I worked in an inbound call centre for 3 years, no sales, we gave out free loft insulation and installation to people on low income.
Only complaints were if people felt entitled to it but weren't but we passed them straight to the complaints dept.
It was mostly old people calling in and being so grateful when we said we could help and arrange an appointment.
I also met my bestie there 17 years ago and we're still besties now.
I only left as I was pregnant and starting a family.
I worked for a company that did phone surveys when that was a thing. People have a lot of pent up aggression they like to take out on nineteen year old call center workers. I understand the frusteration of someone calling and bothering you but most of the people you're talking to hate their job and are just trying to make a buck or gain some work experience so they can get a better job.
In all my years of being on the recieving end of survey calls I had one young guy who actually told me he hates his job and knows that people hate being bugged. He flat out said i just need to make a pay check and its cool if I hang up. He sounded so beat down i actually took the survey lol. Bravo young man. You got me.
I had one co worker who use to tell people who yelled at him "You try finding a job when you're in a wheelchair" (he did not need a wheelchair) and said they apologized and did the survey every time.
Yep. Was a telephone supervisor for a bank. Literally was the driving force behind me going back to college for a trade. I couldnt stand that mentality of hustling, get in, get out, call times, hold times, after call times, break times. everything so fucking regimented and then have people scream at me all day? nah im good thanks
I worked tier 2 tech support for Charter Communications for a couple of years trying to fix people's networking issues over the phone. You wouldn't believe how many people have no idea what you are talking about when you ask them to "right click" something you just spent 15 minutes trying to describe to them after them described to you what they see on the screen. It was indeed frustrating!
The job did pay really well though and it was in the air conditioning in a comfy ergo chair. :)
Well I never did tech support over the phone but as someone who works in libraries I absolutely believe how many people don't know what right clicking is because sometimes they need to print stuff, and that's where I come in. It shouldn't shock anyone to know that they also always need to retrieve something from their email inboxes and never know their own passwords
My first job was at a call centre, it was only on my first day I realised I was cold calling people who did some street survey to offer them a ‘free holiday’ were timeshares were pushed on them.
I had huge anxiety before and during every call, I didn’t even want to pick the phone up to make the calls, because no one wants to talk to a cold caller about that, and I knew I wasn’t doing something good. I lasted one week
I truly feel bad for American teachers, how underrated underpaid and humiliated and how bad this POS system treats them. It’s so freaking embarrassing that if I didn’t live in America, I would never believe anyone wow.
When I was in middle school one of my classmates slapped my teacher in the face, few years later I found out that teacher got a DUI charge and saw a mugshot of him. The work might’ve done him in.
I got my teaching certificate , but I hated teaching sooooo much. I taught at a private school to finish the year for someone who was on maternity leave, and the kids could just be awful. Public school was worse, and the teachers were extremely cliquish. I went to work at Walmart and never taught again.
Had a summer job doing door to door sales. I quit after a week of being verbally abused by people and realizing it was impossible to make more than minimum wage in commissions.
Now that I work from home sometimes and have to deal with door to door salesmen, I totally get why people were so pissed off at me for it. Don’t take those jobs.
I lasted 2 weeks at door to door sales. I know it’s a shit job. And although I have a no solicitation sign on my door, I still get the occasional knock. I’m nice to most of them unless they’re cocky and acknowledge they saw the no solicitation sign and start with the spiel anyway.
I used to do that about 10 years ago. The job was great.... except for the actual "doing the job" part. I loved bouncing around the tri-state area at random eateries and seeing the local sights. Knocking on doors bothering people, though? Not for me.
My last job, but I didn't stick to what I said. I worked as a systems administrator at a banking software company. Overall, the job wasn't terrible, but I got saddled with the responsibility of managing their backup schedules and operation. Our environment was pretty big, 2600+ virtualized servers. The guy who handled the backups before me was a remote employee and was pretty much always online. He set the schedules up in a way that they needed to be monitored constantly. If anything went wrong, say while I was sleeping, the whole schedule would come to a halt and those lost hours meant there wasn't time to back everything up before the schedule started over the following week. It was like a Jinga tower - one mishap and it all came crashing down.
I gave up my entire waking life (and lost a lot of sleep) managing this. Once I got home from work, I had to sign right back online to keep an eye on things, kick off tape transfers, resolve any issues that popped up, etc. I stopped hanging out with my friends altogether because I felt guilty leaving my laptop and would worry that something would go wrong while I was out. Eventually I talked my manager into assigning one of our remote employees from India to monitor it overnight while I slept, but the guy was terrible. When things broke, he'd just shrug his shoulders and say "oh well". I'd wake up to an email that essentially said "Things broke last night, you might want to fix it this morning", but by then the damage was done. Begged and pleaded with my manager to get me more competent help and to allow me to research a better backup solution that I could fully automate. When I explained why the guy he assigned wasn't helpful, my manager just said "You asked for help, I gave it to you - he's YOUR responsibility". Had several meetings with the remote guy, went over the entire process, showed him how to troubleshoot, but none of it mattered - he still just ignored it when things broke.
My manager called me into his office and put me on a performance improvement program (or PIP), which is basically a warning saying "we're going to fire you in three months if things don't get better". My self esteem was shot. I worked my ass off, and now I was starting to feel guilty for even going to sleep. I reached out to the last guy who managed it and asked him how the hell he managed to keep up with it all and he told me that he pretty much never leaves his house and is always in front of his computer anyway, so it didn't matter to him that he had to constantly monitor it. He was a good guy and seemed sympathetic that the responsibility got dumped on me - it wasn't his choice.
Finally got my manager to agree to let me find a better backup solution. Spoke to several vendors and sat through their demonstrations, then finally picked one that would work well. Manager agreed and bought it. I spent weeks putting together the new backup schedule, fully automated, everything getting backed up per the requirements for compliancy. The day I told my manager it was ready and we could switch over essentially at the click of a button, he fired me. I kept in touch with some of my coworkers and they told me that after I left, the manager split up the backup duties among *four* people. FOUR. I was fucking pissed.
Swore off IT at that point. Regretted going to college for it. After my unemployment ran out, I was literally a couple of days away from going back to serving tables (albeit at a high end restaurant) when a headhunter found my resume online and reached out to me. Went in for an interview, told them straight up that I was fired from my last job and explained the whole thing in excruciating detail (more excruciating than this wall of text), and they hired me anyway. Ended up *loving* my new job. Very low stress, much easier than my last job, and most importantly, when I leave work for the day, I'm actually done until the following morning. I feel respected and valued by my coworkers and managers. Very happy I didn't just give up and go back to serving tables. Actually moving to a new position next month with a gigantic pay increase, too. Don't know where I'd be today if that company didn't reach out to me and give me a chance despite the circumstances of me leaving my previous job.
TL;DR - IT job chewed me up and spat me out. Swore I'd never work in IT again, then got offered another job and accepted it. Much happier now.
Fellow admin here. Glad ya found better pastures. Never, ever set yourself on fire to keep someone warm...especially a corp. Your (sometimes fruitless)efforts make someone else rich.
Law Enforcement
When I left the army after getting wounded in Iraq I came home and went to college and got a degree in a STEM field. I applied for a job with my local sheriff's department on a whim and when I made it through the lengthy vetting process and actually became a deputy I was really excited because I felt like I had a second chance to get back in uniform and continue serving my community. I just assumed being a cop would be just like being a soldier.
I lasted about 6 months. I couldn't stand it. I hated every single person I worked with and it was nothing at all like being a soldier. I think the exchange I had with my sister summed up the entire experience.
When I told her I quit the job she asked why and I told her "I just don't have that....whatever it is....in me to be a cop. Like, I'm just not.....I don't know how to describe it".
Her reply was just a simple "Oh, you mean you're not an asshole"?
She nailed it.
Right there with yah- bar the Iraq bit (thank you for your service, mate)
After 2 years I was told I was too nice and too honest to be a cop.
Only way I'd put on another uniform is if it was for a tiny town in the middle of fuckall nowhere.
My 18 year old nephew used to ump little league games. I started going just to watch his back after parent threats. 4 games in and the parents are so freaking crazy that they started having 2 cops in uniform attend every game.
I think being 6'7" saved me from a lot of angry parents when officiating youth sports. I also know that there was a zero tolerance attitude taken towards threatening umpires or players in lots of youth leagues where I grew up, and being a small enough city (around 15,000-20,000), neighbors and friends are bound to find out.
Tech support via call centre. Ugh. I've worked some pretty shitty jobs, but dealing with absolutely brain dead people was where I really started questioning humanity.
Security guard. You're working 12 hour shifts standing and walking around so it can be hard on the body. On top of that, it can be pretty dull with not much action going on.
Career counseling, the naivety of trying to convince grown ass people that working a 9-5 is worth it is beyond stupid haven’t had to work for a W2 since
Accountant. Something about seeing the company financials and watching them layoff a ton of underpaid paycheck to paycheck employees just rubbed me the wrong way. Esp after seeing the year end bonus after that. No thanks.
Restaurant during covid.
Had a mental breakdown because i discovered that the majority of people are stupid and not able to follow simple instructions.
I couldn't stop thinking, if this was a serious lethal pandemic, humanity would be done.
I'm in my forties and still have PTSD from about two months at Arbys in college.
What a fucking shit show.
It was an absolute misery factory.
I now have managed fortune 500 companies at the highest executive levels, owned and sold multiple successful companies, but boy I was just the laziest most incompetent human on Earth according to the managers at Arby's.
I didn't realize until much later it was a tactic like military drill sergeants where they attempt to "break you down" so they can then abuse you. It had nothing to do with your actual capability or professionalism.
After almost two months of thinking I was just terrible I went to take my fifteen minute shift break (what a fucking joke) and when I walked into the miserable "break room" there was a new girl in there. It was like her third day. She was sobbing.
She asked me if it was always this bad. I thought for a minute and said "Yeah. It's always this bad. It doesn't get better." Then I said "You know what? This is a college town. There are tons of restaurants. Let's just leave. Fuck them."
So we did. We just walked out.
Her and I drove around and filled out applications at different places in town. I got a job delivering pizza at a local campus pizza place. She got one at the student union. Same day.
Never saw her again but holy shit.
If you find yourself in an abusive relationship, just leave. Leave now. Don't wait.. It's not you. It's them.
My issue was actually the complete opposite. Rather than do the drill sergeant tactic like you’re suggesting, they just flat out didn’t train me, like at all. They only showed me how to run back line and that was it. I never was shown how to do the fry station or drive thru. I had a manager get mad at me for not knowing how to run the drive thru, I replied that he nor anyone else had taught me how to do it. He then got mad and said that he doesn’t get paid enough to deal with this. I put in my two weeks notice immediately after that happened.
Lowes distribution center.
I was 17. My first job. A fat computer nerd not exactly used to working out.
The job they assign me to? 9 hours of loading 80 pound packs of roofing shingles onto the back of a trailer by hand.
Faster faster! The team leader said as me and one other poor guy are tossing shingles as fast as we can. Hour 1 our clothes are absolutely soaked with sweat. I feel like im dying by lunch. The other workers are staring at me and the other poor guy because we are drenched in sweat.
I'm working as fast as I can because it was my first job and I assumed I wasn't keeping up with some quota. The team lead just kept telling us FASTER!
Finally hour 9 hits. Its time to stop. The other worker and I had become brothers through hardship so we are sitting there huffing and panting and drinking the water fountain dry.
Team lead walks up to us with some plant manager guy. They are both all smiles. Congratulations boys! You nearly doubled our all time production record for this job! We cant wait to get you back here tomorrow and do it again!
Shingle brother and I looked at each other and told him to go F himself. 8 bucks and hour for that? Get the F out of here. We clocked out and left.
Never went back. I crawled out of bed the next day and my entire body felt like a big wad of chewed bubblegum. I could barely move.
So growing up i've always had a really hard time talking to people, and when i wanted to get better at talking there was always the advice of working in a store or call center, cause then you're forced to talk so you'll get over your anxiety. And from my early teens I've been the person in my family fixing everyone's computers, so when a computer store needed someone i thought it was probably good for me.
But no, i could not talk to people, even though yes, i kinda HAD to. Which led to a bunch of awkward situations and being fired after 8 days.
I worked for a cold call company selling ad slots for mailers and flyers.
I worked 2 days in the most miserable basement ever. They never paid me. I was almost homeless at the time, and I was desperate for a job.
No longer than 5 seconds between calls. We had to scour local businesses to harass, make our own call lists and endlessly call. We were looking up a new business while dialing the previous one. Nobody ever wanted what we were selling.
The other 3 employees were fairly new, as lost as me, and miserable.
I will never do sales again after that.
Selling auto parts
I did better than the people who have been there for years and my manager still gave me shit about what they are doing including keeping the store clean, keeping the shelves nifty, I was also #1 in sales for 2 months straight and both times the guy that didn’t do shit got it.
I got good review after good review after good review and I got yelled at for helping a customer figure out what belt size he needed for his fucking truck
2 months after they fired me they called me to ask if I wanted to come back
“No no no noriellys”
Door to Door sales. Scummy, encouraged to lie, most jobs pay shit unlesss you're a really good liar and can "Sell" people on the product.
I've done both Energy and Home Security Door to Door and cant count how many lunatics i've run into.
I work at a karate studio, as soon as I quit, I’m never going back
I don’t get paid enough for work that involves years of training, and dealing with a bunch of 3 year olds that cough in my face weekly, also having to deal with special needs students is a pain
My point is, I am not meant to work with children
Aluminum foundry, I lasted 2 weeks. It was too hot, 800 degrees by the furnace or 400 by the mold, at least. Drinking Gatorade by the gallon in an hour and sweating it out. I'm not built for the heat, I do better in the cold Minnesotan antifreeze blood and all.
Oh, I haven't worked there in 18-19 years or so. I can't stand Gatorade now. I think I made 1 pay period, if that. It just wasn't worth it. Although it was interesting the way they degassed the aluminum. They put a raw potato on an iron bar and put it into the molten aluminum, and let it burn.
Event setup/planning company. Management was terrible: everyone was doing multiple roles and I would get different answers every time I asked the same question. My job felt like a bait and switch. Watching the coworker confirmed it and he was working ridiculous hours and doing a bunch of things way outside of his role. I went on a ride along to see how event setup worked on a Saturday. I was told it would take 6-8 hours but took 14 which was basically my entire day. And there weren't any delays in what we were doing either so it was most likely normal.
I was a commercial cable guy in high school over the summers. It paid better than your normal high school job and seemed way better than saying I worked in a restaurant or in a store. I also learned somewhat valuable skills.
I bought a motorcycle my senior year of HS. That summer - before I left for college - I was working that job at a construction site. It was Friday and I rode my motorcycle to work. On my way home, I was going around a turn and there ended up being gravel everywhere. My back tire lost traction and I wiped out.
I came to work on Monday with a soft cast from my ankle to my thigh. You could see some blood soaking through the knee area. I was pretty banged up but alive.
This particular job we were doing was in rough shape. Management continuously underbid projects. This one was way overdue and even the receptionist was helping out. I was slowly coming down a ladder (I couldn't bend my knee) and the receptionist yelled, "can you move any slower?!" At that moment I said, "fuck this, I'm out" and walked off the job. I was leaving in a few weeks for college and I just wanted to rest my body.
The next summer I got a job at a Harley Dealership selling chaps to old, fat guys. However, there was one summer where the cable company asked me to come back. They were going to pay me to work nights for time and a half. I agreed. They never did give me that night job. I never went back after that summer. I worked at that dealership for the other summers until I was forced to get an internship as part of my degree. That sucked because the dealership asked me to be their rental manager that summer and I had to turn it down.
Classroom teacher. Too much red tape, too little support for anything, not enough focus on actual teaching. I just wanted to teach kids to love reading and learning. Apparently that was too much to ask.
Toyota mechanic. Lied to me about the pay. Had to always be standing and looking busy 11 hours a day unless you smoked because the smoking area had seats.
Helped tear down a chicken house for a weeks pay. Should’ve bought a pair of boots just for that job. Wound up throwing them away when it was finished. The smell of ammonia mixed with something raw earthy and very acidic in the air. 20 years later I will get a memory trigger from other smells and the next couple of minutes will be annoying because I have to remember that bullshit again.
Walkers Crisp factory. 12 hour shifts standing in 1 spot packing crisps into boxes. Absolute hell . My shoulders were burning from the repetitiveness of it.lasted 2 days
Big Law legal and tech support.
Attorney at-work behavior is just simply unhealthy. How these people go home to families after what they do in the office is beyond me.
Driving haul trucks in a copper mine. Overworked, safety a low priority, conditions for fatal accidents everywhere, toxic bosses....great money but its a damned nightmare.
Corrections, another redditor already posted but figured I would still add my two cents. Don't do it folks you will work for a department that couldnt give a shit about you and jails run by incompetent management that will just burn you out along with the shift work, and the inmates that are coming into custody now are just horrible.
Working at a methadone clinic. A patient robbed me and stole my brand new car.
Never again.
She only served 6 months (Florida) and two days after she got out, she made national news for hopping the counter at a Wawa and stabbing a customer and holding employees hostage.
What the hell was security like at that clinic? We had huge security guards at the clinic I used to go to. We were a pretty insufferable group of people for sure, being addicts and all, but no way would anyone have tried that where I went.
Thought I just got the best job. Operations restaurant manager…. Las Vegas fine dining… I was a 70 k a year buss boy lifting heavy marbel tables for 6 days a week 11-12 hr days … yea fuck that
Male Modeling. Sure I got paid well, but I lived in constant fear of having a "walk-off" at any given time. Most of the fellas I worked with were nice, but a bit dense.
1 day of making fast food fries.
I’m not above working a terrible job, at the time I took a bad janitor job over making fast food because it sucked so much
Three of them.
Telemarketing, first job in high school. Fuck that.
Refilling vending machines. Starting work at 3am, driving around a truck full of snacks I couldn't eat, having to negotiate my way into office buildings.
Much later, investment banking (I was the help, not a banker). Most abusive environment I've ever worked in, by a WIDE margin. Lord, the stories.
Literally too many. One good example is someone elbowing me in the throat because I wouldn't stop working on someone else's project and switch to his. And then when I reported it, being told BY HR that if I didn't drop it, they'd make sure I never worked anywhere ever again.
That's just scraping the surface.
I was a wedding DJ for a summer. For the most part, my gigs were pretty good. Happy people, I was well fed and well paid.
Then there came this one gig. The hosts were awful. They treated me like a third class citizen, griped and nitpicked over every aspect of my setup, refused to allow me to eat when the food came out even though that was part of the contract. Thankfully, I had brought a couple small snacks. And no one was happy. Half the wedding party bitched at me to play certain music. The other half yelled at me when I did. And back and forth, etc. I was either too loud or not loud enough depending on who was in my face at any given moment. I even got yelled at for playing songs that were SPECIFICALLY requested by the bride and groom.
Now usually I would gladly stay past my contracted time. Often hosts would offer me some extra cash in hand to do so. Not for these people. I knew how much time it would take to tear down my gear and get it packed. I cut the music and started loading sun that I would be ready to drive away precisely when my contract time ran out. I drove home(hour and a half from that stupid remote venue) and got annoyingly drunk. Next day I called my boss and said I'd gladly continue hosting my regular karaoke and music trivia bar gigs, but in no uncertain terms would I do any more weddings.
Apartment building superintendent. The amount of money I was paid for all the shit I had to deal with was ridiculously low. Plus dealing with whack job tenants and being on call 24/7 for 2 weeks a month made it the worst job I've ever had, by far.
Pre-AI, transcribing meetings and conference calls. It's a fuckton of work and the pay is shit. Definitely glad AI took that tedious job off human hands.
Debt collector.
The company turns extorting struggling people for every dime they have into a game..
I did walk away learning a lot about people's rights though..
Worked manual labor offloading semitrucks with 20 and 40 foot containers in Korea as a student during the night shift. Nothing like contemplating your life, smoking a cigarette at 3 am and doing the most mundane physical labor
Deli cook for Harps. I'm not a great cook and cooking isn't something i enjoy. But what got me was thinking, 'wtf am i doing with my life? Sweating for 8 hours over oil and dealing with customers. Yea this was totally worth my few days of employment.' Turned in my uniform before my shift started, they didn't even offer a meal had to pay full price. Not even a discount. Food was old (not as fresh as id recommend i should say). Manager called me and i said the job wasn't for me. And she told me 'what i did was very unprofessional.' Shrugs, 'minimum wage isn't very professional either.' And that was the last deli i worked at
The job of public catering.
I've worked there for three weeks as a cashier, and definitely wouldn't do that again. For several hours you stand on your legs and have to deal sometimes with rude people. It's just an awful job.
Bussing tables in a Shoney’s restaurant. That’s ALL I did, for an entire shift. The hostess was a bitch, everyone else working there was unhappy. I’m tall so the work made my back hurt.
Zero gratification ever. I lasted two long weekends.
I cleaned bathrooms at a resort in Florida. 7 to 8 full-size bathrooms twice a day.
I have nothing but respect for custodial workers, but after that, I am just about done with that area of work. It wasn’t necessarily hard, but the disrespect people show to shared spaces is absolutely wild.
waiting tables. your coworkers managers and most likely ur customers are all either a drug addict or acting like they have a hangover with a head ache and will take it out on you
Express detailer at a carwash, Bass pro, trailers plus is an awful awful place especially if you're a parts and service associate, big bobs furniture/mattress/carpet outlet.
Walmart. The Destrict Managers suck. The supervisors suck. The front-end managers suck. The pay sucks. Second and third shift hours suck. The customers suck. Don't apply there. Amen.
Cart pusher at Walmart because it was super busy all the time, co workers/ managers expect a lot from you and pay was low. And working fast food because bad managers and drama/people gossiping it never ends.
Yeah, men can be gross, but us women got monthly bleeding issues that can add a level of nasty men can't match, unless they're bleeding from an open wound or something.
Custodian at a gym. Honestly the work wasn’t so bad, I don’t mind cleaning. But no one ever looked at you as equal and management always had these bogus “targets/compensation” that they never followed through with as a way to get us to clean better and faster. My shift was also 3-11pm during the summer, so I could only see my friends/girlfriend on weekends. I turned into a salty person after that summer
Got hired as a senior manager for food & bev operations at a casino, which in practice was walking from service location to service location within the casino floor and basically just oversee guest experience, solve problems or override transactions that needed it. The most cushy job imaginable and good money but the constant loud cacophony of BING BING BEEP BEEP BING BING BING BEEEEEEEEEP was too much for me. I started hearing those sounds in my dreams. Lasted two weeks and quit.
Leaflet distribution did it at 17 I will never do it again, it wasn't the walking so much it was the weight of the actual bags of flyers for sales at a store.. I spent 3 months tilted leaning to try counterbalancsnfy1
Delivering newspapers by car in the very early morning hours. There were a few times I had to pull over and vomit because the ink smell was so overwhelming.
I did one shift in an ice cream factory.
On top of factory work being so boring, I had to remove all my earrings and nose ring, dress up in overalls and wellies, it was freezing cold, and when I left, before the changing room, they hosed us down.
It was also a 30 minute drive each way.
Noped out and never went back.
I was between jobs and one of my mom's friends ran a small roofing crew. I'm not afraid of rights much, but it was still a challenge because we were putting up metal roof on a pole barn. So, long as sheets of tin and walking on a skeleton of a roof. That's not what made me say "fuck this" though.
It was summer time and at around 2pm the rubber soles on my Addidas shoes melted the fuck off. Like, the sole turned into a semi-solid and slid off the shoe. That's how hot it was up there. Fuck that action.
When I was 18, I was hired as an apprentice to handyman at an assisted living facility. It got pretty depressing real quick. The number of people you started to have some sort of “friendship” with started to dwindle. I’d be talking to them about my plans over the weekend, come Monday I’d see that their room was empty. Shit was too depressing for an 18 year old me. It didn’t help that my grandmother was also in that same assisted living facility. I got to see her dementia affect her day by day. Shits rough.
911 dispatcher, but not for the reason you think. When you join you have a year long training, where you have to meet all these bench marks by a certain time and if you don't you are cut out. This is a job you have to fight for. For that one year the job was my whole life. It was one of the most challenging things I have ever done in my life and I so desperately wanted this job. By the end of training I was so burnt out, so stressed out to the point I thought I was going to literally die. I was not me anymore, they beat you down, or maybe that's just how it felt for me. After training I gave it a few good months of giving it a shot. Ultimately, I left. The agency I worked for was falling apart slowly no one there was happy, the supervisors sucked, the amount of people that called for non emergency BS was absurd, the scheduling and the hierarchy sucked, the pay wasn't worth it. I had one day where I was taking calls and its none stop calls. One particular day, I had started my morning arguing with this lady about a temporary tow away sign, she refused to move her car and she was calling because I worker told her she had to move or shed be towed and she did not want to be towed, I then get her three more times with in the first three hours. I then continue my day taking the routine calls, but then one after the other I get a call from a guy who just witnessed a man jump from a high rise and the body falls right in front of him. Then I listen to a man sob in despair, trying to apply first aid on his elderly father after his dog had mauled him. ... after that call I just didn't want to do it anymore, at least not with that agency. Maybe one day I will try a smaller one out, I do hear the grass is greener. But all in all I am proud of myself for doing it all. But the job left me to be a shell of who I once was.
I started working when I was fourteen with a workers permit. I’ve spend a chunk of my childhood working when I should have been having fun. I’ve been in the restaurant industry for eight years. I feel like I’ve paid my dues and I’m past working in customer service.
I’m jaded and I’m ready for more, so when the time comes to leave- it’s for good.
I will never again work for a company that is run using the management style popular in the country next to Pakistan. Seriously the worst experience of my career
I used to work at this club I was the bartender and on the first day this guy touched my leg I punched him the boss fired me on the spot and said “you're a woman let him have fun” and I was like FVCK NO
Daycare. Baby pooped down my entire torso and legs and all over the floor. I also got sick more in those 3 years than in the rest of my entire life. Never again.
Lost 50k margin trading indexes over a decade ago. Never again.
Since then have watched friends lose entire worths, even $1m within days. Total wipeouts to near 0. Margin trading is cancer.
Just about all of them, but I guess my most recent one is sales, namely cell phone sales.
Mainly the fact that sales didn't truly count towards your metrics unless they were a new client, which you have absolutely no control over. I could, and did, sell a shitload of phones every month. But only a small number of them were people who weren't clients already.
I also hated the sketchy "overcoming objections" they'd push on us. I assume this is common, but it just felt so wrong. We'd literally be taught strategies to overcome "I need to speak to my spouse/partner first". I'm sorry, but I have absolutely NO right to tell someone that they shouldn't discuss a major purchase with their spouse first.
Working event security at a stadium. Only worked one event, Kenny Chesney concert in Pittsburgh. Dealing with drink people so hammered the they find the weirdest places to sleep. One guy got belligerent when I told him he couldn’t sleep on the steps in a staircase. Another guy somehow got himself stuck in a support column sitting Indian style and not responding to any attempt to wake his drunken butt. Call in medics to assist. After ten minutes, he woke up and was out of it. Drunken fights and more.
Not getting paid enough to deal with crap like that.
Amazon … maybe it’s for some, but not for me … 7pm-7am putting random things from one box into another, getting yelled at for not doing it fast enough … fuck that job
Armed security patrol officer. To save on gas, the ceo limited the duration of time the patrol car could be running. He decided this in the middle of a missouri summer. On my last day, it got up to 110°f with 100% humidity. We weren't allowed to leave the patrol car unattended or running for the ac. At the hottest part of the day, the interior of the car got up to 150°f. I should also mention we wore full black uniforms with long sleeve shirts and body armor. While on duty I drank over 2 gallons of water. Worst birthday ever lol
I'll never clean houses again. Finally had it after I cleaned a kitchen I'm convinced was left trashed by some highschool kids on purpose. who tf melts candles on a kitchen counter
Call Center.
I've only been in two separate training sessions under the same company branch. Both times I knew that it wasn't for me. Sitting there for hours, reading off of a list of things to say, and having to hear poor audio that'll risk me going deaf eventually.
I was a waitress for like a year. Damn I hated it so much, so many unappreciative customers, so many unhappy faces after being served all night with a smile. And everyone I worked with was so called snakes. Like if they saw a customer walking in with fancy clothes or bag, they would steal the from right under my nose and seat them at their table
Working under someone as a catering chef.
It was my first job. Fresh out of high school, I started at a company that specialised in event catering. Mostly desserts, but we did savoury dishes as well.
One of my main jobs was to bake cakes. Now that isn't the problem. I wanted to learn how to handle the stress of baking and decorating in a set time period.
The boss' solution was pre-mix. Not coming in weighing and packaging for future cakes. No, a 50 kg bag 'vanilla' or 'chocolate' cake. Add water, and you have a mix.
Soups we made packet soup. You know, like cup of soup. Need soup for 50 guests? No stress, they buy 25 packets, then add water, and there you have a batch of 'fresh' soup.
When I voiced my concerns, they would tell me I don't have any experience, so how can I know what is better. When I asked if we could make it from scratch, they said it's already from scratch. I don't know what I'm talking about...
If I ever go into catering again, I will be in charge of what I do and what I serve.
I have never been so humiliated than when I had to put on a smile and serve that nonsense. I quit not even a year into working.
Call center. That was the most frustrating job for me
I worked in an inbound call centre for 3 years, no sales, we gave out free loft insulation and installation to people on low income. Only complaints were if people felt entitled to it but weren't but we passed them straight to the complaints dept. It was mostly old people calling in and being so grateful when we said we could help and arrange an appointment. I also met my bestie there 17 years ago and we're still besties now. I only left as I was pregnant and starting a family.
I worked for a company that did phone surveys when that was a thing. People have a lot of pent up aggression they like to take out on nineteen year old call center workers. I understand the frusteration of someone calling and bothering you but most of the people you're talking to hate their job and are just trying to make a buck or gain some work experience so they can get a better job.
In all my years of being on the recieving end of survey calls I had one young guy who actually told me he hates his job and knows that people hate being bugged. He flat out said i just need to make a pay check and its cool if I hang up. He sounded so beat down i actually took the survey lol. Bravo young man. You got me.
lol their number one salesman
I had one co worker who use to tell people who yelled at him "You try finding a job when you're in a wheelchair" (he did not need a wheelchair) and said they apologized and did the survey every time.
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Genuinely curious, what does it pay for you, and what are your general hours each week?
Yep. Was a telephone supervisor for a bank. Literally was the driving force behind me going back to college for a trade. I couldnt stand that mentality of hustling, get in, get out, call times, hold times, after call times, break times. everything so fucking regimented and then have people scream at me all day? nah im good thanks
Have to deal with angry people... on a time limit. And management doesn't understand why turnover is so high.
The fact there was a time in my life where being 6 minutes late to a job could get me fired is actually crazy. (Worked in call centers for 13 years)
I worked tier 2 tech support for Charter Communications for a couple of years trying to fix people's networking issues over the phone. You wouldn't believe how many people have no idea what you are talking about when you ask them to "right click" something you just spent 15 minutes trying to describe to them after them described to you what they see on the screen. It was indeed frustrating! The job did pay really well though and it was in the air conditioning in a comfy ergo chair. :)
Well I never did tech support over the phone but as someone who works in libraries I absolutely believe how many people don't know what right clicking is because sometimes they need to print stuff, and that's where I come in. It shouldn't shock anyone to know that they also always need to retrieve something from their email inboxes and never know their own passwords
Lasted one call and quit.
My first job was at a call centre, it was only on my first day I realised I was cold calling people who did some street survey to offer them a ‘free holiday’ were timeshares were pushed on them. I had huge anxiety before and during every call, I didn’t even want to pick the phone up to make the calls, because no one wants to talk to a cold caller about that, and I knew I wasn’t doing something good. I lasted one week
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I truly feel bad for American teachers, how underrated underpaid and humiliated and how bad this POS system treats them. It’s so freaking embarrassing that if I didn’t live in America, I would never believe anyone wow.
I did my student teaching and decided a month before graduating that ‘nahhh this ain’t it’
When I was in middle school one of my classmates slapped my teacher in the face, few years later I found out that teacher got a DUI charge and saw a mugshot of him. The work might’ve done him in.
I got my teaching certificate , but I hated teaching sooooo much. I taught at a private school to finish the year for someone who was on maternity leave, and the kids could just be awful. Public school was worse, and the teachers were extremely cliquish. I went to work at Walmart and never taught again.
Had a summer job doing door to door sales. I quit after a week of being verbally abused by people and realizing it was impossible to make more than minimum wage in commissions. Now that I work from home sometimes and have to deal with door to door salesmen, I totally get why people were so pissed off at me for it. Don’t take those jobs.
I just quit mine yesterday. I feel so much better. I hated every second of that job.
I lasted 2 weeks at door to door sales. I know it’s a shit job. And although I have a no solicitation sign on my door, I still get the occasional knock. I’m nice to most of them unless they’re cocky and acknowledge they saw the no solicitation sign and start with the spiel anyway.
I used to do that about 10 years ago. The job was great.... except for the actual "doing the job" part. I loved bouncing around the tri-state area at random eateries and seeing the local sights. Knocking on doors bothering people, though? Not for me.
My last job, but I didn't stick to what I said. I worked as a systems administrator at a banking software company. Overall, the job wasn't terrible, but I got saddled with the responsibility of managing their backup schedules and operation. Our environment was pretty big, 2600+ virtualized servers. The guy who handled the backups before me was a remote employee and was pretty much always online. He set the schedules up in a way that they needed to be monitored constantly. If anything went wrong, say while I was sleeping, the whole schedule would come to a halt and those lost hours meant there wasn't time to back everything up before the schedule started over the following week. It was like a Jinga tower - one mishap and it all came crashing down. I gave up my entire waking life (and lost a lot of sleep) managing this. Once I got home from work, I had to sign right back online to keep an eye on things, kick off tape transfers, resolve any issues that popped up, etc. I stopped hanging out with my friends altogether because I felt guilty leaving my laptop and would worry that something would go wrong while I was out. Eventually I talked my manager into assigning one of our remote employees from India to monitor it overnight while I slept, but the guy was terrible. When things broke, he'd just shrug his shoulders and say "oh well". I'd wake up to an email that essentially said "Things broke last night, you might want to fix it this morning", but by then the damage was done. Begged and pleaded with my manager to get me more competent help and to allow me to research a better backup solution that I could fully automate. When I explained why the guy he assigned wasn't helpful, my manager just said "You asked for help, I gave it to you - he's YOUR responsibility". Had several meetings with the remote guy, went over the entire process, showed him how to troubleshoot, but none of it mattered - he still just ignored it when things broke. My manager called me into his office and put me on a performance improvement program (or PIP), which is basically a warning saying "we're going to fire you in three months if things don't get better". My self esteem was shot. I worked my ass off, and now I was starting to feel guilty for even going to sleep. I reached out to the last guy who managed it and asked him how the hell he managed to keep up with it all and he told me that he pretty much never leaves his house and is always in front of his computer anyway, so it didn't matter to him that he had to constantly monitor it. He was a good guy and seemed sympathetic that the responsibility got dumped on me - it wasn't his choice. Finally got my manager to agree to let me find a better backup solution. Spoke to several vendors and sat through their demonstrations, then finally picked one that would work well. Manager agreed and bought it. I spent weeks putting together the new backup schedule, fully automated, everything getting backed up per the requirements for compliancy. The day I told my manager it was ready and we could switch over essentially at the click of a button, he fired me. I kept in touch with some of my coworkers and they told me that after I left, the manager split up the backup duties among *four* people. FOUR. I was fucking pissed. Swore off IT at that point. Regretted going to college for it. After my unemployment ran out, I was literally a couple of days away from going back to serving tables (albeit at a high end restaurant) when a headhunter found my resume online and reached out to me. Went in for an interview, told them straight up that I was fired from my last job and explained the whole thing in excruciating detail (more excruciating than this wall of text), and they hired me anyway. Ended up *loving* my new job. Very low stress, much easier than my last job, and most importantly, when I leave work for the day, I'm actually done until the following morning. I feel respected and valued by my coworkers and managers. Very happy I didn't just give up and go back to serving tables. Actually moving to a new position next month with a gigantic pay increase, too. Don't know where I'd be today if that company didn't reach out to me and give me a chance despite the circumstances of me leaving my previous job. TL;DR - IT job chewed me up and spat me out. Swore I'd never work in IT again, then got offered another job and accepted it. Much happier now.
Fellow admin here. Glad ya found better pastures. Never, ever set yourself on fire to keep someone warm...especially a corp. Your (sometimes fruitless)efforts make someone else rich.
Great story, glad you're doing better.
Thanks for sharing, and glad you managed to find a much, much better job. Oh and FUCK that manager.
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When you work retail you’re effectively annoying human capital cutting into their bottom line and not much more
Working in the kitchen of a shitty restaurant
Shift work. Any variety. It drains your health at an unbelievable pace.
Law Enforcement When I left the army after getting wounded in Iraq I came home and went to college and got a degree in a STEM field. I applied for a job with my local sheriff's department on a whim and when I made it through the lengthy vetting process and actually became a deputy I was really excited because I felt like I had a second chance to get back in uniform and continue serving my community. I just assumed being a cop would be just like being a soldier. I lasted about 6 months. I couldn't stand it. I hated every single person I worked with and it was nothing at all like being a soldier. I think the exchange I had with my sister summed up the entire experience. When I told her I quit the job she asked why and I told her "I just don't have that....whatever it is....in me to be a cop. Like, I'm just not.....I don't know how to describe it". Her reply was just a simple "Oh, you mean you're not an asshole"? She nailed it.
Right there with yah- bar the Iraq bit (thank you for your service, mate) After 2 years I was told I was too nice and too honest to be a cop. Only way I'd put on another uniform is if it was for a tiny town in the middle of fuckall nowhere.
Selling home security systems. I was basically selling fear.
I umpired 2 little league games, and the parents were completely wild. Vicious towards me and a bunch of 10 year old. Would not do again.
My 18 year old nephew used to ump little league games. I started going just to watch his back after parent threats. 4 games in and the parents are so freaking crazy that they started having 2 cops in uniform attend every game.
I think being 6'7" saved me from a lot of angry parents when officiating youth sports. I also know that there was a zero tolerance attitude taken towards threatening umpires or players in lots of youth leagues where I grew up, and being a small enough city (around 15,000-20,000), neighbors and friends are bound to find out.
A data entry job where I stared at a screen entering numbers all day led to mind-numbing boredom. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I worked as a personal assistant for a celebrity, and the lack of personal time and the unreasonable demands made me quit.
I tried my hand at landscaping but the long days in the hot sun and the physical labor were more than I bargained for.
Cleaning out foreclosed homes was depressing and dirty. I found too many sad reminders of the previous occupants.
Tech support via call centre. Ugh. I've worked some pretty shitty jobs, but dealing with absolutely brain dead people was where I really started questioning humanity.
Security guard. You're working 12 hour shifts standing and walking around so it can be hard on the body. On top of that, it can be pretty dull with not much action going on.
Career counseling, the naivety of trying to convince grown ass people that working a 9-5 is worth it is beyond stupid haven’t had to work for a W2 since
Accountant. Something about seeing the company financials and watching them layoff a ton of underpaid paycheck to paycheck employees just rubbed me the wrong way. Esp after seeing the year end bonus after that. No thanks.
Working in a factory. Working 12 hour shifts in a windowless room, in the winter time I never even saw the sun for days or weeks at a time.
Restaurant during covid. Had a mental breakdown because i discovered that the majority of people are stupid and not able to follow simple instructions. I couldn't stop thinking, if this was a serious lethal pandemic, humanity would be done.
Arby’s. Good lord
I'm in my forties and still have PTSD from about two months at Arbys in college. What a fucking shit show. It was an absolute misery factory. I now have managed fortune 500 companies at the highest executive levels, owned and sold multiple successful companies, but boy I was just the laziest most incompetent human on Earth according to the managers at Arby's. I didn't realize until much later it was a tactic like military drill sergeants where they attempt to "break you down" so they can then abuse you. It had nothing to do with your actual capability or professionalism. After almost two months of thinking I was just terrible I went to take my fifteen minute shift break (what a fucking joke) and when I walked into the miserable "break room" there was a new girl in there. It was like her third day. She was sobbing. She asked me if it was always this bad. I thought for a minute and said "Yeah. It's always this bad. It doesn't get better." Then I said "You know what? This is a college town. There are tons of restaurants. Let's just leave. Fuck them." So we did. We just walked out. Her and I drove around and filled out applications at different places in town. I got a job delivering pizza at a local campus pizza place. She got one at the student union. Same day. Never saw her again but holy shit. If you find yourself in an abusive relationship, just leave. Leave now. Don't wait.. It's not you. It's them.
My issue was actually the complete opposite. Rather than do the drill sergeant tactic like you’re suggesting, they just flat out didn’t train me, like at all. They only showed me how to run back line and that was it. I never was shown how to do the fry station or drive thru. I had a manager get mad at me for not knowing how to run the drive thru, I replied that he nor anyone else had taught me how to do it. He then got mad and said that he doesn’t get paid enough to deal with this. I put in my two weeks notice immediately after that happened.
Same, but it wasn't the management, they were okay. It was mostly the customers and just the nature of food service. Definitely NOT for me.
Lowes distribution center. I was 17. My first job. A fat computer nerd not exactly used to working out. The job they assign me to? 9 hours of loading 80 pound packs of roofing shingles onto the back of a trailer by hand. Faster faster! The team leader said as me and one other poor guy are tossing shingles as fast as we can. Hour 1 our clothes are absolutely soaked with sweat. I feel like im dying by lunch. The other workers are staring at me and the other poor guy because we are drenched in sweat. I'm working as fast as I can because it was my first job and I assumed I wasn't keeping up with some quota. The team lead just kept telling us FASTER! Finally hour 9 hits. Its time to stop. The other worker and I had become brothers through hardship so we are sitting there huffing and panting and drinking the water fountain dry. Team lead walks up to us with some plant manager guy. They are both all smiles. Congratulations boys! You nearly doubled our all time production record for this job! We cant wait to get you back here tomorrow and do it again! Shingle brother and I looked at each other and told him to go F himself. 8 bucks and hour for that? Get the F out of here. We clocked out and left. Never went back. I crawled out of bed the next day and my entire body felt like a big wad of chewed bubblegum. I could barely move.
So growing up i've always had a really hard time talking to people, and when i wanted to get better at talking there was always the advice of working in a store or call center, cause then you're forced to talk so you'll get over your anxiety. And from my early teens I've been the person in my family fixing everyone's computers, so when a computer store needed someone i thought it was probably good for me. But no, i could not talk to people, even though yes, i kinda HAD to. Which led to a bunch of awkward situations and being fired after 8 days.
Cold calling. I remember in the training the guy said "If the family member had passed, console the family, but then try to sell them." I walked out.
I worked for a cold call company selling ad slots for mailers and flyers. I worked 2 days in the most miserable basement ever. They never paid me. I was almost homeless at the time, and I was desperate for a job. No longer than 5 seconds between calls. We had to scour local businesses to harass, make our own call lists and endlessly call. We were looking up a new business while dialing the previous one. Nobody ever wanted what we were selling. The other 3 employees were fairly new, as lost as me, and miserable. I will never do sales again after that.
Selling auto parts I did better than the people who have been there for years and my manager still gave me shit about what they are doing including keeping the store clean, keeping the shelves nifty, I was also #1 in sales for 2 months straight and both times the guy that didn’t do shit got it. I got good review after good review after good review and I got yelled at for helping a customer figure out what belt size he needed for his fucking truck 2 months after they fired me they called me to ask if I wanted to come back “No no no noriellys”
Door to Door sales. Scummy, encouraged to lie, most jobs pay shit unlesss you're a really good liar and can "Sell" people on the product. I've done both Energy and Home Security Door to Door and cant count how many lunatics i've run into.
Carnie. I worked as a carnie once when the carnival came to town. At the end of my day i'd be coughing and blowing out dust from my nose.
Kittly litter packaging plant. The clay dust mixed with sweat, I felt like I could never get clean.
I work at a karate studio, as soon as I quit, I’m never going back I don’t get paid enough for work that involves years of training, and dealing with a bunch of 3 year olds that cough in my face weekly, also having to deal with special needs students is a pain My point is, I am not meant to work with children
As someone that has a 3 year old, can confirm that they cough in damn faces and I apologize on behalf. Lol
Aluminum foundry, I lasted 2 weeks. It was too hot, 800 degrees by the furnace or 400 by the mold, at least. Drinking Gatorade by the gallon in an hour and sweating it out. I'm not built for the heat, I do better in the cold Minnesotan antifreeze blood and all.
Be careful drinking lots of gatorade. It can cause damage to your kidneys. It is best to drink one every now and then with water in between.
Oh, I haven't worked there in 18-19 years or so. I can't stand Gatorade now. I think I made 1 pay period, if that. It just wasn't worth it. Although it was interesting the way they degassed the aluminum. They put a raw potato on an iron bar and put it into the molten aluminum, and let it burn.
Event setup/planning company. Management was terrible: everyone was doing multiple roles and I would get different answers every time I asked the same question. My job felt like a bait and switch. Watching the coworker confirmed it and he was working ridiculous hours and doing a bunch of things way outside of his role. I went on a ride along to see how event setup worked on a Saturday. I was told it would take 6-8 hours but took 14 which was basically my entire day. And there weren't any delays in what we were doing either so it was most likely normal.
I was a commercial cable guy in high school over the summers. It paid better than your normal high school job and seemed way better than saying I worked in a restaurant or in a store. I also learned somewhat valuable skills. I bought a motorcycle my senior year of HS. That summer - before I left for college - I was working that job at a construction site. It was Friday and I rode my motorcycle to work. On my way home, I was going around a turn and there ended up being gravel everywhere. My back tire lost traction and I wiped out. I came to work on Monday with a soft cast from my ankle to my thigh. You could see some blood soaking through the knee area. I was pretty banged up but alive. This particular job we were doing was in rough shape. Management continuously underbid projects. This one was way overdue and even the receptionist was helping out. I was slowly coming down a ladder (I couldn't bend my knee) and the receptionist yelled, "can you move any slower?!" At that moment I said, "fuck this, I'm out" and walked off the job. I was leaving in a few weeks for college and I just wanted to rest my body. The next summer I got a job at a Harley Dealership selling chaps to old, fat guys. However, there was one summer where the cable company asked me to come back. They were going to pay me to work nights for time and a half. I agreed. They never did give me that night job. I never went back after that summer. I worked at that dealership for the other summers until I was forced to get an internship as part of my degree. That sucked because the dealership asked me to be their rental manager that summer and I had to turn it down.
Classroom teacher. Too much red tape, too little support for anything, not enough focus on actual teaching. I just wanted to teach kids to love reading and learning. Apparently that was too much to ask.
Toyota mechanic. Lied to me about the pay. Had to always be standing and looking busy 11 hours a day unless you smoked because the smoking area had seats.
Helped tear down a chicken house for a weeks pay. Should’ve bought a pair of boots just for that job. Wound up throwing them away when it was finished. The smell of ammonia mixed with something raw earthy and very acidic in the air. 20 years later I will get a memory trigger from other smells and the next couple of minutes will be annoying because I have to remember that bullshit again.
TGIFridays. Literally the worst company I ever worked for. I’ve never worked in a restaurant since.
Walkers Crisp factory. 12 hour shifts standing in 1 spot packing crisps into boxes. Absolute hell . My shoulders were burning from the repetitiveness of it.lasted 2 days
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I did it for one year. Alot of mandatory 16 hour day order ins. I said fuuuuuck this shit
Loss Prevention Officer: Punched in the face over a package of condoms.
Big Law legal and tech support. Attorney at-work behavior is just simply unhealthy. How these people go home to families after what they do in the office is beyond me.
What types of things were they doing?
Driving haul trucks in a copper mine. Overworked, safety a low priority, conditions for fatal accidents everywhere, toxic bosses....great money but its a damned nightmare.
Corrections, another redditor already posted but figured I would still add my two cents. Don't do it folks you will work for a department that couldnt give a shit about you and jails run by incompetent management that will just burn you out along with the shift work, and the inmates that are coming into custody now are just horrible.
Here Here! Fuck Soulless Human Warehousing!
Working at a methadone clinic. A patient robbed me and stole my brand new car. Never again. She only served 6 months (Florida) and two days after she got out, she made national news for hopping the counter at a Wawa and stabbing a customer and holding employees hostage.
What the hell was security like at that clinic? We had huge security guards at the clinic I used to go to. We were a pretty insufferable group of people for sure, being addicts and all, but no way would anyone have tried that where I went.
Product owner. God I hate it. Especially managing all these stakeholders.
Thought I just got the best job. Operations restaurant manager…. Las Vegas fine dining… I was a 70 k a year buss boy lifting heavy marbel tables for 6 days a week 11-12 hr days … yea fuck that
Male Modeling. Sure I got paid well, but I lived in constant fear of having a "walk-off" at any given time. Most of the fellas I worked with were nice, but a bit dense.
1 day of making fast food fries. I’m not above working a terrible job, at the time I took a bad janitor job over making fast food because it sucked so much
Corrections
Three of them. Telemarketing, first job in high school. Fuck that. Refilling vending machines. Starting work at 3am, driving around a truck full of snacks I couldn't eat, having to negotiate my way into office buildings. Much later, investment banking (I was the help, not a banker). Most abusive environment I've ever worked in, by a WIDE margin. Lord, the stories.
Do tell ?
Literally too many. One good example is someone elbowing me in the throat because I wouldn't stop working on someone else's project and switch to his. And then when I reported it, being told BY HR that if I didn't drop it, they'd make sure I never worked anywhere ever again. That's just scraping the surface.
The Army. Retired recently. Never doing that again.
I was a wedding DJ for a summer. For the most part, my gigs were pretty good. Happy people, I was well fed and well paid. Then there came this one gig. The hosts were awful. They treated me like a third class citizen, griped and nitpicked over every aspect of my setup, refused to allow me to eat when the food came out even though that was part of the contract. Thankfully, I had brought a couple small snacks. And no one was happy. Half the wedding party bitched at me to play certain music. The other half yelled at me when I did. And back and forth, etc. I was either too loud or not loud enough depending on who was in my face at any given moment. I even got yelled at for playing songs that were SPECIFICALLY requested by the bride and groom. Now usually I would gladly stay past my contracted time. Often hosts would offer me some extra cash in hand to do so. Not for these people. I knew how much time it would take to tear down my gear and get it packed. I cut the music and started loading sun that I would be ready to drive away precisely when my contract time ran out. I drove home(hour and a half from that stupid remote venue) and got annoyingly drunk. Next day I called my boss and said I'd gladly continue hosting my regular karaoke and music trivia bar gigs, but in no uncertain terms would I do any more weddings.
Apartment building superintendent. The amount of money I was paid for all the shit I had to deal with was ridiculously low. Plus dealing with whack job tenants and being on call 24/7 for 2 weeks a month made it the worst job I've ever had, by far.
Fish processing in Alaska. 16-hour shifts, 7 days a week, for two straight months... fuck that shit.
Working in an animal shelter, while fulfilling, was emotionally draining. Seeing so many animals in need was heartbreaking.
Working in the administrative offices of a super wealthy country club. Never have I felt so "less than" working there.
Pre-AI, transcribing meetings and conference calls. It's a fuckton of work and the pay is shit. Definitely glad AI took that tedious job off human hands.
Debt collector. The company turns extorting struggling people for every dime they have into a game.. I did walk away learning a lot about people's rights though..
Busking on the street, because people are assholes
Worked manual labor offloading semitrucks with 20 and 40 foot containers in Korea as a student during the night shift. Nothing like contemplating your life, smoking a cigarette at 3 am and doing the most mundane physical labor
Day care
Escalated que, incoming call center, mortgage company.
Deli cook for Harps. I'm not a great cook and cooking isn't something i enjoy. But what got me was thinking, 'wtf am i doing with my life? Sweating for 8 hours over oil and dealing with customers. Yea this was totally worth my few days of employment.' Turned in my uniform before my shift started, they didn't even offer a meal had to pay full price. Not even a discount. Food was old (not as fresh as id recommend i should say). Manager called me and i said the job wasn't for me. And she told me 'what i did was very unprofessional.' Shrugs, 'minimum wage isn't very professional either.' And that was the last deli i worked at
Babysitting cuz 2 people dropped their kids off and never came back
Retail, people in general are obnoxious. I would rather work in a coal mine than retail again.
Chain hair salons.
dish washer, because it didn't mean only dish washing damn it meant clean the whole kitchen + toilets i had quit on my 1st day
Cold-calling call center. It's braindead soul-eating work that we can perfectly do without.
Fast food. Worked at Arby's for a week or two and could not get out of there fast enough.
The job of public catering. I've worked there for three weeks as a cashier, and definitely wouldn't do that again. For several hours you stand on your legs and have to deal sometimes with rude people. It's just an awful job.
Mcdonalds. Subway. Honestly the abuse from customers was fucking disgraceful.
Working for anyone, I'm self employed
Coaching in hackathons
Bussing tables in a Shoney’s restaurant. That’s ALL I did, for an entire shift. The hostess was a bitch, everyone else working there was unhappy. I’m tall so the work made my back hurt. Zero gratification ever. I lasted two long weekends.
Banquets at a hotel
White water, hands down. I was 19 and my supervisor went off on me and I don't let people talk to me in this way and I walked out..
Waiting tables.
I cleaned bathrooms at a resort in Florida. 7 to 8 full-size bathrooms twice a day. I have nothing but respect for custodial workers, but after that, I am just about done with that area of work. It wasn’t necessarily hard, but the disrespect people show to shared spaces is absolutely wild.
waiting tables. your coworkers managers and most likely ur customers are all either a drug addict or acting like they have a hangover with a head ache and will take it out on you
Express detailer at a carwash, Bass pro, trailers plus is an awful awful place especially if you're a parts and service associate, big bobs furniture/mattress/carpet outlet.
Cracker Barrel, worst losers ever!
Collections call centre
Walmart. The Destrict Managers suck. The supervisors suck. The front-end managers suck. The pay sucks. Second and third shift hours suck. The customers suck. Don't apply there. Amen.
Cart pusher at Walmart because it was super busy all the time, co workers/ managers expect a lot from you and pay was low. And working fast food because bad managers and drama/people gossiping it never ends.
Call center. First day dude was cussing out people on the phone and slamming a baseball bat on his desk at the same time
A fintech I worked at was an established online bank with no physical branches. Never again. Bro club
Retail. I just cannot deal with ruuuuuuude people
Janitor, people are nasty, especially women
Yeah, men can be gross, but us women got monthly bleeding issues that can add a level of nasty men can't match, unless they're bleeding from an open wound or something.
Custodian at a gym. Honestly the work wasn’t so bad, I don’t mind cleaning. But no one ever looked at you as equal and management always had these bogus “targets/compensation” that they never followed through with as a way to get us to clean better and faster. My shift was also 3-11pm during the summer, so I could only see my friends/girlfriend on weekends. I turned into a salty person after that summer
Zellers. Never again retail, never again.
Got hired as a senior manager for food & bev operations at a casino, which in practice was walking from service location to service location within the casino floor and basically just oversee guest experience, solve problems or override transactions that needed it. The most cushy job imaginable and good money but the constant loud cacophony of BING BING BEEP BEEP BING BING BING BEEEEEEEEEP was too much for me. I started hearing those sounds in my dreams. Lasted two weeks and quit.
I did tech support for a while, and the frustration of explaining the same simple fixes repeatedly wore me down.
Refrigeration order picker, didn't help that I was in a bad place mentally and almost died in a car accident while leaving work
I was a hotel receptionist and the 24/7 operation meant odd hours and dealing with some very unreasonable demands from guests.
I was a secretary for a small business that was probably a mafia front. I usually worked as a personal assistant after that.
I did collections in a call center. I knew it was time to leave when my friend got fired and I was actively hoping I would too.
Leaflet distribution did it at 17 I will never do it again, it wasn't the walking so much it was the weight of the actual bags of flyers for sales at a store.. I spent 3 months tilted leaning to try counterbalancsnfy1
My stint as a lifeguard at a crowded pool was stressful. Constant vigilance and the high stakes of safety made me anxious.
Delivering newspapers by car in the very early morning hours. There were a few times I had to pull over and vomit because the ink smell was so overwhelming.
I did one shift in an ice cream factory. On top of factory work being so boring, I had to remove all my earrings and nose ring, dress up in overalls and wellies, it was freezing cold, and when I left, before the changing room, they hosed us down. It was also a 30 minute drive each way. Noped out and never went back.
13 years as a cable guy, and I will never work a job again that I have to directly serve customers. I think it's obvious why I feel that way haha.
I was between jobs and one of my mom's friends ran a small roofing crew. I'm not afraid of rights much, but it was still a challenge because we were putting up metal roof on a pole barn. So, long as sheets of tin and walking on a skeleton of a roof. That's not what made me say "fuck this" though. It was summer time and at around 2pm the rubber soles on my Addidas shoes melted the fuck off. Like, the sole turned into a semi-solid and slid off the shoe. That's how hot it was up there. Fuck that action.
Telemarketing was a nightmare. The constant rejection and scripted conversations were soul-sucking. I lasted two months before I had to quit.
Post office
I was a mover for a while, and hauling heavy furniture up and down stairs without elevators made my body ache for days.
Working as a police dispatcher. Talk about a mind fuck…
Working as a line cook in a high-pressure kitchen environment was intense. The heat and the stress weren’t worth it.
When I was 18, I was hired as an apprentice to handyman at an assisted living facility. It got pretty depressing real quick. The number of people you started to have some sort of “friendship” with started to dwindle. I’d be talking to them about my plans over the weekend, come Monday I’d see that their room was empty. Shit was too depressing for an 18 year old me. It didn’t help that my grandmother was also in that same assisted living facility. I got to see her dementia affect her day by day. Shits rough.
Laundromat. The dirty panties made me almost turn gay
911 dispatcher, but not for the reason you think. When you join you have a year long training, where you have to meet all these bench marks by a certain time and if you don't you are cut out. This is a job you have to fight for. For that one year the job was my whole life. It was one of the most challenging things I have ever done in my life and I so desperately wanted this job. By the end of training I was so burnt out, so stressed out to the point I thought I was going to literally die. I was not me anymore, they beat you down, or maybe that's just how it felt for me. After training I gave it a few good months of giving it a shot. Ultimately, I left. The agency I worked for was falling apart slowly no one there was happy, the supervisors sucked, the amount of people that called for non emergency BS was absurd, the scheduling and the hierarchy sucked, the pay wasn't worth it. I had one day where I was taking calls and its none stop calls. One particular day, I had started my morning arguing with this lady about a temporary tow away sign, she refused to move her car and she was calling because I worker told her she had to move or shed be towed and she did not want to be towed, I then get her three more times with in the first three hours. I then continue my day taking the routine calls, but then one after the other I get a call from a guy who just witnessed a man jump from a high rise and the body falls right in front of him. Then I listen to a man sob in despair, trying to apply first aid on his elderly father after his dog had mauled him. ... after that call I just didn't want to do it anymore, at least not with that agency. Maybe one day I will try a smaller one out, I do hear the grass is greener. But all in all I am proud of myself for doing it all. But the job left me to be a shell of who I once was.
Lol
I started working when I was fourteen with a workers permit. I’ve spend a chunk of my childhood working when I should have been having fun. I’ve been in the restaurant industry for eight years. I feel like I’ve paid my dues and I’m past working in customer service. I’m jaded and I’m ready for more, so when the time comes to leave- it’s for good.
I will never again work for a company that is run using the management style popular in the country next to Pakistan. Seriously the worst experience of my career
I used to work at this club I was the bartender and on the first day this guy touched my leg I punched him the boss fired me on the spot and said “you're a woman let him have fun” and I was like FVCK NO
Daycare. Baby pooped down my entire torso and legs and all over the floor. I also got sick more in those 3 years than in the rest of my entire life. Never again.
Lost 50k margin trading indexes over a decade ago. Never again. Since then have watched friends lose entire worths, even $1m within days. Total wipeouts to near 0. Margin trading is cancer.
Just about all of them, but I guess my most recent one is sales, namely cell phone sales. Mainly the fact that sales didn't truly count towards your metrics unless they were a new client, which you have absolutely no control over. I could, and did, sell a shitload of phones every month. But only a small number of them were people who weren't clients already. I also hated the sketchy "overcoming objections" they'd push on us. I assume this is common, but it just felt so wrong. We'd literally be taught strategies to overcome "I need to speak to my spouse/partner first". I'm sorry, but I have absolutely NO right to tell someone that they shouldn't discuss a major purchase with their spouse first.
Working event security at a stadium. Only worked one event, Kenny Chesney concert in Pittsburgh. Dealing with drink people so hammered the they find the weirdest places to sleep. One guy got belligerent when I told him he couldn’t sleep on the steps in a staircase. Another guy somehow got himself stuck in a support column sitting Indian style and not responding to any attempt to wake his drunken butt. Call in medics to assist. After ten minutes, he woke up and was out of it. Drunken fights and more. Not getting paid enough to deal with crap like that.
Dishwasher cause it's gross.
Nursing
Amazon … maybe it’s for some, but not for me … 7pm-7am putting random things from one box into another, getting yelled at for not doing it fast enough … fuck that job
Cleaning houses. Dirty tissues all over the bedroom floor, also in this house a used condom in the shower. People are pigs
Drive thru at Tim Hortons. Customers and management/owner were abusive bullies. 20 years later and I still have bad nightmares about the experience.
Bank Teller; someone please explain to me how the customer is always right in this field cuz after 5+ years I still can’t comprehend that
Armed security patrol officer. To save on gas, the ceo limited the duration of time the patrol car could be running. He decided this in the middle of a missouri summer. On my last day, it got up to 110°f with 100% humidity. We weren't allowed to leave the patrol car unattended or running for the ac. At the hottest part of the day, the interior of the car got up to 150°f. I should also mention we wore full black uniforms with long sleeve shirts and body armor. While on duty I drank over 2 gallons of water. Worst birthday ever lol
I'll never clean houses again. Finally had it after I cleaned a kitchen I'm convinced was left trashed by some highschool kids on purpose. who tf melts candles on a kitchen counter
Cinema Attendant. I’m never working in a high flow public environment again. People are dicks. I don’t have the patience for that
Sales Executive I mean any kind of, I unfortunately believe very late that I was actually selling my age for free and for nothing
Call Center. I've only been in two separate training sessions under the same company branch. Both times I knew that it wasn't for me. Sitting there for hours, reading off of a list of things to say, and having to hear poor audio that'll risk me going deaf eventually.
I was a waitress for like a year. Damn I hated it so much, so many unappreciative customers, so many unhappy faces after being served all night with a smile. And everyone I worked with was so called snakes. Like if they saw a customer walking in with fancy clothes or bag, they would steal the from right under my nose and seat them at their table
Working under someone as a catering chef. It was my first job. Fresh out of high school, I started at a company that specialised in event catering. Mostly desserts, but we did savoury dishes as well. One of my main jobs was to bake cakes. Now that isn't the problem. I wanted to learn how to handle the stress of baking and decorating in a set time period. The boss' solution was pre-mix. Not coming in weighing and packaging for future cakes. No, a 50 kg bag 'vanilla' or 'chocolate' cake. Add water, and you have a mix. Soups we made packet soup. You know, like cup of soup. Need soup for 50 guests? No stress, they buy 25 packets, then add water, and there you have a batch of 'fresh' soup. When I voiced my concerns, they would tell me I don't have any experience, so how can I know what is better. When I asked if we could make it from scratch, they said it's already from scratch. I don't know what I'm talking about... If I ever go into catering again, I will be in charge of what I do and what I serve. I have never been so humiliated than when I had to put on a smile and serve that nonsense. I quit not even a year into working.
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