QOTW - Worst Jobs

rich upsetter

Cuffy is the new skill
Whats the worst job you've ever had?

When i finished my exams i enrolled at the infamous Fay Mayer recruitment agency who got me a job at CBT, which was a hospital laundry behind the jail near St Georges.
It was truly an 18th century style work house with archaic equipment, a constant temperature of about 38 degrees C, and the most foul, arse faced old witch who was the supervisor. There was about 50/50 students/mutants employed at the place, and 70% of the students walked out before the end of their first day.

The list of jobs i had to endure: folding freshly tumble dried blankets whilst acting as an earth, therefore getting severe electric shocks every time i touched the STEEL tub on wheels that contained said blankets.

Feeding sheets through a rickety old machine to press them, which if you werent careful would also feed your fingers, hands and/or arms into the spinning rollers.

By far the worst job in the entire place was given to me when the arse witch took a distinct disliking to me. This was unloading the 'laundry' as it was shipped in from the hospitals. The bags full of 'laundry' had to be emptied onto a conveyor belt which disappeared round the corner to be hoofed into the industrial washers.
It was less 'laundry' and more, shit, piss, blood, syringes, catheters, scalpels, tubes, and on one occasion something that looked like a lung, all entangled within the sheets etc. All with no protective clothing or gloves whatsoever. Shortly thereafter i just walked out. Somehow i endured about 3 weeks in the whole place, thinking about it i should really go get a check up.

What be your worst job?
 

db

#chaplife
i've only had a few jobs in my life, and they've all be pretty average i'm afraid..

i remember Monquey did work experience at shugborough farm, and he had to spend 2 weeks timing pigs shagging.. you would think that sort of thing would amuse a teenager, but i seem to remember he was mortified at the time lol..
 

victoriab

victoriaboyle.co.uk
rich upsetter said:
Bloody hell that sounds worse than anything I can imagine. Well done for getting through a whole 3 weeks! :up:

The worst I've had was being a general dogsbody at KFC in Stafford. It was 'orrible. Customers were really much more rude than I would ever have imagined and I had to clean all sorts of horrible things that people had done in the toilets all day long. And the rest of the staff wern't too friendly either. Stuck it out for 4 weeks I think.
 

rich upsetter

Cuffy is the new skill
Sofa said:
Freezer warehouse at Stone - Sansbras freezer goods OMG
is this the one where you have to wear a big arctic style suit? i had a mate who did that, and he didnt see daylight for 6 months!
 

BBC

You knows it
rich upsetter said:
It was less 'laundry' and more, shit, piss, blood, syringes, catheters, scalpels, tubes, and on one occasion something that looked like a lung, all entangled within the sheets etc.
This sounds like one of the grimmest things imaginable :barf:

Luckily I have only had the pleasure of of few jobs in my lifetime and all of them have been alot more pleasant than this! I know this isn't very interesting for the purposes of the thread. If i were to be creative i would make a sick job up but I don't think i could surpass Rich's hospital laundry experience. Proper grim :eek:
 

Lisa

Well-Known Forumite
Mine? probably fruitpicking. Nothing like standing on a ladder in 40C heat all day plucking fruit from a tree, day in, day out. Long hours, good wages but hell, you sure work for your money. Paid my way through Uni but.
And that laundry story was right off tap. Dont think anything Ive done workwise would ever top that.
 

Augustus Gloop

Well-Known Forumite
Current role as an Information Consultant for SSFT is pretty shit. Although I won't have to worry about that soon.

In fact most of the roles I've done within the NHS are pretty garbage. Money's ok but you're more or less banging your head against a brick wall for 8hrs a day. Seems to be the general consensus for everyone else I know who works for them. Too much politics, red tape and managers/directors wasting a shit load of money. Money 'they' don't have which ultimately costs a lot of people their jobs. Soul destroying in a nutshell.

Good thread this, pat on the back Rich. ;)
 

gon2seed

(and me! - Ed)
I feel like a bit of a fraud writing anything after reading your experience Rich! But as usual I'll chuck in my tuppenny worth.

I have had my fair share of close encounters of the scatalogical kind when working as a care assitant. I've changed a giant nappies for 16 stone adult who's idea of fun was eating the contents of the nappy, or smearing it on me or anything in reach! Vomit, snot, menstrual flow, etc' all part of the daily fun, but it never really bothered me, the people I worked with were fun, (not the managers!) and I think it's probably much easier to deal with such stuff when you have the source in front of you.

Surprise parcels of body contents with no protective clothing! Thats a different matter. Don't know how you stood it for 3 weeks Rich.

My worst job was working on a new project in Halifax attempting to house ex-offenders. (lags fresh out of prison!). At interview it was sold to me as a new project with plenty of opportunity for accessing accomodation that had not been previously tapped!

Well it was infact the third such project in the town, all of the others failing. Landlords normally wary of ex cons were extremely sceptical, and desperate probation officers swamped us from day one with punters, because they believed that we were the answer to their clients horrendous accomodation problems. We failed everybody!

My direct Line Manager was incompetent but very well meaning, he had a nervous breakdown. The "born again christian" big boss turned out to be a £$%&" with a nice line in psychological bullying.

I lasted four months and escaped to a part-time job on a third of the salary; yeah! back to care assistant cleaning up poo. Not a moment too soon as I was showing all the signs of depression; interrupted sleep, off my food, mood swings etc.

I learned some important lessons:-

-Ask more questions at interview and do your homework thoroughly.

-Halifax is a hole! Looks nice in parts, but generally one of the nastiest places on this island. This may be a jaundiced view, due to my experiences, I still gets shivers whenever I pass by the place on the M62.

- I worked for Timble Housing, and a 'timble' is the local Leeds name for an underground river, apparently.

I've had a load of jobs, but finally ended up with a career, (is that a cliche?) and I can say that for me it's the best job in the world. Lucky barsteward ain't I?
 

jimbob23

Official 1000th poster
gon2seed said:
My worst job was working on a new project in Halifax
howardforever2bt.gif
 

Obi Wan Kenobi

Active Member
Greetings my name is Obi Wan.

I would like, if i may, contribute to this 'thread' as you call it. I can only assume that this is considered to be a subject orientated discussion ground, and I wish if I may to communicate my feelings also, on a topic of a similar nature.

I believe that the worst job I was ever entrusted with was back a few years before the Clone Wars. A mission of the Jedi Council.

The dream of the Republic was still alive then, there was peace and trust throughout the land. The Jedi were still able to communicate in conversation without fear of being overheard by the Emperors spies, we could talk freely rather than only via telepathy.

Quai Gon and I had returned from the outer fringes of the galaxy only to find that we had been posted on Mos Eisley. Yoda had heard by way of a Bounty Hunter, off the record of the Council, that there was some unrest on the planet; some of the citizens there were trying to bring about a rebellion of sorts. Almost so small that it would be considered insignificant, except for one thing, the future of the Galaxy. We trusted that Yoda new more than ourselves and gladly obeyed his orders.

I often thought to myself that I would return to Mos Eisley even though 'you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy'; I felt that that it had an almost tangible connectedness to the Galaxy that affected its future. Perhaps this was something to do with Yoda's feelings, I don't know; but I felt something stir in my stomach. Quai Gon suggested to me that it was simply the Wookie Chow Mein I had eaten on Endor, however I wasn't so sure.

Forgive me though, I digress. Where was I, yes Quai Gon and I had been posted in Mos Eisley before the Clone Wars.

He had been a good friend Quai Gon, I still miss him. I remember once when we were training as Jedi we had sat watching the sun go dow....
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
The worst job I've done was to sand the floors in a terraced house on a blistering hot day. We hired a giant drum-sander from traction. The filth, dust, noise, heat, sweat, more filth and the imminent risk of a dust explosion were almost too much to bear. We knew that if we stopped just once then we would never go back in to finish it. My ear wax was like damp chipboard for the next three weeks.
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Easily the 4 hours I did a McDonald's, although I walked out after this period becase I was convinced that my IQ was similar to the cumulative IQ of every other member of staff and I don't tolerate fools gladly. Still it had taught me to be more careful about getting into a position where I would have to end up working for a company such as McDonald's. Of course with companies heamoraging jobs at the moment this is getting more difficult!

Also once when I worked at Sainsburys I had to do a full shift in a freezer with only one glove because the other got really wet and I couldn't find any more. Brrrrrrrrrrr!
 

Lunar Scorpion

Anarchy in the UK
shoes said:
Also once when I worked at Sainsburys I had to do a full shift in a freezer with only one glove because the other got really wet and I couldn't find any more. Brrrrrrrrrrr!
That's what sleeves are for. :)
 

Tinkerbell

Well-Known Forumite
I worked at Henry Venables Ltd (which was at Doxey Road) I was there for clerical stuff but ended up being the glorified coffee girl.

I have to admit ... (I hope there is anonimity on here !!!) when the Venables brothers asked for a coffee .... just at home time :angry: I used to swirl the dish cloth (which had probably cleaned everywhere !! :banana:) in the coffee. Childish - YES but the satisfaction watching them drink it was fabulous !!

I have now learnt ........ some 20 years later if I annoy a member of staff I NEVER drink their coffee if they offer to make one.
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Lunar Scorpion said:
shoes said:
Also once when I worked at Sainsburys I had to do a full shift in a freezer with only one glove because the other got really wet and I couldn't find any more. Brrrrrrrrrrr!
That's what sleeves are for. :)
Yeah i did think of that but the coats were made of this plastic and it didn't stretch and only went as far as my wrist. Ended up wrapping a load of that blue paper towel stuff around my trolley's handle and used that hand as little as possible.

At least I didn't pull the pansy H&S complete BS card out lol
 
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