What did you do at your WORST job?

[JDgreen227]

As for me, it HAD to be the summer I spent as a tree sprayer for a power company back in 1968. Three of us (driver and two sprayers) would go out in a one ton 4X4 stakebody in the country and spray brush killer on trees growing too close to power lines and towers. A lot of the area was marsh or field, heavily overgrown, and we would drag out a hundred feet of hose from the truck, spray away in the heat and humidity, and then either hand rewind the hose or drag it ahead to the next area. whatever was easier.

The bugs ate us alive, and you had to wear long pants, goggles, and safety shoes, and as the day went along, whatever you were wearing got soaked with the spray and attracted dirt like a magnet. Of course, the truck we had didn't have A/C so we never got a chance to cool off, and unlike most people who worked outdoors, we actually ENJOYED rainy days as it washed the dirt and sweat off us.

Hmmm...I was earning $1.50 an hour with no benefits and had to provide my own safety shoes...in later years when I had a job that I thought was s*** work I thought back to that one and it made me realize what I was doing then wasn't so bad after all...:thumbsup:

 

[Yellowhair42]

I worked at a butcher shop and had to gut and empty cow stomach contents with bare hands.I learned to always keep my mouth closed when doing this.

 

[hosspuller]

It wasn't hard labor or poor conditions... I was a doorman at a fancy apartment building in NYC. Mopping the lobby floor and operating the switchboard was the highlight of the evening during the three weeks spent at night shift. During the day, swinging on the door and waiting, waiting, waiting, and waiting was the worse. I only lasted 3 days and that was to finish the week out, when I gave notice on the second day .

 

[brin]

my worse job had to have been when I was a Sophomore in High School...I worked for my girl friend's father who owned a HVAC company ( She became my wife a few years later) He had me threading pipe on a manual pipe threader for a whole week..Up until that week I was just an average student and my parents were always telling me I had to go to college....I yawned...After that week on that manual pipe threader in the hot sun...I decided I did indeed need to get serious about school and go to college...I began to get A's and B's and did indeed go to and finish college..I have never threaded pipe since that week so many years ago...But I did marry the bosses daughter..LOL and its been 47 yrs. now of wedded bliss

Moral of the story...Sometimes good things come from bad jobs...

 

[Baby Grand]

Shop Cop.
As an skinny, pimply Know nothing intern, I got sent out on the shop floor with a tie, a stopwatch and a clipboard to do "time-motion studies" of the UAW machinists.
They were not ammused.
It was a very valuable lesson for me:
I learned that I had no future in Industrial Engineering and that first impressions are important.

 

[JerryK]

I was a step-father to two young girls, in name only..... never took..... Probably the worst effort I ever had... and likewise the outcome. And one of my biggest failings in life...

 

[RoyJackson]

Shop Cop.
As an skinny, pimply Know nothing intern, I got sent out on the shop floor with a tie, a stopwatch and a clipboard to do "time-motion studies" of the UAW machinists.
They were not ammused.
It was a very valuable lesson for me:
I learned that I had no future in Industrial Engineering and that first impressions are important.

Industrial Engineering is actually a pretty interesting field.
I did about 15 months of time studies for setting up LEAN manufacturing. Union shop...and those guys are frequently their own worst enemies when it comes to maintaining the work at their factory.

Anyway, my worst job was as Final Inspection Quality Supervisor at a company that made turbine blades. A union shop in a company that was going down the crapper rapidly.
The worst things about the job was that any and all delays during production ended up as a rush in final inspection...and union inspectors worked at their pace (no faster). I got canned after about 3 or 4 months...I was happy as a clam to get out of the terrible place. I also got severance pay, which surprised me.
One thing I learned...I'll never work as a front line supervisor in a union shop again...never!!

 

[MossRoad]

I had to operate the honey wagon for a luxury aircraft comode owned by a TV evangelist. We'd hook up the hose, pull the handle and yell "Holy S***" every time.

 

[Bird]

I still say the worst job in the world is doing nothing. So for me, the worst job I ever had was sitting all night in a hallway at Parkland Hospital guarding prisoners. They dimmed the hall lights at night so you couldn't even read. None of us wanted to get stuck with that assignment, but it happened occasionally. And it made for a long, miserable night.

 

[JDgreen227]

I had to operate the honey wagon for a luxury aircraft comode owned by a TV evangelist. We'd hook up the hose, pull the handle and yell "Holy S***" every time.

Were you paid hourly, weekly, or per dump? And did you have the opportunity to come into contact with the Holy water from the great man? :laughing: