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As soon as summer heats up, most of us are ready to go on adventures. We’re jetting off or hopping in the car to discover new places and spend some time in the fresh air and sunshine. But for the teenagers and young entrepreneurs out there, these few months of freedom are also the perfect opportunity to put a little extra cash in their pockets. Whether to save up for their first car or spend it all on long-awaited concert tickets, teens are sizzling with expectations.

However, a low-wage gig is usually rough. After all, it’s work. During the summer! And most of the time, it involves punishing hours, rude customers, and grueling manual labor. So no wonder these memories stay with us long after we collect our nickels and dimes. And they immediately came back after Jimmy Fallon asked Tonight Show viewers: "It's Hashtags time! Tweet out a funny, weird, or embarrassing story about a bad summer job and tag it with #WorstSummerJob."

People delivered some hilariously painful tales from the times they spent clocking in hours in the scorching heat, and we at Bored Panda have gathered some of the best ones. Scroll down to read the funniest responses and share your own experiences with us in the comments! Then be sure to check out even more amusing stories from Fallon’s recent challenges on #PromFail, #NanaQuotes, and #MyHighSchoolWasWeird.

Image credits: jimmyfallon

Whether you ever stocked grocery stores or landed a position as a lifeguard at the pool, you know how dreadful these jobs can be. While those experiences lead to the person we are today, our memories often carry a fair amount of icy moments too. Although many excited teenagers feel let down when their part-time positions fail to live up to their expectations, they sure make for entertaining stories.

So this recent hashtag challenge was all about the funniest and weirdest #WorstSummerJob stories. To kick the thread off, Jimmy Fallon started by tweeting: "My friend went on a really bad Tinder date one night. She went on a job interview a week later and her date was giving the interview. In both situations, there was no follow-up meeting."

However, it turns out that people over on Twitter definitely had it worse. Some of the responses include real gems such as fighting ducks while trying to clean a small island and watching jars of jam traveling on a conveyor belt for 8 hours straight. If you’re looking for a job right now, these stories can certainly give some food for thought for your future choices.

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Glitterati
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cigarettes at a pharmacy? Is this really a thing? Non American here not understanding 😂

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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Current delivery driver here. Everything the OP said 100% true. It is a miserable job. When the heat index is 108 even that 1 extra arm covered in a sleeve makes a big difference.

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But however terrible some summer jobs can be, they are often seen as a rite of passage for many kids who set out to learn more about the world and learn some valuable life lessons along the way. According to a blog post on KidsHealth, these temporary gigs have plenty of benefits and can teach people valuable life skills.

First, they provide teens with the opportunity to develop and improve their interviewing skills. And the more jobs they apply for, the better they will get once they seek out to get their one-of-a-kind dream job. Moreover, it can benefit them while trying to get into college as well.

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Jack
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I worked at an instant oatmeal factory. My gloves came off into the product in the process and we had to stop the line so I could get new gloves (cardboard cuts are worse than paper cuts!) my boss said not to worry because the system shoots out any issues with weight. Guess what? That box made it to a store somewhere, somehow. I thought I was going to get fired. Boss says “yeah, this doesn’t usually happen but some consumer is about to get a ton of free stuff when they complain about your gloves.” It ended up not being a bad job after all.

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Tmartin105
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had to read this a couple times before I realized "front zipper" didn't mean a pocket in his back pack

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Another skill young adults gain is familiarizing themselves with rejection and getting better at coping with it. "You may not get the first job you interview for," they wrote. "Rejection happens in life and it can be hard to handle. The more we face rejection, the easier it becomes to move forward and bounce back." Then, stepping out of your comfort zone and putting yourself out there leads to learning something new about yourself. So teens who set out to find a new job can learn new skills and discover new interests. "If you need to save money, you may learn that commitment is necessary to reach your goals. If nothing works out? You may decide to start your own business."

And, most importantly, new jobs can help grow stronger as a person, build self-confidence, and make people feel good about themselves. These new skills teens learn during their first job experiences can open new doors for future opportunities and, of course, look great on their résumés.

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If it was a Girl Scout Camp they would have imploded your ego, crushed your self worth and left you with a crippling eating disorder, all while continuing to smile at you.

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DennyS (denzoren)
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've realized once you pass 50 reading the newspapers first thing in the morning is important. As Jeremy Clarkson said, you wake up earlier but you also get to see the beauty of the morning (something also those lines) gives me hope that it wouldn't be so bad.

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Young people seem to see the benefits summer jobs can provide because according to Pew Research Center, teen summer employment is on the rise. After facing a drop after Covid-19, many businesses tried to get back on their feet and hired almost a million more teens in 2021 than in the summer of 2020.

As Drew DeSilver, a senior writer at Pew Research Center explained, last summer was the strongest in years for U.S. teenagers seeking work, when more than 6 million teens had a paying job for some part of the summer. "Accommodation and food services, arts and recreation, and manufacturing were among the sectors leading the teen hiring surge," he added.

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Luckily, economists are sharing predictions that this year, we should see a strong job market for young adults as well. "If that pans out, it would continue a turnaround from the low-water mark of 2010 and 2011 and suggest that the plunge in teen employment during the first pandemic summer of 2020 was an anomaly."

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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Had to throw away a 3 foot x 3 foot ( meter ) rolling bin of expired chicken in July in East Coast. Then clean the bin. That smell is etched into my memory.

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DeSilver pointed out that in 2020, many places that usually employ teens during the summer either completely shuttered or minimized their operations as much as possible due to the pandemic. This meant that the teenagers who often lack experience and skill in a specific area became a less important source of workers for companies. Although last year, when the world started slightly opening up, many of them were facing labor shortages and practically begging for workers to help them out with the needed tasks.

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savannah burrows
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

See, i probably would've said something when they fired me and then gone to the labor board

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Chrissie Anit
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

WTF that is exploitation! At least it kept you from taking up smoking, but the wgaes are illegal.

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The 2022 summer job outlook for American teens published by the Drexel University Center for Labor Markets and Policy last month explained that despite the rapid pace of job creation, there were 1.19 million fewer jobs in April 2022 than in February of 2020, a month before the outbreak of COVID-19.

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Jack
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Welcome to Intel. I mean, not welcome to Intel. I hope you enjoyed your stay.

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Jack
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My fast food experience, the last delivery dude was robbed so they called me in to finish the shift. But, the manager also made me wait tables so I got tips too. It ended up not so bad.

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"However, given the unprecedented labor shortage experienced across the U.S., particularly in industries where teens typically work, teens have a higher probability of being hired by employers," the researchers wrote. They predicted that the summer job market for teens this year will be strong, with an employment rate for 16- to 19-year-olds to be 32.8 percent, the highest since 2007.

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Moxxidude
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Everyday I’d be like, “To be, or not to be at work? That is the question…”

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"Employers suddenly rediscovered teenagers," Alicia Sasser Modestino, a labor economist at Northeastern University, told The New York Times. She explained that while young people from low-income families might have a harder time finding summer work due to there being fewer opportunities where they live, summer youth employment programs can help.

She stressed that teenagers and students should be opportunistic and look for a job that fits their needs by asking for a higher wage, a better schedule, or negotiating their responsibilities. "This summer, you have an opportunity to be choosy," Ms. Modestino said.

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Jack
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What about vomit and menstrual issues? You haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed them all!

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