I was reading the thread about minimum wage and a couple posters wrote about jobs they had. It led me to wonder, what is the worst job you have ever had? Mine was a night shift cleaning the smoke room at the Reser's plant near Washington Square. It was to make their smoked sausages. The oven was never shut off, it was 140 degrees and you had to wear a hazmat suit spraying an industrial form of Easy-Off, while scrubbing the inside of the oven and all the racks. It was a job that paid me $3.35/hr. I wish I weighed myself before and after because of the amount I would sweat during my shift. We had a few people faint in the oven. Anyone else have a job they'd like to share?
Working as an accountant preparing taxes during tax season sucks when you're working 80 hours over 6 days for weeks. But you get compensated alright. I worked summer's while in school on the assembly line at freightliner, but I actually liked it. Worked a couple Christmas breaks from school for a construction guy doing landscaping. Now that sucked. My back would tighten up for weeks.
My worst job was probably a temp job at Milgard. We had to pull windows from an unorganized warehouse. Or maybe it was making boxes for Adidas. Mostly because it was so boring. Overall, not too many terrible jobs in my life.
In what year were you making $3.35 an hour? Was this an under the table job? The worst job I ever had is here. It was a good thread before PapaG showed up and PapaGed it all up.
How long did you work in accounting? Worked in public accounting for nearly a decade. Sucked. You have no life for 4 months per year. And my last four years, I was as high as you could be (except being a partner), so I still worked 50 hours per week the rest of the year. I'd say, even with all the other perks, it was the worst job I had. I've worked as a W-2 employee somewhere since I was 14. I've never been paid minimum (the closest I was to minimum was a buck over, plus small amounts of tips). Always had babysitting gigs and yard work gigs on the side (I started several of these at 8-9, though).
Sadly, I took real pride in getting that smoker clean. It doesn't matter what I get paid, I tend to try to overachieve in every job I do. I had another job where I was on the night cleaning crew at the Tualatin Fred Meyers. I was responsible for waxing the floors of the entire store twice a week.
Mine wasn't as tough as your Max, but for 7 years from HS til I went back to college I detailed cars........ Outside whether it was 105 or 25 degrees out. Using chemicals all day every day was nasty. On the bright side, I got to drive some amazing cars (Ron Tonkin Gran-Tourismo and Rass BMW where our clients) and I made $4.75hr..........$760 a month BEFORE taxes FAMS!
Worked public accounting for three years and got burnt out. Still working in accounting just no longer preparing thank god.
Lol nice. Still in public accounting? I left to take over the finances of a client. Much happier and enjoying life. Public accounting sucks the life out of you. It takes a special type of person to stick with it for their entire career.
Working in the finish grind section of the Portland Cement plant in Oswego. The conveyor passageway from the ball mill to the storage bins had to be shoveled out twice a day to keep it open. The cement dust was nearly too thick to see through, the temperature in the space was about 135 degrees in the winter. You had to change your air filter in the breathing mask about every 15 minutes. I often wondered just how hot the temperature got in there during the summer. Thank god I didn't have to find out.
Worst task I ever had was burning buckets of shit in the middle of the Saudi desert, just a few kilometers south of the Iraq border, during Operation Desert Shield, just before the air war started. Tense as hell, boring as hell, and smelly as hell. Not to mention hot as hell, flat as hell, and exposed as hell. Nothing around for hundreds of meters, sitting on a metal folding chair, nothing but a couple of books, a stirring stick, and a few five-gallon cans of diesel. Three 55-gallon drum ends (cut off at about 18") full of waste burning simultaneously, creating a column of greasy, shit-smelling smoke pointing down at me like a giant black finger. Before news of the fact that we had complete air superiority trickled down to us (at least a week after the fact), every distant sound, mirage, flash of reflected light, every dot in the sky was an approaching attack force, all charging directly for the only thing taller than a GP medium tent for 100 miles, which just happened to be my shit-smoke. If it wasn't for The Ballad of Wuntvor and the first three Shannara books, I never would have made it back to camp with all my marbles intact. Oh, and once I worked for my brother, helping him with a two-truckload concrete pour, and it started to rain just as we were finishing. We had to jerry-rig tarps and even trash bags to protect what areas we could from the rain, and we spent at least six hours into the night trying to do whatever we could to save the finish on what we couldn't cover. I bet we bull-floated that entire pour at least six times. My back hurts just thinking about it.
Nope and much happier. During tax season from all the stress and eating out I'd gain 20-30 lbs. Now I'm much happier and my normal weight. I'm a pretty skinny guy so it wasn't too bad but jeez does tax season when youre a preparer suck.
Best and worst job was the same for me Way back in the day, I worked part time as the weekend graveyard clerk at the old Jefferson Theater. I didn't have to clean or anything, but I had to walk up and down the aisles every 1/2 hour or so, and I saw things I literally can't erase from my brain. LOL not even brain surgery did it.
Detailing is TOUGH work. I had a buddy of mine who started a detailing company and I helped him out until he could find a couple of helpers. He was a really hard worker and tried to do the very best job he could. He worked my ass to the bone. And that was just for a few weeks. Seven years? Damn!
Easy for someone to say that hasn't done it. Besides, any accountant that is good nowadays is paperless It's very common in the industry to get burnt out in public accounting after two+ years of being your boss' bitch. Especially when companies will lure you away with better work conditions and close or better pay. From my experience with blue collar and white collar jobs, Blue collar your body aches but I'd still do stuff after work and move through the pain. White collar sometimes your mind is so fucked and mush that you can only sleep or sit on the couch and become a drone.
This thread is full of awesome! Right now, I'm giving Wook the prize for worst job and HCP for worst job long-term, but keep 'em coming!
