Top 5 Worst Jobs I Have Ever Had
After working a thankless (and break-less) 18 hour day yesterday, it really got me thinking about my work history. I sat there last night comparing this job to others I’ve had and I’ve ranked the Top 5 in order of suckiness. Here goes…
5. Waitress. I waited tables for *gasp* SEVEN YEARS! You spend an entire shift being ordered around by every customer seated at your table. I know for a fact, miserable peons who spend their days being ordered around by a boss will enter a restaurant and intentionally take their misery out on their server. Despite this, and serving’s low social status, the money was better than anything I have ever made and the camaraderie among waitstaff and cooks makes the job worthwhile.
4. Newspaper Production. This is my current job and boy, is it thankless. When huge ads roll onto my desk, it makes lots of money for my boss but I don’t see an extra penny in my paycheck. The workload can be unbearable thanks to brutal deadlines and procrastination will KILL YOU. BUT, I meet a lot of powerful people every day and it makes for interesting conversation when someone asks me what I do. I did make a LOT more money waitressing.
3. Ice Cream Scooper. I spent my senior year in high school scooping ice cream. It wasn’t the worst job I’ve ever had, but you can’t be afraid to get messy. My forearm was cut like Popeye’s after scooping for months but I began to grow a weak stomach for the smell of rotting ice cream on my arms all shift. Also, you would not believe how difficult it is to mop melted and dried ice cream off the floor at night.
2. TIE - Burger King employee/Caldor cashier. I couldn’t decide which was worse, working at Burger King or Caldor, both of which I did when I was 16 years old. Although both included working a cash register, they are so completely different, I couldn’t just list #2 as cashier.
The worst part of working at Burger King, besides the low pay and atrocious uniform, was that inescapable grease smell. My skin’s pores would ooze the smell of french fries no matter how hard I scrubbed. Gross.
I didn’t spend much time working at the now defunct Caldors. I lasted a total of three shifts, in fact but in those three shifts I learned a valuable lesson: Never mess with an old person and their coupons for Hanes underwear. On my first and only Saturday shift, I got screamed at by more old people than I’d care to remember. I got yelled at for not remembering to void the sales tax for a newspaper (FYI, in Massachusetts, there is no sales tax on paper products), and I was completely unable to call for anything on that loudspeaker, so heaven help me if an item didn’t have a bar code on it. After trying to get in touch with the head cashier for an hour without using the dreaded loud speaker phone thingamajig, I walked out halfway into my third shift and never looked back (except to pick up my sole paycheck that following Friday).
and the Number one, single most worst job I have ever had is *drumroll*…
1. Photographer at Sears Portrait Studio! I have mentioned how I quit S.P.S. in the past, but I never really mentioned why I hated it so much. Where do I begin?
We were treated like crap by nearly every customer that walked through the door. People would yell at you if their finished portraits weren’t in early. They would yell at you if their children made a silly face when you snapped the photo. They would yell at you if you didn’t allow them to take 5,000 photos of their child to get the absolute, most perfectist, most awesomeist, most “give the Gerber Baby a run for his money” shot. And God forbid if we ran out of the “FREE GIFT” which was explicitly described on the coupon as “while supplies last.”
Children are petrified of you as if you are a doctor holding a booster shot; you have to act like an ass in front of grown adults to make THEIR children smile; the ever-present smell of poopie diapers; and random baby drool on EVERYTHING (sidenote: if you go in a portrait studio, for the LOVE OF GOD, don’t let your child put ANY prop in his or her mouth! They are not washed nearly enough!).
In addition to the aforementioned grievances, the company failed to give me FOUR raises that I had earned, paychecks were late every week and the steps to get your pay direct-deposited made federal income tax preparation look like child’s play. Do I really need to continue?
Despite hating almost every job I have ever had for the last 13 years, I press on and go to work every day and pray that someday, I’ll hit the lottery and tell all those SOBs where to go 
. Kidding, kidding. At least hard work builds character.
until the Patriots play the Bills!
The worst job I ever had was when I worked at a glass factory making those insulated windows that are used in office buildings.. To this day if I get sick of the daily bs I still say, at least I’m not working at the glass factory. Worst job ever.
That’s interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who makes windows before.
Trust me, I say, “Better than Sears,” at least once a week.
i cannot complain about the jobs i’ve had. i worked at wendy’s when i was 16. i loved it there, because i was able to eat food all the time and i have a strong love for food. i only worked there 4 months and found an amazing job being a transcriptionist at a local physical therapy office. i enjoyed being a receptionist and was constantly getting bonuses and raises. i worked there two years. the only reason i quit was because of marriage & relocating.
now, i’m currently an army/house wife. it’s probably the best job ever :).
I was Navy fiance for a bit, so I can relate.
Thanks for coming by my blog and commenting on the entry I submitted for the contest. It’s always fun to see who reads this stuff and having a chance to meet interesting bloggers along the way. Boston Brat is no exception.
18 hour day? That is some suckiness.
My first job was great but my second was a living hell. Your list is good.
Talk about the worst jobs. I worked at car washing when I was studying in St. Michael College. Actually I enjoyed the job because I got tips from the customers due to my excellent job. Some of the customer asked me to work for their company, but I told them that I won’t leave my college.
Sorry for my poor English
Caldors??? damn that is old skool! I saw a “Bradlees” bag out in someones trash today
Oh yes, Caldors. Back in the day before Walmart was king and Target was queen. I’m old. I think we might have some old Bradlees’ bags in our handy shopping bag saver.
I used to scoop ice cream and work in a cafe, though the worst job was call centre work. You just got treated like garbage by the general public.
Ick, I can’t even imagine working at a call center! I don’t like taking the few calls I have to at work now! It doesn’t help that I am really awful at explaining things.
I was once a tarot card reader on the telephone. I don’t know if it was the worst job but I didn’t feel comfortable people paying premium money for what I was doing.
So I think your worst jobs beats my worst jobs.
The glass factory sucked so bad. Had to wear an armor suit so I did not get hurt and I worked right next to the 5 zillion degree oven that they baked the glass in. I was always getting really bad cuts on my hands, I won’t go into detail but lets just say most of the time there was nothing left to stitch, just a big chunk gone.
Then one day the foreman says, ‘Mandatory Overtime this weekend’. That’s when I quit. F-that!!
Having lived in New York City for many years, I am glad that I never worked in any kind of retail job that required dealing with the general public. Im sure those jobs( waiter, cashier) are hard anywhere, but in New York City that is the world capital of petty, difficult, abusive customers it would be enough to drive someone postal. I have found myself yelling at bad customers in defense of a poor cashier many times.
Thanks for coming by my blog and commenting on the entry I submitted for the contest. It’s always fun to see who reads this stuff and having a chance to meet interesting bloggers along the way. Boston Brat is no exception.
18 hour day? That is some suckiness.
To this day if I get sick of the daily bs I still say, at least I’m not working at the glass factory. Worst job ever.to scoop ice cream and work in a cafe, though the worst job was call centre work. You just got treated like garbage by the general public.
I think we might have some old Bradlees’ bags in our handy shopping bag saver.