# What is the worst possible job you've ever seen or done?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 24, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646 "2018-06-24T01:25:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/1 "2018-06-24T01:25:34Z")
I know the joke about pitying the guy following the horses in the parade, until you see the guy following the elephants, but in my mind it’s nothing compared to what I’ve listed below under a spoiler since it’s a bit adult in nature.
The worst jobs I’ve done are laying traffic cones at rush hour and standing on the double solid lines with cars less than a foot away going 50mph in either direction and doing “removals”, picking up bodies for delivery to the morgue. Lots of poop and pee, only once a puddle of blood, though I’ve heard stories of much worse.
[spoiler]I once went to an adult video store that had viewing booths. I peeped inside one and saw a TV screen, a chair, a small shelf with a box of tissues and small trash can. That was okay. Then I saw a guy walking booth to booth emptying the trash cans! :eek:
I don’t remember if he had gloves on or not and I know somebody has to do it, but NO, just NO! [/spoiler]
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/2 "2018-06-24T01:30:12Z")
Watch [Dirty Jobs.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Jobs)
Mike Rowe had the worst job because he had to do _all of them_.
😃
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### Author:  [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/3 "2018-06-24T02:23:52Z")
About 40 women sitting on the side of the road banging big rocks against little rocks to make gravel by hand in rural North Korea.
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### Author:  [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/4 "2018-06-24T02:57:53Z")
I spent a year running the tongue saw in a slaughter house…
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### Author:  [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/5 "2018-06-24T03:01:31Z")
Picking up thousands of dead horseshoe crabs off the beach in Delaware.
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### Author:  [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/6 "2018-06-24T03:01:52Z")
I nominate digital bowel stimulation
it’s not (usually) difficult but the ick factor is HIGH
[link](https://www.myshepherdconnection.org/sci/bowel-care/digital-stimulation)
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/7 "2018-06-24T03:44:02Z")
Oh, it’s got to be the divers who clean out the fatbergs from sanitary sewers…
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/8 "2018-06-24T03:47:48Z")
> [@lingyi](#):
>
> [spoiler]I once went to an adult video store that had viewing booths. I peeped inside one and saw a TV screen, a chair, a small shelf with a box of tissues and small trash can. That was okay. Then I saw a guy walking booth to booth emptying the trash cans! :eek:
>
> I don’t remember if he had gloves on or not and I know somebody has to do it, but NO, just NO! [/spoiler]
I knew a guy with that job. He had to bring a mop with him too. He kept the job long enough to buy a car so he could get a real job.
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### Author:  [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/9 "2018-06-24T04:11:39Z")
A friend had a interview for a Laborer position with the local Parks & Recreation. He said he was asked what he would do if he came upon a clogged toilet that someone had pooped in and he didn’t have plunger. He said “I’d stick my hand down there to clear it out!”. When I asked him if he would really do that and he said “Of course not!”. He didn’t get the job.
Shortly after I got a call to interview for a position with the same department that would require the use of a chainsaw to clear tree branches. When I asked my girlfriend and Dad what they thought about it, they gave an emphatic “NO”. My Dad even said he’s support me forever rather than let me do that. Yes, I’m a klutz! 😛
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/10 "2018-06-24T04:19:23Z")
> [@lingyi](#):
>
> The worst jobs I’ve done are laying traffic cones
My brother did this in the hot, hot summer of 1988, and they did this on the overnight shift to avoid some of the day’s heat. He was paid not much above minimum wage, but he did it because he was in college and needed something for just the summer, and ended up not doing it all that long because he tore a muscle in his shoulder - a repetitive-motion injury.
The worst thing I ever saw in a chart?
“Nurse reported that patient was EATING HIS OWN STOOL…”
Just reading that was bad enough!
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### Author:  [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/11 "2018-06-24T04:42:48Z")
I remember one scene from the movie Blackfish. I wouldn’t want to be the one who had to jerk off a killer whale.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/12 "2018-06-24T04:49:03Z")
> [@pohjonen](#):
>
> I remember one scene from the movie Blackfish. I wouldn’t want to be the one who had to jerk off a killer whale.
Mike Rowe did variations of this to pigs, cows, and turkeys on “Dirty Jobs”.
My veterinarian told me that for her, the grossest thing she’s ever had to do is clean infected ear wax out of the ear canal of a dog. She told me that whenever she does that, she looks like she’s going to treat some Ebola patients by the time she finishes gowning up.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/13 "2018-06-24T07:26:16Z")
Food service. I could tolerate any of the jobs above, in preference to waiting tables. Which I did for two days, with resoundingly disastrous results.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/14 "2018-06-24T08:15:09Z")
> [@lingyi](#):
>
> [spoiler]I once went to an adult video store that had viewing booths. I peeped inside one and saw a TV screen, a chair, a small shelf with a box of tissues and small trash can. That was okay. Then I saw a guy walking booth to booth emptying the trash cans! :eek:
>
> I don’t remember if he had gloves on or not and I know somebody has to do it, but NO, just NO! [/spoiler]
By any chance, was that the old Aaxtion Video on Kapiolani Boulevard? Because that could have been me you saw, heh :D. During my last semester fo grad school at the U of Hawaii, I worked part-time there. It was my secret job. The peep-show booths did have Kleenex-box holders for customer use after they’d whacked off. My job was to sweep up the used Kleenex after someone left. This was actually a more interesting job than you would think. And there was a section in the store with live girls who would do things in front of you behind a glass if you kept feeding in bills; a couple of them were strung-out junkies, but several were interesting to talk to. The other guys working there were all good people to work with. And it was funny seeing all these customers stopping in for a quick wank on their way to work in the mornings.
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### Author:  [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/15 "2018-06-24T10:21:39Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> By any chance, was that the old Aaxtion Video on Kapiolani Boulevard? Because that could have been me you saw, heh :D. During my last semester fo grad school at the U of Hawaii, I worked part-time there. It was my secret job. The peep-show booths did have Kleenex-box holders for customer use after they’d whacked off. My job was to sweep up the used Kleenex after someone left. This was actually a more interesting job than you would think. And there was a section in the store with live girls who would do things in front of you behind a glass if you kept feeding in bills; a couple of them were strung-out junkies, but several were interesting to talk to. The other guys working there were all good people to work with. And it was funny seeing all these customers stopping in for a quick wank on their way to work in the mornings.
Awww…Sam, we really have to have a loco moco together!
I’ve heard stories about Aaxxtion, but never knew (until now) if they were true or not. Do you know anything about Backseat Betty’s that was close by / in the same lot? I always wondered what went on in there.
The store I’m talking about is Adult Video Warehouse (they’ve changed names several times over years) on Hekaha St. As I posted in my thread in about adult entertainment in Hawaii, this was where they had the couples viewing booth. :eek:
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/16 "2018-06-24T11:16:06Z")
Why am I thinking about the guy who mops the holosuites in Quark’s after reading this?
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### Author:  [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/17 "2018-06-24T11:59:05Z")
A bit adult in nature, so…
In my home state, adult entertainment venues featuring fully nude performers cannot get a liquor license. There apparently is a winked at, semi-legal, BYOB policy that some quiet, discreet places can use. On the other hand, if they get the locals riled up sufficiently, it’s not hard to get a place shut down over liquor laws and public drunkenness. When one such venue opened up a few miles away, they tried to get around this by running a shuttle bus between the club and the nearest bar - fifteen minutes away. They were looking for shuttle drivers.
I’m not getting on that bus without a hazmat suit and a fully armed security force.
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/18 "2018-06-24T12:33:22Z")
I used to go out every morning with a kind of plunger, skim the plastic from the sanitary pads off the top of the skim basket, and try to turn over / circulate the floating shit layer on the grossly overloaded septic system so that ii didn’t harden into a dry crust. Which would plop and spit as I plunged it.
I have to say it didn’t bother me much, but for some reason it totally grossed out some of my friends.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/19 "2018-06-24T14:05:36Z")
I worked at Radio Shack. 'Nuff said…
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2018, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-possible-job-youve-ever-seen-or-done/816646/20 "2018-06-24T16:19:46Z")
Two of my first jobs were cleaning carpets on my hands and knees, and working in a car wash. Both jobs taught me the value of an education.
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