cordelia Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I thought it might be funny to hear the oddest jobs people have had Mine: when I was a student I bagged clothes in huge polythene bags for a clothing company...and then climbed huge racks of scaffolding, lifting them up and stacking them about... (very dangerous...and probably illegal) other people must have had odder jobs than me.... the funnier the better..........to cheer us all up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicola H Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I once had to photograph burial shrouds and coffins for a company brochure..........It felt very weird and you guessed it when i took a comfort break from shooting my assistant hid in one of the coffins and gave me the fright of my life, he even put on one of the shrouds............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Not me...but two old schoolfriends had interesting tasks to perfom at work, years ago. One had to open up the Pick N Mix at Woolworths (Saturday job whilst still at school) and she had to pick the mouse droppings out from among the sweets with a pair of eyebrow tweazers. The other friend worked at a Robertson's Jam factory and sat suspended over the vats, skimming the wasps off the bubbling jam. Tthe Elfnsafety would have a field day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillus Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Many years ago I worked in the Harris Sausage Factory in Calne Wiltshire. I was mainly a linker and a packer and I never ate sausages for 20 years after that. You should see what was being ground up to go into them....... We would be packing sausages for Harris and then a bell would ring and we would put the Harris labels to the side and we would then pack the same sausages with another label and they had to be packed in a neater way to look better and the price on the pack was far higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyhunnypie Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Pushing the pork down in pork pies. Oh & picking the shell & skin off a conveyor belt full of peanuts. Those student holidays eh? Emma.x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ain't Nobody Here Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Not really an odd job, but I worked in the kitchens of a fairly posh Edinburgh hotel and had to make the mixture for sponges to make gateaux. The industrial sized mixer did a poor job so I was instructed to use my whole arm to mix it all together . I'm sure my arm was clean . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theherd123 Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Oh the student days! One summer i packed dental floss, the next i worked in a care home for the elderly, the one after i sorted & packed ceiling tiles - oh the heady heights of student jobs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faye&Ant Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Not me...but two old schoolfriends had interesting tasks to perfom at work, years ago. One had to open up the Pick N Mix at Woolworths (Saturday job whilst still at school) and she had to pick the mouse droppings out from among the sweets with a pair of eyebrow tweazers. The other friend worked at a Robertson's Jam factory and sat suspended over the vats, skimming the wasps off the bubbling jam. Tthe Elfnsafety would have a field day! I used to love the pick and mix at Woolworths Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I worked in a bakery at weekends and my first job of the day was to remove the cream cakes from the shop, s"Ooops, word censored!"e out the old cream and re-cream them....... ...and as a desperate adult during the last recession (and with two dependant teenagers and dependant grandmother) I worked on an Organic farm and filled in rat holes with broken glass and mortar - and also worked on butchery day making sausages all day. Another of my extra jobs at that time was the twilight shift (6pm - 10pm) glueing dried flowers on arrangements........oh! the burns from the hot glue guns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmommasally Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I worked in a dog boarding kennels back in the 70's. I picked up poo, cleaned kennels, got bit on the bum several times, and minced tripe for their dinner, all for the princely sum of 50p an hour! When I got home my mum use to make me strip off in the garden before she'd let me in as I stank so much! I feel like I've gone full circle At least the chickens don't peck my bum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looney Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Where to start.... I have been paid to dress as a chicken and hand out flyers (great fun!). I operated a machine that made paper "grass". The sort that is used in gift boxes / baskets. I was a "Crisp Bagger" in a Walkers factory I've been a library shelver (had to pass a test for that one to make sure I could put books in the right order! ) I translated train specifications from French to English - the joy of 52 pages on cable wiring in a locomotive. Not sure it made much sense in English either! Lesley - re-creaming cream cakes eurgh ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helly Welly Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Not weird but truly awful. I temped in a factory packing yoghurts, so naturally the warehouse was one giant fridge. I have never been so cold in my life and it was the middle of Summer at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alih Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 The weirdest job I ever had was doing English voiceovers for adverts for Stephanie de Monacco's perfume in France. I never understood why they wanted an Englishwoman to do the voice as I was meant to be her and she speaks perfect English! money for old rope - it's amazing what work you can find loitering in bars in Paris (sorry that sounds all wrong! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I worked on an Organic farm and filled in rat holes with broken glass and mortar That is a tip we haven't heard on the forum before. Did it work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madchickenlady Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I spent a memorable two weeks going door to door selling hoovers. Hugely expensive hoovers. The pitch was to enter people in a free draw, then ring them up and tell them they'd won a free carpet shampoo. I'd then show up with my Kirby, and basically tell people how revoltingly filthy their homes were All they had to do to fix this embarassing problem, was to hand over 1500 pounds for a brand new kirby. Didn't sell one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helly Welly Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I spent a memorable two weeks going door to door selling hoovers. Hugely expensive hoovers. The pitch was to enter people in a free draw, then ring them up and tell them they'd won a free carpet shampoo. I'd then show up with my Kirby, and basically tell people how revoltingly filthy their homes were All they had to do to fix this embarassing problem, was to hand over 1500 pounds for a brand new kirby. Didn't sell one My Mum bought one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I spent a memorable two weeks going door to door selling hoovers. Hugely expensive hoovers. The pitch was to enter people in a free draw, then ring them up and tell them they'd won a free carpet shampoo. I'd then show up with my Kirby, and basically tell people how revoltingly filthy their homes were All they had to do to fix this embarassing problem, was to hand over 1500 pounds for a brand new kirby. Didn't sell one My Mum bought one So did my MIL My first summer after leaving school, my step dad gave me a job to stop me getting lazy. I spent 6 weeks working as a brickies labourer and plasterer. Not a common occupation for a teenage girl in the eighties! (didn't get a builders bum though ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janty Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 In my student days I ...packed MFI kitchens (and put extra bits in to confuse people). ...did 12 hour shifts putting tops on bottles. ...worked as a petrol station attendant. The joys of working in Runcorn Old Town. The worst place was a factory called Steripack (or something like that). It was full of horrible men that used to bully the student workers. One sent me for a left handed screwdriver and I went home for the rest of the shift. When I went back with a screwdriver he told me that I was not getting paid for the shift. I explained that I had been looking for his screwdriver and that if he didn't want me to complain about his bullying to management then he was going to keep quiet about my disappearance.I also pointed out to him that the job was only a summer job to me and didn't really matter but that it was his only job so he should lay off the students. He left me alone after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little chickadee Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 In my student days I've Been in a TA Army Band (Think Dad's army with instruments!) Quality control in a carrot factory & travelling round the country with the Touring Cars feeding the Peugeot team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooks Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I worked in a cattery cleaning out the kennels for about £1.75 an hour. Not a weird job, but it did have a weird and wonderfull smell I've had a few jobs actually, anything to bring in some money. Worked all through colelge at M&S though so that was pretty safe.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 not weird, but very - I used to work for a well-known supermarket, this was thirty years ago mind you, and one of my jobs was to repack the eggs, removing broken ones and putting whole ones in to make complete boxes. Inevitably they'd have been stacked somewhere for days (the permanent staff wouldn't do this job, it was left to the poor weekend students like me, of course) and by the time I had to do this some of them would have started going off. I can still recall the smell now ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 - what a horrible thought! Another job I had was manually putting together books of raffle tickets for a Printers.........I used to take them home and do it as piece work......... OK...until you suddenly looked down and realised that the last few thousand books you'd put ready to staple didn't end in the right number, 5 or 10, and the work all had to be done again I was often up 'til the early hours putting them right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancing cloud Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Not particularly odd, but I spent 10 weeks working as a table-clearer in the self-service part of the restaurant at Morecambe Pontins. We got to eat the next day whatever the campers had rejected the day before and, being in the cheap seats, several of the campers felt we were just there for their abuse. The last two weeks of the season where the camp was full of OAP's paying about £1.00 each was appalling - they were worse than the toddlers I woudn't have the patience to put up with it now, but I suppose it was good for the soul (and I am never rude to staff). More odd, but much better was puppy-rearer . My parents used to time their dog-breeding as far as possible so that pups were born about the time I came home from university and I would then look after them for 10 weeks before they were ready to go to their new homes. Generally I have the maternal instincts of a brick, but I developed such empathy with the puppies that I would be awake and heading to their room before they'd even started to squeak. There was a lot of cleaning up and a lot of play and cuddles - hhmm, think I've gone back there, only now there's feathers as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraJ Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 In my student days I ...packed MFI kitchens (and put extra bits in to confuse people). Ahh so that was you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 In my student days I ...packed MFI kitchens (and put extra bits in to confuse people). Ahh so that was you Are you sure it wasn't you who left pieces out??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
