The Worst Job I Never Had
Many people don’t like their jobs. It’s a sad fact. But there is always someone with a worse job than you.
Take the Beijing CBD window cleaner…
… or the South American Scissors Dancer. Ouch!
I’ve never had a job remotely that bad. I’ve had paper-shuffling positions, cold-call telemarketing interludes, waitressing to rude French aristocrats, a memorable day - and my first and only firing - on a brand new job where I spilled hot candle wax on a customer. (It was a candle store, before you get any ideas.)
The above jobs were all undertaken as a student to feed myself whilst learning about Chaucer and post-modern American poetry. I still don’t understand post-modern American poetry, and I was never quite convinced that the lecturers did, either. But the jobs gave me some useful skills: paper shuffling, a fabulous telephone manner, balancing coffee cups and the ability to light candles without burning the house down.
What’s the worst job you’ve had?
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Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
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WalMart shoe boy. I never had the opportunity to spill hot wax on anyone, but I wish I did.
God, how humiliating. The “Al Bundy” jokes somehow never stopped.
August 5th, 2007 at 2:26 amDriving a breaking-down taxi in a town where no one ever tipped for 12 hour shifts.
Or perhaps it was being a nanny for a ***** in NYC. At least with that one I got to check out Manhattan.
August 5th, 2007 at 5:12 pmCall Centre. Absolutely terrible work (we were inbound, and voted “Best UK Call Centre” because we actually got trained to think, rather than scripted)
The company I worked for lost a lot of people’s money after 9/11 (they insured the twin towers), and I had to deal with complaints.
Lasted 6 months, ended up in hospital, never again.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:40 pmFor me being a Telemarketer was by far the worst job ever. I did it one summer before starting college to save for a new PC. Later in the year when I “advanced” to cooking french fries and mopping floors in a college cafeteria, all I could do was be so happy that I am not making scammy phone calls again. Mopping was bliss
August 6th, 2007 at 1:57 amI delivered the Rocky Mountain News to 300+ subscribers for one summer. It required going in at midnight, hand-rolling the papers myself and loading them into my Astro Van. I’d be finished in time to see the sunrise. 7 days a week. It was a lonely, anonymous, thankless job.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:58 am