The worst job I ever had................

[Benzadmiral]

I have to admit I've never had any job quite as bad as some of you. The two closest:

1) My first job in Lafayette, LA, where I manned the AM radio station's transmitter from 2 hrs. before sunset (which varied depending on the time of year, naturally) and 10 pm. That part was fine. The hard part was driving a bush hog in the hot sun to cut grass around the transmitter site -- it had 6 towers and was good-sized -- and sprinkling weedkiller inside the tower fences.

2) My 8-year stint as a Purolator Courier driver, delivering packages from un-air conditioned vans. Morning shift 5 am to 1:00 or 2:00; afternoon shift 1:00 to 9:00. Near the end of my time they changed all the routes so we went to work at 7:30 am, worked till we finished delivering -- about 11:30 -- then went back on the clock at 2:00 and worked until 6, picking up. At first we got layover pay for the break; then they ended that and insisted we come back to the terminal over the break! Fortunately I'd been fired by then.

I finished each summer day soaked in sweat and body grease -- and here, summer lasts 8-9 months.

 

[Samilcar]

Worked 2nd shift at a pork slaughterhouse for six weeks. My title was "side hooker". As the sides of pork came sliding down a chute, my job was to lean over and attach them to hooks attached to a five-foot wide, horizontal conveyor belt. This plant slaughtered an average of 10,000 hogs per shift, and I would hook every single one of them (20,000 sides). The speed is what killed you.

The worst part of the job was getting needle-sharp bone splinters in the palms of your hands while shoving the sides onto the hooks. At the end of my six weeks, my palms were filled with small, hard boils where these splinters went in. I was SOO happy when I got another job.

 

[mechtech2]

Pablo - I did the exact same thing, and it was rough [blowmolding].
Understaffed and had to do everything. Non stop movement.
12 hour days every other day, and one day off every 2 weeks. The legal minimums/maximums.

 

[expat]

The Tire plant where I worked was either terrifying, or mind blowing boring. There was a small hole in the roof (part of a locking band had blown through the roof!) At Mid day on Mid summers day, I marked a ring on the spot where the ray of light landed on the shop floor. The same time the next year I made a point of watching to see the sun ray fall on the exact same spot.
THEN I decided it was time to get out of there

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
+1 working alongside meth heads really kills you. Very hard to keep up with that kind of work ethic.

Been there, done that.


Oh yea; those guys can lift mountains when they're "UP". But when they're "down", they're more worthless then a bag of [censored]!

I've never seen determination like a tweeker trying to get a fix!

 

[Gary Allan]

I guess I had enough miserable part time or quick change jobs. Some were quite brutal in terms of conditions. Suffering is something you can endure quite well if you don't know any better. My most productive suffering was done alone; without anyone else there to gauge my suffering. I hoed many rows at a nursery in 90+ whether. I got much more done in one day than the owner's son and his smoking buddy did in a week. I had no idea of the expectations ..so I applied higher output to the task.

Any type of bull work that allowed you to day dream though the misery was easy. If you had to remain conscious throughout the experience, that was a bit different.

 

[expat]

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan


Any type of bull work that allowed you to day dream though the misery was easy. If you had to remain conscious throughout the experience, that was a bit different.




Very true.

 

[element_42]

i once had to do track sweeping on midnight shifts. That is sweeping snow from track switches at 4am in the dead of canadian winter. when the unit got into the shop, i had to scrub the waterless toilets of rock solid conductor-turds, drain the septic tank and refill the 'poo-dissolving-blue-chemical' back into the tanks. a few times i've been covered by liquid [censored] and [censored] like it was a gameshow and i just gave the wrong answer, and also high pressure diesel coming out of what is essentially a firehose. ah good times, the drive home after being soaked by diesel was a high and careful one. life is great!

 

[element_42]

Originally Posted By: MarkC
I cropped tobacco on my aunt's farm when I was 12. That pretty much sucked.


heard those jobs are addictive! workers can't wait to go back to work

 

[sciphi]

I mowed grass for the gov't of the small town I grew up in. It was hot, hard work weedeating around every tree in a city park. And cleaning bathrooms at city hall when it rained.

Also worked as a survey tech for a small surveying company during college. That was fun work, but paid little and reminded me why I was in college.

 

[The_Jeff]

I'll rip off an old timer coworker who's had tons of wierd jobs:

Atlanta GA, he's picked to supervise an assembly line dumping modeling paint from a 55 gal drum into 2 oz bottles. They got different temps every day to actually work the line. A machine somehow was putting lids on upside down and this went unnoticed for way too long...

Northern Alaska (above the artic circle) he was staking mining claims. Had to put a note in a pill bottle then a carbon copy went to an assayer. As part of the challenge (to keep people from hoarding claims) he had to build a stone cairn several feet tall and bury the pill bottle in there. Got flown in by helicopter and left there!

Another job he had was when they moved a town in AK devastated by the 1964 quake to higher ground, there were abandoned buildings in the "old town" from which his boss wanted lumber salvaged one board at a time. He later figured the boss may not have been entirely detail oriented on obtaining title to said buildings.

In a bookstore the boss called him into his office and gave him a raise, said he was doing real good quality work, proud to have him etc... two weeks later minimum wage went up.

 

[TooManyWheels]

I once worked in a S.H. Kress variety store (forerunner to Kresges(?), then KMART)where I had the lovely duty of cleaning the snack bar and the store restrooms. I have unloaded boxcars, and sprained my back in a machine shop lifting heavy metal frames onto a drill press.

But nothing beats doing roofing in South Texas in the summer heat and humidity.

That was the worst physical labor. But I also worked at Sears as a phone solicitor (Hello Ma'am, Sears is currently running a special on.....). I think I actually disliked that job more than the outdoor ones.

I've also worked in a muffler shop, as a carpenter, a freelance mechanic, and as a stagehand. Those were my "good" college jobs.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Gigolo.

 

[CivicFan]

Night time security guard at a hotel resort... Had a full time job during the week and did this on the weekends. One of my coworkers was a religious guy with five kids. He had a knack for finding couples making love and watching them.

Once I saw him during daytime and he looked really burnt out.

 

[Warlord]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
Working security at construction sites overnight in your car freezing your arse off under a gazillion blankets drinking coffee by the gallon to stay awake and keep warm. Couldn't idle the car too much or you would make squat because it would be going out the tail-pipe.

I actually almost ended up in the hospital the next day after a very cold -34oC night because I think I had hypothermia. I stood in a hot shower until all the water ran out and I just couldn't get warm. I was so scared I ended up quitting the job.



Used to do the exact same thing. Glad thats over with.

 

[The_Jeff]

My brother-in-law works construction and there were these ditches that kept filling with water during spring rains. They had portable gas powerd pumps that were barely keeping up and needed refueling every hour. He slept on the bench seat of a pickup and woke up when the noise stopped. Worked all day and night... his time card read 24, 24, 24...

 

[rjundi]

Dishwasher at 14-15 at a fish restaurant.

Doing dishes scalding hands was not bad enough but when we were slow we got to peel pounds of potatoes and skinning our worn hands.

My mum guilted me into staying with the job for an entire summer. I was ready to be done the first week. I think after a week you get the jist of a hard job.

I will say my only regret growing up was sticking to places for work. I got paid well working a few years in grocery but much better to try everything for little to no pay and figure out what you want to be or do.

 

[ViragoBry]

Dish washer at J.B.'s Big Boy, Gillette, WY.

Responsible for washing all dishes, pans, pots, etc.
Also responsible for cleaning bathrooms, mopping kitchen, cutting up all vegetables for salad bar and kitchen use.

I was a hard worker even back then, but I saw no way one human being could keep up with the tons of dirty dishes and pans, and do all the 'commissary', as they called it. I lasted about 3 weeks and told them to shove it.

 

[Win]

I shoveled out coin operated car wash pits and hauled off car wash trash in 55 gal. drums, for a couple of years in high school, at minimum wage ($2.10/hour IIRC).

The pits weren't all that bad, if you like shoveling wet nasty mud, but the trash sucked. People would dump whatever trash they didn't want at the house at the car washes, and I think a lot of cheap country bumpkins would dump ALL their trash (soiled diapers, dead animals, etc.) at the car washes. I had enough washes to take care of that it would be several days in between hauls, and that stuff would get really ripe and nasty in the hot Arkansas summer sun.

The work truck ( an old '63 Chevrolet Apache ) had a hydraulic Tommy Lift so all I had to was wrestle the stinking drums on and off the lift, so it could have been way worse.

Before that I was a gas pumper, which was a pretty good job for a pre high school kid. I remember pumping Ethyl for about 21 or 22 cents / gallon.

Nasty jobs taught me I didn't want to do that the rest of my life, and that I never wanted to have a boss again.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: Warlord
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Working security at construction sites overnight in your car freezing your arse off under a gazillion blankets drinking coffee by the gallon to stay awake and keep warm. Couldn't idle the car too much or you would make squat because it would be going out the tail-pipe.

I actually almost ended up in the hospital the next day after a very cold -34oC night because I think I had hypothermia. I stood in a hot shower until all the water ran out and I just couldn't get warm. I was so scared I ended up quitting the job.



Used to do the exact same thing. Glad thats over with.


Me too... I can only imagine what it must have been like in Alberta.