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Cooking at a buffet, there were over 200 items, they worked us 12 hour shifts and never thought to give us a break..
In Florida there are no laws requiring a break for anyone over 18.
It was like they thought we were not human, I was stationed on the front carving line and had to tell someone if you don't give me 5 minutes to decompress I'm going to start getting rude to people..
The managers would come by with heaping plates of food to go sit and eat, if they got hungry after working x amount of hours don't they think we did also..?
I was there 3 months out of complete necessity, one day I looked at a manager handed her my apron and said this Sh*t isn't worth it..
I've told other employers about it, they laugh and say I cant blame you for walking..
Thank god I learned a very in demand occupation, I'll never have to do that again.
Working for the summer in the maintenance shop at a large company as a student worker. The job wasn't terrible, but the boss was horrible. I couldn't wait for September to come so I could go back to school.
The other terrible job was working as the general manager at a big box retail store. Terrible boss, terrible company.
Working at a convenience store is by far the worst job you could ever have. You were dealing with people face-to-face, and you exchanging money, and there are an infinite number of reasons for customers to have a horrible experience at a convenience store. Notice if you ever see any of those Jackass episodes, or boiling point on MTV, they never do anything like that at a convenience store. There are all sorts of horrible rules that convenience store companies put in place to make things difficult for customers so their level of frustration reaches through the roof and then they take it out on the person standing behind the register.
It's not my fault that the safe is specifically designed to only drop small amounts of change every hour and you came in to pay for $15 of gas with $100 bill. Customers also always try to steal from the convenience store and as an employee it is your responsibility to try and stop them and if you don't make an attempt or put your life on the line then you can fired and then if you do try to stop someone from stealing the company fires you for getting them into a lawsuit.
People can pump gas without prepaying, drive off, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it legally. I don't understand why gas stations do not force customers to prepay, or at least they do not in Upstate New York, and so people pump their gas turn around look at me, give me the middle finger, and then drive off while I'm stuck behind a counter with 13 people in line who need cigarettes, lottery tickets, beer. And guess who has to pay for that drive off?
You have to stand all day and they cleverly asked you before you were hired if you have any problems standing on a concrete floor for eight hours a day. Well typically the next person coming in to work could not give two ****s about their job and they may show up or they may not show up and then you may work a double or you may work a triple. If you're at one of those convenience stores where it's a one man show you can forget about two 15-minute breaks and a lunch. You may as well glue yourself to the back of that register.
The night shift inside of any slum is also fun. Pretty much anywhere there is a gas station within walking distance of other houses it is a slum. People come in and try and bag for free coffee, or they are from a local Nut House but have barely met the requirements to walk about freely. The cops always stop by which is nice but then again you also feel horrible that they have to waste their time babysitting your location. What's even better is a convenience store write off campus from a university. Then you get a bunch of flash mobs that come in and basically raped the entire shelves will you sit there powerless and the police really could not care because they know all your store is doing is creating a breeding ground of this Behavior. Then on Friday and Saturday nights they all want to come in and illegally purchase beer, then they want to argue about their expired license or the fact that the company orders you not to sell any alcohol or tobacco to anyone who you think maybe in the presence of a minor. You are always hold that if someone purchases alcohol who is of age but gives it to miners then the convenience store can be held accountable which I think is absolutely ridiculous. Yeah but you can find all sorts of videos on YouTube of flash mobs just coming in and destroying convenience stores.
Then the manager comes in at 5:30 a.m. and she's already angry because she had to wake up early so because you were glued to the back of the register while the village was cleaning off the shelves she comes into start yelling about how the store isn't clean. Fender her 2 day shift workers come in, do the paperwork, and then run to register with a smile while you are being chastised for the store looking like a mess so you have to stay a few more hours to clean up everything. I've had this happened several times working the swing shift, and then getting forced to work the overnight, and then dealing with this in the morning. It is absolutely the worst job in the world.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The first, at age 14 peeling potatoes at a fish & chips shop. I had to lug the 100 lb. burlap sacks in from the back loading area, and sometimes there would be a rotten one in there. I can still remember that smell, 50 years later. That was at $1.75/hour. Fortunately, I have enjoyed all of my jobs (4) since then.
I was working for a Temp agency back in the 80's, mostly grunt work in warehouses. I was assigned a one day job an reported down to the Tacoma water-flats area. A commercial painter had finished a job on some large industrial containers and need the catwalks taken down. Myself and another young guy showed up and the contractor explained what needed to be done and then took off.
Basically we stood on narrow platforms lifting the rails out of the walkways and handing them down, we were at least 40 feet in the air and there was no fall protection. Two novice 19 year old kids and unsupervised.
Another sucky one was laying sod in an industrial complex. There were at least a dozen temps that started the job, by noon there was 3 of us left. Fortunately the contractor supervisors were on site this time so we didn't screw it up. I will say that was back-aching work.
I also spent a few seasons cutting fish aboard a factory ship, 18 hour shifts sliming fish isn't much fun.
I did one day at a Panda Express a few years ago. I quit my retail job for it (worked at that retail job for almost 2 years but $8.30/hr was really starting to get to me), Panda pay was $10.00 or $10.50 per hour, which was more than entry level manager, keyholder ($9.50) at the retail place. So I quit and told myself I'd like it and could do it because of the money.
Was I wrong. Fast food is not my thing. Sure it was only a day but that's all l needed to know that I couldn't do it and enjoy it, so I got hired at a new retail place for same minimum wage and a furniture store, which was my second worst job (just sitting around and constantly telling kids not to run and jump on the furniture).
I worked through a labor employment agency one of those that send you on daily assignments. This assignment I had was recently. It was working at Sulfur distribution depot, yes sulfur smells like eggs. But that wasn't the hard part. My job was to wear a backpack leafblower and blow off all the excess sulfur that falls off the hoppers the sulfur gets loaded onto. For eight hours I did that smelling the gas fumes being emitted by the passing trucks and leafblower, not to mention the noise level.
While in the Army back in the mid/late 80s, I was re-classed into a shortage career field (MOS), which I knew nothing of or had any real interest in. Due to my rank and being a careerist, I was put in charge of computing firing data for field artillery... Cannons. Since my only option was to leave at the end of my enlistment, which I did, since there was basically a zero change I would ever be placed back into my former career field, which was tanks. The Army thought that I was more needed in field artillery, so after serving 12 years on Active Duty, I left with no serious hard feelings back in the early 90s.
If I could have transferred back into tanks, I would have stayed another 8 years in order to make it to retirement, but that's life. What was weird about this is that "life" in tanks was much harder, but it was something that I had an interest in and moved up in rank rather quickly as well.
After getting out of the Army, I wanted a career in Law Enforcement. I was lucky enough to get hired as a police officer for the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs within a few months... Rather quickly, which I now knew why... It wasn't a "really" bad job, but with a very low starting pay, that was the same as for a security guard in the same area, while accepting a greater level of danger and legal liability, the job wasn't that great after all. Plus, I ended up buying most of my own equipment since I took pride in my appearance. The real down side of working for the VA was that I was working with a bunch of guys that should have never been police officers for numerous reasons.
Anyway!! Within 2 weeks of working there, I knew that this was another mistake that I had to deal with.
Within 6 months of working for the VA, luck again smiled on me and I was able to transfer over into another agency that paid far better and offered me the challenges I was looking for. After working in that position for 21 good years, I retired with a great retirement plan, which was far better than the one offered by the Army, if I stayed on Active Duty. I was still able to retire from the Army Reserve... With less pay/benefits and I have to wait till I 60 y/o BEFORE receiving any monthly payments/benefits, which is fine by me. I was just glad that my previous 12 years of A/D in the Army wasn't wasted.
Basically, like many here, we all will have at least 1 to 3 really.... REALLY bad jobs. But, if you don't quit in the "game of life," you'll find that one great job that is really meant for you!!
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