Education

What's your nightmare job and why?

We asked Twitter users what their least favourite job would be - here's a selection of their answers...

Tue Jan 9 2018 - 01:00

“Working for one of those tech companies where I have to pretend to be happy all day and merge work into my personal life, only to go on LinkedIn and post some motivational bullshit about innovation or leadership.”

– Rory Geoghegan, economic, social and cultural team with Amnesty International

“Plastics manufacture. The older I get, the more I want to tread lightly.”

– TM Upchurch, writer and EU scientist

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“Working in consumer goods (fast moving consumer goods), which I did after uni. The objective of increasing consumption is anachronistic.”

– Claire King, author

“Teaching. Never again! Child swore at me and threw a chair at my head. Friend says call centre (is her least ideal job)”

– Amy Jessica, social work MA student

“Sales. I tried it once when desperate. I’m not good at convincing people to want things.”

– Ellen Brickley, civil servant and Arts Council supported writer

“Gambling. I worked in a bookies for a couple of weeks. I saw what damage it did to people and families.”

– Eric Flanagan, marketing and development manager

“Air hostess . . . crabby customers, awful hours, turbulence, constant fear of death, swollen ankles, sick bags, awful aprons, permanently smelling like hairspray”

– Melanie Ryberg, psychologist

“Bank for me. Worked in one when I couldn’t get a permanent teaching job. After sorting out a mortgage and an engagement ring I left to return to teaching. Eleven years later I got that permanent teaching job.”

– Conor Murphy, English teacher

“Catering. I have a cardinal, inexplicable fear of mayonnaise and peas.”

– Dearbhail McDonald, group business editor with Independent News and Media

"Any kind of corporate job. Everyone in the IFSC looks like a well-dressed zombie and it terrifies me."

– Eoin O’Faogain, freelancer writer, community activist and musician

“At home with the kids at the moment – it varies from being the absolute best to the absolute worst job (rarely anywhere in between either!)”

– T Faddy, currently a stay-at-home parent

“Anything working with my hands. During a primary school parent-teacher meeting my folks were told “he’s a bright boy but he has hands like feet!”

– Andrew McDermott (job unspecified)

“Being a solicitor in a ‘top 10’ firm, proof-reading funds documents and ‘liaising’ with financial regulator. No contact with humans. Personality verboten.”

– Sarah-Jane Murphy, journalist and court reporter

“I had a revelation during a summer job cleaning a German airport: unless I’m really lucky I’ll have a degree of mess and tedium in whatever job I do. The main thing is to enjoy it most of the time and to get on with people.”

– Joyce Hickey, Irish Times journalist

“I think pest control wouldn’t be for me”

– Angela O’Connor, CEO of Trainability

“Nightmare job: any toy shop especially at Christmas.”

– Marion Dorgan, employee with a logistics department

“Chef. Cooking your own f***ing food! I couldn’t handle having to make sure someone’s sauce is perfectly placed on that plate. I’d probably turn violent.”

– David Gantly, media start-up

“I profoundly love my job. I have cold-called over the phone: that was mentally very tough. I think being a politician is a terrible job. I have a blocklayer friend who says the work is physically disastrous (and he is getting out of it). Nurses aren’t paid properly.”

– JP McCarthy, maths lecturer at CIT

“Nightmare job: 9-5 office work. Bullshit birthday cakes and other such pretendy friendly nonsense.”

– Emmy Maher, writer

“Coffee shop management! It was a thankless job trying to keep your boss and staff happy and one that I wasted too many years on. I like people and miss the social aspect of it, but wouldn’t go back.”

– Emma Hayes, writer and social media consultant

“Bomb disposal squad. A bad day at work and your career would be over.”

– Colm, masters of social science student at UCD

“I would hate to be a debt collector, especially when it comes to families that just cannot afford to pay.”

– Jennifer Purcell, marketing and communications officer

"Being a Brexit negotiator in Belfast. "

– Mark Shanahan, politics lecturer at Reading University

- Peter McGuire

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