It seems like everyone has had at least one job that they didn’t like. What is yours?
Share why if you wish.
Asking — and answering — life's interesting questions
It seems like everyone has had at least one job that they didn’t like. What is yours?
Share why if you wish.
Bra Factory while in College.
When I was in college and needed some money in a hurry, I went to the student employment office for a jobs board called “quickie jobs”. These were just for a few hours or over a weekend, and often paid cash.
One weekend I went and signed up for a job helping to clean an apartment. It seems that the health inspectors were coming on Monday to determine if the living environment was safe, and so a few extra hands were needed over the weekend to spruce the place up.
When I arrived, I found that the woman inhabitant was living in squalor. There were three or four other students who had also signed up, so we each grabbed a bucket, some bleach, and brushes and got to work.
It was disgusting. Cockroaches were everywhere, and I spent hours and hours scrubbing the walls of roach eggs. The bathroom and kitchen were in the worst shape.
The other students left after a few hours, but I didn’t leave. I felt that there was no way that health inspectors would allow someone to live like this, so I continued to scrub and scrub, wall after wall, room after room. When I finally quit, the woman thanked me profusely, swearing that my work was going to allow her to be able to stay in her home. I had never felt so grimy and dirty in my life.
I never heard about the outcome of the inspection, but at the time I couldn’t help but be conflicted about what I had done. If the apartment was approved for living in, wouldn’t the woman just let it revert to the way things were? Didn’t she need some larger kind of assistance, and my efforts merely delayed her getting the help she clearly needed?
Photo developer for the county medical examiner.
Unemployment was the worst job I’ve ever had. You’re always questioning your worth as applications and interviews come and go. Thankfully, the two times I’ve been unemployed, I’ve found a good job before my benefits ran out.
With 20/20 hindsight, serving in the Navy during Viet Nam. After 50 years I’m still trying to forgive our country’s leaders for putting their own political interests ahead of those who fought (and died) on both sides.
p.s. found on Google: While the US suffered more than 58,000 dead in the war, an estimated two million Vietnamese civilians were killed, another 5.3 million injured and about 11 million, by US government figures, became refugees in their own country.Aug 28, 2013
I had a couple years that I was placed with different employers through a temp service. They varied in length of time and some were quite interesting, but one was horrible. Fortunately, it was only a week. On the first day, I got to what was supposed to be the end of an eight-hour day, but my supervisor kept giving me things to do. After another hour and a half, I asked if I could call a day. I got a judgmental look, but was allowed to go. Throughout the week, I was given random tasks at random intervals leaving me unsure what to expect next. Whenever I appeared flustered by the quick change in tasks or the lack of clear explanations, I was referred to as flighty. At the end of my last day, I was asked if I wanted to stay on another week. Up to that point, I was pretty sure they didn’t liked the work I was doing and were just muddling through with me. Since it was only supposed to be for a week, I had already lined up a new placement, but, even if that hadn’t been the case, I desperately wanted to be done.