#terrible jobs

[shanlonwrites]

My last job sounds like a scam when I think about it

- was a position that normally hinges on a portfolio of work. Never asked to see my portfolio. I forced them to look at it at the end of the interview.

- interview was over an hour long with meandering, weak questions

- no one ever contacted my references

- the boss contacted me via social media 2 weeks before I started to tell me what my first assignment would me. This one did raise a red flag for me, but I thought I was capable of setting and holding those boundaries (spoiler alert: I’m not!)

- there was no strategy, business plan, direction, or company structure

- the website advertised at least 2 things that didn’t exist, one of which sounded like a sports bar. The building did not have a liquor license

- the website also made it sound like the place was open and operational. It wasn’t. For six months after I was hired, and even then... only partially.

- In fact the building was in an active state of what I would refer to as “renovation-limbo": floor tiles completely ripped up, gutted in places, only half lit, no ceiling tiles through most of it, and decor choices in “bingo-hall-chic”

- the fire marshal only let it open to the public provisionally. Those provisions were continuously pushed back.

- the basement was full of 50 years of junk, black mold, and an entire section known as, I shit you not, “the destroyed section.” 

- was obtained dirt cheap in a forced sale because the previous owner ran a weird scam out of it

- also previous owner showed up more than once to try to fight the current owner and/or steal back some of his shit

- also also previous owner hosted an “artist in residence” for a while who left parts of the building painted and littered with abandoned art projects that say, very loudly, “I was on LSD and/or shrooms when I made this”

- more people were fired from this place in my first 2 months than I had seen at all my previous jobs combined

- the owner insisted it was a museum. I countered that it was absolutely not a museum. He tried to fight me on this and get me to advertise our “museum.” I think my master’s degree might make me slightly more qualified to make this distinction. I refused.

Look, this post might make future potential employers hesitant to hire me, but I don’t care right now. I’m still processing this shit six months after leaving. It was legitimately traumatic. Working there left my self-confidence shattered, despite the frankly impressive things I accomplished. 

I single handedly designed and oversaw the construction of an escape room and a big halloween event which opened on the same day. 

Fuck all that, I’m pretty great. 

[makleyco]

i remember one time when i worked at a skate rink that was completely not busy at the moment and i was working the cash register with nothing to do so i dunno i was checking the pens to see if they were working and i scribbled on a post it note and my manager came in and was like "what did you just write. show me. right now" and it was literally a scribble and he like yelled at me and said he was watching me from the cameras in his office and he could get me fired for what i did and i was just like .... :0..?? why?? these are not nuclear coordinates my man im just checking the pens i think about that every day

[shanlonwrites]

Things I am learning that might help someone else, I don’t know: 

You may not recognize how unhealthy a work environment is until you leave it, even if you are aware that it is unhealthy while working there. Space provides perspective.

Disentangling yourself from that environment can be scary, if it isn’t done for you. All the same concerns about money, status, and worth in the eyes of a capitalist system and modern feminism that kept you working there in the first place will continue to haunt you through unemployment. Fuck them, log out of everything, and don’t look back. You can’t move on without doing so.

You will probably have to leave behind some things you like. Be grateful you had them there, and take note of what you will miss most so you can look for it in other places. But definitely also take note of what warning signs there were, from the interview on, so you can avoid them in future. Protip: if they don’t ask to see your work, they don’t know what they’re looking for, and you can count on very little guidance. If they don’t check your references, be highly skeptical. 

You may need to process what you went through. I don’t like to use the word trauma lightly, but it takes various forms in different people. What is traumatic for one person is brushed off easily by another. Being so stressed you periodically come home and immediately sit down on the floor and cry is a bit traumatic. 

Processing might mean you spend a night not being able to sleep because your brain keeps bringing up situations that stressed you out while you were at work at that job. And getting stressed about them again. And angry. And maybe you don’t have a great handle on feeling anger yet. And maybe this is healthy but also maybe it’s not, and you should probably talk to your therapist about this one? 

Looking to exonerate yourself can be just as bad as looking to blame yourself. Because in the end, you chose to stay. It’s... a bit like an abusive relationship. No one is completely innocent, no one is completely guilty, accept it and be at peace. The “perfect victim” identity is a trap. Bonus: by accepting that you played a role in continuing the bad situation, and forgiving yourself, you are allowing yourself to grow. 

You might find certain tasks that remind you of that environment more difficult to get through. I can’t do “digital marketing” anything without getting immediately stressed out, because that has been such a point of constant, unending conflict. I don’t know how to work through this yet except to just... carry on. 

Your self-confidence will likely be shaken. I find myself wondering if I am the problem, and if I will just never find a job I can stick with because I am bad at asserting myself, or I don’t work “properly”. Don’t know how to fix this. Just gonna try to move past it. 

[godahlpresentslizziesmithson]

Terrible Jobs by MoonTouched

A game about dealing with an increasingly terrible job

Crawling around itchio to find some interesting furry stuff, stumbled onto this gem--it's a sims-like roguelike where you control a character's actions during their off time from work, filling their various needs and purchasing increasingly grody-seeming items to minimax your free time (example: one of the items is an empty bottle you can use to decrease both the bladder and tv meters at the same time). I think it did a good job capturing the feeling of not having energy for anything apart from work and getting ready for more work.

I think as a roguelike, it's a bit on the easy side--once I figured out all the basic mechanics, I beat the game without coming close to a loss. I would've liked it if there was some sort of financial goal you had to hit before the month is over, like rent money or utilities or something--as is, there's not ever a reason not to just buy every upgrade when it becomes available (if there's a good ending for getting a lot of money, I didn't see it). I think in-universe the character sets aside living expenses out of their paycheck, hence you only getting fifteen dollars when you're done with work each day.

The sims-like elements are easy to master, compared to the slot machine-like rng of something like balatro or nubby' number factory. Which could be a positive or negative in your mind, but I personally have had enough of video slots, so Terrible Jobs gets the prize from me in this regard.

I also would've liked it if the random events that add extra difficulty were a bit more frequent, I only encountered a couple in my time with the game. Maybe I'm demanding too much from a free browser game, though!

Its much less of a time sink than most roguelikes--i beat it in about half an hour including a couple beginner deaths--tho I kind of appreciate that? After playing so many roguelikes that demand way more of my time than I'm willing to give them, it's nice to play a game where you can have a full experience in less than an hour, and not be pressed to give more more more.

I think it's a little less interesting than something like increpare's Home, another Simslike that takes place on a 2d plane, but which feels like it uses it's short runtime much more effectively than Terrible Jobs, with less bloat. With Terrible Jobs, you kind of get the point long before you reach the end. Still, not too bad, especially for a game made in one week--the world certainly needs more roguelikes where you play as a furry, and this is one of those. 3/4 stars from me, friend.

[frowntown9000]

cover and pages 1 and 2 of The Street Canvasser

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

Okay, I need encouragement. I'm an editor. I know my posts aren't error free, but I don't put the same amount of effort into a blog as I do into my work. Here's the thing. For years they've been making ever increasing demands on my team. Like trying to cram 50 new editions of 400+ page textbooks and miscellaneous supplementary materials into a single year with 4 editors divying up the workload and a bunch of SMEs who continually miss deadlines. Almost never can a release date be pushed. As anyone with professional editing experience can imagine, the errors in the released books were uncountable. Moreover, no matter what upper management said about being comfortable with the risks, they were absolutely astonished that the errors we warned them about ended up in the material and would demand that we fix them. But not take too much time to fix the books. After all, why take the time to make sure it's fixed correctly?

As time went on, the demands became increasingly more ridiculous. Why can't you make sure this 500 page book is error free? We gave you three weeks! And naturally, a huge client company was lost and then they realized what asses they were being and said that they would change. Not even a month later, they're back to the same old routine.

Now the obvious answer is to find a new job. However, I just moved. I don't even have internet yet, and the last time I searched for a new job, there weren't many positions in the area. I can't afford to move again. So, if you're reading this, can you pray for me?

[allthegeekythings]

I hate my job

I'm laying in bed choking down nausea and anxiety about work tomorrow because my boss hate me and continually embarrasses me in front of others and it's miserable and I don't get paid enough for the amount of work I do and I don't want to do it anymore. I can't sleep because I know when I get up I have to go back into that hellhole. My heart is racing and I can't get a deep breath and I feel like I'm going to throw up. I've had jobs I didn't like before. Never like this.

[bookriot]

What a Way to Make a Living: Authors' Other Jobs

We asked our Book Riot Live speakers: What was the worst job you ever had? What was your best job? The answers will definitely surprise!