What was your best/worst job?

**phantom** · 07-09-2013, 05:16 PM

The honest answer is that my current job is probably the best job I've ever had. I get to do work that I really enjoy, I have tons of opportunities to learn new things and improve myself, I work with a great team of people, and my employer is always looking for ways to improve our work environment. There are still a few things about my employer that bother me, but overall I've got it pretty good.

But, I like to say that the best job I've ever had was lifeguarding, and out of all the places I worked as a lifeguard, the last apartment pool I worked at was the best. It was a great job. I got paid to sit in the sun all day. I was always amused by people who assumed that I must get bored and hate it when the pull was empty. But, that was when I got to read or play with my lap top. The only part of the job I didn't like was vacuuming the pool in the mornings when I worked the first shift. But, that was a small enough part of the job that it was still pretty great.

The worst job I ever had was working for an outsourcing company that took calls for electric companies. Mostly, it was just people calling in to check on information about a bill or to make a payment over the phone. But, there were some people trying to avoid getting their power turned off or trying to get it turned back on to deal with too. I only had to work there for a couple of months while I struggled to find a job in my industry right out of college, and I only worked part time so I would have time to look for a better job. I don't think I could have taken some of the verbal abuse if I'd been working full days with no end in sight, but in small doses, it was good for some amusing anecdotes without being too draining.

**asmom** · 07-09-2013, 06:18 PM

Worst job? I'm a registered nurse so there is plenty of competition for that designation but the absolute worse would have to be th one day I worked in the recovery room of an abortion clinic. Second runner-up would be any bedside job I ever worked as a nurse tech or nurse aide when I was in college. Third runner-up would be any bedside job I worked as an RN.

Best job? I'm waiting for it but it is probably my current job only because it is my highest paid and I actually have a pension which is pretty darn sad when I think about it. . I work for a managed care company. My focus is on the care of the elderly which is pretty actually awesome but there is a lot of office politics and other stuff that goes on.

**Redraidernurse** · 07-09-2013, 07:42 PM

Best job: A life guard when I was 16. Being a lifeguard was seriously cush, and I was young and didn't have any financial commitments yet.

Worst job: Working as a charge nurse RN on a med-surg floor. I was 22 years old and in 'charge' of nurses who were 20-30 years older than me in some cases. I was too sweet and innocent and not strong willed enough to run the show, so they ended up running all over me. I did that for around a year, and for most of that time I was pregnant, which only added to the suffering of the job.

Edited to add that I actually think my best 'job' is being a stay-at-home mom, raising my two boys.

**JoeP** · 07-10-2013, 04:07 AM

Best job was working in the video crew at a big corporation in the late 1980s. We did a lot of location shoots, I ran the prompter and tape decks, we shot on 3/4" tape, and sometimes 1" tape (using the wonderful and sexy Ampex/Nagra VPR-5). I also was responsible for running the tape duplication and conversion system to fulfill orders.

Worst job was working as a "stock worker" in a retail store. While I certainly had some good memories and learned a lot about job responsibility, I hated retrieving shopping carts in the dead of winter and mopping up vomit.

**97guns** · 07-10-2013, 04:32 AM

best job i ever had was my last job, manufacturing of minute man stage 3 inter continental ballistic missles, also worked on thaad. worst ever job was my first one, a dish washer for a buffet

**disneysteve** · 07-10-2013, 04:52 AM

Best job was the 12 years I was a camp counselor at a summer camp growing up. I loved being outdoors all day, all the people I met and friends I made, some of whom I'm still in touch with today 30 years later. Those were the most carefree days of my life.

Worst job was probably when I worked in a snack bar. It was a little shack outside of a grocery store and department store. It was infested with roaches. The good part was I could eat all the soft pretzels, water ice, and soda I wanted because it was simple to fudge the inventory numbers to account for anything I ate or drank. I worked there for a few months in high school.

**~bs** · 07-10-2013, 05:02 AM

Originally posted by QuarterMillionMan View Post

My best job has to be my current position as a supervisor (public sector), the benefits and salary are descent and it's a relatively stable career (hope things remain the same).

My worst job (and I have many) was working as a case manager at an adult developmental day program. I hated going to work there. The clientele were severely mentally retarded and needed assistance with their activities of daily living (ie, feeding, toileting, etc). I give kudos to those people working in that industry for I could not handle it. I endured this job for 6 months until I was able to get another job and if it weren't for having to pay my rent and pay other bills I would have been gone a lot sooner. The salary was $2000/month.

Interesting, we seem to hold similar positions. I'm also currently a supervisor in the public sector. My bosses have hinted me to go for higher level supervisory positions, but think I'll stay in my current position for a while. The level of responsibility and oversight goes up exponentially in the higher level positions. I have a good boss, and decent subordinates, which is valuable and hard to place a dollar value on. Also, I have a side business that I enjoy doing as well.

Worst job wasn't anything too crazy, a firm that I lasted about 2 weeks. There was a pretty glaring mismatch in my skill set, and what they expected of me, and company culture. I was willing to stick it out, but they didn't have the patience for that. Moot point, as I had a job 2 weeks later at a different firm, and making a lot more money. I've worked my share of low paying white/blue/retail jobs, but that was the worst. I used to do warehouse work unloading containers in the sun, and that wasn't as bad.

**Blessed** · 07-10-2013, 11:42 AM

Best job was getting paid to wear pretty clothes and get glammed up. Worst job was a waitress in a truck stop. I wanted to smack people for being inappropriate so many times a day it wasn't even funny.

**Saving girl** · 07-11-2013, 04:31 AM

My worst job was a daycare I loved the learning part and the kids but I HATED who I was working she was mean and horrible to me the best job n the one that I do now is I work in the pharmacy n yes I love it my boss is awesome he appreciates me and is good to me

**coffee** · 07-11-2013, 09:28 AM

best job was 94-99 at a chemical company in Cleveland. pay was not bad but not great. I was laid off at 5 yrs 2 months and they had a 5 yr vesting for a lousy pension. Only 135 a month when I hit 65, but better than zero and they had a 401k I fully funded. Nice place to work, no real stress, you could have a beer with lunch and they would always take people out for nice meals.

worst job was in 05 at an electronic connector company. They monitored your e-mail and phone calls, were crappy with meals when you travelled, and I was FIRED because 4 days before my 6 month review I told my boss off. This jackoff loved useless meetings to the tune of sometimes over 20 hrs a week, which meant I was in the lab late many nights getting the work done. This jerk would have meetings for no reason and loved them.

**Baby_nurse** · 07-11-2013, 10:43 AM

I have the same best/worst stories as most nurses.

My best was my last job, I worked at a major delivery hospital and had lots of autonomy. My worst nursing job was a year on the postpartum unit. Glorified waitressing.

My ultimate worst job was my first- I was a Santa's helper at a mall. Parents would hand off their screaming kids to me to put on Santa's lap (and try to keep them there) while they got a picture. Needless to say, between getting pee'd on and bit, it prepared me for my future in nursing

**Redraidernurse** · 07-12-2013, 09:30 AM

Originally posted by Baby_nurse View Post

Needless to say, between getting pee'd on and bit, it prepared me for my future in nursing

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! Love it!

**theduc** · 07-12-2013, 12:05 PM

Best: I was a graphic designer at Enron for about 2 years (until they crashed)... I had so much fun working there that I couldn't believe I got paid to go to work everyday! Much respect for my bosses there!

Worst: My last 4 years at AIG... every week our department went to work wondering if we were going to have a job the following month after seeing entire departments being laid off around us and seeing their jobs being sent to India (which is where ours eventually went after training and supervising the team in India for about a year). No hard feelings... was just a lot of stress at the time.

**Wino** · 07-13-2013, 11:08 AM

My best job is what I'm doing now: I'm a senior-level manager for an electrical service firm in Dubai. I get paid well and get lots of tax breaks and other perks, such as living on the man-made island called the "Palm Jumeirah."

I also worked as a corporate trainer for quite a while. I called myself an "edu-tainer," because I was having a great time telling jokes and relating "war stories" about things I had seen. It was very tiring work, because you have to maintain complete concentration for about 10 hours every day while you train. The good part was that I learned not only what I had questions about concerning the equipment, but I also got to learn what other people wondered about. There's no better way to learn something than to try to teach it to others. I really enjoyed that job, too.

My worst job... I don't think I've had one. As long as I'm learning something new, I pretty much enjoy what I'm doing. I've worked for companies that I wasn't too thrilled with, but I think I've always liked working, no matter what the job. For instance, I used to split a lot of wood for my father. We didn't have a log splitter - well, other than me - so it was mindlessly swinging a maul or an axe to split the wood. I used the time to ponder things in my head while tiring myself out physically.

I guess it all comes down to your attitude about your job. When I was a lifeguard, we were required to clean out the bathrooms. I'm sorry, ladies, but your bathroom was always filthy at the end of the day. About once a week, we would find someone's towel or clothing flushed down a toilet, or partially flushed, and often the perpetrator would defecate on the clothing, as well. About the most damage done on the male side was some graffiti on occasion. Yet even that job wasn't too bad, as long as you just got it done. Looking back at the clean bathroom when you were done at least gave you a feeling of accomplishment. And you knew you'd get the same feeling of accomplishment in the next day or two after some girl got mad at another for some unknown reason.

What was your best/worst job?