I think it’s safe to say that most people have had a job that wasn’t what they expected. I recently found this Reddit thread where people were sharing their worst jobs. Here are some of the responses:
1.“Vet in training. Eventually they let me help with all the euthanasia cases. At least a few a day. I started crying all the time and got completely drunk every night. Had to stop after a few months.”
2.“I worked in a DVD store, doing floor work: organizing shelves, bringing in new stock, etc. It was a fun job for me. Until we started a rewards program. Few people signed up and our numbers were bad. So my boss had the brilliant idea to put the cute 19-year-old me in a low-cut top in the anime section and encourage the customers to sign up. I guess he thought that customers who buy anime are sad and lonely and would appreciate all the attention from a girl. The sad part is that it totally worked. It was super humiliating and I only worked there for a few weeks before I got another job that didn't rely on my cleavage.”
3.“My first job was at a fast food restaurant selling hamburgers. After a month I got fired because I didn't throw away the leftover hamburgers, but gave them to the homeless. (That was in 1999).”
4.“I worked in a daycare and the building was so old and run down. The carpet in my classroom was disgusting; it was full of pee and vomit stains, broken toys, and torn books. No stuff. Just horrible! Mice were running around the kids while they were sleeping on their cots during their afternoon nap. I finally quit and took them to the state.”
5.“I worked at a COVID testing site and had to test hundreds of people a day. It was a LOT of stress because it was peak COVID. There were sneezing kids and adults and boats full of schools and the management was horrible. I got COVID 3 times working there 😅.”
6.“I worked for an outside company that sold wireless phone services. The manager would drink on the job and throw tantrums in front of customers. I was really afraid to be alone with him. I was then transferred to another store that needed help. The manager would accept nothing less than our best service plan. She would purposely make me add things to people's plans without asking. She would interfere with people's plans so we could make money. I ended up leaving that job. So really look at your cell phone plan and what they are charging you. People will do shady things just to get a small commission.”
7.“I waited tables for $2.13 an hour. It was especially awful on Sundays when the churchgoers would come in. They would be put in groups of 25 people, all with separate tickets, and they were all rude. Also, churchgoers are the worst tippers in the world; many of them don't tip at all, unless they leave church tracts instead of money.”
8.“At a popular fast food burger joint, my schedule was completely messed up. One week I had 40 hours, the next week 25, and then zero. The kitchen was always hot in the summer, but they refused to fix the air conditioning. Half the staff quit at the same time because of the extreme heat, which put a lot of strain on the rest of us. Management would sit in the office playing games on their phones the entire shift. Junkies would also come in and pass out. Often they would have to be given Narcan in the middle of the restaurant. The customers were the most horrible people. I had to physically defend myself several times. Many customers were also verbally abusive and officers would escort 'Karens' off the premises almost every day.”
9.“When I worked night shifts in a supermarket, my mental health deteriorated dramatically because I was staying up all night and sleeping all day.”
10.“I worked in travel insurance claims starting in March 2020. I filed claims for canceled flights, hotels, traveling car centers, etc. Except after COVID really hit, the companies only offered vouchers for future use and we couldn't give refunds. It was horrible telling people who had just lost their jobs that we couldn't get their money back. It was 8 hours a day for months of endless verbal abuse from customers. I totally get where they were coming from, but man, that job sucked.”
11.“I worked in a deli that was full of older people. They were always so mean about the stupidest things, like if I cut the meat and it wasn't EXACTLY a pound, they would throw a tantrum.”
12.“I was once told that the marketing job I applied for was 'bridging the gap between customer and consumer for Fortune 500 companies.' You want to know what the job actually entailed? Standing in a suit for ten hours in a restaurant chain selling people cell phones.”
13.“Housekeeping is easy. Making beds is no fucking joke. How people can do that for 10+ years is insane. I lasted a week.”
14.“Cleaning cars for a rental car company. I don't know what it was about the Grand Prix, but I always said they were rented by big dicks. They all came back looking like they'd driven through a cornfield and been hit by buzzards, with three muddy, shedding golden retrievers in the back and a kid smearing a Big Mac in the dash. Cleaning cars on hot summer asphalt was bad enough, but the bosses made it worse. I won't rent from them again because of the way they treated their employees 28 years ago. I only worked there for a month before I couldn't stand the management abuse anymore.”
15.“Working in a pigsty. Pigs are the most stubborn animals to work with, and the fumes/dust you breathe in makes it feel like you've smoked four packs of cigarettes by the time your shift is over.”
16.“Hotel reception. Instead of giving people regular shifts, you worked first, second and third. After months of this, my body didn't know when to sleep or wake up. My mental health was also going to hell.”
17.“I had a security job where I was shot at twice, had numerous knives pulled on me, witnessed over a dozen shootings, found two dead bodies at the start of my shift, and literally had to fight for my life once. I called in sick from a hospital bed after that fight and my boss demanded that I show up for work the next day.”
Ugh, that's a lot of bad jobs. If you have any horror stories to add, let us know in the comments!
