LCT is so quiet! Trying to get some stimulating dialogue going here. My Hairball Bowling is a gutterball! So, on to the next topic...What's the WORST job you've ever had?

I worked in a direct mail house, stuffing envelopes! Zippy the chimp could have done this job! Hated it!

What a great topic Denise!!!!!! Especially for a dead board!!!! Good topic for lively board too -

OMG one summer in HS I worked as dental assistant...had to buy white shirtdress etc - as if I knew at age 16 what I was doing? - one week into job the dentist extracted a tooth - I remember seeing his arm muscle bulge - I fainted - end of job

LOL Denise, I can tell that this is going to be a funny post!

My worst job was for a security home alarm company. It was my job to check out all the alerts from peoples house and business alarms. One night, I guess there was a thunderstorm in Texas and I kept getting numerous calls. I got 3 calls in a row from a business. I called them back, they gave me a password and that was that. The fourth time the alarm sounded for this business, I didn't call them as I thought it was the storm tripping the alarm again and of course, you know that they got robbed. :)

That job was too stressful for an 18 year old!

you know that they got robbed.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

I worked as an information operator for the telephone co. in Southern Calif. I was a college drop out. The money was pretty good then. Problem was the supervisor would listen in to see how fast you looked up #'s etc. I am a pretty social person(today I am a tour director)they put me in this little cubicle OMG, someone would call looking for a # guess what??I would recognize the voice then have a personal conversation. Caught so many times, they still wouldn't fire me. One day I was offered a temporary job as a hostess at the Long Beach Sail Boat show, instead of asking if I could have the time off, I just hung up my headphones and left, they still didn't fire me!!! Finally after the longest year of my life they did!! To this day I am still really good at looking up #'s, One problem I have, I have trouble reading the phone book today!!!That damn print is so small!! That year probably ruined my eyesight.

Larablair, do they even still have real operators?? I always get that automated 411 that never understands the name I am saying, I would much rather have someone as friendly as you on the other end!

You can still get a live operator here sometimes. I remember a school tour of the phone company with all the PBX lines and seeing how the international operators had a different switchboard than the information operators.

My first job was rolling posters and putting them in little plastic tubes in 1971. I got fired because my work permit did not allow me to work in companies that did interstate commerce. So I got a job at a Real Estate office that also had a travel agency in it. I was 16. The boss was a dirty old man with a wooden leg that creaked. I had to wear a skirt. I also had to go out the back door and drive his car - 1970 Ford LTD - the biggest car ever made - to pick up the airline tickets from another travel agency if the customers came in for tickets. Minimum wage was $1.65. Everytime he'd try to get fresh, I'd tell my boyfriend, who came in and confronted the boss and tell him I'd better get a raise. I worked there a year and I left making $7.00 per hour. I only left because I broke up with Arnie (6" tall "jock type") and he wasn't available to come in to "chat" with Mr. Kay, my boss. Oh - and part of my job was to file the paid bills. I hated the work so much, I went in just before the boss came in, which meant I was always late. There were no answering machines then. And he left for the day before me - I'd leave when the coast was clear. I really did learn a lot working there. If my parents only knew they'd have been really upset.

neeever mind! :D

It may have offended some here! Sorry! :)

Sheri, That's toooo funny! :D

Betty

I love these!

Karen, You just know it would be the law of averages for you on that one!

Joanna, OK...You saw his arm muscle bulge and you fainted. I don't think you fainted at the prospect of the extraction <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" /> Was the DDS a hot DDS?

Larablair, If you were never fired, you must have been one outstanding employee regardless of ANYTHING you did! Or, they got you for below minimum wage! ;) I have the same problem reading the print in the phone book. I've never worked as an operator, which may have caused this for you. I'm just getting old! :(

Kathy, I really related to your story. My first real job after high school was as a secretary for a large advertising agency located on Madison Avenue. It was 1968 and I wore miniskirts every day (I could get away with that when I was 18!). The company's filing cabinets were in a very central area of the office. The area was surrounded by the President's, VP's, Dir. of Sales, etc. offices. All of these people were men. The woman Office Manager (a shrew named Carolyn) came over to me one day, pulled me into her office and instructed me on how to "bend at the knees" to file. It seemed all the guys enjoyed my time spent filing! <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" /> I didn't feel the same way as the men did! To this day, I have an aversion to filing :D

These stories are great.

Denise, I can relate to your filing story. Same thing happened to me when I worked for the State of Georgia Welfare Department in college. My sorrority sister and I had a part time job filing in a tiny little room with no windows. But, if we left the door open, the hall traffic increased. We wore mini-skirts too! Our favorite part of the job was our 20 minute break. We would sit on the front steps of the State Capitol and eat M&M's with a cup of ice!

I don't have a horror story job but perhaps it was a horror story for some poor person seeking credit. At 19, I worked another college part time plus summer job at a credit agency (along with three other sorrority sisters). Sure hope we didn't keep someone from buying a house or car!

There were so many.

But the worst was the time in HS when I worked in the Produce Dept of a supermarket. A real Eye-Opener! It offended me that it was my job to package all the bruised fruit & veggies in a way that the bruised or rotten sections couildn't be seen. And the filth back there, the produce all over the floor - ugh - I wouldn't eat that stuff once seeing it.

Then again, that was my worst PAID job. Before that I had a summer volunteer job in a hospital. They put me to work in the lab. My job for a whole darned summer was to kill mice! HUNDREDS at a time (And I will NOT tell you how. But if any of the Sickies want to know, you can email me <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" /> ).

My worst job lasted one day. I was hired through the youth employment office at my H.S. to care for a terminally ill woman. I was to read to her, keep her spirits up and make her last few days enjoyable. It turns out she wasn't terminally ill, just a nut case who would put in calls to various employment offices to hire this, that or the other.

Once at her home she held me captive with deadbolt locks on all doors in a pitch black home. She told me I was going to die that day with her. I cried, finally felt my way around and found a telephone. I called the police. As the police car arrived, so did her son whom she lived with. It turned out he was VP at a local bank and a nice guy (she had told me her son was an escape convict so when he came home I tried to hide under the bed).

Anyway, the police came. At the same time my Sister and Mother pulled up to pick me up and freaked out with the cop car there. I've NEVER been so scared in all my life. She was committed to the insane asylum the next day.

Never did get paid for the worst 2 hours of my life!

OMG Marcie, you just set the standard for the worst job ever! That is one crazy story, thank goodness you got out!

When going to school in Milwaukee WI I had a part time job at the Astor Hotel.
I would go to work every day and polish brass throughout the hotel. That is it just polish brass.
Needless to say I did not stay there long.

Jim,

Did they require you to wear a mini skirt (just kidding - see threads above) :eek:

Ah, the good old days, Donna! Wearing miniskirts and munching on M&M's. Life was so uncomplicated!


Gil, That job at the hospital must have been horrid. Something that Jeffrey Dahmer might have worked as at one time!

Jim, You don't need to share the sordid details about your working attire, if it's too embarrassing ;)

Marcie I agree you win for worst job.

Worst Jobs?
Worked as a telemarketer for the Daily News for one day. They gave us a script to work from, something about having to put our younger brother through school or something like it. I hated the hangups, and the nastiness...but hated the lying the most.

Also worked in a supermarket for a week. I was told I'd have to join the union (at 16) I would come home each day with aching feet. At the end of the week, my pay was docked by $3 because the register supposedly didn't match the tape, plus with what they took out for union dues, put me well below minimum wage. I went back to baby sitting.

Sorry, I have no time to post my worst job ever story......I'm too busy Hairball Bowling!!!!!!!!!!! :woh: :woh:

All Right, This is just too much!! Marcie even though your job was the worst one so far, for some reason it made laugh!! What does that say about me!! I am still laughing. Have another job that was right up there as the worst for me, had forgotten about it, the job wasn't really the worst(at least in the beginning)I went to work for the State of California workmans compensation Dept. the Long Beach Office, as a receptionist, OMG what I went through to be hired, actually rented an electric typewriter, to practice on for the test, since I had never used one, for you babies out there this was in the 60's( just wanted to clarify that)Anyway, things were great for a while, then I discovered I was pregnant(how did that happen!!)My husband was gone(in the Army on his way to VietNam)Luckily I had moved a block away from the office(we had sold the car)I was able to go home for lunch and rest for an hour(watched Days of our Lives)Still hooked on that show. Anyway hear is the bad part, I had horrible morning sickness that lasted all day!! The smell of the men who were coming into the office really triggered it, the bathroom was all the way across the office, so no way could I make it there, thank goodness for that nice waste basket, I had to talk to the men with my back to them. Thankfully at 7.5 months they gave me a baby shower and said it might be a good Idea if I stayed home and rested. Guess what?? A miracle, the morning sickness was gone forever when I woke up the next morning!!(this is really long sorry, was fun to go back to those days, our beautiful baby boy(Blair)is now 37 years old!!

Great story! Sounds like you were in the ladies room more than the reception area! I love the part about practicing on the electric typewriter!

BTW, I used to be hooked on Days, too!

Great story larablair!!!!! Denise, no, the dentist was sort of a homely nerd and arm muscle was a "reach" in the story...not sure he had actual muscles!!

Marcie: Your story is a hall of fame winner - I feel like calling Stephen King - I read it to the girls and at dinner tonight they said to Tony "do you know Honey's friend Marcie? Let us tell you about her job experience in HS" - however one wanted to know how you got out of those deadbolt doors - Oy Vay enough already girls I can't keep explaining!!!

I have two worst jobs. The first was the most disgusting and physically exhausting. The other, which I believe was maybe the very first (it's close, I think I was just 16 for both), was for me the most difficult and humiliating.

The first was cleaning the changing room and washrooms in a public swimming pool. Yishe! I lasted about two weeks on that one.

The second was at summer lodge up north. My job was to babysit the owner's 5-year old daughter. I had NO babysitting experience, no affinity for kids and she was precocious, and I was shy and uncertain of myself. It was a disaster. I ended up washing dishes in the kitchen, and going home after early, after 4 weeks. Washing dishes was kinda fun after the kid. That's when I decided I would never have children (but changed my mind about 15 years later.)

Going along with the theme of this post, who watches Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel? I just love that show!! My favorite episode so far was when the host had to follow around a cow with a bucket so he could tell if the cow was eating the proper ratio of corn and hay. :ohmy:

ICK! That's a really nasty job! Now, if the cow isn't getting the proper ratio of corn and hay, does that same guy need to forcefeed the cow Metamucil?