What was the worst job you've ever had?

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Chip N Sawbones

Chip N Sawbones

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So, all of us here are on our way to our dream jobs, looking forward to high pay, intelligent coworkers, meaningful work, the chance to take a chisel to someone's kneecaps, and all the other perks of a doctor's life. What was the opposite- the worst job you've ever had in your life, the one that motivates you to go back to college and then to med school just so you won't ever have to do that again?


For me, it was logging and cutting brush nine years ago. Hard, nonstop work in the summer heat feeding tree limbs into a wood chipper that would have chopped me into little bitty pieces without even slowing down. Sawdust in my eyes, immature idiot coworkers, and they only paid me ten bucks an hour. I quit after a week.

How about you?
 
Chip N Sawbones said:
For me, it was logging and cutting brush nine years ago. Hard, nonstop work in the summer heat feeding tree limbs into a wood chipper that would have chopped me into little bitty pieces without even slowing down. Sawdust in my eyes, immature idiot coworkers, and they only paid me ten bucks an hour. I quit after a week.

How about you?
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Ha, that's pretty much exactly what I'm about to get myself back into and I couldn't be more excited.

I have to say, my worst job has probably been my current job, as an environmental finance broker. It's had it's perks, like big expense accounts, entertainment, nice hotels, etc, but it's been absolutely awful the past year. I've been working from home, alone, tied to this damn laptop 9 hours a day, with literally NOTHING to do. It went on far too long, and nearly made my mind numb. I had to get away, so when this hotshot opportunity (firefighting) came along, I jumped all over it. I'm looking forward to re-engaging my mind and body once again. I know a good amount of the fire season will be spent doing project work, thinning and piling brush and small trees, and is certainly not what I'm doing it for, but it's all part of the experience and means to an end... paying for my post-bacc so I can get into Med school sans debt (I'll be taking on plenty then).
 
dishwasher at a seafood restaurant. Did that for about a month and a half before I quit. Talk about a **** job.

My buddy was a game attendant at chuck e cheeses and he said he'd go home and drink himself to sleep.
 
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Mmm, I'd say it's a toss up between my burger flipper days or lifeguarding "summer fun club."

I didn't mind the actual burger flipping or customer service, but being managed by 50-60 yr olds with a lower maturity level than the 16 year olds I worked with was a problem. I also despised doing industrial dishes, for 4 hrs on end while closing at night and scrubbing toilets in a fast food joint is just beyond disgusting (and I'm a lab tech and have tested gross stuff like stool and sputum samples with no problems)

I loved lifeguarding & teaching lessons but summer fun club was terrible, it was all of the kids who didn't behave well enough for summer day camp. Aside from almost going deaf, I had to jump in to break up a fight between two 10 year olds when one tried to choke the crap out of another one 😱 Plus I had experience working with kids with behavior problems and was older so those kids always got shuttled my way because apparently I was the only one who could effectively deal with them (read only one who tried)
 
No the worsest job is washing cars during the summer. You have to work really hard because it's hot and busy during the summer. It really sucks!👎
 
Tooth Extractor said:
No the worsest job is washing cars during the summer. You have to work really hard because it's hot and busy during the summer. It really sucks!👎
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what really? i washed, buffed, waxed and cleaned cars for a year it's not that bad the only thing that sucks is working with salesmen... my 8 year old brother was more mature then 99% of them it's really sad actually. but luckily i was able to get paid to do research 😀 best day ever when i found out.
 
Tooth Extractor said:
No the worsest job is washing cars during the summer. You have to work really hard because it's hot and busy during the summer. It really sucks!👎
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Cool Hand Luke begs to differ.
 
This might not count but my worst job was working at a busy pharmacy where I had to substitute one day because one of their technicians called off to go out drinking. I just remembered that I hated the environment and disliked one of the condescending technicians. I generally get along with everyone but I don't think that I will ever substitute ever again at that pharmacy. 🙁

If anything, between this experience and shadowing a physician... it has taught me that medicine is what I want. 😉
 
My most recent waitressing job was pretty terrible. For those who aren't familiar, servers make LESS than minimum wage actually ($2.15 an hour at this place), under the assumption that your tips will get you up to minimum. One afternoon/evening shift, I worked 6.5 hours and made $13 in tips (to be added to my ~$14 in "wages"). Two of those hours I actually washed dishes, since I didn't have any tables and it was so short staffed that there wasn't a dishwasher present. And that scenario was more the rule, less the exception.

Add to that the utter lack of intellectual stimulation and the sore feet, and needless to say I didn't last too long. Stuck with it for around 2.5 months, and quit the day I got my first med school acceptance! :laugh:
 
Gee, there's been so many...

My current job made me realize I needed to go back to school. It has no future and is just boring enough to not be stimulating, and just busy enough that I can't daydream. So, it's hell.... However, I am not sure if I'd call it my worst job... My worst job was probably my second job out of college: I worked for The Parker Hughes Institute (now closed). The owner was such a jerk he would walk in and fire people just because he didn't like their clothing that day. He once made a woman climb into the ceiling to get into a locked office but she fell and broke her arm. He threatened her that if she didn't do it she'd be fired and he wouldn't pay her unemployment because he'd tell the state she was stealing... He then proceeded to tell her that as a single-mom (of three) she'd be homeless... NICE But I've also worked in fast food, industrial food, as a cook, as a phlebotomist, in retail, and in biotech (current)...
 
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I have a job that was my WORST and GOOD all at the same time

Good - because I was in a leadership position and made a big impact. I was able to help many people. I formed many great relationships and liked many aspects about the job.

Worst - because I was working 60 hours a week for under 40K a year and had an abusive and incompetent boss. She was so terrible that in 5 years out of a staff of three she has gone through over 30 employees (everyone quits).
 
The worst job I ever had was counting cans and bottles at a Food 4 Less. People would bring in dirty bottles full of chew water and bags of cans that had sitting outside festering in the heat. The best part was being treated like an imbecile by the checkers despite the fact that I was one of about three people who worked there who actually managed to graduate from high school.
 
I graduated in 2003 when the economy was still trying to recover from the dot-com bubble... not an awesome time to try and find an engineering job. I worked at T-Mobile for a year as a test engineer which meant testing every phone before it got approved to be sold. I was literally the 'can you hear me now' guy. Each phone had to be taken on different driving routes and tested for signal coverage. We also had to test every single feature of every single phone. Send 100 txt messages... send 100 picture messages.... take pictures with all sorts of setting combinations... you get the picture. I just about went crazy.
 
Slev said:
I graduated in 2003 when the economy was still trying to recover from the dot-com bubble... not an awesome time to try and find an engineering job. I worked at T-Mobile for a year as a test engineer which meant testing every phone before it got approved to be sold. I was literally the 'can you hear me now' guy. Each phone had to be taken on different driving routes and tested for signal coverage. We also had to test every single feature of every single phone. Send 100 txt messages... send 100 picture messages.... take pictures with all sorts of setting combinations... you get the picture. I just about went crazy.
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There was another thread a couple of years ago on this subject. I think that the Army Ranger won. It got into a sideshow argument when the mother's did their Oprah ding, patting themselves on the back.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=681313

My hardest job was working for Ron's Jons Portable Toilets "We're number 1 in the number 2 business." In the winter we had to use salt water to keep the jons from freezing and I had to often unfreeze the water pump without gloves on. At 9 degrees Fahrenheit, salt water may be liquid, but it is still very, very cold.
 
I've worked for some pretty heartless researchers...

Case in point - at lab meeting, it comes up that a collaborator's father just passed away. My boss comments, "you'd think people would get their data in before these things come up."

Was a real fun place to work, let me tell you! Went through a ton of people too. One post-doc went home for vacation, and decided to never come back.
 
teddy bear doc said:
Add to that the utter lack of intellectual stimulation and the sore feet, and needless to say I didn't last too long. Stuck with it for around 2.5 months, and quit the day I got my first med school acceptance! :laugh:
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I dream of this moment all the time...

Also, I love your avatar! The Alot is one of the best things on the internet. That whole blog is incredibly entertaining.
 
Ed, you're wife took 2 years to get her own account?? Hehe... Anyway, you didn't get into a huge fight about parenting... you've been in WAY bigger ones since then...
 
Well, never had a job per-say heehee but I have volunteered. Being in charge of a group of out of control 4 year olds have made me want to pull my hair out sometimes.
 
ive had several while i was in high school. awful in different ways.

-second part-time job as a seasonal worker (christmas) at toys r us when i was 15. you would think that itd be fun, but think of how angry people are at that time. i worked black friday to top it off...never again. :laugh:

-my first job (14) was at a local farm doing mostly manual labor. it was NOT FUN. pushing huge carts filled with produce all around the store (they weighed much more than me, im sure), dragging full buckets of scraps to the compost heap. bad, bad memories.

-temp cold calling position for a marketing company when i was 16. i had to go down the list and basically beg each person to take part in this spa promotion for 8 hours/day :laugh: very, very boring.
 
Worst job was trying to find work online, working 180 hrs a month or more, plus high school and taking care of a sick mother and grandmother, while averaging $1.11/hr pay.

Second worst was a school cook - ugh, those boxes killed my back, but I helped carry them since they left the task on the one woman that had back problems and back surgery. The kids were also rude.
 
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Here are two...

Washing charter buses. When those buses come back to the lot they need to be swept, mopped, windows cleaned, toilet dumped, fueled, oil check/top off, and exterior wash (think giant car wash that MOVES OVER the bus while it stays still). That needed to be done to 30+ buses that were in the lot every night.

pick line for warehouse. The company serviced small minute-mart stores. I would work about a 15-20 foot section of shelves. Pick up a box and the next order. They want two of these, three of those, one of this thing, eight of that thing, 13 of these cans, 1 of those... then leave the box at the end for someone else to do the next 15-20 feet of line. The worst part was that NOBODY went home until all orders were filled. Most nights were 12 hours, and there was at least one night a week where it was at least 16 hours. The most I worked was 18 hours, 40 minute drive home, 4 hours sleep, 40 minute drive back to work and work another 8 hours... It made me glad to go back to college in the Fall!!!!

dsoz
 
Tsukiyo said:
Second worst was a school cook - ugh, those boxes killed my back, but I helped carry them since they left the task on the one woman that had back problems and back surgery. The kids were also rude.
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Tell me about it. I am currently a high school science teacher looking to leave education and start a second career in medicine.

dsoz
 
Working as a medical-surgical nurse.
 
working with a woman named "sunshine" who was raised by "hippies" but somehow turned out to be the biggest beeatch EVER... She was a horrible woman, not to mention, it was in a food factory where they made thousands of pounds of potato salad etc everyday... FUN
 
I thought Wendys was pretty awful, but that's me 🙂
 
My worst jobs were never too terrible - boredom was the killer more than anything else.

Back in high school and first year of college I spent a little while working in a couple different departments within a medical imaging center. Purely administrative work - lots of filing, categorizing, pulling charts. Pretty mind-numbing work, but the pay was decent (or so I thought at the time!) so I stuck with it for a little while.

Throughout college I held random odd jobs, sometimes working for minimum wage, as a stock-room worker, dishwasher (uck), landscaping...none of which presented themselves as long term career options.
 
Was not the worst job... but it sure had the worst days of any job I have had. It was collecting soil samples for geotech/deep foundations work in below zero temperatures. It was outside, cold, wet, standing in mud all day, lifting heavy, muddy flight augurs that threatened to pinch off your fingers any minute. Typically out of town putting in 12-14 hours just so the company did not charge the client more.
 
The worst job I ever had was working in a clothing outlet store. The customers were great, but the management sucked. They were such miserable people, I had to quit. And talk about angry all the time, it really made for a crappy work environment. And the pay was garbage too. So glad I quit and returned to school for a better future with hard working people.
 
Telemarketer. 2 days then I quit.

And I was past due on bills/rent too. Would rather get evicted than sell my soul.
 
I worked cleaning houses for a while. The company was just some guy's startup; he interviewed me at his parent's house, paid me under the table, and I cleaned some of the most disgusting houses in the worst parts of town. I managed to do it for about two months before I found a better job and quit.
 
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I once did telephone fundraising for my undergraduate school. Paid pretty well... could take home $10/hour with bonuses for high performance, which was a lot of money ten years ago for someone who hadn't yet completed college, and they worked around would give you all the time off you needed to study for finals.

None of that changed the fact that I absolutely dreaded going to work every day. Trying to sweet-talk people into giving money to the school sucked really bad. You had to ask for a certain amount of money, and if they said no you had to sort of guilt them a little bit and then ask for a lower amount. You had to do that twice. When you first started working there you just didn't want too many people hanging up on you or being mean to you on the phone, but after a while you'd rather get someone who'd hang up on you than someone who would politely turn you down again and again while you awkwardly follow the fundraising rules.

I worked at Taco Bell in high school and for a little bit in college... surprisingly not all that bad as long as you didn't get stuck cleaning the bathrooms. Paid only minimum wage, but I'd still rather work at Taco Bell again than do fundraising again!
 
I served as a medic in the Army. The obvious gripes about the Army are there. When I try to describe why it really sucked though, I usually just tell people "I had to work when my best friends got hurt." I would do it again to know I helped good people, but man-oh-man, did that suck.
 
I was a "picker" at an academic supply place. 12 hour shifts on your feet, waiting for a box to come around with the inventory list. Then you get the 2 red pencils, 4 erasers it asks for, and push the box down to the next person. Then oh, wait, another box...

So boring.
 
Sanding boats.

To set the scene: Laying in the grass, boat is on wood blocks above my head, i have a mask, goggles and a putty knife.

Barnacles hurt when being pulled earthward by gravity.
 
As a waitress I had to deal with creepy old guys checking out my 16-year-old body and another one who put his hand on my hip and called me "Suga'". :barf:Then there were the old people that bitched if their food took too long (thanks to our fabulous cooks) and left $1 tips and the cooks who's derrieres I had to kiss so my food didn't take too long and piss the old people off. (I honestly don't have anything against old people, just didn't meet the best of them in my line of work.)
 
probably working at my parents dry cleaners with no pay and 7am -7pm days

no a/c 110 plus degrees

horrible.
 
buttercup2016 said:
working with a woman named "sunshine" who was raised by "hippies" but somehow turned out to be the biggest beeatch EVER... She was a horrible woman, not to mention, it was in a food factory where they made thousands of pounds of potato salad etc everyday... FUN
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LOL! I had a guy like this at a different restaurant where I worked. He was this big bear of a guy, complete with full scraggly beard and long hair, who told me upon meeting for the first time to call him by his "buddhist name." I was okay with that (it was a natural foods-type restaurant in a very hippie-ish town, and I'm kind of a hippie anyway 😳), until he turned out to be the biggest toolbag I had ever met. He also sweated profusely throughout the shift while wearing a white button-up -- classy -- and insisted on giving me a nice big hug every day before he left. I also suspect he HEAVILY used hallucinogenics in the past (or present?). Good times.

Isoprop said:
Telemarketer. 2 days then I quit.

And I was past due on bills/rent too. Would rather get evicted than sell my soul.
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Oh this thread is too fun! I once temped as a glorified secretary in the claims department call center for a car insurance company. I used to think the meanest people were restaurant customers (they're hungry, in a rush, whatever), but I was so wrong. People would start yelling as soon as I picked up about their coverage, the accident, their car, why is it taking so long, it wasn't my fault, why aren't you paying more, blah blah blah... I was completely powerless to do literally anything other than look up the adjuster on their claim and transfer the call. I got strep throat about a month in and by the time I was better they had gotten someone permanent so I didn't have to go back. Thank GOD!
 
This job. My day:

Drinking coffee/tea in front of the computer screen all day. Working in a medical office with coworkers who think they are higher than me 🙁
 
Busser/Server at an athletic club. Nothin' like a bunch of rich *******s treating you like a piece of **** 🙁
 
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Cashier/shelf restocker at what used to be called a five-and-dime store. I was always reorganizing piles of crap I had just organized, busting really bad shoplifters, standing on my feet for 10 hrs a day. Co-workers were lame. Had to work every holiday.

Close runner up was an ice cream store. I had to wear a stupid too-tight button down shirt with an obnoxious pattern, went home with peanut butter and hot fudge all over my clothes, was under an annoying manager who made us practice weighing out 1 oz scoops and rationed everything down to the sprinkles. Only fun part was the other teenagers and my friends would come and visit.

I shouldn't really complain because I had both of these jobs as a teenager. I was lucky to have a job at all.
 
I worked as a co-manager (below the store manager but above the assistant managers) at a Little Caesar's. The problem wasn't the work, it was the environment. Over half of the employees were "assistant managers" one of whom had been promised the co-manager job by the previous store manager. Most of the staff resented me as though it was my fault that their buddy didn't do the corporate training to actually be co-manager himself.

My ~6 months working there were marked by refusal to follow my instructions, comments about what I decided to do when, etc. until I got sick of it and flat-out told the guy who expected my job that when I wanted his opinion I would ask for it. He blew up at me and cussed me out, accused me of doing thing incorrectly and "throwing my weight around" by telling other employees what to do.

It was after I wrote him up for the insubordination that I found out from the store manager that while he was telling me that I was their supervisor and to do what I wanted to do, he was telling them to do things they way they wanted to do them and to tell me how they should be done. The store manager was either unwilling or unable to support me in my position, so following that discussion I quit and returned to a line-cook job I had before that was both more enjoyable and less stressful than the management job.
 
PharMed2016 said:
This might not count but my worst job was working at a busy pharmacy where I had to substitute one day because one of their technicians called off to go out drinking. I just remembered that I hated the environment and disliked one of the condescending technicians. I generally get along with everyone but I don't think that I will ever substitute ever again at that pharmacy. 🙁

If anything, between this experience and shadowing a physician... it has taught me that medicine is what I want. 😉
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I worked as a pharmacy tech for 3-4 years. Wost job I've ever had. High pressure, pharmacist with a God complex (really?), and pushy customers...Made realize all the more Medicine is what I want.
 
Wow, this thread makes me feel like most of my jobs in high school and college were terrible. Worst part of a job I had was as stocker/cashier at a store when they asked me to clean up the women's restroom because of an "accident" an old lady had in one of the stalls. I'll stop here but that moment is forever etched in my brain. YUCK!
 
I used to be a cop. Don't get me wrong, it was super COOL.

However.....

Imagine that every person in your city thought they knew what you should be doing and they felt they had the right to tell you what to do. And, you got spit on. And, you got shot at. And, you got sued once or twice a year for hundreds of thousands of dollars. And, your supervisors were completely incompetent (ok, that happens at most every job). And, people spit in your food purposefully trying to give you Hep. And, .... Ok, you get the point.

Man, I loved that job like crazy but for the love of Pete (whoever that is) it sure did defile every part of my being.
 
CrushMCAT said:
Wow, this thread makes me feel like most of my jobs in high school and college were terrible. Worst part of a job I had was as stocker/cashier at a store when they asked me to clean up the women's restroom because of an "accident" an old lady had in one of the stalls. I'll stop here but that moment is forever etched in my brain. YUCK!
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I think that physicians have pretty intimate association with body fluids. Have you heard about manual discompactions?
 
cbb19 said:
I worked as a pharmacy tech for 3-4 years. Wost job I've ever had. High pressure, pharmacist with a God complex (really?), and pushy customers...Made realize all the more Medicine is what I want.
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Haven't worked with a pharmacist with a god complex yet but then again I haven't worked with many pharmacist all together in the retail setting.
 
ruraldocmom said:
I was a "picker" at an academic supply place. 12 hour shifts on your feet, waiting for a box to come around with the inventory list. Then you get the 2 red pencils, 4 erasers it asks for, and push the box down to the next person. Then oh, wait, another box...

So boring.
Click to expand...

Man, and I thought I was the only picker! I was a parts picker in an auto parts warehouse. Talk about SUCK! Every 2 minutes some horrible guy would whine over the loudspeaker in his southern drawl, "Heyyyyyyyyyy PICKER! Bring me a 4072-834 - quicker this time before ya piss me off!" or some other demeaning insult. By the time I got home, I would lose it if my dog looked at me sideways. I lasted 4 months before I went off on a guy and they canned me. Was a happy day.

Oh also...3 words...ROOFING IN FLORIDA. Nuff said.
 
CaptainObvious said:
Man, and I thought I was the only picker! I was a parts picker in an auto parts warehouse. Talk about SUCK! Every 2 minutes some horrible guy would whine over the loudspeaker in his southern drawl, "Heyyyyyyyyyy PICKER! Bring me a 4072-834 - quicker this time before ya piss me off!" or some other demeaning insult. By the time I got home, I would lose it if my dog looked at me sideways. I lasted 4 months before I went off on a guy and they canned me. Was a happy day.

Oh also...3 words...ROOFING IN FLORIDA. Nuff said.
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That reminds me of a job I had loading crop dusters in California. My co-workers were the roughest crowd that I have ever hung around - and this includes oil field roughnecks. I finally quit when my boss got drunk and threw a beer bottle at me, bouncing it off my neck. Had he been less drunk he would have hit his target - which was not my neck.

Before this, I was an assistant to a loader who had received an inheritance and gone on a 3 day bender with crack cocaine. When he got back, he was crashing from the crack high when one of the pilots cussed him out. Fortunately the druggy was too messed up to do much damage because we were far out in the farmlands and there is no way that the police could have gotten there and I am physically small and an inexperienced fighter, so I couldn't do anything to protect the pilot. I got an instant promotion to loader.

As an assistant they gave me an immigrant of uncertain documentation status but imposing physical appearance. I was a hard worker and expected my assistant to follow my lead. He did not appreciate my supervisory skills and so told me just what he was going to do to me if I didn't ease up. I shrugged, told him that if was going to attack me, then he'd better start the beating and get it over with, because we had work to do.
 
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