Though we've all experienced this to varying degrees, we've all had at least one terrible job that we absolutely would never, ever, ever do again... ever.
While it might be hard to even think back on that period, sometimes it's cathartic to complain about it and to read about others' experiences, or at least that's Reddit's train of thought!
Curious about others' experiences, Redditor Evening_Medicine_704 asked:
"What is the worst job you've ever had? Why?"
A Micromanaging Call Center
"I worked at a call center where our 'breaks' were timed to the second. I never knew 10 minutes could feel like two."
"The constant barrage of angry customers didn’t help, either. Do not even get me started on the micromanagement because you'd be surprised at how much worse it is."
- Radiant_Mistress_
"The entitlement from customers, AND if I walked away for more than 30 seconds (mind you, I was remote), I would get a message asking if I was okay. They were making sure I was doing my job."
"It was someone’s job to make sure everyone in the call center was on track and not a second off. I was verbally abused on the regular too."
- reddituser135797531
Aesthetic, Fresh Potatoes
"I sprinkled mud onto potatoes that had already been washed so that they would look freshly dug when they hit the supermarket. Most depressing holiday job I've had."
- iambaee
"...this is poetically dystopian."
- sadworldmadworld
Enough Colons For A Lifetime
"I worked as a front office manager for a gastroenterologist for a while. Every morning the fax machine (yeah, this was about 10 years ago) was filled with colonoscopy pictures… they were not pleasant."
"And then the patients would call and come in, and it was eight hours a day of listening to stories about bowel movements and textures and frequencies and findings and I just really prefer my non-sphincter related lil ol office job now."
- Steplgu
Conveyor Belts
"I was a cashew flicker at a candy factory. Literally. I flicked the bad cashews off a conveyor belt."
- FluffyFlutter_
"I did this with onions for onion rings. Not only do you react to onions, you stare at this metal mesh conveyor. So you see the top moving and the bottom moving and the wheels turning. Got motion sickness so bad."
- Ashamed_Occasion_521
Working The Holiday Hours
"Working retail during the holidays was the worst. People are super rude, the hours are insane, and you’re basically drowning in stress. Never again."
- Ellibabyy
"The whole time I was in college, I had a variety of jobs in retail including American Eagle, Victoria Secret, Aeropostale, Hollister. Would never wish working there during Black Friday on my worst enemy!!"
- Appropriate_Music_24
Catching Fire Was Not In The Job Description
"I was a furnace helper in the steel factory. We made bumper mounts and hinges for truck hoods and other heavy steel parts. I unloaded red hot parts from the furnace with a pair of tongs, I used to catch fire two or three times a day. I hated that."
- LilyLuxee_
An Impossible Job
"I worked at a high-kill animal shelter about 10 years ago, and it was soul-crushing. Putting perfectly healthy and friendly animals to sleep on a daily basis was more than I could stand after a year. And most of my co-workers were good-for-nothing, s**tty people."
- ChickenLadyLuvsLife
"This has to be the worst job. I physically could not do it."
- Striking_Stick7275
"I misread this at first and thought you said that you did this for TEN YEARS, and I thought... how... but then I realized this happened ten years ago, and I just hope you've healed and are in a much better place now. I can't imagine doing that job."
- TheBookishAndTheBard
Helicopter Parents On The Field
"I was a soccer ref between 14 and 18 years old and refereed from age eight all the way up to high school level."
"Tournaments were awful. Just a full day of running back and forth while people are yelling at you and hate your guts because their kid's team is losing. Worst. Job. Ever."
- ISpewVitriol
A Spooky Time Of Year
"Spirit Halloween store. That place was ridiculous!!!"
- Alchemie66
"I’ve been told this so many times but I’m like three weeks in and it’s some of the easiest work I’ve ever done. Am I just that beaten up mentally or am I about to have a rude awakening one shift?"
- slinkyw
"It's September, dude. Wait until October 15 when all the good costumes are gone."
- Alchemie66
Such Unforgiving Work
"I can't believe roofing isn't on here."
"That is absolutely the f**king worst."
- Serene-Sapphire
"I did it for a few summers off and on. The last one I did was a house on a hill mid-summer, and literally zero shade on the roof. Hottest I have ever been in my entire life. I will never get on a roof again after that one."
- tsalyers12
Public Shaming, Basically
"Cashier at Albertsons. They would get on the intercom to call you back to the register if you went to the bathroom, and put up lists of 'bottom performers' in the break room."
"They'd call us into the office once a week, asking why we did price adjustments for things that rang up the wrong price (they asked about each individual change), and reprimanded staff for not wearing the uniforms the store never ordered."
"And they held paychecks if you called in sick until they could embarrass you in front of the whole store. I hated that job."
- Dragon_wryter
You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do
"I worked at KFC for all of two weeks when I was seventeen as a fry cook. The work was exhausting, the boss was a douche, and the schedule was ridiculous. I quit without notice four hours prior to a shift."
- Dino_Girl5150
Heart-wrenching Work
"Foster care caseworker. Full stop."
- mindbird
"I can’t even imagine what you’ve had to see those poor kids go through."
- Evening_Medicine_704
"That was my college internship and first job after (I was hired to replace the person I interned under). Private agency, working with kids/placement families across a third of PA, which is a huge state..."
"I heard not only the stories of what the kids had suffered before coming to us, but the logistics of driving all over the region to see them in placement as well as attending court, bio-family visits, and IEPs. I was on-call every third weekend to deal with runaways and other emergencies."
"I burned out inside of three years."
- _TheSuperChick
"I didn't last that long."
- mindbird
The Cherry On Top
"I worked in the marketing department at a car dealership. There were low wages, sexual harassment, regular harassment, id**ts in charge, and the company wouldn’t even pay for the basic tools required to do my job."
"Plus the building was riddled with mold so everyone was sick all the time."
- mossattacks
We cannot imagine the work someone would have to do for at least one of these stories to not make them cringe.
From heartbreaking stories to cringy behavior to overbearing parents, there was no wonder these Redditors would never want to repeat these moments from their lives.
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