Hell Jobs

[Im_CIA]

4 hours ago, RaTcHeT302 said:

that's not the feeling which i got from Microsoft 

Granularities don't really matter if your management sucks 

[Swamp]

1 hour ago, kerdios said:

Like what?

I....I don't know

[kerdios]

9 hours ago, Swamp said:

I....I don't know

well, the type of qa I did was atypical, it was a small company with their own made up tools and its own made up procedures, none of the regular qa terminology

[Generic-User]

Only really major hell job for me that comes to mind was working at the switchboard of a large hospital that was nearby. We handled all the incoming calls to the hospital and had to route them around to what people were looking for (like "hey can you put me through to family medicine, I need to make an appointment"), and also route internal calls from the facility to either someone else internal or outside to whoever they needed to talk to. We also had to deal with sending messages to pagers (since cell signal inside the hospital was atrocious). We also dealt with paging codes, which was always usually pretty straightforward, but also stressful because any delays in response were automatically your fault until you've managed to handle the protocol for contacting everyone involved (depending on what the code was). Anyway, the day-to-day wasn't too terrible, especially on day shift, as it was very straightforward since the entire hospital was open, and practically all you had to do was just connect calls. Evening and night shift was a little different, since although the call volume dropped, the amount of work you had to do per call tended to increase, since you had to manage connecting patients to on-call doctors after hours, and other pain in the ass things. Normal customer service hassle stuff also applied (like getting cussed out by people that you can't talk back to, etc.), along with getting reamed by doctors and nurses for stupid stuff.

 

Day shift was actually pretty great, but evening and night shift though was where it started to suck (especially night shift). I only got to do day shift during training. All the day shift people were full-time employees and also had worked there for like 20 years, and weren't going anywhere, anytime soon (one of those jobs where you can't get the slot until someone literally dies or retires). They put me on evening shift for a bit (I was part-time so they shuffled me around, though only between evening and night) which I still can't decide if it was better or worse than nights.

 

Anyway, what made it a hell job for me was they primarily had me work night shift. During that time, it was only one person, just you. That isn't always so bad (I'm a pretty solitary guy anyway) but the place they had you working in might as well have been a dungeon. You were in the basement of the building, in the center of it, so there were no windows around at all. You were also under 9 stories of concrete, so cell service was completely out of the question. There was no wifi that you could access (not that I had a smartphone at the time, and you weren't allowed to bring in a laptop). You had a computer in front of you for handling all the switchboard stuff, but it had no internet (there was only a local intranet). Lastly we had a small CRT TV up in the corner of the room, but it only had local access cable, so pretty much the only thing on was infomercials at that time of night (though once in a while you got lucky).

 

Basically, all you had was the switchboard phone, some TV that wasn't even worth watching, and yourself. Nothing else. You had to sit there and rot, while also maybe taking, at most, 10-20 calls in an entire night (this was both good and bad). It was hell trying to stay awake, unless you just brought a bunch of energy drinks to keep in the mini fridge in the room. You couldn't get up and leave either, since it was literally just you in the room, and you had to be in there at all times in case someone called (or god forbid a code). If you needed to use the bathroom, your only option was to wait halfway through the shift, where someone from security would stop by and see if they needed to cover the switchboard while you went to go piss or whatever (they had formal training on the system, but only a minimal amount, and if you took too long and a code came in and the security guy botched it, it was still your ass). They were good dudes though, and if you absolutely had to use the bathroom or something outside of that mid-way break period, they would come down to cover, but if they had stuff going on (like someone going apeshit in the psych ward), it could be some time, since they were also on a skeleton crew at night.

 

So yeah, barring some exceptional nights (like the insane amount of stuff I had to do after a dude got stabbed in a bar downtown one night), it was mostly you just starting at the wall for 8 straight hours, constantly glancing at the clock and watching your own mortality tick away.

 

There were some small highlights that broke up the monotony from time to time though. Like one night I got to listen to radio traffic of security chasing an escaped patient all over the campus, that was pretty hilarious. I also got a call one night from the clinical coordinator (it was a duty that rotated between nurses for after-hours, where they essentially assumed acting authority over the entire hospital) who told me to page the hospital president, CEO, the chief of infectious disease, and told me to announce a lockdown. I wondered if this was the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and that patient zero was right here at this hospital.

 

The pay also wasn't terrible for the work involved. My base pay was a few dollars above minimum wage, and I also made night and weekend differential to add up to a few more dollars an hour. Also despite being "part time" I still pulled in 40 hours a week, and sometimes overtime. I remember making close to 30 dollars an hour for the shift that was an overtime-night-weekend-holiday.

 

Still, ultimately it was slowly devouring my soul, and I'm glad I got out of there, despite the positives that did exist with it.

 

 

[BTGBullseye]

9 hours ago, Generic-User said:

You were also under 9 stories of concrete, so cell service was completely out of the question. There was no wifi that you could access (not that I had a smartphone at the time, and you weren't allowed to bring in a laptop). You had a computer in front of you for handling all the switchboard stuff, but it had no internet (there was only a local intranet). Lastly we had a small CRT TV up in the corner of the room, but it only had local access cable, so pretty much the only thing on was infomercials at that time of night (though once in a while you got lucky).

Were you also not allowed to bring in books? I'd have at least 2 novels sitting there if I were doing that job.

[Swamp]

10 hours ago, Generic-User said:

...

Wow, thank you very much for sharing this, Generic-User. I'm glad you got out of there, phones scare the shit out of me, I would be dying of anxiety at that job. 
Where are you now? Are you in a heaven-job?

[Generic-User]

6 hours ago, BTGBullseye said:

Were you also not allowed to bring in books? I'd have at least 2 novels sitting there if I were doing that job.

A book would have been fine, and I remember even bringing one in one time, but the looming existential dread made it hard to focus. Or it would be jarring once you finally settle into the book and BAM the code phone goes off. Scares the hell out of you every time. It had a unique tone and was loud as all hell, and you can't possibly predict if or when it might go off, so it was also like working next to a jump scare on a random timer. It put you in a subconscious mode where you felt like you could never let your guard down, and it sucked trying to read a book while always feeling on edge.

6 hours ago, Swamp said:

Wow, thank you very much for sharing this, Generic-User. I'm glad you got out of there, phones scare the shit out of me, I would be dying of anxiety at that job. 
Where are you now? Are you in a heaven-job?

Right now I'm trying to go back to college to try and become an airline pilot (getting a medical certificate has been a lengthy ordeal that I'm still working through). I worked that hospital gig when I was going to college after high school (around 10 years ago), and I ended up quitting after only 3 months. I was also just burned out from school, and it just wasn't "doing it" for me, so I figured I'd try something else. I ended up going into the military and for the most part I loved it (despite it's own "hell job" moments at times). I had a good run, but once you started getting up a little in the ranks for my job it started to become less hands-on and more administrative focused, and nothing is more soul crushing to me than sitting behind a desk and handling dry policy and bureaucratic related stuff, that feels like it exists just for the sake of existing. After I got out (about 2 years ago) I just took money I had saved up and decided to enjoy my newfound "freedom" and just kick it on my own, while not having to work. While I was doing that I made plans to go out and try hiking the Appalachian Trail. I actually didn't make it very far, I got really sick and had to bail (without going into a whole other lengthy story, we think it was something to do with a side effect of a medication I was on, exacerbated by the physical exertion of the hike, as opposed to drinking bad water or something like that). Since coming back from that is when I started making preparations for the pilot gig. Going further and further into the process, I'm not optimistic on how it might turn out (I have a lot of health issues, and have had to get seen by, and get paperwork from a lot of different doctors), but I have a couple backup plans lined up. If it doesn't pan out, I'll jump on one of those, since it kind of sucks feeling like you're currently in limbo, which is where I currently am now.

[Swamp]

4 hours ago, Generic-User said:

...

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you have backup plans, those are always helpful. I hope things get better for you, specially your health issues. I don't want you crashing into the ocean because your heart exploded or something. 

Good luck.

[Generic-User]

2 hours ago, Swamp said:

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you have backup plans, those are always helpful. I hope things get better for you, specially your health issues. I don't want you crashing into the ocean because your heart exploded or something. 

Good luck.

Hah, thanks. Fortunately that's what the physical is for. If they think there's a health reason that might lead to you crashing the plane, they won't clear you for it. They're pretty damn picky about some pretty small things sometimes, but the FAA would prefer not to take any chances I suppose.

[rairii]

I think I have most people beat considering I used to be an Amazon employee.

 

I hope Bezos rots in hell.

[Swamp]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

I think I have most people beat considering I used to be an Amazon employee.

 

I hope Bezos rots in hell.

Tell me about it, please!

[Generic-User]

I would rather relive my worst days in the military than work at an Amazon fulfillment center. Or really do any job related to Amazon.

[Mira]

The worst month of my life was when I worked as a dishwasher at the National Museum in Amsterdam, two and a half years ago. I've worked several different manual labour jobs but none of them were as strenuous as that one. On the first night I had to work from 6PM to 2AM without any breaks, being ordered around by impatient aggravated people who all hated being there, and was only given leftovers to eat during five-second interludes when there was no work to do. After my shift was done I found out that, contrary to what I'd been told, there's no bus service between Amsterdam and my home town on weekdays after 2AM which meant I was stranded until daybreak. To top it all off, I found out later that they wouldn't fully cover my travel expenses.

 

The actual work involved running back and forth between the kitchen and the dishwashing machine carrying heavy loads of dirty equipment (which involved a lot of bending over to pick up said heavy loads; I heard most of my coworkers were getting physical therapy), put all of the equipment and all of the dirty dishes and cutlery in the machine, put everything back in the right places (which changed frequently), clean out the machine during quiet moments and take out all of the trash. Ideally you would need at least three people to make everything run smoothly, but I was often expected to do everything by myself for eight hours, sometimes with one other person. As a result, I spent my whole shift in a state of near-panic trying to keep the restaurant afloat and always found myself having to skip the one 30-minute break I was granted every day (only during day shifts, which is thankfully what I was mostly assigned to after that disaster of a first night), and still I'd leave a mountain of work for the guy after me. Also because I constantly carried around hot plates and my hands came into contact with hot water all the time they were covered in blisters and the ends of my fingernails kept coming off. Also, the trash bags were really cheap so they'd usually tear open when I tried removing them from the bins. The only good thing I can say about it is that they gave their employees free dinner (again, only during day shifts), but since I never had time for a break I couldn't really make use of that offer. Everything combined with coworkers snapping and yelling at me when I failed to keep up reduced my mental faculties to those of a scared cat within a matter of weeks; I was still getting flashbacks of that time up until the last time when I was able to go to a restaurant.

[BTGBullseye]

4 minutes ago, Mira said:

-snip-

Most of that is outright illegal in the USA. Especially the skipping breaks part. (in the USA, you can sue and win millions over it, if you can prove the management is forcing it)

[Im_CIA]

So i was about to reply to someone's post but maybe the spam filter got it again

[TB]

On 6/29/2021 at 9:22 AM, Im_CIA said:

So i was about to reply to someone's post but maybe the spam filter got it again

I don't see anything indicating something was blocked or caught? The spam filter, if triggered, hides the post and completely locks the account. It only affects new accounts which yours is not.

[Im_CIA]

On 6/29/2021 at 1:12 PM, The Britain said:

I don't see anything indicating something was blocked or caught? The spam filter, if triggered, hides the post and completely locks the account. It only affects new accounts which yours is not.

No I mean some posted in this thread and it got deleted before I could reply. They probably did it themselves for some reason, oh well

[Generic-User]

Yeah I saw it as well before it disappeared. Something about being a delivery driver and heat. It was the accounts only post, so they must have really hated their job just to make an account to mention it.

 

We may never know what truly happened...

[Im_CIA]

well I read it as "delivery driver in heat" so I had a few questions about that

[TB]

Yeah our system just hides everything for later review. It doesn't delete anything.

On 6/29/2021 at 5:40 PM, Im_CIA said:

well I read it as "delivery driver in heat" so I had a few questions about that

I have many questions.