The worst job I have ever had was hanging door hangers in neighborhoods for a pizza restaurant in my small hometown. It wasn’t too bad, but it was hot and boring. It had its perks, though. Free pizza speaks to me.
Adam Smith
25 Years in Retail, Restaurants & Hospitality · Author · Speaker · Coach
Adam spent 25 years in retail, restaurant, and hospitality leadership — managing teams of 60, growing a store from $600K to $2M+, and overseeing guest experience at a corporate level. Author of The Bravest You (endorsed by Seth Godin). Host of two podcasts. 170K monthly readers. Grimes, Iowa.
My first job was hanging coupons on door knobs for Hungry Howies Pizza. Stupid
My first job was at a costume jewelry shop where I sometimes had to sit in the window as a still model. Once had two guys betting each other that I was or wasn't real. I finally smiled just to see the jump.
My recent post <a linkindex="537" href="http://mom2giqm.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/tradition_to_business/" target="_blank">Old Family Tradition – New Family Business
haha. nice
Telesurveyor. Nothing like having cursewords screamed into your ear for a living.
oh wow. sounds terrible
When I was in high school my Mom was the head nurse at a nursing home. My best friend and I were both working at a local pizza joint, making $6/hr. My Mom told me that the home had two positions for evening and weekend housekeeping/laundry crew that paid $8.50/hr. That's big bucks to a couple of high school kids. We ended up fighting every night over who got to mop the halls and who had to do the laundry. Imagine bending down into a 50 gallon laundry bin to get that last washcloth or sheet that was soaked in urine or feces. The smell in laundry was awful. But mopping also had it's dangers. There was the dreaded "C Wing" where all the Alzheimer's patients were housed. They were a rowdy bunch. I once had poo from a bedpan thrown at me. luckily I got to use the door as a shield. There was another time I went in to mop a resident's room as part of typical Saturday morning rounds. I mopped his entire room, took out his garbage, even had a conversation with him. Normally I would talk, and he would listen quietly, sometimes smiling. I always talked to the residents while I was mopping, they loved it. This particular Saturday, the patient had been dead for hours and I was having a conversation with him. Mom met me in the hallway to tell me he had been dead since around 3AM. Thaaaaaaaanks. I freaked out a little. It made me sad though. I knew all the patients, so their deaths were hard on a young kid. Overall, worst job I ever had.
oh wow
Grocery store deli in small town Midwest. Slicing head cheese was the worst! The week that bologna was on sale was like a stampede of customers! Clothes stunk at end of day. Still don't like lunchmeat to this day;-) But it motivated me to finish college, go onto grad school, and get a great job.
oh wow. haha. bologna not my thing
Selling speakers out of a van in Toronto. Hey they said it was legal!
My recent post Are you a “Hunter” or a “Farmer”? (When it comes to selling)
haha. someone asked me if I wanted to buy some of those once
Victoria's Secret. Folding those immaculate panty tables wasn't fun.
ha
oh wow. really sad
I had a similar job when I was 18, working at Lane Bryant, a store for plus size women. I started out just helping the customers and folding the clothes but as they saw that I wa horrible at t they placed me in the intimate apparrel. Folding that stuff when you're 18 is not something you want to do. I feel sorry for anyone who has to do that.
haha. i would just laugh the whole time
Receptionist for a window manufacturing company. Not bad.. until they decided to scam the people in Miami who lost their homes to a hurricane… taking their money and then never giving them the windows they promised. LOVED getting those calls. Didn't work there long after that. Def opened my eyes to the "real" world. Sad.
i was a bra and panty buyer for a mid level….no crappy level department store.
boo
I worked in a deli that sold poor quality meats. I had to throw my work clothes out when I quit.
haha
My worst job was at a software development company. The job wasn't so bad (office manager) . But the owner was like a toddler. His business practices were disgusting. He lied to his clients & I really wanted to warn many of them like Betty Crocker, Nabisco, & Focus on the Family about him. He didn't pay bills & lights would get turned off & shipping companies like Fedex & UPS required payment in advance because he never paid his accounts with them. Had a drunk for an accountant. Tech Support was nothing but a voice mail box…that was full. He never let the Tech Support guy actually do his job.
One day he was looking for the "cheapest" and "fastest" method to ship something. He demanded it be sent by such & such and I explained that we did not have any of those envelopes in the office since it was something we didn't use regularly and that if he wanted it to go via that method he would have to wait until the following day. He continued to search thru the shipping envelopes until he found what he thought was what he had requested. He slapped it down so hard the office jumped & he said as if I were stupid & wrong "Here it is!" I politely had to show him that it was not what he thought it was.
The next day I stopped by the placement agency that had put me there and requested to leave that job. They said their obligation was to him first, not me, so if I left they couldn't guarantee they would find me anything. Two weeks later, the day after my birthday, they fired me (they had another employee lie to me because they were too chicken to face me). The reason I got fired: I didn't do someone else's job, Yup! The software saleswoman who admittedly didn't know anything about computers was mad at me because I declined to help one of her customers in lieu of doing my own job. Nevermind that I had ALWAYS helped her in the past when I had time. I simply didn't have time at that moment. She whined to my boss (not the guy I mentioned) and I was finally released from my prison. The agency had two interviews and an apology lined up for me the minute I walked through their door.
oh wow. thats terrible!!!
Doing the graveyard shift at 7-11 and trying to be a youth pastor at the same time (I loved the youth pastor job but the midnight shifts almost killed me – literally).
My recent post Book giveaway: Transforming Church in Rural America
thats rough
first job was helping my dad spread cow and pig manure on farmers fields as fertilizer.
My dad had a agriculture business.. and he trimmed Cow's hooves.
My recent post I'm Not…
stinky