Anything involving end of life (or potentially end of life) care would be the biggest nightmare for me. So hospice worker, oncologist, nurse, heck, even a veterinarian are right out.
I’m very grateful for the good people who work in these fields, but I don’t think I have it in me to confront my own mortality through the eyes of the dying every day.
President of the United States.
My mileage varies. Best job I ever had was doing the elctronic warfare thing for The Army. Worst job was cleaning the butcher’s gear at the supermarket.
Today, I cleaned my windows. First thing that popped into my mind reading the thread title was “cleaning lady.”
I could totally be the elephant shit shoveler, though. Working with elephants? Yes, please.
This, definitely. Or commission-only sales.
I got a holiday job at Honey Baked Ham one year. It was horrible. You had to put on a big white coat, hairnet, plastic apron, gloves, and huge galoshes and wade through ankle-deep antiseptic solution to get to the refrigerated work area. There was a big bandsaw that a senior staffer ran hams through to cut them in half. My job was to catch the ham halves as they came out of the saw and shove them further down the line.
My husband said when he picked me up after work the first day I came out covered with bits of ham and wearing a grim expression. I lasted a week at that job. But it coulda been worse: just across the street was the poultry plant. ::shudder::
School teacher. Especially junior high.
My nightmare job involves having a nightmare boss.
I believe the official title for that job is “Hormone Police.”
SDMB moderator or cat herder, not that there’s much difference.
A businessman. Definitely.
If you cant leave it I think most jobs would do me in eventually, the only variant would be time.
The worst job I stayed in for too long was working with domestic violence perpetrators. The worst job I left in 2 days was zucchini picking. My arms itched for weeks.
Otara
I’m a regular follower of “Deadliest Catch,” so it would have to be a crab fisherman. Going for 40 hours straight with no sleep in the pitch black with 25 foot high waves in the middle of the Bering Sea. Not for me. You couldn’t drag me on to a fishing vessel and you’d never catch me volunteering.
Its just been a bad week.
The list is long. One I can say I tried and lasted a day - hotel maid. I was working for temp agencies at the time - office temp agencies. The agency called me a practically begged for me to help out even though a hotel was not a normal client. I gave it a go. The first couple rooms weren’t so bad, then the third room… the bathtub was covered in hair. Clearly some hairy, hairy man had taken a bath in there. I managed to clean it before I puked, then I managed to finish the day, but told the agency there was no way I was going back. Glad I was signed up with several, and had another assignment - in an office - another day later. I never took an assignment from that one agency again. Pthooey!
I think my nightmare job would involve wearing a dorky uniform while having to fake a sunny personality and dealing with the public. Heap on intense micro management, forced participation in company “team building”, long hours arbitrarily assigned at the last minute, low pay. Top with having to sing the company song or do the company cheer.
Thankfully haven’t had to do it yet.
Well I thought of one worse than what I do now. Crime Scene Cleanup. Of course they do more than crime scenes. Also when Aunt Doris drops dead and no one checks up on her for a few weeks. I’ve seen plenty of dead bodies. I don’t want to clean up whats left of them.
I couldn’t work at an abattoir.
I also think dentistry is a horrible job. I’m sure there are millions of dentists who love their job and can elaborate on the many, many true and valid reasons why it’s worthwhile but for me, the idea of sticking your hands into other people’s mouths all day, dealing with blood (let’s face it, any job where you expect to see blood in the course of a normal day isn’t for me) and being a person so many people fear just adds up to something I’d hate to do. Thank God for dentists, but I don’t want to be involved in dentistry -shudder-
Yeah, pretty gross to be sure, but apparently they make great money. Two excellent movies about that job: Curdled (hilarious black comedy with a really sexy female lead) and Sunshine Cleaning (decent indie flick that’s a little more informative - everything I know about that job pretty much comes from this movie).
Slaughterhouse technician (or what ever they call the person with the bolt gun).
The worst job I actually had was “salad girl” at The Magic Pan back in the 70s. I pulled the stems off spinach leaves all day long in a kitchen jam packed with the devotees of that 14 year old guru who was the nirvana flavor of the month back then. Good times.