floor. That was the worst and I've been in actual life and death, self defense jobs as well.

[Celerity]

53. Damn!!!

An emergency amputation had to be performed right there on the trade room floor.

[secondwind]

50. I'm lucky to say I never had one. I went to work in a small

law office, as a Gal Friday, a year later worked for one lawyer as his secretary. I eventually married the boss.

[Celerity]

52. Never had a shit job. The one I liked the least was an internship at a London hedge fund. Too much

misogyny and psychopathy on parade.

[Cartoonist]

55. Building rubber tug boat bumpers

It involved swinging a sledge hammer in 90 degree heat.

[Decoy of Fenris]

56. Working a New England Winter at an airport (fueling and de-icing).

Routinely got to 10-20 below wind chill, plus some while wet (always), and we were expected to be outside in it most of the time. All for $7 an hour.

I'd trade comfy-temp cow shit for that frozen hellscape every day.

[Shermann]

57. Cable manufacturing

It was an indoor job sitting at a bench, but I did the same repetitive task for eight hours with one short break. There was little in the way of conversation there.

It was much worse than the various grueling outdoor jobs I've had.

[Withywindle]

60. Worst work or worst work environment?

I'd say the worst work was in shipping and packaging for a fly-by-night company that did packaging and shipping for Home Shoppers Network in the late 80s. Assembly line, really insanely demanding turnaround times, graveyard shift, frequently heavy lifting required and no one to help if you were struggling because everyone else was on the same demanding schedule.

Worst work environment was in an "upscale" fast food restaurant (small local chain, not one of the big ones. Pricier and tastier than the nationals, but not up to something that got rated). One of the managers was a pretty rampant sexual harrasser and groper, and I did not escape that. He was the brother of the owner, so no good saying anything. We were all kind of terrorized by his attitude, because he really thought he was All That, and he also often took the side of abusive customers against us.

[GoCubsGo]

61. My first job at a Baskin-Robbins.

It was minimum wage, the hours were shitty, and I had to work with the public. People suck. The owner and manager weren't exactly the nicest people either. A seasonal job I held for several years, which required slogging through mucky, cottonmouth- and mosquito infested swamps in the middle of summer in the South, wearing ill-fitting boots that damaged my feet, was way more preferable than that crappy retail/fast food job.

[aocommunalpunch]

62. Removed asbestos as a summer gig. n/t

[HAB911]

64. THREE

retail at a Western Auto type store (general public is close to stupid)
Bellhop/valet parking attendant (general public is close to stupid)
Paid killer for the US ARMY

[Dirty Socialist]

68. Watching antipersperant dry

And recording the weight every 30 seconds for 30 minutes. When I questioned my back stabbing boss about it, she snapped “you don’tlike your job, do you?” Hell no I don’t!

[Mysterian]

70. Shoveling out horse stables

Not the highlight of my professional career.

[Iggo]

72. Dishwasher at a busy restaurant. Roof-tarring in the summer.

It’s a tie.

[ProfessorGAC]

73. Not Applicable

I honestly never had a truly rotten job.
I worked as a janitor in late HS and during undergrad and even that wasn't rotten.
Sure, I had to clean up a drunk's pukes a few times, but a few times in 4 years is no big thing.
Shoveling manure seems far, far worse than what I ever did.

[KentuckyWoman]

74. Caretaking my husband through terminal cancer.

Of all the paycheck jobs we will ever have - and there are some really crappy ones - the jobs at home can be worse.


For anyone who does any of the zillion jobs that
nurses us
cleans up behind us
picks up our trash
cleans up dead people or animals
and anything else that is gross, dangerous or bone weary exhausting ..

Thank you all.

[bluedigger]

76. Convenience store clerk.

Worked second shift from 4-10pm. My very first shift I worked alone in the store for half of it. Never missed a shift in 11 months. Then they decided to piss test me when I was almost eligible for benefits like accrued vacation time, and we parted ways.

[mentalsolstice]

77. Target, I lasted for one afternoon....

Actually, I didn’t work for Target, I just made the mistake of wearing a red shirt while shopping there. It was in an upscale burb, and the customers were really rude.

[Vinca]

78. I worked very briefly as a maid at a motel chain. I forget which one.

It was probably 50 years ago and I'd quit a job I hated and couldn't find one I wanted. On the theory I had always preached of no job being too shitty to take, I got the maid job. I lasted about a day. The cleaning part wasn't so bad, but the head housekeeper apparently held a former job as commandant of a prisoner-of-war camp. She was nasty and seemingly would only have been satisfied if I cleaned the cruddy shag carpeting by licking it. I don't think I even bothered to pick up the measly earnings for the day.

[Shellback Squid]

79. walked on steel beams carrying rolls of fiberglass insulation

dangerous, sweaty and later, itchy work

[OilemFirchen]

80. Crawling through steam tunnels, spraying for cockroaches.

It was my first college work-study summer job. The tunnels were under the 120+ year-old administrative hall. I had no protection - mask, gloves, goggles... nothing.

The next summer I painted dorm closets with enamel paint. No ventilation and, again, no protection.

The next summer I had transferred to another college.

[marie999]

81. A Summer job not selling magazine prescriptions door to door.

[hatrack]

82. Dishwasher at a college dorm . . . .

When I started, it was $1.96 an hour. The next year, they bumped us up to $2.00 an hour. Woo-hoo!!

[Texasgal]

83. Working as a secretary

for a financial advisory firm.

The old men advisors were gross ( make me some coffee, hun) and the ladies were catty.

Didn't last long!

[LuckyCharms]

84. A white collar "do everything" position in which I had to fish out a tangle...

of used tampons from a drain clean-out.

And then I had to write an email to the women in the organization asking them to please not flush their tampons.

[Quixote1818]

85. I waited tables for 3 years and hated it. Gutting fish in Alaska was extremely difficult too. nt

[Stuart G]

86. I worked in a factory that made "Midas Mufflers"....summer job...

I think it was 69 or 70...It wasn't making the Mufflers..............it was something else...

The air & noise inside that factory was awful...And...the terrible air was worse than the noise............

and ....................masks were not worn then...............

[Tom Kitten]

87. Dishwasher

Er...rather "cook trainee" at Poor Richard's Steakhouse. They closed awhile back so I have no problem telling people where it was. I could regale you with stories but it's Halloween and times are frightful enough. OK, for example the jerk manager would stand next to you with a stopwatch to see how many pieces of garlic bread you could butter in thirty seconds. All I can say is if I died and went to hell it would be that little room only there would be no exit.

[Elessar Zappa]

88. Certified Nurse Assistant

in a nursing home. Back breaking work for very low pay. And it was heartbreaking every time a resident died.

[ironflange]

89. In a coal research lab, using hydrofluoric acid

The job was actually a lot of fun and really interesting, except for the times I had to work with HF; that stuff scared the crap out of me. Had to be careful and wear full protection, but even so I couldn't stop thinking of the horror stories I had heard.

[Oneironaut]

91. Software company from hell

They hired me during the interview (red flag number one). My co-worker was the owner’s son. My boss looked like he didn’t want to be there.

The commute was about an hour. It was 100 degrees in there. The person sitting next to me began to complain about how he had no life, and told me I should run. I was being threatened with being fired if I ever broke a certain rule on the first day. Fox News played on the lobby TV the whole time.

I got home, had an autistic meltdown, and quit the next day. The place tried to screw me out of pay for the 8 hours I worked there (“Oh sorry! We forgot!). I sent a notice to the place demanding my pay, and my boss, I call her Karen, called up screaming and berating me for quitting, and made fun of my autistic symptoms. I hung up on her.