# What is the worst job you have ever had? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 19, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355 "2016-07-19T21:21:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hbk4894](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e68b1a/32.png) [@Hbk4894](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbk4894)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/1 "2016-07-19T21:21:11Z")
Work experience at college , didn’t doing anything ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/2 "2016-07-19T21:32:41Z")
This has been a fairly popular topic that reoccurs over the years. My worst job was… [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18388433&postcount=36](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18388433&postcount=36) Three clicks. That ought to do it. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/3 "2016-07-19T21:43:51Z")
That’s probably the thread winner, right there. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/4 "2016-07-19T22:00:48Z")
Working in a seed plug factory. Our product was literally made out of mud. Every day, it built up as we were working, and we had to stop three times a day to shovel the excess mud off the floor. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/5 "2016-07-19T22:16:44Z")
Mike Rowe has you all beat. 😃 I never had a bad job like the OP is looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/6 "2016-07-19T22:26:05Z")
Kmart janitor. That was back when I thought women were cleaner and neater than men. That summer, that women’s room, it all scarred me for life. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/7 "2016-07-19T22:44:23Z")
Tech/phone support. I still want to hide under a desk and cry every time I hear a phone ring. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/8 "2016-07-19T22:57:57Z")
Once as a temp, I assembled desk calendars. There stacksof pages around a large table. I took a page for z, then for y, then for x, and so on. Around and around the table I would go. It was even duller than it sounds! ---
**Author:** ![CerebrAl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@CerebrAl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CerebrAl)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/9 "2016-07-19T23:37:06Z")
**Oh! I got this one!** I worked for a short time installing blown-in fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass insulation packed in 24" x 48" x8" bricks, then thrown into a hopper and chopped up so that it can be made to be airborne. This airborne insulation is blown through a 4" diameter hose about two hundred feet long. The end of this hose is carried through the attic, which at the time would reach temperatures of around 140F. So there you are, balancing on a 2x4 truss, in an attic, in Florida, sweating your ass off surrounded by airborne fiberglass fibers. What did I win? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/10 "2016-07-20T00:05:13Z")
Waiter. Only job I hated. Longest two days of my life. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/11 "2016-07-20T02:04:43Z")
Carpet cleaner when I was a teen. Not like Stanley Steemer, but on hands and knees scrubbing with brushes and sponges. Two jobs, and the toes were gone from my sneakers. And my boss was a dick, who would leave me there alone and then come back and bitch about my work. Then he tried to stiff me on the minimum wage he was paying. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/12 "2016-07-20T02:43:30Z")
I did telephone soliciting when I was 16, selling discount coupon books. I lived with a roommate and commuted to high school, but this job was during summer break. Arrive at work, then phone call after phone call after excruciating phone call. Most people just hung up or cursed – and then hung up. Occasionally I was successful, but I hated scamming people to buy a coupon book that cost more than what they would realize in savings by using the stupid coupons. Meanwhile, the boss spent all his time angling to seduce me, prowling, leering and commenting. Day after day. No sexual harassment laws in those days. One day after 3 months, I and my peers showed up for work and the entire company had packed up in the dead of night and was gone. Stiffed us for 2 weeks’ wages. I didn’t even care. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/13 "2016-07-20T03:03:18Z")
Kerning. 40 hours a week, for seven years. Every character pair in over 6,000 fonts. How much to kern “&T” in Snell Roundhand Light? Yeah, I did that. I went on vacation to Hawaii, and was kerning palm trees. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/14 "2016-07-20T14:10:29Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Kerning. 40 hours a week, for seven years. Every character pair in over 6,000 fonts. How much to kern “&T” in Snell Roundhand Light? Yeah, I did that. > > I went on vacation to Hawaii, and was kerning palm trees. Well, there’s something I had to look up. Is there a high suicide rate among kerners? ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/15 "2016-07-20T16:50:06Z")
Sandblasting inside enclosed spaces (tanks, vessels, that sort of thing). It’s loud due to the forced air helmet, hot, you can’t see, dust/grit gets into every crevice, hours on end holding a heavy hose that you have to move very slowly. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/16 "2016-07-20T18:32:38Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Carpet cleaner when I was a teen. Not like Stanley Steemer, but on hands and knees scrubbing with brushes and sponges. Two jobs, and the toes were gone from my sneakers. And my boss was a dick, who would leave me there alone and then come back and bitch about my work. Then he tried to stiff me on the minimum wage he was paying. Until I read this, I had completely forgotten about what I would consider my worst job. A neighborhood friend got a job one summer with one of those companies that hires college students to paint houses. His job was to drum up business and bid the jobs, then hired a bunch of us to do the actual painting. He severely underestimated his bids, and after three weeks of working in the hot sun painting houses only to find out I wasn’t even going to get paid, I quit and found myself a real job. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/17 "2016-07-20T19:16:39Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Tech/phone support. I still want to hide under a desk and cry every time I hear a phone ring. Customer service was bad, yes. I will probably never answer a phone without my heart beating a little faster again. I had another that I’ve mentioned on this board before - counting vials of trial medicine that had been returned from the people who were trying it. There were 16 vials in a box, in 4x4 rows, but you couldn’t eyeball it. The supervisors would walk around and make sure you were counting them. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16, out loud. Hours and hours of this - an 8 hour day. It was mind numbing. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/18 "2016-07-20T19:38:18Z")
Not me, but my father, had the worst summer job I have ever heard of, back in the early 1950s. Doesn’t sound so bad - he was a summer lab assistant in an entomological laboratory. Except that this was a lab studying mosquitoes and his “job” consisted mainly of _feeding_ them - on his arm. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/19 "2016-07-21T00:49:57Z")
\*On my very first job I said thank you and please They made me scrub a parking lot down on my knees Then I got fired for being scared of bees And they only give me fifty cents an hour. \* -John Prine ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355/20 "2016-07-21T15:40:51Z")
I lasted a week as a dishwasher at a chinese restaurant. Every single table got at least one ramekin of spicy mustard, and those stupid ramekins were shaped so that the water would shoot everywhere when rinsing them out. And if you didn’t rinse them the mustard would get baked on in the dishwasher. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-job-you-have-ever-had/760355.md?page=2)