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

Most people have to work over the summer to pull in some extra cash - but let's face it, the jobs aren't always great.

The worst one I ever had was a week spent getting up at 4am to go to work in an industrial bakers, where I spent the next eight hours crating up bread rolls and lugging them into a massive freezer. It made me tired, chilly and grumpy - one week was more than enough!

What's your worst summer job?

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Reply 1

IloveBMO

That's easy, I once had a gig where I had to wear a sandwich board that read "Market open".

Unfortunately I ended up being a target for some kids in the middle of a water fight. I can tell you now that it is not easy to run in a sandwich board!

But I did get free fruit from from a seller who took pity on me... :-)

Reply 2

TSR Group Staff

End of first year of uni - I worked in a marketing call centre place calling pubs, restaurants and bars on behalf of their breweries trying to promote various offers. Some of it good fun, but try flogging cognac to tiny little pubs in the middle of nowhere, telling them how cognac and mixer was going to be the next big craze... tough crowd man... tough crowd.

That and selling fizzy water with all the cringe-worthy promotional details we had to churn out (I'm sure Alan Partridge wrote those bloody intros). A little part of me died inside on those campaigns.

Reply 3

JasonGeall

Seafood salesman at Butlins in Bognor Regis. I had to walk around the main bar area dressed as a prawn with big tray of crab sticks,prawns and cockles!! which were kicking off a real stink! I lasted a couple of hours before handing the tray back to the guy that gave it to me. I'm struggling to think of any positives taken from this experience!!

Reply 4

Dr DaMan

I've never had one, they don't exist in the West Midlands.

Reply 5

Runninground

I had a "job" in a cafe washing the pots. I had a trial shift and it was awful. I remember I had to clean the toilets, take the bins out, wash the dishes, clean everything.... basically do everything the two people working there didn't want to do. And at the end of the day the person who was operating the till said to the other person 'the till is short...' and I thought oh god here we go, i'll get the blame here. But turns out she just counted it wrong.

At the end they asked me if I wanted to stay. The job was not what they told it me it would be and I was basically a slave doing the jobs they didn't want to do. They just took the orders and microwaved the food. I said I will think about it and get back to you (It's much easier to make a decision 24 hrs after the event, life tip right there!). She gave me her mobile number and said to text her if I wanted to stay!!!!!

I told her I didn't want to stay, via text. Best decision of my life!

Reply 6

katehlouise

I did a month of temporary work in a warehouse... Packing chocolate biscuits.

It was awful. Had to grab an amount of chocolate bars with bare hands and slide them onto another conveyor belt ready to be packaged. The smell was sickly and my hands were constantly covered in dried chocolate - not nice at all. It was also super speedy work and the older workers would act as if you were useless, despite them doing it for over 5 years and you for a few days.

Reply 7

Gilbert Lamb

Delivery driver: crashed the van on my first day, and drove along with the rear doors banging open.

Somehow I did not get sacked.

Reply 8

O.Ozz

Last year i was a door to door salesman for a marketing company focussing on loft insulation, working on 100% commission. It has probably made me who i am today - a total miserable bastard.

Nobody liked me in the job, it was a 10-10 shift monday-Saturday. It was my first paid job but it was also my first worst ever job i've ever had, knocking on doors in the hottest summer of july 2013 that year. Everytime i kept knocking on them bloodclart doors, my mind always gave me thoughts of these people thinking im a retarded fool. My team leader was a chain smoker and he hated me because i didn't watch football (i'm a guy and i am ashamed by it). mate i cba to write more, i left after three weeks seeking a mental hospital.

I did another job that summer doing bucket collections fundraising on streets which was less stressful but too many weirdoes trying to challenge my temper. at one point i shouted at some drunken **** and gave sarcastic reactions to an angry dickhead.

Reply 9

Puddles the Monkey

Street Fundraising. In the middle of the Australian summer time. It was godawful. They sent you out with just a clipboard and expected you to coerce people into handing over their bank details to you in ridiculous heat.

I got shouted at by a busker for being near his 'turf' and putting people off. :frown:

I got hit on by loads of old creepy dudes in suits. An old, overweight guy with bad teeth said he'd sign up if I married him and wouldn't go away. :s-smilie:

Being told to **** off every day by passers by. :frown:

People got their bags stolen because there was nowhere to put them.

All this on commission. I lasted two weeks.

Despite this, it did give me faith in humanity because most people were actually really kind. :smile:

Too easy to become cynical about people when you work those kind of jobs. There was a kindly old man who came past every day for a chat, and gave me a little bag of sweets.

After that I went to work in a family run takeaway pizza shop, which was way more fun - plus I got free pizza every day. :colone:

Reply 10

Numberwang

Stacking shelves and filling draws full of books and junk for a very disorganised Welsh academic hoarder called Neville. I think my job title was 'Labourer', my mother told me a man needed somebody casual, as she worked at the university, I lasted four weeks. For most of it he was just busy taking snaps of the view outside his new office window, while beaming at a display of photos containing only himself. Not as bad as some I've seen on this thread (!), but certainly the worst I've had, and strange. :s-smilie:

Reply 11

pinejuice

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

I got hit on by loads of old creepy dudes in suits. An old, overweight guy with bad teeth said he'd sign up if I married him and wouldn't go away. :s-smilie:

Being told to **** off every day by passers by. :frown:

fundraising is extremely difficult so i respect the fact you did it for 2 weeks. most people dont like being hassled when walking so they can be rude. was the pay decent?

Reply 12

O.Ozz

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

I've done five street fundraising jobs since January. I always did it because i struggled to find work after getting kicked out of colleges. I've been sacked four times from it as the last time i was sacked on the street with people staring at me. The manager kept shouting at me at how useless i was stopping people. He then told me to leave secretly so that non of the other fundraisers could see me leaving

It's a ****ing business after that sacking (even the manager somewhat said it) and for that reason it taught me never to trust any charities than uses 'chuggers or marketing agencies'. people that give in bank details are usually people who feel sorry for the fundraiser and will cancel within weeks.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 13

petebradbury

Original post by O.Ozz

Same as me, I didn't last that long as I got offered another job (that paid). I started with a load of people, and by the third day it was me and one other. I think two left during their first shift and the rest never showed up.

Got me a nice wee tan though :P

Reply 14

Puddles the Monkey

You know how some countries have obligatory national service?

We should also have obligatory national service, but instead of going into the army everyone should have to spend a year doing customer service/retail jobs.

The world would be a MUCH better place. :wink:

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 15

Puddles the Monkey

Original post by O.Ozz

Original post by pinejuice

fundraising is extremely difficult so i respect the fact you did it for 2 weeks. most people dont like being hassled when walking so they can be rude. was the pay decent?

It is very difficult. The staff turnover is VERY high.

It did teach me how essential regular donations are for charities (even if it's only £5 a month), as they're a reliable source of income. However, I really wondered about the logistics of outsourcing fundraising - where I worked, if the person who signed up cancelled before two years the charity actually lost money. Crazy.

It would probably be worth it for the charity if they were fundraising with a team of fully trained, professional fundraisers rather than whatever backpackers happened to be hanging around in need of a bit of cash at that time. :dontknow:

Reply 16

Wilsoncw1997

As my secondary school TA.

Reply 17

Moosferatu

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

I got hit on by loads of old creepy dudes in suits. An old, overweight guy with bad teeth said he'd sign up if I married him and wouldn't go away. :s-smilie:

Being told to **** off every day by passers by. :frown:

I had an encounter with a street fundraiser the other day - I was walking past with my headphones on and he was basically heckling me, I said I wasn't interested and he proceeded to insult me and call me a dickhead. Suffice to say I told him not to insult his potential customers and walked off. He must've been frustrated with the job though to do that.

Reply 18

tommydeaks

I once had a job in the summer which was advertised as a placement for electrical engineering students, working on the engines of small electric utility vehicles. It was a council run scheme, so I was getting paid by the council and not my 'employer'.

I was pretty excited that I had got some experience working on electric engines.

Turns out I was just made to be the whipping boy for the business - never did any work on electrical engines. I was basically a golf buggy mechanic. But, in between fixing up golf buggies (which wasn't that bad to be honest, pretty fun to get your hands dirty), I was the boss' bitch. I was made to do jobs completely unrelated to anything - cutting down trees, mowing grass, shifting bricks for his stable he was building, all while being spoken to like crap.

I remember once being made to remove all stones and blocks of wood from this field they kept their horses in. I missed one bit of wood and was made to feel like crap for it. I was regularly talked down to as if I was stupid, called a **** (c word) regularly, it was generally just horrible. I was basically someones slave, and they didn't even pay me, it was the council!