What is the toughest job you ever had?

[Zeze]

These two will always pop up:

1. I was a server at Macaroni Grill (Italian chain like Olive Garden) in college. I was working a 'plus shift' which is 1pm to midnight. It was mother's day that night. And I've been working since 630a at my parents' breakfast restaurant. Of course the evening was completely packed - lines out the door. I was managing 4 tables / 20~ people. As you know it's a pure chaos. Orders were backing up, this dude needed refill, this wine bottle needed to be opened, etc. That's the first time in my life I understood 'mental breakdown'. I almost lost it.

2. White collar office job - I actually contemplated suicide because of non-stop OT and the pressure to take care of my family and my newborn daughter. I actually dialed the suicide hotline - not because I wanted to off myself, but just needed to VENT asap. I pulled over and cried and cried like a baby. Don't worry I'm good today. Thank the fack I somehow actually pulled through. The thing is, this is nothing compared to what my parents' went through - man that was no way to live as first gen immigrants.

They made it possible for me to nef here with you.

I'd love to hear yours.

 

[IronWing]

Cleaning the dining room at McDonalds: f'in' baby slobber covered french fries smeared onto every surface. Building retaining walls was better, the car wash was better, doing Olds' laundry was better.

 

[renz20003]

Tech support for Verizon dsl. Between old people not understanding computers and my supervisors prioritizing call times over actually fixing peoples internet. Very frustrating.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Big 4 CPA firm - IPO's, secondary offerings, year end audits, restatements, quarterly reviews, carve outs, Fortune 100 proposals.

Mentally - my current job has me at a breaking point - never been surrounded by a bigger group of morons in my life.

 

[brianmanahan]

> working in consulting/contracting
> estimate we can finish a project in 18 months
> salesman tells client we can do it 9 months
> client chooses us
> six-figure bonus for salesman
> 80 hour weeks for everyone else with no OT pay or bonus

after a year of that, i kind of wish i would wreck on the way to work just so i had an excuse not to go

3 hour traffic backups felt amazing because i could just sit and listen to the radio and think about nothing

 

[brianmanahan]

Big 4 CPA firm - IPO's, secondary offerings, year end audits, restatements, quarterly reviews, carve outs, Fortune 100 proposals.

Mentally - my current job has me at a breaking point - never been surrounded by a bigger group of morons in my life.

i stopped moving up just so i wouldn't have to handle the pressure

 

[Zeze]

i stopped moving up just so i wouldn't have to handle the pressure

No you did it to pursue some illest pome mankind has ever seen.

 

[olds]

When I was a Fister.

Forward observers in the U.S. military - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jmagg]

Union Mason forever.
Behind before i get my tools out of the truck.

 

[herm0016]

running a wireline crew in Wyoming. hour+ drive, work 14 to 16 hours. drive back to the shop, sleep. get up at 4 am. be on location and ready to go at first light. sleep a max of 5 hrs. a night for 14 days, then we would get a week off. and do it again. did that for about 2 years for the same client. they loved my crew.

I liked working offshore in east Timor a lot, but the 5 day long commute was terrible. den-sfo or LAX- Melbourne or syd- sometimes Perth, sometimes Alice Springs, always Darwin- Dili- 2-3 hr. helo ride to the rig packed in with your knees in the guys crotch across from you. wearing full FR work gear/steel toes/helmets took from 4 to 5 days depending on flights. overnight in 1 or 2 spots depending. usually got to sleep a night on the rig before we started. sometime you walk out of the helo and start rigging up.

one time we were finishing up our work on the rig, and there was a typhoon coming. the rest of the people were being evaced. we stayed and finished. ended up on a helo in bad weather. took a lot longer to get to Dili, not a relaxing ride to say the least. Then we were stuck in east Timor because the commercial flights were all canceled for a few days because of the weather. we all went out on the companies dime and got totally plastered. one guy on the team passed out in the rain infront of his cabin at the hotel and woke up in the morning with the groundskeeper poking him with a rake. Hotel is a big word. we had our choice of sea can rooms or what I would call a cabin. of course, the compound is surrounded by 12 ft. razor wire and there is a dude with an AK at the gate. but they had beds you could stretch out in. no AC of course. bunks on the rig were not what I would call roomy. 4 man cabins 2 on night shift and 2 on day if you were lucky.

it was type 2 fun. grueling, terrible, body wrecking work, but satisfying, fulfilling, and never the same, keeps the mind and body working hard and in tip top shape.

worst can be taken 2 ways, the above, or what I do now. send emails, answer the phone, type things. ugh.

 

[brianmanahan]

When I was a Fister.

 

[deadlyapp]

I thankfully haven't had a single job that I really felt was terrible or miserable. The closest thing would be working retail and having to hawk credit card applications to people you knew shouldn't open a credit card, or being a lifeguard at a water park and getting stuck in the kiddy wading pool that was 70% child piss. My office jobs after college have all been good - haven't had a single terrible boss, have been fairly challenging and rewarding, and have been low stress.

 

[Captante]

doing Olds' laundry was better

Provided you remember to put on a hazmat suit!

When I was a Fister.

So .... as of this morning?



And on-topic one summer in HS I worked in the Banksville NY farmers market to earn money for a car along with a couple stoner-buddies.

Among our regular duties were cleaning the rotten fruits/veggies out from beneath the wooden skids lining the floor and swabbing out the massive dumpster. Freaking disgusting.

 

[BudAshes]

Trying not to lose my mind from boredom when I worked at Circuit City as a teenager. They use to play the same 10 music videos over and over and over and over and over....arghhhhhhh.

 

[bbhaag]

Hey Zeze you wanna know what the toughest job is? It's dealing with guys like you on a daily basis.

 

[brianmanahan]

Hey Zeze you wanna know what the toughest job is? It's dealing with guys like you on a daily basis.

it was my understanding that this annual came with a lifetime guarantee

why would they call it an annual if it doesn't come back every year?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hmm probably janitor. It was not super hard, but one of the more physical jobs I've done. I consider myself lucky really I've always had pretty easy jobs.

 

[bbhaag]

it was my understanding that this annual came with a lifetime guarantee

why would they call it an annual if it doesn't come back every year?

I swear to god Brian don't test me with that question. If I had a dollar for every dumb motherfu.....
You know what I ain't gonna take the bait. Annuals do come back every year that's why they are called annuals.

 

[Zeze]

Hey Zeze you wanna know what the toughest job is? It's dealing with guys like you on a daily basis.

 

[Zeze]

why would they call it an annual if it doesn't come back every year?

Wow. Anand, please close the forum.

@Perknose

 

[brianmanahan]

Wow. Anand, please close the forum.

if my annuals don't come back then i'll be in here next summer demanding a 3.99$ refund

 

[BudAshes]

Hey Zeze you wanna know what the toughest job is? It's dealing with guys like you on a daily basis.

ATOT moderator is thankless work. Perk is our Nurse Ratched.

 

[Zeze]

if my annuals don't come back then i'll be in here next summer demanding a 3.99$ refund

Let me enlighten you.

It's called annuals because it's all a big corporate scam. They have engineered the damn plants so you have to buy them annually. So it's an apt payment descriptor.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Trying not to lose my mind from boredom when I worked at Circuit City as a teenager. They use to play the same 10 music videos over and over and over and over and over....arghhhhhhh.

Oh man I feel for people that are stuck in retail.

Then there's Christmas time. I like Christmas music as much as the next person but when you have to listen to the same 5 songs all day I think I would start to hate them lol.

 

[BudAshes]

Oh man I feel for people that are stuck in retail.

Then there's Christmas time. I like Christmas music as much as the next person but when you have to listen to the same 5 songs all day I think I would start to hate them lol.

I use to day dream of driving a big rig through the front of the building and crushing everything.