So Im thinking about work in general after having a crappy day in the office. I believe there is no such thing as a perfect job and that It's the people you work with that matter the most. I have worked in IT now for 3 years and it's been pretty good. I have done quite a few jobs but the one that sticks out as the one I hated the most was being a Thatcher. Being self employed and having to work in all weather while on piece work. Never knowing from one week to the next what I would be earning. I started at 14 and finished at 27 and my knees are pretty shot and my back play's up now and again and I'm only 34. I could go on and on about why it was crap but let's hear what your worst job was and maybe we can have a laugh
At this moment im having a crapy day. My regular shift is usually 2:00 - 10:30, which I enjoy. but as of march first i had my schedule changed to 12-8 to be part of a program to help improve my sales (i work as a cable tech support agent). About 10 minutes ago i found out that because of one of the people who run this program is going on vacation, so they have postponed the start of the program to april first,, but i keep this schedule for 2 months. The problem is I HATE this M^&*%# F&*$@^! schedule. The days seem twice as long and I enjoyed all the free time before work i had on my 2-10:30 shift. Why move 15 people from shifts they chose just to cancel the program they were forced to take and make all of us stuck on this shift for 2 F*&%ing months instead of one, and one of those months is for no god damn reason! I dont even wanna take calls I just feel like leaving for the f&%ing night Never had a problem with this job before today.
I'd like to say working on the Sony factory was the worst thing I've done (putting the backs on CRT TV's), but the people were ace. Bosch should have been crap (testing alternators), but I was on my own, blasting music and taking smoke breaks every half hour Probably cleaning at my school after class. That mostly sucked. Didn't hurt me any but the people were dull and it was a very lonely 2 hours every day.
@NIHILO, I'm surprised you like it, to be honest, tech support is one thing that would drive me insane before too long. My job (IT repair, servicing & assembly) is very low-stress, if slightly repetitive. The phone call support side of the job, small as it is, is 90% of the stress I experience, I hate it. The worst I had, without a doubt, was working in a posh restaurant's kitchen, preparing side-orders and washing dishes. The workload was, quite simply, impossible - as in, there was literally no way to do it. They just piled more and more stuff on, refused to assign another person to the job, and berated me for not making 60 dishes disappear every 10 minutes whilst simultaneously preparing 15 salad dishes. I quit after about 3 weeks. No decision has ever felt more right.
I once had a job as a youth worker. I loved the youth work part, it was very rewarding. My co workers were horribly unprofessional though, it made me hate the job. I was an apprentice with this girl my age. Because she was hot, she always got the great tasks, whilst I was left doing paperwork most of the time. We were paid the same and were on the same level professionally. I spoke up but all I got were generic excuses. It was pure sexism, no matter how you looked at it.
Working in Next sucked. It was a den of under-achievers and people with undergraduate degrees in fashion or administration from bad universities (not sure if the latter needs stated when the former is), if you weren't female or more flaming than a very on fire thing then you were automatically pretty much an outcast, no-one was actually happy, totally unrealistic goals were set for all employees, and the way employees were treated was borderline abusive. That's the only shop I ever worked in, but it put me off shop work for life. Every other job I had 'till my current one was in the food service industry/bar industry and they were all immeasurably more enjoyable (I think I could honestly say that I would be content working in that industry the rest of my life, if everything else fell flat on it's face).
5 word problem descriptions from Customers who don't even know what OS is running on their PC, best paired with an intermittent issue so you can never be sure if they are ringing back after you rushed over to the nearest store to pick up some fags after you spent two weeks trying to quit smoking.
Codemasters, great firm but my boss was a ****, he moved my job from one studio to another and expected me to do over 2.5 hours driving a day on <19k. i argued about upping my salary but it just caused friction and made me feel unwelcome, decided to walk in the end. IT is a **** game and im pissed at burning 6 years trying to build a career in it. this was the final nail in the IT coffin that had been ****ing me off since the recession hit. that and 2 redundancies in 2 years yeah **** that noise
@elephant Yes the people can be a pain, i just think it takes the right kind of person to deal with peoples tech problems, i deal with rude and stupid people all day. and when i get a angry customer i just get a laugh out of it. Also in regards to your work in a kitchen. Been there, done that, never working a kitchen again. Hell, i dont even wanna cook at home. I feel your pain, bro. >> @Anfield i would take 5 words over 2. And atleast with a computer i can expect some people to not know some things. but i get people who dont even know what a power cord is, or people who call in thinking they have a problem when their cable box is just turn off. I garauntee that the **** i hear is far more retarded then what youve heard lol.
Worst job - Apple... wouldn't wish that place on my worst enemy... They lied to me from day 1 [actually before then, they lied to me at the interview]... they lied about the hours, the salary... **** they even lied about the job itself... Notting getting paid for [paid] overtime was common... every month I would have to chase them over unpaid overtime... Not being paid at all was also quite common, whilst 'luckily' it only happened to me once i went unpaid november [2012]... Ii evntually got that motnhs pay... in february [2013]... The boss was slime, the hours were **** and utterly inconsistent, meaning you couldn't *do* anything outside of work as you had no idea when you would be *in* work as often you'd only get a few days notice of what your shifts were... Except for the times where you found out what your shift was on the day... Staff rage quitting was common and if you were there longer than 6 months you were doing well... The most noteworth case whilst i was there was a woman throwing the imac she was sat at across the desk and storming out... Oh and nothing even remotely tech-related ever fecking worked... The macs, the network, the phones... None of it went very long without throwing a hissy fit and crapping out completely... I wasn't over enamoured with them as a company before working there... I utterly despise them now...
Though I've only had 2 jobs, one lasting for 5 years, one lasting for 1 month (both part time while I was in high school, one part way through university), the 1 month I worked at Bestbuy selling computers, I despised it. Though actually working at Bestbuy isn't that bad, (great discounts, lots of young people), the two managers I had were uptight, didn't actually know anything about computers and basically told me I wasn't doing my job right if I wasn't taking advantage of customers. Morals are something very important to me, especially as I helped a lot of family and friends with computer problems for free, so the idea of upselling to things that customers really didn't need was already an issue for me. Even worse was the managers told me I was good, but I needed to be more "forceful" with selling the warranties. The warranties were utter BS. Something like 80% of the problems could be fixed in a few clicks, the other 20% were actual issues, and customers had to basically fight and argue with managers to get their computers repaired under warranty. They basically want you to be scumbags to the customer, and that wasn't right. The other issue I had with Bestbuy was when I decided to resign. One of the store managers was giving me a tough time, asking what my problem was and saying I had to give a 2 weeks notice. I told her I was under probation, I didn't like their business practices and if you can fire me on probation for no reason, I can leave for no reason. She tried to guilt trip me into giving a 2 weeks notice and I told her schedule me, see if I show up. I didn't want the referral or reference.
Tesco at 16 (15 years ago.. My god I'm old) at the biggest store in Wales. Sat on a till for 8-11 hours on 3 quid 6 pence per hour. Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Most people were nice, decent, but when you got the chavs in...... I lasted 9 months - at least they always paid on time. The staff were the worst. I was thankful to not have to interact with anyone but customers.
Every job i've had I don't mind being told what to do but people push it and step over the line being rude, that's when I will lose it. It's always a certain type I upset they usually get what's coming i've seen plenty of people push it too far with someone and get knocked out.
While I wouldn't say my last job was awful, it was definitely my least favourite - probably because I went in with such high hopes. What killed it for me was working with a bunch of workaholics - people who thought nothing of working 12 hours a day as well as at the weekend. Unfortunately they seemed to think everyone else worked the same and so set completely unrealistic time scales for tasks. Additionally, nobody thanked each other when all the stops had been pulled out to get something finished - it was just taken as expected. The turning point came when I had my 3 month review (1 year late) and was given my ratings (perseverance, initiative etc). I had worked well beyond my stated hours most weeks, with some days working until midnight and coming in two or three weekends and yet my 'willingness' to work was only rated as the top end of 'acceptable'. I also had asked for a pay rise (I was being vastly underpaid for my qualifications) and was basically fobbed off. I'm loving my new job. It isn't perfect (no job is) but I work with a good bunch of people; well, there's one bell-end but he's only in one day a week . People are also more reasonable about working hours and so it's only very rarely I work beyond my contractual hours - even then it's an hour a week extra at most. I think the best work experience I've had is when I used to do odd jobs during my PhD. Small jobs that were interesting and didn't last long enough to become a grind. Every now and then I think about setting myself up as a freelance engineer/consultant.
I can't honestly say I've ever "hated" a job, but working in the McDonald's kitchen some 10+ years ago was hard graft. And, come to think of it, the pole-dancing stint wasn't exactly paradise either.
Working at a bike shop. Now whilst I figured I would enjoy this the place was corrupt. IE - would buy stolen and bent bikes. As an Aspie I don't like anything to do with breaking the law. Thus, when my boss was inevitably responsible for what happened to me* I became very angry. To repay this I just got up and walked out leaving the shop open and unlocked. * My boss bought a bike from a crack head with nothing more than a fake birth certificate. Had he not done this the crack head would not have been hanging around the place as it closed, and, I would have never lost the bike that I spent over two grand on nor got a whack to the head. So yeah it's safe to say that job was a bit of a nightmare for me.
Shelf stacking in a small chain supermarket. Had to finance my Commodore 64 and its monitor somehow. It was an interesting experience: seeing the thirty-something guy who had to manage us teens for a living, I rapidly decided that I was never going to end up in such a menial position as a grown-up. It sure made me work at school.
Any form of IT support. The job is impossible to win at - if people are on the phone to you, there is something wrong so they are pissed off, if they are not, they are wondering what they are paying you for.
When I was Spanky the Stripping Clown. I kept getting booked for children's parties, it didn't end well. I didn't think I'd need to explain to parents what was meant by "juggling my balls" on the promotional leaflets I had made.
