h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Welcome to Talking Point. This is a semi-regular feature with topics introduced In 'Ask h2g2' from time to time.





Have you ever had to endure an extraordinarily bad work environment? Was it the boss, the coworkers, the location? How did you cope with it? Do tell.

Were you lucky enough to have had that dream job with ideal conditions? Share your experience and make the rest of us .





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h2g2 Community Editors
Witty Moniker

Well I had to endure 2 1/2 years of hell working on the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados getting sun tanned, watching endless sunsets over the Caribbean and working hard. I even had to live in the place for 3 weeks testing the systems and training the Butlers so that the high and mighty could expect their every whim was catered for.

Seriously though it was the best job I ever had in some 35 years of work.

This morning, El Pais published a story about a 23-year-old student who has been suspended for uploading to Facebook a photo showing her fellow students having to wear coats or blankets in the classroom.

The link is in Spanish, but the photo says it all:

http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2012/01/18/actualidad/1326920835_128592.html

A long while back, I was made redundant. I was out of work for some months, and became quite depressed.

Then I got a job, and not just any job, but a job with probably one of the best companies to work for. And I had to find somewhere local to stay very quickly, so I ended up in the hostelry opposite.

Having known and been concerned for my mental state, friends continued to ask if I was OK. My reply was absolutely truthful: "I live in a pub and I work in a chocolate factory. I'm not sure how much better life could get."

Excellent (unless you like neither booze nor chocolate, in which case there's something so seriously wrong with you that your opinion doesn't count anyway )

I had a set of three jobs which spanned a time of my life before, during, and after a relocation to Northern Ireland, and subsequent return to Scotland (it's a *very* long story).

What they all had in common was significant elements of freedom, autonomy and status, that I fear I'll never find again in a job Since these jobs, I've suspended work to become a full-time student in a different sector, so I really have no idea what the future holds in respect of these elements.

Without going into too much detail , I could decide how best to arrange my day; put off tasks I didn't feel like doing; just enough deadlines to introduce an enjoyable and useful degree of stress and pressure. In one of these jobs I worked totally alone for one day per week and at another periods throughout the week, so I could literally sleep at my desk if I wanted to! I could also have a lunchtime half pint in one of these jobs... I knew at the time that the freedoms wouldn't last, but I was happy that for 4 or 5 years in total I was quite content at my work, even if none of the jobs were particularly high status or paid (though one was..ish)

Yes. I still think I have PTS syndrome to do with it.

It was a Council job...and it's hard to describe how much bitching and nastiness was going on there. The boss was completely pathetic. The place was a total nightmare and shambles.

I had to leave

The council doctor who interviewed me said he knew relatively normal people who broke out in a cold sweat, just at the thought of working again for the council. He was fully sympathetic.

I'm sure not all coucils or council jobs are that bad.

But I wouldn't risk working for Southwark Council again in a million years.

Working in a Royal Mail call centre was pretty naff.

"No, I dont have your missing letter here."
"You mean to tell me the postman took a whizz behind your shed?"
"No, I really don't have your missing letter here."
"I'm sorry, but wrapping fine china in tissue paper and writing FRAGILE on it doesn't count as secure packaging."
"You're in Dundee. Your letter was sent to Aberdeen. I'm in Salford. Why would your missing letter be here?"

I'm sure Ferretbadger could share a few similar tales...

I can also counter my good jobs with what I believe to be one of the worst work environments it is possible to conceive of; working in an outbound call centre.

Sure they did their best to make the place pleasant; bright,colourful environment, ample parking, unlimited free tea and coffee, reasonable pay and excellent bonuses possible, access to counselling... But you cannot polish a terd as the saying goes. There is no way to make the following job elements pleasurable;

Every *second* had to be accounted for; you had a timer on your screen and if you are not talking on a call (dialling, pausing after a hang-up, etc does not count), you have to tell the system what you are doing ('comfort break', lunch, taking call notes, nervous breakdown). At the end of the week all these reasons were counted up and you were presented with a report which encouraged you to do more or less of these activities; i.e. too long in the toilet, too long between calls...

Team 'motivation' meetings. Nuff said

Constant insults and swearing in your ears from the poor people you have cold-called and disturbed.

I felt like a robot with no free will of worth as a human being; every action throughout the day was monitored and recorded. I had a few such jobs (mercifully short) so feel reasonably confident that this is how call centre jobs are. Debasing, inhuman, and demoralising in the extreme; A few more weeks doing that work and I would have been suicidal.

That a few (and I mean very few) people seemed to enjoy the work and actually stayed in the job for a number of months or longer is a constant cause of amazement to me. I could only conclude that these people had never had other kind of job with which to compare, or they were mentally ill and broken by the system.

I once had a voluntary job with some aging internet startup social media outfit. Boy it was... oh hang on, I'm still in it.

Customer Care with the company most frequently placed bottom in customer care surveys was fun. Made you feel really valued.

Actually, come to think of it, you can apply the same to teaching.

B

I can't stand the smell of fish. Violently ill even at the thought. Insects give me the heebie jeebies .

Therefore three months spent working in a fish factory tailing prawns and gutting fish rates amongst the worst jobs I've ever done.

Icy, I was wondering which hootoo volunteer would be the first to post in this thread about their workplace.

*coughs*

The third weekly board report is due in just 34 minutes time. In triplicate.

And I don't believe we've mentioned performance reviews...

I'm sorry; I would love to attend, but I have just shot myself in the head.

You laugh - I've just been invited to a workshop on how to sack people

I had a long career doing work that I loved. So, the job itself was fine, but there was plenty of opportunity for personality clashes. I had a boss who flew into a rage because he thought one of my co-workers had stolen a box that he had set aside to be made into a robot costume. He was fond of putting underwear on dolls.

One summer, to get myself ready for going climbing in the Alps, I though it would be a good idea to apply for a job delivering Yellow Pages.

I didn't have access to a car, but I figured I'd get fit and earn a little money. Delivery was local.

Not a good plan. I'd get 14 yellow pages in a rucksack, stagger off on my bike, get to the spot, half of the houses would be empty, note it all down, head back home and off again. I had a thousand to deliver in a week... Worked out about two quid an hour, which even then wasn't good.

sprout

Best working environment. Hop picking as a kid along with a load of other kids and our mums.

A kind of greenish gloom....and endless rows to run around in and get lost in.

Then visit to the oast house.

It's all by machine now.

I was in what they call a "skip-level" meeting just the other day, with my supervisor's supervisor's manager (two levels up). She's new-ish to the company, and these meetings aren't regular, so she went around the table asking each of us what we thought of our jobs.

I'm new-ish to the department (last October), and I prefaced my comments with "I'm still in the honeymoon phase with the department", but this is (almost verbatim) what I had to say:

"I love my job. I enjoy the work I'm doing. I like the people I work with. I like the area (part of the facility) I'm working in. I'm being challenged, but I'm not feeling overwhelmed."

Some other things about a good work environment that I didn't say: I also look forward to going in to work. I don't mind putting in a few extra hours. I have a good supervisor (also new-ish to the department) who isn't shy about giving assignments, and also isn't stingy with positive feedback. I feel like my skills and talents are appreciated, and I am encouraged to learn and grow without being made to feel that I'm inadequate.