What has been your worst job?

[Definitelyme]

Job I was offered but didn’t take after a day doing it as “training”

Was billed as a marketing job. It was selling bleeping crappy make up by going door to door. But not to homes, to businesses. So we would walk in to an office block and ask could we go round and show everyone the stuff. Go in to a shop and ask could we show the employees the “merchandise” in the staff room.

We went in to Dunelm and the manager was raging, shouting about how dare we try and come in and sell things to them etc. The girl I was with just ignored him and kept walking round the shop to find employees. It was HIDEOUS, I felt like such a burden on people, just muscling in and trying to sell them this crap. We also walked about six miles doing it and I was knackered .

It was also a pyramid scheme I believe. The girl I went out with kept talking about how I’d be promoted so soon to manager level etc, and how I could recruit my own team. I was 21 I think (and naive) but still had enough sense to know it was balls.

When we went back to the office they were like “so we will see you tomorrow!” Erm, nope!

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

I worked in a call centre for a couple of years for an airline, wow it was bad. It almost finished me off.

the amount of abuse we would recieve and quite often for stupid things too. I once got called a witch because the customer kept asking me questions, which I’d answer, but then they’d tell me i was wrong? I’ve been screamed at and all sorts, it was disgusting behaviour from grown adults and the customers should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[watermelon sugar]

When I left school I got a weekend job at a chippy. duck me it was hardcore! I couldn't get the hang of that skill they do in the chippy wrapping the chips and sausage up. The only good thing was the chips and curry sauce on my break

 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

A day's agency work as a dustman. In fact I didn't even last the whole day!

 

[TwooTwooTwitTwitTwoo]

Aged 16, call centre job. Cold calling people to invite them to financial seminars. Oh my gosh it was dull. So dull I went part time in the end to save myself from certain death. It says something about the inflation of cost of living. I was able to manage a flat, bills, food and nights out all on a part time wage (late 90's).

 

[DanaScully]

Working 12hr shifts in a café. People are bleeping harmless and I'd be standing holding hot plates shouting "FULL ENGLISH, NO BEANS, EXTRA BLACK PUDDING?" and they'd all sit looking at me like

One time I tripped and threw a full English into the lap of an older boy I knew vaguely from school.

Being on my hands and knees wiping bean juice off someone's jeans in front of a packed café isn't something I fondly reminise on.

 

[thetemptationisreal]

McDonald's for sure because people are awful.

 

[Nolongerjustalurker]

Worked in a cafe when I was 14. So many laws were broken in that establishment.. All of the waitresses were under 16, and we got paid pennies, I think I got £3.20 an hour there was this lovely Polish lady who worked as a dish washer - she didn’t speak much English and was always crying, we’d ask her what was wrong but she couldn’t tell us. There was this batty old lady who did the cooking and she was always ranting loudly and swearing at everyone.. The cakes would get shoved in a cupboard every night they must have been soooo stale. And the owner’s father was a really really old man who would come in and try to grope us all. He died while I still worked there and we were all so pleased...
however my best friend also worked there and we do fondly reminisce on our time there and all the ridiculous things that happened (minus the sexual harassment) I think it got burnt down in an insurance job a few years after we left.

 

[WilmaHun]

Call centre at Hoseasons. Horrendous. Their customer service is horrific so I was embarrassed to be the one having to speak to customers. No wonder some customers were rude and horrible!

 

[Tinkerbell cat]

My first job when I left school at around 17/18 was working in a call centre for BT, my sister got me in via the recruitment agency she managed and my mum worked in HR in the call centre so was able to get me really good hours haha... I really enjoyed it tbh for a first job but my mum left a few months later as she moved in with my stepdad and got a much better job closer to home.. I stayed on but like with every call centre is it changes all the time, new faces all the time, contracts pulled and new ones start up..

If I wanted to keep my hours I had to be put on this dodgy outbound campaign basically cold calling customers who have left and went elsewhere because our internet was too pricey. God I hated it! I would pray they wouldn't answer the phone and I would hang up on half of them as they were so rude to me. Some of the team leads would show you how it was done, getting customers back and it looked so easy but they were lying through their teeth. This was like 13/14 yrs ago so I think its very different now and so much of what the job consisted of back then wouldn't be allowed to happen now as half of the stuff you told customers were lies to get sales. Obviously now you wouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

if you needed to ring in sick you had to call the absence line which was looked after by some other call centre and they would pass on the message to you manager.. also The call centre used to have their own bus pick staff up in town, which was this big coach you had to pay £1 for... So my dad would come to our house and drive me down to the bus, I would wait until he would drive away, then walk round the corner, ring the absence line and just go home! Or other times I would get on the bus for decoration, go straight upstairs to the disabled toilet and phone the absence line then phone a taxi, and be absolutely shitting it waiting for it to come.. then run to it and get him to take me to the bus station and go home . Its funny now but at the time I was just so depressed but at the time didn't really think leaving was an option.

Everyday I would be so upset at the thought of having to do shifts cold calling customers with no support at all from managers who just sat around perving or playing on their phones. I was getting next to no sleep worrying about the next day all the time. I remember going in and asking to speak with a manager, I told them how I was struggling and didn't think that particular campaign was for me as I was rubbish at it and could I be moved to an inbound role, no cold calling and I didn't care what the hours were, I would work every weekend blah blah... he basically laughed at me and told me to get a back bone, to suck it up as he wasn't allowing me to move to a different campaign. That night I opened up to my dad who took me to the doctors and I got signed off for stress and put on medication! I ended up handing my notice in and had to go for a meeting as they owed me lots of holiday pay and refused to pay it.. ended up they paid me every penny I was owed and I was never so glad to walk out of somewhere in my life.

Another job would have been doing PR work in Magaluf when I did a summer abroad when I was 21, 10 yrs ago! I loved the whole party scene but I just could not drink 24/7.. I was confident but never too confident so I would never hassle anyone to come into the bar, therefore i was rit at it lol. I did that for a few weeks then got a bar job which I was much more suited to! Only did one season... just not for me and I am such a home girl... missed my home comforts.

Now I work in a job I love and it couldn't more different...

 

[Aceofspades]

I went to work in procurement after being made redundant. I had no experience but they assured me full training would be provided. Of course it wasn’t, and my boss was a pure hole when I needed help. Tbf just an hole in general. I could hold my own against him, but then I started getting bullied by two grown women. I would go into meetings and they would leave vile messages on my desk about my weight (I was/am overweight) hidden in notebooks etc. Would harass me outside of work too on SM. I took it to HR, because I was miserable. But they said I couldn’t prove it was them and just wouldn’t tackle it. After days and days of crying before work, during my lunch breaks and after, I just walked out and never looked back

 

[Rocketllama]

My first job was McDonald’s when I was 16, I lasted two days

 

[Babyyoda88]

Recruitment. It was soul destroying! There was hardly any work to do, I felt like I was going to rock with boredom. The manager was a witch and the CEO would spend the day bragging about the latest holiday she’d booked. It really wasn’t the job for me, I can’t lie and bullish!t people and I hate talking on the phone.

 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Recruitment..... I can’t lie and bullish!t people

So you felt guilty about saying lying about there being a vacancy right at that moment if people came and registered for it? Good on you.

 

[Jg182]

After I was made redundant from a job I loved. We had just moved and we needed me to quickly find a job.... so I took on a cleaning job at a holiday park. Cleaning the accomdation. We got paired we a “experienced” cleaner, we were suppose to clean the chalets together all that day. The girl I was paired with decided she would rather sit out front and chat to her mates then help. She even shut me in a tiny sweaty (was a hot July) hot bathroom until it was done. All the equipment was crappy and broken making the job harder. They didn’t even have proper cloths and cleaning products so you had to scrub the showers with the dirty towels from the guests before.
it got to lunch time, and everyone but we went into a big courtyard to smoke. I went and sat in my car alone, disgusting and sweaty. Don’t know what came over me, but I just drove home. Without even letting them know I was going. Was so worried about telling my husband as we needed the money... but he was great.... and a few weeks later I found a job which I loved again!

 

[chandlercheesecake]

When I was looking for a job when I was 17/18 in 2012, a recruitment agency for teenagers found me an admin job with a construction firm. I lasted 3 weeks. The job just ended up making me feel really miserable, drained and anxious.

It wasn't what I was expecting at all. The "office" used to be a corner shop. Inside there was 2 desks, 3 chairs, 1 laptop and a really old TV which was tuned to ITV1. I was working with two older woman, who were a bit rude.

Reasons I didn't like it:
- It took 2 hours to get there by train, and even longer to get home as I finished at rush hour.
- I worked 40 hours, but only got paid about £90 a week (from the agency, not the company)
- My job was to call up customers (with an old Nokia brick mobile) to make appointments, and some would shout and swear at me down the phone. The two women would laugh about it. I asked if I could do something else, so they sent me out to put flyers through letterboxes which was better, but I wasn't allowed to do it all the time. Most of my time would be spent hovering over that phone, being too scared to dial a customer's number.

On my lunch break one day, I bought a slice of cheesecake from a local bakery and it made me sick. I went home and thought it was a good excuse to tell the agency that I wasn't going back. After that I started looking for a job myself.

 

[Babyyoda88]

So you felt guilty about saying lying about there being a vacancy right at that moment if people came and registered for it? Good on you.

There were vacancies in the area but not enough for the amount of people they wanted us to register and yeah hence why I don’t do the job anymore.

 

[Crunky_Snack]

I worked less than a week in a Michelin starred restaurant. I’d been a bar manager previously but wanted a job with better pay; the restaurant offered a full time, salaried bar position. I turned up for the trial shift and one of the managers told me I’d be waitressing? Obviously for the 4 years I worked in the bar I’d waitressed (mainly as a supervisor) but it wasn’t what I signed up for with this job and I absolutely am NOT cut out for Michelin star service. They barely attempted to train me, I made a million mistakes because I was given 0 guidance and 0 time to learn the menu. Any time I asked a question/asked for help I’d be met with sighs and eye rolls. On my second day I was left alone with a full dining room despite not having a clue about the order of the menu, the POS system or service cycle. I’m a fairly resilient gal but working 9am-midnight (with a 3 hour break) alongside boring, unhelpful and judgmental people broke me in a matter of days. I walked out during the break on a Saturday and never looked back. It was hideous.

 

[Rose18778]

A waitressing job when I was 18, got paid about £4 an hour, had to split my tips and the manager was always shouting at us! Also I was so clumsy, dropped food on more than a few customers plus one couple did a runner and they actually docked their bill (about £40) off my wages!

 

[wastelandbaby]

As a teenager I rode horses a lot and worked as a yard hand at a few riding schools. The first one I worked at was when I was around 14, it was awful and I ended up walking out after less than a month. The horses were treated poorly, and the whole yard was run by teenagers with no adult supervision. I know stable yards will never be super clean, but this one was filthy. The front of the yard that the public saw was beautifully maintained, but once you went around the back where the horses were kept it was a tip (to the extent where it was dangerous for horses and staff alike). I picked up about £200 in cash off the floor one day, presumably having fell from someone's pocket. When I took it into the office the manager pocketed it and said it wouldn't be worth looking for the owner. I just got an absolutely horrible vibe from the place from the moment I arrived, I ended up reporting them to the RSPCA soon after I left and I know quite a few others did as well.

Spoiler: TW sexual assault

A few years ago the place closed down after the owner was imprisoned for sexually assaulting a 15 year old girl who worked there.