Worst Job Ever...

I've been wanting to write a new post for the past couple of days but I couldn't come up with a topic on which to write. Today, I found a random question generator and after generating a few terrible questions, the generator came up with "What is the worst job you have ever had?" That got me thinking.

I've had a lot of jobs in my lifetime of varying types. I've worked in many different industries: retail, legal, telecommunications, education, insurance, medical, entertainment, and others. A couple of my jobs were fabulous (teaching and performing), some were okay (retail and medical), but many, many were just awful (all others). But was there one job that made every other job look amazing? Oh, you betcha!

Picking just one job that was the lowest of the low was pretty difficult, but I decided to narrow it down to a job that I held after I left college. I departed college after completing just 2 years in order to pursue a performing career, but naturally I needed to get a "day job" to pay my bills. I searched the newspapers and came across an entry level position at an insurance company in Princeton, NJ. The position was the company's receptionist/telephone operator. I actually kind of liked that position, as it was right up my alley of greeting and talking people. I excel at those tasks. After four months in the position, management decided that my "talent was being wasted" being a 'mere' receptionist, so they offered me a choice between two different positions: claims adjuster or human resources assistant. Hindsight being 20-20, I should have taken the claims adjuster position, but I decided to take the HR position. That was a HUGE mistake!

The job consisted of dealing with recruiters (ugh!), calculating vacation/sick days (blech), dealing with health insurance issues (kill me!) and a whole host of other horrendous tasks. While I didn't like the position or the tasks and responsibilities that went with it, that was the least of my issues. What I didn't realize when I took the position was that the Human Resources manager (and my immediate supervisor, Julie*) was insane. That's not an exaggeration, she was what psychologists would call "bat shit crazy". She was also terribly inappropriate - especially for an HR person. I'll give you an example. 

One day, Julie came to me to let me know that she needed to leave work early that day because she had a dentist appointment. I said "okay" and turned to go back to work. She then decided to share a story with me as to why she needed to see a dentist. It turns out that she had thrush (which she called a "yeast infection in [her] mouth"). Then she regaled me with the story on how she contracted thrush. It turns out that after she and her husband had sexual intercourse (when she had a yeast infection), she decided to provide her husband with oral gratification; thereby contracting the infection orally. Eeeeeuuuuwwwww!!! (By the way, this is the PC version; she was much, much more graphic in the retelling.)

This was a story that a 21-year old fresh out of college did not need to hear. And that is just one of many stories I could tell about this lunatic. I can't tell you how many times I went home crying from that job. I lasted all of 2 months in that position (six months at the company altogether). I decided enough was enough and I quit. I believe the dentist story was the last straw; although I can't be certain as it was 28 years ago. It made me never want to work in an HR position ever again.

Anyone have a worst job story to tell? I'd love to hear it.

*Name has been changed so I don't get sued!