What was the worst job you've ever had?

Dishwasher, redneck diner, Montana.

An emotionally toxic workplace with a dysfunctional boss and her dysfunctional family running in and out. You had to be related to somebody to get a job there (I wasn't related, so I don't know why I was hired), the cooks cussed loud enough to be heard all over the diner, the cooks were frequently arrested for DUI (one got a DUI on his bicycle), the waitresses spent their spare time being pregnant, the prep cook's sons rotated their shifts with each other (only two were employed at a time - she had four boys), one of the cooks helped herself to the till everyday for beer money, back-stabbing, stealing out of each other's purses, slander, one accusation of attempted rape, a couple of charges of harassment, no overtime/holiday pay, no benefits, no professionalism, open EVERY day (even the day the boss/owner's husband died) including holidays, constant rants from the boss about how stupid we all were, the boss' grandson skating through on those dumbass skate shoes on the line and in the back kitchen where it's always crowded and telling his grandma how we're all in his way on purpose ...

When I began going to therapy while in Montana, my therapist assured me that it wasn't just me being hyper-stressed, but that there was a huge file of clients in the counseling service who had worked there and felt they were turning into monsters. I had to leave after my breakdown (the job was only part of the reason for the breakdown), so I never got a chance to give the boss my exit line: "Hey, is it true that your family pokes their heads in your room at night and ask 'Are you dead yet'?" (The boss was the RICHEST person in the entire valley - she was worth $5 MILLION.)

Retail.

Not because it's retail and it sucks, but because of the people. Both places were just toxic. The first was a large family owned furniture store. The supervisors were demeaning and snotty to everyone (customers included), the sales people were complete idiots and made everyone's job harder, and it was just not worth it.

The second I worked at seasonally last year and is a major retail chain. The managers and assistant managers were for the most part uptight or just plain immature. There was one who was an assistant manager and constantly flirted with one of the managers. She was a two faced waste of oxygen, and I'm about 90% sure she was cracking jokes about me to the manager she flirted with. Most of the people there were female, catty, uppity, and just pains in my ass. I called in one day (ONLY day I ever called in, I was usually the one picking up extra shifts) and the manager on duty tried to guilt trip me because they hadn't scheduled enough people to close that night. Any other time I would have rearranged my life to be able to help them out, but my 4 month old was sick. At that point I was working less than 15 hours a week so I was done.

I consider myself lucky here, because I've never had a job that was really all that bad. I worked one retail place for just over a year before it went out of business and it had its moments, but I loved being with my coworkers. My current day job isn't too bad. I deal with idiot shop managers who think it's ok to give me shit just because I'm a girl, and my boss who I spent quite literally 8 months figuring out that he didn't just straight up hate me. Although my personality works well at the store I'm at right now. There's a lot of "violence" and nasty insults between coworkers and not many people not in the situation seem to understand that it's not meant to be serious.

Definitely retail but I actually liked working during the holidays because it was so busy and you're always moving. I despise slow days. I would say the worst/amusing experience was working during Old navy's $1 flip flop day. THAT was insane.

A particular consumer electronics store that really likes the color blue and yellow as a seasonal cashier.

There was so much stuff to push: extended warranties, magazines, membership cards. It was ridiculous! It was absolutely exhausting and physically and emotionally detrimental.

Because of that, I refuse to work retail.

Manager at taco bell. Ugh. We called it taco hell. Blah. I would literally go on my break and cry. It was awful.

I recently started working at Old Navy and this thread is scaring me a little!

I worked at a Meijer, which is a retail store similar to Target and Walmart. Definitely the worst experience of my life. 10 hour shifts with only half an hour for a break, working 5-6 days a week..

My mom worked for them before, too, when she was pregnant with me. They refused to let her go to the bathroom at all, or take any breaks, because there "wasn't enough cashiers." It's pretty awful to make a pregnant woman wait 6-7 hours JUST to go to the bathroom.

For about two months, the summer after I graduated from high school, I worked in the basement of a funeral home, in the middle of a cemetery, calling people to arrange appointments for sales people to come out and sell them pre-planned funeral arrangements. It was my one and only venture into telemarketing and I swore I'd never do it again.

People loved getting calls from a cemetery to remind them someday they will die!

Retail...ARGHH! People are SO MESSY.

Retail! I worked at TJ Maxx a LONG, LONG time ago. I started during the holidays and they stuck me in Layaway and the kids department. I would go through and straighten the department and have to run to layaway for two minutes and in those two minutes the department always seemed to get trashed all over again. It was hell! Never again!

Well, I used to be a hairdresser....it was super stessful. Always had to hurry your ass up to get people's hair done quick and to be ready for the next costumer.

Working in an environment where coworkers talk in your back all the time, pretend to be nice to you, steel very expensive things from your station you payed with your money, degrade your self-esteem by downgrading you infront of your costumers....it was hell. I cried every day before going to work bcs I didn't want to go.

Working in hairdressing is tough! It's really hard to get ahead, and women can be really mean (gay men also!).

McDonald's.

It was ghetto. Everything broke down all the time, I got sexually harassed by customers and managers (1 liked to hit on me, the other tried getting handsy on me snuck up on me in drive through to "tickle" me and "surprise" me, which meant grabbing my hips from behind and pulling me towards him) and and no one batted an eyelash. Some of my employees were also very creepy. I worked night shift on weekends and dealt with drunks, creepy, belligerent, and stupid ones. I was accused of stealing money from my register, when I was never allowed to count down my own register. Turns out that a manager accidentally misplaced the $20 in the drawer and put it in the wrong slot. The new female night manager liked to come to me for advice about really awkward topics, like coping with her mother coming out as a lesbian. She also tried hooking up with an employee because she took their mean-spirited banter to be more. He liked her as a friend only. A lot of stuck up bitches worked there, which always got me, because, seriously, you can't act so damn proud when you work at McDonald's....I never got more than a 15 cent raise after working there for a year when I was told that I was the best employee they had and I even got complimented by customers, and I knew my regulars. They hired in a bunch of new people who got paid more than me once the minimum wage laws changed and they got paid over that. I made a dollar less than they did. I wanted to leave and couldn't find a replacement job until I went away for college. Oh, and the place was right next to a Waffle House that has a drug ring with the employees and managers and the place frequently gets busted.

I've had a lot of bad jobs, and the one that I'm going to back to is pretty bad too. I've been on vacation, but after Christmas, I'm back. I work at a phone call center and harass people to take surveys. I can't wait to do that around the holidays so people will hate me more!

The one benefit is that crappy jobs keep me motivated to finish college when I want to give up.

^Me too! They expect me to replace any money if my drawer in short, but I don't get to count it. Because I'm not Latino I've been put on the less preferred shifts, meaning I run night crew. I was asked to become a manager because with my culinary training I already know most of it, but because I refuse to learn Spanish, my last manager promoted people from her country that couldn't even speak English. I want to get out of there so badly, but I'm looking for culinary job since that's what I'd trained in. I just too the job at McDonald's because I needed to pay my bills.

Then there was working in a casino as a pastry chef. People thought that if they paid a certain amount or were "High Rollers" that they should get their way. The issue was the people they paid and tipped, weren't me. I was the one there to close to bakery, so when I'm 20 minutes from closing and I get a rush order for a chocolate cake, I wanted to scream. We didn't keep cakes thawed for whenever, I didn't have time to make cakes normally, I was the bread and pretzel bitch. The worst night was when the governor or a friend of came in with the governor wanted a special birthday cake, but didn't tell anyone or call ahead. Just showed up and asked for it as they ordered dinner! I'm sure the President calls ahead, your nothing special to me when my shift is about up and you can't even give us a heads up. I left the job because I was sick of the two girls in charge making $13 hour or more while only having community college degree's from the same college and I had vocational training. They acted like I was stupid, even when I was right when they were wrong with things. I hated that they were "best friends" so I was shuffled off to the shifts they didn't want, even taking away my normal days off so they could go out and party while I closed. On top of that the casino felt it was your life, or all that should matter. I was there Christmas and Easter, the two days of the year it was closed. I had to fight to get off for my grandfathers 80th birthday and for my friends funeral. In fact I didn't even get the day for the funeral, I went to it in the morning and had to come in that night. I made it very awkward and cried through most of my shift.

I worked for a large video chain for just over three years. I quit for a period of time to go into office work and ended up going back for extra money. Within 24 hours of my rehire I was promoted to manager. Little did I know that my district manager was a fast food manager for 20-something years before he took that position. Which meant he believed the two business models operated in exactly the same way and everyone knew he was hired for his 'financial creativity'.

He was an absolute nightmare. He hated women, especially white women and shamed me for not having a working vehicle even though one was not required for my employment or my title. I was the closing manager. After he blamed a very large theft on me and once again gave me hell about not having a car, I took off my uniform shirt and threw it and my store keys at him in front of a store full of people on a Friday night. Of course this was after months of taking pretty serious abuse from him and my store manager about stupid things that no human being could possibly contend with. Things like having five teenagers come in at 3 til Midnight and DESTROY the store while we were doing our closing checklist. We had to clock out at exactly 12:10 with the doors locked and the alarm set at 12:11. It was impossible with me preparing the deposit and drawers and my ONE employee on the floor.

I immediately walked across the street and had a drink before walking home pretty much skipping with glee. I started a new job the following Monday that led me to other interesting and successful endeavors.

Being a massage therapist on a cruise ship was the worst job ever. It almost made me quit massage all together. Fortunately I was fired after two months because I refused to work when I had the flu and could barely get out of bed.

To begin with I had sign a contract for a minimum of 9 months, and there were no breaks in between that so 9 straight months of working 6 days a week for 12+ hour shifts. Most days I had 9 or 10 hours of massages but sometimes I would have 12. The spa rooms were too small and too hot and I hurt all the time. I was always so happy when we'd port, not because I was excited to see a new place (that novelty faded quickly) but because all of the tourists would leave and I'd usually only have 4 or 5 clients that day (which I would consider a busy day at the spa I work at now).

I did not make much money at all. my base salary was $400/month and I made tips and commissions from product that I sold. I made a 7.5% commission for both services performed and products sold. So for that ridiculous $100 dollar massage I made $7.50.

I made about the same amount working on the cruise that I make now at a day spa, the difference is that I do about 1/5 the amount of work I did on the cruise.

It wasn't all that bad, but I used to be a cleaner. I did't mind the job, per se, but I'm not all that good at cleaning, and I had to work with my mum. Kind of embarrassing ...