Worked in a 5 star hotel as a waiter. Awful hours and staff treated like crap and bunch of stuck up ******s to deal with as well. Also worked for a major phone company. Targets were unreasonable, and if you didn't reach them in 3 months you were sacked (even if you miss done pay as you go SIM card but sold 15 more contract phones than your target..). Staff were alright, but management were lazy assholes who would fob off anything so they can sit in the back and watch tv on their iPads.
Never really had a bad job in the military so far, but had some 'life-changing tasks'. One of the unforgettable ones was burning the latrine waste. The smell of burning turds doesn't wash off very easily...
The Job I hated the most, was my previous one (Although the same as my current one). This is due to the actual company and not the job though, as I'm still doing the same job but working for myself. My previous employer bought there way into the industry, and tried to impose processes and methods that they used on their other contracts, Which were never going to work and no matter how much they were told or how many staff they lost because of it they carried on (Before I started they lost 17 members of staff in 8 months and only took on 3) those that were left had to take up the slack which meant impossible targets regardless of the hours you worked. In total in 2013 they lost 23 members of staff and took on 5! Although it would appear that they are beginning to realise the mistakes, but it could well be too late for them. Who would have thought that buying your way into an industry you knew nothing about, and not listening to the combined 500+ years of experience in the workforce was going to work
It always amazes me how some managers refuse to listen to the people actually doing the work - then wonder why their plans fall through.
Yup! Leadership and followership go hand in hand. You can not achieve success without one or the other.
Isn't that most managers... and politicians...? It's not gonna work... It's still not gonna work... What part of 'It's not gonna work' is so hard? Would you look at that... It didn't work... *Sigh*... No... it's not fixable... It. Isn't. Fixable! And so-on until the manager takes a hint and gives up or you rage quit...
The scary thing was/is that the people that ran and owned the company I was working for are genuinely seriously clever people both academically and in business. But maybe this is where the problem was, I honestly believe that they thought the job we did was simple and 'beneath' them when in reality it was too complex for them because it didn't fit in their 'clinical' business minds.
Ahh, the old 'I'm so clever I don't need to listen to others' approach. One thing I've learned through the course of my life is that no matter how smart you think you are (or may even be), ALWAYS leave room for other people's contributions. Some of the best things I've made/designed have been successful simply because I listened to suggestions from the guys working on the shop floor.
It's a particular fallacy of the well-educated, too, that they look at less academic fields of expertise and think that they're simple and easy to pick up. I can say with certainty because I'm a graduate who used to look at a lot of jobs (like mechanical work, plumbing, etc.) and think "pshh, how hard can that be? Gimme a book and a weekend and I'd have that guy's 'job'." I'm not proud of having thought like that about other peoples' jobs, but I think a lot of over-educated, inexperienced young people do it at some point. Anyway, I tried to do DIY and my own bike services and other bits and pieces, and was quickly humbled. They're called professions for a reason. Now I call a professional for wisdom on anything and everything, because basically, unless it's your own profession, there's always someone who knows more about it than you.
^Even if it is your profession, there's always going to be someone who knows more. I agree with you on that line of thought, though - I have, regrettably, thought the same thing myself, more than once. However, I've also taught myself the basics of many of these professions, either for a hobby, or in order to save a lot of money doing repairs to my house that a college kid wouldn't normally be able to afford. (I have a piss-poor landlord and live in a college area, so it's hard to get anything done about it.) There's a difference, though. I've taught myself these things not through a book, but by asking people who do work in the field to help a young guy out who's interested in what they're doing. You would be amazed how many people in a field are more than happy to help a 'kid' learn what they do. A lot of professions rely on two things: the tools, and the tricks on using them. If you can buy cheaper versions of, or borrow, the tools, and talk to a guy about the tricks, you can learn these skills in a week. A book might teach you the technique, but the words of experience will teach you the skill, and nothing but practice will make you good or fast at it.
This is pretty on topic. I did a job as bin-man once; temp, about 12 weeks. I always thought it was just throwing bags in a truck and putting the bins on the back of the truck and it does its thing. Man I was wrong, really wrong. I was buggered in about an hour, I was so knackered. It's so much physical work, and it's really hard to get used to. My manager said that they've had builders, part time rugby players and warehouse workers at their depot and they just die in the first day. Don't underestimate the bin man, he does a much more demanding job than most.
I kind of enjoyed it at the time, so this doesn't fit, but I just wanted to say: I'm 5'3", and during my student days I was a little chef at a little chef. I could never use that joke at the time as I sometimes worked with a lovely woman who was 4'6" and hard as nails. Also she was very tetchy about her height and always reminded me of Carla from cheers. Nobody made the little chef joke around her. Nobody! For the record, I was on £1.44 an hour when I started that job, but that's back when £1.44 was bugger all money like it is today!
I worked in the bar for a hotel chain as a second job about 5 or 6 years ago when I needed some extra cash and it was awful, hours were awful, management were awful. I have also worked in a few call centres over the years - the one here in brighton where it was cold call selling was really the pits, they don't treat their staff great, more like naughty children, all the time. Thankfully only did that for 3 months before I convinced them I would be better working on their servers than I would be trying to sell personal accident cover, then that actually turned into my stepping stone into working in IT and I've been working in IT ever since, so every cloud has a silver lining!
1) Stomach can't handle the airholes? Never use the small bag intended for puke, fill up the seatpocket infront of you. If you made it to the toilet, remember to spray it all around. 2) Need to take a dump in the air? Don't sit on the toilet seat. Instead, crap in the sink or on the floor. 3) So you wanna join the mile high club, but the toilet cabins only fit 1 person? Do it discreetly in your seat, and dispose the used condom on the floor. Let the carpet soak it up real good! 4) Don't fancy the airline food, but too shy to return a full plate? Dump it in the most difficult place to clean, preferably a place where people can step on it. 5) So your child needs to pee? Just let him sit on his seat and do his business. Also, any combination of the above.
The job itself was actually quite nice, but my first job is certainly the worst so far. It was "digitizing physical documents". All sorts of companies and government agencies send in old printed or hand drawn documents which they don't have digital versions of. Then, they're scanned and made into raster images. These raster images are then loaded into a drafting program (we were using a cheaper AutoCAD clone) and traced. Some were simple "trace the picture". Some were hand drawn city maps that had to be rectified during the process. Overall pretty mindless work, with an emphasis on speed. What was to hate? Commuting to work while still in high school. Every weekday walking a mile to the ferry dock, riding a 10 minute ferry to another town, then walking a half mile to the office. Work for two hours at minimum wage. Walk back in time to catch the last ferry home, then catch a ride back home from the ferry dock. Total travel time came out to be about two hours, with each day's pay amounting to ~$16. Barely seems worth it in retrospect, after getting back there was homework to be done which would last until it was time to get some rest before the next day. Hard to maintain any social life.
Worst job I ever had was working on the green chain at a lumber mill. Started at 6 in the morning, working outside, but under cover regardless of the weather, pulling very large boards off a chain onto a cart. The boards were coated in some sort of irritating preservative which you were soaked in, and sometimes slivers would go tight through your apron and gloves, and sometimes right through your leg. Like in one side and out the other. Just hard physical work for 10 hours a day every day. Coworkers were mostly testosterone fueled cretins who thought that because god gave them a penis they were inherently superior to everyone else on earth. I'd get off work on Thursday afternoon and already be dreading coming back on Monday.
Man, all of those are horrid! But as a father I will say that you don't always get a say on where your child pee's
