| Your worst job / gig / project ever? 10:49 - Aug 19 with 2587 views | giant_stow |
I'll start the ball rolling (assuming anyone's interested).
I just finished a fixed price site for a total of £1100. It was for a French lawyer so fussy and picky on the minor details (like precise shades of grey/pixel perfection on each and every photo/page, that it's taken 100 hours and 22 mins. Minus commission, that leaves me well below min wage for this job. So proud to achieve that.
Anyone else? |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 10:57 - Aug 19 with 2182 views | Coastalblue |
Back when I was working as a sparks I did quite a large (for me) rewire and new fit to an old property that was having a very large extension added to it. I went for the job with a builder mate of mine, we got the drawings and spent a long time pricing everything.
The architect was also project managing, he was terrible, both as an architect and as a project manager. The drawings constantly changed with things being added that were never in the original plans. I can remember one example being when I completed the wiring for the main bedroom, it was a large room in the extension with a vaulted ceiling containing roof lights. My mate followed me in, insulated, boarded and then plastered the room. Next thing the velux windows are to be electric.
We spent the entire time negotiating additions, often at a loss in reality, while the client was firmly of the belief that we were trying to cut corners and miss stuff off.
It was toward the end of this job I suffered a cardiac arrest! |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:01 - Aug 19 with 2159 views | giant_stow |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 10:57 - Aug 19 by Coastalblue |
Back when I was working as a sparks I did quite a large (for me) rewire and new fit to an old property that was having a very large extension added to it. I went for the job with a builder mate of mine, we got the drawings and spent a long time pricing everything.
The architect was also project managing, he was terrible, both as an architect and as a project manager. The drawings constantly changed with things being added that were never in the original plans. I can remember one example being when I completed the wiring for the main bedroom, it was a large room in the extension with a vaulted ceiling containing roof lights. My mate followed me in, insulated, boarded and then plastered the room. Next thing the velux windows are to be electric.
We spent the entire time negotiating additions, often at a loss in reality, while the client was firmly of the belief that we were trying to cut corners and miss stuff off.
It was toward the end of this job I suffered a cardiac arrest! |
blimey to that stinger at the end. You win the thread already (if its any consolation).
Surely even a know-nothing understands you can't board everything up and then ask for more wiring? | |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:03 - Aug 19 with 2150 views | DanTheMan |
My placement.
The commute was awful, nobody there was at all technical and I was supposed to be a developer but just ended up being a IT dogsbody.
There was nothing to do anywhere around the site and I learned absolutely nothing. Complete waste of time.
Still, looked OK on the CV. Had to slightly stretch the truth of what I did to get my foot in the door for a proper job after Uni. |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:04 - Aug 19 with 2148 views | Coastalblue |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:01 - Aug 19 by giant_stow |
blimey to that stinger at the end. You win the thread already (if its any consolation).
Surely even a know-nothing understands you can't board everything up and then ask for more wiring? |
Actually you'd be amazed at how often the lady in her house would lead me into her newly decorated room explaining that now she was using it again it would make sense to have another electrical outlet here, pointing at wall freshly wallpapered wall. | |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:05 - Aug 19 with 2147 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
Some years back I worked for someone that to this day I refer to as the @rse h0le John Smith (not his real name) it was a micro 3PL company that employed 8 people at any one time. I saw 21 different people in 18 months come through that place.
Potential suppliers would refuse to deal with us becaues lf him, he was banned from all the local dentists, it was absolutely insane.
Recently sold his house for £1.5 mil plus the £500k each for the houf houses that he built on tbe huge patch of land that comes with it (though maybe he just sold the land to developers).
Amazing and sickening when you consider the company was reliant entirely on cash flow and was never more than a month or 2 away from going under.
I once watches that man lose his bowels over a missing magazine that didn't exist (he was looking for the Jan issue which didn't exist due to time constraints from Xmas shut down so Dec issue covered both months) his poor PA.
Worst job ever. |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:11 - Aug 19 with 2118 views | giant_stow |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:05 - Aug 19 by BlueandTruesince82 |
Some years back I worked for someone that to this day I refer to as the @rse h0le John Smith (not his real name) it was a micro 3PL company that employed 8 people at any one time. I saw 21 different people in 18 months come through that place.
Potential suppliers would refuse to deal with us becaues lf him, he was banned from all the local dentists, it was absolutely insane.
Recently sold his house for £1.5 mil plus the £500k each for the houf houses that he built on tbe huge patch of land that comes with it (though maybe he just sold the land to developers).
Amazing and sickening when you consider the company was reliant entirely on cash flow and was never more than a month or 2 away from going under.
I once watches that man lose his bowels over a missing magazine that didn't exist (he was looking for the Jan issue which didn't exist due to time constraints from Xmas shut down so Dec issue covered both months) his poor PA.
Worst job ever. |
There are some proper arseholes out there. | |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:11 - Aug 19 with 2133 views | Steve_M |
After uni I ended up in a call centre job for a bit for what was then 24seven but was the electricity distribution business for the Eastern region. I was basically on the end of the telephone number that people could call up about ongoing streetworks. It was such fun, whatever I did there was always something else which had upset a member of the public.
Eight months of that added a welcome piece of perspective to every other frustrating work experience. |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:13 - Aug 19 with 2097 views | giant_stow |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:11 - Aug 19 by Steve_M |
After uni I ended up in a call centre job for a bit for what was then 24seven but was the electricity distribution business for the Eastern region. I was basically on the end of the telephone number that people could call up about ongoing streetworks. It was such fun, whatever I did there was always something else which had upset a member of the public.
Eight months of that added a welcome piece of perspective to every other frustrating work experience. |
I can't imagine call centre life | |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:29 - Aug 19 with 2002 views | thebooks |
Ouch. Nightmare client. Easy to say I'd set a few expectations about pixel-perfection, how this will work, what I'd bill etc. but guess that's not always possible.
Worst job: picking potatoes. The starch filled up the rubber gloves I'd been given and the farmer would fly over us in his helicopter to check we were working. |  | | |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:32 - Aug 19 with 1988 views | clive_baker |
I washed & cleaned static caravans for a bit in Oz in 2010. I was young and while it was terribly paid it provided accomodation and made the most of the days off, so I didn't mind it particularly, knowing it wasn't forever. The only issue with it really was my boss was an absolute b*****d. Old, bitter, knob. He seemed to genuinely hate Brits which didn't help, and I don't think he liked the fact that all of us staff were young and not bothered about him or his job. He was a proper bully, mentally and physically. Saw him make countless people cry in my time there, mostly the girls. There was a German girl I got to know well if you know what I mean and knowing this he rearranged our shifts so that we basically never had a day off together and when our work days overlapped we never saw each other. It was 100% deliberate as he made a snide comment to me about it. I just laughed and walked off. |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:36 - Aug 19 with 1965 views | BlueBadger |
Retrieving lobsters from Jayne Mansfield's arsehole. [Post edited 19 Aug 2022 12:52]
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:43 - Aug 19 with 1884 views | Steve_M |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:13 - Aug 19 by giant_stow |
I can't imagine call centre life |
On the positive side, I wasn't continuously answering calls in that role so it was slightly more fulfilling than that would have been.
There was one day though, a massive storm on Autumn 2000 and power lines got brought down all over East Anglia. That was just answering calls from very frustrated people who had been waiting ages to get through. | |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:53 - Aug 19 with 1852 views | hype313 |
When I was in Oz, I got a short term gig selling accidental death insurance over the phone.
It started on a Friday night.
Call's would go something along the lines of..
Me " Hi, I'm calling from HCF, Just wondering if you have ever thought about purchasing an accidental death insurance policy?"
Caller "Dave you f*****g Bogan, it's 8 o'clock, you were supposed to be meeting us here at 7, get your arse down here now"
Me "It's not Dave, I'm calling from HCF"
Caller "Whatever Dave, when you get here you're 5 schooners down and you have a few rounds to get, f****g hurry up"
Rinse and repeat.
Surprisingly, none of us sold a policy in 4 weeks, before we were all let go.
I did question why starting at 6pm on Friday might not be the best time to make calls... |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 12:24 - Aug 19 with 1780 views | Illinoisblue |
Shortly after moving to the U.S. was temping for an agency and landed a short term gig working for UBS bank downtown Chicago. Because I was only a temp they wouldn’t let me use their computers. So I’m manually sorting through folders and boxes. For eight hours a day. Also, nobody in the office would talk to me because they’d heard I was an auditor. This was around 2005 so pre smart phone era. No computer and no phone makes for a long long day. I was on the 12th floor of this large skyscraper and because they wouldn’t give me full security clearance whenever I would leave for lunch, I had to wait for the office manager to come down and escort me back to the 12th floor. That would often take 20 or 30 minutes. Which, given my boredom. I was actually okay with. Longest three weeks of my life. The only “highlight” was seeing Roman Abramovich’s name in a file marked investigations. |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 12:35 - Aug 19 with 1743 views | PJH |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:36 - Aug 19 by BlueBadger |
Retrieving lobsters from Jayne Mansfield's arsehole. [Post edited 19 Aug 2022 12:52]
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Glad that has been mentioned, I would have mentioned it if not.
Thread title was made for it. |  | | |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 12:40 - Aug 19 with 1720 views | ghostofescobar |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 11:36 - Aug 19 by BlueBadger |
Retrieving lobsters from Jayne Mansfield's arsehole. [Post edited 19 Aug 2022 12:52]
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Lobstericimus bumbequissimus. |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 13:37 - Aug 19 with 1631 views | J2BLUE |
Worked for a well known local businessman when I was in sixth form. £2.75 an hour. Was supposed to be as an admin assistant but was really whatever the businessman felt like getting you to do that day including washing his car and making him toasted sandwiches. Oh and leafleting which I actually enjoyed as it got me away from the office.
I left to move to a job paying £6.50 an hour. The other admin assistant who I knew from school was sacked when the £3 minimum wage came in because the businessman didn't want to pay it. |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 14:23 - Aug 19 with 1570 views | clive_baker |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 13:37 - Aug 19 by J2BLUE |
Worked for a well known local businessman when I was in sixth form. £2.75 an hour. Was supposed to be as an admin assistant but was really whatever the businessman felt like getting you to do that day including washing his car and making him toasted sandwiches. Oh and leafleting which I actually enjoyed as it got me away from the office.
I left to move to a job paying £6.50 an hour. The other admin assistant who I knew from school was sacked when the £3 minimum wage came in because the businessman didn't want to pay it. |
He let YOU make his lunch?
Crikey. | |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 15:39 - Aug 19 with 1478 views | Darth_Koont |
Student job collecting bins around Bracknell.
2 weeks of the hottest summer weather, paid feck all as a temp, finding out we were replacing sacked colleagues, and generally having to run after the lorry chucking in leaky, smelly black bags with our bare hands for an entire 6 am — 2 pm shift.
Brutal. But any other job has been pretty much a walk in the park ever since. |  |
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| (No subject) (n/t) on 18:15 - Aug 19 with 1307 views | Lord_Lucan |
When I left school I worked in an egg factory.
I had to start at 5am which was bad enough.
When you entered the huts the ammonia made your eyes stream instantly.
My first job was deading out - and there were quite a few fatalities. If you missed one then by the next day it would have decomposed so much you would need to scrape it off the bottom.
I lasted 3 days. [Post edited 19 Aug 2022 18:19]
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 22:30 - Aug 19 with 1122 views | NBVJohn |
Two 12 inches of what? |  | | |
| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 22:48 - Aug 19 with 1092 views | NBVJohn |
In the late 80’s I was doing agency chef work and was asked to cover a night shift at a pharmaceutical factory canteen. It seemed like an easy gig - all I needed to do was stay awake.
I arrived and there was no one to let me know what was expected, the promised assistant had phoned in sick. There was nowhere near enough food to cook and very little retail stock , just 50 hungry people who clearly had all manner of scams going with the regular chef and a clear expectation that I knew all about them. It was hell. The first thing I did when I opened a fridge was watch 3 cheesecakes fall out onto the floor. The customers were mainly just abusive, some were aggressive too.
Around 4am I decided I’d had enough so I got in my car and went home, about 2 hours before the end of my shift. Amazingly the phone rang at 2pm the following afternoon asking me to return that evening. Not a chance. | | | |
| (No subject) (n/t) on 22:52 - Aug 19 with 1083 views | Plums |
| (No subject) (n/t) on 18:15 - Aug 19 by Lord_Lucan |
When I left school I worked in an egg factory.
I had to start at 5am which was bad enough.
When you entered the huts the ammonia made your eyes stream instantly.
My first job was deading out - and there were quite a few fatalities. If you missed one then by the next day it would have decomposed so much you would need to scrape it off the bottom.
I lasted 3 days. [Post edited 19 Aug 2022 18:19]
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Lab assistant in a pet food factory. On my first day, I was walked around the plant and then sent to take samples of the paving slab sized slabs of defrosting blood and other gubbins. The whole place made me want to throw from the moment I walked through the gate.
I went out for a smoke at lunch and never went back.
Cat food still makes me want to hurl. |  |
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| Your worst job / gig / project ever? on 22:52 - Aug 19 with 1083 views | Warkystache |
I was the duty social worker for Essex Council and was based in Clacton. My team dealt with respite care for the elderly, basically arranging trained social services carers to come in to private homes to relieve family members for a few weeks while they went on holiday or got on with their lives away from the elderly relative they were caring for.
It was awful. Often, we'd arrange the care and the care workers wouldn't turn up, or would go sick, so the poor person they were relieving was stuck and would then call me in tears, saying they'd booked two weeks in Benidorm and it was their first break in years. Once, a young family who were caring for his grandfather at home, who had severe dementia, actually sent him to our office in a cab as they were off to Florida. Ringing round care homes was futile as they'd want paying immediately and we weren't allowed to authorise payments over £1,000 without manager approval, and our manager was on the sick.
I ended up placing the bloke in Colchester General, in a geriatric ward. He ended up staying there, at immense cost, as the family came home from their holiday and decided they couldn't care for him any more. It was thankless, poorly paid, emotionally breaking, gut-wrenching and mercenary work. I left after three months. The team was disbanded a year later. |  |
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