I am employed! or: Share your bad job experiences!

[Dasquian Belargic]

I had the easiest job interview ever, yesterday. A couple of weeks back I went to a job fair at my university and picked up some information on a position at the Arena, a big concert/exhibition venue in my city. Sent off a CV and covering letter, not expecting any reply - yet lo and behold, on Wednesday I got a phone call to come in for an interview.

I say interview, but that's using the term very loosely. The 'interviewer' explained what the Arena does (offers a large venue to anyone who wants it, pretty much!) and then what would be expected of employees. This all done, she just offered me the job, asked if I could start on Friday!

It's only £5.05 an hour, but the hours are incredibly flexible. Just call in on Monday and pick which of the events you want to be part of the staff for. I have to work the bar, ticket office, etc. out in the foyer. Got my first shift tonight, during an ice-hockey or basketball game (not sure which).

Just thought I would share the good news :mneh

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hooray! :D

Hey and you get to peek at the games/shows and get paid while doing it!

[Yog]

Congrats :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Hooray! :D

Hey and you get to peek at the games/shows and get paid while doing it!

I'll certainly be able to hear the concerts from out in the foyer. I'm not sure whether I get to do any usher work, but if I do that would involve being inside the performance arena itself, which would be awesome :D

From the sounds of it, I might also be privy to information regarding acts that they're not allowed to annouce yet (for legal reasons). Maybe I'll even get the chance to buy tickets on discount, or before other people.

... wishful thinking ;)

[Morgan Evanar]

Awesome. Money is very useful stuff.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I spent the night selling soft drinks, popcorn and nachos :grumble

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Didn't like it so much?

[Dasquian Belargic]

It was rubbish. I got no training or explanation of anything, yet the supervisor moaned at me for doing things wrong. Too much like working in fast food for my liking. False advertising :|

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Oh. :( That's bad.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yeah. I am going to keep looking for something else. Luckily, with the work being casual, I'm not obliged to work more than one shift a week.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hey and it's still money. But - with no training and getting moaned at you have the right to be disgruntled.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I suppose it's all experience. Something to motivate me to get my degree so that I don't have to end up in that type of job on a more permanent basis :x

[Wyl Staedtler]

Congrats! :)

Sympathies! :(

G'luck with the hunting tho... it can be tough. :hug

[Dasquian Belargic]

I have changed the title of the thread.

I now welcome you all to share your experiences of awful menial labour, minimum wage and being treated like a slave!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Blockbuster Video!

I only worked there a month and then I quit because my body decided to reward my hard labor with panic attacks when I showed up to work two days in a row. They treat their employees like - like they don't care if you stay or not. And they expected my friend who was one of the managers to work unpaid overtime every day.

Still, it's taken me a long time to stop straightening the videos when I go into a video rental place. :p

[Shawn]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Still, it's taken me a long time to stop straightening the videos when I go into a video rental place. :p Oh god, tell me about it.

[Charley]

Working dawn to 10 AM at a driving range, picking up golf balls. Worst job ever.

[Wyl Staedtler]

I've been fortunate enough to have enjoyed all of my jobs; I love working. The only one that I wasn't sad to leave was this vinyl siding business. My job was basically to pick up scrap from the jobsite, fetch J-trim and other bits for the siders, and staple tar paper to the walls. I enjoyed doing the work but in the winter my hands were so cold I could barely work the staple gun--plus the scaffolds were all slippery and SO HIGH UP.

[Sudoku]

haha, all of my jobs have been min. wage except this one :cry

Let's see, I worked at a grocery store for three years, finally got my union benefits the same month that I quit to move to a bigger city.

Worked at BK in the middle of downtown Hamilton. Lots and lots of homeless people. The worst/grossest thing about working there was the time a homeless guy was peeing near the bus-stop. Yeah, classy :cool

Now I work as a clerk at a convience store. Very very simple job, but you have to deal with morons every single day, and it's very repetitive. Plus, there's a homeless shelter across the street, and since it's run by a church (and their staff have little to no training), we get all the crazy people coming into our store.

I've had the register break, the milk cooler break, the power go out, drunks, crazies, and every other kind of freak you can think of come in, and I've been robbed once. Oh yeah, and I had a homeless guy pull his pants down in front of me :x

[Hunk]

Well, let's run down the jobs...

My first was working at a tomato greenhouse.
Pros:
1. Only about 6 miles away from my house, so I could bike there, which is important when you're only 14 years old.
2. Several cute girls worked there at the same time as I, including the daughter of the boss.
Cons:
1. I don't do well in the heat. Got in trouble several times for taking too many breaks...of course it was either that or deal with heat stroke.
2. I hate tomatos.

Ski resort, rental department. Loved this place. Really laid back for the most part and I worked with some really fun people. The pay sucked, but you got to go skiing for free, a pasttime I never would have taken part in had it not been for the free pass. Seasonal job. I might go back this winter to work there for the10th consectutive season.

Hardware store. I love tools and just about everything else there was in that store. I spent half my paychecks before I even walked out the door. Got fired from this one (my only firing, yay) when I switched hours with another employee but didn't inform my manager. Unfortunately he didn't show up for my shift, so it was my head on the chopping block.

3rd shift stocker at a grocery store. Did this for 4 summers, starting after Junior year of high school. I had to wear a shirt and tie for the first two hours of my shift, while the store was still open, but after that the job turned completely around. The supervisor was a pretty young guy, maybe in his late 20's, so we busted <smallfont color=#999900>-hiney-</smallfont> to get our work done for the night and then spent a lot of time just having fun. "Lunch" hours were often extended to 2 hours playing Mario Kart (and later Mario Kart 64) upstairs in the office, the back loading dock was sometimes turned into a makeshift playing field for kickball, and pallet jack races around the store were not unheard of. Though I think my favorite time there was the night we turned off all the lights in the store and played lazer tag for an hour or two.

Mechanical maintenace for the university. This is the job I worked all the way through college (and a little beyond), between 15 and 30 hours a week. Sometimes the environments sucked (subbasement of an ancient building, disassembling shelves: dusty, cramped, baking hot and dark as the pits of hell...SIGN ME UP), but others were great (fixing light fixtures and heating units in the all girls dorm...SIGN ME UP, seriously this time). I got to fix things, though, which I like, and the work was always varied, so you didn’t get stuck in a rut.

Co-op employment as a drafter/engineer at Bucyrus. This was my first taste of real life. Spectacular pay for a co-op and fun work. I was designing and creating solid models of gigantic mining machines. Unfortunately, the company was going through some rough financial straits (1/3 of the engineering department was laid-off) right as my co-op term was ending, so I didn't get hired there.

Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches. A second job I took to help pay the bills after college when I was looking for an engineering position. I often had to work the evening shift, staying up until 3-4 AM, but it wasn’t horrible, since I was just out of college anyway and still in that night-owl frame of mind. Free food was a bonus, especially for a financially strapped college graduate. Split my time between working in store and delivering. The worst part of the job, honestly, was having to listen to <smallfont color=#999900>-flip-</smallfont>ing jam bands constantly, as that seemed to be the preferred music among most of the employees.

And finally we come to my current job: patent engineer/technical writer. This is the job I just landed a month ago and where I happen to be sitting right now. For the first time in my life I have a job with actual benefits and a paycheck I can live on. My position here is a newly created one, so they’re still working on exactly how to use me. I think I’ll have to move closer to work, though, because the hour-long commute just turned into an hour and twenty minutes long commute with recent freeway construction. Almost 3 hours of my day sitting in a car just isn’t worth it.

So, there we go, a brief rundown of my work experiences. The long I’ve been unemployed since I turned 15 was a 6 month stint right before getting this job. Made it taste all that much more sweet.

(edit: oops, forgot one. also had to fix the bad bad language I used)

[Marga Alton]

For me, I'd have to say 10 days straight, 7 of which are dishwashing/bussing shifts, and then getting called on on a day off to work another shift so in a total of 18 days, only having 2 days off. Not only that but I am going to be going at least 2 weeks without a hosting shift so I'm getting some teed off. The only good side is that today there is good chance I'll be training my fiancee to do the exact same job as me.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

My worst job, I'd have to say, is the stupid pyramid scheme I got sucked into soon after moving to Sacramento. Twelve hour days, six days a week, no chance for a life. This is the same job that moved me to Texas before letting me go. No salary, no hourly wage, just straight commission. It was easy enough in Sac-town; I'd come home with 100 dollars in my pocket every night. But when I moved to Houston, things went downhill fast, and there were days when I woudn't bring home a dime.

Those were bad times overall, and even when I think about the crap I went through in/for that job, it makes me very sad and melancholy. Also reminds me of how supremely naive I used to be.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

:hug

[Dasquian Belargic]

My boss wants me to work 8pm til 7am this Saturday, at this gigantic rave the arena is having.

:lol

No chance.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

11 hours! :eek

[Marga Alton]

Ok, it's unfair that the managers at work keep calling me in for extra shifts. My three days off ended up with Halloween off, and then I worked the other two days and now I'm on my schedualed shifts. Joy, out of 24 days, I will have worked 22 of them. Last week alone I worked 52.75 hours, time change and all. This is taking out my half hour breaks because I'm not paid for that time.

Anybody got any tips to help me say no when one of the managers call??

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Get caller ID. Don't answer the phone.

Or, you could just say no.

[Tasha McTallen]

We do have caller ID, but I'm usually on the cordless and expecting someone else to call when work calls. And if a manager throws in the word desperate, then me being me, I agree even if I had every intention of saying no.

[Dasquian Belargic]

This weekend I have to work in the foyer while Alice Cooper are playing in the main arena :( I hope they are loud enough that we can hear them.

[Shawn]

Oooh, I'm jealous. :mneh Let me know if he plays anything from Raise Your Fist and Yell (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002PH5/qid=1131365060/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-2888319-3139266?v=glance&s=music&n=507846)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
This weekend I have to work in the foyer while Alice Cooper are playing in the main arena :( I hope they are loud enough that we can hear them.

:lol

Oh, they'll be loud enough.

[Dasquian Belargic]

-listens to "Posion" and weeps-

So unfair.

[Sudoku]

Originally posted by Tasha McTallen
We do have caller ID, but I'm usually on the cordless and expecting someone else to call when work calls. And if a manager throws in the word desperate, then me being me, I agree even if I had every intention of saying no.


Just say no. I'm the same way, I like to be responsible and not cause a ruckus at work, but you have to stand up for yourself and your days off! :hug

[Dasquian Belargic]

I worked at my first big event last night - a comedy show with 9000+ people attending. It was also my first time on the bar. I was so nervous, I made quite a lot of mistakes - and had to ask quite a few people how to make their drinks :o

Alice Cooper tonight. I hope that I'm not in the same place again.

[Crystal]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
I made quite a lot of mistakes - and had to ask quite a few people how to make their drinks :o

That must have sucked :| I'd have to ask everyone. Why did they stick you on the bar when you don't now how to make drinks?

[Leten Snat]

Originally posted by Crystal
That must have sucked :| I'd have to ask everyone. Why did they stick you on the bar when you don't now how to make drinks?

They must have put her at the Bar because she's so CUTE!;) ether that thought that she would make people drink more. :angel

I find it odd that they even have a bar in a stadum like that, over here in canada (At least in BC) we are having lots of people being arrested for drinking boose in public places.

[Dasquian Belargic]

:lol Leten, you charmer :p

They didn't put me on the bar for Twisted Sister/Alice Cooper, thankfully.

Nest week I'm working when Paul Weller and The Prodigy are playing. On seperate nights, obviously :mneh

[Darth McBain]

My worst job experience...

I work for a really major software development company - sorry, can't mention the name ;) . About three years ago I was put on a particularly nasty project with insane deadlines with pretty hostile clients and a pretty hostile development environment. I worked every day for 11 months (minus a week that my manager forced me to take as she thought I'd completely freak out), averaging 70-80 hours a week, to meet the deadline. I'd put in about 12 - 14 hours a day during the week. Weekends were easier, I'd only work 5-6 hours on Saturdays and Sundays... :rolleyes After that it scaled back to maybe 60 hours a week (and I got Sundays off :) ) for another few months. Eventually we got everything under control and now I'm back to 40-ish hrs a week... PHEW!

I can handle overtime in manageable doses, but a year of it was simply insane. I still shudder to think of it and how much stress we were under to get the coding done...

[Lilaena De'Ville]

A year straight of 60 hour+ weeks?!

Poor man.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Good grief, McBain O_O How did you cope??

[Darth McBain]

Originally posted by s'Ilancy
Good grief, McBain O_O How did you cope??

I got in a 4:00, left about 6:30 or so, and then hid in my closet shaking until I had to do it all over again... Seriously, it was about the worst, most stressful experience I've ever had. The stress was intense. There were so many other groups and projects that hinged on our being ready by the deadline. If we didn't make it, heads were gonna fly... And of course the deadlines were completely unrealistic. We did a comprehensive analysis and gave them a timeline. Upper management gave us half the time. It was bad - I lost tons of weight, shed more than a few tears, and put on a couple early gray hairs... I'm glad I'm past it.

The only good thing was that I accrued some serious comp time, so I was able to take an extra 3 weeks vacation the next year, in addition to my usual 3. Still doesn't make up for a year of pure hell, but it was something...

For a while in the middle of it, though, I was seriously freaking out and my manager pretty much put her foot down and said she wanted me to take a week off. I guess when you're that burned out you can do a lot of harm, both to yourself, the morale of the team, and the project itself.

Now... Must... Repress... All... Memories...

[JMK]

A friend of mine in GA has been working every single day for 18 months straight and running, but not 12 hour days. The every day thing is expected to last another 6-8 months. I don't envy that guy. That crushes any bad work experience story I may have.

[Mitara Sinar]

I know it would happen sooner or later, but I was hoping for the later. Being a police officer, bad days can get REALLY Bad.

Last night we went to check out a desturbance call in a resedental area, and as we were pulling up to the house we got shot at. Lucky for us the guy had been drinking, and was a bad aim. our car got shot up a bit, and I had to fire my gun on him. The clips are armed with 2 rubber bullets at the top and the real stuff in the rest of the clip (At least that's what me and my patner are given). Thankfuly we didn't have to use any real deadly bullets on him.

This is the type of gun he was using to shoot up our car. (http://www.benelliusa.com/firearms/m1.tpl )

We were lucky to get out without being hurt a little shaken up, but no injury. MAN is there a lot of paperwork involved in firing your gun in the line of duty! I can see why it's a last resort even for the Triger happy members of the force!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hey, but you've faced it now, and you know you can handle it. :hug

[JMK]

Originally posted by Mitara Sinar
We were lucky to get out without being hurt a little shaken up, but no injury. MAN is there a lot of paperwork involved in firing your gun in the line of duty! I can see why it's a last resort even for the Triger happy members of the force!

Don't you have to account for every round shot off, as well as justifying your reasons for squeezing the trigger?

[Mitara Sinar]

That Pritty much sums it up. but it's alot to think about when your being shot at with a semi-auto shotgun. Ofcourse I thing that right there is good enough to shoot off the rubber bullets at him. My partner thought the same thing too.

It doesn't looks like we are going to get into trouble, but we were told to try not to get our new squad car shot up like we did our first one. and i have no intentions to.


Hey, but you've faced it now, and you know you can handle it.

I guess that one way to look at it, but I hope never have to get use to that happening. it's frighting.

[Morgan Evanar]

I want a M1. Fantastic shotguns.

That sucks that you were on the bussiness end of one.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well why join the police then? O_o I mean, I don't think you should be expected to face being fired on and having to fire your gun every day, but it IS part of the job that you signed on to do... so if it terrifys you, isn't that a really bad thing?

[Nyloh Heat]

Wanna know a real business of misery? Enlist in the military. I like it and all but its just that there is a most definite presence of misery to this business.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Well why join the police then? O_o I mean, I don't think you should be expected to face being fired on and having to fire your gun every day, but it IS part of the job that you signed on to do... so if it terrifys you, isn't that a really bad thing?

I'm pretty sure it's incredibly rare that an officer encounters gunfire in the UK. Most police don't even carry guns here, as far as I know. I suppose it's different elsewhere in the world. Saying that, there are certainly different departments in the police, some of which would be more likely than others to get you landed with a gun - raid squad, for instance, as opposed to being a beat patrol officer.

[Mitara Sinar]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville

Well why join the police then? I mean, I don't think you should be expected to face being fired on and having to fire your gun every day, but it IS part of the job that you signed on to do... so if it terrifys you, isn't that a really bad thing?

I said it was frighting, not that terrifys me. I knw that i would eventualy get shot at, I was just hoping it would take longer than 2 months for it to happen, and I was hoping for something a little less deadly for my first time.

From my understanding most people that do the job are afraid of being shot at, or more to the point, afraid that they will take a bullet and die, or even worse not be able to work anything but a desk job. Fear is is natural, and should not be denied. Though fear should also not be allowed to control your actions. Lucky for me I'm teamed up with a seasoned officer, that was able to cover for me when I clamed up for a half second.


Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic

I'm pretty sure it's incredibly rare that an officer encounters gunfire in the UK. Most police don't even carry guns here, as far as I know. I suppose it's different elsewhere in the world. Saying that, there are certainly different departments in the police, some of which would be more likely than others to get you landed with a gun - raid squad, for instance, as opposed to being a beat patrol officer.

I'm stuck on the 4pm to Midnight street patrol. for the most part all we deal with is the drunk drivers, the odd fist/knife fight, loud late night parties, and late night domiestic disputes that are destrupting the public. normaly the big stuff like murders, robbery, gun fights, hostage situations and the sort, are given to the officers with more experience than me and my partner.

we were called to that house underthe impression it was just another late night domiestic dispute.

[Wyl Staedtler]

I didn't get shot at, but I got to go to the doctor. Again. It's a good thing too because it's been like, a whole week and a half since I was there and I was really starting to miss him. :rolleyes

I was holding onto the steamwand while the technician tried to fix it (note: don't ever do this.) and somehow it turned on and my hand was in such an awkward position that I couldn't move it right away. It's a nice little steamburn, which probably could have been wrapped at home but they're pretty careful with stuff like this at work.

On the plus side, we can now make lattes again.