Whats the worst job you have ever had

[mconway951]

So reading responses from another thread from a year ago got me thinking about what the worst job all of us have had. For me I worked for a while in a fire and water damage restoration company doing the demo work going in after the fire and cleaning up the mess and it was awful, boiling hot in the summer freezing cold in the winter always wet and covered in black ash and sut from the fire.

 

[mdhunter]

When I was eighteen I was hired to clean up cooled off #6 oil (think sludge) from a boiler leak at a chicken processing plant in a town called Wango.

It was one of those jobs that really made you think that earning a college degree did not have a downside.

 

[noharleyyet]

Unloading boxcars of 100lb portland cement bags in July.

...amen on the higher education motivation.

 

[Khunter]

It was one of those jobs that really made you think that earning a college degree did not have a downside.

I had one of those too. Running seismic lines in the morning all over Texas and Louisiana, hooking up and firing the dynamite in the afternoon, then going back and picking up all that cable in the afternoon. Doodle bugging they called it. Work meant for pack animals. Plenty of time in the scorchng heat and humidity to think about saving all the money and getting back to college--while my cowarkers were getting lit up on whatever drugs du jour they were scrounging up in the podunk towns we were always staying in. So it did get my mind right to work up to something 'better'. I bet most of the guys I worked with are dead, in jail, or worse if that is possible. They disparagingly calleed me "CB" as in college boy. Never stung to hear that, not even once.

 

[xrayts]

I built my house a few years ago. I didn't get paid, but it was an all-consuming, thorn in my side, JOB!

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Summer of my 15th year I hired on as an Apprentice Painter (1972?). Oil based paint, Louisiana Heat and Humidity while working for a Fool of the first degree. But, after that it would be working for K-Mart one summer in the Garden department. I really loved those sales of Cow Manure for $.50 a bag, I loaded mountain of Chit! John

 

[scottymack]

In high-school I worked one day washing fuel trucks for some joker. 105 outside and scrubbing chromed tankers.

 

[Calvin]

Guiding fishermen on the ocean who had super high expectations when it was blowing 40knts with no fish around. Those days just suck.

 

[Big Fin]

Limbing jackpine in the August humidity was right up there with working the green chain at a sawmill, which were only slightly worse than working in a boiler room. All of which were good incentive to find a way to better my situation with more education and training.

 

['Ike']

My first one at 16...KFC! What a greese pit that was, luckly it was only about 6 months and then I went to Safeway...Worked there until after highschool and then onto the service!

 

[Calvin]

When I was 16 I worked at Chick Fil a and became a shift leader. I liked it! My life would have turned out ok if I had stuck with it and worked my way up to owning one of those restaurants.

 

[fiveptbill]

I have worked a lot of labor intesive jobs but by far the worst was working in a call center. I was the guy that would call you wanting you to take a "Quick 5 min survey." I would rather stack lumber in a sawmill, which I did, then spend the day on a phone.

 

[Bucnutz.wis]

I was just outta high school and worked a summer for my Uncle's Construction company. On one out of town job in southern Wisconsin we were replacing sewer lines for a small town...

Not a bad deal until one afternoon, I (the rookie) was knee deep in raw sewage watching everything from used condoms to used plugs (and everything else you can imagine that gets flushed down a toilet)...float by just underneath by knee high boots !!

It took everything I had to keep from chuck'n my lunch that day !!

 

[Dodad]

Scrubbing boil tubes on a destroyer while at sea. No masks supplied by Uncle Sam, just a tee shirt you were wearing to stop some of the carbon dust.

 

[Elkwhisper]

Maybe I am just "lucky" but I have had a bunch of jobs i really enjoy..............

Got my start bagging groceries at 14 years old, and have held full time work, pretty much ever since.

Grocery Bagger
Park Ranger
Wildlife Biology Tech
Wild Game Butcher
Soldier
Sporting Goods Store Assistant Manager
Sales Rep for the best brands in the Hunting / Fishing / Camping industry.

No complaints from me on this one.

Probably the "dirtiest" job I ever had was trapping / housing / and slaughtering praried dogs to feed a captive populations of black footed ferrets for the FWS. The trapping was fun..... but housing several hundred prarie dogs and shoveling their sh*t out of an old trailer was no fun. We had to keep them in quarentine for a while to make sure they didn't have the plauge before the sweet day when we butchered them for the ferrets.


Elkwhisper

 

[AZ402]

I think it's a tie between bucking hay and stocking sheetrock in the Arizona Summer.

 

[Spitz]

When I was 15 an old farmer told me he'd pay me $15 an hour to clean out his chicken coop. I thought it was great money and said yes. . . . . . many lessons were learned.

I think he found a different sucker every year, which is exactly how often he had it cleaned.

Can't beat those experiences even though I wouldn't repeat them today. They do a lot of teaching.

 

[Dinkshooter]

Basin Coop, Durango Colorado. Worked in the tire shop for $5.25/hour. It was my 2nd go around at school. I would work there and then go to classes in between covered in black tire goo. Loader tires, tractor tires, backhoe tires all filled with calcium or methanol. Sometimes as a treat you would get to run the service truck and go out in the field. I have never seen a backhoe that did not get a flat tire in a mud puddle. The only tire shop in the county that would deal with split rims. Inbred co-workers, no ear plugs safety glasses etc, etc.

Every cheap azz farmer in the county wanting you to put a boot on the sidewall of a 1967 rotten tractor tire.

The only job I ever quit. Although it took me year to come around to my senses. I will never forget the smile on my face driving to work that day to quit.

Jeez that was a mouthful, I am still deeply scarred.

 

[schmalts]

Cleaning a meat packing plant when I was in high school. I went in after the meat cutters left and used a pressure washer to clean all the saws, grinders, tables, buckets, and what not. I was wet, it was 55 degrees, and had meat blowing back into my hair and face all the time from the water spray. If that was not bad enough once a week we had to go in the basement and clean out the 3 gallon grease trap that filtered the floor drains. That crap was rotton, stinky shit that got the smell into your hands and skin for a day or two. yuk

 

[WV Hunter]

I've never really had a bad job but I have had some real nasty bosses.

When I was 18 I was consumed with motocross and anything motorcycles. I got a job with a large motorcycles accessory shop that also had a large nationwide mail order business. The owner was a very eccentric a-hole. He did a lot of shady things and didn't have any morals. I was young and naive and a go getter at the time so I was just happy to be working in the business. A couple of times a year we would take inventory that was damaged or returned to a big Harley swap meet in North Carolina. I got the honor to tag along with the owner and help sell in our booth. It was all cash sale, don't tell anybody who we are or where were from kind of stuff. There were naked chicks walking around everywhere, drugs being smoked/snorted and tattoos given out every 5 booths it seemed. The boss wanted some lunch so he sent me to get him some food. I came back with his corndogs and went over to sell a guy some pipes when the owner went nuts. He came over to me and started yelling "where the f*}ks my mustard" I thought he was going to have a melt down over the mustard, he literally was screaming at me over the mustard. Everybody was staring at that point and the only thing I could think to do at that point was to unload in a barrage of cuss words on that old man and quit my job while I was 250 miles from home with no ride. Good times