Favorite/worst job?

[shamus]

I was an usher in a theater for a while but it was before nacho cheese and chips. Just juju beans and popcorn.

I couldn't stand the smell of popcorn for about 7 years after. Fun job though. Found a buck or two, fallen from someones pocket in the dark.

 

[Deleted member 259]

I've been an:


Actor
Director
Wench (rose seller at the Ren Fest)
Waitress
Ice Cream Parlor (erm, I guess I'd be called a scooper, I did just about everything)

I also did odd jobs for a landscaping company and a bakery.

The worst was working for the landscaping company - everyone else spoke Spanish, so not only did I feel left out and awkward, but It was difficult to understand the tasks I was being assigned.

My job now blows them all away. Currently I'm a stagehand. I build sets and props, and i'm a grid monkey when we have to do lighting and sound.
(Being a Grid Monkey means that you scramble around the grid, a suspended gridwork about 40 feet above the stage, and tie things down, plug things in, etc...) but mostly I just get to play with power tools and cut wood.

 

[MudInYerEye]

Dropped on the floor.

I've worked nights in bars for years. After the last stragglers are tossed there's ALWAYS scads of lost and abandoned goodies to be had. Bags of coke or dope, money from loose change to c-notes, pills, half-full packs of smokes, cell phones, umbrellas, sunglasses, lighters, jewelry, and occasionally, bullets.

 

[jitterbugdoll]

Let’s see, my favorite job would be my current one—I work as an editor for a university. I work with great people and enjoy the work I get to do (I read all of the course materials for the College of Health and Human Services. It’s kind of like taking the classes, without actually doing the assignments!)

As for worst job, I’d say there have been a few...my first job was at a movie theater and I had same aftereffects as the others mentioned above (the things you find in movie theaters after the show. Oh, and the sight of the butter before it is warmed up. Pure lard, dyed yellow for authenticity. Yum, yum!) Probably the most difficult job I’ve had was working as a consultant at a bridal shop. Retail is…entertaining anyway, but ever the more so when your main clientele are a touch on the emotional side!

 

[shamus]

speaking of lard... are was actually coconut butter. In a huge 5 gallon jug... solid.

We had this round thing that plugs in and heats up the butter till it's liquid. Then it's pumped into the popcorn machines..

And that kids is why movie theather popcorn is yellow and white and your microwave popcorn is not.

 

[Angelicious]

All my jobs have had best bits and worst bits...

Bars/cafés/restaurants:
Best: Meeting people, trying new foods/drinks. Worst: Cleaning up revolting substances - grease, spilled food, sour alcohol, blood, vomit.

Office management in a webdesign company:
Best: 24-hr access to free super-fast wireless internet connection & other high tech, lots of free time. Worst: Irritating customers and inept management.

Cinema:
Best: Free tickets. Worst: Working 12-hour split shifts during school holidays.

Painting miniature armies & models:
Best: Fun creative job. Worst: Unreliable pay, spending hours on a commission only to have it cancelled.

 

[elsewhere]

Hmmm best job-
I love what I do now. Nothing makes me happier than seeking out vintage clothing & decor from certain doom & finding homes for it with loving new owners. I love the hunt more than anything.
I also loved my bartending job at a really faced paced nightclub. I worked 4-6 hours a night, about 2-4 nights per week and made incredible money. The time passed by SO quickly!

Worst job-
Bartending at less than stellar bars and having to talk to people I had no interest in talking to. I'm not a social creature by nature & this was TORTURE for me.
Also hated my job as the customer service manager of a dating club. All the 40 & 50-something men going through their middle aged crisis wanting to date 20 year old models. Now really... why would a 20 year old model join a dating club? They don't. When women their own age (or even a little younger) would approach THEM through the system they'd wrinkle their noses & say "too old!" and then hit on ME. Ugh.
It really depressed me & challenged my ingrained respect for older gentlemen. Before that (and before bartending when older married men hit on me constantly) I had a kind of reverance for my elders & these people tarnished it.

 

[Quigley Brown]

Although it's made for some interesting stories my worst job was in high school at a small custom butcher in a very small Iowa town (couple hundred people). I usually made hamburger and wrapped meat and cleaned up the place. On Thursday nights farmers would bring in a cow, a pig or a lamb. The butcher was a very wierd man. He would use a .22 and shoot them in the head. It was very disturbing. I quit eating meat for a very long time (I still won't eat pork except for sausage pizza). One evening a cow escaped from the farmer's truck and we had to chase it around town...a couple other high school co-workers, the owner and the butcher. We cornered it in the city park and came right at me. I had to jump up on a set of bleachers at the ball field otherwise I would have been plowed over. They finally got it and the butcher killed it right on the spot. They had to get this old beat-up boom truck to bring it back. It was very surreal...this truck creeping down the road with this dead cow swinging from a cable, blood dripping all over the highway and a line of cars backed up behind it. I'll never forget that sight.

My best job is being a newspaper photographer. I've had free reign to go anywhere I want to get shots for the paper. I've photographed the happiest of moments and the most tragic. I've got albums and albums full of my favorite photos that people tell me to turn into a book....I'm thinking about it.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

It has been a catharsis reading all the job descriptions and work experiences on this thread. It is interesting to see how many creatives are on this site -- people involved in media, arts, theatre, motion pictures, photography, publishing, computer activities, craftspersons, and, of course, we have our share of hat makers!

I think, like Angelicious, I'd have to say there were highs and lows in almost every job and I have been reflecting on all the jobs I have had over the years and sort of marveling over the variety. I am going through a lot of emotional highs and lows -- on Sept. 16, I will be officially retired from my job with the County of San Diego. I will be glad to go, but many people, clients and coworkers are sad to see me go. I will miss some of them, too. And will miss my union activities, which have been quite gratifying.

There are probably not many retirees on the Lounge, but I think some of you have gone through one retirement and are doing other kinds of work. Here are some of the emotional upheavals I have encountered:

A month ago, I woke up in the middle of night and heard myself say, "Oh, my god, I can't leave my job! If I don't have a job, I will be a bum!" (I am my father's daughter: he was a workaholic who became clinically depressed after he retired. He finally had to go out and get a jobs for seniors, which he had until 6 months before his death).

A week or so ago, I woke up in at 2:45 a.m. and said to myself: "Oh, no, I am heading for the Big Chill! Retiring means old age and death."

I seem to have mellowed a little now, trying to catch up at work so I will leave nice, easy cases for my coworkers. I will have my indexing job I do for publishing houses, at least until they find a way to do good indexing cheaper. So, won't be totally jobless and can find lots to do: paint, write, work out in a gym, looking forward to all that!

Who out there, whether you liked your job or not, have had these kinds of feelings?

karol

 

[scotrace]

Worst was first

Cleaning at a boarding kennel. The littlest dogs ripped my clothes to shreds, and the big ones tried to climb all over me.

 

[Dahlia]

Worst Job: Working at Disneyland. I hope you aren't shocked that I didn't like working at "The Happiest Place on Earth." I was trained in Foods to work at one particular restaurant, but they would often send me to work at other restaurants and even to do outdoor vending. Mind you, each restaurant is run very differently from each other, and outdoor vending isn't like working in foods at all. They wouldn't give me any training before sending me to different locations, and would just expect that I would get the hang of it.

Also, our costumes consisted of multiple layers, with long sleeves and long skirt/pants. This would get very hot in the summer, especially since I was a cashier and our cash registers were outside in the direct sunlight. There were a few times where I nearly fainted.

Alright, I'm done with complaining...

 

[The Captain]

I spent twenty-five years with a city Fire Department in Southern California. Of course, there were times when I was tempted to seek other employment, but it got easier after the first ten or fifteen years! I'm glad I hung in there.

I think the worst job I ever had was nailing soles on military boots. Don't ask.

 

[elsewhere]

Dahlia--
I've had several friends who worked as Characters and an old friend is, I think, still head of the lighting department for the show at the lake. What the heck is it called? I always remember it by their monicker "The Most Dangerous Show On Earth".. as quite a number or techies were injured regularly.

I've never met a person who worked for Disneyland who had nice things to say about it afterwards.

 

[Mycroft]

I have liked all the jobs I have had, I always learn so much from them wheaer it is how to fix diviots on a driving range or fill a bill in the State House.

 

[Bebop]

Favorite job was playing in a touring jazz band in the early 80's. From Europe to Argentina in 8 months.
Worst job was serving subpoenas in Compton and So. L.A. in the late 80's, for attorneys that paid with rubber checks.

 

[ITG]

Worst job: probably the one I have now or at least if I'm basing it on my fourth day of class. I had a teenage girl yelling at another boy (I thought she was going to start hitting him...it was that bad). I took her to the office and pretty much got talked down to by one of the vice principals because we aren't supposed to send students to the office if we haven't called the parents. Sorry but I have no classroom phone (and there's no other teacher near me that does either) and when something like that happens, all I could think about was the safety of my room and getting this child out of my room. I was told I needed to handle the situation in my classroom. I was also told by another VP later that day that this situation took up most of his afternoon and prevented him from getting his work done! Hello!!!!!! I wanted to say "Ummmm, this is part of your job." And he had the nerve to tell me this while I'm sitting in his office in tears for feeling so unsupported by the administration, as if that will make me feel better. That was the 4th day of school. I was just about ready to quit. (I had 8 parents I had to call the first week of school due to various behavior problems.) It's been going better this week and the last part of last week. So we'll see, but if things continue on a downhill slope, I could be looking for employment in a whole new job arena come May/June. I can now see why so many teachers quit.

 

[macawber]

Lackof support

Reading your account made me angry at the lack of support your school could find for you , but this lack of support happens all too often. I hope they come to there senses and support what you did. I think you did the right thing, and applaud what you did. Best of luck.

 

[Dahlia]

elsewhere - Are you talking about Fantasmic? I had to work a few Fantasmic shows, helping with crowd control and setting up the viewing area before the shows. My section was around Tarzan's treehouse, and there are a lot of those giant umbrellas (the ones that stick into the ground and cover the tables) that we needed to take down before the shows and put back up after the shows. Mind you, I am 5'3" and 115 pounds, not nearly tall enough or strong enough to be handling these umbrellas. Nevertheless, I was sent out to take down the umbrellas, which resulted in me hitting myself and others with these monstrosities. I actually had several guests to the park ask me if I needed help, or just automatically help me, because they could see how much I was struggling. And don't even get me started on the water that collects in the holes in the ground... it's so putrid and stagnant, and whenever you set the umbrellas back into the holes the water comes shooting up at you...

I know one guy who was Peter Pan in the show for quite a while and misses his job, but I think it is mostly because of the opportunities he had (he got to travel all over the world to perform).

 

[ITG]

macawber, thanks so much!

 

[Calico Jack]

Best job: This one's a tie between Security guard at a mental institution (Western State Hospital in KY) which I did for a couple of summers in college, and my high school job which was doorman/projectionist at the local movie theater. Being a film buff, the perks were very nice - unlimited free movies for myself, my dates, and friends, free posters, trailer film reels, popcorn, soda, free tickets to other theaters under our same corporation... it was ideal for a high school kid.

Worst job: Fiberglass insulation factory. My eyes, my arms, everything got it in it, and I could barely see or move or talk, it was nightmarish.