Odd jobs

[NERD]

I'm pretty sure we all have our share of odd jobs taken, just for the sake of money. Doesn't matter if the job was official or not, as long as it was a service done in exchange for monetary goods or objects of certain value, put it up and share it. And perhaps have a laugh. If you ever accepted money for stupid shit dared by someone else, hell, that counts too!

I'll start:

The cook at the local Dairy Queen. My job was to make over 50 burgers per hour. That's the average. When it got busy, man.... I quit the job a month after I started, but it was the first job I ever had.

Door-to-door salesman. I was desperate for a job. I ended up working about two months doing the door-to-door schtick, trying to get some poor black people to sign up for a free estimate to renovate their houses. Did not have much success there. Nobody signed up!

[MeneerDijk]

So many jobs to choose from! Well i'll start:

My very first job was a sander at a furniture factory. I had to sand down new tables. It was a very sucky job, even though i had a cap covering my airways i still ended up with a load of sawdust in my nose.

I did some normal jobs after that, but also some of the worst:

Truck loader of a tire company, i had to stack tires into the back of a truck. Wich was very heavy work. I begged the temp agency to give me something else since my body was hurting all over. I couldnt even walk without a limp because of a painfull hamstring.

And ofcourse the job at the egg factory, i had to stack trays of eggs onto a conveyor belt. This was a very heavy and dirty job. Luckily i could handle it physically this time but i'll never forget the smell of broken eggs...sometimes rotten, sometimes infested with vermin. And those were the good days. If i was in bad luck i had to scrape egg from the containers or stack empty cardboard trays onto a sea container...when it was 30C outside :/

I had a couple of other jobs, but i guess these were the oddest. It did teach me to never look down on the low-wage working man/woman. Wich has served me well in other jobs. Like when i was working at a computer firm, i would always greet everyone nicely, even de cleaning lady, unlike my collegues. And sometimes you'd discover that the cleaning lady was actually the bosses wife standing in for sick personell. If the bosses wife likes you, you have an easier time selling stuff :D

[ZaichikArky]

I worked at the county fair for about two weeks during two summers. first summer I picked shit off the ground, second summer I cleaned toilets.

but by far my worst job was working for this fire works store. It was another temp job working just 5 days, 8 hours a day.

It was in southern florida(dania beach) and I was literally the only whitegirl working there. My boss was this huge megabitch who I swear hated me because I was white. She would scream at me all the time and just was a control freak overall. I was so scared of her and tried to do everything she demanded of me, but was never enough.

I only took that job because I needed money to buy a plane ticket home. 190 bucks pretty much covered that. Man I don't ever want to do that again, though.

My next work involved working in two dining halls on campus. Most of my bosses were assholes and treated the student workers poorly. I got fired from both of the dining halls and I have no freaken clue why. I think it might have been because I really pissed off one of the bosses out when I told him to "chill out" when he was yelling for no reason at the cook.

Working there kinda sucked, especially since they didn't tell me why I got fired. My boss at the other dining hall was the biggest fag ever. And usually I love fags. Oh no, he was awful. he would always be nit-picky about everything and was a complete micro-manager. He said he fired me becaue I "ate on the line" but I did that once, not knowing, and didn't do it since.

Since then, my jobs have been awsome. heh.

[shimanotaka]

One Christmas break I spent going around town reading people's electricity meters. You wouldn't believe how many lonely people there are that will be ready to blurt out all the problems, disappointments and sorrows that has hit them throught their entire life to any stranger that happens to knock on their door!

I've also spent a couple of summers as an assistent counselor at Protestant confirmation camps, which feels a bit hilarious, since I've never believed in God.

[gyoza]

I've never taken many odd jobs because back home it wasn't common at all. A lot of this had to do less with laziness and more to do with it not being part of the 'culture' and the intensity of academic life. Most students had their first experience working during the half-year break between high school and university.

My most AWESOME odd job: a one-time deal I took up while visiting home this past winter. Basically a 4-5 hour session recording music to be used in the soundtrack of a local film. It earned me S$400, which is more than US$200. :D

[M.Laird]

Working in a factory one summer that made a small variety of sanding and steaming equipment. Their exciting new product? A spiky roller! A long plastic handle with two metal rollers on the end covered in spikes, used to perforate wallpaper so you could steam it better. And guess what? Each one of the 56 2mm spikes on every roller had to be individually placed and pressed in. In two weeks I made maybe 300 of these things, just sitting an pushing two buttons for 9 hours a day, endless little damn spikes.

[Qbl]

Never had really odd jobs in my life... one time i had a job at a butcher, cleaning everything at the end of the day. I lastet for one night! Blood and guts in my face, ears and nose. That really sucked! But since then, nothing really bad.

Oh and Matthijs, i always said hi to the cleaning lady!

[Crowley]

I used to be a videogames "journalist"...


Oh wait, that was fucking brilliant!


One of my worst was sorting maps for some planners for the london tube. 8 hours a day in a tiny portacabin on my own with no natural light, no human contact, just sorting endless reams of unintelligably marked maps. the tedium drove me half insane...

Oh wait, that wasn't as bad as when I worked in a psychiatric ward - my first job out of University in a secure psych ward. Because I was the lowest of the low, I was put on self-harm watch, where you sit and watch someone for 7 1/2 hours with pretty much no break just in case they try to scratch the skin off their hands with their nails again or try to throw themselves down the stairs I lasted 8 months, which frankly, is fucking impressive. 8 months of constant sick panic, 8 months of being attacked every day. No thanks.

[General_Failure]

My odd job summed up in ONE word...



MILITARY

X.x

[MeneerDijk]

Oh and Matthijs, i always said hi to the cleaning lady!

I know i know, they guy before you was like an elephant in a china store though, he'd embarras the hell out of me. Like by having his hand down his trousers Al Bundy style when we were at a client.... :bang:

[Qbl]

Oh you mean that guy... i heard stories about him :)

[FOBulous]

This one I still get calls for every now and then. But if you've seen Zoolander, I get asked to do hand modeling. <_<

[Iseult]

I was a waitress in a little diner that was basically a truck stop. I'm still convinced that the owner was in the Witness Protection Program, since his name was something like Jim Smith but he was clearly New York Italian born and bred. This was in the heartland, too - not the sort of place most tough talking New Yorkers would retire to voluntarily.

His wife was about a foot taller and 20 years younger than he was, ta-tas til Tuesday, ex-showgirl written all over her.

[Masa the Masta]

Fluffer.

I'm kidding. :p


House painter. Got up and went to work at 8:00, got out at 6:00.

Over the summer. Sucked MAJOR balls. Only made 1,900 USDM in 3 months. ;_;

[Bob]

Dishwasher.

Never go into the kitchen of a restaurant you like to eat at.

[FOBulous]

Fluffer.

I'm kidding. :p

Hey you looking for a job? I might have something you might be qualified for. :whoops:

[Masa the Masta]

"Worked with 2 inches" on my porno resume would seriously hinder any future job opportunities. Sorry Fob. :(

[Jiant Flying Panda]

"Worked with 2 inches" on my porno resume would seriously hinder any future job opportunities. Sorry Fob. :(

Best counter-attack I have seen here at OP9 in a long time.

Touche + little wavey thing that's suppose to go over the e.... Or u or whatever letter.

[Ozero]

7-11. One of the busiest 7-11s in the province. Take the movie clerks, then mix in generous protions of "saving private ryan"..

oh, and a (male) manager who was charged with 6 counts of sexual harassment against male employees.

thankfully I dodged experiencing that first hand.. I guess I wasn't his type....

[NERD]

Human guinea pig. Paid me over $100 per hour, but the experiment only took two hours at most.

And I am not free to divulge what I was tested for.

[hidethedrone]

Human guinea pig. Paid me over $100 per hour, but the experiment only took two hours at most.

And I am not free to divulge what I was tested for.

I'd like to sign up for those.... except it was for a male contraceptive. I'm assuming that you'd have to "test" it live at some point, and I didn't want any bebies.. But i guess they could just count your sperm.

Argh! That could've been some easy money... or diarhea..

[Angelyne]

I once applied for a job entitled "snail picker". I applied because I was honestly curious as to what the hell the purpose of this job was, and why they needed snails.

Unfortunately, I never got a response. I guess I'm not qualified enough to pick snails :boggled:

[NERD]

I'd like to sign up for those.... except it was for a male contraceptive. I'm assuming that you'd have to "test" it live at some point, and I didn't want any bebies.. But i guess they could just count your sperm.

Argh! That could've been some easy money... or diarhea..

Ha! Nothing of that sorts, I'm afraid. The National Institute of Health/Mental Health is few subway stops away from my school, so that's where I ended up.

I mean, if you are looking for quick bucks, pharmaceutical companies are always on the lookout for guinea pigs. Sign few forms, yada yada yada, and you make some money. Funny thing is, even this is being outsourced to India since few people would participate in any testings.

[FOBulous]

Best counter-attack I have seen here at OP9 in a long time.

Touche + little wavey thing that's suppose to go over the e.... Or u or whatever letter.

Haha... damn!

I got nothing. :bang:

[Acolyte]

I've worked a bit in my grandfather's butcher shop. Man, a boltgun is the most brutally efficent weapon. Stick it into the crack and *WHAM!* Beef.

I also worked a summer as a trailblazer and park worker in northern Ontario. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for two months, fighting through the most intense bugs possible, hacking trees with a sandvic, which is quite possibly the most useless tool ever created.
Actually, it was a pretty good job. The job itself sucked, but the benifits were teh awesome.

[sponge_girl]

my oddest job would have to be "donating" plasma. when I was in desperate need of money to pay off one of the many bills, I would schedule my hours to go in and work. at that time i was a full-time mom, going to school part-time, a full-time wife, and working part-time. it would have been better if my husband donated with me but he's afraid of needles.

[CrazyAce86]

Worked in the on-campus theater. I wasn't paid, but I had nothing better to do, plus I learned some interesting things.

1. Something falls, LET IT FALL. Don't try to catch it, because spending the night in the ER is not fun.

2. Cuts + Bleach Water = Owie

3. Boom lights are heavy, but counterweight bricks are heavier.

4. Cheap wood just blows.

5. Don't use a grinder for more than hour straight. Trust me.

6. Nothing better to work to than Tenacious D and Sublime.

7. Playing with the chalk line is fun, just don't let your boss catch you. :D

8. Walking across the scene shop barefoot is a BAD IDEA. :yes:

9. Random shouts of "Male!", "Female!", "Thank You!", and "Fuck You!" are the norm.


And a ton of other crap, but those are some main pointers.

[TLab3000]

Best job... requires a few words...
Me, about 15 at that time, sitting in the job office, waiting for an offer, but things were slow that day. Job Office guy (Wolters) finally entered the waiting room and said he needs someone with a body weight of exactly 73kg. That was exacly my weight, but, hey, what kind of job could that be? So I decided to wait for another offer.
Wolters came in again, saying he still got no jobs besides that 73kg one. We asked what kind of job it was, but the JO's weird policy is not to give details about a job unless you accept it.
Half an hour later he came in again and said that, although he can't go into details, the 73kg job was for a doctor. Me a lab rat? Uhm, rather not...
Minutes before the job office closed, he asked once again if there's really no one willing to take the job, and that it was a rather good job. So I thought WTF and said okay, I'm gonna do it.
He sent me to the doctor and I was expecting the worst.
Well, the job was:
.
.
The doc had developed a new bed and needed someone to test it. I had to stay in that bed for 8 hours, being allowed to sleep, read, whatever. That's it, 12 bucks per hour.

Worst job:
Cleaning at a butcher's one damn hot summer while the blood collectors were on strike.

[Anders]

I used to work in an athletic club. Sure it had it's perks- I could work out free (even during my shifts) and the job really wasn't that difficult. The thing that sucked about it though was having to clean up after other people- namely sweaty, old, fat people that leave their snot and sweat soaked towels all over the club. The locker rooms were even worse as employees had to clean up things usually considered to be a biohazard with our bare hands. Then there was the steam room. After a whole day of naked men doing whatever in there, I had to clean it out. I don't want to even guess what was on towels left in that room. All I have to say is thank god for hand sanitizer

[Aravan]

I volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House, a place for parents to stay while their kids are in the hospital (usually far from home.)
Basically, i kept house. Making beds, cleaning the kitchen, taking donations from the neighborhood, and answering the phones. I listened to the parents when they needed someone to talk to (though i'm not a shrink, some people feel more comfortable talking to a PERSON, you know?) I played with the not-sick kids so the parents could make phone calls. It was sad at times, when people checked out with red-rimmed eyes, you knew the worst happened. One guy's whole family was lost in a car accident, except the toddler in a coma. Another, knew their unborn baby was stillborn. Makes you realize what you have. And i volunteered at a very low point in my life, to give myself something to do rather than mope. (My son was living with my folks while i was in college, and i couldnt handle the seperation.)

I highly recommend volunteering, especially when you feel unmotivated to do anything else. It puts things in perspective.