What was your all time worse job?

A job you look back on with dread. What, where, and why did you hate it?

Taco Bell when I was a teenager. Stuck working around a bunch of snippy supervisors who were bitter because they were 30 and working at Taco Bell.

Oh God so many I could mention. Probably the worse was when I worked at the service counter at Best Buy about 5 years ago. Hated it! The atmosphere is out of control, customers were pushy and the employees were even worse. I thought it was just MY store but every time I go back as a customer -- no matter which store I go to -- that same negative tone is there. Great products, awful environment.

To answer my own question:
my worse job was when I worked at Bally Total Fitness as a front desk associate. When it came to late balances, the members were everything from liars/con artists to downright hostile and in denial.

"I'll pay it tomorrow,"
"I just mailed the payment yesterday,"
"I don't have a late fee, you mother fuckers are just ripping me off!"

Those, of course, were the younger members. The older members whose accounts were paid up would instead bitch and complain at me about things I had zero control over like: the temperature in the whirlpool, the temperature in the club, the music playing overhead. They really thought that I had a gadget panel behind the desk that controlled everything in the club, when the truth is all I could do is relay the situation to the more appropriate people.

Chris wrote:To answer my own question:
my worse job was when I worked at Bally Total Fitness as a front desk associate. When it came to late balances, the members were everything from liars/con artists to downright hostile and in denial.

"I'll pay it tomorrow,"
"I just mailed the payment yesterday,"
"I don't have a late fee, you mother fuckers are just ripping me off!"

Those, of course, were the younger members. The older members whose accounts were paid up would instead bitch and complain at me about things I had zero control over like: the temperature in the whirlpool, the temperature in the club, the music playing overhead. They really thought that I had a gadget panel behind the desk that controlled everything in the club, when the truth is all I could do is relay the situation to the more appropriate people.

Dealing with the public in a job is always a horror!

My worse job was when I worked for Sears in their cafe department. That job lasted about a month. During my 15 minute break, I went to my car on the verge of hyperventilating over how much I hated working there and decided then that it was over. I worked the rest of my shift, and when it was over I informed the manager that it was to be my last day. I swore then and there that I wouldn't ever work in food service again. Some of the customers were real a-holes and my boss wasn't much better!

Worked a summer job when I was 16 with my uncle, who was the maintenance man at a school It was the very definition of "grunt" work and by the end of the summer. Lotta outside work. By the end, I looked like I had been left in a tanning bed for too long.

Back in 1990 I worked a part time job at Blockbuster Video and I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. The customers could be downright rude when it came to videos not being in stock and don't tell them they have a late fee, forget it... they'll look at you like you're trying to steal their wallets.

With my head hung in shame, I will admit that I sold vacuums for a couple weeks. It was so awful. My boyfriend and I at the time were both so sick of our current jobs, that we decided to answer a cattle call type hiring ad, and went for it. We were actually pretty good, and sold at least one or two per day, as we sold as a team. But after a couple weeks, we pulled up to a house, and I physically could not do it anymore. It was the worst job ever.

I was a carpet cleaner for about 3 months. :frustrated:
Hated every minute of that lousy job.

In college, I worked a part time job as a waitress at Applebees.
The less said about it, the better.

My worse job was at Pier 1 Imports when I was 19. I had just been laid off from this bankrupt department store. About 3 months prior, I filled out an application at Pier 1 and forgot all about it. Days after getting losing that department store job, they call me and I of course jumped at it. BS. First of all, they wouldn't be flexible with availability. I don't do nights and weekends, but when I filled the application out, I put down open availability (which no doubt was the only reason they called me) that they threw back in my face when I tried to aim for a day shift.

When I got on the floor, it was a bunch of menial labor. Sweeping, arranging displays....and worst of all, having to carry shit out to customers cars. On my lunch break I called home and pouted to my mother that I didn't like the job, while she gave me the "mother" response about how it would put gas in my car and keep my phone bill paid.

Two days I bared it, but on the third day I couldn't take it anymore. I went there and when it was time to take my lunch break, I hopped in the car and drove way....never to return. LOL

Without a doubt the job in the chicken processing plant when I was a kid. O-M-G. So nasty I only ate beef or pork for a long time.

My stint as a busboy. Anything dealing with the public usually sucks. You can encounter some great people but it just took one asshole to ruin my day.

alan smithee wrote:Anything dealing with the public usually sucks.

I agree, I've had many jobs dealing with the public and they've been awful...

I think my worst job was a caregiver for a woman named Marjorie. She was so nit-picky and rude - didn't believe in thanking anyone for any reason. I think she thought because she was disabled she could get away with treating people like dirt. I brought it up one day about how unappreciative she was and that erupted into an argument. That was my last day. I lasted about three or four days. Funny, I still see an ad in the paper every now and then stating she needs a caregiver again (I remember her phone number.) I guess no one else can stand the bitch either!

I worked at a Canadian donut/coffee shop called Tim Horton's. I couldn't believe how rude and nasty people could be for no reason at all. I lasted 5 months before I HAD to get out. There were a few people that I would have loved to have found out where they worked, and then gone there and treated them EXACTLY as they treated us.

Another job that was pretty bad was a daycare I worked at. The owner was in it solely for profit so she could go on fancy vacations twice a year for a month. She paid us on salaries so she could overwork us. Ever year, she'd apparently increase rates and tell the parents it was so she could give the staff a raise. The only reason we made a somewhat decent salary was because the government offered a grant. Otherwise, she'd have paid us barely above minimum wage. We weren't allowed to leave the centre, even on our breaks, or we'd be out of ratio, which is illegal. Also, there were times she's work us right through breaks, if more than one person was sick. I remember a few shifts that were 9 hours straight with no breaks - not even a lunch break. She told us there was no one to cover for us so we'd have to eat with the kids and make the best of it. I had one co-worker there who was a REALLY nasty person - bitter and disgruntled because no one else would hire her, but the upstairs staff (where I was) had a VERY high turnover. Everything about this woman was sour - her looks, her attitude, the way she acted, and she was always complaining to anyone about all of us, including going off on the parents about how horrible her co-workers were and how it wasn't fair that this co-worked worked a particular shift and she didn't get to work that shift, which was none of her business, anyway, as the shift had been negotiated at the time the girl started, and the owner was fine with it. I lasted nine months there.