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
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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.
Cigarettes at a pharmacy? Is this really a thing? Non American here not understanding 😂
Pharmacies are often located inside what might be considered a general store. The main register usually has cigarettes behind the counter. Separate register from where they fill your medications.
Load More Replies...Imagine an old lady just whacks the guy with her walking stick & says “Wait your turn! I need my medication & you should respect your elders!” 😂
Yes it is real. 1 major chain stopped but many others still do.
None of them by me sell them anymore. It is different now though. There are more options than the local drug store. There are 87 gas stations in every town. 😂😂 Most grocery stores no longer sell them by me either.
Load More Replies...In Ontario Canada, pharmacies stopped selling cigarettes in 1993. Our liquor/booze is not sold there or in regular stores either. Presumably, to help them from being robbed as much.
Cvs and Walgreens here in the states as well as small pharmacies here used to they quit selling them about 5 years ago maybe...
Guess he was just getting on your good side so you won't give him trouble loading the hay sacks 😂
In California, the pharmacy is a part of a larger drug store. In the drug store we can get greeting cards, cosmetics and over the counter medicines like aspirin and tummy ache medicine.
Been there done that. Still even have the t-shirt. But because of this I will never ever work in retail again
Yeah most American pharmacies are CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens some are smaller mom and pops that may carry a few sundries but the other ones are quite large and carry a little bit of everything even live Christmas Trees
Until the stupid Liberals started bitching, we sold smokes at the drug stores.
+1 for the liberals then. You can buy your poison somewhere else.
Load More Replies...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.
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.
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.
I had to read this a couple times before I realized "front zipper" didn't mean a pocket in his back pack
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
See, i probably would've said something when they fired me and then gone to the labor board
WTF that is exploitation! At least it kept you from taking up smoking, but the wgaes are illegal.
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.
"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.
Like I said in the other post: stinky hot and degrading all in one.
"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.
In America many people send there kids to school or daycare sick because if the kid doesn't go they probably miss a day of pay.
I don't understand why they would have you clean on their Sabbath but also why this is necessarily a bad job. They said clean around him so you did 🤷🏻
I always fall over in front of people who I am trying to make a good impression on...
Sorry but doesn't sound even remotely like fun. Jerking off the corn 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Did grandpa like health food, or was he there for his grandson? Either way, very sweet
I don't know, do you think the owner would mind the arterial blood spurts pumping out of his knees when they climb back up the ladder or do you think maybe he should get this sewn up first in the ER?
Note: When an employer gives you the option to “quit or get fired”, they are probably trying to avoid paying your unemployment .(In the US, if a business fires you without good cause, they are on the hook for a portion of your unemployment check.)
Designate a "c**p-brella." I've got a cheap, cruddy one. It's come in handy a few times, both for keeping my face and clothes clean and for making sure that nobody ever catcalls me again.
Not gonna lie, I'd milk that for all it's worth! I'd spend my entire skit falling towards the mic, that fool would be paying me out a bonus in the triple digits!
I wrote a comment on another one and it showed up here after a glitch on the website. Didn't want to just delete this one here and leave a blank comment for people to downvote so I wrote this instead 🤷🏻
I would say it's probably agaisnt the law to not allow outside fior or drinks in. Like when you have a person who is diabetic or has other restrictions. Its an amusement Park, it's the whole day, not a 2 hour movie in a clima Co trolled room. So much can go wrong. Also, the company is at fault not the poor security peoeple, who probably wherent alloved to drink inthe heat either.
Worked as a care attendant to a man who was paralyzed from the neck down. He moved into his girlfriends house nearly an hour away (was married). I was the only one willing to make the drive to help him out until he could find new help. Worked nearly two weeks before he died 10 hr days. He died two days before payday and I never got payed for that time because I would have been forced to get his wife and daughter to sign the paperwork at the funeral (only time I would see them).
That's my daily job. Plus I help them poop, change catheters and treat wounds. Started out $10 an hour but thanks to our union I'll make $18 in June plus PTO. 12 years worked in the field now. Unions work I guess
I got a summer job at our local vets, only being able to do basic tasks I got all the unpleasant jobs no one else wanted to do.The worst day was when a large Newfoundland came in that was so riddled with fleas you could see the fur moving, my job was to Deflea it. They got in my clothes, hair, trainers just everywhere, even now when I think about it I itch
Not a summer job, but a terrible job none the less. I was an Easter Bunny at a mall. Full suit like a mascot would wear. Huge heavy bunny head that smelled like Lysol. I would sit I a chair and kids would either be placed I my lap or climb up in my lap for a photo. I have never been hit in my balls this many times in my entire life.
Man a lot of these "worst" job experiences are just typical work. When I was 18 I got a summer job as a door to door canvaser. It was absolutely miserable. We had to go door to door asking people to sign things in favor of fracking, best part? We didnt know what we were canvasing until we showed up to work. We all got in a van that dropped us of 1 by 1 in random areas of town and we had to hit as many houses as possible in a 10 hour shift. I walked close to 14 miles in upper 90 degree weather. The worst part was people have really intense feelings about fracking and rather than understand you're a college kid who needs money they assume that you are there because you are a strong supporter of it. I was screamed at, swore at, belittled, called names and the big winner, spit on. Yes a woman spat on me before slamming a door in my face. At the end of the day I had actual blood in my shoes, a horrible sunburn, and the marvelous prize of 50$ for my efforts. I did not come back the next day.
They were trying to teach you the lesson that $50 dollars isn't worth your soul.
Load More Replies...My friend and I got a job working for this woman (we called her "Felicia Fartblower"). We were supposed to be working in her shop, where she did kids birthday parties and the kids would do different art projects, with my friend and I to help guide them. My friend did get to help with the art parties, but somehow I ended up taking care of Felicia Fartblower's 8 month old baby for like 10 hours a day. For three months. Like this woman did not seem to care about her baby at all. Most days I just took the kid back to my house and just hung out reading while the baby played with his toys. And all this time, Felicia Fartblower would not pay us, insisting that we were "in training." Welllll after fighting with her for a couple weeks, I reported her to the IRS. She got audited, her business was shut down, and she sent me a check for $60.
A lot of these deal with picking up animal poop which I have to believe is better than my housekeeping job at a super ritzy hotel where I regularly cleaned up actual human sh*t out of tubs, showers, and carpets. Also found a lot of narcotics left in rooms, like sooooooo much cocaine. I felt like I was calling security every single day to come deal with it. My least favorite was the sex toys, think edible underwear and condoms, always strewn about the room, never in the trash bin. Being paid minimum wage to clean up after rich people is not fun. At least my views of the city at sunrise were pretty dope! Lasted about a month in that job because I developed serious breathing problems due to an allergic reaction to cleaning chemicals. Oh and they expected us to buy our own toothbrushes for scrubbing mold.
First job was gas station convenience store where I delivered propane and cooked the broasted foods people should never eat. After 1 1/2 yrs at 4/hr I asked my boss for a raise. I was told minimum wage was going up in 3 months. Delivered pizza for Pizza Hut in Phoenix Arizona for a few days. Quit because the hours sucked and I got better job. Took months to get paid, and when I finally got the check in the mail it was dated 180 days prior to when it was postmarked so I couldn't cash it. Lost a job at a group home for troubled teens because a certified pathological liar said I was giving the kids cigarettes. 5 yrs later I ran into an old coworker and his roommate. The roommate let slip that I got fired cuz the coworker was giving them cigs. Lost a job for being 40 seconds late to work, because I was stuck waiting for a train. Boss told me I should know when the trains run so I wouldn't have been late.
I worked a night shift at a legal firm that decided to make print copies of every email ever sent, so my job was literally open email, print, file, and repeat. They had software that tracked progress, so every time I stopped to stretch someone would come ask why. I know the obvious question here is, if they had software to track progress, why not have software to print all the emails? Well your guess is as good as mine
What year was this? They could have fired me all that wanted, but I would have automated that. I for one welcome our robot overlords.
Load More Replies...During college I spent a summer working in the office at a weight-loss camp in the US (I’m from Europe). The staff had to go on a diet as well, whether you needed to lose weight or not, because otherwise the fat kids would feel unfairly treated. I lost 20 lbs from a healthy weight and got almost underweight. Plus-side, I have never been that slender in my life, which caused a couple of girls to shout ‘Look, there goes the Barbie doll!’ Yeah, like that was an insult.
As a teen my dad got me a job at a factory processing animal intestines in preparation of making natural casings for sausages. I made it two weeks and was out. Not sure what point he was trying to make but I am pretty sure he wanted to to go to college and see what my life could be like without a proper education. I took 3 showers a day trying to get the smell off of me.
I worked as a waitress at a restaurant where they also rented cabins. I was not told that waitressing meant doing food prep, cook, cleaning the restaurant and serving as I ended up being the lone employee there. I was constantly sexually harassed by the patrons and felt very unsafe working there as it was on the highway and I was alone there on evenings. I lasted 2 weeks.
Had a few bad summer jobs. One was digging graves. Before the big machine would come clean it deep. We had to take the grass out in a perfect pc of sod and roll it up. Then stake the hole to be dug. Then tarp around the hole so it stayed clean. Now it's a big scoopy claw thing all in once shot. I was burnt. At least one two burials were done that summer. So monotonous for nothing.
I got a summer job at our local vets, only being able to do basic tasks I got all the unpleasant jobs no one else wanted to do.The worst day was when a large Newfoundland came in that was so riddled with fleas you could see the fur moving, my job was to Deflea it. They got in my clothes, hair, trainers just everywhere, even now when I think about it I itch
Not a summer job, but a terrible job none the less. I was an Easter Bunny at a mall. Full suit like a mascot would wear. Huge heavy bunny head that smelled like Lysol. I would sit I a chair and kids would either be placed I my lap or climb up in my lap for a photo. I have never been hit in my balls this many times in my entire life.
Man a lot of these "worst" job experiences are just typical work. When I was 18 I got a summer job as a door to door canvaser. It was absolutely miserable. We had to go door to door asking people to sign things in favor of fracking, best part? We didnt know what we were canvasing until we showed up to work. We all got in a van that dropped us of 1 by 1 in random areas of town and we had to hit as many houses as possible in a 10 hour shift. I walked close to 14 miles in upper 90 degree weather. The worst part was people have really intense feelings about fracking and rather than understand you're a college kid who needs money they assume that you are there because you are a strong supporter of it. I was screamed at, swore at, belittled, called names and the big winner, spit on. Yes a woman spat on me before slamming a door in my face. At the end of the day I had actual blood in my shoes, a horrible sunburn, and the marvelous prize of 50$ for my efforts. I did not come back the next day.
They were trying to teach you the lesson that $50 dollars isn't worth your soul.
Load More Replies...My friend and I got a job working for this woman (we called her "Felicia Fartblower"). We were supposed to be working in her shop, where she did kids birthday parties and the kids would do different art projects, with my friend and I to help guide them. My friend did get to help with the art parties, but somehow I ended up taking care of Felicia Fartblower's 8 month old baby for like 10 hours a day. For three months. Like this woman did not seem to care about her baby at all. Most days I just took the kid back to my house and just hung out reading while the baby played with his toys. And all this time, Felicia Fartblower would not pay us, insisting that we were "in training." Welllll after fighting with her for a couple weeks, I reported her to the IRS. She got audited, her business was shut down, and she sent me a check for $60.
A lot of these deal with picking up animal poop which I have to believe is better than my housekeeping job at a super ritzy hotel where I regularly cleaned up actual human sh*t out of tubs, showers, and carpets. Also found a lot of narcotics left in rooms, like sooooooo much cocaine. I felt like I was calling security every single day to come deal with it. My least favorite was the sex toys, think edible underwear and condoms, always strewn about the room, never in the trash bin. Being paid minimum wage to clean up after rich people is not fun. At least my views of the city at sunrise were pretty dope! Lasted about a month in that job because I developed serious breathing problems due to an allergic reaction to cleaning chemicals. Oh and they expected us to buy our own toothbrushes for scrubbing mold.
First job was gas station convenience store where I delivered propane and cooked the broasted foods people should never eat. After 1 1/2 yrs at 4/hr I asked my boss for a raise. I was told minimum wage was going up in 3 months. Delivered pizza for Pizza Hut in Phoenix Arizona for a few days. Quit because the hours sucked and I got better job. Took months to get paid, and when I finally got the check in the mail it was dated 180 days prior to when it was postmarked so I couldn't cash it. Lost a job at a group home for troubled teens because a certified pathological liar said I was giving the kids cigarettes. 5 yrs later I ran into an old coworker and his roommate. The roommate let slip that I got fired cuz the coworker was giving them cigs. Lost a job for being 40 seconds late to work, because I was stuck waiting for a train. Boss told me I should know when the trains run so I wouldn't have been late.
I worked a night shift at a legal firm that decided to make print copies of every email ever sent, so my job was literally open email, print, file, and repeat. They had software that tracked progress, so every time I stopped to stretch someone would come ask why. I know the obvious question here is, if they had software to track progress, why not have software to print all the emails? Well your guess is as good as mine
What year was this? They could have fired me all that wanted, but I would have automated that. I for one welcome our robot overlords.
Load More Replies...During college I spent a summer working in the office at a weight-loss camp in the US (I’m from Europe). The staff had to go on a diet as well, whether you needed to lose weight or not, because otherwise the fat kids would feel unfairly treated. I lost 20 lbs from a healthy weight and got almost underweight. Plus-side, I have never been that slender in my life, which caused a couple of girls to shout ‘Look, there goes the Barbie doll!’ Yeah, like that was an insult.
As a teen my dad got me a job at a factory processing animal intestines in preparation of making natural casings for sausages. I made it two weeks and was out. Not sure what point he was trying to make but I am pretty sure he wanted to to go to college and see what my life could be like without a proper education. I took 3 showers a day trying to get the smell off of me.
I worked as a waitress at a restaurant where they also rented cabins. I was not told that waitressing meant doing food prep, cook, cleaning the restaurant and serving as I ended up being the lone employee there. I was constantly sexually harassed by the patrons and felt very unsafe working there as it was on the highway and I was alone there on evenings. I lasted 2 weeks.
Had a few bad summer jobs. One was digging graves. Before the big machine would come clean it deep. We had to take the grass out in a perfect pc of sod and roll it up. Then stake the hole to be dug. Then tarp around the hole so it stayed clean. Now it's a big scoopy claw thing all in once shot. I was burnt. At least one two burials were done that summer. So monotonous for nothing.