What's the worst job you've ever had?

[N88]

Funny you should ask...

Two days ago, after an extended, company-advised leave of absence, I discovered I had Acoustic Shock Syndrome. I'd always felt the place was awful, but suddenly all the pieces fell into place. I'm highly suspicious they knew about it and chose not to inform me of the danger.

Anyone concerned with sound and hearing should be aware of this condition.

[Synonym Music]

 

Funny you should ask... Two days ago, after an extended, company-advised leave of absence, I discovered I had Acoustic Shock Syndrome. I'd always felt the place was awful, but suddenly all the pieces fell into place. I'm highly suspicious they knew about it and chose not to inform me of the danger. Anyone concerned with sound and hearing should be aware of this condition.

 

What did you do? How long on the job? etc. Tell us more...

[Lukenskywalker]

My first good paying job was flunky at a coal washer plant. I did everything from shovel coal that had spilled off of beltlines to operating the main control panel for the plant. The worst part was cleaning the bathrooms. Miners would come there to use the bathroom and clog up the toilets. Some of them did not understand the concept of flushing. I worked there for 5 years, took my retirement, bought a professional quality keyboard rig, and quit to become a full time musician.

 

The concept of flushing is lost on people who only had an 'Outhouse'.

 

In Northeast Penna. the Mine owners had a bigger problem with the Miners who saw free toilet paper in the 'Company John' as a 'perk'.

 

They stole it with gay abandon and presented to their grimy 'Wife's to Be' as a token of their affection.

 

It was utilized as Sanitary 'nappies', Bra stuffing, Nose blowing, belly wiping after beer fueled sex...and to decorate Christening Chairs just before the bethroed 'Mine Sows' spawned their Cretin Offspring.

 

And that pretty much sums up how I came into this world.

[zeronyne]

The worst job I've worked was right after college. For two years or so, I worked at a 24 hour adult bookstore across from a 24 hour strip joint in Chicago. For those of you above such things, most of these stores operate with a template. The front part looks like any normal adult novelty shop: magazines, sex toys, etc. The second room in (or sometimes the back part of the main room) has thousands of DVDs...in my heyday, it was videocassettes. The back room is always a hallway or two, almost pitch black, with small booths consisting of a fixed chair, a video monitor, a slot for tokens, and a large button to change channels. Typical setup.

 

I worked the graveyard shift, alone, 5 days a week. I was nearly raped twice, and that was really not the worst thing that happened on my shifts. I found a total of 3 dead guys back in those booths. One ODed (he worked in the mayors office, apparently), one had a heart attack, and I found one dude in several pieces.

 

And that back room was really an example of what men will do with no boundaries. Between midnight and 8 am, I would be visited TWICE by a cleaning crew that looked like a hazmat team, and still, at the end of my shift, the entire floor of the video arcade area would be completely glazed in semen, among other bodily fluids.

 

The pay was astronomically high for the type of work, and the employees, who only saw each other in those 30 minute shift changes, became very close friends.

 

The things that made me finally quit, though, were the people: the married guys with kids who were there on Christmas day (when I'd work 4pm to 8am) for 4 to 6 hours, talking to me. The assholes who would come when the bars closed to go in the back and beat people up. The truly creepy (and believe me, it takes a LOT to creep me out) people buying impossibly large or incredibly dangerous implements. Porn stars who were making special appearances at the store who were really sad, damaged people. The men who were so obviously homosexual (meaning they bought gay magazines on a regular basis) who couldn't figure out how to come out.

 

It wasn't exactly physically grueling, but I can tell you that it would take me 4-5 hours to relax after a shift.

[rasputin1963]

The truly creepy (and believe me, it takes a LOT to creep me out) people buying impossibly large or incredibly dangerous implements..

 

 

Wow... what a first-hand journey you took through America's underbelly. You had your eyes opened wide, I see, to this country's various fetishes and obsessions and fantasies.

 

But you lost me on the "impossibly large or incredibly dangerous implements". Are we talking those big pink rubber, thicker-than-fistsized, Jeff Stryker dildoes? Worse?

 

We Americans have not fully understood and fully processed the effect of porn on our society. For example, here's Mattel's BARBIE and SKIPPER, circa 1963:

 

 

 

Contrast that with THIS MATTEL BARBIE, available today to your little girls, probably at WAL-MART and TOYS "R" US:

 

The new "Fetish" BARBIE. What say you?

[rasputin1963]

(bump)

[nat whilk II]

 

The worst job I've worked was right after college. For two years or so, I worked at a 24 hour adult bookstore across from a 24 hour strip joint in Chicago. For those of you above such things, most of these stores operate with a template. The front part looks like any normal adult novelty shop: magazines, sex toys, etc. The second room in (or sometimes the back part of the main room) has thousands of DVDs...in my heyday, it was videocassettes. The back room is always a hallway or two, almost pitch black, with small booths consisting of a fixed chair, a video monitor, a slot for tokens, and a large button to change channels. Typical setup. I worked the graveyard shift, alone, 5 days a week. I was nearly raped twice, and that was really not the worst thing that happened on my shifts. I found a total of 3 dead guys back in those booths. One ODed (he worked in the mayors office, apparently), one had a heart attack, and I found one dude in several pieces. And that back room was really an example of what men will do with no boundaries. Between midnight and 8 am, I would be visited TWICE by a cleaning crew that looked like a hazmat team, and still, at the end of my shift, the entire floor of the video arcade area would be completely glazed in semen, among other bodily fluids. The pay was astronomically high for the type of work, and the employees, who only saw each other in those 30 minute shift changes, became very close friends. The things that made me finally quit, though, were the people: the married guys with kids who were there on Christmas day (when I'd work 4pm to 8am) for 4 to 6 hours, talking to me. The assholes who would come when the bars closed to go in the back and beat people up. The truly creepy (and believe me, it takes a LOT to creep me out) people buying impossibly large or incredibly dangerous implements. Porn stars who were making special appearances at the store who were really sad, damaged people. The men who were so obviously homosexual (meaning they bought gay magazines on a regular basis) who couldn't figure out how to come out. It wasn't exactly physically grueling, but I can tell you that it would take me 4-5 hours to relax after a shift.

 

 

I dare to say you have taken the prize for worst.....job......ever.....a true horror show.

 

Yoiks...I'd have to say, given that I have normal male tendencies and all that, I would find myself you might say intensely curious from time to time about those places, particularly in my much younger days. But the very thought of the embarrassement I'd feel to be seen in such a place was enough by itself to keep me out of them, aside from the pure ethical issue. But a place like you describe - here's a toast to negative reinforcement...

 

I'd keep reading about some poor sap like PeeWee Herman, or someone running into a co-worker or neighbor or...gasp, pastor...I'd have to move to, say, Mars:) after such an episode.

 

nat whilk ii

[cooterbrown]

With no question, it was the year-and-a-half I worked in musical instrument retail.

Draconian bosses, deal-snaking and back-stabbing co-workers, dim-witted front desk girls, losing commission because you forgot to add the 99

[devnulljp]

 

We Americans have not fully understood and fully processed the effect of porn on our society. For example, here's Mattel's BARBIE and SKIPPER, circa 1963: ... Contrast that with THIS MATTEL BARBIE, available today to your little girls, probably at WAL-MART and TOYS "R" US: The new "Fetish" BARBIE. What say you?

Seeing as Barbie was originally based on a German cartoon hooker named Lilli, I'd say the one from the 60s is the one that's off.

 

I say it's not so much the porn as the fetishising of it caused by the repression from all that howdy-doody/Norman Rockwell sanitise-everything crap. A culture that screams blue bloody murder over a nipple is always going to bring out the repressed beast in people. It's amazing how relaxed people are in Scandinavia -- the nuttiest porn is everywhere and no-one really seems to care. It's not a big deal.

 

That said, that whole post above about working there just makes my skin crawl.