What are the Worst Working Conditions You've Endured?

When I was a new babe in the working office world, I started working at a bank. They started everyone out in the Collections Department...basically calling deadbeats for past due bills. They claimed that this would build your character, if you were going to be giving out loans later. I don't know about that, but the situation sure made for a cast of characters that rivaled "The Office".

I had a pregnant coworker threatened by a man holding an iron, when she went to his door to collect his past due payment (that's right.....our employer sent pregnant women out to collect door-to-door, but that's another story), I had to drive a hooker home after they repossessed her car, because none of the men would be alone with her. I also had a woman count me out $500 in cash in the worst crime-ridden neighborhood in the city to pay for her past due account. I fully expected to be jumped as I walked to my car, but thankfully was not.

We had no less than 4 different couples in the department having affairs, some married some, not. We had a gruff, biker repo man working for us that no one wanted to talk to, we were all scared of him...but we had to talk to him and pay him. That's just the tip of the iceberg...oh, and ALL the men in the department thought it was their right to go to strip clubs during working hours for lunch, often more than once per week....yes, it wasn't a women-friendly workplace. This was over 20 years ago.

But things haven't changed that much, have they? Tell me all about it.....

The Devil Wears Ann Taylor!

Working with a b*tch for a co-worker, who then becomes your boss can make your life a living hell! That is one reason I am soooo happy I work from home. Oh, and the title to this post - she could never stop talking about Ann Taylor clothing and I often got dragged there on our little business trips.

I started working with "Jamie" when I first transferred from one city to another, early in my corporate career for a bank. At first (day one only), she was simpering and sweet and seemed nice. Really, really fast, it became apparent that she was literally the DEVIL. Ask my family, they'll tell you. I wish I'd read the tips for working with an awful boss, but hey, back then no one was using the internet at all in our workplace, much less searching for advice with it.

Examples of HELL:

1. We had to travel together....frequently. All over the southeastern United States. Thank God there was usually one or two more people along as buffers. She had no problem saying things to me like, "you can travel, you have no life". She was as acerbic and abrasive as possible to me...when no one was looking. When the bosses were around, she was the golden girl. They loved her - what a kiss ass.


2. We had to do a project that required us to work, non-stop for 96 hours, with only a few breaks. When I suggested we should have more down time, I was scoffed at because "she could do it" (another suck up moment verbalized to the bosses). Never mind normal wage and hour law or worker's compensation. Do I wonder now why I am at the chiropractor for chronic back problems years later? My parents begged me to quit. I stayed.


3. Once, we had to travel to a little po-dunk town in south-central Florida for a week. There was no entertainment there and no decent restaurants. We stayed at a bug-infested Holiday Inn. Our entertainment was going to Walmart and getting Christmas craft kits to make little items in our hotel room in the evenings - this was maybe the only time she was sort of nice to me because we were both so horrified at our "living conditions" for the week.


4. In no time, because she was such a suck up, she was promoted over our department, when the former supervisor moved away. Horrified, I immediately went to apply for an internal transfer. This made her angry. Very angry. Gee, I don't know why - before you could clandestinely abuse me - now you could do it openly! I, luckily found a position quickly in another area. She turned off my security access a week early ("oops, she said, my mistake") causing me to be detained by security.


5. Happily, I joined a new boss, after three years of mental abuse. I heard later on from another of her workers that she was always berating the hourly workers. She said "you can't trust them if you'd don't make them do the work".

I never had such a bad situation in my working life as that one. No character on The Office could ever do that situation justice. I wonder who the Devil is terrorizing now, 13 years later. Thankfully, not me.

Job Hunting After Staying Home with the Kids

I'm back at job hunting again, after a big pitch last summer to get a teaching job with no results. What's different this time? I finally got my Statement of Eligibility last October, well after all the teaching positions for the prior year had been filled. I got my alternative teaching training via the America Board for Certification of Teaching Excellence (ABCTE for short). It is a viable alternative to a second college degree in education for those who wish to pursue a second career. My first career was in banking/human resources. About the time child number one came, the bank was going through its second merger and my job was going to be sent out of area to Charlotte, NC. I took (really asked for) the buyout and have stayed at home with the now two kids for the past eight years.

During this time I have not been skill-idle (new word). I have been very much active on the internet and working from home doing telephone sales and service, a little pit of project work and an off/on stint as a substitute teacher. I have been very active in the lives of the children by volunteering and advocating for a great public education for my gifted one (no doubt soon to be two).

The schools are starting hire again and it is with trepidation that I look at getting back into full-time work. It is something I would not actually choose to do. I would love to continue to work part-time and look after and advocate for the children. I believe this is my true calling, especially given the special needs my children have. But my better half lost his high paying corporate job some time ago and our finances seem to dictate my return to the world of work. He is working but didn't get a new job that was equal to or better than the last one, so there is something of a deficit.