Have you ever been in a bad job? When did you know? What made it bad? Why did you ultimately leave? And did you find a better job afterward?

-- Anonymous, March 02, 2000

Answers

I had the Job From Hell during college. So, yeah, it wasn't a "real job," per se, but it was still pretty ridiculous.

I worked as a systems administrator/web administrator for our college's computer services department, along with my good friend Tom. I had every intention of sitting here and typing out a humorous list of Why This Job Dripped With Indescribable Evil, but I got partway through and realized that I was just making myself really stressed by thinking about it. So I'll just give a summary.

Basically, my boss couldn't handle women with responsibility, and therefore decided to interpret all of my decisions and ideas as "carolyn's on another power trip." At one point, I decided that the machine I was developing on wasn't adequate for what I was doing, so I wrote a proposal for a new machine, presented it to the vice president of finance at the college, made my case, and convinced them to buy us a machine and software for the web administrator to use. Less than four months later, my boss had moved it to the back server room, so he could use it for his personal projects. He was adamently against moving it to the front office, and was also adamently against my working in the back room, since I needed to be up front to help the lusers who came in. When I complained to his boss, he told her in front of me that I was "whiny" and "full of my own importance."

So, yeah, stuff like that happened all the time. Things got really bad, though, my senior year, when our boss systematically erased (not entirely accidentally) *every single bit* of system security on the machines that Tom had installed over the previous three years. Tom quit shortly thereafter. For me, the final straw came when our boss told another co-worker of ours that not only was I on a constant power trip (he really liked to tell this to whoever would listen), but that Tom and I hadn't ever really done anything for the department and that we weren't worth his money. Now, I was getting paid $5.35/hour at this shit job (professional sysadmins, btw, are some of the highest-paid computer workers), and I wasn't about to be "not worth the money" at $5.35 an hour. I mean, please.

The really sad thing is that this poor man was so bitter and so jealous of us that he continued to harass us, even after we quit; he removed our user accounts from the machines, and at one point, tried to convince the vice-president of the college and a whole bunch of professors that Tom and I were "hackers" who were a threat to the security of the school machines. *shrug* I sorta feel bad for him, in a way, really.

So, yeah, that was my shit job.

-- Anonymous, March 02, 2000

You've probably all seen the signs.

Summer Work!
$12.75/hr to start!
Choose your own hours
No experience necessary!

I actually saw the ad in our local paper, and being a high school senior who needed money and was involved in a lot of after-school activities, I thought that it would be absolutly perfect for me. So I called, and they set up an interview . I was told that I should dress appropriately and professionally and that I should bring a resume and something to write with.

I was really nervous, because it was my first real interview. I went there, to Vector Marketing, and I guess I passed the first round because they asked me if I could come back for a 2nd interview, which I did. At the time I didn't really find it strange that I had absolutly NO idea what the job was for. They just told us "you'll be dealing with clients on a regular basis both on the phone and face-to- face meetings."

Anyway, I got the job, and thats when I was told that I would be selling cutlery. Cutco Cutlery. I think everybody in the United States and possibly even Canada knows someone who has fallen for this highly sneaky tactic for getting a usually very sane person to sell knives, and I am sorry to say that I am one of those people. Believe it or not, I stuck with this job for about 4 months, partly because I was actually quite good at it and if you're good, you advance quickly and actually do make quite a lot of money, partly because I honestly DID love the product, still do, and partly because I had the BIGGEST crush on one of the office managers. But in the end, my demanding, over-working, over-guilting, thinks-he-can-always-get-whatever-he- wants boss made me not be able to take it anymore (I wrote a psychology paper about him in college). Plus, I HATED making appointments, and I HATED trying to sell the product to people who I could tell wouldn't be able to afford it, and I HATED the fact that Alex, my big crush, had the biggest ego in the world and used it to his advantage to get whatever he wanted.

I remember a phone call I got right when I had recently started college and had decided to pretty much quit, but I hadn't told them that yet.

Me:
Hello?

Torrey (My boss):
Hi Becky

Me (to my roommate):
psst, oh no, its Torrey! (She knew the horror of it all)

Torrey:
I was just wondering if you were planning on actually working this month.

Me:
I just started school this week, I haven't had time to do much at all not relating to school.

Torrey:
Well, if I recall, a few months ago you told me that you would DO ANYTHING to go on the retreat next month.

Me:
Yes I know, I've changed my mind, I don't have time to go anyway.

Torrey:
I will have to take away your Key Staff (A "promotion" that means you do great work and are consistant in everything you do, which I had lived up to, I guess you could say, until a week prior) pin because frankly, I don't think you deserve it anymore. You don't seem to care about this job, and I don't think that people who don't care should be here. So I expect your pin back on Monday's meeting where I'll publically announce that you "had better things to do." Oh, and you can forget about showing up at our "fun" activity for the week (we always went go cart racing or bowling or whatever).

Me:
Well, if I were you, I wouldn't expect to EVER see me at any more meetings or "fun" activities, because I quit.

Anyway, I hated that job. Thats all I have to say about that; I'm having terrible flashbacks.

-- Anonymous, March 02, 2000

By the way, I still have that pin. I look at it once in awhile and wonder if he's died yet, and then I smile.

-- Anonymous, March 02, 2000

I just want to say that that's the best quitting story I've ever heard. Usually when a boss of mine does something I can't stand, I just sort of don't say anything at the time, and then later on I quit. But I still wish that right when the boss said the stupid thing, I'd been like "You know what? Shove this job. I'm out of here."

-- Anonymous, March 02, 2000

Actually, I interviewed for vector marketting. I am NOT good at sales, especially a hard-sell situation, so i didn't go thru with it once i realized i'd have to sell knives. My very worst job was my college job of waitressing at Pizza Hut. A seeminly easy job, I guess.. but I don't like to take alot of crap. I got busted for selling beer to minors by my boss, (said i checked their id, until i brought out the birthday cake that read "happy sixteenth birthday, ed!!!" OOPS!) and finally quit after some sleezeball left me his business card with a picture of tits with a cock between them drawn on the back, with his home number. OH YES! just cause i'm a waitress, i want to be tit-fucked.. PLEASE.. let me call you NOW! i hated that job, and i hated being a waitress. i don't care that waitresses probably make more money than i do, on some days.. dammit i hated that job.

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2000

I only had one"real" job that last, oh, say one or two months... I knew something was up when Boss told me to answer the phone and say he just wasn't there, then hid out in the office at back all day. i had on eguy rant and rave and swear at me on the phone when i said Boss was not in, so after getting an earful i saind something like"I'm sorry sir, he's still not here, and swearing at me isn't going to make it happen.' then he must've realized what he'd done and apologized profusely.

The job? it was an independany computer store. The really bad part? Boss wanted up to cold-call other business asking if they wanted a 'puter. this was 10+ years ago, when most people didn't.

And I came across this site last night: www.customerssuck.com.

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2000

Reading this made me think of the job that I was eventually chosen for between graduating from high school and starting college. If you can help it, never work 3rd shift at a convenience store, I don't care how small the town is. That is when the truly oddd (and not normally in a good way) people come out.

I had one guy come in so drunk that he was more falling than walking, and demand a replacement Zippo lighter because his was broken and he bought it at this store, blah, blah blah. This was before I knew about the warranty on those babies, but anyway.. Needless to say, it lights when I try it and he falls out the door into the night.

I was stocking the cooler on another night and had somebody scare the hell out of me when they opened up the door to the cooler and announced that they were glad I was actually there. Evidently the last person who hadn't come out when they came in to pay for gas they found in the cooler with bullet wounds.

The best one was this scuzzy pudgy guy who came in claiming that he was a stripper and offering a free showing in the back room. When I turned him down on that one, he told me a story of how a teacher of his had spanked him in junior high and supposedly put his hand between her legs during the process. Then he wanted me to go into the back room and spank him. He hung around for several hours waiting for a particular newspaper during this time. And I got in trouble for not getting several hours of work done while babbysitting him. It seems he was a fixture of the store whenever a new woman started to work there.

That was definitely my worst job. And it served the owner right that I didn't tell her I was a college student and not a career member of the convenience store club.

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2000