Back in the day when you had to physically redial the phone when you got a
busy signal, I had to call the IRS quite often.  Spent a great deal of that
time playing video games and daydreaming.

Jo

Happily, my job is not sucky. However, it certainly includes some
boring tasks, so not every day is filled with excitement and challenge.
One of the things I do to make the boring jobs bearable is to listen
to streaming audio on the web. My favorite is www.pandora.com.

Joyce

Fortunately, and THANK BAST I don't have a sucky job at the moment, but I
don't cope well with them.  When I have a sucky job it seriously depresses
and sucks the life out of me, so I can't enjoy my non-working life either.
The decisive factor is the people.  I do much better with sucky duties when
there are good people around me.

When I had a boring jobs, I used to:

a.  be glad I wasn't in an iron lung or something similar.
b.   tell myself it still beat the unemployment line
c.  hung a sign over my desk which read "Just shaddap and do it"
rather than complain.
d.  realized that by the time I retired, I'd be pretty old and to just
enjoy my younger years while I had 'em..
e. tip:  save all you can WHILE you are still working. Retirement
sneaks up on you fast.

I've only ever had one truly sucky job (this was back in 1992).  I was the
Route Accounting Supervisor for a (now defunct, thank Bast!) vending machine
company.  I was also responsible for maintaining the computer systems (heh,
such as they were) in the place.  As Theresa said, it sucked the life out of
me and made me very depressed.  The duties were okay, but *boring*.  That's
okay, every job has a bit of tedium.  But...

My boss was the comptroller of the company and a former Army DS.  (That's
Drill Sargeant for those who don't know.)  He acted like he was still in the
Army.  He thought *nothing* of screaming at employees (including me) in
front of everyone and his brother for transgressions, real or imagined.
Highly unprofessional.  And I was on my lunch break one day so I made a
personal phone call from my desk.  He knew I was on my lunch break because
we had a scheduled lunch break.  Anyway, I'm on the phone taking care of
some personal business when he walked up to my desk and disconnected the
call.  How very rude!  What he had to say to me could have waited 15
minutes.

The other (long-term) employees were all gossips.  This place was a regular
Peyton Place - he did/she did, he said/she said.  Rumours flew all over the
place about who was sleeping with whom.  I cannot stand this sort of
behaviour, especially since these same people would be all friendly to the
one(s) they were gossiping about.

Sexual harrassment apparently was a foreign concept.  One of the (very
married) route supervisors passed me a note that said, "When can I get in
your pants?"  EXCUSE ME?!  Of course he grabbed it and practically swallowed
it when I started to put it in my pocket.  *I* certainly understood sexual
harrassment but apparently he thought I was just another dumb blonde who
would be flattered by his attentions.

Now, no offense to anyone (every time I say that someone gets offended,
sorry!) but my boss started hiring my staff of from a church organization
that sponsored recent immigrants from countries like Poland and various
countries from the former Soviet block.  He did this because due to some
obscure law concerning providing jobs and on the job training for (legal)
immigrants they didn't have to pay them minimum wage.  These poor women
could barely speak English, let alone understand the company's *very*
outdated computer system.

A brief description of the system would be, remember back around 1980 when
you inserted a floppy disk containing the program in Slot A and a blank
floppy in Slot B on which to write your saved data?  It was like that,
except the floppy disks were on a screen rather than physical disks.  And
you had to switch between one and the other.  It was running on an equally
antiquated version of Unix.

So I'm trying to train these poor people who have been in the U.S. for 6
months, who barely spoke English.  And we were running the company's
accounting system for vending machine sales!  Does this make any sense??
Just so he can save a dollar an hour in wages.

Long story short, there really *was* no way to cope.  I was angry, I was
depressed.  I became physically ill and I chalk it up to this place.  But
I'd gotten the job through a "headhunter" and the agreement was the company
would pay the recruiting agency's fee ($1300, IIRC) as long as I worked
there for 1 year, otherwise I had to pay it.  I couldn't afford to just quit
so yes, I worked there for a year.  Little did my charming (heh) boss know I
was actively looking for another job during the last 3 months of that year.
And I landed a position!  So when that 1 year mark arrived I happily told
him to shove it up his arse.

Jill

I never had a sucky job. I did, however, have jobs where I had to work
with sucky people. This was back in the days of the Walkman. I used to
put those headphones on sometimes when I didn't even have the music
on.
I found that people wouldn't talk to me that way.
The most irritating thing were people who hung over my cubicle and
yakked.

Sherry

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:18:04 -0800 (PST),Pam S. wrote:

Having held several sucky jobs I can honestly say my best coping
method is to remind myself that a large portion of people in my area
can't find any job at all so I better count my lucky stars so long as
I have a job.  It sucks to have a crummy job, but it sucks even more
to have no heat and no food in the house.  

BTW  It's called work for a reason.  If it were fun it would be called
a game.  
Debra in VA
See my quilts at
http://community.webshots.com/user/debplayshere

I used to work as a telephone operator for 9 years. I worked in a big
administrative centre with offices like a tax office, the board of
survey, the roads administration office, etc. It is incredible how rude
people are over the phone, when they're not face to face with the person
they're speaking to. One caller even said that's what we're there for,
to be yelled at by the public.

I hated every minute, but after finishing school, I suffered from school
fatigue and couldn't face going to university immediately, and I had to
make a living somehow. Then I got stuck in that way of thinking for a
long time (a bad relationship and its aftermath with depression also
contributed).

I didn't deal well. I partied hard to forget the job. I still don't
quite know what it was that made me suddenly decide to apply to uni when
I was 29. When my boss would not let me have a day off to attend the
entrance exam, I slept on it for one night and the following day, I told
her I was quitting. So I just stepped out into the unknown, but I was
accepted and took my Master's degree, and now I'm working at the
university. I don't love my job, but at least I don't get yelled at for
eight hours a day, and I do get to engage my brains every now and then.
;) And I can work at home in my jammies, if I wish.

The first job I ever had was a casual sales assistant as Best and Less. I
don't know if you folks have it there, but its just a great big discount
clothes store (with a small line in sheets and towels).

I was 16, and the store was opening, I applied, and got it. I worked through
the opening and Christmas rush, and then was promptly fired. Apparantly I
had an 'attitude', meaning I smacked my boss when he groped my arse
(entirely an instinctual reaction) and I that I 'talked back' to supervisors
(in other words, instead of just following orders like a drone, I questioned
why things were done the way they were done, and made suggestions based on
my opinion rather than accepting things as they were. I haven't changed.)
How did I cope with that job beign so bad? Well, I didn't, really, I think I
lasted 3 months, and didn't miss it when i was fired. It wasn't worth the
paltry amount of money I was getting paid (being 16, I was still living with
my parents, so I didn't *need* the money)

My second job - when I was 17 - was a traineeship at what was BHP in
chemistry. I worked shiftwork, doing quality control testing on the iron and
steel that was being made. The work was classic production line work, you
had to do the analysis as soon as the the sample turned up, and it was
boring and monotous work when it was at full production, but there was
literally nothing to do but sit and wait if production was slower. You
coudln't go home, or go to sleep in case a sample came in, and you couldn't
even leave your post unless you got someone to cover you. This was also back
int he days before sexual harassment was takien seriously and I was exposed
to things that were quite frankly illegal to expose 17 year olds to. I coped
mainly by holding those that did such things in total contempt and not
*ever* letting them see me cry, and reading copious amounts of fantasy and
science fiction in the down time. I was the only girl in the building for
most of the time, and had no interest in joining the blokes watching their
porn or being blokes (not that they would have allowed me into their 'club'
anyway).

My current job has gone through a number of different reincarnations, but
its generally just been an 'evolution' from the original job I was hired for
rather than *different* jobs as such. But my current position and role is
the best I've had so far, mainly because I have a fair deal of autonomy and
freedom to my job as I deem appropriate (with guidance from my supervisor).
The most important thing, though, is that my input is valued and respected,
and my boss is a really really great guy  and although he drives me utterly
nuts, he has never *ever* made anything personal, so even if he's really
dissapointed with something I've done (or not done) he hasn't belittled or
humiliated me, but rather simply stated that I had not performed as he had
expected, and then its over. I *so* appreciate that. First boss I've ever
had that I've truly respected.

On the whole, its a job I enjoy and find challenging and stimulating. But it
does have its boring routine stuff that I am quite bad at (I am not the sort
of person who can do repetative tasks easily). The best way I find to do it
is to make it a challenge against the clock and/or listen to *my* music
(pods are a Bast-send!). Oh, and talk. I can chatter non-stop if I'm bored

The worst part tends to be dealing with irrational way in which people and
organisations go about business, and the petty powerplays and ego clashes
people have, particularly in middle management. My boss shares my loathing
and contempt for such maneuvering (which explains why he's not a manager)
and tends to protect me from the worst and unnecesary stuff. But when I do
have to endure endless meetings, I am a chronic doodler, and if at my desk,
I tend read RPCA and other website and keep lots of geek things to play with
when everything else is driving me nuts. I seem to collecting coloured
'sets' (textas, watercolours, pencils, pens, crayons etc at the moment, and
play with them when no-one is looking. I can't play with my tos at home,
thats for sure - Cary would take them in a heart beat!)

Yowie

I had an I.T. job at $WEMAKERADIOS and my job was outhousesourced to the
BOutsourcerFH.  The ignorant gits I orked for had two neurons - one was lost
and the other couldn't even scare up a search party for it[1].  This
outhousesourcer was chosen by the CIdiotO to take us peons because they
promised $ORK-2 that they would give us jobs for at least two years. It was
a thankless job from the folks in damagement, but the end users appreciated
the work I did for them.

While I was on a vacation day 2 years ago, FedEx delivered an envelope to my
home with a paycheck inside and nothing else, not even a Post-It note.  This
was immediately seen as a problem as all paychecks were via direct deposit.
On the itemized check statement was the infamous entry named "In Lieu" and
the equivalent of eight-weeks pay.  $PHB didn't even have the class to make
a phone call to tell me I was being made redundant. I had to chase her a.s
down and leave multiple messages on her cell phone to find out WTF was going
on.  Hours later she and her PHB call me back to tell me that there wasn't
enough work for the two of us at that office[3]. There was not even an offer
to place me with another client of theirs or to apply for another job within
the company.  This from the same ID10Ts that wanted the two of us to help at
other client sites but refused to give us help when *we* needed it.

BOutsourcerFH then added salt to the wounds of the remaining techs by
outsourcing the field tech jobs to a fourth-rate company[4]. Outsourcees for
the second time were offered to apply for their jobs at the new company at
roughly 40% pay cut.  That company mucked things up so bad that they quit
the contract to provide outsourced services to the first outsourcer so
BOutsourcerFH offered the folks they booted the chance to apply for their
own jobs *again* and for the same pay that it was cut to.

Oddly enough I am still at that office, working for a *different* contract
company, and providing engineering services rather than I.T.  Folks there
seek me out for peecee support rather than dealing with the helldesk
drones[5].

How do I cope?  My job is much-less sucky than it was two years ago, I still
have the same friends that I had for over two decades there, and the
companionship of a wonderful wife and cat at home.  That and knowing that my
providing tech support to users undercuts the contracted I.T. support, a
little bit of quiet revenge ];>

[1] Example: Our office was a sales & system design office. No
manufacturing.  During the Northeast blackout of 2003 my cow-orker was on
holiday and I was there alone.  Clueless twits thought they could mis-manage
our office like they mis-manage campus sites. They wanted me to stay on-site
all night and bring the swervers back on-line when power was restored.  It
was not a critical site, and ALL environmental was out[2].

[2] Card access too. UPS batteries also failed and the site manager declared
the building CLOSED. I got a call at home that night from another twerp that
wanted me to drive back to the office to power-up boxes again when power was
back. Sod off was the effective reply with the reason named above. Site
manager told us to come back in the morning, no one enters until then.

[3] Major-league male bovine excrement.  The two of us handled four sites
and 500 users.  We maintained servers, desktops, laptops, backups, did all
shipping & receiving for units shipped to us for repair and managed &
processed end-of-lease returns back to the vendors. PHBs put more value into
dhrhr pbbeqvangbef who cattle-prodded drones over ticket backlogs than they
did front-line technicians that did the work.

[4] Giving benefit of the doubt that $ORK-1 was a third-rate company.

[5] For three major reasons.  The support they get from me will be correct
for their problems, it will be faster than the response for opening a
ticket, and it will be in American English, not some heavily accented and
unintelligible attempts at English that they are used to at the helldesk.

My job is sorta sucky in that every day I go in, there are new phone calls
about the way people are treating their kids badly.  Neglect,
physical/emotional/sexual abuse are the worst ones.  Sometimes parents at
the end of their tether with teenage behaviour, lots of custody disputes
with "tit for tat" allegations from both parents, homeless 16 year olds
whose parents have finally said "enough", unaccompanied asylum seeking
children from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia.  Etc.

I haven't found a way to work around it yet.

It makes me happy if we can sort it all out in the end.  Despite what you
may have read in the popular press, the very last thing the local authority
wants to do is to snatch your small child away "into care."  Neither do we
want parents to dump their badly-behaved teenagers on us, insisting we take
them away, just because they have never been bothered to adminster proper
parental supervision up to now and are reaping the results.

So as well as slightly sucky it can be interesting..and draining...and,
well, I've been in that team since 1989.  I suppose it makes me a masochist
;-)

Tweed