What's the worst job you've ever had?

As a follow up to the first job thread, what was the worst job you've ever had?

I once spent two days operating a jackhammer. Over my head. While standing on a ladder.

I would prefer not to do that ever again.

Concrete crew.

In Oklahoma.

In July.

Worst job: car salesman.

I love cars, I used to like people. It felt like it should have been a natural fit. Nope.

Worst single day was the day I turned 18 I spent 6 hours in a cold rain digging a trench in loose sand to install a pipe. When I finished (with wet sand everywhere) the boss liked the way it looked and decided to "open it up a bit" with a bobcat. Everything I had done in 6 hours was obliterated in 10 minutes. I went home and vowed to never work on my birthday again. Still haven't.

Contract Machine Shop. Worked 2PM to 2AM as shift manager and quality assurance. Owner would come in drunk halfway through the shift. He would wander around the shop and I had to follow him so he wouldn't get hurt. Then had to shutdown 4 or 5 machines so one machine operator could drive him home. Then on Saturday I had to go in and get beat-up because I didn't get enough product out. It was 22 months of hell.

Concrete floor demo in an unventilated enclosed space. 12 lb sledgehammer and vomit endosing dust. I quit at lunch on my first day. I've had some crap positions, and even crappier managers, but that was the worst.

Kitchen in a college cafeteria. I lasted one shift. The only job I ever walked away from.

Never had any I wouldn't do again, but I've really only had 6 jobs--and 3 of those were at the same place, 2 of them the same team even. The worst was a Business Analyst, but that was really only bad because of the management.

In reply to mtn:

Bad management can even manage to quickly kill a dream job

My freshman year of college, I got transferred at the grocery store I was working at to the produce department. I don't know why I agreed to it in the first place, but it was not a long lived position once I missed the first few 5AM Sunday start times.

The job itself was not bad but I've never been a morning person and I was WAY more interested in partying Saturday night than going to bed early for that job.

Sam's Club. berkeley that place.

Overnight shift in a powder coating plant. The raw materials went in one end and I was at the other end. The other end was a giant sifter that was constantly shaking. I had to fill 50 lb bags, box them, stack the boxes on a pallet, and repeat. If I didn't get the plastic bag on correctly it would soon become apparent from the giant cloud of powder. If I wasn't fast enough, the sifter would back up and explode. Most of the time I would end a shift covered in powder and would take a bath at home (a shower didn't get the job done). Left a permanent stain in the tub!

Overnight detailer at a dealership, I worked 7:30 Pm to 6 Am Monday through Thursday. It sounded great on paper, made more hourly and I had a 3 day weekend every week. What I failed to realize was, I slept most of those 3 days, I had crazy dreams, a co worker wanted to fight me and I fell asleep with a buffer in my hand...running.

I spent about a year and half as a Helper in a facility that made material handling equipment for lumber mills. Spent the majority of my 40 hours a week crawling around on top of giant pieces of machinery with a 7" angle grinder or mag drill. No heat in the winter, no AC in the summer, just miserable working conditions. Most of the guys there had started when they were 14 or 15 years old and were pushing 50 because it beat working in the lumber mill itself.

I learned a LOT and I wouldn't be where I am now without that job, but there's not a single thing on earth that could get me to go back.

Last I had heard they had laid off all but about 10 of the guys in the shop. There was probably a crew of 40+ when I was there. I'm honestly surprised that they didn't go under. I'm even more surprised that they have an actual website. Con-Vey Keystone

Hot tar roofing in Texas the year it was over 100* for over 30 days straight.

I worked at Canpar (like a Canadian version of UPS). It sucked, all of the black ink off the boxes coated you and even went right through your clothes.

The truck I packed did 2 blocks of Yonge St. in Toronto and most days I had a full truck packed plus another truck full sitting on the dock that needed to be loaded after the 1st load was dropped off.

5 weeks and that was it.

Some of these should be featured by Mike Rowe.

Brain surgeon. Worst. Job. Evar.

Phone book delivery in a section of town where every house has a flight of stairs up to the front door. I still get mildly agitated when I drive through that area

For a short while back in the nineties (four months) I had a position as Product Manager for a company that made cold-header tooling (for example, punches for making Phillips Head and Torx screws). Not too exciting, but I needed the job at the time. Before I started, the company had recently been sold for big bucks by the original founder, and the new owners were flip-artists based in another state. Problem was, the original owner had developed a weird business culture and all the remaining employees harbored that same culture. They resented the new owners. I had been brought in by the new owners. Consequently, I received no support from my so-called "colleagues." The company had meaningless cost accounting data, so they had no idea what the products really cost. As Product Manager, setting competitive product prices was critical to my success. I also discovered that the plant manager and engineering manager had the means of listening-in on my phone conversations, something left over from the weird founder. Fortunately, I was able to get another Product Manager position at a much better company ... the one I eventually retired from. Shortly after I left I found out that the new out-of-state owners were able to flip their new acquisition quickly. They ended up closing the facility and consolidating the production at another facility. I was fortunate to bail out when I did.

I haven't had that many jobs, but Panera was the worst so far. A woman accidentally threw away her fake tooth. I had to dig through the trash to find it. There's nothing quite like digging through a can of half eaten bread bowls and rotting soup to find a filthy false tooth. I found it, and needless to say I can't eat cheddar broccoli anymore.

It was not the most physically demanding job, not the dirtiest job, but the WORST job I ever had was as a porter (and occasional cashier) at Kmart in my late teens.

There are things I remember fondly from every other job I've had, but not that one. The pay was terrible, the people were terrible, everything... terrible.

Boy I got nothing on you guys (and gal). The worst job was a flunky at a textile finishing and dyeing plant. One job was throwing the "empty" dye drums in a hole in the ground. That area is now a state superfund site. The worst day of that job was climbing into a J box with a paint scrapper to scrap all the crud on the J boxes. Today that would be illegal in so many ways. The worst week of that job was the week of July 4 when the plant was closed and I had to help inventory the whole damned warehouse. The problem of the cloth off-gassing formaldehyde made hour throat hurt and you felt like you had the flu.

In college, I worked the window where students dropped their dirty trays. You seperated the trash, dishes and silverware. I lasted one hour. I moved to the hot, steamy dishwasher and lasted another hour. Then I hit the pot sink, for the balance of my shift. Then I quit.

Lucky for me, they were desperate for people with a brain who could speak English, so I told them if they wanted me back, I wanted to cook. I ran the grill for a year and I enjoyed that.

USMC Recruit, 3 months in Parris...Island. Everything you did was wrong, even if it was right. Ultimately it was probably the best thing I ever did, but at the time I wondered "WTF did I do?" every day.

I worked almost 10 years at a Theatrical Rental hours.. unheated in winter (we once saw 5 degrees IN the shop) and no airconditioning or even opening windows, just the big roll up doors. When it hit 100 in the shop, we would go home.

started at $10 an hour.. was still making $10 when I left.. found out later all my co-workers were paid a -lot- better than I was.. like more than double.

Had some funky rules too.. like even if the job could be done better sitting down, we weren't allowed to, as we did not "look busy" sitting down