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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2011 11:15:45 GMT
Of late,I was thinking about some of the worst jobs I have ever had in my life. Yes,there were some that I hated and they got me through until something better came along. I have to say though,hands down,the worst job I ever had was working at the Hilton here in NOLA as a room service wait person,or, whatever it was that we were referred by. For starters, I was the first woman that they had hired,(I'm sure having to do with some Equal Opportunity employment laws) and the supervisor of this department was none to happy to have me. As a result of this,he gave me the most difficult work to do,was blatantly unfair to me,and did everything in his capacity to make my job miserable. At one point during this horrible period,I began having nightmares about the job,and would wake up knocking on the wall as if a hotel room door,and no one would answer,while on the food delivery cart was every conceivable luxury item on the menu which I was going to have t return to the kitchen untouched and be called on the carpet for. Despite the harassment,which I am sure was designed to make me quit,I hung in there,until eventually I found a better job that I had been waiting for. I shudder to this day when I think of that job... I'm sure I can think of some others.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2011 11:48:19 GMT
I worked for one day as personal assistant of the top pop star of France and walked out. I worked for three days at Price Waterhouse and quit. But these guys probably spent their entire lives tarring Indian roads. (click)
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Post by rikita on Jan 23, 2011 15:34:50 GMT
none that was really horrible though some had annoying aspects... cleaning in the hostel got enough after half a year, though i was still disappointed when i lost that job (due to them cutting down the number of people) - wasn't exactly exciting work...
reception at another hostel was a bit annoying in the sense that i totally agreed with the costumer's complaints, but as i worked for the hostel i couldn't admit that...
mr. r. once had to peel the plastic off computer cables for four euros per hour, but that job was meant only for three days from the start...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 23, 2011 15:44:27 GMT
One job that stands out for its mind-numbing aspects was that of having to monitor videos of major sports events (on fast-forward) to check the number and type of commercials.
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Post by gertie on Feb 9, 2011 14:49:30 GMT
Lets see...my first job was assisting in the refurbishment of giant injection molding presses that had been through a fire. First, I used a bucket and a metal paint scraper to scrape up the gooey mass of boiled-down fluid left coating the bottom of the tanks. Then I got to scrub down the entire stripped body of the machine, including the inside and outside of the tanks, with a form of naptha. My mother sent me with a brand-new pair of those yellow dish washing gloves. Unfortunately, the naptha ate the gloves. When I showed my supervisor, he laughed and explained the stuff was designed to clean stuff like the burnt remains of plastics from the machines, thus this result should have been obvious. I ended up just sucking it up and using my bare arms. They kept saying they would order me the proper sort of gloves, but new gloves never materialized. After spending Friday night and all day each Saturday working in this manner, my arms would be hairless and irritated, with even the light brush of my sheets causing little jitters of pain to run along my arms. The pay was pretty good, and as I was only 12, there was certainly no where else I could hope to have earned $5 per hour. Really, that was the worst.
I later worked at a couple of jobs a lot of people decry - fast food and electronics retail. The fast food job was actually a lot of fun, and certainly less grueling than the machinery work. The electronics retail was an eye opener. I would rather jump into a shark tank than return to that work, it would be less cutthroat.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2011 7:27:55 GMT
I spent a year as a teacher in a School for Bad Teenage Girls. It was a nightmare, but it didn't come to mind immediately, because you can also imagine the amusing aspects of the situation.
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Post by Kimby on Feb 10, 2011 17:33:41 GMT
I hated a job that should have been a good experience, as I had been granted a graduate assistantship at the University of Wisconsin. Though I was seeking a graduate degree in Environmental Journalism, the assistantship was in the Department of Agricultural Journalism.
Though I had excelled at writing in undergraduate years and wrote numerous articles for the college newspaper, I failed to recognize that writing for me was like pulling teeth. It never came easy, I agonized over every word, I HATED having my work edited by someone else and would strive to turn in a perfect piece of writing so it wouldn't be edited.
The focus of our writing for the Ag Press was to churn out numerous articles, more than one a day, for release to newspapers around the state. Five of us shared an office and took turns answering the phones. We each had our departments whose professors we were to contact for story ideas, and we were expected to write prolifically for Ag Press in addition to doing the writing required for our coursework. With my painstaking standards, I was rarely able to produce more than one article a week, and my coursework went undone. At the end of the school year, I dropped out of the program taking an "incomplete" in 3 of my courses. For most of a year afterward, everytime a phone rang, my brain answered "Ag Press".
The only good thing about that year was that it was the year I met Mr. Kimby, and though it took us 8 years to make up our minds, I did eventually get my MRS degree, even though my MS had ground to a halt.
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 16, 2011 10:06:35 GMT
I once worked in a company that sold Italian and Spanish tiles.
I worked in the warehouse and the first job I was given was to raise the 'shelves' storing the tiles by two or three notches. After two months of climbing around I was finally trusted to put together clients' orders.
I'd get the order, look for the tiles and then pack them on a wood palette. After rechecking everything was there I'd then wrap it in plastic and seal and shrink it with a blowtorch.
One day I had to reopen the palette because I had to add something to the order. I'd misplaced my cutter so I used my lighter to burn through the plastic and then rip it off. Well, right after opening the plastic I had to go for a pee. When I came back everything on the palette was burning!
Incredibly, they forgave me!
I later got fired because I got sick.
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Post by imec on Feb 17, 2011 0:01:46 GMT
I later got fired because I got sick. Next time you may wanna be more careful who you get sick on.
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Feb 17, 2011 1:07:11 GMT
kerouac - In regards to #1, was it Johnny Hallyday? And also <<I spent a year as a teacher in a School for Bad Teenage Girls.>> Where do I apply?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2011 8:06:28 GMT
It was Claude François. He electrocuted himself the following year.
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Post by bjd on Feb 17, 2011 8:24:59 GMT
We had an electrician do some work for us recently. When he was explaining the new set-up, he showed a switch and said "that way you won't do a Claude François". Since the guy was only about 30, I was surprised he was even aware of the singer.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2011 8:55:30 GMT
Claude François is as alive in France as Elvis is in the United States -- new generations have heard their parents' records all though their childhood.
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 17, 2011 10:06:26 GMT
I later got fired because I got sick. Next time you may wanna be more careful who you get sick on. This was way before I became the mature and responsible person I am now... I sort of became sick. Actually, what happened was that there was a big party at the house I was staying. We all got pretty drunk and, um, peed off the balcony. And I fell, ... breaking something in my knee, which had to be operated out, which kept me in hospital for a week, which the company did not forgive...
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Post by frenchmystiquetour on Feb 17, 2011 13:07:09 GMT
Re: Claude François - Did you quit because he asked you to change a light bulb?
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Post by gertie on Feb 17, 2011 13:28:35 GMT
That Ag Press job sounds ghastly to me. Not because of the writing, but because I'd dislike being a propaganda machine.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2011 15:02:44 GMT
Another loathsome job was as an au pair for an ultra wealthy Upper East Side in Manhattan family. My "charge" was an incredibly overindulged,spoiled rotten young girl,with a sense of entitlement beyond measure. I lasted one day. I simply could not subscribe,allow myself to indulge this child any more than she had been,was. It went against every grain of how I believed,and still do believe, people should be treated. Dreadful people. I wonder where and what she is doing now. Actually, I really don't care....
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Post by Kimby on Mar 1, 2011 9:35:50 GMT
That Ag Press job sounds ghastly to me. Not because of the writing, but because I'd dislike being a propaganda machine. I never thought of it that way before, gertie. I guess maybe for some of the Ag Press corps, whose area of specialization was agriculture, it might have been a bit like propagandizing. My assignment, however, was to do stories on nature, biology, environmental things. I wrote a bi-weekly column called "Wisconsin Nature Notebook" that was syndicated to newspapers all over the state (no byline, though). I'd think up a topic (autumn colors, bird song, spring ephemeral wildflowers) and interview a professor in the appropriate department for quotes to incorporate into the article. That part was fun. But the other 13+articles I was expected to crank out in the same 2 week period - along with my coursework- was not fun.
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