Your worst job / best job?

DullGreyGuy

Best job ever - Outbound telesales on 3rd party campaigns for BT

Pay, for a student job, was reasonable for the time, I found commission easy to earn, great team and manager, very relaxed atmosphere with lunchtimes spent as a team on the grass outside the office with beers and smokes etc, time flew

Worst job - Outbound telesales on 3rd party campaigns for BT
Work was dull as hell and got into some sort of trance like state as wouldnt remember my shift at all but my sales sheet was full. Not sure forgetting 8 hours of your life a day is a good thing. Smoking room was scary when it was too cold/wet to go outside with an airlock like double doors and a constant solid white wall of smoke when you go in.


Ok, maybe a bit flippant listing the same job as both but in reality most jobs have elements you can love and elements you hate. Doing technical motor claims was fun with the investigation and negotiation/arguing but management often came up with ways to deskill the role or remove the negotiation in exchange for a flat discount which economically I am sure made sense but made the job less fun. 

What I do now pays well, and there is a good element of negotiation, fighting fires, dealing with things under pressure but at times you know its the wrong decision that you are being made to follow or you have to sign off the 300th complaint letter based on emotive issues alone of the week and thats dull

MikeJXE

An easy question for me, I'm 82 years old and though-out my life from age 15 I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to go to work, I'm retired now and hate it. I cant tell you my worst job as I never experienced any. Find a job you love 

TELLIT01

'Find a job you love' is great advice but not everybody can find jobs as beer and chocolate testers.  Some have to take whatever they can find in order to pay the bills.

DullGreyGuy

MikeJXE said:

An easy question for me, I'm 82 years old and though-out my life from age 15 I couldn't wait to get up in the morning to go to work, I'm retired now and hate it. I cant tell you my worst job as I never experienced any. Find a job you love 

Worst is a relative term... the worst could still have been amazing just not as amazing as the others.

RobM99

Best job is now - part-time bassist. Long hours though!

GiantTCR

My worst job was 5-6 years ago, when I joined a software company on a whim. I didn't like where I was before so I just took that job without thinking about it. I ended up at this company working on products I didn't care about, with people I didn't like and for a manager that didn't know what she was doing and was micromanaging the heck out of her team. There were a few things that made it more tolerable:
- free sodas
- free coffees
- free lunch 2 days a week (and usually so much food leftover we could all take home a couple of tupperwares of stuff)
Still, I hated it too much and left after 9 months.

My best job is now. I am an IT contractor and currently I'm working for a client in the public sector. What has been said here on public sector/civil service is partially true in my current role: there are a lot of lazy civil servants. What's making this role my best yet are:
- very slow pace. I can do the bare minimum and still be way more productive than the permanent employees
- I can work from home, which is good because I can do other stuff like go to the supermarket, walk the dog...
- my day rate is very good
- even in times of crisis, the public sector always have funding for projects so I know I'll get contract extensions easily.

lincroft1710

TELLIT01 said:

Going back even further than the 70's to the mid 60's, my dad was in the RAF, in charge of admin for the station, and used to come home tearing his hair out about the attitude of the Civil Service staff working there.  He said many of the women used to literally sit there knitting in the afternoons but when asked to help out the standard reply  was "That isn't my job"  That was also the time when CS employees knew they were pretty well in a job for life.

Fortunately that attitude is no longer tolerated as I worked with 4 people who were dismissed, being in the same room as one when they were told their services were no longer required. A 5th and possibly 6th jumped before they were pushed.


Before I joined the CS, one of the "perks" which apparently was exploited by older members of staff concerned sick leave. I cannot remember how it worked exactly, but if a person hadn't taken their "allowed" 2 weeks sick leave, they would go off "sick" when in actuality they were fit for work and using the time for undeclared annual leave

diystarter7

Never been in a bad jb as I would not have gone for it. But, the jokers that worked there tried to make it awful for me and to a good degree succeded in my first job as very young, new inexperience/etc and one bully making my life hard, he  did the least and was a tool for the mangement to bully people until the trash feel out with each other and he threatened to kill one of them  before they fired it, lol.

Last couple of roles i the public sector a small gang of clowns tried to make my life miserable but I was damn good at what I did and they could not take it - it was hard going into work until it all came together and me and few others joined up and complained and complained and had an internal investigation and two were removed and one was sacked, lol, yes that is what me and others did, lol.

The best one was in the public sector, this is about 20 years ago, stayed there for about 6 years, as I was really good at what I did, I had so much spare time on my had to eat/drink/read/chat/extra chats at clients as I often completed stuff in 2 visits where others took 5/6.

The above sounds as though I'm bragging, you decide for yourselves as you will but I know I'm not just saying how it was. It was sad as those often with higher qualifications and yes, more money could do naff all. TBH, at times I could not belive I was being paid for that job, had my own desk, nice chair, car park within the main office car park and the manager, bless their soul allowed most people to start late and finish early quite often without question as long as they had completed the tasks given. Those were the days

MalMonroe

Worst job - working as a personal secretary for a solicitor. What a terrible atmosphere, full of snobs and everyone trying to outdo each other. I stayed two months and walked out one afternoon without having another job to go to after a contretemps with another secretary. How dare she speak to me like that??!  Signed up with a temping agency the day after and was never out of work.

Best job - now! Retired and working for myself from home. Registered to pay income tax and everything. Absolutely loving it. Could not ask for a better boss.

MalMonroe

TELLIT01 said:

Going back even further than the 70's to the mid 60's, my dad was in the RAF, in charge of admin for the station, and used to come home tearing his hair out about the attitude of the Civil Service staff working there.  He said many of the women used to literally sit there knitting in the afternoons but when asked to help out the standard reply  was "That isn't my job"  That was also the time when CS employees knew they were pretty well in a job for life.

To be honest I don't blame those women. I've learned over the years (of being enthusiastic and asking 'can I help' far too many times) that it really does not pay to work 'above your pay grade' or doing any work that isn't your job. It's true. I once worked with a woman who was actually my line manager. She only did what her job description said, to the letter. She remained in her job for thirty years. So it does not always pay to be willing and eager. Nor does it pay to stretch yourself - act your pay grade she always said. Nobody appreciates you when you push yourself. It's true.