I was once a clerk in a video store that had a pretty extensive back room. On several occations I had to kick people out for jacking off. I also started wearing gloves to restock videos as they would come back with bodily fluids on them.

Now I'm a Sys Admin for a telemarketing company. I enjoy it. The coffee in my office is very good and on Fridays we can wear jeans.

One summer in high school I worked at a french bakery in Dallas Texas. The manager quit right before the summer started so they made us kids all key holding co-managers. We were one of four stores so we did no baking, just selling and eating. We would finish the soup before the lunch rush, would eat chocolate moose cakes the very second they became too 'old' to sell, would cut up filled pastries and croissants for 'samples' and then eat all the 'samples', we would hide food so at the end of the day there were quiches left over to take home to my mom...We ate that place out of business. I gained 25 lbs that year and have not lost it to date.

So it is both my best and worst job.

I worked at a McDonald's for 3 or 4 day when I was about 18. That sucked hard.

I once had a temp. job for about a month or so assembling thermocouple devices called BOMBS, that were used for measuring slag temperatures at steel mills. They made all kinds of disgusting shit that left you with a sulfurous smell in your clothes and a sore throat. It was mind numbingly stupid work, and was piecemeal, so everyone expected you to assemble hundreds of these things a day. I swear my supervisor was functionally retarded.
Awful, awful place...

I once worked in an office doing CAD work at a place attached to a factory. The office was as regimented as the factory; start at 7:30; end at 3:30, 10 minute breaks at 10:30 and 2:00 sharp; exactly 30 min. for lunch - no exceptions; no personal items hung or displayed at your cube; written permission for everything; cofee from a machine for 50 cents. I had never realized that working in an engineering job could suck so much, and regimental environments and I just don't mix - at all. I lasted about six weeks, I think....

Factory jobs royally blow...
Next I got a job with an MEP/Architect so I was back to the land of flexible and fancy free - which had never felt better.

EDIT:
Oh, yeah. Now I work as an AV systems designer with a consulting firm that does AV/Acoustics/Technology design work for architects, institutions, businesses, etc...

I worked for four days vacuuming out and replacing the carbon in giant industrial filter systems for places like oil storage tanks. Everyday I came home sneezing carbon and coloring tissues black with the junk in my nose.

One day in "pro audio" at MARS Music might have not been worse, but definitely a close second.

Now I'm a freelance recording engineer and drummer. Much more pleasant and healthier.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

cgarges wrote:and healthier.

engineering and drumming is healthy?

LIES!

justinc wrote:

cgarges wrote:and healthier.

engineering and drumming is healthy?

LIES!

Compared to breathing in petroleum-soaked carbon it is. Only marginally, though.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

I've been pretty lucky, I guess - my worst job wasn't that bad. I worked as a waiter on a restaurant/boat in Japan. The job itself was pretty awful, but not horrible - but everything else connected with the job was really great, so, if you count all that, it's actually the best job I've had.

Currently I manage a medical bookstore. Anyone need some medical books?

Two-way tie for worst job ever:

1. Cleaning pools. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't 6:00 am and I didn't have to get in the water to clean the deep end.

2. Designing packaging for Ace Hardware. I use the word design loosely, because the design was done years before I got there. I just followed the instructions in a HUGE manual as to what size and color everything should be.

I'm still a designer, but no more hardware. I do lots of books, logos, misc printed stuff, web stuff, etc...

McDs when i was 15. i opened on the weekends (meaning be there at 5am) when i was in high school, and the first thing in the morning had to go retrieve boxes of meat from a 20 degree locker. i usually showered in morning so my hair was still wet. the shift was ok (as long as you didn't have to drain a grease trap that day), 'til about an hour before i left it got packed and would usually have to stay an extra hour. i can't believe my parents had to talk me into quitting that job.

I worked as a store detective for 2 years. That was an absurd job. We used have to chase people through the parking lot to recover stolen merchandise.
I actually got stabbed in the belly during one such scuffle. At the time I felt like a tough guy, but now I think I was more of a jackass.

I was the world's worse waiter for a brief time. That was a bad situation for everyone involved.

Worked briefly in construction and sucked at that too.