What was your worst ever job?

boardsie12 · 13-04-2022 8:37am #1

I got a job in a restaurant, years back, a well know restaurant in Dublin.

I had an interview on the Friday morning and the newly promoted manager told me to start that night, the manager (turned out to be a twat) told me that someone had literally walked out that morning, not good first impressions!

I arrived later that day and the place looked like a war zone, the place had been understaffed for weeks and everyone was just shouting at everyone.

The place was a mess and it was cruelty going in most days. As the days progressed, I almost found myself close to tears with the amount of abuse.

I eventually walked out one of the nights and the manager wasn't impressed.

What was your worst ever job?

How long did you last?

frosty123 · 13-04-2022 3:11pm

^^^^^

Name & Shame.

As for me selling frozen fish door to door, no one bought anything and I stunk to high heaven, lasted a day😐

mrcheez · 13-04-2022 3:14pm

Picking bananas in Australia.

Walking on un-even ground with 1ft deep potholes, while struggling to carry this ton-weight of bananas at arms length (couldn't let them touch your body lest you bruise them), which incurred huge backpain.

Not to mention the acid spewing out Alien-like when you cut the stalks which permanently stained my clothes and burnt my skin.

Guy complained I was too slow and didn't pay me... eh.. lasted almost a day?

ILikeBoats · 13-04-2022 3:18pm

Jack & Jones Grafton Street 2004

foxsake · 13-04-2022 3:29pm

AIB Capital Markets when they were in the IFSC on the front building opposite busaras.

a haunt of weirdos and completely dysfunctional.

I've also worked in BOI and it's kinda similar in it's dysfunction , these 20-30year veterans who never worked anywhere else can do as they please with (usually very badly). Pillar banks mehole.

But AIB was far the worst , just a shithole with mostly **** people .

although they did a Vindaloo on a Friday that was pretty decent for a work canteen.

Strumms · 13-04-2022 5:01pm

Chewing bread for gummy chickens

nah a supermarket in my late teens where better value beats something something

AidoEirE · 13-04-2022 5:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118921574#Comment_118921574

I could write the exact same, dont forget the bastard spiders and rats that would be in the bags.

The humidity would have you sweating in seconds and had to be done in bare feet as the ground is so damp and slippery you slide everywhere, dropping the bananas getting abuse of some lad with a machete behind ya.

Stayed the week but swiftly said **** that and got out. Didnt help that it was in the back arse of knowhere and our hostel was the only bar in the little town attracting all sorts.

Was a chef for 7 years in multiple busy places, some a knightmare others I enjoyed, loved the high intensity of a service.

mrcheez · 13-04-2022 5:18pm

Carnarvon?

AidoEirE · 13-04-2022 6:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118922169#Comment_118922169

Name escapes me but was about an 2 hour drive from cairns.

fryup · 13-04-2022 10:44pm

Townsville?

mrcheez · 13-04-2022 10:52pm

nah moite... Townsville'd be a 4.5 hour trekaroony

mikethecop · 14-04-2022 1:06am

working in a family run hotel

horrible bastards related to each other every where ,each demanding you do something different for them all the time . arguing among them self's and getting caught in the middle every day. hauling fat tourists bags to the rooms for 10 pence tip

12 punts 50 pence a shift , some shifts were 5 hours some 12 plus hours

GIMP · 14-04-2022 2:08am

Worked in a chicken factory when I was 17, Western Brand Chickens in Mayo dirty smelly shithole with a bully boss lasted a week or two. Also worked in a meat factory, bit better lasted 3 months. Glad I went back to college to avoid kips like these!

Ray Palmer · 14-04-2022 1:28pm

Took a job as I was desperate and ignored all the red flags thinking I could just come in and do the job and as I wouldn't be responsible for anything thought I could handle it. Within the first few hours it was very apparent the manager was really inexperienced and didn't know how to do her job. Wanted everything done on paper to be filed and stored. It was an IT project and we were testing it. She even got them to buy a really expensive printer for us to make it easier.

When I pointed out there was absolutlely no reason to print out test plans and we could use freeware to track progress and generate reports she went mental. Claimed that 3rd party companies required printed proof of all progress. That was 15 different companies. I asked when are they coming to inspect the printed documents and shouldn't we put it into the project plan. Went mental some more called me into a meeting room and berated me for disrespecting her by asking questions.

As time went on she basically revealed she lied in her interview about her experience but as the company had not been involved in a software update in 10 years nobody knew any better. Eventually they brought in a project manager who lambasted her approach and asked why she had no way of reporting on progress. Her paper filing system was actually non existent the team just dumped all the paper into boxes without any labels. She also accused me of hacking the system when I ran a database query rather than the team of 5 spend 6 weeks manually checking the database with paper copies.

She went on holiday and the project manager asked me to replace the paper with the freeware I suggested 2 months earlier. Much easier for everyone and daily reports. She was furious when she came back. Claimed the system was way too complicated and nothing was gained. I had to sit down with her and explain how it worked and gave her a step by step guide on how to produce reports. She then was unable to do this after repeated attempts which I think she was doing on purpose to prove it didn't work. So eventually they asked me to run reporting, after her complaining in every meeting she didn't understand the reports. So I ended up going to the meetings to tell the progress but she would interrupt and make excuses along with claims the figures must be wrong. Then they just asked me along on my own. She really hated me by this point and would try to give me the worst jobs. I just started refusing to do them as they were unnecessary

She tried to get me into a meeting and I refused without HR there. Arranged and I just walked in and said I quit but handed a list of all her incompetence and sent it to the project manager by email just beforehand. He tried to get me to come back but as they had let the situation carry on for so long I didn't see the point. They fired her a week later and a friend of mine took over.

andrew1977 · 14-04-2022 1:38pm

Late 90s before health and safest existed properly , got a summer job in my local grain/ agri feeds/farmers yard, the manager handed me 2 ladders taped to each other and a sweeping brush, told me to climb into the large grail silos and sweep it down .

Lasted 5 minutes at it, dust/sweat/danger, climbed out of the silo, walked down to the office, told the head man i quit , hopped on my bike and cycled home !

Trigger Happy · 14-04-2022 1:39pm

The most head wrecking job I had was selling ice cream cones from a Mr Whippy van. Dealing with the general public is not for me.

The most boring job I had was testing video games back in the mid 90s...it was a yawnfest.

Mad_maxx · 14-04-2022 9:36pm

Driven by sheer ego and stubbornness, I worked for a vicious sectarian bigot from Scotland when I was twenty in New Zealand on a huge dairy farm while on a working holiday , I never had any potential future there so I still can't fathom why I stuck it out for thirteen weeks, should have left after two ,she tried to run me over with a quad bike one particular day ,that was circa eight weeks in

I just wouldn't give her the satisfaction of quitting but owner of farm was incapable of controlling situation and seemed afraid himself so environment was utterly toxic , i was stupid and it absolutely not worth it

Sugar_Rush · 14-04-2022 10:31pm

Issues with most jobs seem to revolve around either physical and/or intellectual capacity, and people skills (i.e. dealing with bullies, lazy staff, dipshits and other manner of riff-raff).

Sugar_Rush · 14-04-2022 10:49pm

I've been pretty lucky with work I guess.

Started off young doing gardening and landscaping, it was intense but I had lots of energy and thought it would make me big and strong to help me get laid.

Let me see, later I worked in factory packing produce onto pallets off a factory line, it was great, great atmosphere and I was inspired by other workers efficiency and sense of humor. A steady pay check at a young age was insane to me.

Worked in bars and pubs of course, I loved when it was super busy and music was playing loud. Occasionally you get some obnoxious drunk but my main problem there was, as bar staff you can't actually insult them back (a rule which I would change if I ever become a proprietor of such an establishment).

Did bar and nightclub security for a while. It was actually fine, except women talking shit on you was by far the most difficult part of that, for me at least.

Then working construction sites (higher up position, insane salary). This was ridiculously fun, company car/phone....... until it started to spill over into my work/life balance, then I quit.

Transitioned into health care and work as a researcher on the side........ pfffff, life is good.

Worst part of any job is when responsibility becomes unmanageable or Monday morning comes around and you're just like, "FML".

swimming in a sea · 15-04-2022 8:21pm

Job was okay but the company was very strange.

During the interview the HR person started criticizing the main account manager saying she would be sacked if she didn't improve. On my first day the HR manager told me loads of candidates were more qualified than me but she saw something she liked in me, so she must have wanted me to be her lackey. Then the operations manager pulled me aside to say my line manager was a pri*k and if I did what he wanted I'd get sacked, the service manager said nobody that did my job lasted more than 6 months and everyone was in a pool to see how long i'd last.

This kind of politics went on for all the time i was there, alliances made, going behind backs to get support from the UK head office. I lasted a year and packed in and i've been contracting since(no politics).

Dempo1 · 15-04-2022 8:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118924317#Comment_118924317

O yes, I've experience of a few of them and you've described precisely what goes on 😁

gmisk · 15-04-2022 8:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118921650#Comment_118921650

I worked in BOI (BOISS) cannot agree more..absolute oddballs...I am used to people in IT being a bit weird...but it was literally everyone!

gmisk · 15-04-2022 9:11pm

Some great stories. I have been pretty lucky job wise.

While a student I worked in bars and pubs. A few eejit bosses...one absolutely ripped into me for struggling with tables....I was covering for someone else's tables as well as my own....while the girl I was on with was vomiting constantly. She was fired not long after. I got a half assed apology.

Took a job in a very posh restaurant, I was pooched from another job. I took it on the proviso I could get that weekend off to go to the all Ireland. Of course I was put in for two shifts...owner roared at me I was coming in...I roared back, never actually worked a shift.

Ginger83 · 15-04-2022 9:19pm

I was driving a van delivering cooking oil to hotels,restaurants and takeaways and collecting the used waste oil. The owner was a wealthy guy who let a daughter run things. A massive cnut who no matter what you did was never happy. The drivers used to say a golden mickey wouldn't please her.

I threw my keys at her one day and told her to drive it herself

Dempo1 · 15-04-2022 11:16pm

Spent over 30 years in hospitality from Trainee chef, Head Chef, Management, Teacher and restaurant owner and my word I could share some stories.

But, I left that all behind and entered the world of Mobile phones, initially in retail dealing with the general public and mother of God nothing compares to the mediocrity, mind numbing stupidly, Assortment of unhinged twats, extraordinary unpleasant working environment and truely bizzare industry.

People lives seemed to have been completely taken over by mobile phones and in particular the apps. I recall a lady arriving into a store one day, mid 60"s I reckon, she was hyper ventilating, in a panic, had to sit her down, get a glass of water and almost called an ambulance, her problem was her Candy crush (and level) vanished off the phone 😳 (she'd actually deleted the app). Aul wans wanting to install what's app on button phones with no Internet access and livid it couldn't be done.

People asking to set up questionable apps, others convinced their phones bugged, people listening in and loosing the plot about charges on their bills which were generated by shall we say accessing certain sites. The level of dogs abuse in mobile phone shops is extraordinary. I personally tolerated none of it.

I thankfully moved into the business sales end of it and no longer in the industry but my god, truely awful job if working in the retail end of this business.

Ginger83 · 15-04-2022 11:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933402#Comment_118933402

Candy crush 😂 What's that like bingo?

BaywatchHQ · 16-04-2022 12:34pm

Every job I've suffered has made life not worth living due to me not being NT and being around loud mouthed normies who pick on me like a crowd of lions circling an injured antelope. Who knows what the welfare system is going to do with me now given that they have thrown me onto one of their work search programs. The welfare system doesn't know what to do with non NT's like me.

fryup · 16-04-2022 1:58pm

^^^^^^^^^

what's NT?

Dempo1 · 16-04-2022 1:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118934904#Comment_118934904

I'm curious too, No Thanks maybe 🤔

olestoepoke · 16-04-2022 2:04pm

My first Job when I moved to NYC. Worked for a well known Irish concrete company. Shovelling concrete and pulling at formwork for 13 or 14 hour days in the sweltering heat and inhuman humidity, was nearly the death of me. Stuck it out for 6 month and jumped ship the first chance I got

wotzgoingon · 16-04-2022 2:58pm

Well technically wasn't my job but I was staying in my cousins condo with a friend in LA and we went to my cousin place of work and I was sent in to clear a leak from the toilets it was spraying out of the toilets. It was bad it kept coming and coming and I went back to the condo when I was finished covered in filth and covered the walls by accident and sat down on the couch and covered the couch in filth too. My friend came back and said you aren't cut out for honest work. It was bad.

Captain Slow IRL · 16-04-2022 3:17pm

Large multinational firm, bullying rampant throughout - getting worse, the lower down the ranks you went. To the point the lunatics were running the asylum, employees had to be begged by management to carry out their jobs.

There have been a number of managers that were promoted up very swiftly and kicked many cans down the road until it wasn't their problem, but rather their newly-hired subordinates. New projects half-brought in, production was left to deal with issues - absolute ball-ache to deal with then.

What was your worst ever job?

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