Education & Work What's the hardest job you've ever done?

I dislike mice! Saw a live one in some floor stock at Big W, it came running out from the area of the dog food/gardening stuff. My manager (a no nonsense woman) basically chased it down. Another was in a box of boys socks... It seems to have eaten through plastic packaging in the box. That one was dead. But small pieces of plastic flew everywhere! Again, it gave me a huge fright to see it.

Poor things though, certain death by clobbering at your company. Inhumane!

 

Keeping the wife happy

 

You mean...that's not you in the picture...

 

So silly when analytics is pretty much the norm now! I can see the writing on the wall for that company.

 

Hardest job ever was working night shifts during my uni days when I was studying for my first degree. I was working full time and studying full time as well! I just wish that I was better with my money back in those days because there were some wonderful deals!

Did annoy one of my lecturers who caught on that I was sleeping during his lectures due to wearing sunnies inside the room. One day he dropped a whole stake of books on my desk and woke me from from my slumber. The silly bananna never gave me a good mark from that day onwards. It was a good time and guess I needed to go through those days because it taught me the meaning of money and respecting it. Also, learned alot of good life lessons from people which eventually allowed me to realise that I needed to have a plan and build on my financial prosperity or be one of those people working night shifts for the next 40 years.

But ultimately, I think I needed to experience the hardship in order for me to be the person I am today.

 

Worst job for me was when I worked in a team where I was repeatedly asked by management to do something potentially illegal. Despite advising them to get legal clarification in writing, they refused and basically told me shut up and do it asap. When I said no because I didn't want to go to jail they backtracked and said they'd never asked me to do that. Was told to remove it from meeting minutes and edit all minutes to whatever they wanted it to be, not what was actually discussed.

As payback they set me up to fail (witholding information, changing deadlines without notice) and every week there was a new accusation (bullying, leaking confidential material, being "unprofessional" but they couldn't say how) which I had to defend against.

Union advised I had a case for legal action but to think twice about doing it because this organisation has no problem spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money on spiteful ligitation. Whistleblowers who've stood up to this organisation have had their careers effectively ended or been bankrupted.

Got the hell out of there as soon as I could.

 

Experienced similar in a few jobs, unfortunately very common in too many work places, including mining

 

Council street cleaning crew.

I had to get up every morning

As the new kid on the block I was responsible to clock on the whole gang. If the other gang lackey didn't rock up, I had to clock their gang on as well. This was usually before 5:30 so we got OT.

Had to make sure there were adequate tools on the truck, hammocks, fold up chairs, card table, sun shades, water, Urn, cards, traffic control paddles & signs.

Did the rounds to pick up the crew from their place or the early opener (more often than not)

Smoko run, off to the tuck shop.

Pass out shovels to crew (for leaning). I became team leaner in next to no time, taught by seasoned professionals.

Fend off a few comments from passers by.

Lean on brooms for a while (shovel leaning is hard to master).

Back to depot for lunch.

Drop off guys back to their starting locations.

Return truck to depot.

Clock in the crew late for OT.

I don't know how I lasted so many years.

 

Memories.............This was rife at the car factory i worked at,phantom shifts etc.

 

That depends... Predictive analytics is the new big thing for accounting/strategy/management consultants, and it's essentially ********.

 

Hardest job = parenting!

No clock-off time, no pay, and generally have no idea if I'm doing the right thing.

 

I used to work at a concrete plant as a general hand doing a wide range of tasks. One of the worse tasks I had, on the odd occasion, a concrete truck might break down and the concrete in the back would harden because the agitator wasn't able to rotate. So my job was to climb into the back of the truck and jack hammer all the concrete out. It would take me a couple of days sometimes.

 

Had to do that once in an agi on a mine. Not fun haha

 

You worked for the Federal Government huh?

pinkboy

 

Packing eggs in a factory in the middle of summer between school and uni with no air con. Covered head to toe in raw egg. Learnt how to fold a box quickly though... eggs on a conveyor belt don't wait for you to fold a box.

 

Picking up golf balls at a golf range while it was open.

 

Stacking bricks onto to pallets at a brick plant. The retaining wall ones. They had to be stacked by hand as the machine broke these particular ones when loading on to pallets. All day lifting solid blocks!

And similar field was brikies labourer... but i would give it a go again with the right guys. First day i was the sorest I've ever been in my life!! Good coin though 1250pw cash in 2011 regional qld boom times

 

Unpacking 30kg hessian bags of imported black pepper from 40ft containers and stacking them on to pallets at the wharf in 40+ degree heat for weeks on end...I'll never forget the eyes and lungs burning towards the back of each container from the pepper and the heat!

 

Speaking of livestock in the shops...I was in a small country town in QLD years ago called "Caliope"...was grabbing a few things from the local supermarket/video shop, and noticed something small and dark out of the corner of my eye moving in one of the aisle ....I turned to see what it was but it had disappeared...went to the end of the aisle, looked down the next one; and saw it; it was a kangaroo.

 

What's a video shop?