The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we will ask you a question or provide a topic, and you will talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: What was the worst job you’ve ever had?
Talk about it….
Never really had a terrible job ……. had a boss or two that were simply out of touch with reality though
(2) But all rest were great fun. 1. When I was in high school, my gf talked me in to helping groom two kenneled dogs. Cool, this sounds like easy money. They were Afghans and had not had care in along time. It was disgusting, and they wouldn’t allow me to use my electric animal shears…I didn’t make it to day two. AND! 2. Another gf, high school, talked me into handing out sample products in the financial district SF during lunch hour. The packaging was a small cardboard box….turned out to be sample tampons……and some of the recipients where a bit pissed when they discovered….we ended up taking cartons and cartons home…and didn’t go back.
Toss up, 1970s working full service Texaco station across from CHP office in Chico, CA in winter time or driving tow truck. Air temperature 34 degrees and rain being driven sideways by wind, it’s then you realize that kind of work qualifies as a four letter word.
Janitorial.
When I was 16 a couple of my friends and I
got a job at the Cow Palace cleaning out the
horse stalls when the rodeo was in town.
The job itself wasn’t so bad, but the smell of
ammonia was awful, the hay was soaked with
horse pee, and manure. We used pitchforks to
clean up the hay and toss it into the back of a truck.
We didn’t complain because the job paid $5.00 an
hour in cash, and for a teenager that was a lot of
money. This is back when $2.50 an hour was
considered good pay for a teenager. The job
lasted until the rodeo left town, about 3 or 4 days.
The ones for my brother. He fired me twice (guess he didn’t learn).
Worked the sliming table at a cannery in Alaska two summers in a row processing Salmon. 16 to 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. Brutal and stinky.
I worked construction one summer, and it wins the worst job award because I caught myself on fire.
We were putting in a sewer line, and we had a pump to keep water out of the ditch. One day after lunch, my boss told me to refuel the pump without letting it stop running, since it was difficult to prime and restart. After the fire, he was a lot more concerned about the damage to the pump than he was about me.
My current job is close to the worse, but probably being a busboy when I was a teenager.
My dad breed and sold Dobermans for a couple of years when I was just a lad.
Guess who’s job it was to keep everything clean? 🐕 💩
My pay was room and board. And the belt if I got whiny or lazy.
Attempts to unionize proved futile.
I spent one summer when I was in college working in a cannery. My job title was oiler; I oiled and greased pear peeling machines 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for about 10 weeks. The worst day was soon after I started when I (the new guy) had to clean out a 55 gallon drum that was about half full of rancid grease. It paid for my engagement ring and first and last month’s rent for our apartment when we got married at the beginning of the next summer.
I once took a job as secretary for a criminal defense attorney in Austin, and quit the first day. His previous secretary was supposed to train me, and the things she told me about him made me realize that was not the place for me. She said that he would sometime be sleeping off a drunk on the couch when she arrived, and since she was the only one in the office, I didn’t want to be there when someone came in to announce they had just committed a murder. I think it was a good decision.
Cottage cheese room at Darigold one summer. Slimy floor and stinky. Might explain why I’m not super fond of cottage cheese and why a Keto diet will never be my thing
Determining what makes a job the worst makes this response challenging. Currently, the people I work with, barring a few, are, well, the other term for male donkeys, the worst group I have ever worked with. Before that, I would say when I was a truck loader for Roadway. Hard work for a lazy man for little pay and no bright outlook. I actually don’t mind hard physical work but moving a box from point A to point B with some guy yelling “faster, faster” to everybody, for 8 hours, no thanks.
There’s something inspiring about a job loading trucks!
I used to work the midnight shift at a produce warehouse loading trucks for delivery to grocery stores. It wasn’t my worst job, but it did inspire me to join the Navy.
My son used to load Amazon trucks. It wasn’t his worst job, but it inspired him to go back to school and get a technical degree.
Administrative assistant to the infamous Steven Matthew David at Matthew’s TV, Top of the Hill, Daly City. When I first worked for him I had no idea who he was since we had just relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area from Minnesota.
Hard to say, I have had many different jobs for different reasons. When I needed to save up money to go to Israel, I had to make decent money fast, which meant I took a job in a battery factory. I worked on the assembly line, it was boring. Besides that, the factory was 10 miles from my parents house, and there were no public transportation that would get me there by 6 a.m. so I had to ride my bike. I started in April there were days it was raining, and even a little snow. May, June and July was much better. I did have some nice co worker and some young guys I could flirt with, so that made it bearable.
In 1995 I worked for a short time at medical equipment company, filling out orders from hospitals and physical therapist. The orders came in so fast, and the computer systems at that time were very backwards. I had nightmares thinking I might have overlooked an order, if it was for oxygen, it could be a disaster. Morale was very low people would walk by your desk and whisper “I hate this job”. I quit after 3 months, and got my insurance license and started to sell Long Term Care Insurance and Annuities.
I really haven’t had any terrible jobs, but I’ve had a couple of good jobs that were ruined by terrible bosses. It’s really kind of amazing how one person can make somebody hate going to work every day.
Yes, if a manager has it in for someone, they have the power to make someone’s life miserable, even a co worker. On the other hand a good manager if they like you and you do a good job they will be very accommodating, fortunately I have had mostly good managers, that I got along with.