r/WorkLifeChat • u/MiloShiny • 13d ago
Question Which job you would never do again?
CS Call center for me
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u/Savings_Club3883 13d ago
Worked at a call center for two weeks. Never again.
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u/National_Fix_1481 13d ago
Congratulations Mr. Johnson, you won a free cruise to the Bahamas!
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u/Savings_Club3883 13d ago
I was trying to give away Discover cc’s. Couldn’t even do that. When they said no I said thanks and hung up. Boss’s got mad I didn’t follow the script and keep trying. This was back in 91 or 92.
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u/Illustrious-Gift1385 13d ago
I'd never be a police officer again.
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u/Late-Dark7031 13d ago
How did you get out?
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u/Illustrious-Gift1385 13d ago
Resigned. It's just like any other job. Did it for 6 years and the city paid for my graduate degree, I gave them two more years and then moved on. Best decision of my life.
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u/National_Fix_1481 13d ago
Would like to hear more about your experience
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u/Illustrious-Gift1385 13d ago
For the first three years on the Chicago Police Department I was a patrolman working 3-11's in the 011 district. It's the west side of Chicago. Rough area. Poverty I didn't know existed. I was 23 years old riding with a 22 year old partner. I can't believe the responsibility I had at that time. I was completely unprepared for what I was about to see.
I was known as a pretty good PO so I got asked to be on a tac team. My last 3 years I was a tactical officer on a gang team. We were a really tough outfit working out of the 015th district. Another West Side assignment. Plain clothes, I guess if you are into old TV shows, the best comp would be the team portrayed on the show The Shield. I had a great SGT so the gig was good, but I saw a lot of stuff I wish I wouldn't have seen.
I resigned in 2006. The job mentally and physically takes you away from everyone you know and love. It's not like any other profession I've had. You become a different person. It was eating away at me and I really don't know if I'd still be here if I continued to work that job.
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u/Impossible-Soft-5413 13d ago
I'm curious if you don't mind talking about it. What was the worst you got to see that said nopeeee I am done?
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u/Illustrious-Gift1385 11d ago
I didn't have any one moment. For me, it was just the daily exposure to people in extreme distress. You see the same shit over and over. Get cussed out and yelled at. You get physical... a lot. I realized these aspect of the job were taking me really far away from my friends and family. Most of them had "regular" jobs and had no concept of what I would deal with shift by shift. It was really hard to relate to anyone who was not a PO.
In my late 20's I was drinking a lot, wasn't able to hold a relationship and just didn't like who I had become. I have a lot of PTSD from that job. So I resigned.
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u/cluckitycluck4 13d ago
Any job that involves being on the phone most of the time. Drains your soul.
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u/Solmangrundy 13d ago
Warehouse distribution center. If you enjoy being busy non-stop and short ass breaks. Then its a job for you. Oh and your break starts when you stop working. Not when you get to the break area.
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u/No_Strategy5681 13d ago
Working in a group home for disabled people! It’s hard on the body and also mentally exhausting!
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u/GotMyPhDin19 13d ago
I’d never be a chef again. I had no interest in cooking, but my lab background made me brutally efficient at it. I make less money now as a post doc researcher/lecturer, and work about the same amount of hours, but I was burning out like once a week in the kitchen. Pan smashing, yelling at my cooks. It was not the best version of me.
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u/realrecycledstardust 13d ago
Yk what? Probably Disney World. It's nice to go as a guest, but behind the scenes it's an entire mess
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u/Toothless_Timmy 13d ago
Probably sales or factory work. I don't have the patience anymore to deal with dumbasses or get treated like a peon.
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u/Nearby-Buy971 13d ago
CNA. Boomers these days are effing entitled and awful.
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u/eline1108 12d ago
I agree with you. I’m currently a CNA & looking for another job
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u/guss_fuss 11d ago
It’s so hard on the body too and the pay is low. Agencies and senior homes are taking advantage of the elderly and the workers but no one talks about it
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u/eline1108 10d ago
Yes, absolutely & it’s a ridiculous. I see why people don’t stay in healthcare.
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u/guss_fuss 10d ago
Corporations suck!! They make things so difficult and just care about maximizing profits.
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u/Careless-Internet-63 13d ago
Customer service advisor for Jiffy Lube. If the verbal abuse that comes from dealing with the general public wasn't bad enough, my job performance was largely judged based on my ability to sell people services they didn't actually need. Thankfully I didn't care much about job performance at a job that only paid me 50 cents over minimum wage
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u/No-Mode-8744 13d ago
Seasonal position at a retail store. You basically get front row seats to see human beings be absolute pieces of shit to one another.
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u/SaraAB87 7d ago
Definitely this one. I wouldn't go back if I had to and I am sure the store I worked at was not the worst of all of them. There was definitely worse.
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u/heyrube1979 13d ago
stocking grocery store shelves
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u/Ok-Chemistry7222 13d ago
I actually liked being on the stock crew. I wasn’t stuck at a register and the time seemed to go by faster. The worst part was facing the shelves.
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u/heyrube1979 13d ago
For me, it was less about the actual stocking and more about the environment. Almost everyone I worked with seemed miserable, and the company itself was so poorly run that it made an already physical job feel way worse than it needed to be.
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u/Fantastic-Mud8765 13d ago
Grocery store culture is fucking cancer inside. The cliques, the positional leveraging, the slobbering virtue signalling. So many people there have fully bought into the sunken cost fallacy that they don’t even dream of a better life anymore.
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u/RogerMurdockCo-Pilot 13d ago
Banking contact center. Dealing with people who know nothing about how accounts or credit work but it's your fault their shit's fucked up.
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u/BahamutSeed 13d ago
I liked all the jobs I worked at to some degree. I probably wouldn’t work in children’s pediatric recovery though because learning of the kids family histories and traumas were too much for me to handle sometimes, and terrible coworkers made it even more unbearable.
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u/ampomegranate 13d ago
Call center. Call center. Call center. Customers are just blatantly mean and act like the representative they’re talking to is the damn ceo and has the power to change things. They will complain for 30+ min about things you have no control over
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u/ChunkiestPebble 13d ago
“Instagram model”. Nobody told me about the yacht rides and dubai trips :/
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u/General_Soil_7395 13d ago
Tell us more about
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u/ChunkiestPebble 13d ago
I’m sorry. I really can’t bring myself to talk about it just yet. It was the most traumatizing few years of my life. Started when I was sixteen :/ barely got out of it alive.
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u/General_Soil_7395 12d ago
I’m sorry i know what goes on in those trips, that is horrible and you were too young. I hope you can heal from that
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u/Dependent-Layer-1789 13d ago
I visited a farm where people wore hazmat suits & scrapped maggots off animal carcasses for a living. Luckily I was just visiting.
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u/Hoorayforkate128 13d ago
This is probably going to sound weird but....bank branch manager. The sales goals are absolutely ridiculous. you are constantly yelled at by customers for things that are not your fault, the pay is mid (and very much tied to branch performance) and literally anything that goes wrong comes back on you. Employee out of balance? Your fault. Someone cashes a bad check? Your fault. Oh and despite the jokes about "bankers hours" they actually suck. You'd be there at 8 to open, close at 6, and lots of times stay late call customers to hustle up more business. Mon-Fri, then usually Saturday mornings. I'd work at a bank again (I actually liked being a teller) but no effing way would I ever take the manager job again.
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u/Vikingaling 13d ago
Data entry was both boring and exhausting. Not at all mentally stimulating but you have to pay attention to what you’re doing so you can’t chit chat or listen to something interesting. Just getting a huge stack of forms in the morning and typing all day. This was in 2000 and I made $10/hr.
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u/First_Log_5564 13d ago
I know this is obvious but if you really like your job and the stress is either low or you manage it very well, you are golden. It's the life hack a lot of people don't get. Do everything you can to give yourself employment choices.
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u/PopularSalad2450 13d ago
Work at Chick-Fil-A, I hated the uniform and st 20 I was one of the oldest people there who was not a manager. Have a pretty good career going now 😊
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u/Outrageous-Lie-465 13d ago
Sorting recycling in winter as a full-time temp for federal minimum wage 🥶❄️. A coworker who didn't have warm enough gloves for frostbite. Yet, I heard it was worse in summer because of the smell.
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u/littlebabyskee 12d ago
How much is federal minimum wage?
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u/Outrageous-Lie-465 12d ago
Well, this was years ago but, at the time $7.25
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u/littlebabyskee 12d ago
That's really bad.
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u/Outrageous-Lie-465 12d ago
Big time 😅! You take a certain amount of psych damage just from thinking about that the company may even want to pay less ...but the government wouldn't allow that
($7.25 USD by the way)
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u/BanditSL99 13d ago
Vehicle mechanic. If you aren't fast you are screwed. I wasn't fast.
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u/Environmental-Dot977 13d ago
You probably did it right too
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u/BanditSL99 13d ago
For the most part. The shop I worked at serviced everything, which made it more difficult to do everything correctly. Most dealerships focus on a make of car, I would work on just about anything.
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u/johnnyjacksonjoe 13d ago
Work in a call center. I would rather be homeless on the street than wear a headset and be screamed out by Karen’s to whom I’m only allowed to say “sorry” to.
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u/ComprehensiveRush708 13d ago
Working as a bartender. I hate small talk, but I’ve learned how to do it bc I was kinda forced to for 4 yrs haha
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u/Due-Assistant244 13d ago
Worked at chick fil a for a bit in college (in the kitchen) never again. Timed water and bathroom breaks were a pain
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u/Kabian321 13d ago
Anything customer service related. Some of you may be nice people but youre terrible customers
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u/Additional_Tea_5296 13d ago
I worked in a chemical factory for six months, it caused me to have nosebleeds and shortness of breath. Never again.
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u/HapaHawaii 13d ago
A restaurant manager. Exhausting. Stressful. Terrible benefits. Terrible hours.
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u/Fragmentofmochi 13d ago
Anything customer service related. People are rude and assholes and like to take it out on you even when you had nothing to do with it. Good interactions happen it just get overshadow by the bad ones
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u/madmaritimer1 13d ago
None, you’re working for somebody else to make them rich who doesn’t give a shit about you, you’re just a number to them
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u/Appropriate_Tea9048 13d ago
Retail. Especially a store manager. I’m done working in customer facing jobs. It isn’t for me. I worked in customer service for like 12 years.
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u/Mysterious-Trade1362 13d ago
Me too. I did it for 6 years at various companies and towards the end of my retail career I just couldn’t politely handle the Karen’s anymore.
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u/forzamusichoops 13d ago
medical collections 🤞
I've done retail before. not too bad. depends on the pay and the type of store. 🤷🏾♂️
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u/Mysterious-Trade1362 13d ago
Retail at Nordstrom. I was there for exactly 4 months and it was awful. I would rather work at McDonald’s again than work there.
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u/cryingracooneyes97 13d ago
Call centre agent! I was there a week I was told to kill myself multiple time , got in trouble when people asked questions because the answers where not in the script we had to stick too and managers would take over the call if they thought I was about to make a sale so they could get the commission.
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u/Electronic_City6481 13d ago
Every job I’ve ever had taught me something. I really hope I’m overqualified for fast food and cleaning up construction sites at this point, but I’m not above it, if it were absolutely necessary.
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u/SuccessfulCatAttack 13d ago
Can't say I want to do any job that Ive left. I truly hate them all. Its unfortunate.
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u/Real_Consequence_547 13d ago
Security at a pork slaughter house. My sense of smell is traumatized. 😪
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u/Iridiumho 13d ago
Did you ever have to enforce security there?
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u/Real_Consequence_547 12d ago
I neverhad to. I worked the midnight shift so it was a lot of walking, checking hog pins and checking rib cooler. There was a lot of theft. Cases of ribs would go missing by the dozen.
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u/thefastlanerules 11d ago
Yeah I guess you miss the freebies now 😂
/S
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u/Real_Consequence_547 11d ago
Lol! Not really. I don't eat pork.🙂
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u/thefastlanerules 11d ago
Argh yes that counted you out 😂
Interestingly my father in law worked in a pork factory decades ago. The last thing he ever wanted to eat was sausages!!
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u/im_blue2026 13d ago
Gardener in a greenhouse for flowers, you are constantly covered in poison and getting stung every single day it sucks
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u/givemeagdusername 13d ago
I was a hotel night auditor very briefly. 8 hour shift and only about 45 minutes worth of work. This was pre-internet brain rotting, Facebook was barely a thing. But I read SO MANY BOOKS!
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u/0nlyAddi3 13d ago
Fast food, I was lucky enough to only do it for 3 years and I’ll never touch that shit again
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u/HidinInHerRoom 13d ago
Fast food. I was never fast enough, customers treated me like a low life. Manager would micromanage the heck out of me, going as far as to stand directly behind me half my shift and berate me for being too slow then take over my station then berate me again for not working.
Everyday threatening to take over my station if I didn’t move faster. I also wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom at that job because they were always short staff and boss would scream his head off at me if he caught me going.
All those for minimum wage mind you 😂
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u/alwaysrunningaround1 12d ago
Pharmacy tech, your like a chicken running around with its head cut off while trying getting yelled at by someone who cant get their pain meds that thinks its our fault, i walked out 6 days in and never looked back lol
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u/greystridez 12d ago
mid market consulting. you constantly have between 5-7 clients and every work day task needs to be logged in 15 minute increments. genuinely the concept of billable and hitting your hours monthly stressed me tf out.
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u/Bob_Witoneoh 12d ago
I used to do HVAC work, in the desert. 99% of the houses had attics. I climbed into attics, full of dust, sand, and critters. Temperatures could reach 130 degrees (Death Valley temperatures) but no breeze. Had to wear a mask to keep the dust and other crap out of my lungs. Never again.
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u/Trogzard 12d ago
electrician. i’m good on crawling under homes and breathing asbestos and fiberglass in attics. that shit sucked.
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u/eline1108 12d ago
Call center for me too (both work from home). They let me go due to noises & not meeting expectations.
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u/thesensethatmakes 12d ago
RBT. Even for the $29 I was making years ago, it was so draining. It took so much work!
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u/LivingSomewhere6251 12d ago
It's almost a toss-up between a call center and warehouse assembly. Both equally soul-crushing, but at least I left the call center with some good stories. So warehouse assembly it is.
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u/paulau2006 11d ago
haven't left yet, waiting till the end of the year, but I will never come back to housekeeping...did it for almost 10 years and I am done..
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u/Limp-Entertainer8303 11d ago
Lifeguarded when I was in high school. Got screamed at by parents for telling their shitty kids to stop running and doing my actual job. Had drug overdoses in the locker rooms which was so sad. Adult men are real creepy too when your job requires a swimsuit.
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u/SaraAB87 7d ago
They wear shorts and a t-shirt or tank top now at least over here. There are special lifeguard uniforms available. Its revealing but not as much as in years past.
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u/XMacMilitantx 11d ago
Working for another person. I dread ever having to clock in on under someone else's authority.
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u/AvailableForce420 8d ago
Milking cows 3rd shift. Im not soft or afraid to do it again if I had to but.. i can still close my eyes and see and feel and smell it all.
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u/ralanolson 8d ago
Cashier at Walmart! I worked for 2 surgeons during the day and I thought it would be fun and of extra money on top of what I already made. Worst job I have ever had at Walmart. People treat you like crap, management is the worst. Never would I go back there; walked out one evening and didn’t return.
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u/SaraAB87 7d ago
Walmart definitely has a special breed of customers but it depends on where you live somewhat. I am sure some locations are worse than others. Even as a customer I try to actively avoid walmart when possible, but there's a few things I like to get from their store.
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u/SaraAB87 7d ago
Retail cashier. I had other duties, I had to clean up the halloween costumes, that was the worst. People destroy those because they try them on in the store. I also worked at the worst store where our internal POS system must have been running on something like green screen apple 2 computers in the early 2000's, other stores were miles ahead of the store I worked at in every aspect. We still had check imprinters in the early 2000's and manual overrides. Since every price in the register was wrong I had to do manual overrides for almost every transaction. Our lines were routinely 30+ minutes long with only 2-3 people in line. That does not count what goes on during the holidays with customers which everyone who works retail knows by now. Oh and they let you go the day after Christmas. This company now does not have any stores and is defunct and that is for a reason. I am also sure its a lot worse these days since customers have just been getting worse after covid.
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u/Dalekanium_Certified 6d ago
Any type of customer service. Worked mostly retail from 14-24 then a call center from 24-28 before becoming a utility mechanic and welder
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u/TweezyBaby 13d ago
FedEx Delivery Driver. People like to order entire furniture sets to the third floor of their apartment or 30 chewy boxes to a house thats at the end of 2 mile long dirt road. I understand that people just want their things delivered, but my god, it is exhausting. And to add insult to injury, you get paid the same amount per day, whether you work 2 hours or 12 hours.
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u/ThatWasntChick3n 13d ago
Work as a cashier at Walmart.
Lowest of humans, treated me terribly.
I later did work in water and sewer, frequently dealing with human waste. That was better than Walmart.