Like most Americans of a certain age, I've held a number of jobs over the years including spending time in the service sector.
Food service wasn't my cup of tea. I'm a klutz, so me carrying beverages or food is not a good idea.
But retail sales at a chain store... I loved that. And my favorite day to work was Black Friday.
The busier, the more chaotic, the better.
Problem customer? They sent them to me. I loved the opportunity to spar with someone to see if I could change their attitude.
I'm attracted to puzzles and problems as a challenge to overcome. Every day in retail offers new issues to resolve.
And I was good at it.
I sold books, department store merchandise, convenience store items, mattresses and appliances and met or exceeded all sales goals.
A lot of people refer to retail as their definition of workplace Hell, but I honestly miss it.
Reddit user amiibohunter2015 asked:
"What's a job that sounds miserable but is actually pretty fun?"
It's The Coworkers, Not The Work
"Most jobs with good people."
"I've flipped burgers, developed photographs, served on tills, stacked shelves and I miss a number of these now I have a 'real' job."
"My favourite jobs are the ones I made friends at."
~ 0Neji
Cook
"The toughest job for me was a cook at a high volume, under-staffed restaurant working 60 hours a week."
"The most fun was that same job."
"You can meet some incredibly funny, borderline criminally insane, highly medicated people in the front and back of the house: cooks, servers, barbacks, dishwashers, bartenders... but it was a good time."
~ CTnaturist
Lawn Care
"I had a student job at a school where pretty much all I did all day was mow lawns."
"It is still the best job I've ever had. Mowing lawns is the most instantly rewarding job a person can have."
"The lawn is like a progress bar where you can literally just look at it to see your progress. If the pay was better I would be really happy just mowing lawns all day."
~ gene100001
Lime Production
"I work in a lime factory (not the fruit, the white powder from stones)."
"It sounds like it would be miserable as there is lime dust everywhere and it just seems like kind of dangerous and hard."
"It is actually really chill. The factory pushes safety above all else which is why we haven't had a serious accident for ~7 years."
"Everyone is in a good mood because pay is high enough that you don't really have financial troubles."
"Work is very methodical and because all the work you do is purely maintenance, extension or repair work, you are not doing any repetive tasks really."
"The only thing that really sucks about working in a lime factory is changing lightbulbs."
"Because man, there are a lot of lights. They rain down lime on you when you do it, so you have to wear all that protective gear and the glasses fog up and you can't see sh*t because it is dark because the reason you are there in the first place is because the light isn't working."
~ Mad_Moodin
People Don’t Quit Jobs, They Quit Managers
"It's all about the people and the management."
"Your job could be scooping sh*t and digging ditches, but if the people you work with are awesome, you have a boss who supports you and wants to you do well at work and beyond, and you have good benefits; that's a great job."
~ cushtywoo
Air Freight
"Dragging air freight containers all over the freight carrier's facility and making sure the right ones get on the right planes."
"I had a blast."
~ TemperatureTop246
Sanitation
"Garbage Collector."
"Driving around in a big truck, working outdoors, being with your buddy and keeping the city clean can be satisfying, also quite thankful and you get some exercise on the job."
"Those electrical garbage collectors also look cool as f*ck."
~ b2q
Mucking Stalls
"One of my first jobs as a kid was cleaning out the stalls at a horse barn, literally shoveling sh*t all day. I'd shovel the stuff into a wheelbarrow and haul it out to the manure pile."
"As far as poop goes, horse poop isn't too bad. It's dry and smells like fresh compost because it's mostly made of grass."
"The work was low-stress, good exercise, and horses are fun to hang around with."
~ PaulsRedditUsername
Roller Coaster Testing
"So I've actually worked as an engineer designing roller coasters. Testing coasters is a very tedious process."
"When commissioning, which is the industry term for testing the coast once installed, you've got a lot of individual systems testing before you start actually running the trains around the whole circuit. Every sensor, brake actuator, transfer track, etc... needs to work perfectly first, not to mention every system on ever car for every train."
"Testing these is monotonous, and whole lot of tiny adjustments, checking and re-chekcing, and small control system adjustments."
"Once that's done, you have to 'break in' the ride. Basically figure out how the wheels bogies have to be tensioned for the optimal ride. So the first runs are extremely slow."
"Also, in case anything could go wrong at this point, you run the ride filled with dummies to replicate the weight of riders."
"All of this takes about 3-4 weeks. After that, you can ride the coasters finally."
"They generally send staff around on the last couple of days, and yeah, that f*cking rules."
~ avw94
Pizza Place
"In college I worked at a family run pizza place that almost exclusively hired college kids. All the managers were also college kids and the owner would pop in every now and then, but besides that it was basically like a step below hanging out."
"I wouldn’t even really call it work. We f*cked around and made pizzas all day and were all great friends."
"Made minimum wage, but it was the most fun I have had at a job."
~ joeyboii23
Bike Messenger/Deliveries
"Doing bike deliveries in a city with bike lanes/parks. Did it for some months in a rather calm city and loved it, even with the heat and rain sometimes."
"I liked to be outside, doing different streets every day, greeting people and interacting with who you're delivering to."
"I could never do it in a city with mixed traffic and having to dodge cars, trucks and pedestrians."
~ lucstrk
Civil Service
"I work for the government. And as bad as that sounds...it's not a bad gig."
"It's 8-5, and I work from home so I can watch TV. It's interesting enough to keep my attention."
"I don't bring home work and I have the weekends and most holidays. Not to mention state holidays."
"I get time off as well and a retirement. It's honestly low stress."
~ DwarfFlyingSquirrel
Childcare
"I work with kids aged 1-6. It’s a lot of screaming, crying, and diapers. There’s too many kids, in too little space, with too few grown ups."
"But f*ck me if I don’t leave with a smile on my face most days."
"They just do the stupidest sh*t with the most insane misplaced confidence, and it’s absolutely hilarious."
"Could do without the diapers though."
~ JTWDK
Instructional Designer
"I'm an instructional designer and love it. I make the corporate trainings everyone has to take."
"I get to be in education without babysitting kids or adults. I make the material and pass it off to someone else to teach it."
"I've worked in 3 very different fields all doing instructional design and I've never been bored. Been at it for 15 years and I'm still just as hyped as when I started."
"The innovation is fun, and I've always had great coworkers."
"Managers love us too cause they sure as hell don't want to have to make the materials. They don't even know where to start."
~ saturatedregulated
High School Teacher
"I'm a high school teacher and I love it most days. The kids are hilarious and they just say crazy a** sh*t.
"Sometimes they ask questions out of nowhere like when this kid came up to me, all serious, and said he had to ask me something."
"His burning question was why Michael Jackson and Prince didn't collaborate back in the day."
"This kid was born in the late 90s (this was years ago) but said this had been on his mind 'for years'. We had a good talk, actually."
~ TeacherPatti
What seemingly miserable job have you loved.
@GavinNewsom/X
