What was your worst job with the best stories?

[Data10]

I’ve never had what I considered a bad job. Among the jobs I’ve had, the worst may have been my first job – working as a gym supervisor at Stanford. I was the person who checked IDs when people walked in to the gym. The bulk of the problems more related to things I did, rather than things people in the gym did .

For example, one time I played classical music to get some listening done for a music class I was taking. By “classical”, I mean Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and others who composed hundreds of years ago. That received a lot of comments from persons at the gym – positive from older persons, not as positive from students.

One of the few problems I had with persons at the gym was with a visiting athlete from West Point who was there for an athletic competition. The gym had limited public hours, and he wanted to go in to the gym during off hours. He kept implying when I said he could not come in during off hours, I meant that he could.

[FallGirl]

I have worked some truly terrible jobs. I have dozens of stories.
But my first accounting job was terrible because of a bad ( crazy ) boss. My favorite story is that he liked to swim competitively and he practiced in the mornings before work. There were several times during the summer months when I got into the elevator in the lobby and he was inside - clad only in a speedo and flip flops! Awkward, bizarre and funny.

[sabaray]

In law school, I clerked for a firm that was located in a townhouse intended to be residential but was converted to an office. There was a full bathroom with a tub and shower curtain. The firm did a lot of domestic work and one of the attorneys was tired of dealing with the needs of this one woman (which were far beyond the legal aspects of her case). He hadn’t responded to her calls to her liking so she showed up at the office and ran up the stairs screaming "Attorney X, I know you’re here, your car is out there! " Well, he was up there. But when he saw her storming up the steps to the front door, he went into the bathroom, laid down in the tub and pulled the curtain. She didn’t find him.

In high school I worked at a Colonel Sanders franchise. The owner would go down to a local bar every Friday afternoon and drink to excess. Then he would return to the store and insist that tons of chicken be prepared. You never knew what was going to happen next, He gave me $1000 when I left for college though - that was a lot of money in 1981.

[vwlizard]

I was “tricked” into working at a Waldorf school taking money from the city of Chicago to educate students with severe special needs in the mid-90s. I was hired with a couple of other co-workers when the school underwent an audit and the city realized there were no certified special educators on staff. I took the job over the phone when my (now ex) husband was accepted to Kellogg. Nowhere in any of the interviews or information I received did they disclose they were a Waldorf school.
We were a “bilingual school” (in quotes because all but two of the kids I worked with had no form of verbal communication when I first arrived). Over 90% of our population were from Cabrini Green or newly arrived immigrants from Mexico or Guatemala.

Some highlights:
IEP meetings were secretly scheduled for days I’d be out and my name was illegally signed.

I wasn’t allowed (like that stopped me) to teach the students to sign, but they were all required to take a class with the “eurythmy” teacher. (Eurythmy was an “art” that was going to “cure” them where each sound of the alphabet was assigned a dance movement. I know I’m using a lot of quotes here, but I have to stress how crazy this was).

They fed the kids expired food from the food bank while spending $20 per box for pure beeswax crayons.

The bathroom on my floor (2nd floor) remained closed because they would not spend the money to fix it. I had to walk my students (many with seizures and mobility issues) up a flight of steps to use the bathroom while the eurythmy room (a large portion of the first floor) was completely rehabbed with new wood floors.

All of the assemblies the kids were forced to sit through and participate in were depictions of Light and Beautiful conquering Dark and Evil (note: all kids in the school would fall into the “dark” group).

All of our inservices were completely racist, showing things like the “primitive mind” as a caricature of a “backward” African person and were based on a hierarchy of enlightenment based on black people, red people, yellow people and enlightened white people. We were also told things like what we did at school wasn’t as important as what took place in our “dreamlife” where our souls met up with the souls of our students.

The Waldorf staff received training that we didn’t based on how to lie to us, the parents and the Selectman.

Those things were much worse than the fact that on more than one occasion I arrived at school to find bullet holes in or near the door.

I still stay in touch with 2 of my fellow teachers 30 years later. We stayed 2 years documenting everything to turn into the Selectmen thinking we could make things better. Turns out, no one cared about poor brown kids. Shocker.

Some of the things I’m quoted for that we still laugh about:
“I’m going to feed the kids the crayons if you don’t start buying food that’s not already expired”

“I’m going to let my kids (poop) on the eurythmy floor if you don’t get that bathroom fixed”

“When you’re dreaming, does my soul tell your soul that you’re crazy?”

[ClassicMom98]

I also pumped in our bathroom! And it is a public bathroom with no heat. I had to run an extension cord through the bathroom to sit on the toilet to pump! I was sooooooo happy the day I sold that thing!

[abasket]

One of my jobs as a teen was a telemarketing job. I don’t even remember what product we were trying to get people to agree to. We had to report to a Holiday Inn in our town for the interview and for the job. It was just a hotel room emptied out and filled with long tables and lots of phones. As an introvert this was a terrible job for me. I HATED each dial I made. It was meant to be a temporary job but I’m sure my stint was VERY temporary. I just remember that you’d report to work and then at the end of the day they’d let me go based on connections they DIDN’T make. I think I was relieved to walk out to that Holiday Inn parking lot!

The other terrible job was my first one out of college. It was at a rural community center where they had health care services (a branch of the health dept) and a child care center. The very clear memory -and maybe a sign of what was to come - was that my first day of work was a terrible snowstorm. At that time I hadn’t moved to my new town yet and the drive to work was 45 mins in GOOD weather. I was scared to DEATH driving those rural roads in my little Volkswagen station wagon that was not meant for snow!

I was hired to be a teacher in the preschool - 2 year olds, my favorite!) But the community center administrator was this terrible man who was rude to everyone, a womanizer and only kind when he needed something. And what he needed from me as a new grad with some experience was to be the key to him firing the child care administrator who he didn’t like because she was smart and savvy - he fired her in my first week (I was so upset because I really liked her) and made me take over her responsibilities at the child care center without any additional pay. It was horrible conditions. I stayed 6 months and left for a much better opportunity.

I always told my kids everyone needs one crappy job to make you appreciate the better but less than perfect ones!

[ClassicMom98]

@abasket

I always told my kids everyone needs one crappy job to make you appreciate the better but less than perfect ones

I said the same thing. I consider ref’ing to be a crappy job for a teen in many ways. Sure it paid well, but parents are AWFUL and thought they could intimidate the kids. They had to grow thick skin pretty quick. Not to mention I can think of more than 1 tournament where H &I dropped them off at 7am at in the teens and they had to be outside on their feet all day and night until we picked up late in the evening.

[Hoggirl]

My hometown in Florida also has a Denny’s

[vwlizard]

Not my job, but my son’s last summer.

Must be able to carry a 40 lb pack up to 10 miles
Must pass bear spray and wilderness first aid certification courses
Housing provided (Housing will often be a tent on the trail)
Must be able to drive difficult off road trails.

There was a bunch more. The pay? $12/hr.

Over 400 applicants for 3 positions and he was thrilled to get it and loved the job.

He also loved being a school janitor over the summer for two summers while he was in high school.

No problem with umpiring baseball. Only ran into 1 bad parent.

I’m waiting to hear what his worst job ends up being, but I’m pretty sure it will be something where he has to sit at a desk.

[Onward]

I once worked as a veterinary assistant. I loved the animals and I liked my boss. The problem was his wife. They lived above the practice and were about to get divorced. The first time I met her, she came downstairs and accused him of having sex with me in front of me. I think my mouth just fell open. She accused all of the help apparently and also stole checks that came in the mail. Sometimes she cashed them, sometimes she didn’t. I took care of the books and that was fun. I also remember she asked him if I could polish their silver for the office Christmas party. (Why she was using silver, I don’t know) I managed to stay there a couple of years.

[toledo]

I’d say I’ve only had one terrible job. I was hired to recruit students for a big name “modeling school”. My office was beautiful, but I was basically telling anyone who walked in the door that, with a little help (We were told to point out some negatives about them), they could be a model. We even told them there were federal funds available to pay for our program. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out if it was true.

[deb922]

@kelsmom awww, the “good old days”. Don’t you wish we could go back?

My daughter is a project manager in a manufacturing facility. Loves her job and has never ever talked about any sexual harassment. I hope we have evolved

I’ve had a bunch of horrible jobs that will only make me angry. I don’t want that so I abstain.

[sbinaz]

Some interesting stories from various jobs:

1. Worked 2 weeks part-time at an Easy Spirit shoe store in an attempt to make some extra cash when DH & I were newlyweds (in addition to my regular full time job). Store manager was a nightmare. Wanted me to come in with my khaki pants so she could approve them and make sure they were the “right shade of khaki.” I retired quickly from that job.
2. Idiot Boss at a Silicon Valley company regularly would get in trouble with HR for making racist statements to people at the work place. He always got to keep his job when the dust settled.
3. Worked on a big customer account for awhile at a company that starts with Eye Be (and you can fill in the rest). Was telecommuting full time with occasional travel. D24 was an infant (and in daycare). I was still nursing, so during my work day, I’d block time on my calendar to use my pump for 15 min. My boss was awesome, very understanding, always had my back. Some high up mucky muck sales & marketing exec insisted that Boss & I get on the phone with him RIGHT AWAY over some urgent thing (it wasn’t urgent). I told the guy (in a group chat in the company messaging app) that I was in the middle of something and couldn’t get on the phone right at that moment, but I’d be available in 10 minutes. Boss also tried telling the guy no. Butthead Marketing Puke insisted. So I messaged again in the group chat, “Ok, so just so we’re all aware and on the same page, there WILL be some background noise and I can’t do anything about it. If it’s a distraction, we can wait 10 min.” Well, Marketing Exec Puke insisted on the conference call that I tell him what the background noise was. So I did. told him, “It’s my breast pump.” Meanwhile, my boss is privately messaging me saying, “Let him have it.” Marketing Puke then said, “Don’t you think that’s a little inappropriate on a conference call?” And then I said, “Well, THIS, sir, is the reason why I blocked 15 min on my calendar. And THIS is why I told you that I was in the middle of something that I couldn’t postpone. And THIS is why I told you that I could be available in 10 minutes because I’d just started pumping 5 min prior. YOU insisted that this was really urgent and it could NOT wait. I am allowed by HR to do this. So I’m happy to END this conference call right now and we can all rejoin in about 7 minutes from now OR we can just continue and ignore the background noise of the machine. How would you like to proceed?” Marketing Puke said, “Ah…um…no, it’s fine.” The guy was a total butthole.
4. We were interviewing a guy for an open position in our department. The candidate spent the entire interview complaining about every single company he’d ever worked for. We opted not to hire Negative Ned.
5. Another time, we were urged to interview this guy for a job opening in our department. The guy had, like, NO relevant job experience or skills geared toward the position. Except he graduated from Harvard. He was the cockiest, most arrogant, closed-minded person. Assumed that we would just give him the job because of where he’d graduated from college. Meanwhile, our team was really collaborative, supportive of each other, worked hard at maintaining good trust-based working relationships with other departments & customers. He was not offered the job.
6. Yet another time, my boss would change his mind literally every week on what he wanted me to include in the weekly status report sent to him via email. And every week, I’d get called to the principal’s office to be scolded about how I don’t know what I’m doing, what’s wrong with me, etc. Got to the point where I’d start to have panic attacks while pulling into the parking lot at work. I started to outwardly exhibit the attitude of “Hi, I’m Suzy. I’ll be your server today. What can I bring you?” Some time later, there was a merger/acquisition and he was fired. And that day, I literally skipped down the cubicle aisle in celebration and went around to everybody in our team to high 5 them. That was an awesome day.

[Lindagaf]

This is a friend’s story.

You know those cheerful bunches of daffodils you get in the early spring? They aren’t so cheerful.

My friend, then a teen, spent a few days harvesting daffodils. The juices of the daffodils are poisonous. She wasn’t given any gloves. It was pouring with rain and freezing. She spent all day cutting daffodils with bare hands. So her hands were bloody and stinging after a few hours.

They were supposed to pick bunches of ten flowers and got paid by the bunch. Another worker told her that no one would notice if there were only 8 or 9 in the bunch, as the flowers were mostly not opened. So after a while, she just made the bunches as quickly as possible without trying to be accurate.

The person who told her that no one would notice was wrong. They noticed. They made her recount all the bunches and she was paid only few bucks that day for 8 hours in a cold, wet field.

As an aside, I know a woman who once drank water from a glass that had been holding daffodils. She didn’t know. She was sick with covid at the time and ended up in the hospital. She recovered just fine, but that was a bad time for her.

[fiftyfifty1]

Wow, that’s appalling. No wonder you left.

(And here I was thinking that the reason more women aren’t employed in manufacturing is because their brains have been shaped by evolution not to be interested in building things )

[kelsmom]

I loved the building things part of it, and there were so many great people I worked with. I have friends who were in similar positions in manufacturing but in different areas - they didn’t experience the same. I suspect that I happened to land in a place that was slower to change than other, similar plants.

[JustaMom]

I’ve had several, but the story i tell the most…

I was 19 (1977), and had my own studio apartment, so needed a job for rent ($175 a month in Los Angeles, close to the beach!). I had no car. An answering service around the block was hiring & paying $5 an hour (minimum wage was $3.35)! I got the job, over the phone! I walked to work, feeling pretty good about myself on the first day. I walked in the door. The room was pitch black, and the intense cigarette smoke was choking me. I saw a silhouette towards the back, and the cherry red of a lit cigarette glowing. The voice that spoke to me was raspy and deep. (today I call it ‘smoker’s voice’) - I was to sit in the dark, at a desk, and if “my phone” lit up (rang), I was to answer it, and read the script that was there under a very dull hazy yellow lamp. Something like “Dr. Smith’s office, is this an emergency?” If no, I was to take a detailed message. If yes, I was tell the caller to call 911, our line was only for non emergencies. I think “my phone” rang 4 times and I handled it like a champ! But I couldn’t breathe. I knew I couldn’t keep the job. At lunch I went home, took a shower, changed clothes, made a sandwich and pawed the classifieds for another job. I didn’t go back. I didn’t call, nothing. I scored a waitress gig at the coffee shop up the street two days later.

That’s not the end of the story.

About 3 weeks later i was home and my phone rang.

“It’s Margaret from the answering service” (throat clearing and coughing the entire time) “where are you?”

I literally hung up and burst out laughing - it was 3 weeks! Had the smoke cleared, and she just realized I hadn’t come back from lunch?

To this day it makes me laugh and shake my head.

[HImom]

I had a job at a small store in Waikiki. Before accepting the job, I was assured I’d never work alone (especially at night). I worked very few hours as I was a college freshman and it was NOT my priority.

About the 4th time I worked, the older women working there was short a few dollars. She got yelled at and told it would come out of her pay, which I thought was very unfair as I think we were all making minimum wage or close to it. The next time I worked, a married stalker guy from one of my classes wandered into the store. The next time I worked, I was the only employee in the store. When the boss came to collect the final receipts, I told him I quit. It’s not as dramatic as others stories but it was clear the boss didn’t keep his word and didn’t value his employees.

My folks were happy when I quit because they had been shuttling me to and from work and I wasn’t earning much anyway.

[oldmom4896]

I was working in a type shop (pre-QuarkXPress etc., we formatted typesetting machines) and I noticed that the owners, two guys and their brother-in-law, were always yelling. It didn’t take me long to learn that they were yelling at one another, nothing to do with the workers in the shop. Several new employees left at lunchtime on day one and never came back but I was entertained for years by the live entertainment.

I received an offer to work for a lot more money, and when I gave notice, the big boss reminded me that they paid me for a week off when my mother died. Yeah, thanks, Tony.

[1214mom]

I worked for car dealerships when I was in high school and in college. I was harassed by customers, and sexually harassed by employees, especially sales guys, but also others.
Nobody is ever happy when they have their car in the shop. I got yelled at often. I remember literally telling a customer once “hold on please, so I can find someone else for you to yell at.”
Then there was the sales manager, that kept asking me to have a drink with him. Eventually I told him “I don’t go out with people older than my mother” - full disclosure, my mother was only 15 when she had me, but It was pretty effective. I was probably 20, he was close to 40.