Wasn’t sure whether to throw this into an ask community or here, but ultimately chose casual convo because I am lowkey also looking for advice lol
I landed a job last week (hired me on the spot, did training 3 days later) as one of those people who stand outside shops/etc. asking people to donate to charities. Reputable charities for the record and without cash donations, so not some scam. But the way this is organised is miserable!! I literally get told where I’m supposed to go the night before I go there. I also get paid exclusively based on how many people I get to donate (this was not on the job ad on Indeed). The job itself is fine, is whatever, but between the chaos of having to schedule my day last minute and never being sure how much I’ll make in a month… I need to hightail it out of here.
I get paid on the 15th of May, would it be inappropriate for me to quit right after? I’ll give two weeks notice of course. My team leader has been super sweet to me and is already telling me I’m a natural and she wants to promote me inside her team… I did hint at the fact this is just a temporary thing for me and what I really want is an office job, but she keeps insisting I should stay and can earn a lot more here (and tbf she makes €3000/month). To be honest this whole structure feels very pyramid scheme-ish lol minus the fact people don’t pay into it.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this or any experience you want to share!
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One week.
Was asked to be the community manager of an online casino. I couldn’t deal with the morality of trying to encourage people to keep gambling away money they didn’t have.
2 weeks. canvassing for Working Families Party in Brooklyn
I knew someone who did overnight chicken catching (to get them from the barn into the truck to go off to slaughter) and lasted about twenty minutes. The straw was accidentally dropping a chicken two stories because of the time pressure; shit like that is commonplace in animal agriculture.
The crew lead told them it was fine and they could wait in the van until the end of the shift. He made a comment like, “yeah you have to have a bit of a screw loose to work a job like this.”
That story sticks with me a lot when I think about the conditions for both labourers and animals that are necessary to get meat onto the table.
I took a job at a “robotics” company after the owner sold me a huge line of bullshit (that I completely fell for which is a story for another time) after being in a toxic job for a number of years before. On day one at about 8:30am, I realized that it was not what I fell for during the interview. The boss was someoletely unhinged, the expected hours were not what I had agreed to and the work was constantly being micromanaged by the owner who knew just enough to look like a complete idiot when the discussions got technical. The only positive thing with the job was that I had some company stock coming in at 6 months so I held out until I was 100% sure they couldn’t screw me on the stock vesting and then immediately resigned.
3 days of real time, 2 hours of real work.
1st day, the boss has a problem with a truck, sends his father to guide us to the place and give us the tool. The father never finds the tools, cannot get his son on the phone, tells us to come back next day.
2nd day : no one on site. I call the boss, he seems surprised i’m here, gives me the number of his father. His father tells me he has an appointment with a doctor, tells me to clean the place til he comes back. I do so, 2 hours later i have nothing left to do. I wait one more hour, he doesnt come back. The boss sends me a message to be there next day.
3d day : no one on site, no one answer the phone. I waited one hour and went off.
Never got any message nor explanations. Sometimes they just don’t care, and anyway if they cannot provide you with a stable schedule, dont worry too much about leaving quickly
I think it was like 3 or 4 days. Telemarketer for MCI long distance phone service in the late 90’s. After getting hung up on several hundred times in a single day I realized I was just making lots of people angry and didn’t want to do that.
3 shifts as a table busser at a sports bar. Obscene hours (10AM to 3AM ish), no breaks, going home reeking of cigarettes because it had an outdoor area that allow3d smoking. I got sick the day after last shift of the week, and just quit. Got paid in cash so i think i was paid under the table.
10am to 3am better have been all 3 shifts. A 17hr day is just not fucking okay, especially because im sure they didn’t pay you OT.
Hah! It might’ve been 11 or 1:00 start time (its been about 10 years) but it was 3 separate shifts working roughly those hours. It fucking sucked. Its how i learned there is fuck all for work protections once you’re 18, even if you’re in high school still. Worst spring break ever. And last spring break i got to have too IIRC.
Two months. Got brought in as a sales engineer with no one to train me. My days mostly consisted of spending 8 hours alone in my office reading ISO and ASTM standards for the test services the company offered. Got sent to Minnesota for further training for a week with no one to train me there either. Found a job right after and left my boss bewildered like he couldn’t believe it after I kept reminding him no one was actually teaching me how to do the job.
Three weeks. I was in a contract-to-hire software position at Alaska Airlines. Every work environment has its little quirks and weirdnesses, but I swear everything at this place was quirky and weird. When the manager casually asked how it was going I answered honestly, saying it was all fine but I wasn’t really interested in FTE, so I wouldn’t mind if he asked the agency for a different person and I would be happy to stay until then. He called them and I was gone that afternoon. He was a man of few words - might have said a hundred to me the whole time I was there lol.
About 6 months when I was 19 years old. 3 months in I tried to book a week of vacation 3 months in advance (they asked for at least 1 month notice) and the power tripping substitute manager declined it immediately without checking the schedule or anything. As far as I remember there was no “first come first serve” BS, he just wanted to be a douche about it.
So after another 3 months the time came and I went on the most epic camping trip with 8 friends and had the time of my life.
Came back to civilization to a full voicemail inbox of my direct manager asking where I was, sighing, and eventually saying I was fired for it.
I regret nothing.
Two days.
I started a job at a ‘shake and shingle mill’ on the west coast. These places essentially receive cedar logs and produce little slats of wood used for pretty shingles on the sides and tops of houses. Ooo, pretty. The process is unchanged since like the 1700s, and the equipment since the Great War, I think. To make one into the other, first a huge saw cuts the logs into 2’ segments. Tip that on end and drive a wedge into it repeatedly via pneumatic piston, and you have smaller pieces. Those pieces would go to the cut saw to be made square and tidy, and then bundled into a unit to sell. So far so good?
I started as the low man, the dude who takes the split wood to the saw, and who tips the sewn logs over to position the 2’ section for the splitfest. And I’m running back and forth and it’s dangerous as shit – the floor’s wet wood because it’s a big shed and the incoming cedar is rainforest cedar, and it’s always bleeding water out when it’s being cut. The entire place is wet. So I’m careful, but the splitter guy isn’t. It’s not the end of day one and he drives the wedge into his hand. WITH the grain, so he’s not losing fingers, but it’s gonna be a while melding that vulcan salute back together. Yay, promotion! We short-hand it - oho! - and I’m doing 1.5 jobs until go-home time.
Next day, like almost first thing, one of the guys running the big saw loses some fingertips. Go see that video, see how the panel drops, and imagine how that could have happened. So he’s off to the doc. And another guy steps over and he’s gonna show me how to use that machine so we don’t fall behind – and it’s like 2 min before coffee and the guy they just hired to fill the job I started at, he slips on the wood in his sneakers and falls out this big hole in the side of the barn where there’s a conveyor the wood comes in. He falls like 10 feet onto the ground, hard. It’s dirt, but when a 20 year old kid pauses you know he’s injured. Yep, he’s twisted the hell out of his ankle and fall on his arm a bit. He drives automatic, so he’s off in his own car to take himself to A&E. And we’re down two.
During coffee, I go to the boss. It has been a rough two days; and despite how safe it normally is, I definitely need my hands or I don’t need to save for the comp sci degree anymore. Reluctant handshake and it’s all in the rearview.
Good fucking call. Did that place have one of those “no injuries since ___” sign that you watched someone erase twice in your two days?
Exactly one month. It was a secure place where I needed to provide two forms of ID to get into… so you can probably imagine. Needless to say, my very first day, the person that trained me spilled the beans on how *they *were lied to starting out and ever since that day, I slowly began to realize that I was also lied to. Horrible people, horrible [mis]management and just outright horrible working conditions. It’s amazing what society will convince people as worthy all because it’s “for your country” even though to someone like me, it’s practically cruel and unusual… you know the rest.
Three weeks is my personal record for proper jobs, not counting walkout from bait-and-switch jobs.
Interviewed at two places, accepted the one that gave an offer, then 3 weeks later the second place provided a better offer. Accepted the better offer and handed in resignation. I know the bridge is now burnt at place 1, but no regrets.
Look after number 1.
I applied for a job, the manager called me saying what do I know about the job and read up on the section of the law that applies to what we do. Then at the end of the 3 minute call s The manager suggested applying next time when the listing comes up again. After 30 minutes I got a call back from the same manager arranging for my interview time.
Feeling weirded by the series of calls and micromanaging even before I came to the door, I attended the interview. I found one of the supervisors knew me and know I’m perfect for the job. After the interview I retract my application. We are expected to act and problem solve within the standards, micromanaging doesn’t work well in my profession.
