# What's the worst job you ever had?



## Iron Fist (Jan 21, 2012)

Title says it all and thought would be interesting to ask. 

I just want to add mine. When I was in college I worked night shift at the grill in 24/7 McDonalds. My shift usually started at 8pm and ended at 4am. Some of the duties besides making food for late comers... mop the floors and clean chairs and tables, clean the grills and meat containers, clean the container for french fries. It was painful back then, now I'm laughing at it. 

Anybody else?


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## Tatiana (Aug 20, 2010)

I almost hate to admit it...

In the mid-1990's I worked briefly as a telemarketer for a financial services company.  It lasted two weeks (thank goodness) and it took me 2 months to be paid because they didn't have the money to pay me!


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## MalloryMoutinho (Aug 24, 2012)

Bank customer service rep. I was awesome at the customer service part, but I hate that they made us push sales. I'm sorry, but I feel trying to get people to open savings accounts when they can't keep their checking minimum balance (often not their fault) is unethical. This just gave the bank more monthly fees.

BANKS ARE EVIL lol


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Detasseling corn was the hottest, dirtiest, screaming sore muscles job I ever had.  It's kind of a rite of passage as a "first" summer job for kids in the cornbelt.


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

I worked at a day care for about four hours.  My oldest was about 3.  I could not take him to the daycare I worked at.  I had to leave him at one a few blocks away.  Same company.  
It was the first day of school and we had kids waiting to be picked up by the bus.  One little boy, five years old, was having a hard time separating from his sister who would not be going to school,  and the teacher put him in a closet.  Freaked me out.  I left at lunch.  Picked up my son.  Reported the teacher and never went back.  
deb


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

crebel said:


> Detasseling corn was the hottest, dirtiest, screaming sore muscles job I ever had. It's kind of a rite of passage as a "first" summer job for kids in the cornbelt.


I detasseled corn one summer, and a friend and I worked at a cleaners/laundry business one fall while we were in high school. (At the cleaners, we had to fold sheets that came from the local college. That job was similar to being in a sauna for hours on end. Come to think of it, the corn detasseling was a bit like that, too.) Fortunately, I had other jobs that I liked after those two.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

At a fabrics factory, I worked with a nice Cuban lady on a big machine. I was on one side of the machine and she was on the other. Fabric rolled out of the machine and the lady and I had to grab it, take two steps to the right, put it down, take two steps to the left, grab some more fabric, take two steps to the right...all day long. We had to work in perfect coordination too, or the fabric wouldn't fold right as it went further down.


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## Not Here (May 23, 2011)

Working for my parents at their BBQ restaurant. I got paid peanuts, called in when anyone was sick, had to do all the gross cleaning (and in a place filled with grease it was pretty gross) and what happened at work/home never stayed at work/home. Can't count how many times my dad and I would fight and blow up in the kitchen. Love my dad but he's a chef and isn't breaking any stereotypes in that area. There were a few benefits but on the whole, it just wasn't a good idea.


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## GhiiZhar (May 23, 2010)

Worked 1.5 days in a dog pound (Animal Control Center) in Arizona in the early 80's when animal care was not up to today's standard. I will spare you the details.......


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

R. M. Reed said:


> At a fabrics factory, I worked with a nice Cuban lady on a big machine. I was on one side of the machine and she was on the other. Fabric rolled out of the machine and the lady and I had to grab it, take two steps to the right, put it down, take two steps to the left, grab some more fabric, take two steps to the right...all day long. We had to work in perfect coordination too, or the fabric wouldn't fold right as it went further down.


That sounds a bit like the way my friend and I had to coordinate out movements when we folded sheets (especially the fitted ones)!


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

One of my Dad's coworkers also owned a business. I got hired in that business and never been constantly demand like that. She mock and yell at her employees in front of customers. Some how I am responsible for the fact a supplier is out of a product and their is no way to finish my shift leader job to do the manager job she never filled. I had to leave mt college class to call and order cuz apparently no one else...like the owner could male the call. I had to threaten to quit to get time off for my vacation. She wanted me to watch her dogs when she was on holiday, but I couldn't afford driving across town to let her dogs out and fed them....three trips total a day over a three week period. Was constantly accused of stealing. She let me go through an email eventually after her favorite accused me of not doing mt job....she found out the girl that got.me in trouble was an issue when she went complaining to corporate. She told my parents I was smoking cigarettes..I was 21. We would get our checks on time but there were times when we could not deposit them cuz of insufficientfunds. Do many issues. We never were allowed to handle our own tips many of my coworkers think she was taking from our tips...whenever something broke she would say she was justified to take it from our tips.There is a reason that employer is always looking for people to staff her stores. I was only staff member that got gifts on holidays and once on my birthday. I worked across the parking lot from that job for over a year and I got to hear the rants from customers and employees of the place. Now I work down the street at Starbucks and I get to see a lot of my old regulars. I even get hugs. 

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2


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## Alle Meine Entchen (Dec 6, 2009)

I've had 2 bad jobs in my life.  My 1st one was an ice cream place in the mall.  I worked there in the winter time, so no one wanted ice cream (interestingly enough, when I lived in Germany, no one cared if it was cold, they just wanted ice cream) and the boss was constantly complaining about lack of sales and how we needed to stop wasting stuff.  He was so cheap he complained about people who weren't customers taking straws, spoons and napkins (once a neighboring store ran out of straws, so they were coming over to get ours.  He took the straw container down).  He did a ton of unsanitary stuff like bringing used straws from home and insisting we use them despite the fact that we could see teeth marks on them (we would wait until he was gone and then we would do it the right way) and the final straw for me was this:  I burned my finger making hot tea.  I ran it under cold water, etc and had to finish off my shift (it wasn't a bad burn, just hurt) so I took a small cup and filled it w/ cold water so I could dunk my finger when it hurt.  Boss saw it and told me that when I was done using the disposable cup, I needed to rinse it out so it could be re used.  I took it home w/ me and quit not long after.  I was a teenager, but my parent's understood that job was not the job for me.

My other bad job was working for a satellite tv company.  I've always been of the opinion that tv is a luxury, not a necessity so I've not had it in the 8 yrs DH and I have been married.  So it was very difficult for me to deal w/ people who complained about their bill being too high, but not willing to change their subscription to lower it.  Of course, the worst was when the company changed it's billing policy.  Previously, if your tv was cut off, you could make a "good faith" payment (ie pay some of the bill) and we could turn on the tv again.  This meant a huge portion of the people I talked to would have a monthly bill of $90, but only pay maybe $25 and when they missed a payment or whatever they could call us up and pay $10 and have it turned back on.  They would still have a back payment (some people owed as much as $300), but the tv was back on and that's all they cared about.  The change in policy meant they had to pay all of the bill, not a "good faith" payment.  There were lots of people who were more than upset to find out they had to pay their bill to actually get the service.  Not to mention the people who would call and try to scam you into getting freebies.  It felt too much like one of those bill collecting call centers.  I only made it about 6 months before I quit (and that was b/c they paid decent and we needed the money)


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## 13500 (Apr 22, 2010)

My worst was working in a hot dog stand during summer in Chicago when the temperatures were in the 90s, and I was in charge of the fryer. Oy! It was so hot by that burning oil! I used to come home caked in grease. Yuck.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

Telemarketing.  I actually didn't mind the customers and enjoyed trying to solve their problems.  I was good at it and generally had irate customers who other reps refused to help leave the call thanking me and happy with the outcome, even when they started out all but screaming at me.  What I didn't like was the company (I worked for two and both were the same, so I doubt it's different anywhere).  They are all about keeping calls short, priority one.  They would rather you not help the customer and have the call over in 3 minutes than actually provide the service they were calling for if it was going to take 6.  I was constantly in trouble for my calls taking too long, but I refused to just blow people off and did everything in my power to make sure they didn't have to call back.

The first one I was put on 4 week suspension for being 1 minute late.  They're really strict on being on time, which I understand, but there are so many people willing to take the job and it doesn't take much skill that they can just hire and fire on a constant rotation.  I just didn't go back.  The second place I worked, my entire class of hires was put under a single supervisor because she fired her entire group of workers.  Needless to say, she was unpleasant to work for and I lasted about three months before quitting.

A close second is a restaurant at the local Embassy Suites.  I was hired to work at the coffee shop, which I loved to do, and make $11, but they kept jerking me around and had me waiting tables 90% of the time I worked there.  People who eat in hotels generally have few options, and they are not happy folks.  They're also paying really high prices for subpar food, so they generally don't end the meal on a pleasant note either.  Add to that the fact that they're likely not coming back since they live out of state, and your tips are pretty horrible.  We were also lucky to have 3 or 4 tables a night, yet they always staffed at least 3 wait staff.  I did have some regulars who I absolutely adored, but it was such a horrible place to work.  I ended up writing the hotel manager a seven page resignation when I quit to focus on going back to school.

Now... so this isn't all negative... my absolute favorite job was the first I ever had.  I worked at an ice cream shop at Busch Garden, Williamsburg.  I actually looked forward to going to work and didn't mind the 80 hour weeks without overtime (they had some sort of seasonal employment loophole).  I have never enjoyed a job that much since nearly twenty years later.  Of course right now, just getting out of school a year ago, I would be happy to have any job.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

Geez... I hadn't thought about it for a long time, but in the early 70's - I worked in the Sporting Goods Department at a K-Mart in Albuquerque.  I hated that - mostly due to the way my supervisor treated us.  One day - I threw my keys on the floor, quit, and walked out.  That felt so good!!


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

I temped for a scammy real estate mortgage company for about two weeks before I (thankfully) broke my hand in a car door and had to quit because I couldn't type (only time I've ever been grateful for a broken bone).  The owner was this heavy set older man with a thick accent who would get red in the face and throw pencils in your general direction while shouting, "I despise you with a passion!"


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Not sure if it counts, as it was my first attempt at a "real" job while still in high school, but after less than 2 weeks as a cook(?) at a local burger joint, I quit.


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

Demo'ng pineapple at a grocery store.  Needed money BADLY.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I got pretty lucky with my jobs and never had a really horrible one. 

The worst was translating a math book for trainee car mechanics from German into English. There was no electronic copy of the file, they just gave me a pretty battered print math book. I had to copy everything and recalculate all of the math problems, because the solutions given in the teacher's edition were frequently wrong. Then I had to scan all the geometry problems from the original book and everything had to be perfectly aligned. I ended up buying a new scanner, because my old one wasn't up to the task. Finally, everything - text, formulas, math problems, graphics - had to be fitted into the page templates provided by the customer, which frequently didn't fit. So in short, it was a lot of work, very little actual translation work, which is what I'd been hired for, and then the customer was slow to pay, too.


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## Carrien (Jan 30, 2011)

Yikes, I think I had many!!!!! The first one right out if high school, I used to babysit this families kids, normally kids were in bed already so I sat in this mansion watching cable TV a luxury we did not have at home, he would pay me $25-40 to sit there 2-3 hrs bored out of my mind....then he hired me as a secretary for his construction company but just after I started he was arrested and our offices were locked down, he was charged with bid rigging and because he had power he got night jail, all the employees quit but me...I ended up teaching myself blueprints, estimating and material take off and I did this for $3.25/hr plus taxes....he would make me haul his heavy equipment...scared to death driving this huge truck with a trailer and earth moving equipment and he would make me wax his Benz and help the mechanic work on our heavy equipment.  I worked there a year and half no raise but loved my job...hated him....a new employee come on board and he is looking at what I do and said who taught you this, I said taught myself...he said your good...I said thanks...I said this is what I want to do for a career, that guy said you need to go to school...I laughed I make $3.25 an hour after rent and gas I have no money to eat...this guy tells me I need to ask for a raise and said your doing a job of someone with years experience, ask for more money and said the owner was part of a organization that paid for schooling of employees if he would sponsor me, it would cost him nothing and me barely anything  I was excited but nervous and everyday that guy would ask me if I asked yet....one day the boss is there And I feel brave and I went in and asked to speak to him, he said sure "sweety". I asked if he thought I did a good job? He said I am impressed that you took over and managed to do a great job....I said thanks... So I said I was thinking I am here nearly 3yrs now and I am still at min. Wage  and since I do so much could there be an increase...he said how much? I said I'd like $100 more a week....he rolled back in his chair and laughed...I stood there like a deer in the headlights I am sure....so he said what else....I said your part of this group and I'd like you to sponsor me to go to school...he laughs harder...tells me that I a living a fantasy that just cause I could do the job and did it well that he'd never sponsor a woman...that this was no world for me and he wouldn't waste his time sponsoring me and that I would be best suited to just go off and have babies like every other woman and not waste his time or my own,... That was my first wake up call in the working world...but he offers me $25 more a week...I said I'd think about it and said I'd rather have the schooling than the money and he turned and said did you not hear me...you are a woman, you will not make it...this is not your world, you as a woman have no place here and it's lucky I kept you as long as I did...it's disgraceful that I haven't replaced you with a man yet....  He said his offer stands at $25 a week....I left saying id think about it...he said good take it cause your a woman, your worthless in this field...go do something suitable...i shook my head and left...and the next morning I tell my coworker what happened and he said you need to walk out...I said  I need a job but that I would take the $25 and try to figure out school....the boss comes in moments later and said oh sweety can I talk to you...I thought this is great, he thought about it and he can see that I deserve this break and he will sponsor me and I will take the $25..... so I happily go to his office and he says " I thought about our talk last night...I said me too....he said well let me go first....I said please do.....he said due to your dissatisfaction in your job and your pay and thinking that you deserve the same thing as a man in this male indusrty your wrong so get the F? Out..your fired for even asking me for money and for thinking that you deserve anything.....he said go have kids and don't ever enter this world, it's not for you...

I was floored.....fired......but thank goodness I refused to step down, I did with the help of that coworker get a job at another construction company and got my degree four years later...I have been in construction for over 20 yrs, has it been easy...no way...has it been fun....yes....is it stressful...you bet....would I recommend anyone to do this...probably not!  lol. But for me it's my world and that man that fired me all those years ago he is out if business and I hear he can't drive a Benz anymore and I just sit back and laugh....Gosh Karma is so powerful....if only he had to come work for me and I could make him wax my car and change my tires ...now that would be fun! And I'd make sure all his bosses were female....

Carrie


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

For me, it was being a hotel bellman....

I was the 3rd shift as a hotel bellman, between 3pm and as early in the morning as 3am, so I picked up flight crews for Southwest, which meant waiting for the last flight from Vegas, which sometimes wouldn't arrive until well past midnight. I ran errands for the hotel, took people to the mall or movie theater, took people to and from the airport, and also made sure to stand at the door when I wasn't doing any of that, to wait for someone who needed their luggage taken up to their room. We also had in the city I lived in, the headquarters for the folks that supply WalMart with books and stuff, so they had every spring their workers come in for training. This happened on Sundays, which meant I was the only one on duty to pick all of them up from the airport, which meant spending 8+ hours driving to and fro the same 11 mile stretch of I-40 back and forth from the hotel to the airport. I didn't get a break and barely had any time to re-fill the van. Of the 80+ people I had to pick up, 10 of those gave me tips (sometimes their loose change), and the rest complained that I took too long to pick them up. I could only fit 15 people to a van and I was the only bellman/driver/whatever, but they weren't very sympathetic. I also had to help some of them with their luggage to their rooms, and all I got was grumbles. It didn't help when I had to pick up the regular travelers at the same time, some of those business guys who have no patience to wait, but don't bother taking a taxi. I made minimum wage + tips $5.15 an hour and the biggest tip I ever had was $100+ from a half drunk wedding party I had to pick up from wherever it was. It didn't help me either when the guy who ran the switchboard didn't tell me about half of the people I had to pick up or transferred the call to me directly, so that I had no idea who I was talking to.  After a year and a half, I finally quit.


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## Dana Page (Nov 5, 2012)

I delivered singing telegrams.  Need I say more?  I did get some good stories out of it.  People loved antagonizing their loved ones (or soon to be ex loved ones) with a little song and dance.  I have to admit some of it was fun, but it lost its luster when a woman sent me to sing a happy anniversary song to her husband and... his girlfriend.  That one could have put me in physical danger.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

Tatiana said:


> I almost hate to admit it...
> 
> In the mid-1990's I worked briefly as a telemarketer for a financial services company. It lasted two weeks (thank goodness) and it took me 2 months to be paid because they didn't have the money to pay me!


Two weeks? You got off lucky. Yup, telemarketing for a software firm, six months of it when I really needed the money and had no choice. The day I left, I walked out of that office building's door and _ran_ the whole way to the subway station.

Having said all of which, I once met a person who was a professional, full-time telemarketer and loved her job. Different strokes.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

1964. I was 18, trying to make some money for college doing odd jobs. A man offered a friend and me a job moving about one ton of flagstone pavers from one place in his yard to another place. It took us about three hours, and our backs were hurting bad, but he paid us $10 apiece, which was a lot of money then.

Since then, I've had seven back surgeries, and I've wondered if that day had anything to do with it. Probably not, though.


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## Jennifer R P (Oct 19, 2012)

Oh man.

Worst I ever had. I was desperate and at the point of taking whatever job I could find.

I ended up working morning shift at a fast food smoothie outlet.

Let's see.

I was not allowed to call in sick, ever. I was told that if I did, I might as well turn in my uniform shirts and not come back. Why? Because the supervisor did not want to get up at 6am to come in instead of me. I had to handle the breakfast rush...busiest time of the day...solo.

The supervisor...the same one who told me he'd fire me if I called in sick, or get me fired, was ALWAYS trying to get everyone fired. He complained constantly to the owner.

So, everyone on the shift complained to the owner about the supervisor. We were told he obviously had to act like that because we were all lazy. Lazy was defined as ever not working...well, it was breakfast, then several hours of zero customers, then lunch. Trust me, there's only so much you can do in a small store with no customers. The place was always spotless, the health food merchandise on the shelves was always perfectly ordered. Not having anything to do is not the same thing as lazy.

The same supervisor made sexist comments, repeatedly. His first name was, no kidding, 'Vladimir'. Behind his back...we called him the inevitable. He was a foreign exchange student from somewhere in Eastern Europe...I think Bulgaria...who was planning on becoming a diplomat. We had some good laughs about *that* when he stepped outside.

There was nowhere to sit down during the shift. No rest room in the store...we had to ask permission to go like small children and it wasn't always granted, even when there were no customers. When the supervisor wasn't there it wasn't a problem, except when I was on my own. We would just spell each other and it wasn't a problem.

We got no paid breaks. Oh, and we all got 29 and a half hours. Yeah, they pulled that game too. And I had to listen to this fifteen minute fitness video on loop my entire shift. Every day. For six months. Okay, that's a small thing, but...

The manager once made everyone come in for a mandatory unpaid meeting on Sunday morning - this was illegal, but we all knew we couldn't complain or we'd be fired, and this was in a 'right to work' state...unlawful dismissal would have been laughed out of court. Looking back, we should have ALL refused to come in and see what he did then. One girl told him she had to go to church. He said he didn't care.

Finally, while I was there, another employee started dipping from the till. We all had to get interviewed by the cops and the manager threatened us with polygraph tests. The cops who interviewed me made comments about how they were only bothering because they didn't want to be seen as racist - I was the only white person there other than the Bulgarian supervisor and the owner. Which, of course, made them seem racist to me...

I was laid off the day after I went in and got the store open during a blizzard and stayed there on my own the entire shift.

I only worked out ages later that the reason I was low grade sick the entire six months was shift work disorder because my body couldn't handle getting up at 5am every day. Which is weird, but...it's the way I'm wired, I guess.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Working at M&M/Mars for a summer was pretty bad.  Then again, working for the company Aon was a nightmare.  Seriously, if you life ever comes down to accepting a job at Aon or poking out an eye with a sharp stick - seriously consider the stick.


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

I worked in a Lolly ( sweets) Factory  for about 4 days when I was 15.  My job was ‘sugaring’ the jubes.  They’d come out of the machine on a big conveyor belt and land in trays.  I had to stand all day in front of a huge trough of sugar with a sieve that was about 3 feet wide and coat all the jubes. 

After 2 days, everything tasted like sugar, it was disgusting. No one else could speak English , the floor was filthy and if you dropped any jubes you were expected to pick them up and put them back in.  Since then I’ve never added sugar to anything, not even cereal.  And I never eat jubes!


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## Natasha Holme (May 26, 2012)

Someone once told me what the worst job ever is. ... I think he might have been right:
The worst job ever is one where you have absolutely nothing to do, but you have to *look* busy *all* the time.


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## thebookcoverdesigner (Nov 16, 2012)

Picking up litter at a music festival on the East coast of England. Sleeping in a non-waterproof tent, starting work at 5 am when it's pouring, and not having appropriate footwear. I swear I had trench foot by the end of it.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

I don't know if I can call the worst. But I had one year postdoc where the environment was just toxic. More focus on image and show off than research.


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## gljones (Nov 6, 2012)

I worked at a local public library one summer in high school. I had to perform shelf reads which means you look at the Dewey decimal numbers and put them in the proper order. It was terribly boring. I was really bad at it oddly enough because I love books so much. I'd be going along, see a cool book, pull it down and start reading. So in a way the most boring job I ever had was sort of fun to.


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## Lee44 (Sep 9, 2012)

I worked in Macy's, my experience was so bad that I no longer shop there.  It was a store of my childhood, so I had a lot of love for the store prior to working there, but I have never had such a horrible experience.


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