What was your most ridiculous job?

[Sanman]

As long as we are just sharing random anecdotes, I once had a gig where I was paid in chicken fried rice.

Back when I lived in the sticks, as a kid for a 10 hour day of bailing and stacking hay, we'd get $20, a Ruby Red Squirt, and various gas station snacks.

Similar here, but tobacco, endless supply of Nabs, and a purple gatorade I wonder if I can work "supply of Nabs" into our monthly office expenses....

Back on the topic of original post, FYI in my state you can look up the salaries of any state employee. Doesn't capture additional things like grants or whatever, but interesting. I assume this is the same in other states but - anyone care to confirm?

Inspired by a now deleted comment and mild tangent in the other thread. What was your most ridiculous job, work experience, etc? The most fun was the above working for a friend who owned a few businesses and being paid in chicken fried rice and the odd tobacco product. The worst job I ever had was when a friend convinced me to work for a non-profit going door to door requesting donations ( I only lasted two weeks).

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[AcronymAllergy]

Inspired by a now deleted comment and mild tangent in the other thread. What was your most ridiculous job, work experience, etc? The most fun was the above working for a friend who owned a few businesses and being paid in chicken fried rice and the odd tobacco product. The worst job I ever had was when a friend convinced me to work for a non-profit going door to door requesting donations ( I only lasted two weeks).

Worst job I ever had was in a call center receiving incoming billing calls for a cable company. Second-worst was overnight cleaning of a venue that was hosting a huge sporting event. Fortunately it was only for two weeks. I was also horrible at pager sales (yes, I'm dating myself). Only lasted one week there.

Not sure I've ever had any particularly ridiculous jobs. I worked in registration in an ER for a couple years and have some interesting stories from that, though.

 

[erg923]

In retrospect:

I worked at a county club here in town in my teens and they were insistent that I hand-pick the back part of the driving range (wooded area with lots of tress and roots sticking up so the tractor couldn't maneuver back there) while the range was still open. The problem was that area was probably only 250 yards back or so, so balls ended up flying back there fairly often. Inevitably, fellow staff members and even the assistant pro at the time would come out and start ripping Big Bertha drivers when I was back there. I was told it was just part of the initiation process (although it went on for months). I really can't imagine that being acceptable or tolerated now days?

Even more unfortunately, because of the distance, there was a 1 second delay between when the driver struck the ball and when I could actually hear it. I got to where when I heard a certain pitch or volume of the "clink".... I could tell whether or not that one was probably going to make it back there. I had about 2 or 3 seconds after that to look and then react if I needed to. Fortunately, the odds of hitting someone at 250+ yards was pretty remote. A bounce got my arm once, but that's about it?

We also used to steal beer during big tournaments and smoke grass in the cart basement...so a very, very "Caddyshack" experience, mostly.

 

[szymk1sm]

I sold paintings out of my car my first summer home from college. It was a direct sales, door-to-door, commission-only job. I lasted 6 weeks and realized the sales world was not for me (I wasted a lot of money on gas and only had 1 good / big sale).

Worst. job. ever.

 

[singasongofjoy]

Job not odd but the payment was a bit- had a semi-job (continuing to entertain kids, help around the house after my nanny services were no longer needed but I had developed a really strong relationship w the kids) paid in cupcakes and cheese straws. 100% worth it too. Also a short summer job picking up and hauling rocks out of freshly plowed fields.

 

[WisNeuro]

Growing up, we always had odd farm work, not ridiculous, just low paying and hard labor. Throughout HS, I worked as a cook in a small town surf and turf place. I actually enjoyed working in a kitchen, though. In college, I worked at a competitor for Sam's Club that was more geared towards businesses than regular consumers. That may be the most ridiculous due to having to deal with customers who were downright idiots, or treated us like we were idiots because we worked there.

 

[JeyRo]

I think my most ridiculous job was as a college student working for a temp agency over one summer - I rode around in a boat with a couple of other college kids and we dumped giant bag after bag of (I think) copper sulfate or some other noxious chemical into a big lake located in the middle of a rich suburb.

I was told it kept the lake blue.

 

[deleted106747]

I had a summer job with an agency that was switching from paper charts to an EHR. My job was to copy the old medical record number from the file onto a computer printout with the new medical records number, for thousands of patients. For eight hours a day.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I used to wholesale various items, mostly media (DVDs, blank discs, etc). My best sellers were DVD box sets that I'd flip on E-Bay and Craigslist. My best sellers were the Sex In The City Box Set and The Muppets Complete Series. I remember when I found a closeout on "Joey"....the Matt LeBlanc spinoff from friends....2 seasons! They cost me something like $4/ season and it took a number of months, but I thought I sold all 5-6 sets; I knew better than to buy the entire stock being sold. A few years ago I found one of the seasons, no idea why I still had it.

 

[neurotic_cow]

Worked at a zoo (read: volunteered as an unpaid intern) where I was responsible for supervising visitors in the butterfly exhibit to make sure they didn't touch the butterflies and cleaning cricket and mouse cages.

 

[borne_before]

I'm a pretty terrible employee.

• Best job: working at an old school arcade where I was the only employee on. I'd just play games and read magazines.
• Second best job: working with ppl with developmental disabilities. My job was to just do fun stuff with them. I'd take some clients out with their GFs, another one we'd go smack golf balls at the driving range, go swimming, etc. Pretty sweet gig. Also though, I'd get paid to sleep at these two dudes house (one had ASD, one had DS) one or two times a week. That was a sweet gig I did into grad school. The dudes were just so chill - never had any issues. I'd just like show up at like 9pm at night, go to bed, wake up, and we'd all cook some breaky and then I'd dip out and be like 120 dollars richer. That changes when they wanted us to not sleep and check in every hour. I quit shortly after.
• Worst job: I decided to go college after I got punished at Burger King by having to scrub the walls and scoop fries all day. I got sunburn from the heat lamp of the french fry warmer and had the epiphany that I didn't want to do that anymore. TBH - I deserved it. I'd hook friends up, let pallets of stuff "fall off the truck," and just ghost or dip out if my buddies were doing something cool. Started taking school more seriously after that.
• Oddest job where I screwed around the most: I worked for the campus parking and transportation agency for a year during undergrad. I was originally hired as a bike enforcement "officer" because I knew how to use an oxy/acetylene torch. My job had like three parts: tagging abandoned bikes (you'd be surprised how many people will just leave a bike on campus), cutting the U locks off with said torch, and yelling at people to "walk their bikes" at an underpass where a bike riding student hit an ancient professor and killed him. I like never did my intended duties - I would just rip around campus and parking structures in golf carts with a fellow officer (call sign 792). I absolutely deserved to get fired from that job. I just kinda wish I knew exactly why I was cut loose...

 

[Fan_of_Meehl]

Inspired by a now deleted comment and mild tangent in the other thread. What was your most ridiculous job, work experience, etc? The most fun was the above working for a friend who owned a few businesses and being paid in chicken fried rice and the odd tobacco product. The worst job I ever had was when a friend convinced me to work for a non-profit going door to door requesting donations ( I only lasted two weeks).

My first real job was as a stock boy at a small grocery store supervised by an elderly African-American gentleman who mentored me.

Whenever I would screw up, he would just say, "In 100 years who'll know the difference?"

These days when I mess up at work, I still sometimes use that line on myself.

 

[MiniLop]

In HS I worked at a dog kennel, which sounds fun but 84% of the job was shoveling dog ****.

 

[erg923]

In retrospect:

I worked at a county club here in town in my teens and they were insistent that I hand-pick the back part of the driving range (wooded area with lots of tress and roots sticking up so the tractor couldn't maneuver back there) while the range was still open. The problem was that area was probably only 250 yards back or so, so balls ended up flying back there fairly often. Inevitably, fellow staff members and even the assistant pro at the time would come out and start ripping Big Bertha drivers when I was back there. I was told it was just part of the initiation process (although it went on for months). I really can't imagine that being acceptable or tolerated now days?

Even more unfortunately, because of the distance, there was a 1 second delay between when the driver struck the ball and when I could actually hear it. I got to where when I heard a certain pitch or volume of the "clink".... I could tell whether or not that one was probably going to make it back there. I had about 2 or 3 seconds after that to look and then react if I needed to. Fortunately, the odds of hitting someone at 250+ yards was pretty remote. A bounce got my arm once, but that's about it? We also used to steal beer during big tournaments and smoke grass in the cart basement...so a very, very "Caddyshack" experience, mostly.

As an aside, I could never afford THAT specific country club now...but we are lucky in that our subdivision (in the same city) has a pretty good country club and golf course that is very affordable for families and very family-friendly other than the inevitable Clubhouse dress code.

In honor and with respect....my son and I always try to nail the "Cart Donkey" when his is out on the range (but only when in the tractor).

 

[counselor2b]

As a teenager, I worked as a skate guard for an outdoor skate rink on one of the lakes in our town. One of my duties was to check if the ice was thick enough for skaters to be on. I was all alone for this job and this was just before cell phones were really common. I’m not sure who at the Parks and Rec department thought this was a suitable job for a 17 year old or why my parents were alright with this. I’m still here 🍀, so I guess it did not end too terribly for me.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Quite a few years ago someone hired me to listen to people talk about their problems for an hour at a time while I would periodically nod and say something like go on or continue. Sometimes they would cry and I would have to decide whether or not to hand them a tissue box. There was a lot of documentation and weird government regulations involved and I got paid in chicken fried rice, tobacco, and nabs.

 

[summerbabe]

Of my many work study jobs, my favorite was the campus run art gallery one.

Every month or two, you’d spend a whole week/weekend doing hard manual labor (moving walls, painting walls, sanding, hammering, hauling random stuff, etc) and get covered in sweat, paint, and in cases of user error, blood.

And then you’d spend your shifts for the next month or two sitting quietly at a small corner desk reading a book/doing homework while discreetly hand tallying the number of visitors, making sure people weren’t touching the artwork, and answering a question every once in a while.

 

[Sanman]

Quite a few years ago someone hired me to listen to people talk about their problems for an hour at a time while I would periodically nod and say something like go on or continue. Sometimes they would cry and I would have to decide whether or not to hand them a tissue box. There was a lot of documentation and weird government regulations involved and I got paid in chicken fried rice, tobacco, and nabs.

While this might be a joke, I had a colleague opt for a rural MH clinic one year during grad school externship. The clients used to pay for MH services in food and whatever they had. I recall her bringing the most amazing sweet potato pie to class one day that one of her clients baked as payment.

 

[Fan_of_Meehl]

While this might be a joke, I had a colleague opt for a rural MH clinic one year during grad school externship. The clients used to pay for MH services in food and whatever they had. I recall her bringing the most amazing sweet potato pie to class one day that one of her clients baked as payment.

That's cool. You could even consider it sort of an implicit feedback/satisfaction measure.

The poorly performing extern could measure their incompetence in terms of cans of Spam received for payment.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Actually, I should have let @ClinicalABA take that joke. I remember a description of their typical day working with little kids that sounded pretty ridiculous. Neuropsychologists could talk about how they spend their days timing people while they put pegs in holes or make grown men and women play with blocks.

I had to go with a joke though because I have had so many bad jobs in my day. Selling funeral supplies always gets a reaction. That’s what I did in my MA program. Doing cold calling for an accountant was a painful few days. So was selling vacuums door to door. Family didn’t want to pay 1000 dollars for the machine because they had like small 5 kids and a lower working class income and the sales manager on the phone said to tell them to what was more important money or their kids lives. That was last day on that job. Putting labels on commercial cans of pie filling all day long was rough. So was unloading 70 pound bags of shredded coconut from freight cars all day. Another good one was answering phones for a long distance carrier that had lost a lawsuit for misleading customers and the company was trying to stop the bleeding as they were going under.

I should have known work was going to be a problem for me when I was a little kid working a paper route and they changed the pay structure to commission only for a free community paper. So in order to get paid I had to go door to door and mislead people into paying for a free paper. One day the paper drop off was right next to the trash pickup and the trash company took the papers by mistake! I had the solution and from then on would move the papers over intentionally. Then my dad caught me and we had a good talk about honesty and even if someone is screwing you over, that doesn’t justify bad behavior on my part. It was tough because I had tried to explain the financial situation to my folks prior, but they hadn’t really listened because it was so ridiculous they didn’t really believe it until they saw the lengths I was going to to avoid the job.

 

[ClinicalABA]

Actually, I should have let @ClinicalABA take that joke. I remember a description of their typical day working with little kids that sounded pretty ridiculous.

Blowing bubbles, juggling, flinging a rubber ducky off a spoon, most clients pooping in your office... there's nothing ridiculous about that!

I did random labor (raking, snow shovelling, taking out trash) at a funeral home. Some of the funniest folks I ever worked with. They pointed out a door that I probably should not go through, saying that it wouldn't bother them but would definitely bother me.

More recently I was director of operations for a human services agency. CEO was an extremely unqualified and very young person who just happened to hook up with the owner in the bouncy house during the job interview. A regular part of my job was telling the owner, rather incredulously, that "you CAN'T do that"- things like putting client's parents on payroll to do home-based services with their own kids, opening an uncertified daycare in a random office, and asking me to sign off on his own supervision hours when he didn't ever do any clinical ( or other work). I convinced him to pay me a lot of money, but ultimately it was very much not worth it and I lasted a little more than a year.