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Have any of you had to do a job that you thought was degrading?

Not since I was in high school, really. But then, I knew that was a dishwashing job when I took it.

Oooooh yeah. When I was cocktail waitressing.... I was really young, recently kicked out of my parents house, and then broken up with the girl I moved in with. I was 17, no work experience, no high school degree, and I needed money FAST for a new APT and rent/bills.

I worked for a local gambling bar/restaurant. I wore a button up long sleeve white shirt and short short black shorts with stockings. All that was pretty much missing was the bunny ears/tail. I was quickly moved into the VIP room. Which pretty much consisted of huge leather chairs, facing a wall of monitors and a bar. There, I learned to bartend and gladly stayed behind the counter instead of walking from table to table. I talked about wearing "masks" in the past and "acting a part" to get by. I should have gotten an OSCAR for the work I did there. The insults/compliments I had to endure, were barely worth the VERY large sum of money I was making nightly.
At first it was myself and another male bartender, but after about 2 weeks, they requested me solo. (They = about 12 older, VERY rich men). It was a constant bombardment after that, since noone really entered or left the room once the gambling began. I would walk out with an easy 700-2000 a night, depending on how much they'd win/lose. I stayed in that job for about 6 months till I had more than enough to self-sustain and get regular work. Needless to say, I gained alot of my hate and urge to inflict bodily pain from that experience.

Unless you are the boss, any job can be made to seem degrading if you let it or the boss looks down on you.

One of my most degrading jobs was working at a call center. Great pay, great people I worked with, great benefits...but you got treated like you were a second-class citizen.

Dave said:

Unless you are the boss, any job can be made to seem degrading if you let it or the boss looks down on you.

One of my most degrading jobs was working at a call center. Great pay, great people I worked with, great benefits...but you got treated like you were a second-class citizen.

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Really?

Hmm what makes it degrading exactly?

I was thinking that I don't think I've ever had to do anything I thought was degrading but then I realized I don't really understand what kind of stuff is generally considered as such anyway.

Shegokigo said:

I worked for a local gambling bar/restaurant. I wore a button up long sleeve white shirt and short short black shorts with stockings. All that was pretty much missing was the bunny ears/tail. I was quickly moved into the VIP room. Which pretty much consisted of huge leather chairs, facing a wall of monitors and a bar. There, I learned to bartend and gladly stayed behind the counter instead of walking from table to table. I talked about wearing "masks" in the past and "acting a part" to get by. I should have gotten an OSCAR for the work I did there. The insults/compliments I had to endure, were barely worth the VERY large sum of money I was making nightly.
At first it was myself and another male bartender, but after about 2 weeks, they requested me solo. (They = about 12 older, VERY rich men). It was a constant bombardment after that, since noone really entered or left the room once the gambling began. I would walk out with an easy 700-2000 a night, depending on how much they'd win/lose. I stayed in that job for about 6 months till I had more than enough to self-sustain and get regular work. Needless to say, I gained alot of my hate and urge to inflict bodily pain from that experience.

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Tell me more.... about the outfit.

My worst job? Probably tech support while I was still studying in university. Shitty hours, shitty challenges... terrible people to deal with. By the gods of all that is sacred I never ever want to experience dealing with so many stupid clients again.

Every day I'd get a classic... such as

User: My new password doesn't work. (user makes six figure salary)
Me: Are you sure you used the right password we gave you?
User: Yes I'm sure. I saw your coworker do it.
Me: Can you tell me what the password you used?
User: Five stars.
...
User: Hello?

To me, a degrading job is one where you feel that you are accomplishing nothing while being treated as if you could be replaced any second by a wind-up monkey.

Regardless of pay and benefits, if the job is demeaning it's not worth staying at.

Shego's origin story!

Those foolish old men! Do they not realize not only did they turn her into a lesbian, but they made her into a monster!!!

Gusto said:

Shego's origin story!

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Yep.

I don't know I guess I've always had the feeling that as long as you do the job the best you can regardless of how people treated you then it isn't degrading. I've had jobs that made me miserable, (kmart) but I didn't feel degraded. I did the best I could at it and so I respect myself about it.

I'm not sure but Ill keep thinking about this.

I had a crappy tech support job too, but I didn't feel degraded at it... maybe it's because I was a 2nd tier tech, so by the time things got escalated to me, they'd already gotten the "have you tried turning it on and off again? Are you sure it's plugged in?" stuff out of the way. I got the more interesting calls, I suppose. What made it a shitty job was the working conditions... 200 of us crammed into a room, each in a cubicle no bigger than our desk with walls that didn't even come up to your chin at sitting level. I got sick more at that job than any other. The only thing that came close to degrading was having to IM the floor boss for permission to go to the bathroom, so that your phone would not pick up while you were away (they didn't ring, they just beeped, and there was the caller).

I considered the dishwashing job degrading because it was mindless, menial, often painful and usually disgusting (the dishwashers also had to clean the bathrooms in the morning... I'll never listen to a woman tell me how filthy men are again). I was too smart for it. Fortunately, I only had to go a few weeks there before I got a better job at Best Buy. But to this day, I still can't eat at the Olive Garden. The smell of the food makes nausea overwhelm me, because I remember coming home reeking of sweat and feta cheese, haunted by what I found in the women's restroom.

Not being able to eat at the olive garden is no big loss. I can't eat there either.. because it sucks fetid ass.

makare said:

Not being able to eat at the olive garden is no big loss. I can't eat there either.. because it sucks fetid ass.

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There's a difference though between deciding not to and retching involuntarily... the latter means your friends love to say, "hey, let's go eat at the Olive Garden!"

Heh, yeah, I can detect a KFC from a mile away.

I say detect because it's something beyond mere smell.

Heh, I feel you guys.

I only worked in a fast food joint for a week, back in like the mid-90ies. Harveys. Was my first job. Got my paycheck, a bit more than 100$, than I quit on the spot, took a bus to the video game store and bought Aerobiz, ran home and played it all weekend.

The only time I felt degraded was when I was an exotic dancer at a big and tall chip 'n dales club.

Oh, and when I worked at wal-mart.


One of those is true.

Ravenpoe said:

One of those is true.

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The following statement is false:
The previous statement is true.

Jay said:

Tell me more.... about the outfit.

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It's pretty much what you're imagining.

Gusto said:

Shego's origin story!

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That'd be almost true if the seeds of my personality hadn't began at a much younger age....

Dave said:

Those foolish old men! Do they not realize not only did they turn her into a lesbian, but they made her into a monster!!!

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Cute, but if you'd have fully read it, you'd have seen that I was already kicked out of my overly-religious family and had moved in with an older woman already. As for the monster part? Not quite, but it sure did add gasoline to a budding flame...

Shegokigo said:

Cute, but if you'd have fully read it, you'd have seen that I was already kicked out of my overly-religious family and had moved in with an older woman already. As for the monster part? Not quite, but it sure did add gasoline to a budding flame...

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I did read it. But my interpretation was funnier. I saw the shot so I took it.

Shegokigo said:

Jay said:

Tell me more.... about the outfit.

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It's pretty much what you're imagining.

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I guess that happened before the "pics or it didn't happen" era?

I've never had any shitty jobs.. Some were just stupid/boring like callcenter or working shifts at a factory, but those were just parttime jobs and I didn't felt degraded. I don't think I'd stay long if I did.

Dave said:

I did read it. But my interpretation was funnier. I saw the shot so I took it.

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Well no doubt, the fiction version is much more amusing. Usually is.

Jax said:

I guess that happened before the "pics or it didn't happen" era?

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When I get home, I'll see if I can find anything remotely close to what it looked like. It was kind of like a mixture between a Hooters Outfit (the shorts and their length, but black) and a Playboy Bunny outfit (the top shirt and the stockings).

Jax said:

I've never had any shitty jobs.. Some were just stupid/boring like callcenter or working shifts at a factory, but those were just parttime jobs and I didn't felt degraded. I don't think I'd stay long if I did.

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That's easy to do when you are single. When you're married with two small kids you have to bend over and take it like a man.

Shegokigo said:

Well no doubt, the fiction version is much more amusing. Usually is.

When I get home, I'll see if I can find anything remotely close to what it looked like. It was kind of like a mixture between a Hooters Outfit (the shorts and their length, but black) and a Playboy Bunny outfit (the top shirt and the stockings).

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that hots please don't kill me

Lets see....... degrading job?

I remember I had to clean latrine gutter in Thailand with my hands.

Most degrading job I've had? Bag boy. They have the supervisor/manager offices watching over the checkout isles... and mine would watch us like a hawk. Even at 11 at night (about the middle of my shift). What made this hilarious is that everyone he couldn't watch like a hawk would basically goof-off unless a customer needed assistance and the loaders/shelvers were robbing the store blind. But because he couldn't keep an eye on the people who were actually ripping him off, he took it out on the baggers and cashiers. You ever see a short bald guy bring a 6'4" highschooler to tears? I have.

But that's not why I left the job. I left the job because I walked in on the manager doing a line of coke in his office... and he offered me some as a bribe not to tell anyone. Once something like that happens, you know it's time to leave.

Gusto said:

Heh, yeah, I can detect a KFC from a mile away.

I say detect because it's something beyond mere smell.

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Yup.

You know what else I can tell about KFC? When they're not fucking doing it right. I don't exactly eat a lot of the dirty bird since working there but the few times I have the gravy wasn't made right and they didn't properly marinate the chicken or mix the flour.

radioshack

it has to be filled with the biggest morons, and is visited by bigger morons who expect you to answer all their questions like a pro. when you tell them its above you paygrade to trouble shoot their tandy 386 they lose their shit.

Dave said:

That's easy to do when you are single. When you're married with two small kids you have to bend over and take it like a man.

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I don't know.. Even in that state I think you should be able to find something else that pays enough to provide for your family... I'm not sure how the job market is in the US, but surely there can't be just that single one degrading job that you can do?

Jax said:

I don't know.. Even in that state I think you should be able to find something else that pays enough to provide for your family... I'm not sure how the job market is in the US, but surely there can't be just that single one degrading job that you can do?

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The job market in the US is severely depressed right now. Since the crash of 2008, we've had steadily higher and higher unemployment rates. National average is around 9% right now and looks to stay there for the forseeable future. Some states were hit harder than others. A lot harder.

GasBandit said:

The job market in the US is severely depressed right now. Since the crash of 2008, we've had steadily higher and higher unemployment rates. National average is around 9% right now and looks to stay there for the forseeable future. Some states were hit harder than others. A lot harder.

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Agree. But also some jobs are "beneath" some people who are unemployed (like my friend who was IT support getting over 50k a year and WON'T take a job under 45k a year which is hard)
There are some jobs that people will take. Fast food places are hiring but with minimum wages. When your unemployment check is much higher than 40 hr at McD, the motivation is just not there.