January 27, 2000    
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 What is the worst job you ever had and why?

The worst job I ever had was clipping a 92 year old woman's toenails. I don't think I need to explain why.

Shayna, 28
Somerville,
MA

During the summer between my sophmore and junior years in college, I worked in the shoe factory in my hometown. Being one of the few options for employment I was lucky that my aunt was able to swing a summer job in the payroll department. I spent the whole summer, in a hot un air-conditioned room handwriting orders for shoes into piece tickets that would go to the leather cutters and stitchers. It was completely mind numbing and robotic work. The only thing I kept thinking was, "at least this is only a summer job." I felt bad for women in their mid-40s and early 50s who surrounded me. They didn't have that luxury.

Felicia, 34
Somerville,
MA

Being stepmother to children whose idea of ethics began and ended with ME FIRST.

Jill, 59
Saylorsburg,
PA

Its a toss up between cleaning dog and cat cages in a kennel or doing telephone sales. I don't know what I hate more making cold calls or cleaning dog diarrhea.

Cindy, 41
Lowell
,
MA

Stuffing envelopes for an auction event. I was working through a temp agency and the temp agency had "donated" my time as a charitable contribution to the event. (I didn't know this, of course, when I accpeted the job - they told me it was an assistant position at a TV station). As a "donation", I was treated - and came to feel -like slave labor. It was as if some elitist bastard had lent me to their friend to do the grunt work they felt was beneath them to do themselves. Indeed, that was exactly the case. I was capitalism's slave. The whole structure of the thing sickened me. The actual act of stuffing and addressing envelopes like a goddam machine for 8 hours straight didn't help things either. I was bored, irritated, and insulted. Needless to say, that job didn't last long. I'll tell you, though, it was some of the most disgusting and miserable two days of my "working" life. The only joy came in being able to give the stuck-up, pinched-face, nasty bitch of a woman who strut around the stuffing table like the matron of a mill a piece of my fed-up mind.  That was nice.

Liz
Medford, MA

The worst job I ever had was a telemarketer: I had graduated from college, however, after too many months of applying for jobs and being rejected, I got desperate and took a job as a telemarketer. I hated it because I hate it when telemarketers call me up during dinner time, and that is what I was doing. Also, people always made up pathetic excuses for not giving money. I had to quit after a few weeks because I was so miserable, and I vowed never to do that again, regardless of how desperate I get.

Ernest, 28
Washington
,
DC

My dad owns a commercial painting company, and when I was 15 years old, he hired me and a few of my friends to work as painters' helpers on this really huge job. We were the only females for a mile radius, and we were subject to everything from lewd gestures to out and out obscenity. Not only that, the work was wretched. I was a spoiled little girl with a daddy that thought I was the world, and all of a sudden, I'm on my hands and knees scraping paint off of a floor with a razor blade!!!

One day, some of my father's workers said some nasty things to me in Spanish, not knowing I understood them. I whipped around, cursed them out in their language, and then said (and I can't believe I said this) "do you KNOW WHO MY DADDY IS?!?" I went home crying. My dad asked me what I learned, and I told him I had a newfound appreciation for my education and I definitely did not want to do anything like this for the rest of my life. He kissed me on my forehead and said "good, that's exactly what I wanted you to learn." *shrug* Looking back on it now, I also realize that my dad wanted me to stop being so snotty about my brains. My dad never finished high school,certainly never went to college or graduate school, but he's supported me through every academic endeavor, even when I decided to go to grad school instead of law school and (God forbid) read, teach, and write about books for the rest of my life. Who's paid for it though? My dad.  Maybe this wasn't my worst job after all.

Sorry, I know this is long.

Amy, 23
Baton Rouge,
LA

Although cleaning up the chicken some guy drooled on the table at Hy-Vee was pretty bad, I'd have to say the worst job was at the veterinary clinic. I had to do all the dirty work that nobody else wanted to do, and I had to do it quickly. The other people who worked would fail to do something and I'd have to do it for them when I worked, and then my boss wondered why I was so slow.   Eventually I started punching out before I left work so that I wouldn't get fired for taking too long. It wasn't all bad, though. The last day I worked was just like I had imagined my job being. The vet that I really liked came in to do emergency surgery on a dog, and his wife was out of town. I alternately helped the vet by holding the dog and by entertaining his adorable baby son while we talked about Colorado.   If every day had been like that, I wouldn't have minded getting minimum wage (and not even current minimum wage, but the LAST minimum wage) and all the other stuff I went through.

Karen, 20
Marshelltown/Ames,
IA

The worst job I've ever had was shelving books at the school library.  It's the most boring and tedious job alive. Shelving hurts your eyes after awhile, but at least the pay sucks.

Ray, 17
Toronto  CANADA

The worst job I ever had was working for a company that exported parts for large earth-moving machinery and train diesel engines. I worked for one of the VPs. He was planning for me to travel to the then Soviet Union, East and West Germany, France and other countries. It seemed like an ideal job, except that the rest of the company was full of back-stabbing, sexist men.   The atmosphere was poison and I could not handle working there. I quit after 3 months

Laura, 34
Lowell,
MA

ll never forget it as long as I live. I was just out of high school,  thinking "this summer is gonna be great!" (And it was) HOWEVER...I was working in a grocery store, part time bagging groceries & shaggin' carriages,early mornings,with all the old men who would get dizzy watching me running from register to register, then out the door, grab a shit load of carts, back in, bag more groceries and so on all morning long.( Did I mention I was a speed freak at the time?) Anyway... My manager comes up to me one morning as soon as I walked in, no coffee, no smokes,(didn't smoke then). So he says "I'm afraid

I gotta ask you to go clean the Men's room. It's pretty bad." I'll spare you the details, but I need to tell you there are some fucking disgusting animals out there! Pardon my french. Ce la vie.  So the next thing I know, my manager and I are in waterproof suits spraying the room down with the pressure washer we used to clean the dairy cases. At one point I'm squeegeeing filthy water towards the floor drain,  and I look over at my boss, and I think,"wow he could have just said go clean the mess", instead he's going to town hosing down the walls in a men's room. Like I said, it was a morning I'll never forget. I gained a great deal of respect for a man named Al Juisome (hope I spelled it right,

Doug
Lowell, MA

Telemarketing, definitely. I hated myself for every minute of it. It didn't last long.

Kristin, 20
IA  USA

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