Pure Fluff--What is the oddest job you've had

[debster812]

For me it's easy. I spent a summer (when I was 17/18) as a marine construction worker. I had been hired by a condo/marina to be a dockhand, but construction was delayed, and since the marina was not built yet, the condo arranged for us (there were 4 of us) to work for the marine construction company.

Now, I had been boating/sailing since I was 5, and my dad is in construction, so I had a decent knowledge base to actually do the work. But I spent almost the entire summer being talked down to by a bunch of crotchedy men who thought I knew nothing. (I was also the only girl, the other 3 were guys).

My shining moment was when one of the 'real' workers asked me to go to the tool box and get him a wrench that 'makes a clicking noise when you spin it' I said to him in my sweetest voice, "Oh, a ratchet? What size do you need?"

So what unusual or 'odd' jobs have you done?

 

[robinb]

I worked for a clipping bureau before returning to college. I read newspapers and marked them when I saw certain names and or companies mentioned. We looked for so much stuff, we had a microfiche reader on our desk with the current list of names/companies. Someone else would then cut the article out of the paper.

 

[Goofyposter]

My shining moment was when one of the 'real' workers asked me to go to the tool box and get him a wrench that 'makes a clicking noise when you spin it'

BaWHahwhwhwaaaaaaaa!!

er...I mean...."oh"


LOL! well....when I was just a young Goof.....I had teu run the coat room at a local resteraunt's 'function' room.....

does that count?

 

[jipsy]

I guess my most unusual was "selling" coin-operated copiers in eleven states. I drove a six wheel box van and went to grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores. We didn't really "sell" them, I asked you to let me put one in your store at no charge, a convenience for your customer, and in return you get a percent of the money that goes through the machine. If you didn't take it, I went across the street and put one in your competitor's store LOL.

It was easy and it paid very well and I got to travel alot, which I love to do anyway. The owner eventually sold off the company, a few states at a time, and after 2 1/2 years I didn't have a job anymore

The other one: This wasn't a job, but an interview. I sent a resume for a secretarial position with a small insurance agency. I was called for an interview at 10 am. When I got there, about 7 or 8 other girls were in the lobby area. He called us in for an interview one at a time; then he interviewed us all at once. It was the weirdest interview I'd ever been on and when they called me to offer me the job, I turned it down.

 

[C.Ann]

I worked for one day for one of those phoney "psychic/astrology" type women that place the "get-your-lucky-numbers-based-on-your-birthdate-for X amount of dollars" ads in the National Enquirer, Star magazine, etc..

She had crates and crates and crates FULL of requests with money in them and I was instructed to send everyone the SAME numbers - unless it was two people from the same address or same family..

I could tell by the names (no offense to anyone here) like: Henry, Ethel, Gertrude, etc., - and by the shakey handwriting - that a lot of these requests were from elderly people who were probably hoping to get their "lucky" numbers and hit it big in the lottery or something..

At first I was very sad - then I got very angry.. At the end of the day (I was only there for 6 hours), I got in my car, raced home, called the Attorney Generals Office to report her, and never went back again..

How can people do stuff like that? Even though it was a well-paying job, there was no way that I was going to be a part of it..

Still makes me angry to this day..

 

[amid chaos]

We moved to the Virgin Islands right after Hurricane Hugo. The resort where my DH was the chef was hit pretty badly by the storm.

We lived on the resort while it was being rebuilt.

Norah was 4 at the time.

The two of us had a golf cart and we went from room to room rewiring all the lamps. Any metal had corroded very badly due to the salt spray from the ocean.

That's how we spent our first summer there.

 

[Krisu]

One summer to make money to go to England I worked at a factory. My job was to glue rubber strips together for 8 hours Sure made me want to continue school and do something else

 

[shep]

I mowed the cemetary for about 10 years...My Dad was the 'groundskeeper'

 

[Luv2Roam]

I can't think of anything odd that I have done. BUT one of my GF once had the wonderful job of smelling kitty litter, in various stages of use! (Yes, it was kitty litter manufacturer.)
Strangely enough, she liked the company and really didn't miind doing it.

 

[jipsy]

LOL L2R I hope that paid well for her

 

[Dream]

I worked one summer during college for a marketing research firm doing telephone surveys! I met some really strange people!!! Called into a Marine barracks one night!!! You wouldn't believe how many dates I could have gotten out of that one!!! Fun job!

 

[asamgp]

I worked as a deck hand on a shrimp boat when I was 16.

I did it for the tan of coarse!!!!

That was one smelly job. Culling the shrimp out of the loads. Just call me Bubba Girl Gump I guess.

 

[Fishbone†]

One summer I spent a couple of weeks squirting soap out of THOUSANDS of Elmo Bubble soap bottles into big barrels. The company had packaged a bunch of "cloudy" soap, and it needed to be disposed of properly..... plus, I think they wanted to reuse the bottles. I was SOOOOO sick of Elmo's face and the smell of bubble soap, that I'm sure it took me ten years to recover!!!

 

[browneyes]

I sold shoes once. I felt like a feminine Al Bundy.

 

[debster812]

I think L2R wins this round, vicariously anyway.

Anyone else?

 

[phins_jazy]

2 odd jobs come to mind. Many, many moons ago I dressed up in a dog costume and stood on a busy street corner and waved at all the passers by to come to the new pet food store. Did that for 8 hours straight.

Another one was that I was a receptionist .......at a funeral home. I had to take the first calls and write up obits and print up memorial cards. Wasn't glamorous but it got me through a year of college.

 

[figmentvi]

Originally posted by amid chaos
We moved to the Virgin Islands right after Hurricane Hugo. The resort where my DH was the chef was hit pretty badly by the storm.

We lived on the resort while it was being rebuilt.

Norah was 4 at the time.

The two of us had a golf cart and we went from room to room rewiring all the lamps. Any metal had corroded very badly due to the salt spray from the ocean.

That's how we spent our first summer there.

Vanessa you know I can relate to THAT story. Fun times on St. Croix after Hugo huh????????? (I'm saying that VERY sarcastically).

I guess the oddest job I had was running a forklift for a lumber company in Brattleboro, VT. I actually liked the job too!!!

 

[Lanshark]

De-tasseling corn when I was a teenager in Indiana.

They hire dozens of kids to walk between corn rows and pull the top tassels off the corn. I believe it is because it is a hybrid type of corn and they don't want it to cross pollinate. I did it long enough to buy my boyfriend (now my DH) a watch for graduation.
It really motivated me to go to college.

 

[Kteacher]

I took a temp job one summer when I was home from college at a factory that made cosmetics containers. It was second shift, and my job was to take the parts necessary for lipstick tubes from 2 different conveyor belts in front of me, twist them together, and place them in a box. Remember the I Love Lucy episode where she's working in a chocolate factory and the conveyor belt keeps going faster and faster, and she starts putting the chocolates everywhere- well that was what it was like The conveyor belt emptied any parts you hadn't put together into a large box at the end-needless to say, mine contained the most parts-just glad I wasn't being paid piece-work!

 

[becka]

I guess I have not done anything too unusual. My oddest job was working at a museum while in college. I did a variety of things including floor security, working in the security booth, cleaning bathrooms and taking souvenier pictures of families who wanted to sit in the Beverly Hillbillies car.

My friends husband used to work for Butterball and his job was to inseminate the turkeys!!!