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Worst job ever was in 2004-2005 working for one of the Big 3 tobacco companies. Hated the work and literally hoped someone would crash into my company car, just to get out of the job for a while. But, common sense prevailed and I focused on getting into a different career, which I did (and haven't looked back).
Prior to that, was a stint during my phone company career when I managed a retail location in a mall environment. That was the epitome of misery. The staff needed to be babysat (they were mostly union!) and the store was a habitual low performer when I got there. The zone manager wanted me to clean house and turnover the staff, so the pressure was on to balance his wishes vs. the union.
I did my best to turn the staff around into productive workers and we even picked up the results, but it wasn't worth all the headaches. The icing on the cake is when the skeleton crew called out sick on July 4th. I had to cancel my family plans to open the store by myself for the entire day. Those last minute BS games really got old.
Other than those two positions, I've had a great career so far. (But I can't wait to retire in a "few" years...)
It was in education, high school special education. It wasn't the kids - I worked with mostly those on the autistic spectrum, including Asperger's - it was the other teachers. Because I was a junior member of the staff, they thought they could embarrass me in front of the kids by correcting me, calling me out and then, I finally had it. I started to speak up when they were abusive to the kids. In one instance, a teacher I worked with wouldn't let a student out of the classroom, blocked the door and he literally started to climb the walls and tried to get out the window. He was supposed to meet his mother and the teacher wouldn't let him go until she said so. When she picked on other kids, I called her on it. It was so stressful with her abuse and the pressure of the job, I wound up in the hospital with coronary artery disease.
If anyone has children or grandchildren in special education, trust your instincts and listen to your kids. And, never, ever, feel it's all your fault somehow and not let them live normal lives with the same expectations as other kids. They are here to remind us that contributions to this old world come in all shapes and sizes.
I worked retail for a year... I would say that was the worst if I hadn't worked in a low end call center too. I'd rather pick up trash than work in one of those again.
My first job after graduating HS in 1966. Pool Stenographer. Did nothing but take dictation and transcribe all day. My fingers were numb by the end of the day. Only thing that kept me there for 2 years was the money was good ($8/hour). What was the minimum wage in 1966?
That's about $16,000. per year, in gross pay. That was executive wages in 1966. Money was worth about five times as much then, as now. For an entry-level job as a HS graduate, that was very good.
Produce clerk in a major grocery chain. First day there they had a prep cleaning of the department for an upcoming corporate inspection.
I was on my knees on a concrete floor for 8 hours cleaning underneath vegetable bins and stocking the floor alone with no training and no clue.
I was 60 and was hoping for a part-time ''retirement job''. The next morning I called into HR and told them I was done. I could barely get out of bed my knees hurt so bad.
And then there were those 50 lb boxes of bananas...
Last edited by HappyDogToday; 07-23-2017 at 01:20 AM..
My first job after graduating HS in 1966. Pool Stenographer. Did nothing but take dictation and transcribe all day. My fingers were numb by the end of the day. Only thing that kept me there for 2 years was the money was good ($8/hour). What was the minimum wage in 1966?
No way in hell were you getting paid $8 /hour in 1966 !
In 1965 I was working union construction in Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Union scale was $3.65 and that was a very high wage.
That's about $16,000. per year, in gross pay. That was executive wages in 1966. Money was worth about five times as much then, as now. For an entry-level job as a HS graduate, that was very good.
Actually, the conversion factor is about 7.2 rather than five. Minimum wage in 1966 was $1.25 per hour, which is equivalent to $9.12 per hour now. So $8 an hour would be equivalent to $57.60 in today's income - or . The real value of minimum wage has been declining since the late 1960s (see top line here).
Which means $8.00 per hour in 1966 was equivalent to about $120,000 income in today's dollars.
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