Worst Job/s you've ever had?

camp counselor for kids with severe emotional and behavior disorders. age range was about 8-15. it's hard to explain what this is like to someone who hasn't experienced it, but i'll give it a shot...

have you ever worked with a group of kids and within the group there is this one "problem child" that doesn't want to listen to anything you say and is mean and aggressive towards the other children? now imagine this "problem child" is so bad that the school system had to take him out of a regular school and send him to a special school for children that have been clinically diagnosed with behavioral and psychological disorders. now imagine that instead of dealing with one child, you're dealing with an entire camp of them. and they have to be monitored 24/7, so you have to sleep in the same cabins with them. there is no escape.

one more thing (and i'm not making this up).. before you are allowed to work with these children, the school system requires to go to this class where you are trained by a martial artist instructor (the same guy that trains police officers how to restrain suspects). you learn different holds you can apply to safely restrain a child. you also learn how to get out of various choke holds in case you are attacked by one of the teenagers.
 
I can sympathize with the burger people out there from my high school days, but I have two that take the cake (for me)
#1. I spent 3/4 of a day working in a steel foundry. Their "training" was to hand me a grinder and some bits, and tell me to grind the sharp edges off large steel items. I hurt myself, left covered in steel shards, and was never trained. ugh.
#2. I stayed here for a while, but it sucked. It was a high quality custom wood window and door company. Like 1.5 mil for a set of doors and all. I was on the end with all the machines grinding and cutting and all. Leaving every day covered in sawdust, exhausted, working for almost minimum wage, waking up way early and having too much mandatory overtime. Ugh.

So glad to be where I am now. Video's where it's at.
 
Commercial electrician in Arkansas one summer. It was during a severe heat wave. We got up at 4 AM and stopped work at 11 AM so no one would die from the heat. Even so, several contractors were hospitalized for heat related issues.
 
ugafan said:
have you ever worked with a group of kids and within the group there is this one "problem child" that doesn't want to listen to anything you say and is mean and aggressive towards the other children? now imagine this "problem child" is so bad that the school system had to take him out of a regular school and send him to a special school for children that have been clinically diagnosed with behavioral and psychological disorders. now imagine that instead of dealing with one child, you're dealing with an entire camp of them. and they have to be monitored 24/7, so you have to sleep in the same cabins with them. there is no escape.
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Sounds like you're describing Jason's job during a DVXFest.
 
Wow. I was going to say my life as a boxboy at a supermarket. Running from register to register and then running back to do price checks and then out to the parking lot to round up shopping baskets - rain or shine. But that all sounds like Disneyland compared to some of these stores!
 
editing some footage for a psychotic evangelist at his home, only did it cause it paid cash. everyday he would try to convert me and tell me how anybody and everybody was evil, so on and so forth.

keep in mind i served 6 years in the Marines, and did a tour in Iraq. I still think this was my worst job.
 
C2V said:
Telemarketing, hands-down. It was my first job, and I lasted two weeks.
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Dude, those two week were hell for me. You kept calling, asking me to buy this and that. Didn't you have anyone else's number?

Yes, I am stereotyping, but telemarketers....errrrrrrr! Glad to see you joined the world of legitimate people and the human race after those two weeks.
 
Doc Bernard said:
Dude, those two week were hell for me. You kept calling, asking me to buy this and that. Didn't you have anyone else's number?

Yes, I am stereotyping, but telemarketers....errrrrrrr! Glad to see you joined the world of legitimate people and the human race after those two weeks.
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Sorry, Doc. It was the computer dialing, not me. And it's really your fault for having a Capital One credit card in the first place. If you'd have bought the dang vacation package, we could have all gone home. I mean, this really is a deal. I'm not trying to get you to spend money... I'm actually trying to save you money.*



But seriously, this was years and years ago. I was a freshman in college, needed a job, and I had no idea what I was getting into. The worst was that we had to lie to the "customers" (we were required to call them customers, not targets or victims). I had a three-ring binder full of FAQ, and one of the questions was, "Do you have access to my credit information?"

The answer in the book was, "No, sir/mam, I do not personally have access to any of your personal information. I am only calling on behalf of your credit card carrier to offer you this special service." However, on the computer screen in front of me was the person's name, address, phone number.... and a suspiciously long string of numbers that looked an awful lot like, well, you figure it out.

I guess my first red flag should have been the fact that, in my "interview," they never even looked at my resume and did not bother to check my references. They talked to me for about two minutes, then told me to be there for employee orientation the next day.

The interview went something like this:

ME: "Who are you?"
INTERVIEWER: "I am the new Number Two."
ME: "Who is Number One?"
INT.: "You are Number Six."


*actual line that we were instructed to use if the "customer" was resistant
 
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phudsontx said:
Commercial electrician in Arkansas one summer. It was during a severe heat wave. We got up at 4 AM and stopped work at 11 AM so no one would die from the heat. Even so, several contractors were hospitalized for heat related issues.
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Having been a commercial electrician for nearly 20 years before quitting and going into business for myself, that doesn't sound so bad...

Worked on the F.B.I. Engineering research facility new construction for 2 years.... FREEZING in the winter with snow on the roof, no windows and ice on the floor.. then in the spring they started putting the windows in... Just in time for the 90 degree heat with no AC.... But that wasn't bad.
I then went to work for a small service CO in N. Virginia. Ran by a fat guy who claimed to be religious. We installed Attic roof vent fans during the summer (you think 90 is hot... get in an attic and climb through the rafters when it's 90 outside.. gotta be 150+ in there!). He told us we had 1 hour from the time we arrived at the customers house until we called in with payment when we left to do the job. I did them FAST.. One day, I had a real bear though... 3 story house, extremely steep pitched roof... It took an hour and 20 minutes. Boss called the customers house while I was there to speak to me at which time he yelled at me and asked "What's taking so long?" Then he said "You need to charge the customer more!" and hung up. When I got back to the office he called me in and shouted at me. It was ridiculous... He was the biggest A-Hole I ever worked for... He took my final check and everything.

Glad I'm no longer an electrician.. I can still do it, but don't want to.
 
C2V said:
ME: "Who are you?"
INTERVIEWER: "I am the new Number Two."
ME: "Who is Number One?"
INT.: "You are Number Six."
*actual line that we were instructed to use if the "customer" was resistant
Click to expand...

Wow, that job must have made you feel like a... Prisoner!?
 
Hmmmm... I don't know about worst. All my jobs always involved agriculture, food, or video/TV production. I don't know that I've had a *bad* job, but some were harder than others.

The most difficult job was weeding and hanging wires in my cousin's raspberry field when I was 12. Have you ever tried to weed a wet, muddy 50 acre raspberry field? I don't recommend it if at all possible. I couldn't fully open my hands for two weeks my knuckles were so sore. At least I lived next door and they supplied all the soda I could drink.
 
ugafan said:
camp counselor for kids with severe emotional and behavior disorders. age range was about 8-15. it's hard to explain what this is like to someone who hasn't experienced it, but i'll give it a shot...

have you ever worked with a group of kids and within the group there is this one "problem child" that doesn't want to listen to anything you say and is mean and aggressive towards the other children? now imagine this "problem child" is so bad that the school system had to take him out of a regular school and send him to a special school for children that have been clinically diagnosed with behavioral and psychological disorders. now imagine that instead of dealing with one child, you're dealing with an entire camp of them. and they have to be monitored 24/7, so you have to sleep in the same cabins with them. there is no escape.

one more thing (and i'm not making this up).. before you are allowed to work with these children, the school system requires to go to this class where you are trained by a martial artist instructor (the same guy that trains police officers how to restrain suspects). you learn different holds you can apply to safely restrain a child. you also learn how to get out of various choke holds in case you are attacked by one of the teenagers.
Click to expand...

So did you beat the **** out of any of them? LOL.:zombie_smiley:
 
xmephestox said:
editing some footage for a psychotic evangelist at his home, only did it cause it paid cash. everyday he would try to convert me and tell me how anybody and everybody was evil, so on and so forth.

keep in mind i served 6 years in the Marines, and did a tour in Iraq. I still think this was my worst job.
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LOL sounds funny man, but that dude would of annoyed the **** out of me.
 
wow this thread took off quite well, I'm glad. Very interesting to hear all your stories. Working SUCKS!!!!
 
Moved 3000 miles to work for a company only to find out they didn't really like to commit to doing anything of real quality and a few other things happened and I moved back home after just 1 month.

I moved another 1000 miles to work on a film only to be kicked off after 2 weeks saying I was promised something they didn't realize they couldn't give. Producing and Directing jobs ripped away within two days, then the boot and a couple hundred bucks. Sent home with no prospects for months and close to financial ruin by the fall (I was hired at the end of summer). Fun times.

Worked in a kitchen with a bunch of guys...nuff said. Nothing but talk of T&A and immature crap. Drove me nuts.
 
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