Working in a cold store was surprisingly alright although having to unload pallets containing the frozen ingredients for pet food was an eye opener.
Worst has to be working in the factory making supermarket sandwiches. Being a student I wasn't suitable to do anything apart from sorting through trays of sliced tomatoes picking out the end bits.
Worst ever was working a supermarket at age 15. Actually no, perhaps deliverying papers when I was 14. I had to do 314 papers for 2p each, it took me two entire evenings - come home from school, eat, then work until 9.30pm, for just over six quid. Ridiculous. Didn't do it for long mind.
Also, working a hop picking plant was pretty bad - I had to stand on a gantry and watch hops going underneath me and press a button if it got tangled up. On nights too.
Worked in retail when I was at uni. Tesco was fairly bad (decent pay but the management was a bit disorganised and would fail to cover shifts and breaks, meaning people ended up working extra time with no pay), Game was horrendous (expected staff to come in and hour early and leave an hour late and not take breaks, also got headbutted by a fellow member of staff) and WH Smith which was actually quite nice.
Worst job was when I was at college, working in a bottle packing factory in Burton for £3.21 an hour, 6am - 2.30pm. At the time the minimum wage was being debated, and I vividly remember a Tory MP saying that it was pointless and unnecessary because hardly anyone earned less than £5 an hour anyway. They weren't keen on people taking breaks either, and health and safety was a bit terrifying there...
Paper merchants selling paper. Yep it was as boring as that
worst one was as a student on 12 hour shifts in a factory packing the lids you get on the tops of your drinks at MacDonalds and Burger King. The only way to get through it was to wear a radio walkman and think that 2 days work = 1.5 weeks of rent. After that had to sit on a line that printed the labels on plastic M&S pots. Have done the envelope stuffing, insurance document filing although not sure how many of them they found after my weeks stint 
Data Entry of the 1901 UK Census. Got paid less than £50 a week for roughly 25 hours work. It was piece work too, average wage was about £15 a week so I had to type like the wind to get £40+ each week.
Bonus of the job was free accomodation and 3 meals a day. 
Temp student job working at the car importers on the docks. Basically putting the Suzuki car manuals together for the glove box. Beyond mind numbing and having to tolerate the most racist bastard of a boss you'd ever seen verbally abusing the small collective of non-white workers to a truly shocking level.
Everyday I prayed for one of them to turn round and lamp him...
Potato picking.
Hard, bent over, backbreaking work. 8am to 6pm. Earned cash in hand. A nice crisp £10 from the farmer at the end of the day. In the days before the minimum wage. I was underage and wanting extra money during the summer holidays. Rioting wasn't an option in those days.
I recall that nearly every day one of the gang would turn up late. I was naive not to realise that they were signing on - and then coming to do cash in hand work. They also took turns to drive the tractor with the potato trailer behind it. I was too young and so wasn't trusted, so no breaks for me. Bitter, after all these years? Nah
Did do paper rounds though. It was a gold mine at my local newsagents. Started out on the crap, heavy, long rounds (Telegraph / Times), but over time took on the quick light rounds (Sun / Mirror) and made them my own. They all paid the same so the light rounds were best. Then I got the 'spare' role - which meant I had to take on extra rounds if someone didn't turn up. I got paid the bonus regardless of whether I had to work or not, and I got the money for the extra rounds too. Made me late for school every now and then 
Did the same on Sunday's too. That was easy money.
Tried to get into the 'deliver 500 papers to local houses for £5' business, but that was hard work in the evenings. Binned it after a month or so.
Cleaning Tar tankers, big artic lorry tankers with stainless steel clad tanks on the back. When they were being filled there would be spillages and at the end of the week we'd have to clean them and generally make them look presentable. We had to put a solvent on to disolve the tar, then steam clean, soap and water, steam clean, rinse and repeat. The tar factory stank and there were various lagoons of sulphur rich effluent everywhere and you were invariably wet through for most of the day it was pretty crappy but was probably the best paid Saturday job in Scunthorpe at the time. We also worked year round Saturdays and sundays in all weathers. My mate and I were only 17 at the time and just passed our driving tests.
We used to have to rely on fitters bringing down tankers from the workshops to the wash bay to keep us in work because they were the only other people working weekends, but invariably the lazy sods wouldn't answer the phone when we'd ring to say that we were ready for another lorry. This would mean a half mile trudge through the plant to go and tell them.
I decided in my infinite wisdom and thinking on my feet attitude decided "how difficult can it be to drive a lorry" and proceeded to drive a 40ft tanker through the plant, past silos full of all sorts of flamable, toxic and explosive liquids, back to the workshops. The fitters didn't make owt of it however I was filmed on CCTV and after one of them must have told the management,I was promptly dismissed.
What made it worse was that about six months later, I started dating a lovely girl and all was going swimmingly until couple of weeks in, it came to meet the parents time, and I was greeted at the door by the plant manager who'd sacked me! The relationship faltered not long after that.
i turned ron hill track suits the right way out in a mill in Macclesfield for about 2-3 months - boring, but learnt how to live life around radio 1 in the morning and radio 4 in the afternoon....that was all that was allowed on't radio in't mill 
Then I got the 'spare' role - which meant I had to take on extra rounds if someone didn't turn up. I got paid the bonus regardless of whether I had to work or not, and I got the money for the extra rounds too. Made me late for school every now and then Did the same on Sunday's too. That was easy money.
i loved that one basically after about 6 months i was the longest serving employee so got moved up - got paid by the hour for it ! was the only reason i kept doing it till i was 16 ....
Putting the cherry on Rum Babas.
That was it.
The girl next to me closed the box.
After 6 hours, we swapped for the giddy joy of a new taks, and were almost instantly bollo**ed as if we hadn't time to learn the subtleties of each position.
After 8 hours we were both giggling in a slightly deranged manner.
I lasted 1 shift.
Rogueing. Meciless, slave labour like work in the hottest summer for years.
Sticking the labels on the DR DOS 6 update disks to fix the issues introduced by changes DriveSpace compression (or was it Double Space...??)
Not been keen on MS since then
After 6 hours, we swapped for the giddy joy of a new taks, and were almost instantly bollo**ed as if we hadn't time to learn the subtleties of each position.After 8 hours we were both giggling in a slightly deranged manner.
I lasted 1 shift.
I was honestly expecting you to reveal that she is now your wife or something... missed opportunity?
I worked on a horse raddish jar-filling production line, my job was to ensure the jars didnt get stuck. Huuuge responsibility for a 17 year old temp!
Temp work for the council. Soulless, joyless, all creative thought and ambition had been stamped out of everyone in there. I lasted 3 days.
I think the breaking point was when some poor bloke phoned up to say that the trees (on council property) where dropping their leaves into the alleyway next to his council flat, which would block the drains, then cause his front room to flood. As this happens every year, he wanted to phone in advance to make sure the leaves got picked up as. He was nice as pie, and was just trying to be proactive and save himself the hassle. Took his details and told him I would phone back.
I explained the situation to the supervisor, who's response was 'Well, are they wet leaves or dry leaves?'
After asking what difference that made, since the chap is worried that his home is going to be flooded again, the response was 'Wet leaves and dry leaves are different departments'.
I am not sure how I managed to remain civil.
i turned ron hill track suits the right way out in a mill in MacclesfieldLove to see that on a CV!
cutting up chickens and large chunks of garlic butter for chicken Kievs
in chunky chicks factory lasted 3 hours ...the smell of the garlic butter lingered on my skin for another week though
the thought of chicken Kiev still gives me the boak
Sticking the labels on the DR DOS 6 update disks to fix the issues introduced by changes DriveSpace compression (or was it Double Space...??)Not been keen on MS since then
SuperStor, if it was DR DOS. DoubleSpace / Drivespace was MS-DOS (it's the main difference between MS-DOS 6.2, 6.21 and 6.22 - MS got threatened with legal action after ripping off DoubleSpace from someone else, so removed it (6.21) and then reintroduced it suitably changed and renamed (6.22). </geek> )
Pawnbroker- soul destroying seeing people get rid of their most prized possesions just so they can feed their children.
Worlds smallest doorman/bouncer (Five feet six!). Funnily enough the idiots always went for my bigger colleagues first. When questioned later they all said they assumed I must have been properly hard to do the job so went for the easier option?!? Young, drunk girls were the most vicious by far.
Insurance death claims was pretty horrible sometimes.
Currently a care worker. Love the work but the way we are treated by some employers is utterly disgraceful.
Servicing sanitary towel macerators and incinerators.....
Simply the worst job I've ever done...... You'd find a machine overloaded and festering and have to bag up and burn the contents.....
V good incentive to study hard and go on to uni.
Good days would be fixing sewage macerators......
i can beat you all
i was a drayman (beer delivery) throughout school holidays and when i was in uni, ball breaking work with some of the maddest nutters ive ever met. you would not believe how dirty some pubs cellars were, im taking trays of sarnies put on top of kegs ready for a party later that day BUT the floor was a foot deep in manky water and dog sh*T!
worst job ever was in new zealand on a year trip, ended up working for P&O cold storage in christchurch, all day every day from 6am till 5pm we had to wear freezer suits and load 40ft containers with 25kg boxes of lamb!! ive never felt so knackered in my entire life, built me up though!
Thankfully, not for any length of time, but as a kid, on my dad's brother's farm, the odd day picking stones from a harrowed field. That and turning turf - two of the most soul destroying jobs that would make me long for the boredom of the suburbs
police officer, overloaded with relentless low level shite. utter shite.
Stripping excess card from between christmas cards (they were bulk printed on very large sheets that had been partly perforated). Luckily I only needed to do it for two weeks to top my holiday spending money up.
Twas very dull, it knackered your hands & back and the pay was bobbins.
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