Throwback Thursday: What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? #TBT

[#1]

It's Thursday!

That time of the week again and we are almost all the way to the...

So, I was a college student back in the mid 90's and needed a job that had flexible hours so I could squeeze in between classes and homework. A friend of mine got me this job at his brothers place. I had to do some commuting to get there. It was in a, almost empty large garage/industrial space. And it had one piece of equipment there. Can't remember how the machine looked like but it was for bending metal. I was to make 90° metal pieces with this manual gadget. I can't remember how many days I showed up but I think it was only two - my first day and then the day I came to the conclusion that this was the worst job ever! All alone do the same repetitive task for hours. So I quit. Didn't have any other prospects but quit anyway. It was just too much. Few weeks later, an unexpected opening in IT Support for a law school opened up (I has been hanging around there, hoping...) and I've been involved in technology ever since :)

But I am thankful for having been offered the job - helped me realize what I didn't want to do in life.

Tell us, what is the worst job you've ever had?

Let’s make it a great Thursday!
KGM

[John Funk]

Delivering newspapers for a morning paper. We would actually pick them up at midnight and I had the route with all of the newspaper racks for our small town. It was not fun that late, especially when you are already tired. 

[Dirk Ronsmans]

Hey @Kristján Geir Mathiesen ,

I follow your path and conclusion most of the way :D

At the moment I'm still with my first ever employer after I graduated from college but I had a lot of student jobs/vacation jobs.

I'm of the firm believe that you should try a few menial and repetitive job early on to either discover that they are your thing or to come to the conclusion that you want to push yourself to never have to do them again. (that doesn't mean that I'm not a huge fan of working with your hands!)

My example of that job must be one of the many jobs on a line. Moving heavy racks with small items from one conveyer belt to another and back again, working on a sawmill just cutting boards over and over..

Those jobs sure were a motivation to continue studying :P 

[Thorhalla Gudmundsdottir Beck]

For a few months I worked as a nanny to two screaming monsters. Like, the only two children I have met in my entire over forty years of life that didn't like me. Seriously, even the worst brats and the most temperamental children I had in the preschool class I worked in almost twenty years later were easier and better to work with than those two &$$#"$#"$#W$#"$%#$". When their mother told me she'd hired someone else who had more experience I nearly danced out the door singing with joy. 

[Jimmy Seddon]

Great topic as always @Kristján Geir Mathiesen!

I'm going to be honest and say that most of my jobs have been pretty good.  But, on the spectrum of good to bad from what I have experienced.  The worst would have been assisting the only IT guy for an automotive parts warehouse.

This was a co-op position where I traded off with another student.  The guy I was trading off with was a complete slacker and only wanted to do the bare minimum to pick up the pay check and go home.

During my first term I refactored the script he had for running one of the weekly reports so that it ran in about 10 minutes instead of taking 4 hours.

The managers at that place were constantly trying to backstab each other to work their way up the ladder.  While I wasn't concerned, it was not a super comfortable environment to work in.

At the end of my term, the guy I took over from was not happy that I made the script more efficient as he now needed to "do more work" in a day instead of hiding behind a "slow running script".

I feel I learned a lot from that place, but it definitely the worst place I worked at.

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Thanks for sharing your stories.

@John Funk  ah, the paper routes! One of the vanishing professions...  (my daughter had one and I did it most of the time)

@Dirk Ronsmans that was good thinking, using a bad job as a carrot :) And yes, the trick is to try out different jobs early to find out what fits you. One job can be "the worst" for one person but "the best" for another... We need to find which shelf we fit on :)

@Thorhalla Gudmundsdottir Beck eeeek, sounds like a very traumatic experience for a young person. Glad you escaped unscathed from it :)

@Jimmy Seddon in Icelandic we say "snemma beygist krókurinn" ("early bends the hook" Google translate). You started right off the bat coding :) Great for you! Good story.

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

Interesting topic @Kristján Geir Mathiesen 🤔

I can't say that any have been terrible but it's safe to say that 5 years in shop work during my younger years definitely had some low points 😂

[Wendell T Betts]

There are things about 37 years service to the Army and the Things of War that shouldn't be shared and the newfound friends (Brothers)  that were found and the small thinking of many people when you come back home that don't understand how small everyday problems really are. And PTSD is another thing that people want to understand but never really will.

Wendell Betts

MSG USARMY Retired

[Huwen Arnone [Deiser]]

My first ever job was informal: selling candies at school, lol, and it was fun. And my very first formal job was selling insurances... oh boy, I lasted one week there. And that last one would be my worst job ever, by far. 😅

[Taranjeet Singh]

It's very interesting to read and learn about the bad and good job experiences of our wonderful community leaders!

I think my worst ever job was as a student was to work at a photo studio. It was because the owner was not a good guy and was never happy however hard I worked there. I felt I was kind of exploited on that job as I was not being paid an hourly rate in comparison to others and I was also not paid on time.

I left that job in couple of months.

[Amanda Barber]

Most of my jobs have been pretty decent overall. My worst was probably when I was a stocker at a local hardware store from 4-8am in college. It did allow me the opportunity to work another job though. I also spent one day a week volunteering with a coworker at an elementary school which ultimately helped me decide on a different career than the one I was in school for.