I "walked" too back in the day, it was tough work but I loved it. I was asked to return the second year as a "checker"...my first job promotion.
What was the worst job you had?
- Thread starter swagsurfer02
- Start date
Sanding wood furniture. Put me in the back corner of a 90 degree warehouse with a sander, stack of masks and sand paper and furniture to sit back and sand for 8 hours. It sucked. Lasted maybe 3 days.
When I was like 12 and 13 I used to power wash hog buildings. Took me about 8 hours to do one of the big ones and the guy paid me 100 straight cash for each. Circa 1998-ish that was pretty good money for a kid.
Used to wear an old rain suit and hoped not too much sprayed into your mouth.
Used to wear an old rain suit and hoped not too much sprayed into your mouth.
Mine was one where I made as much as $130,000 a year and it was a personal hell.
Counting the beer slimed cans and beer oysters were cake compared to that.
Counting the beer slimed cans and beer oysters were cake compared to that.
Dish pit is where you go to shut off your brain and relax.
I know a lot of people have complained about Detasselling but that is a walk in the park compared to picking rock.
In certain parts of NE iowa you literally walk in a field in the scorching heat and dust walking alongside a tractor and wagon looking for rocks that could damage farm equipment.
In certain parts of NE iowa you literally walk in a field in the scorching heat and dust walking alongside a tractor and wagon looking for rocks that could damage farm equipment.
The local farm supply store would get in boxcars full of Georgia peanut waste. They were like bales of hay only bigger with red clay encrusted peanut tops. I guess farmers used it for animal bedding at the time. Every bale weighed at least 125 pounds with tight wire wraps. I was still in HS and myself and another kid would unload an entire boxcar on a Saturday for $ 10.00. The 100 degree boxcars, sweat, white tee shirt and red clay made it look like I was shot in a random Cedar Rapids drive by at the end of the day...
Some genius in management decided to create a new position in their department which I got hired on for when I was leaving a different job that was about to be cut. Basically they combined the responsibilities of about three roles into one position and then understaffed at that position. Then gave up on that idea once they ran a bunch of people off. The idea was that it was supposed to be the easiest way to be in compliance with some updated regulations. Basically one person doing nearly all of the actual work on the bank's side of a real estate short sale and then three people behind them looking for ways to nitpick their work. If one of those people can find something to nitpick more than once per month, the department pays out less in bonuses. If those people can't find things to nitpick, they're seen as obsolete
In fairness, you could almost buy a Model T for $10 cash in those days...
Any job a farmer hired me to do (they obviously didn't want to do it)
Easily the worst:
I spent a summer working in a garbage bag factory. Working the line packaging the bags in boxes of 100 and stacking pallets. The boring was bad enough but not even close to the worst part, the Temps. It was easily 120-130F at the end of the line and if you had to fix the line near the hopper it was closer to 160. I would drink up to 2 gallons of water some day and never pee. I have no idea how people did that day in and day out.
Easily the worst:
I spent a summer working in a garbage bag factory. Working the line packaging the bags in boxes of 100 and stacking pallets. The boring was bad enough but not even close to the worst part, the Temps. It was easily 120-130F at the end of the line and if you had to fix the line near the hopper it was closer to 160. I would drink up to 2 gallons of water some day and never pee. I have no idea how people did that day in and day out.
Taco John’s … For 3 months as a 16 year old… Free lunch was a nice perk … but crappy hours and attending to the drive thru window on a Fri/Sat night for the drunk crowd … Nope
Not where I worked as a dishwasher (Perkins in Burlington). During peak hours, it was nonstop.
Sure, but it's so simple compared to running the line that it seemed like a break when I was still working in restaurants.
Worst job was my first one. Some friend of a friend of a neighbor had a carpet company. For like 15 years, they had taken every remnant they cut off for carpet, and thrown it up in the attic of the building. Then they finally decided they should figure out what they had up there and catalog it, and decided they needed a 14 year old kid to do it.
Well, the attic had no windows, no airflow at all, and was about 120 degrees. I was supposed to roll out a remnant, measure it, tag it with the dimensions, and roll it back up. You could barely breath, I'm sure the air was thick with fibers. And there was no staging area, so you were constantly trying to roll carpet out flat, but there was no flat, just mounds and mounds of carpet to climb over. One day I finally decided to figure out how deep the pile was, I dug like five feet worth of carpet without getting to the bottom, I pretty much gave up. Would measure a few in the morning, and then just try to lay absolutely still the rest of the day and try not to get heat stroke. Pretty boring in the days before phones. I would rearrange the ones I had tagged to look like I was making some progress. I definitely felt bad for taking their money ($3/hr or whatever), I would have happily quit but I was too embarrassed to.
Best job I ever had was working the grill in a hot dog/hamburger restaurant for two summers in college. Yeah, it was filthy and greasy and I would have to put bags of ice down my pants to keep from nuts from being 160 degrees, but I loved it so much. All college kids, met my wife there. I seriously couldn't wait to go to work every day.
The social aspect obviously wouldn't be the same LOL, but would quit my job today and go back tomorrow if I could make my salary doing it.
Well, the attic had no windows, no airflow at all, and was about 120 degrees. I was supposed to roll out a remnant, measure it, tag it with the dimensions, and roll it back up. You could barely breath, I'm sure the air was thick with fibers. And there was no staging area, so you were constantly trying to roll carpet out flat, but there was no flat, just mounds and mounds of carpet to climb over. One day I finally decided to figure out how deep the pile was, I dug like five feet worth of carpet without getting to the bottom, I pretty much gave up. Would measure a few in the morning, and then just try to lay absolutely still the rest of the day and try not to get heat stroke. Pretty boring in the days before phones. I would rearrange the ones I had tagged to look like I was making some progress. I definitely felt bad for taking their money ($3/hr or whatever), I would have happily quit but I was too embarrassed to.
Best job I ever had was working the grill in a hot dog/hamburger restaurant for two summers in college. Yeah, it was filthy and greasy and I would have to put bags of ice down my pants to keep from nuts from being 160 degrees, but I loved it so much. All college kids, met my wife there. I seriously couldn't wait to go to work every day.
The social aspect obviously wouldn't be the same LOL, but would quit my job today and go back tomorrow if I could make my salary doing it.
Summer after my freshman year at IOWA was spent working at Midwest Biscuit Company in Burlington. The bottle of TJ Swann my boss kept hidden in his "office" was the highlight of the day. 10 hour days, 6 days a week. I have not eaten a factory made cookie since.
I didn't work in high school because I lived in Peru. My summers were spent surfing, hanging at the beach club and chasing tail....but I did install tires one summer in Tallahassee and that job quickly made me realize that I was meant for office work
I loved detasseling and roguing corn. Started when I was 13 and did it every summer through high school. Even contracted some acres in college and one year after college. The crews I worked on were always fun and you could flirt with girls. It wasn’t easy work but I loved it. Once I started contracting acres and hiring friends to work for me it was even better because I made more money.
That being said, that first walk into the cornfield at 6 in the morning when you know you’re going to get instantly drenched by the corn (despite your garbage bag parka) was pretty miserable. But after 10 minutes you were used to it and throwing tassels at someone. My Sony Walkman got lots of work those summers.
Utility contractor.
I dug pits for telephone company line technicians. I drove dozers and tractors used for installing underground phone cables. I laid asphalt where cuts in pavement were required. All pretty hard work, especially in the NW Florida heat and humidity. I'm 6'0", and I weighed less than 150# during that time. When people working white collar jobs talk about how hard they work, I roll my eyes. They might work long hours or stressful hours, but that's not hard work.
Growing up, I also spent every summer except one on a farm. That wasn't technically a job, it was a way of life. It was definitely hard work, especially since the tractors weren't enclosed. The combine was enclosed, but not air conditioned. Of all the farm chores, I'd say that picking butterbeans was the worst, followed by slopping hogs.
I dug pits for telephone company line technicians. I drove dozers and tractors used for installing underground phone cables. I laid asphalt where cuts in pavement were required. All pretty hard work, especially in the NW Florida heat and humidity. I'm 6'0", and I weighed less than 150# during that time. When people working white collar jobs talk about how hard they work, I roll my eyes. They might work long hours or stressful hours, but that's not hard work.
Growing up, I also spent every summer except one on a farm. That wasn't technically a job, it was a way of life. It was definitely hard work, especially since the tractors weren't enclosed. The combine was enclosed, but not air conditioned. Of all the farm chores, I'd say that picking butterbeans was the worst, followed by slopping hogs.
The worst job I had was working as manual labor for a builder in the florida keys over the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college. The job itself wouldn't have been that bad (hard labor in the summer sun with no shade) if it weren't for the owner's wife. When I was hired she said something like "oh we love getting college kids" and she made it her mission to make my life miserable daily. The other workers would comment on it frequently. "Man she sure hates you" and "I wouldn't let her talk to me like that".
Worked on the roof of a Hanes plant in my college years cleaning their industrial AC units. They were insulated with a sulfur-based foam and we had to remove all of that. On the roof. In the summer. The stench would melt your eyeballs.
Then it was time to get inside them and re-tar the pools where they held the water used to cool the air. By the end of the summer, my jeans stood up all by themselves.
But we had a good time up there.
Then it was time to get inside them and re-tar the pools where they held the water used to cool the air. By the end of the summer, my jeans stood up all by themselves.
But we had a good time up there.
Similar threads
