If you have ever had to work a job during the summer, then you know that there are some pretty bad jobs out there. Sometimes, however, some of the hardest jobs pay the best, so opinions can be in the eye of the beholder. I took the initiative to go out and ask people what the worst job they ever had were .
One of the horrible jobs I was told about by Autumn Cusino was weevil crew. When working weevil crew, you have to wear thick jeans and tennis shoes while sweeping the fields in the heat of the summer sun. The goal of the weevil crew workers is to check the bug population and report back to their advisor to see whether or not the field needs to be sprayed. One of the workers talked of how she was stung by bees five times in one week while working on the weevil crew. Another worker talked of how they once had to sweep almost a whole field by themselves on one of the hottest days of the year, saying that she was pretty close to succumbing to heatstroke.
Another horrible job that Mac-Hi students told me about was working as a Quality Assurance Analyst for Smith’s. A typical day working as a QA analyst entails waking up at 8pm, eating dinner with the family, and getting to work by 9 p.m. Once at work, the workers must type in their number and scan their hand to clock in, sort of like in spy movies. Next QA analysts must sanitize their elbows down and put their hair up in a hairnet and orange bump cap (which is a little helmet). They also wear white lab coats, and you can’t forget about the earplugs that save the QA analysts’ hearing on a daily basis. After all of that, the QA analyst are be able to start their actual job. First, they take a pitcher and dunk it in a sanitary solution, then the analyst would go to this tunnel where it rained frozen peas (frozen peas are painful like hail pellets when they hit you in a 10 degree room), next their job turns absolutely scientific when they test the color, appearance, and maturity with all kinds of crazy scientific gizmos that explode your mind with wonder. Once that is done, they must repeat for eight hours. All in all, this job has got to be at least in the top five of the most horrible jobs, especially when you realize just how monotonous and sometimes painful it can be.
Last but not least is the glorified baby sitter: the lifeguard. Before going on shift, lifegaurds must make sure to absolutely slather themselves completely in sunscreen if they have any hope of not burning to death during the time they work. While most people think that lifeguarding is the cushiest job ever, I am afraid they are severely mistaken. Far from the cliche, lifeguarding is full of discomfort, ickiness, and for what seems like the majority of the time, janitorial work. Lifeguards at the Milton-Freewater aquatic center have to be at work by 11:00-11:15am if they are working the morning shift. Once at work, they are expected to set out the mats, check over and/or clean the locker rooms if they are dirty, prime and start the slides, clean the guard room, and prepare for their shift of guarding. The lifeguards must be in position by 11:30 and ready to save patrons from drowning. Hours in the hot sun trying to get people to follow the rules is a monotonous and boring job, but hey, at least you can get a tan while doing it, and in truth the pay is pretty good.
