Hm, it's a toss up between this job where I'm underchallenged and bored (recption/office manager), or my old job as a news producer where I had to be @ work for 4 a.m. and have way too much work/stress along with grumpy co-workers.

Victoria's Secret! I worked through the holiday season and was on call all of the time! You had to measure people for bra's, and deal with pervy men...some of which were buying x-mas gifts for both wives and girlfriends..eww!

Retail store manager in an upscale (read: snotty as hell) suburban mall. I still have nightmares about my D-bag of a district manager and the horrific customers.

Telemarketing, it didn't take long to figure out that it was a scam and I walked off the job.

Probably my first job ever. I was a drive-through girl at Taco Bell. The best story I have is when a lady ordered a bean burrito, light on the beans. I gave it to her, she weighed it in her hand, said it was too heavy, and threw it back to me telling me to go fix it. Ridiculous!

The last job I was at, I fell into b/c my previous job was laying off the marketing dept. So, I became an EA. My boss would chicken scratch notes in a meeting and wanted me to decipher her handwriting, she wanted me to plan her and her son and daughter in law trip to Paris (no he didn't work there), picking up dry cleaning, talking to her Housing Association, calling the Vet, when her son was in the hospital I had to keep her up to date from the doctors and nurses, and she wanted me to clean her office ( I once found a molded sandwich - I think it was) - then she wondered why I didn't have time for her work related items, ohh yeah I also worked for three senior VPs at the same time. It was not challenging work in the least - they restructured last year and decided that each VP will have associates and so they laid off 20 EA's.

Two come to mind:

When I was a teenager I worked at a chain store in the mall, where the manager was a psychotic b*tch. If you did something wrong, she'd scream "WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? ARE YOU RETARDED?" at you in front of all the customers. Yeah, that didn't last long.

The other one was just a few years ago - administrative assistant for a crazy woman who ran an important charity. Basically, it wasn't an admin job, it was being her personal assistant. She'd ask me to make dinner reservations, hair appointments, etc. And she refused to check her email. I had to check it for her, print them out and bring them to her. And she couldn't get my name right and started saying "Hey you" to me. She was awful and I didn't last long there either.

megatron that is so hilarious and ridiculous!

I only worked at kenny rogers roasters for one day, it was just so cheesy and awful! I was embarrassed about the whole thing.

I'm blessed to have never had a really terrible job, just terrible volunteer experiences. Once, I volunteered for "It's My Park Day," which involved cleaning bird poop off a pedestrian bridge.

kenny rogers roasters ---he has a restaurant?

kenny rogers roasters ---he has a restaurant?

My current job (for the next two weeks at least) ranks pretty high up there, with the worst office politics I've ever seen. It's only slightly better than when I was working 4 10s, on the overnight shift, by myself for six hours at a stretch, doing customer service online. There's nothing like a tech-incompetent, confused customer hunting-and-pecking out their answer to you at 2 in the morning, or a half-drunk, entitled, abbrasive college student at 3 in the morning. Oh, and I was planning my wedding at the time as well. I quit when I found out they weren't going to switch me off overnights before my wedding, like they promised they would.

Hopefully my next job will be much better. Speaking of, I'm off to read the article on freelancing now...

It is a toss up because working retail kind of sucked my soul, but I was a waitress for two years and nothing beats working your but off for below minimum wage, only to get yelled at by a sexist boss and get stiffed for tips on huge tables.

I was laid off and, in my haste, took a job doing "human resources" in a warehouse. I assumed it was HR like I knew it..until they told me I had to learn to do all the jobs in the warehouse. I ended up picking orders, making boxes (which I got yelled at for not doing right), getting blisters, and sweating my butt off in the unairconditioned warehouse (in a skirt no less!). After 2.5 days, I quit. It was the WORST job I could have had. Honestly, I'd rather deal with office politics than have to do that again. Why they thought a girl in a cute little skirt and heels would be the right person for this job is BEYOND me.

bellaressa, it's like a fast food place with roast chicken as the big draw. it's a chain!

Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken is delicious. If you see one ever, go get some.

Thanks, I never heard of it.

i worked at subway for three hours right out of high school. they didn't tell me how to make each sandwich or run the register, they just left me up in the front while they hung out in the back office... so customers would come up & order the "italian triple decker sub" or whatever & i had to ask the customer what was on it. then the girls that were "training" me yelled at me for putting too many tomatoes on the subs or too much lettuce even though they never told me how much of each was supposed to be on the sandwich. sooo i quit that day.

My worst job was definately at a large law firm. I worked in the real-estate/title department. As if the egos weren't enough, there were attorneys that would stand in the kitchen and wait for a paralegal to come and start the coffee instead of doing it themselves! The office manager was an older lady that had never had children and therefore NEVER let anyone off for family emergencies, holidays, etc. All of the partners were white men and they had never hired an African-American (for ANY position...) in the 25 years they had been open! They would walk around the office and try to catch employees on the internet, and even sent out a memo saying it was against company policy to receive flowers at work because it was distracting and uncomfortable for those with allergies!!! I could go on and on......

Parking attendant. In between shift changes, there was absolutely nothing happening. The most boring time ever.

I worked in the men's department of a now defunct but then quite popular department store for three summers in a row because it was the only job that would accommodate me during my college summer breaks. It sucked. Big time. I think any job that involves customer service is difficult (not in a good way) and often very humiliating. But it taught me a great lesson, because when I was an undergraduate, I thought I was the sh*t - but then I very quickly realized that no one cares if you're reading Dostoyevsky or studying at Oxford, they just want their 30% discount on that pair of $5.99 socks that VERY CLEARLY is marked 30% off and not regular price, as I have SO incorrectly rung up on the register. It was a very humbling experience and I'm glad I had that.

Telemarketing... hands down. It was an OK job, but the stress-levels were through the roof. But I also see how some people do do it as well, my manager there could sell ice in the arctic and make them think they got a steal!

Mine's a toss-up...I received threatening emails for a long time when I was a project manager at a very small company (all brothers/best friends for 25+ years except for me!), but at the job before that one there was a semiannual desk audit that involved accounting for every highlighter, paper clip, etc.

I've gotten a lot pickier and stopped looking for somewhere I can "really make a difference".

Counselor at a clinic for women with eating disorders. It was nothing to do with the patients that made the job so bad, it was the horribly unorganized infrastructure, understaffing and miserable pay (10 dollars in a large city with a degree). I lasted 9 months before I had to leave for my own sanity. We were expected to not only counsel and spend the days with the patients, but also be their nurses, cooks and babysitters. Definitely not in the original job description.
Unfortunately I'm not the only one, there is a horrendous turn-over rate and it's too bad because there's so much potential to help so many and it's being wasted.

I would have to say it was as a file clerk for this Chiropractor Office.
It was boring!!! Nothing challenging at all!!!

this one. eight months of the year i have a staff of seventeen - when you work out my salary to the hours i work while we're staffed my least paid employee makes more than i do an hour. i've been in the position almost two years without a raise, but my boss gets his mileage, his gas, his rent, both his cell phones, his electricity, his newspaper, and his car repairs paid for. oh, and he takes a paycheck of his own. he lives above the shop and makes it down a little after opening every day. he then walks his dog. he then opens his email client. he tells me what he thinks needs to be done (when i already know what my priorities are) and then he goes for a smoke. that's his first hour. half an hour later it's time to eat- he goes out more often than not... after the dog gets another walk. when he gets back from eating the dog gets another walk and then it's time for his break. that's another hour. then the dog. then the cigarette. then the crossword. then the email - never work emails first, always play emails first. work's over about half an hour later. he goes upstairs, leaving the work phone on his desk and i get stuck answering phones until the reservations stop coming in.

this past saturday he called me right before opening and said that he knew a customer was coming but he was going to breakfast with his friends. i reminded him it was my day off but i ended up answering the phone when the irate customer called asking why the shop wasn't open yet. my boss was indignant when i called to tell him. he then called fifty minutes before closing and said he was going to shut the doors early b/c he'd had a busy day. six phone calls under two minutes each and two customers.

i had hoped that managing would be wonderful. i thought that i had immense freedom with time off and doctors appointments and taking holidays. but in the end this is the worst job i've ever had.

working at cousins subs not only did the people there constantly say mean things to me. The food was disgusting. The people were worse.

all of my "real" jobs have been decent or great. the only bad experiences i've had have been babysitting, both as a teenager and during college--when i was 12, my dad's friend paid me just $20 for 12 hours with his ADHD-diagnosed kids (!), and one summer in college, i dealt with a few snotty, entitled manhattan brats.

i'd almost rather strip than babysit again. ha.

^whoops, meant 15, not 12!

Working at a concession stand at my college gym. Besides the powerade, no one really bought anything else. I mean seriously...who wants a candy bar after burning calories running?

its difficult to say if its the abusive boss type jobs (yes plural) or the three years on and off at burger king. I used to have nightmares about wiping tables and chairs and all the gross things (soiled boxers, used condoms) at that place.

Then again my ex boss of 3 years used to scream at me for hours on end until I cried in front of everyone, I quit with a lie from that job (thank god) and took my severance package and moved away from all that. Couldn't handle being on call 24/7 for an *sshole boss, with no overtime despite showing up at 3am on site and pulling constant 16 hour days.

Telemarketing. I guess that's self explanatory why I hated that job.

Dishwasher. I hated it and didn't last there for a week.

I'm only 17 and I've only had one job, at Cold Stone Creamery. I have worked there almost 2 years, so I guess it's not so horrible if I haven't quit by now =] Although I've got my share of nightmare customer/coworker stories too!

my current job is pretty lame too. especially last week when my boss asked if i brought something for lunch and i said no so she offered i go in the kitchen and eat a nutrisystem meal.

um, thanks for saying i'm fat?

Omg, i LOVE this topic...

Worst job ever... hmmmm... Ive had a lot! But my worst job ever was CASTING ASSISTANT. You have no idea what I'm talking about unless you've been there yourself... it is hell.

The worst casting job I had was at a very predominant children's network *cough nickelodeon cough* and it made me quit casting for good. On average I was working 11 hour days (through lunch), i was constantly getting yelled at for things that were out of my control (ie the cafeteria didn't have rice that day etc) I was paying for my bosses lunches, and when I finally put my foot down to stop I had to go through HR to get my money back!! (Cheap sn*tch!) I even broke out in hives one morning because of all the stress I was put under... sometimes I had to do the entire casting session by myself! Film, read, upload to server, next. I was constantly saving my bosses ass by staying up all hours of the night cleaning up demo reels and editing sizzle reels and anything she wanted. I hated her for killing my dream... and i hope she stays as miserable as she has always been. im kind of bitter

I worked in a processing center that did outsourcing for mortgage companies. My department basically held insurance claim checks to make sure people were really using them to repair damage. This was right around Hurricane Katrina. I heard horror stories and people practically begging to release their money. Per management, I basically had to tell people "tough luck" while they suffered and, in some cases, were homeless.

I worked as a Client Education Coordinator (made up title to attract me to the job) at an investment education company for farmers. Mostly we marketed and sold a really sketchy software so farmers could invest and make profit in commodities. It was sketchy because 1) the software was um, predicting the success of stock (inherently difficult) and 2) our curriculum secretly had a biblical angle.

The salesmen would go into small towns and catch the religious right, and people who are into investing and then would slam them HARD with Christian rhetoric (and I'm not areligious, but I find it really difficult to combine Jesus & bonds) and encourage clients to find the nearest evangelical non-denominational church start going and to enroll their kids in private schools (cut of profits).

Anyway, when I was hired this was all NOT explained to me and it turns out I was a preferred candidate because one of my references was from volunteering at a church when I was younger. The first day of work we had an hour of "prayer" led by the executive who said that jews and catholics were "wrong" and that if we felt uncomfortable we should raise our hands. AWKWARD! It quickly got weirder and weirder as I uncovered the creepy cult-like goings on - eventually I got yelled at for wearing a (knee-length) skirt without pantyhose because it wasn't "Christ-like" to be tempting men with my bare calves.

Finally, after 2 and a half months of what I considered sexist and religious attacks, I handed in my immediate notice after crying in the bathroom for a half hour out of pure misery. They ended up paying me a 5 figure payout to stop me from going to the human rights commission. I later learned they offered the same payout to 3 other female employees who left the same week. Figures.

Two summers in high school I worked for an amusement park in West Michigan. Holy hell. Retail with 12 hour shifts. Water brought to you MOST days, lucky to get a pee break, and standing in the sun without even an umbrella for protection. Snotty kids, and as I called them "angry mothers in flowered dresses." Kids won't read price tags, and they bring up a huge pile of candy, a wet handful of money, and make you take one thing off their bill at a time until they can afford it. Management ignored you once you were over 16 and it was legal to abuse you. And you don't get paid for the 15 minute walk to the parking lot.

One day I got sun sick, from no water, no break, and my body temperature hasn't regulated properly ever since. I can't handle anything under 40 degrees or above 90 anymore without getting really really sick.

Besides, amusement parks are creepy at night.

I used to think my worst job was when I was a cashier at a gas station one summer, but that spot is usurped by this summer's job which is a cashier at Home Depot. God, it's ridiculous. People ask me all sorts of stupid questions like where a specific product is or how much something costs when I don't even know what they're talking about, I'm just a cashier, all I know how to do is ring stuff up! And I hate when people want to pay with $100 bills, especially when I've just open my register which only has $100 in it! I seriously think $100 bills are ridiculous. Anyways, my point is that being a cashier at Home Depot is my worst job ever and I can't wait until next month when I quit.

Rosey, I did that job for 4 months during a college-summer break! AWFUL! That was my worst job, too! And not even because I didn't know what anything was. The management was poor, the store was a mess, you couldn't wear shorts (only jeans) and it was hot!!! A week before I quit, I was accused of stealing $100 from my till. Huh, I wonder if maybe they stole it and just accused me? They said they balanced it twice and kept coming up short $100. Check the stupid cameras that are trained on "the customers" (the cashiers) all day and show me when I slipped $100 in my pocket!!!!

I ended up quitting with a one-day notice in order to take my second-worst job ever for a warehouse supplier where I called previous customers to see if they were still receiving the company catalog. They wouldn't even let me update the database with new information. I had to WRITE everything down then hand it in for someone else to update.

I've had LOTS of bad jobs:

1) Cashier and coffee-maker at a deli, where every Sunday 15 elderly ladies would come in all at once and yell at me to make each of their coffees 15 different ways

2) Editorial assistant where my boss yelled at me while standing 3 inches from my face like I was in the military.

3) I'm not gonna say where this was, but my boss at this company sexually harrassed me. i had to go through a really embarrassing investigation.

4) A place where I saw my co-workers stealing money from the business and they asked me to cover for them (I did not!)