I once had a job working in a freezer. There were signs everywhere warning everyone not to stay in the freezer for more than 20 minutes, but management made us stay in there for two or even three hours at a time. After an hour or so, you would start to move really slowly and feel a wetness inside your head.

But it was nothing compared to the misery that working as a web developer has become. How I miss those freezer days of old!

OK, this is an old thread, so no one may read it, but I'm a newbie and was checking out stuff and decided to add my $.02 worth.

I once worked for a coupon redemption place. I actually worked in their corporate offices. I was hired to do their accounts payable. They'd had one person doing A/P & A/R, but it had gotten so "busy" they needed two people. I was assured in the interview that I'd be kept very busy. Yeah, right. I entered around 20 invoices into the computer to cut *maybe* ten checks a week. (I'm used to several hundred invoices and checks a week) But, we always had to look busy.

The hours. We had to arrive at 8am, take our breaks from 10-10:10 am and 2-2:10 pm, take lunch from 12-12:30 and leave at 4:30. We could have nothing on our desk, no food or drink not even a glass of water. And when the president was there, it was sickening to see these people brown nose this guy like he was some kind of god.

I developed an ulcer while working there and had to leave an hour early for a dr's appt. I took shorter lunches the entire week to make up my time. On my next paycheck, I was docked the hour and had to go in and explain myself to the accountant. Her reply, "oh, we have so many employees, I can't keep track of everybody." So many? What, like 15 of us?

I worked there for 4 of the longest months of my life...

O.k., Piglet18, I think you have me beat. I may have scrubbed toilets with nasty chemicals, but I never had to worry about getting held up with a deadly weapon when I was doing it.

The worst job I ever had was being a Teller at Bank of America. Not only were you responsible for a lot of money but there was this fear that you would get robbed. I worked in the worst branch in the worst neighborhood in San Francisco. Most of the clients were the people who got social security or welfare. So these people would cash their checks but just leave like $5 in their account. I would always wonder how these people would live from month to month. While working there, the branch was hit twice. It was no fun to be there.

I guess this is a good time to contribute my famous Taco Bell photo. So you think your job sucks? It could get worse.

This was taken sometime around 1992 at the Taco Bell in Cupertino on Bollinger & Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd. I was driving down the road when all of a sudden all of the cars slow down for no explicable reason. Everyone was looking over and laughing at the sign.

I worked at a company which produces bubble wrap. Hey, don't touch that! You don't know how hard it was to leave all of those bubbles intact... I still get the shakes.

Actually, my worst job ever was working at the Foster Freeze that used to be on Camden Ave. The owners were snooty (so NOT justified), the quality of the product was, well, questionable, and I found out what happens when the milkshake machine isn't regularly cleaned out. Let's just say that they were the first to offer "protein shakes." ugh

I spent a month one summer cleaning bathrooms in a college dormitory when I was 17. The bathroom-cleaning part wasn't bad, nor the 80 or 90-plus degree heat with humidity - it was all the truly frightening day-glo chemicals everybody used in the late 80s that I worked in the midst of without benefit of rubber gloves or a face mask that was the worst part. I eventually had to quit because it stirred up allergies I never knew I had....

What was the worst job you've ever had? We're collecting a rather interesting group of varied people so it'll be interesting to see the stories that end up getting posted.

As for myself, let's see... I once got hired as a 10-key number pad operator. I spent 10 hours a day punching in 15 digit bar-code numbers into a database. To keep myself from going crazy, I made it a game to key as fast as humanly possible to cause a back-up at the next station where they'd associate files with the numbers I punched in.

Actually that job wasn't that bad. The work may have been the most mind-numbing dull job I've ever taken, but the boss was nice. The all around worst job I've ever had was assembling boxes for a software packaging company. Eight hours a day of popping open boxes and folding them down is only slightly more stimulating than using a 10 key numberpad all day. What made this worse was the whip cracking supervisor who stalked around the floor looking over your shoulder and yelling "WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM CHANG? YOU GOTTA PROBLEM? WORK FASTER!"

The weirdest part about that job was this co-worker who was a suspended truck driver who was just thrilled to death to be allowed a second chance at employment after his DUI on the job. He said yes to everything the supervisor demanded and on our breaks he'd smile and tell me how lucky we were to be doing such nice work.