“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.”
Sales. I tried it once when desperate. I'm not good at convincing people to want things.
— Ellen Brickley (@EllenBrickley) December 4, 2017
Creche worker. The noise levels!
— MargaretEWard (@MargaretEWard) December 4, 2017
My first job -post college degree - was a litter picker on a landfill site that collected the waste of 5 different local authorities. Not so much a nightmare as dystopian tbh.
— Mark Malone (@soundmigration) December 4, 2017
Being a #Brexit negotiator working in Belfast?
— Dr. Mark Shanahan (@LeapfrogMark) December 4, 2017
Air hostess.. could not imagine a worse job! Crabby customers, awful hours, turbulence, constant fear of death, swollen ankles, sh*tty food, sick bags, awful aprons, permanently smelling like hairspray!
— Melanie Ryberg (@melanieryberg) December 4, 2017
Bomb disposal squad. A bad day at work and your career would be over.
— Colm (@Flynnstone1) December 4, 2017
Working in fashion retail - having to refold clothing over and over and see people knock items to the floor and walk on them without a care pic.twitter.com/shsQzGhngW
— Ciara O'Keeffe (@CommsOKeeffe) December 4, 2017
Childcare. I would go nuts. I’ve done retail, it was fine but I wouldn’t go back.
— Carr-2-D-2 (@red_razors) December 4, 2017
Nightmare job: 9-5 office work.
— EmmyMaher (@EmmyMaher) December 4, 2017
Why? Bullshit birthday cakes and other such pretendy friendly nonsense.
Nightmare job would be any toy shop especially at Christmas!
— @madmar (@MarionDorgan) December 4, 2017
My most fun job ever was "site-finder" for Esat. Driving round country getting sites for masts meeting lonely old farmers on mountain sides. Bit hairy sometimes with protestors but I never lost a site.
— Sarah Carey (@sarahcareyIRL) December 4, 2017
Catering. I have a cardinal, inexplicable fear of mayonnaise and peas
— Dearbhail McDonald (@DearbhailDibs) December 5, 2017
PS I wouldn't like to be an airport cleaner. To many people you're invisible, or worth only rudeness.
— Joyce Hickey (@JoyceHickey) December 4, 2017
Those charity sign-up people, "chuggers" (charity muggers)on the street! The abuse people give them every few seconds...
— Davina Devine (@DavinaDevine) December 5, 2017
Working in consumer goods (fmcg) which I did after uni. The objective of increasing consumption is anachronistic.
— Claire King (@ckingwriter) December 5, 2017
Gambling - worked in a bookies for a couple of weeks. I saw what damage it did to people and families
— EricHennellyFlanagan (@EricHFlanagan) December 5, 2017
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 (@amcdermott8) December 4, 2017
Any kind of corporate job, everyone in the IFSC looks like a well dressed zombie and it terrifies me
— Paypig in the City (@Eoin_OF) December 5, 2017
Being a solr in a ‘top 10’ firm, proof reading funds docs & ‘liaising’ with Financial Regulator. No contact w/humans. Personality verboten.
— Sarah-Jane Murphy (@sjanemurf) December 4, 2017
The guy who cleans the chicken shit off chickens eggs before they go into the egg boxes (they have to dry out before going into the box!) PS Been there, done that!
— Anthony Quigley (@AnthonyQuigley) December 4, 2017
I would hate to be a debt collector! Especially when it comes to families that just cannot afford to pay
— Jennifer Purcell (@Jenniferpurc) December 4, 2017
A line operator on a production assembly line doing the same repetitive task. I don't know how I'd get through the day.
— Maria Aylward (@Maria_Aylward) December 4, 2017
any kind of desk job
— jodie (@jodicaprio) December 4, 2017
– TM Upchurch, writer and EU scientist
“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
