My Own Doublemeat Job
- Thread starter Bluebird
- Start date
Washburne
Protector of the key.
I guess none of them really seems like "bad" jobs to a lot of people but they´re my worst experiences.
The worst I´ve had was just simpe "factory jobs". It took half a day, max, to learn how do do the work well/ get the rythm. The "problem" was that I was bored in a quarter of that time. Bored me to death. I had friends that worked shifts for a year or two just so they could earn some serious money but I just couldn´t stand it. And it killed my feet. I have some serious problem with them as it is and the factoryfloor wasn´t helping one bit. One day it was so bad I hardly managed to get to work, by bicycle!
One job that could be fun at times but bad as hell other time was hmm I don´t find the right word at the moment but it´s the guy/girl who takes care of your jacket or personal belongings than you´re out clubbing or something like that. Having a couple of hundred drunk obnoxious people shouting at you at the same time is real fun. But at least it´s not for 8 hours every day.
The funny thing is that a lot of people can´t stand 5 minutes at my regular work. But it´ll never be considered to be a contender for "worst-job-ever"-category. What I do? I´m a leisure-time-teacher. At last I think that´s the best way to describe it. Being surrounded by children doesn´t seem to be appealing to eveyone.
The worst I´ve had was just simpe "factory jobs". It took half a day, max, to learn how do do the work well/ get the rythm. The "problem" was that I was bored in a quarter of that time. Bored me to death. I had friends that worked shifts for a year or two just so they could earn some serious money but I just couldn´t stand it. And it killed my feet. I have some serious problem with them as it is and the factoryfloor wasn´t helping one bit. One day it was so bad I hardly managed to get to work, by bicycle!
One job that could be fun at times but bad as hell other time was hmm I don´t find the right word at the moment but it´s the guy/girl who takes care of your jacket or personal belongings than you´re out clubbing or something like that. Having a couple of hundred drunk obnoxious people shouting at you at the same time is real fun. But at least it´s not for 8 hours every day.
The funny thing is that a lot of people can´t stand 5 minutes at my regular work. But it´ll never be considered to be a contender for "worst-job-ever"-category. What I do? I´m a leisure-time-teacher. At last I think that´s the best way to describe it. Being surrounded by children doesn´t seem to be appealing to eveyone.
D
Dancing man
Dont get me started on factorys jobs
I'm only on my second job now, and I'll have to leave soon because I'm moving at the end of the summer. My parents don't want me to work next year, but I love working. I would be extremely bored without a job, and let's face it, I'll need all the money I can get. I work at Friendly's now (a restaraunt/ice cream place), and I love it. The people are just fantastic. I'll probably transfer to one near my school next year because I really do want to work.
I've only been there for about two months, but it didn't take long for me to realize by comparason how sucky Subway was. The job itself wasn't that bad--the work was easy and I got to be with one of my best friends. My boss was the issue. He only had five employees total, which royally sucked when one of us got sick or wanted time off, but he was too frugal to hire new people. He expected us to devote ourselves entirely to the way of the sub, or something!
Basically what happened was, I had three school projects due in two days of each other. And I'm talking hardcore projects, not just your average poster. There was one Film 2 movie, and two book projects, one of which ended up being thirty pages (single spaced all the way). So I told him I had to stop working week nights until I finished the projects, but then afterwards I'd be able to come in three hours earlier if he needed me to.
Then I got the flu. It was a horrible time. So I had to call in sick. I actually had to get my MOM to call in for me, because I couldn't speak. A while later, I had to go to an admitted student visit day at my school, about which I gave him much notice. Then I got the flu AGAIN, for the second time in a month, and obviously I couldn't work. A few weeks later, I had to visit my grandparents because they're very old and it had been months since I had seen them. Seriously, my grandpa's 90. When I got back, he called and told me I couldn't work that weekend, and he'd have to rearrange the schedule and call me back. He didn't call back. So I went on my lunchbreak from school to talk to him and he said "Nobody can work weeks anymore, and I need people who are actually going to be here for the weekends." I took offense to him holding ILLNESS, family, and school against me, and conveniently forgetting about the three week period when I worked 5-6 days a week on top of school, because one girl was sick and other people just wanted time off. I reminded him that I could work weeks again and he said "But you told me you couldn't for the rest of the year." A lie, I'd said "for a few weeks." And he said "Well I just hired someone new to close nights, because I can't keep being here every night, and it wouldn't be fair to give you weekends. So I can't let you work for a while, but maybe I could put you on in another month or so," which I knew was his way of saying "I'm firing you," because it's exactly what he'd said to another girl a month before. I walked out and I've refused to step foot in there since.
I've only been there for about two months, but it didn't take long for me to realize by comparason how sucky Subway was. The job itself wasn't that bad--the work was easy and I got to be with one of my best friends. My boss was the issue. He only had five employees total, which royally sucked when one of us got sick or wanted time off, but he was too frugal to hire new people. He expected us to devote ourselves entirely to the way of the sub, or something!
Basically what happened was, I had three school projects due in two days of each other. And I'm talking hardcore projects, not just your average poster. There was one Film 2 movie, and two book projects, one of which ended up being thirty pages (single spaced all the way). So I told him I had to stop working week nights until I finished the projects, but then afterwards I'd be able to come in three hours earlier if he needed me to.
Then I got the flu. It was a horrible time. So I had to call in sick. I actually had to get my MOM to call in for me, because I couldn't speak. A while later, I had to go to an admitted student visit day at my school, about which I gave him much notice. Then I got the flu AGAIN, for the second time in a month, and obviously I couldn't work. A few weeks later, I had to visit my grandparents because they're very old and it had been months since I had seen them. Seriously, my grandpa's 90. When I got back, he called and told me I couldn't work that weekend, and he'd have to rearrange the schedule and call me back. He didn't call back. So I went on my lunchbreak from school to talk to him and he said "Nobody can work weeks anymore, and I need people who are actually going to be here for the weekends." I took offense to him holding ILLNESS, family, and school against me, and conveniently forgetting about the three week period when I worked 5-6 days a week on top of school, because one girl was sick and other people just wanted time off. I reminded him that I could work weeks again and he said "But you told me you couldn't for the rest of the year." A lie, I'd said "for a few weeks." And he said "Well I just hired someone new to close nights, because I can't keep being here every night, and it wouldn't be fair to give you weekends. So I can't let you work for a while, but maybe I could put you on in another month or so," which I knew was his way of saying "I'm firing you," because it's exactly what he'd said to another girl a month before. I walked out and I've refused to step foot in there since.
palabravampiress
Bidet of Evil
^ Yeah. Teeny bopper jobs can be surprisingly hard core. They pay you minimum wage, give you no vacation and no benefits, and then they expect you to adopt military-like discipline and loyalty to the company in pursuit of profits you never see. It's ridiculous. Shortly after I left the theater, the management decided to have a meeting and tell all of the supervisors (most of whom were in college) that they had to have completely open availability and that school was not an excuse. That didn't last long, as most of the supervisors threatened to quit. They were supervisors at the theater in order to pay for college, not going to college in order to be better popcorn poppers! The management said that the supervisors should have open availably (like the managers). The supervisors said that if they were expected to have the same responsibilities, then they wanted the title, a guaranteed 40 hours, the same pay, and the benefits of managers, too. Lol. Guess who won that argument?
Even before that happened (and I thanked my lucky stars I had moved to a real office job by then), availability was an issue. There were no sick days allotted to employees and, as a result, there were entire seasons during which getting sick was a fireable offense. The worst part was that that mentality seeped into all of us. One holiday season, we had a guy lose his voice for like two weeks. He probably got it from me, truth be told. Anyway, the poor kid never once called off. But when he came in, we'd stick him in one of the less busy satellite stands or on candy duty or something. One night, when I was going over the evening schedule with my replacement supervisor, she said, "That guy's sick again?! He needs to get better. I'm tired of always putting him in the satellite. We could use him here." Mouth agape, I said, "Well, you know... maybe if we asked so-and-so to give him a couple of days off, he'd get better." It was insane. I was pretty hard core about the workaholic way of the theater, but even I realized that working sick employees harder was no way to get them fit and able bodied again.
Even before that happened (and I thanked my lucky stars I had moved to a real office job by then), availability was an issue. There were no sick days allotted to employees and, as a result, there were entire seasons during which getting sick was a fireable offense. The worst part was that that mentality seeped into all of us. One holiday season, we had a guy lose his voice for like two weeks. He probably got it from me, truth be told. Anyway, the poor kid never once called off. But when he came in, we'd stick him in one of the less busy satellite stands or on candy duty or something. One night, when I was going over the evening schedule with my replacement supervisor, she said, "That guy's sick again?! He needs to get better. I'm tired of always putting him in the satellite. We could use him here." Mouth agape, I said, "Well, you know... maybe if we asked so-and-so to give him a couple of days off, he'd get better." It was insane. I was pretty hard core about the workaholic way of the theater, but even I realized that working sick employees harder was no way to get them fit and able bodied again.
NightBird
Potential
The worst job i've had was working as a commission based charity collector.
This meant that if nobody signed on to give x amount of money for x amount of time I got no money.
The job was on average a 14hr day, I only did 28, I quit after two days, trust me nothing sucks more than 28hrs of work for which you make nothing.
I got fired from a job at a LAN center a few months back for not doing what management wanted me to do, or should I say the 100th extra duty they decided fit into my job description.
I'm looking for a new job, but finding one is proving much harder than I thought it would be.
This meant that if nobody signed on to give x amount of money for x amount of time I got no money.
The job was on average a 14hr day, I only did 28, I quit after two days, trust me nothing sucks more than 28hrs of work for which you make nothing.
I got fired from a job at a LAN center a few months back for not doing what management wanted me to do, or should I say the 100th extra duty they decided fit into my job description.
I'm looking for a new job, but finding one is proving much harder than I thought it would be.
caitaintdead
caiters gonna cait
All the crap jobs I've worked over the years. Where to start? Well... at the beginning!
Dominos - The pizza place. 14-15 years old. Not to bad really for fast food. My managers were all in their early 20's and pretty laid back. I got free pizza!
The bad parts - As time went on I had to work more and more closes (till about 2am) which was hard since I was still at high school and pretty disgusting work since their would be dough and cheese and other assorted pizza toppings crushed into the ground by teenage feet. Eventually I was the only employee that could work a close and was doing them 6 days a week.
Hungry Jacks - (Or Burger King if you're elsewhere in the world). 16 year old. I needed a job that would work around my TAFE course and it was the only place that was willing to take me. This was the Doublemeat experience alright!
The bad parts - I had the manager from hell. She would make everyone cry (sometimes even customers) and was obsessed with the upsell. If Angie happened to be stood behind you while serving a customer that just wanted a regular meal then it was over! She would screech "upsell!!! UPSELL!!!" in front of a terrified customer who wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the upfront nature of my manager.
The cleaning jobs were, as you can imagine, revolting.
Angie would hold team meetings on a Sunday morning at 8am with the promise of a free breakfast and spend 2 hours screaming at us about how useless we all were.
If I happened to have a friend meeting me at the end of my shift and they came in 5 minutes early she would yell at them to wait outside unless they were going to purchase a meal.
Calling in sick was not a possibility - there was a sign in the staff area that read - If you happen to die, your soul should still show up for work.
Thankfully I did meet my current boyfriend all those years ago at Hungry Jacks and stayed friends with him for all the years until we began to date!
Unnamed company - A lighting company. Age 19. After all the years of casualised fast food and coffee shop jobs I wanted (and had the skills) to do an office job. So I applied, and got the job for this company. I was so excited. Unfortunately my dreams got shattered.
The bad parts - My boss was a filthy, horrible pig. Ever seen The Devil Wears Prada? Picture the boss from that, but fat, old and badly dressed. He barely introduced himself to me, just yelled when I did something wrong. If he walked up to my desk to ask for something, he farted. The most gag inducing farts I've ever smelt. His breath was so bad I toyed with the idea of making him a dentist appointment, because the only possibility for breath that bad was rotting teeth. (Or maybe he sold his soul to the devil and the devil replaced his insides with rotting meat)
After a month or so I realised from talking to friends and family that this was no normal boss and I had to leave. It had been playing in my mind for awhile, but I'd always been the kind of person to just get on with it. Finally one day he stood over me, farted, leant right into my face so I could breath in his foul breath and yelled at me a bit to loud and bit to nastily for my liking. That day I left.
I'm sure when enough time has gone by I will look back and laugh at his cartoon-foulness. Not enough time has passed yet...
The Moon and Sixpence - Pub. 20 years old. I needed to get away from the pub/restaurant that I had been working at for almost a year and The Moon seemed like a good option as it was almost directly across the road from where I was working and I had the experience to walk straight in without an interview or resume. The managers weren't to bad really, but nothing can be done about the crap-ness of a pub job.
The bad parts - Drunk people. They were suddenly everywhere. The office women getting confused between bacardi and vodka and yelling at me because they don't know the difference. The old men asking me out on dates and saying that they'll 'pay for everything I'll ever need in life'. The many suits who would breath alcohol fumes into my face while hissing 'you're nothing, you work at a bar, you'll do what i want'. The drunks fighting. The cleaning up vomit, spilt drinks, and on occasion, urine.
The hours were that of a nightclub. Working till 3am on Fridays and Saturdays and 1am on weekdays. My boyfriend was finishing work on a Friday at 4pm and I'd just be starting work. My friends would drop by on their way out all dressed up and I'd be trying to explain to a drunk old man why he couldn't pinch my arse. I missed everything. I missed my friends. I missed my family. Worst of all my relationship began to fall apart.
Beer is disgusting when it begins to rot. This beer would get into my shoes and onto my feet. Hours of scrubbing my feet after getting home from work was all that saved me from the dreaded beer rot that most busy bar employees get on their feet. By the end of my shifts I would stink of alcohol, be miserable and not be able to get a taxi home due to all the drunk people trying to get in them. I would wonder the streets on my own for sometimes 3 hours before finding a cab, and let me tell you something - the streets of Perth at night are not a nice place to be if you don't want to get beaten up or mugged.
I guess the world was playing me a good card when I lost my job there yesterday! Now I have 2 months of holidays before I need to work again (my first holidays since I left high school when I was 15).
Wow, that turned into a novel and it was only the 4 worst jobs out of the 12 I've had!!! Sorry for anyone that fell asleep while reading my story of woe!
Dominos - The pizza place. 14-15 years old. Not to bad really for fast food. My managers were all in their early 20's and pretty laid back. I got free pizza!
The bad parts - As time went on I had to work more and more closes (till about 2am) which was hard since I was still at high school and pretty disgusting work since their would be dough and cheese and other assorted pizza toppings crushed into the ground by teenage feet. Eventually I was the only employee that could work a close and was doing them 6 days a week.
Hungry Jacks - (Or Burger King if you're elsewhere in the world). 16 year old. I needed a job that would work around my TAFE course and it was the only place that was willing to take me. This was the Doublemeat experience alright!
The bad parts - I had the manager from hell. She would make everyone cry (sometimes even customers) and was obsessed with the upsell. If Angie happened to be stood behind you while serving a customer that just wanted a regular meal then it was over! She would screech "upsell!!! UPSELL!!!" in front of a terrified customer who wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the upfront nature of my manager.
The cleaning jobs were, as you can imagine, revolting.
Angie would hold team meetings on a Sunday morning at 8am with the promise of a free breakfast and spend 2 hours screaming at us about how useless we all were.
If I happened to have a friend meeting me at the end of my shift and they came in 5 minutes early she would yell at them to wait outside unless they were going to purchase a meal.
Calling in sick was not a possibility - there was a sign in the staff area that read - If you happen to die, your soul should still show up for work.
Thankfully I did meet my current boyfriend all those years ago at Hungry Jacks and stayed friends with him for all the years until we began to date!
Unnamed company - A lighting company. Age 19. After all the years of casualised fast food and coffee shop jobs I wanted (and had the skills) to do an office job. So I applied, and got the job for this company. I was so excited. Unfortunately my dreams got shattered.
The bad parts - My boss was a filthy, horrible pig. Ever seen The Devil Wears Prada? Picture the boss from that, but fat, old and badly dressed. He barely introduced himself to me, just yelled when I did something wrong. If he walked up to my desk to ask for something, he farted. The most gag inducing farts I've ever smelt. His breath was so bad I toyed with the idea of making him a dentist appointment, because the only possibility for breath that bad was rotting teeth. (Or maybe he sold his soul to the devil and the devil replaced his insides with rotting meat)
After a month or so I realised from talking to friends and family that this was no normal boss and I had to leave. It had been playing in my mind for awhile, but I'd always been the kind of person to just get on with it. Finally one day he stood over me, farted, leant right into my face so I could breath in his foul breath and yelled at me a bit to loud and bit to nastily for my liking. That day I left.
I'm sure when enough time has gone by I will look back and laugh at his cartoon-foulness. Not enough time has passed yet...
The Moon and Sixpence - Pub. 20 years old. I needed to get away from the pub/restaurant that I had been working at for almost a year and The Moon seemed like a good option as it was almost directly across the road from where I was working and I had the experience to walk straight in without an interview or resume. The managers weren't to bad really, but nothing can be done about the crap-ness of a pub job.
The bad parts - Drunk people. They were suddenly everywhere. The office women getting confused between bacardi and vodka and yelling at me because they don't know the difference. The old men asking me out on dates and saying that they'll 'pay for everything I'll ever need in life'. The many suits who would breath alcohol fumes into my face while hissing 'you're nothing, you work at a bar, you'll do what i want'. The drunks fighting. The cleaning up vomit, spilt drinks, and on occasion, urine.
The hours were that of a nightclub. Working till 3am on Fridays and Saturdays and 1am on weekdays. My boyfriend was finishing work on a Friday at 4pm and I'd just be starting work. My friends would drop by on their way out all dressed up and I'd be trying to explain to a drunk old man why he couldn't pinch my arse. I missed everything. I missed my friends. I missed my family. Worst of all my relationship began to fall apart.
Beer is disgusting when it begins to rot. This beer would get into my shoes and onto my feet. Hours of scrubbing my feet after getting home from work was all that saved me from the dreaded beer rot that most busy bar employees get on their feet. By the end of my shifts I would stink of alcohol, be miserable and not be able to get a taxi home due to all the drunk people trying to get in them. I would wonder the streets on my own for sometimes 3 hours before finding a cab, and let me tell you something - the streets of Perth at night are not a nice place to be if you don't want to get beaten up or mugged.
I guess the world was playing me a good card when I lost my job there yesterday! Now I have 2 months of holidays before I need to work again (my first holidays since I left high school when I was 15).
Wow, that turned into a novel and it was only the 4 worst jobs out of the 12 I've had!!! Sorry for anyone that fell asleep while reading my story of woe!
palabravampiress
Wow. Just wow. I can't believe the icky boss.
November
I seen that pub but never been in.. and now probly never will! :p And the HJs sign about your soul showing up to work gave me a laugh!!
B
Blondie Bear
OMG, I've HAD the Angie-boss-from-Hell.
Joyce Summers
Mom of a Chocoholic
Whoa, Cait that's a boat load of badness. And reading all your guys' stories is making me feel like such a spoilt brat. I've only ever had to work one crappy just-for-the-pay job and that was the waitress one I mentioned above. And that was when I'd moved away and thus away from my Mom's money. I mean I worked in a book store briefly when I was in New York, but that was a nice place. And then any other jobs I've had have been acting ones.
Although when I was in NY there was this acting job where the stage director was the nightmare to the nth term. It was meant to be a smallscale production to allow newbies such as myself at the time opportunities to test their skills and he treated it like it was Tenessee Williams' original production of The Glass Menagerie. Made several people- both cast and crew- cry and I remember thinking that doing that was just going to cause things to take even longer to get done. But try to speak this sense and he completely bit your head off. This was where only-child-single-parent-family deal came in handy, it totally creates an independent, can-go-into-shell-for-survival vibe which was what I basically did whenever he decided to rant off at me but I had friends who completely broke down. Awful to see and frustrating to have it happen repeatedly.
Although when I was in NY there was this acting job where the stage director was the nightmare to the nth term. It was meant to be a smallscale production to allow newbies such as myself at the time opportunities to test their skills and he treated it like it was Tenessee Williams' original production of The Glass Menagerie. Made several people- both cast and crew- cry and I remember thinking that doing that was just going to cause things to take even longer to get done. But try to speak this sense and he completely bit your head off. This was where only-child-single-parent-family deal came in handy, it totally creates an independent, can-go-into-shell-for-survival vibe which was what I basically did whenever he decided to rant off at me but I had friends who completely broke down. Awful to see and frustrating to have it happen repeatedly.
caitaintdead
caiters gonna cait
Wow, I can't believe you both read the entire way through my post! It was pretty horrendous getting through the day at some of my jobs but I think it has made me a stronger person now. I used to cry my eyes out if someone so much as looks at me funny but now I'm much more thick skinned.
Joyce - That director sounds like a nightmare! You may not have had as many typical crappy jobs as I have, but I think your story is just as bad, he sounds so arrogant and overly seriously. What a pompous d*ckhead.
Joyce - That director sounds like a nightmare! You may not have had as many typical crappy jobs as I have, but I think your story is just as bad, he sounds so arrogant and overly seriously. What a pompous d*ckhead.
My worst job? Aaahh, the memories.
And I think I have Mr. Pointy's tale beat by a mile. 😛
That would be my first ever summer job when I was all of 16. The place....POPEYE'S FRIED CHICKEN.
The minimum wage back then was a whopping $3.80 an hour. Yeah baybee...big money!
I trained in many aspects of the job, from food preparation, to loading supplies, to being the friggin' janitor.....but fate played a cruel hand one afternoon when one of my managers came up to me and offered me a chance to "move up".
The proposition? I would be given a staggering 50-cent raise, if I agreed to wear a costume for two hours every day, and go out on the sidewalk to distribute the restaraunt's flyers. Well...me being the enterprising young IDIOT that I was, I readily agreed. Bad mistake.
Now, allow me to describe this infernal costume. Yes, it was a Popeye costume.
It consisted of a huge plastic Popeye head (and when I say huge, I mean like Mardi Gras huge) complete with corn cob smoking pipe, a black and blue sailor suit with exaggerated bell-bottom pants, fake, oversized foam rubber forearm muscles with anchor tattoos painted on them....and huge size friiggin' 30 foam rubber shoes.
The suit was designed for a person of at least six feet six inches in height. At age 16, I was not exactly a tall fella...in fact, I was all of five foot one inch tall back then, so you can imagine what this suit looked like on me, especially the head. Ah, but what a sad sight that was.
It was the middle of summer, and it was blazing hot outside....making it about 1000 degrees inside the suit. Also, I wasn't the only guy to wear the suit. There was a guy that would wear it and stand outside before me. This guy would come in, take the suit off and hand it to me for my stint. And let me tell ya, that dude would be sweating in that thing before it got to me, so the suit would be very damp, and mucho mucho mucho SMELLY! I'm talking FUNKY! I mean really FUNKAYYYYY! No...you don't understand...I'm talking ODERIFIC BAYBEE!!! I'm talkin' play that funky music white boy funkayyyyy!!!!!
But...I didn't know any better to refuse. I thought I'd get fired if I didn't go through with it, and I didn't want to get fired, so I wore the suit.
So now..here I am...wearing this disgustingly putrid suit which did not fit me, trying to keep my heavy Popeye head from tipping over to the side and possibly taken MY head with it, walking (more like flopping) down the street towards 42nd Street and Broadway, which was where I was to stand and distribute the flyers.
To add to the indignity, the heat was stifling, and on top of that people would walk past me and punch the Popeye head....causing it to spin around 180 degrees.
Children would come up and stomp on my size 30 Popeye feet. People were making really bad spinach jokes. People would make comments about the bad smell emanating from the suit...a smell which I did NOT create!
Ah...but worst of all....I would have foreign tourists coming up to me begging to have their pictures taken with me. There would be little French and Japanese kids climbing all over me vying for a good camera position....as well as whole families. Man, I was mortified that I had to stand around all these folks smelling as bad as I did.
I must have been in a million pictures that week. To this day, somewhere in various parts of the world, there are pictures of me in a bad-fitting Popeye suit, sitting in people's photo albums. Yes, my humiliation actually went international. Yay me.
Ah, but then there were the other tourists....the two or three Japanese entourages that would only walk up...snap a picture of me, then stand there pointing and laughing in Japanese.
Oh yeah, Ha-ha, very funny. Laugh at the misshappen Popeye, you Japanese mother (expletive deleted). 😛
Aaah, but I devised a response. Each time they did that...I would point at the sky and scream "GODZILLAAAAAA!!!!!" really loudly under my Popeye head. And they would actually get this puzzled look on their faces and look where I was pointing. Petty, yes, but satisfying to me at the time. 😛
Anyhoo, I did the Popeye suit thing for about a week. Subsequently I got fed up with the whole deal and quit my job. I was there a total of three months. I never worked at a fast food place again. Not just because of the suit thing...but also because during my stint there..I saw a whole LOT of unsanitary and dangerous practices. That's why I don't trust the food at fast food places to this day....except maybe for White Castle. But that's a story for another thread.
:: tu ::
And I think I have Mr. Pointy's tale beat by a mile. 😛
That would be my first ever summer job when I was all of 16. The place....POPEYE'S FRIED CHICKEN.
The minimum wage back then was a whopping $3.80 an hour. Yeah baybee...big money!
I trained in many aspects of the job, from food preparation, to loading supplies, to being the friggin' janitor.....but fate played a cruel hand one afternoon when one of my managers came up to me and offered me a chance to "move up".
The proposition? I would be given a staggering 50-cent raise, if I agreed to wear a costume for two hours every day, and go out on the sidewalk to distribute the restaraunt's flyers. Well...me being the enterprising young IDIOT that I was, I readily agreed. Bad mistake.
Now, allow me to describe this infernal costume. Yes, it was a Popeye costume.
It consisted of a huge plastic Popeye head (and when I say huge, I mean like Mardi Gras huge) complete with corn cob smoking pipe, a black and blue sailor suit with exaggerated bell-bottom pants, fake, oversized foam rubber forearm muscles with anchor tattoos painted on them....and huge size friiggin' 30 foam rubber shoes.
The suit was designed for a person of at least six feet six inches in height. At age 16, I was not exactly a tall fella...in fact, I was all of five foot one inch tall back then, so you can imagine what this suit looked like on me, especially the head. Ah, but what a sad sight that was.
It was the middle of summer, and it was blazing hot outside....making it about 1000 degrees inside the suit. Also, I wasn't the only guy to wear the suit. There was a guy that would wear it and stand outside before me. This guy would come in, take the suit off and hand it to me for my stint. And let me tell ya, that dude would be sweating in that thing before it got to me, so the suit would be very damp, and mucho mucho mucho SMELLY! I'm talking FUNKY! I mean really FUNKAYYYYY! No...you don't understand...I'm talking ODERIFIC BAYBEE!!! I'm talkin' play that funky music white boy funkayyyyy!!!!!
But...I didn't know any better to refuse. I thought I'd get fired if I didn't go through with it, and I didn't want to get fired, so I wore the suit.
So now..here I am...wearing this disgustingly putrid suit which did not fit me, trying to keep my heavy Popeye head from tipping over to the side and possibly taken MY head with it, walking (more like flopping) down the street towards 42nd Street and Broadway, which was where I was to stand and distribute the flyers.
To add to the indignity, the heat was stifling, and on top of that people would walk past me and punch the Popeye head....causing it to spin around 180 degrees.
Children would come up and stomp on my size 30 Popeye feet. People were making really bad spinach jokes. People would make comments about the bad smell emanating from the suit...a smell which I did NOT create!
Ah...but worst of all....I would have foreign tourists coming up to me begging to have their pictures taken with me. There would be little French and Japanese kids climbing all over me vying for a good camera position....as well as whole families. Man, I was mortified that I had to stand around all these folks smelling as bad as I did.
I must have been in a million pictures that week. To this day, somewhere in various parts of the world, there are pictures of me in a bad-fitting Popeye suit, sitting in people's photo albums. Yes, my humiliation actually went international. Yay me.
Ah, but then there were the other tourists....the two or three Japanese entourages that would only walk up...snap a picture of me, then stand there pointing and laughing in Japanese.
Oh yeah, Ha-ha, very funny. Laugh at the misshappen Popeye, you Japanese mother (expletive deleted). 😛
Aaah, but I devised a response. Each time they did that...I would point at the sky and scream "GODZILLAAAAAA!!!!!" really loudly under my Popeye head. And they would actually get this puzzled look on their faces and look where I was pointing. Petty, yes, but satisfying to me at the time. 😛
Anyhoo, I did the Popeye suit thing for about a week. Subsequently I got fed up with the whole deal and quit my job. I was there a total of three months. I never worked at a fast food place again. Not just because of the suit thing...but also because during my stint there..I saw a whole LOT of unsanitary and dangerous practices. That's why I don't trust the food at fast food places to this day....except maybe for White Castle. But that's a story for another thread.
:: tu ::
J
Joyce Summers
Oh. My. God. That is all I have to say on the matter- just oh.my.god. But I loved the Godzilla part- nice;) Haha.
Mr. Pointy
That sounds pretty horrific...I concede...but I was wading through crap ;)
Buffanator
got Spike?
You speak the truth! That's why I hated doing those jobs when I was a "teenybopper". Thank goddess I'm an adult now & don't have to put up with such nonsense. 😀
ckg927
Potential
I was a telemarketer for...I don't know...a few days. I remember very little about the job,except that I didn't last long at it. (Good thing,too,because it got boring very fast!)
These days,I'm much more content with what I have,job-wise...a full time one doing stock work at our airport(soon to add MORE restaurants & bars),and part time ones handling concessions at the local minor league ballpark and event parking down at HSBC Arena. The first one is the most taxing(mentally and physically),the other two are less so. However,I like them all...in the sense that the duties never change,but the specifics of it day to day do.
These days,I'm much more content with what I have,job-wise...a full time one doing stock work at our airport(soon to add MORE restaurants & bars),and part time ones handling concessions at the local minor league ballpark and event parking down at HSBC Arena. The first one is the most taxing(mentally and physically),the other two are less so. However,I like them all...in the sense that the duties never change,but the specifics of it day to day do.
I have been working in some shape or form since I was 11 years old. The original job was looking after my neighbours children 3 days a week after shool for like 3 or 4 hours. My GOD were they brazen children! Seriouly unbelievably misbehaved! I did a lot of that kinda thing and then when I was 15 I started working in a shop, selling school uniforms🙂 5 years later and I'm still there (just got home from work actually). It's absolutely gruelling during the summer months, the shop literally packed to the point of explosion, cranky parents with crankier children, no lunch and no set hours, 8 flights of stairs (we will be up and down at least 60 time a day), we come in at half 9 and leave when the shop is clean for the next day which is usually some time after 7. We do that 6 days a week all summer long. It sounds awful but we actually have an amazing time. Oh the stories we could tell. We like to see it more as a vocation than a job...lol.
I'm working two jobs at the moment the other one being administration in the Coop office of U.L. I absolutely love this too because it challenges me in a totally different way. Also the perks are great (we had our staff day out yesterday...we went on a cruise on Lough Derg...wined and dined all day...even ended up having tea and scones in a castle lol)
The worst job I have ever had though, hands down, goes to working as a custodian in Magic Kingdom Walt Disney World. The utter filth of people is truly horrifiying. I had huge trash runs, "protein spills" (karma for anyone who guesses what that is), generally cleaning everything in sight (toilets were the worst). I probably wouldn't have minded the work so much but it was so boring walking around on my own for anything from 8-14 hr shifts in the Florida sun (the Irish aren't built for that!). Nobody spoke to each other, it was horrible. Add infintely crappy pay onto that and it aint a pretty picture.
I'd probaly go back to WDW again to work but it most certainly will not be in custodial!
I'm working two jobs at the moment the other one being administration in the Coop office of U.L. I absolutely love this too because it challenges me in a totally different way. Also the perks are great (we had our staff day out yesterday...we went on a cruise on Lough Derg...wined and dined all day...even ended up having tea and scones in a castle lol)
The worst job I have ever had though, hands down, goes to working as a custodian in Magic Kingdom Walt Disney World. The utter filth of people is truly horrifiying. I had huge trash runs, "protein spills" (karma for anyone who guesses what that is), generally cleaning everything in sight (toilets were the worst). I probably wouldn't have minded the work so much but it was so boring walking around on my own for anything from 8-14 hr shifts in the Florida sun (the Irish aren't built for that!). Nobody spoke to each other, it was horrible. Add infintely crappy pay onto that and it aint a pretty picture.
I'd probaly go back to WDW again to work but it most certainly will not be in custodial!
Washburne
"Protein spills" sounds like a specifik guy-thing to me. But I guess I´ll leave it with that in case I´m wrong.