# Best, Worst And Oddest Jobs



## socrates (Aug 17, 2009)

There was a TV programme recently about hiring someone for the best job in the world. It got me thinking about my best, worst and strangest jobs. So here they are - all when I was a student, back in those giddy days when you were prepared to have a bash at anything and life was something that happened to you while you were looking for a good pub:

Best - leisure spa attendant in a luxury Swiss hotel in a village at the base of the Eiger. Responsible for an indoor pool, an outdoor pool and a sauna. Tough gig, but someone...

Worst - bin man during a hot summer when metal bins had to be emptied of the crap and ash that people put in them. And other things too horrible to describe.

Most bizarre - temporary mortuary attendant covering for the post-holder while he served a one month suspension for doing something unspeakable.

Would be interesting to hear about the experiences of others... maybe we can see who wins in each category.


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

Umm

Best a Medical Trial I am currenty doing getting paid a lot of money to sit and use the interne,read papers,watch dvds and generally sit around doing nothing.

Worst working for a sales company on a commision only basis/also working for DSGi group on a pc helpline for Â£13,500 a year (sorry they both were not very good jobs)

Oddest refrigertation & Air Con service engineer oddest cause sometimes we had to do jobs like change the fan in a cooling unit in a cold room of -22 deg,I wore two coats two hatts two pairs of jeans and 3 pairs of latex gloves and it would still take nearly 2 hours cause you had to run in turn the bolt about two turns and run out and warm up for a couple of mins then the same thing over and over again,In a msssive walk in freezer with anything up to a few million pound of meat theres no way you could turn it off or allow the temp to rise so that was the way it had to be done and its bizzare,The maximum amount of time you could spend inside was about 2 mins.


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## tall_tim (Jul 29, 2009)

Hmmmm...

Worst - Shovelling up shot blast to reuse - hot, dusty, backbreaking.

Oddest - Shovelling up mi-shapen 'zoom' ice lollies for pig swill!! - though you could help yourself to as many as you wanted!

Best - the one I'm in now. (in case the boss is a secret watch lover) - actually it is - not for everyone but I'm an Environment Protection Officer for Scottish Env Protection Agency (the equivalent of the EA in England - who I also worked for).


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## Javaman365 (Jul 27, 2009)

Best - current job, essentially hiding in Academia. Very cushy number.

Worst - also the current job, my line manager is a grade A twerp from the school of management bs...

Oddest......unpacking junk mail at a mail order firm. people sent back the prepaid envelopes with rubbish ore clippings from pr0n mags in them...


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## vamos666 (May 20, 2009)

I've had a few jobs in my time but here goes:

Best: Deck-chair attendant on Bournemouth beach, i got thin, tanned, drunk and many other things that summer!

Worst: Drilling holes in exhaust pipes whilst in a blisteringly hot workshop for 9 hours, wearing a suit as the agency had told me i'd be in the office. .

Oddest: Working for NHS supplies on the service desk, we would get Jiffy bags with broken surgical equipment such as 'Nasal Borers' covered in old blood and bone. Didn't stay there for long.


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## thunderbolt (May 19, 2007)

I can't say I've ever had an odd job as such, but the worst two were a drayman for a small private drinks wholesaler. We ended up getting the awkward customers that the "big boys" wouldn't touch. One customer was an Italian restaurant that used to buy one 11 gallon keg of beer twice a week. The trouble was that the restaurant was on the first floor and the keg, weighing in at approximately 150lbs had to be carried up a very steep and narrow stairway to the THIRD floor! The management in their infinate wisdom decided that this was a one man job and didn't warrant sending another person out with me! I managed to last two years. Joint worst was a driver/processing assistant in a fish and game wholesaler for 6 years, I learned how to skin everything from a rabbit up to a deer but god did I stink to high heaven when I got home. :lol:

Joint best was a Greenkeeper on a local course and my current job as a Postman.


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## feenix (May 27, 2008)

The worse job I've ever had was a bus driver. I still recall with shudder the Friday night 'drink crowd'. I only stuck the job for six months and wouldn't even consider doing a similar job in the future. The general public shouldn't be allowed out unsupervised. h34r:


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## Tom Radford (Apr 28, 2009)

Best and worse in one for me.

My current job, collecting waste oil and waste oil filters in 205 litre barrels. Great job, relaxed hours, great boss.

Downside. Due to health and saftey, these 200KG barrels are often placed on raised plastic or metal drainers, usually a foot or so off the ground. So I have to man handle them off these drainers to get my special trolley on to them to get them into the truck. Also we collect car and truck batteries, some which weigh up to 80KG each. Again good old health and safety says these must be stored in big plastic boxes, which means you cant lift properly and have to bend you body over the 3 foot side of the box and lift out 80KG with just your back doing the lifting.

7 years of doing this finally took its toll on Sunday, when I was walking the dog and collapsed. My back feels pretty much ruined and I have sciatica to add to the pain. Been ordered to have at least this week off work by the docs. On a heavy dose of diazepam and strong NSAIDS.

Possibly might not be able to do the job again, depends on just what is wrong. Gotta go back next week if it hasn't improved.


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

sonyman said:


> Oddest refrigertation & Air Con service engineer oddest cause sometimes we had to do jobs like change the fan in a cooling unit in a cold room of -22 deg,I wore two coats two hatts two pairs of jeans and 3 pairs of latex gloves and it would still take nearly 2 hours cause you had to run in turn the bolt about two turns and run out and warm up for a couple of mins then the same thing over and over again,In a msssive walk in freezer with anything up to a few million pound of meat theres no way you could turn it off or allow the temp to rise so that was the way it had to be done and its bizzare,The maximum amount of time you could spend inside was about 2 mins.


Whimp! 

You should try our environmental test chambers, last time I was in there I was filming something dropping off something (not saying or I'll get the sack   ) it was 40deg centigrade at 146mph, the time before was a cold start repeating test at minus 30deg.....we have the right togs but its still freezing and after 30 minutes your nose is blocked with frozen breath :fear: all good fun though, and a strange aside is if ever you have a cold, about ten minutes at -30 will kill all the nasty little germs, you feel great the next day! :clap:


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

Tom Radford said:


> Best and worse in one for me.
> 
> My current job, collecting waste oil and waste oil filters in 205 litre barrels. Great job, relaxed hours, great boss.
> 
> ...


Bummer, hope all goes well.....wasn't thata faulty trolly you had though? I can hear a claim coming on! h34r:


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Maybe it should be coldest and warmest jobs 

Other than my apprenticeship and a few odd filling in jobs here and there I worked for the same company for more than 25 years. So good and bad I'm not sure, best part of my job was purchasing, I used to buy a lot of machinery and kit as well as set up contracts for supplies of tooling, consumables and so on spending someone else's money and getting well looked after by numerous prospective sellers. Nice machine mate, where can I see one working...... Sweden  that'll be nice for a few days at this time of year. A few days in BangCock, do we really have to go that far just for a look  And I was lucky that the company was expanding all over the place for about 15 years. Not sure if it's going ahead in LA so wait a week and see, if you don't fancy staying in Chicago what about New York and we'll give you a ring when we know, when can you get over here, where ??? Singapore, How soon can you get to Cambridge, a couple of hours if the traffic is ok, the guy on the phone, how the f#ck are you going to drive to Canada :clap: I got to go all over the place.

Hottest was when we built a place out in the Middle East and I arrived in the middle of their summer to a half built building and no air con, regularly 45*C+ Coldest was one winter on the back of a pipe laying barge docked off Rotterdam with a freezing gale force wind blowing across the deck spending most of my time hanging about waiting for inspectors to get their arse in gear. Never been so cold in my life.


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## Filterlab (Nov 13, 2008)

Best - My current jobs (of which there are three - Document retention company manager, photographer, DVD production partner (my own company)).

Worst - Night driver for a wholesale bakery. Horrible hours, horrible bosses, horrible wages.

Most bizarre - Night transport administrator for Anglian Windows in Norwich. I would sit from 3pm to 1am and occasionally a message would come over the radio as such:

"Box 108's full Rob".

I would then lean forward, type '108' and 'Print' on my computer and when the paperwork had printed I'd put it in a pile on the desk near the door.

12:50am: Put the paperwork in the lorries.


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## scottishcammy (Jul 11, 2003)

Best:

Current job, the police.

Worst:

Patient Care Coordinator for Marie Curie. For a while, we used to have to phone the patient to let them know the care arrangements, which was regularly followed by the patient telling you how terrible (what was left of) their life was. Incredibly depressing.

Oddest:

Current job, the police (in terms of the odd people/situations).


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## Alas (Jun 18, 2006)

Worst.

Laminator building yachts and pilot boats when I was a teenager. One of the jobs was fibreglassing a small compartment in the stern of a yacht from the inside. Someone had to stand outside to pull you out when finished as your eyes had closed with the fumes by that time. No Health & Safety on that job. :fear:

Best

Navy foreign going. :clap: especially drydock in the far East for months at a time.

Oddest

Running a Hotel & Bar for 2 alcoholic owners and getting asked each stocktake where all the Brandy and Bristol Cream had gone. Guess what they drank h34r:


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## zed4130 (Jun 25, 2009)

sometimes my job, i work with the elderly , so pays crap,have to lie up dead people , and have to deal with the worst parts of people (use your imagination lol) but has its good points some old folk have have some interesting story's although i deal alot in dementia care so very confused , well in tonight and you never know what is going to happen next,

paul


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

I will stick to some of the temporary jobs I have had over my life:

Worst: filling pork pies with jelly in a pork pie factory, labourer on a pig farm, labourer on a sewer gang ... Oddest: playing a bank robber for a security firm's training courses (I was a natural with the sawn-off shotgun!) ... Best: night club bouncer.


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## Tom Radford (Apr 28, 2009)

Boxbrownie said:


> Tom Radford said:
> 
> 
> > Best and worse in one for me.
> ...


Better not sue my Father-in Law though! Its a faimilly business. Me, my fiance, her Brother and her Mum and Dad who own it.

We'd all be a lot worse off If I decided to sue!


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