9/15/10

Worst Job Ever

Publix is a grocery store chain in Florida. Ex-pats from Florida moan about there not being a one in NC.

It's just a store to me, because it is not Oliver's Market - which is THE BEST GROCERY STORE IN THE WORLD. (Read the reviews, it's not just me.) They were doing the localvore thing back before it was the trendy thing to be. And pray tell, what other grocery store has Princess Cake by the slice?!
The original store in Cotati, CA was one short sweet half block from my house. I loved that store; fourteen years later I'm still in mourning. (Do I need therapy?)


Hang on...


Okay, I'm back from crying about Oliver's.

Aside from looking for a job (which SUCKS, btw), the worst job I ever had was working in the Publix deli for two horrible weeks in 1996.

Now friends, I have put in my time in the food industry; I have been a waitress, dishwasher, milkshake and pizza maker. Not to mention a parent. I've done my share of serving and preparing food, but for some reason, this job was awful.

I like my roasted beast as much as anyone, but this job almost turned me into a vegetarian.
Shaving ham, turkey, chicken, head cheese, slabs of liverwurst, the slicer would throw back tiny pieces of whatever and they would stick on your face, hairnet, clothes.

One woman said her cat would hang around while she disrobed and wait for all the meat bits that fell out of her bra. GAH!

Then there was the fried smell that permeated every pore and follicle on top of the cured meat smell.

Even after I was rescued by getting another job, I had a hard time ordering anything from the deli.

How about you? What was YOUR worst job?

5 comments:

  1. Either working behind the nut counter (stop it!) at the high-end department store when the man with pretty advanced leprosy would come up and order cashews OR Bee Chemical Company. I'm not exactly sure what my Bee job was, being 18 I didn't much care, but the Dept Head "Jim" told the other women in the office I had gotten the highest scores ever on the pre-employment test. I worked there two weeks. He fired me. My father called to ask why and "Jim" said because the other women didn't like it that I got a high score on the test. "The man's a lunatic," my father said. Wait, maybe that was just the briefest job...at least coldcuts were not involved. CP

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  2. To earn money for college, five nights a week I sat in the basement of the Physics building working on a machine that measured something I did not understand and printed out cards I could not read (English major, not Physics major; don't know how I got there). I was surrounded by lustful young physics graduate students, and there I was--18, 19 years old, just sitting there without a brain cell in my little head about men, dating, the emotional costs of extramarital affairs, and so, tragically, on. I would say it was an educational experience, though not about physics. But it paid enough so that I could take classes during the day. And so I lived for that. Reading Shakespeare with a brilliant professor made it all worthwhile.

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  3. Somehow I just can't picture physics students being lustful, but I guess anything in the body of 20 something year old is prone to lustiness.

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  4. Going through a divorce, worked as a waitress AND delivering papers. While delivering papers in the middle of the night when God and everyone was asleep, I had to pass by that damn car of my x's. Every frickin day. The brick never went through the front window of the x's car. I still wish I had. Really. I do ... Sinner thinking, I know. (I seriously left the brick at home every morning). 2 musicians got me thorough those horrible mornings. The Judds, and Melissa Ethridge. The tape, yes...tape, played over and over and over. Sanity in learning the words and screaming them in the dark car where I was bawling my eyes out. Sorta like the threshing room / weaping and whailing! To make things worse...(what's worse than total fatigue?)...I developed an unbelievable intolerance to certain foods, and it manifested as something that LOOKED like leprosy. Itched like heck, and kept me awake even when I HAD time to sleep. (krazy "single" kat woman)

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  5. I have been a hairstylist for 42 years...... in a number of salons over the years. My least favorite was an Edie Adams Cut and Curl for about 8 months. What a journey into masochism. I actually had a child spit full on in my face. Before I went to beauty school I had 2 jobs. One was working in a cleaners... I liked the customer service part of that job..... had a car accident and had to leave. The second was collecting money for a scam photography business..... of course I did not Know it was a scam.... I had to drive all over hells half acres to collect and give out certificates. All in all I have worked since I was 17 with 2months off for the birth of my son and 1 month off for the birth of my daughter. I still love what I do. I feel joy at the end of a good day and feel like I have made a difference. In the last few years I have also worked as a Coach to private clients. This has been fulfilling along with the Chaplaincy that I volunteer in. I love what I give my life to with or with out pay. I will probably have to work until I drop. I don't look forward to being 85 and doing 95 year old clients but what are you gonna do.

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