Community Chat

[QueenDanceALot]

In a wood factory, standing in a booth in an un airconditioned shop in the middle of August spraying glue on laminate.

People made fun of me because I opted to wear the giant oxygen mask (more like a helmet) while I did it.  Most everyone else who had to do it were "tougher" than me.  They're also probably dead now.

That job was the pits.

[chickenbutt]

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@CelticCrafter wrote:

Insurance customer service.  I'm not sure how I lasted 15 years.

If I ever had to go back to work, put me in a cubicle without a phone so I don't have to talk to anyone and I'll push papers.

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I hear that!  I worked for a huge national insurance company for almost 10 years.  Had to get out of there, as it was killing me.  I say that literally.  I was getting myself so sick.  That company is so horrible.

It's a shame, as I was making awesome money, had a lot of vacation time (I travelled the world back then), and could have set myself up really well if I could have held out and retired from there.  Still ended up with almost $70,000, between my  401K (converted to my IRA) and my retirement settlement.    But I just couldn't take it any longer.

After I gave notice I received many 'congratulations' cards from the others there.   I learned a lot and was licensed in 13 states so that's not bad, but that company sukked bad.

[Love my grandkids]

OMG! For less than 4 months I worked for the meanest, rudest, nastiest woman attorney in Redondo Beach, California.

I'd been a legal secretary for eons and had tons of good experience, and she was nice to me for the first week and then it all got ugly. I don't know what happened! She was a bully. She bullied everyone in the office and the Monday she came in and sat down and with a smile, fired me, was one of the BEST days I'd had in years!!!!

[AndiCat]

Hotel housekeeping. Some people are just disgusting. 

[makena]

 The one I'm doing now.  I've worked for this major insurance company for 23 years and we've recently been forced to work in a position we had no qualification for and at the same salary with no increase.  We were given two choices, take it or leave it.  Most left due to being close to retirement or just left the company all together.  I've tried to stick it out.  The training they did provide was absolutely useless.  Little by little they have gotten rid of employees either by firing or making them so miserable they leave.  Getting time off approved is nearly impossible.  It's based on all offices across the US in the same position.  If I want a week off and there is no time available on Wednesday, they will approve Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri.  Who wants to take a week vacation and have to come go in one day in the middle of the week.  If you call in ill after two times, you will be given points.  If you accumulate too many points, you get warnings and your "shield" or "folder" is marked.  . 

The managers monitor your every move and often will sit behind you and watch you work without warning.  Mico-managing, so they call it.  It all changed after the person who ran the company stepped down and retired.  It was a family run business but not now. 

[Chicagosuburbangirl]

Working for a freight forwarding company training with a different person everyday.

Found out later my boss was trying to leave for another job the whole time I was there.

The last girl training me yelled at me everyday, in a room full of 40 people.

I was so nervous I began experiencing numbness in my arms and legs.

I was relieved when they fired me! A little pride wounded because I'd never been fired before.

1 year later the company fired half of the employees.

A few months after that, the company went under.

Ok, now this is really the best (and meanest on my part):

Hubby and I ran into the manager that fired me at Walmart. He smiled and said Hi.

I looked at Hubby and said...That's the bleep bleep who fired me.

[jlkz]

I worked 4 summers in the textile testing lab at a major chemical company.  My dad worked in the compounding plant and my mom in the metals testing lab.  The smell of the chemicals was enough to convince me I didn’t want to major in chemistry.

At break time each day, I went to the vending room where all the guys including my dad were sitting around the perimeter and watching me.

On each and every day, I would walk up to the huge calendar and put a big “ X “ through the day....couldn’t wait for the end of the day to do it.

After that 4th summer, I graduated from college and ended up with a phenomenal job offer and a fast track management opportunity because of the answer to one interview question.  “ When did I ever feel very pleased with something I did during that boring job ? “

Answer:  while my chemist boss was on vacation, a salesman visiting a customer down South in a textile manufacturing plant had questions on some test results for a water repellancy coating.  Told him I would rerun the project and call him next AM with the results.  Saved the client !

So it was the worst and the best of jobs....like so many things in life.

[shaggygirl]

Probably 16 yrs. old. Lived in Pa. Went to Ct. on a bus w/other teens. Family friends were in charge of taking a busload for the summer months to work. First few weeks in the tobacco fields tying the young plants up so they'd climb. Last few weeks spent in the sheds sewing tobacco leaves onto lathes (think that's the word, long pieces of wood) that got passed to mostly Jamaican workers who started hanging them from the top of the shed and working their way down. Lived in dormitory type camp. Took turns working the kitchen after dinner making sandwiches for the next days lunch to take with us. Had outings once a week. Only one I remember is a shopping trip into Springfield, Mass. Boys lived in one wing of the building girls in the other. Had some fun times. Was pen pals for a few years with local kids who lived at home but worked the summers there. Funny how I wound up living in Ct. as an adult.

[suzyQ3]

Worst job I ever had was doing inventory in a dusty, dirty electronic store populated and patronized primarily by men. Nothing wrong with men in general, but lord they can be obnoxious and lacking in any kind of filter.

When I told my boss that I was quitting, he said words to the effect of "So what are you going to do then...hang out in a bar somewhere?"  I have no clue what possessed him to say that.

[Kachina624]

Working during a hot summer on an assembly line at the Philadelphia Chewing Gum Company which was not air conditioned.  To this day, I cannot stand the smell of bubble gum.