Reading the fired thread, but I've never been fired, so nothing interesting to share there.
However, it got me thinking about jobs I've quit and in particular the really short ones.
One was a call centre job phoning people up and asking them to survey questions. I went to the training on Saturday. Then on Sunday morning as I lay in bed, I phoned them up and told them I wouldn't be coming in again. It was a long bus and train ride away on the other side of the city, pay was very little, pay was also to be held off for a full month (which I'd never heard of and found ridiculous) and plus, it sounded life a terrible job.
Second one was a guy doing me a favour hiring me to help him do siding. I had zero experience, screwed up a bit on the first day, and overall didn't care for it. I told him thanks, but no thanks at the end of the day. He was fine as he said he preferred to work alone anyway.
Third was unloading trucks at FedEx. During the first night of watching safety training videos, the supervisor popped his head in the door, said that some guys had called in sick and could I jump in right away. I did 2 or 3 nights of this and quit at the end of it. Never did receive any pay from those bastards.
Last one was an agency work placement working in the shipping office at a warehouse. I showed up that morning, the supervisor was running late so I was just left sitting there waiting. When she did show up, she said she had to run to a meeting and went off. The guy there briefly showed me the ropes and left me there on my own as he also had to go to the meeting. I'm completely on my own in this office and after a while, I just thought "Screw this", stuck a sticky note on the computer screen saying the job wasn't for me and I left. Total time there was about an hour.
I'm not a lazy person, but life's too short sometimes.
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Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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After graduating from HS I applied for a job with Canon Copiers. They had an opening for someone to fill the shipping/recieving dept. I get called in for an interview and things went quite well. The woman in charge of hiring said I got the job and would start Monday morning.
I'm leaving the building when she runs out telling me the CEO just arrived and wanted to talk to me. We start talking and he throws a bunch of mathematical questions at me and asks me to do them in my head. I couldn't and said I could answer them if I had a calculator. He wasn't impressed and told the woman to find someone else. She pulls me aside when i'm leaving and apologises saying it was my bad luck that the CEO was in.
Sounds like a crazy micro managing CEO. Probably for the best you didn't get the job. I've got a few:
Working at the Stampede for 10 days.
Another one was where I accepted a contract job but one week later received a much better offer for a staff position that was a no brainer to accept. The boss was understanding but it felt odd quitting so soon.
Finally, something that completely changed my life, I once had a great interview with a Calgary EPC and was told a job offer would be in the mail. Unfortunately sonething came up with their client and the offer never came. When I called to ask what was going on I was told to call back in a month and they would have something for me. After three months of this BS I finally gave up, decided to backpack around Australia and the rest is history.
PS these off topic threads are a welcome distraction from depressing hockey talk.
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Last edited by FireGilbert; 01-26-2017 at 06:08 AM.
Shortest job I had was two shifts.
scared of heights and believed the whole face your fears thing. tried high rise window washing.
first day was on one of those platforms 20 stories up. that was scary enough.
second day, they wanted me to climb a ladder to a ledge on the 3rd floor of a building. the ledge was about 2 feet wide, where they placed a 20 foot ladder. I was supposed to climb that to wash the windows.
that was it for me. I was gone.
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Hahahaha picking fruit in Australia will trump any story on here.....what a bunch of slave drivers and criminals taking advantage of backpackers.
Show up at some remote POS hostel that will let you stay "on credit" if you give them your passport (illegal). They then arrange a job (for a fee) and arrange transport there (for a fee) so you can work for next to F-all for some A-HOLE who in all likelyhood will throw you off his farm within an hour if you don't listen to his instructions, forcing you to hitchhike home.
I ran into a few guys that were trapped in the middle of nowhere, indebted to the hostel for thousands of dollars, with no way to get their passports back until they paid off their "debts". It was gross.
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When I was 14, I was fired from a hardware store for lying about my age (I said I was 16). I think was there for a couple of months.
But since university, I think the shortest job I had was 8 months, but it was a contract and the work was complete, so I am not sure if that should count. After that, it would be 3 years.
I hate to admit it, but I am a bit of a job/city hopper. I tend to get bored after 3-5 years and move.
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When I was 19 I got a part-time job at a grocery store. I intended it to be time filler until I could get full-time for the summer. I went in for training, and was already uncomfortable because I had to wear a tie. Why dress up and wear a tie when I'm covering most of my torso with an ugly apron anyway? I hate wearing ties too. I just can't do it. A couple of hours into my orientation I told the guy who hired me that I just can't do this. His response was something about seeing me at the homeless shelter when he goes to help out there.
Fast forward about 7 years, I worked for an IT company who did the IT support for the homeless shelter and I ran into him there. He recognized me but didn't know where from. I didn't let on that I knew where we previously crossed paths.
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I was one of those people who saw an ad in the paper that screamed "$15/hr minimum, no experience necessary, call this number!". So I called the number, talked to someone for 5 minutes. 15 minutes later I got a call back asking me to come for an interview. Of course it was for Vector Marketing.
I had no idea what they did. I figured it was some sort of data entry position. But for $15/hr at 18 years of age? Sweet f'ing deal!
Went to the ''interview'' at their ''office'' somewhere on Mcleod Tr. Had a quick interview with the receptionist then sat for the presentation. Slowly but surely, it was revealed that I was to be a door to door salesman selling Cutco knives. But wait, it wasn't technically door to door. Because you were supposed to work from referrals, it was people you knew who had personally been referred to you.
I ended asking my mom for the $250+ I needed for my start kit of knives and scissors. The only people who accepted me into their home to do a presentation/sales pitch was my nice elderly next door neighbours. They ended up buying a couple knives.
I was also going to SAIT full-time, but my manager insisted I call in twice a day to follow up with her on any kind of referrals I had gotten. This was before I had a cell phone, so I remember having to make calls from the SAIT pay phones to tell her I was too busy to get referrals, but maybe after school. That wasn't an acceptable solution to her. So I just never showed up to work again. My Vector Marketing career was 1 single sale, a paycheck for $17, 1 phone call to my boss, and a lesson learned about pyramid schemes.
The knives were actually good quality. I still use those and the scissors to this day. But what a sketchy company that was.
Last edited by Huntingwhale; 01-26-2017 at 09:06 AM.
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Same thing happened to me, but it ended up being a Primerica presentation. "Who here wants to be RICH!!". [people start cheering]
I never knew about such things at the time and was so confused about what was going on. At least I got free coffee and donuts. I escaped at lunch break though and didn't stick around for the whole thing. I wonder today how many people were planted and how many were legitimately trying to get a job.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
I was one of those people who saw an ad in the paper that screamed "$15/hr minimum, no experience necessary, call this number!". So I called the number, talked to someone for 5 minutes. 15 minutes later I got a call back asking me to come for an interview. Of course it was for Vector Marketing.
I had no idea what they did. I figured it was some sort of data entry position. But for $15/hr at 18 years of age? Sweet f'ing deal!
Went to the ''interview'' at their ''office'' somewhere on Mcleod Tr. Had a quick interview with the receptionist then sat for the presentation. Slowly but surely, it was revealed that I was to be a door to door salesman selling Cutco knives. But wait, it wasn't technically door to door. Because you were supposed to work from referrals, it was people you knew who had personally been referred to you.
I ended asking my mom for the $250+ I needed for my start kit of knives and scissors. The only people who accepted me into their home to do a presentation/sales pitch was my nice elderly next door neighbours. They ended up buying a couple knives.
I was also going to SAIT full-time, but my manager insisted I call in twice a day to follow up with her on any kind of referrals I had gotten. This was before I had a cell phone, so I remember having to make calls from the SAIT pay phones to tell her I was too busy to get referrals, but maybe after work. That wasn't an acceptable solution to her. So I just never showed up to work again. My Vector Marketing career was 1 single sale, a paycheck for $17, 1 phone call to my boss, and a lesson learned about pyramid schemes.
The knives were actually good quality. I still use those and the scissors to this day. But what a sketchy company that was.
Haha! My best friend did door-to-door, by referral, vacuum sales. He did the week of training, for which he was paid, and then quit.
Hahahaha picking fruit in Australia will trump any story on here.....what a bunch of slave drivers and criminals taking advantage of backpackers.
Show up at some remote POS hostel that will let you stay "on credit" if you give them your passport (illegal). They then arrange a job (for a fee) and arrange transport there (for a fee) so you can work for next to F-all for some A-HOLE who in all likelyhood will throw you off his farm within an hour if you don't listen to his instructions, forcing you to hitchhike home.
I ran into a few guys that were trapped in the middle of nowhere, indebted to the hostel for thousands of dollars, with no way to get their passports back until they paid off their "debts". It was gross.
Felt like I was reading Grapes of Wrath all over again.
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I worked 2 x 12hr days for a Landscaping company. I hadn't a shovel thrown at me by my "boss" because I didn't put a shipment of trees in their temporary holes perfectly straight. Then they held my paycheque until I returned my $5 mesh safety vest haha good times.
I was 19 and my friend got me a job in a furniture warehouse (which manufactures and ships out products).
Having to stack sofa-beds by hand with the buddy who got me the job, was brutal. He was taller and much stronger. We had to stack them 3 high, which for me was damn near impossible.
I don't think he will write in so I will do it for him. I hired a guy to do a job that a monkey could learn in 10 minutes. After three hours I checked on him and he had messed up so badly it took 4 days to fix it. Paid him cash for 4 hours work and told him not to come near the place again.
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Hahahaha picking fruit in Australia will trump any story on here.....what a bunch of slave drivers and criminals taking advantage of backpackers.
Show up at some remote POS hostel that will let you stay "on credit" if you give them your passport (illegal). They then arrange a job (for a fee) and arrange transport there (for a fee) so you can work for next to F-all for some A-HOLE who in all likelyhood will throw you off his farm within an hour if you don't listen to his instructions, forcing you to hitchhike home.
I ran into a few guys that were trapped in the middle of nowhere, indebted to the hostel for thousands of dollars, with no way to get their passports back until they paid off their "debts". It was gross.
I did this but never had to deal with any of these things thankfully. Free transportation, never had to give up my passport. Paid cash weekly. I also worked on a long line tuna boat for 3 weeks. Literally at sea for three weeks. Easily put in well over 400 hours in 22 days. Ever watched the perfect storm? That was basically it, except the weather was a helluva lot nicer.
Worked at home depot for all of 2 days. It was basically making sure their shelves and products were aligned nicely. Started bloody early and the pay was crap. First day, fine. Second day they wanted me to work at a place across the city. No thanks! Not even any discounts on any products or tools.
My shortest job was a little over 6 months at another print shop, they told me I would be doing so and so but ended up saddling me in another department, it was fine for the fist while but the job was mind numbing boring. Got a call from my old company asking me to do what I was trained for in school so I jumped back to the old ship.
In college I found a job that was in the evenings and paid well for the time (mid-80's it was $15/hour). The job was moving chickens from a free range barn to a truck (I was raised on a farm so no big deal) for transport to laying barn.
Physically it was fine (you carried two chickens upside down in each arm), but my lungs were full of dust and crap and feather dust (I remember coughing up black after the first night).
I called the next day to tell them I was not interested any more, collected my cheque (beer money) and moved on.
Shortest jobs
