Lurkers' week - what's the worst job you've ever had?

I’ve had so many completely cruddy jobs that it’s hard to choose! At 16/17, I was a secretary in a Path Lab and has to go down to the mortuary and stand taking notes by the side of the post mortem with all the smells and sounds you can imagine.

I went for a secretarial job but it turned out the firm made ‘rubber goods’, whatever they are. The interviewer was very suggestive about it so I never took up the job.

I only lasted about one week in a school office where the other staff treated me like a skivvy which I didn’t like as I could have knocked them all into a cocked hat! I couldn’t get any jobs done for being ordered to brew up, go and photocopy, all sorts of menial jobs including cleaning the toilets if there had been an accident, then being criticised for not completing the job. I eventually told them where they could stick their job, walked out and got a much better job where I was appreciated more!

I was an NHS trainee during the winter of discontent in the late 70s, and we were deployed to various jobs to make sure the system kept going. The hardest, heaviest and hottest was working in the industrial laundry, dealing with soiled bed linen and pyjamas etc. I was there for two weeks, and was so tired by the end, I don’t know how the usual workers kept it up week in week out, and they really were a backwater team who were so under appreciated.

Oh, I was a wine waitress for a little while, and I hated that.
I had to wear a white shirt and a black skirt, with a silly frilly apron thing, and go up to tables of pervy men people to introduce myself and tell them I was "theirs" for the evening.

chambermaid in a small bed and breakfast. the lady was really nasty kept reducing me to tears, it was my first job and had not much confidence anyway. She was well known for being a really nasty person. she did not keep the place clean and it made me feel sick some of the jobs I had to do

These stories are hilarious! The winner so far is Jeannie, standing knee deep in Christmas puds, unable to keep up with the conveyor belt. I hope you moved on to better things, Jeannie!

My worst job was Saturday girl in Woolworths when I was 15. I was picked to be the one to model Woolworths' clothes, which they sold in those days. I had to wear a long nylon pleated skirt and a boys' striped blazer and stand in front of the counter. The embarrassment!

I've had a few, copy typing for the civil service springs to mind. We had to produce a certain amount of 'titles' each day, the number of which the supervisor recorded in a little book at each days end.

Others fraudulently upped their numbers by taking an easy item (or two), instead of at random, putting the long jobs back on the shelf for Muggins here, typing them, then clocking in before the supervisor arrived. I couldn't bring myself to be as dishonest. After she'd left for the day at 4.30, others would clock out and type another - flexi-time for all so it wasn't discovered. I couldn't get my numbers up so was given notice.

It was suggested that as I was a good worker and they didn't want to lose me so 'I could apply to one of 'the Ministries'. We had to bash away at ghastly old manual typewriters and vacancies were frequently in the Sits Vac with just a phone number - no mention of which organisation. They couldn't keep staff. Sweat shop disguised as clerical/typing.

It took two buses to get there so not worth the aggravation and the wages were low. It was a relief to get the sack.

Years ago, as a newly qualified (what used to be called) Audiology technician I was working in a small hospital department with a not very nice boss.
One day I was explaining the workings of an old box-type hearing aid to an elderly lady. She had poor eyesight and was nervous and confused so I was taking time to make sure she understood how to switch it on etc etc etc.
The not very nice boss had entered the room without my realising and, in front, of the patient demanded that " next time, Miss S-, you don't waste time giving patients all that information". From somewhere I found myself replying " Miss E- there wont be a next time!" And I quit. (Although I did make sure that the elderly patient was ok before I fetched my coat).

Not a bad job but an awful employer! Was "promoted" to work for the partner of a solicitors practice. Second day he boasted his last secretary had left because he threw something at her - told him if he ever did that to me it would come back over the desk at him. He was always moaning because he had never wanted to be a solicitor, he was pushed into it by his parents (by this time he was in his 50s), said he had wanted to be an archaeologist - the day he brought a mummified finger into the office I left!

Spud bashing. I lasted 3 days!

Think my worst was working for a solicitor who was less than honest in my opinion. Needed a job badly at the time but got out as soon as I found other employment.

Working in a fishmongers in my late teens, lovely family business to work for but I was always conscious of smelling fishy !!!!

Worst was a six month stint as a telephone debt colector back in the late 1990s. While we were training we were told that the job involved "helping people to budget" and manage their debts but it was nothing of the sort. From the off there was pressure from the team leader to get money out of people. She in turn was leaned on by the manager and so on up the hiererchy.

There was no question of "helping" people we were just expected to bully them. While some of the debtors were clever people who knew all the rules of how to evade their debts many were just people who had an unforseen change of circumstances like accident, illness or job loss. I would be expected to bully mothers who did not even have the money to feed their children.

I felt ashamed and left after 6 months.

It was useful in that it taught me a lot about the debt industry and of how little power debt collectors actually have. There are companies who exist only to buy and sell debts and the so called industry is corrupt and rotten to the heart. So now I am able to sometimes advise others as to how to deal with these blood suckers.

Oh Sago lol. horrible!

My worst one was as a checkout operator for Crazy Prices supermarket, to earn extra money as we had just bought first house.. Split shift, 9-1pm, 5-9pm. exhausting and treated disgustingly by manager and supervisor. About six weeks into job, I got up one morning and cried on the edge of the bed at the thought of going to work.. Realised with a lightbulb moment that I didn't need to. So didn't.

Age 16/17 working in a nursing home for the summer holidays.
I had to chop up a turd with the commode lid as it was so long.
After that every job I did was a breeze.

As a cadet nurse in CSSD, as it was known. Rewashing and checking for leaks in rubber gloves, cleaning dirty instruments before putting them in the autoclave.

Working in a Premier Lodge on reception for 2 weeks, after which someone asked me what size I was for a uniform.
My reply was “don’t bother - I’m leaving”.
The shifts were 7 am - 3 pm, and 3 pm - 11 pm. I quickly realised I didn’t like either!

PaperMonster

MOD typing pool. Bloomin awful.

Yes I did that as a temp for one week,there were about 40 typists in the room and a supervisor at the front, we typed non stop for 3 hours
with a 10 minute break,in total silence. It was awfull. The agency tried to send me back the next week, I left and got a full time job elsewhere

Working in a fish and chip shop on a Friday and Saturday night. I was still at school. The worst bit was not being able to get the smell of chip fat out of my hair no matter how often I washed it. However the owners were very kind and I always went home with a fish and chip supper.

Invoice matching for a mail order company. Mind numbingly awful, thank god it was only in the hols. It paid quite well though.

I would be hard pressed to quote an enjoyable job that's why they pay us

As a teenager I had a Sunday job doing service washes in a launderette, which mostly comprised football kits from the local teams who’d played the day before. Not pleasant.

In the late eighties the mortgage rate tripled I got a job in a school as a cleaner. Cleaning the toilets was unpleasant the staff toilets were worse than the children’s.

I spent just one day doing leaflet deliveries door to door.
After being chased by dogs of various sizes, loud barking, and trying to bite my fingers in letter boxes, I just knew I wasn't going back the next day. I've always had huge sympathy for postmen ever since.

My DD had a job de-thorning Roses. That was for £1 per hour! No charge for the scratches she came home with!

Holiday job when a student - washing up in the kitchen of a department store cafe/restaurant. Plus it paid quite a bit less than the previous summer’s job, on the checkout at Sainsbury’s - a dream by comparison.