What is the worst job offer you have ever had?
Posted by Desperate-Drawer-572@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 206 comments
Once offered free car parking and free coffee. Sounded great on paper. Salary was lower than minimum wage and had to work 12 hour shifts 4 days a week.
What is yours?
Objective_Result2530@reddit
I graduated in 2009, just as financial crisis was starting. I had an interview for a 'marketing' position. Got a call after saying I'd got through to the next round which was a trial shift.
Next day I went with another employee to do door to door sales around a housing estate. Had to use my own money for the bus fare out there. The other employee was really pressurising me to 'take the job' but the more he talked the more I realised it was kind of a pyramid scheme. I'd be self employed, only earn if I made sales and he would get a cut of whatever I made. So of course he wanted me to sign up.
I saw the day out, trudging around in the rain and then said 'no thanks'
Cautious-Start-1043@reddit
Cobra Group???
Lopsided_Pain4744@reddit
That’s the one! Holy shit, I was trying to remember what they were called but couldn’t. Fucking awful awful people
Cautious-Start-1043@reddit
I worked for them for about two days back in the early 2000s in Glasgow… pure shiter.
DataSnaek@reddit
I think this is the company my ex GF used to work for, or at least a very similar one. They were called Purple Patch at the time, but these companies always close and reopen with different names all the time because eventually people catch on to what they are
Objective_Result2530@reddit
I've felt so validated that so many others had the same awful experiences tbh. Now it feels like a rite of passage.
carguy143@reddit
I think they were the ones Talktalk used in their early years. They would chase people down the street.
Objective_Result2530@reddit
Yes I think it was TalkTalk, Scottish Power or monthly donations to the RSPCA to chose from.
grunt56@reddit
That's a bad guy name if ever I heard one
Objective_Result2530@reddit
They were called 'Marketing Solutions' but they may well be the same there days.
Rude_Conversation618@reddit
Yep did this as well. Sold as Marketing, selling stuff door to door like Del boy up one of the longest roads in Birmingham. Team leader in a cheap suit that enquired about my sex life once I had told him about my girlfriend at the time. He smoked like a trooper and spat like a camel for most of the day. This was the Stratford road, anyone who knows Birmingham will know that we had no hope of selling anything for full price ( one of the items I remember was a cheap rubbish RC Car ) a day trudging from the drop off point back to the office ( 6 miles ) and I was offered a job, basically talked myself out of it. Train fare and food covered by myself of course
BlueFox789@reddit
What is an RC Car?
purplerainbowsrule@reddit
I graduated in 2017 and experienced this multiple times. What's worse is I'd just came from a week trial of door to door fundraising where they paid for your training regardless. The 'marketing role' was door to door wearing a full suit and you were paid only commission, so if you signed nobody up, you got no money. And you had to pay for your own travel + visit Canary Wharf every morning for a team briefing that was stupid.
All for a nutrition bar that they had only one of, so good luck demonstrating the product when you're pitching f it was another teams turn to use it..
Objective_Result2530@reddit
Oh god the single nutrition bar 🤣🤣🤣
Yes the 'inspire' team meeting at the start of the day - i remember listening in to it from outside as I waited to start my 'trial shift'
BlueFox789@reddit
What company was it?
Lopsided_Pain4744@reddit
Mine was very similar. It was door to door but getting people to sign up to a charity. Had to go from Nottingham to London for a “training day”. Got dropped off alongside some others in one of the roughest housing estates in Nottingham and despite being barely trained to do anything, had to go knock on doors and convince these people to sign up with their credit cards. I quit the next day.
Legalist450@reddit
We have definitely met before lol. I know exactly what job your talking about. I say this because after the charity they moved on to another company. So did i….
BlueFox789@reddit
What company did they move to?
donalmacc@reddit
You must have made some commission to quit in one day!
River1stick@reddit
I did this same thing in 2012...except it was door to door business selling lovefilm. I did the job for 4 months, lost 45kg in that time
TunaS3280@reddit
Exact same for me a few years later! Marketing position, told me to wear a suit then proceeded to send me to a rough part of Bradford to sell Love Film door to door (could have the name wrong but kind of an Amazon owned Netflix DVDs in the post deal) - they had me watching a guy trying to make sales whilst my job was to write down every film I’ve heard of… Got insulted by some local kids so I just walked off pretty early in the day.
Objective_Result2530@reddit
Yes the random writing out tasks! I had to come up with a business idea and flog it to the guy in between watching him try to get people to sign up to the RSPCA
Khaleesi1536@reddit
Learned the hard way that a lot of ‘marketing’ roles are basically just this. Infuriating
insanityarise@reddit
I went to one of these around the same time, first interview appeared normal on the outside but the questions were weird, not asking me about me, but more selling the job to me, without really saying what it was.
I was asked to go into a second interview, and when I turned up there were about 100 kids, and it turned out was an 8 hour shift selling some nonsense door to door, I left before going to anything after figuring out what was going on, I tried to shout to everyone as I left that this was a pyramid scheme and a scam, but everyone ignored me.
First-Lengthiness-16@reddit
That happened to me before I went to uni. I was set up with some strange little fellow who tried to tell me this was the best job ever.
Left him on his own as he went to knock on the first door.
Objective_Result2530@reddit
I wish I'd had the balls to do that
mitchley@reddit
I got exactly the same offer in 2009 also, I googled the company after the 'interview' and just didn't turn up the next day.
Objective_Result2530@reddit
You see, you were clever. I was way too naive for that.
Rh-27@reddit
They still exist I'm pretty sure. Was lured into the same back in 2019.
They paid for my bus and I followed some girl around going door to door convincing them to save a few quid swapping energy suppliers. It was a 100% commission only job.
I literally walked away after a few hours and felt molested and disgusted.
Gold-Collection2636@reddit
I had this, had to travel all the way from Bristol to North Wales, didn't earn a penny and sue to a lack of public toilets would have had a very embarrassing situation if a lovely woman hadn't let me use her toilet
Desperate-Swimmer690@reddit
2004, same thing happened to me. Advertised as an admin position with marketing training. Arrived for an interview which turned out to include a door to door section. It became clear it was a pyramid scheme after listening to the employee. Spent a month afterwards dodging their "you passed the interview! When do you want to start?" calls.
Objective_Result2530@reddit
I had no idea this nonsense was happening even before the 'credit crunch' and corresponding recession
Affectionate_You_858@reddit
Exactly the same happened to me. Had a phone interview, they made it sound like a really good job then invited me for a 2nd stage group interview. This turned out to actually be an unpaid 8 hour trial shift door knocking for a charity. I stayed 10 minutes then went home
Objective_Result2530@reddit
I wish I'd had the balls to leave! I felt like I needed to show willing. Plus I was in the middle of Barnsley and had no idea how to get home again.
Affectionate_You_858@reddit
I'm normally willing to give things a go but was that angry from being misled. I did knock on one door and then just dropped a shoulder and left. This was back before I drove as well, they had dropped us off on a rough estate 30 miles from home, was a nightmare getting back
kbwe1@reddit
I had this as well! Just a terrible company, it must be some sort of scam.
iwannabeinnyc@reddit
This is similar to what happened to me in 2002 when I graduated. Lasted about an hour!
Ok-Application-8045@reddit
I did something like that once too. Awful work. Glad I quit.
melanie110@reddit
Holy shit. Sounds like what I got into. After 3 hours and the very shit tactics with the elderly, I soon bailed. Unscrupulous wankers
AndyVale@reddit
Once had someone reach out to me about doing some freelance blogging around 7-8 years ago. (Before widespread LLMs became a thing.)
They wanted some B2B blogs written, properly sourced and researched, SEO optimised, about 800 words each.
Okay, I have a pretty normal day rate for that, which I give them and say I'm willing to do a bulk discount if they want me to do 10.
The reply was "oh, I was actually thinking closer to £15 per blog. If you do ten a week that's not a bad payment, right?"
Yeah, I never wrote those blogs.
BlueFox789@reddit
What is LLM? Can’t find out searching online
Thendisnear17@reddit
Chat Gpt. Ai in modern parlance.
I know a few people who would bang out copy. AI replaced them in a second.
3-6-6@reddit
Maybe I'm ignorant but can you explain why someone would pay you to write for their blog. I thought the whole point of a blog was that it was the thoughts of the blogger.
Surely at the point other people write your 'blogs' its just a magazine?
pandamarshmallows@reddit
They said "B2B blogs" so I'm guessing that these were corporate blogs, which are generally run by businesses who use the posts to advertise their product. At worst, they will just write recommendation listicles that invariably show how their offering is the best available for whatever sector they're recommending, but the really good blogs will have behind-the-scenes information on their engineering, or sometimes they will write news or how-to articles related to the business's field in the hopes of building brand awareness. Like FlightRadar24, a flight tracking service, has an excellent blog where they write about aviation news. They don't advertise their product directly very often (though of course, if it was used to help with the reporting they will shout it from the rooftops), but the idea is that hopefully aviation professionals will use them as a source, and then maybe they get in front of the eyeballs of someone who makes purchasing decisions.
Anyway, for those kinds of blogs you are not really following the author, you're following the brand who owns the blog. And most businesses won't have active enough blogs to justify hiring someone to run them full time, so paying a freelancer to write for them every once in a while is ideal.
RelaxKarma@reddit
Phone sales through a company called Concentrix. Unbelievably bad.
BlueFox789@reddit
How come?
hunsnet457@reddit
Once got ‘offered a promotion’ at a call centre I used to work at but they had a policy you didn’t get a salary increase for the first 2 years, but did get £500/year bonus.
A management job for an +£500 a year before tax, but working an extra few hours a week so effectively taking a pay cut…
Future-Acceptable@reddit
£4.65 per hour as a student in 2020 in subway
BlueFox789@reddit
How old were you?
speccynerd@reddit
Damn I earned £4.20 as a student in 1998...
dazrog@reddit
Worked in the HQ for a large, national bank, in the credit and loans department. 12 hour shifts.
Our "personal time" was capped at 6% of our working days. Personal time was: lunch, toilet breaks, etc.
One of my colleagues had an asthma attack at work, realised he didn't have his inhaler with him, so asked to go home so he could get it. He was told "if it'll take you over your 6% you'll be sacked". "No problem" he replied, "I only live 5 minutes away".
Anyway, he made it back in time, no big deal, all forgotten about. 4 or 5 hours later, he needs a wee. That wee takes him to 6.01% of his allocated personal time for the shift, so he was instantly dismissed.
A group of us left with him. To this day, some 25 years later I've not banked with them.
BlueFox789@reddit
I wonder what bank
Taramafor@reddit
Living.
pickindim_kmet@reddit
It's far from the worst job offer in the world but when out of work last year I was offered a short day course with a guaranteed interview and guaranteed job for a call centre. That already sounded fishy but I said ok.
Turns out the job was 2 hour commute each way by bus and 6 days a week. 9am until 6pm. Minimum wage of course. That means six days a week I'd be getting up at 6am and getting home no sooner than 8pm.
I know you have to do what you have to do sometimes but it just felt too much especially when the job centre knew I was coming back from illness.
BlueFox789@reddit
So did you manage to make it to the end of the course?
O_R_D_I@reddit
Spent over five months undertaking a training course with a company and adult education centre to get qualified to become a railway track operative to undertake maintenance work after being pushed onto the course by universal credit. I actually got hired upon completing the course by the company as it was guaranteed the class would get work if we passed the course and acquired our certification. Pretty perfect all things considered and the job payed well. Got the certification, signed the contract and went through induction with the rest of the class (about 28 of us). Told we'd have our first shift come in a few weeks after everything was organised.
Then radio silence for 8 weeks.
After hounding both the education centre and the company to try and get an answer about what the hell was going on, it was found out that the company had lied to all the students and breached their contract as they never intended to give us work in the first place. The education centre then asked me if I wanted to sign on with another company. I noped TF out of there and got a different job on the network with a far more trusted company. Still don't know what the company's end goal was in wasting their time and money onboarding us only to ghost everyone as soon as we were hired.
miowiamagrapegod@reddit
Toys r us. Sadistic arse of a manager, twatty customers, minimum wage, terrible holiday policy, Literally no redeeming qualities as an employer. I was oly there for a year, about 6 years before they shut down, and i was so so happy when they collapsed, and the cowbag of a store manager was booted out with no redundancy payoff
RogueTrooper1975@reddit
My old man was an architect and, when I was 16, got me a job on a building site.
The first day, the foreman put me on the "Whacker" for 8 hours. Basically, looks a bit like a lawnmower and is intended to flatten the ground.
My hands and arms were completely numb for hours after.
I worked a little harder at school after that.
WrongExplanation1065@reddit
You can get HAVS hand arm vibration syndrome from this.
Habren_in_the_river@reddit
Aye nowadays there is legislation dictating how long you can use tools like this. There is even a formula which you can use to work out the safe maximum time
anabsentfriend@reddit
Our guys have a device that they have to clip to themselves. It measures the level and intensity of vibration from power tools and sets off an alarm when it's reached a critical level.
They're only allowed to use these machines for a set number of hours over the week with breaks between.
AirconGuyUK@reddit
Surely these things should be remote controlled by now?
RedRamblerUK@reddit
My grandfather has this, all his fingers are white. He was a roadworker.
Puzzleheaded-Age7469@reddit
Good move, easier to lift a pen than a wheelbarrow full of cement.
Curious_Sea8171@reddit
Window firm sales - cold calling - everyone slammed phone down or swore at me - lasted one day .,,,,,,then I took a silver service waiter job - couldn’t serve with the spoon and fork method - made a fool of myself - one shift kind of, but spent most of time finding places to hide
darkarcher9210@reddit
I'd be curious to hear how your life turned out, did you do well at school?
RogueTrooper1975@reddit
I was never a stellar student but I went to University and got my degree.
For the past 25 years, I've worked for my local council managing a portfolio of contracts for homeless accommodation services, hostels and the like.
Zealousideal_Run_575@reddit
Exactly what the old man wanted all along! 🤣🤣🤣
Good for you!
anabsentfriend@reddit
I was in an interview. It was going well. The job was for an I.T. tech.
I asked how the vacancy had come about. Have the previous person been promoted etc. I wanted to get an idea of career progression.
No, apparently the current I.t. tech was having his contracted early due to some kind of disagreement.
Ohhh kaay
So who will be showing me the ropes when I start?
Oh yes, we've asked the man we're sacking to stay an extra month do the handover.
I declined that role.
mj271707@reddit
£5a an hour plus £1 a delivery in 2026
In my own vehicle, on my on fuel
Free chips at end of night though
Get fucked
itsapotatosalad@reddit
I got more than that from dominos in 2004!
mj271707@reddit
You would be surprised how many takeaways offer u this at first
MrReadilyUnready@reddit
That's not a legal wage
rogue6800@reddit
It is if it's "self-employed"
MrReadilyUnready@reddit
There are laws to prevent delivery workers from being exploited in that way. If it's happening to you, report your employer. You're not self-employed.
manchester_uk@reddit
I had to melt wax to put into little tins from a kettle “Australia shoe wax” or something while backpacking, wasn’t particularly hard but mind numbing
SullyEarn@reddit
I went for the interview, it went ok. Minimum wage forklift driving job but it was a five minute walk up the road and I needed something at the time.
I got the job, my hours were 6am-10am then back in for 2pm-6pm.
I rang them and asked if they're serious and the guy on the phone said I should think about what I'd be turning down if I didn't accept it. I laughed.
Scotsman_1234@reddit
A multi drop delivery driver for a laundry plant.
3am starts 10-15 hour shifts Monday-Friday, production never had all the stuff ready in time for deliveries, some right rude customers, took on way too much business than they could handle, moral was rock bottom, ended up completely burning myself out with the early starts and long shifts. Lasted six months and was amazed I didn’t collapse.
Now work 8-4 Monday to Friday and feel absolutely brilliant compared to then. No job is worth sacrificing your health for.
Choice-Demand-3884@reddit
I was approached in a central Berlin street by a photographer while I was wearing sandals. He handed me his business card and said I had "interesting feet" and "an interesting face" and would I like to make some "special films".
I stared at him until he went away.
For context I'm a bald, bearded overweight Yorkshireman.
JimfromLeeds@reddit
There's a market for everything pal
highrouleur@reddit
alferret@reddit
We subscribe to the same magazine😁
alferret@reddit
But you have special qualities
JohnCasey3306@reddit
Free parking and free coffee "sounded great"?? ... Those are the absolute bare minimum surely, not even perks?!
RedRamblerUK@reddit
When I worked at the RM, we paid £60 a month...
Roadkill997@reddit
In city centres free parking can be pretty valuable - assuming you want to drive in.
WrongExplanation1065@reddit
Laughs in NHS
littleboo2theboo@reddit
Working as a teacher.
Proud_Stock8930@reddit
I got a handjob off the landlady every shift for accepting less the minimum wage at boozer
EmergencyGoggles@reddit
Applied to be a recruitment consultant as a teenager, immediately had a phone interview where they really buttered me up and wanted me to come in for an in person interview the following day. Get there, spend a good 30 minutes answering all the questions and right at the end they said: “so as I told you on the phone yesterday the jobs been filled (they didn’t), but I’d like to put you forward for some recruitment jobs with some of clients”.
Got scammed into becoming a candidate for them. They arranged two interviews for the following day and I skipped both then ghosted the “interviewer”.
Hopeful-Beginning905@reddit
I got offered an internship that requires 1 year experience
D0wnb0at@reddit
I’m a financial contractor. Company found my CV online, called me out of the blue, said they found my CV and I was excellent for the role they had, spent 20-30 minutes explaining the role and talking through my CV. They offered me the role on the spot, asked what my notice period was, I told them and then I asked “what’s the day rate”.
They said “oh no it’s a perm job” I was a bit shocked as my CV is very heavy in contract work, then they told me the job was £17k starting. I was on 45k at the time. What an absolute waste of my time.
corgicatdog@reddit
Working in a sandwich factory for the summer. The shift started at 6 a.m., and being 18, I was often hungover. Making prawn cocktail sandwiches at that hour was nauseating to say the least 😅
Different_Fall1391@reddit
A job dog walking for a local dog training school 2 years ago.
£10 per hour, no contribution for fuel and they wanted to signwrite my car to advertise for them.
darybrain@reddit
Fully remote job but I had to relocate to Newcastle to be within 15mins of the workplace and be onsite for 4.5 days. Salary was for a junior role although they wanted 10+ years experience as stated in the job spec. Both the company and the recruitment agency couldn't understand why I declined.
PsychologicalBus7357@reddit
I got an job interview when I graduated in 2007 with a company called ICANTFAIL Ltd. The interview was bizarre, it was in a posh building in Central Manchester which made it look legit but the interview took place on what was basically a broom cupboard with a desk in it. The "Managing Director" just spewed out a load of nonsense business jargon about expanding market impact blah blah.
I got offered the job and started the following day. I turned up at the broom cupboard to be told I was shadowing a senior sales executive. Next thing I know I was on the bus to Wythenshaw to sell broadband door to door. I gave it a chance as I was young and too polite but when the third house in a row told us they they didn't have either a phone line or bank account I did one.
PlayfulHoneydew9542@reddit
I used to work on a campsite just cutting grass and grounds etc and an 18 year old guy started working there cleaning caravans, he was paid £18 per caravan that he cleaned which he thought sounded good if he could do one in 2 hour or one hour he would be on above minimum wage. I live in Cornwall and right next to a party town so the caravans would get absolutely trashed. He would spend 8 hours cleaning 1-2 caravans per day, it worked out about £2 something per hour if he managed to clean 1… someone shat in a kettle once and he had to spend all day trying to get the smell out. The cleaning manager would make it sound like they could earn amazing money but the cleaners would get royally shafted. He actually stuck it out for very the summer and ended up with a full time job on per hour throughout the winter…this was 2014 btw. They used to go through staff like crazy and I would tell them to leave as soon as I met someone new who started. It should have been illegal
Dead_Bones001@reddit
Please tell me you mean they tried to get the smell out of the caravan and not the kettle? Please tell me they threw the kettle away?!!!!
gulfrend@reddit
"Bloody hell Moira this kettle serves pre-brewed tea! Shade too dark for my liking though."
Calculonx@reddit
Tastes very "earthy"
buglybean@reddit
This has got to be a caravan park near Newquay lol
toady89@reddit
Not a job offer but a company reviewed my application and emailed me to ask if I wanted to proceed because they were looking to pay £32k for a senior engineer, I was already earning more in a more junior position and I’d put something like £45-50k for my salary expectation on the form.
inevitablelizard@reddit
Not sure if it counts as a job offer but I politely left a group interview for a job. While I was unemployed I applied for some stock counting job where you would travel around doing stock checks for a lot of the big supermarkets. During the interview I found out the travel would involve staying in hotel rooms with random work colleagues and I just wasn't remotely comfortable with that.
reaver999@reddit
Oh a took one of these jobs. They didn't pay travel so I travelled 1 hr 20 min each way to North East unpaid. Mind numbing work, I later found out I have ADHD so its nee wonder I quickly realised I could just make it up as I liberally couldn't face all the counting. Did a couple more shifts that were local just chucking random numbers in b4 never signing up for more
hhfugrr3@reddit
I don't blame you. I'm away for work tonight. I'm the boss, I chose to come and picked the hotel myself. I'd still rather not be here. Having to share a room with some random in what would undoubtedly be the cheapest nastiest hotel your boss could find would be a nightmare.
inevitablelizard@reddit
Yeah I decided I'd rather be unemployed and miserable at home than miserable in a shitty hotel room with strangers. I felt that was a totally reasonable solid red line and not what I expected when I applied.
TeHNeutral@reddit
When I worked retail we'd see them on stock take nights. They looked absolutely miserable and I felt sorry for them, though they were weeeeeell quick at stock takes. One told me they were 5 in the car, and had to drive up to Manchester as soon as they finished for the next job. We were in Central London....
Tru72@reddit
Sitting in a van at the side of the road, watching the road cones. If they get bumped, I get out the van and fix it, then back in the van....12hr shifts for 18 months. There were no cell phones or handheld devices then
confusebroadbean@reddit
The offer was below minimum wage on a salary. On my first day, they told me they were giving me a £100 annual bonus already.
Physical-Industry-21@reddit
Makes me laugh when job adverts advertise 'free parking' as one of the perks. I mean fuckin hell, free parking, thanks a lot. 😂
BobBobBobBobBobDave@reddit
I was offered a job for £5,000 a year less than I was paid in the role I was in. They knew how much I was paid and deliberately low-balled.
They said it would be better for my long term development and show my commitment to the company.
I said no thanks.
EdibleBeans-on-Toast@reddit
This was for a marketing manager role. was offered £20.5k a year (2022), which was told to me during the interview; they were adamant this was an incredible wage offering, especially with the added benefit of finishing 1 hour early on a Friday.
I apologised and said something along the lines of I assumed, with it being a manager role, I would at least be paid more, or at the very least similar to my current salary as an executive at £28.5k, and there is no point continuing.
They still called me and said I just missed out to someone they hired from New York who had worked with some of the biggest brands in the world. They were local window fitters.
Top_Mirror211@reddit
They were lying like hell.
Stock_Brilliant5548@reddit
My first job was at a shoe recycling facility, it was sole destroying.
snakeoildriller@reddit
Back in the day, a summer job in a local plastics factory. Pretty good pay but health and safety were non-existent. Had to go on strike for a day to get some safety equipment installed. Worked hard, took the money and ran.
KeithLimePie@reddit
McKechnie?
snakeoildriller@reddit
Combex. Folded in the 1980s. Had a major contract with Mothercare - definitely a long time ago!
Ok_Collar_5950@reddit
Not so much a job offer. I got invited for an interview. I was 19 and naive. Went into the building and asked the receptionist where and what floor so and so was on, that I had an interview.
As I was walking to the elevator, a girl had turned around to chase after me after overhearing me. She had just come down from seeing him and told me the guy was a full on blagger and it was clearly an MLM scheme and not to waste my time. Ended up not going up, sat with the girl outside for ages chatting and ended up in a relationship with her for 10 years. So silver linings and all that.
CarpeCyprinidae@reddit
I'm a tax systems accountant with airline experience.
Was contacted by headhunters working on behalf of EasyJet stating they'd instructed to tell me that the job was mine if I wanted it, was similar role to a previous job I had had at one of their competitors and I already knew people in the business.
I enquired about details and they said it was paying £32K + free meals and flight discounts.
At the time I was on a salary of £70K + bonus. And other jobs I might have considered, similar to this, were being advertised at 85K+
Piginthecity93@reddit
I interviewed for a job at a letting agency. I showed up to the interview only to find (without warning) that it was a trial day, where I had to shadow one of the existing staff members for the whole day.
At the end of the day I was never told whether I'd got the job or not, but the manager quietly mentioned that they would see me the next day.
I showed up and started working. During my first week, the owner and other staff member I had met kept referring to various different departments, making it sound like a company with probably 20+ employees.
After a few days, the person I shadowed quit, and I soon discovered that she was the only other employee.
The owners (husband and wife) would barely show up. The husband showed occasionally, but he would be in secretive virtual meetings in their office all day. The wife seemingly ran a separate business, that also dealt with rental properties.
I was effectively left to run the whole letting agency, without any training.
On top of that, it was a zero hours contract on minimum wage. If I showed up without being scheduled, I'd be asked "Why are you here?". If I didn't show up when I wasn't scheduled, they'd call to ask "Why aren't you here?".
My favourite was when I was mysteriously called by the boss to "attend a property". I drove to the property as requested, only to find that it was clearly his house, and he wanted help jump starting his car.
I lasted 6 months before quitting, at which point they were "disappointed in me" that I didn't offer 1 month's notice.
headinthexlouds20@reddit
Minimum wage for a trainee solicitor job where houses were owned by billionaires.
forams__galorams@reddit
So… marginally better than below minimum wage for all the trainee solicitor jobs where the courthouses are owned by the state?
Mobile-Abrocoma8205@reddit
Worked in the back of a butcher when I was still at school. Duties included carrying while pigs from the van, cleaning out the meat scraps bin, scraping blood and entrails off the floors, wiping blood off the fridge walls while surrounded by hanging carcasses, the lot. Also had to do lots of dishes in harsh cleaning chemicals with poor quality or no gloves.
Although despite all that, the worst part was cleaning up after black pudding had been made. It got absolutely everywhere.
Familiar-Candidate-7@reddit
As someone who makes art my worst are always please do my commission for free and you can use it as advertising! Erm no you pay me thanks.
forams__galorams@reddit
“But you’ll get such valuable exposure!” etc.
…This is one of the main categories of post over at r/choosingbeggars
ThrowawaySunnyLane@reddit
I was at uni and did a placement year (2014). I was doing German as an elective module to open up the potential for an international placement. I got an interview on Skype with an e-commerce company in Berlin. This was in the January. Any placement would’ve started in July at earliest. Interview went well and they said they’d get back to me in 2 weeks. I send emails for the next 8 weeks and I’m met with we’re shortlisting, we’re checking with our managers etc.
Mid June comes along, they get back to me. “We want you to start in 2 weeks. Salary is €8k.” Sorry what? I enquire and they say “yeah the Erasmus funding will top up to X salary”…
“okay… but shouldn’t I have been applying for this funding on the back of a job offer and process will take more than 2 weeks, right?” …. Silence from them…
“so are you accepting”…
With 2 weeks notice and a salary I can’t live off of? I tell them I’m gonna look into whether the Erasmus will get to me or not. Not only will it not get to me in time… the application process via my uni had closed weeks earlier…
So yeah, I said no.
Mediocre_Sprinkles@reddit
I applied for a job in my town. They rejected me but said I was the runner up and had a consolation prize.
0 hours contract to cover the entire county. I could be called on at a moments notice to cover any of the locations in the county. Maybe it could have worked if I lived in the middle but I was on the edge. Nearly 2 hrs drive to the other side if that's where they wanted me. Had to be on call every day to maybe have some work so couldn't get another job.
No travel expenses, all petrol/wear and tear out of my own pocket. Minimum wage.
Rabbit-1989@reddit
This might be the worst one
nowdoingthisatwork@reddit
I did double glazing telesales for all of 2 weeks. I was 20 and had just dropped out uni. I was stuck in a windowless box room behind a pub with about 10 others on the phones. It was absolutely awful, plus they tried to charge me for a uniform tee-shirt which wasn't even provided.
VOODOO285@reddit
Oh the irony. Selling double glazing from a windowless room….
Intelligent_Might421@reddit
Don't get hooked on your own product
MrPogoUK@reddit
I either know exactly where you were working from or that is for some reason a popular sort of location for double glazing companies.
geeered@reddit
I went for an interview with Anglian I think... perhaps a red flag should have been that they approached a couple 16 year olds on the street and asked if we wanted evening work. Then we turned up at the right time, got confused and decided it was actually starting half an hour later, so waited outside and went in late. They weren't bothered that we missed the group interview. Saw the actual work in the main call centre and declined when we both got offered the job.
Unique_Bandicoot_502@reddit
Hotel housekeeper lol, 3 months and I was done.
People are dirty animals.
ConsciousSky5968@reddit
I had a trial shift as a cleaner in a hotel, found a massive shit in a waste paper basket in one of the rooms. Didn’t go back
TJae0120@reddit
Idk why this made me laugh hard 🤣 Like what could cause someone to open bowels in a bin?
Unique_Bandicoot_502@reddit
Sounds about right.
I found a whole heap of used tampons and lube bottles stuffed down the toilet…. that was when I decided to quit.
TeHNeutral@reddit
These people live along us lol
Wooden_Adeptness_136@reddit
I've done this in a chain and also in a 5, I can honestly say the 5 rooms were SO MUCH WORSE than anything I cleaned in the chain.
One bloke would buy supermarket curries, heat them up in the room leaving the microwave stinking and coated in sauce, and then leave a toilet absolutely obliterated by watery orange shit. Didn't even flush. He did this for the full four days I was there, and I got his room 3/4 days.
My favourite was the couple who stayed for 2 nights and every day I went in their MASSIVE TUB of lube had reduced by half, until it was gone after night 2. Never saw any mess in the room or the bed, nor on the towels, which was quite impressive.
Or the old Italian man who invited me to clean his room whilst he sat in just his underwear eating dry crackers and flicking through two TV channels constantly.
Rich folk are really odd.
GrossFatSlob@reddit
Legit one of the tougher jobs out there.
SeasonReasonable4282@reddit
When I was a first year carpentery appretice in 1976, my hourly rate was .49pence per hour, my first week, I worked a fifty hour week and earen the grand sum of £24.50, and I was taxed on that, I took home something like £20.00.
Rabbit-1989@reddit
I worked as a nanny for several years. Got an interview as a mother's helper 2 days a week as mum was returning to work. We had a lovely chat and all was going well. They asked about hourly rates (which I think from memory was around $13AUD per hour), all seemed really positive, and I left feeling like I would get the job. Got a call within the hour and they gushed about how much experience I had, but said they couldn't afford my hourly rate. Mum's simple solution was to suggest that they simply pay me less for any hours when the baby slept and suggest a new lower "day" rate which would have paid around $8AUD per hour. This woman wanted 12 hour shifts including light cleaning, cooking and ironing. I wished her luck in finding childcare and hung up.
AddendumSea4202@reddit
Not quite a job offer but I was once offered a promotion which was eight hours extra travel a week and the pay rise was less than the cost of the extra travel.
So more travel, more work and responsibility, more time taken out of my week but for less money.
They where really put out about it when I declined due to the travel time, they blacklisted me then. When other promotions came up I was ignored. Glad I don't work there anymore.
JurassicM4rc@reddit
I had a similar experience in a previous job. We were a medical science research group funded by government grants, and our 5 year funding cycle was coming to an end. We had secured funding for another 3 years, but it was the exact same amount that we were granted 5 years ago - so technically less due to inflation, etc.
To get around this, they cut a few roles and downgraded most of the remaining ones. The remaining roles paid less, had largely similar responsibilities (but extra workload from the cut roles), and less intellectual freedom. If we wanted one of these roles, we'd all have to apply and compete with each other (and external candidates too). On top of this, the whole team would be moving from a city centre location with good car and public transport links (and was a walkable distance for a lot of us) to a site outside the city with worse links.
I made the obvious decision to look for a new job elsewhere. The loss of our funding was classed as redundancy so I'd get about a month's pay if I turned down redeployment at the university we were based at. There were no jobs of interest there, so a few months before the end of the contract, signed the redundancy paperwork. This came with a clause that I couldn't be employed there again within 2 years of taking redundancy, which was fine as I'd been eyeing up a couple of jobs in another city. Everything would have been fine, except for the timing of the contract end...
It was the end of March 2020.
Covid and lockdowns were here, and suddenly everyone stopped hiring new staff because they could barely manage their current workforce in the "unprecedented times". So there I was, stuck in limbo. Couldn't get a new job, couldn't go back to my old one. I couldn't even get a temporary job in retail or hospitality because, well, they weren't open.
No-Television-9862@reddit
I once worked for interserve, for Christmas we once got a voucher for a free sandwich, crisps and a bottle of water - and you could only redeem one thing at a time
random_banana_bloke@reddit
Worked as a recovery driver, twice. Originally was 24 hour call out 6 on 3 off, that 6 on was insane hours, tacho was not a word used. The later moved to 5 x 12 hour shifts in a row, which were really 14-16 hour shifts, I was called a part timer with those hours. Horrible job.
Mrteamtacticala@reddit
I had a government scheme job I was strong armed into taking by universal credit. 5 hours minimum wage, 5 days a week with a 2.5 hour each way commute. The whole job was "learn person A's job, then they go on holiday for a couple weeks...now learn person B's job, while they go on holiday for a couple weeks etc etc" all I really remember is how miserable I felt each 2.5 hour bus journey, especially that I had to get a second bus, which If the first was late, I'd miss. Then the boss would force me to stay after finish time to "make up for being late" despite most days literally having nothing to do. So id just have to sit and twiddle my thumbs while I miss my going home bus too. 5 hour/a day min wage ended up being a 7:30am to 7pm job. Would have been nicer if they clumped the 25hours into 3 days, instead of 5. Would cut 10 hours of sitting on a bus per week, but hey ho, that's in the past now.
identified_weakness1@reddit
I left a job with a salary of £30,000 + commission and bonus (OTE somewhere north of £38,000).
5 years later I was offered the same job for £18,000. And I do mean the same job- company, office and colleagues all exactly as it had been prior to me leaving.
I turned it down and stayed overseas an extra 6 years (partly because I turned it down December 2019… not sure if anyone remembers what came shortly after that). In hindsight I’m delighted I got such an awful offer.
Standard-Still-8128@reddit
Got a job selling the kirby vacuum things years ago with a mate, we lasted 2 days they was a great 2 days in the pub didn't sell anything though 🤣🤣
hardyflashier@reddit
Estate agent in Canary Wharf, London. 11 hours a day, 6 days a week, for less than minimum wage. The worst thing was all the lying you were expected, and actually encouraged to do - like telling people there had been viewings on their property, when there hadn't been - or telling people their offer would be rejected for being too low to try and get a higher one.
FarrinGalharad76@reddit
Working for an insurance company owned at the time but a famous Brexiteer. Was advised as a management role but was a glorified 2nd line support role.
At the time I didn’t know who the owner was and yeah it sucked
NowThenHowDo@reddit
Weatherspoons kitchen.
Standing in front of microwaves, reheating ready meals for 10 hours in a windowless kitchen for minimum wage. It was soul destroying.
sambxiv@reddit
Worked in Next stockroom at the start of a summer sale, lasted 3 days.
Able_mable@reddit
It wasn’t an offer as such, as I walked out of the “interview” before it was properly over. It also wasn’t a real job and more a pyramid scheme.
I was looking for a temporary job when I was about 18 (can’t remember the exact scenario, think I just wanted a second job to supplement my part time retail job to get some extra money in before I moved away for uni). Those days, physically handing in your CV actually did work for securing retail/ hospitality jobs, especially if you already had experience. Whilst I was in town handing my CV out, by coincidence I was approached by a “recruiter” and invited to an interview. The “recruiter” was quite vague about what the job actually was. A lot of red flags and I’m surprised this didn’t raise any major alarm bells for my parents.
I was young and naive, so against my better judgement I went to the interview. When I got there it was a group setting of 10+ people, a range of ages and demographics. I think I was the youngest. The person leading the “interview” did a presentation that was basically a sales pitch to join this pyramid/ MLM scheme. They seemed pretty desperate to take on anyone they could. It became clear that it was a full time role, no base pay, commission only with zero clarity on what we were actually selling. It was almost difficult to leave the room out of social awkwardness, but finally someone did and I joined them. Got a job in a coffee shop instead that summer.
stuartc1985@reddit
commission only door to door sales, no travel expenses paid
Sylvarith_ragas7a@reddit
I already deal it, being a mom cause it’s so exhausting, drained and got postpartum, at the same time enjoying giggles from my kiddos.
Wizard_Tea@reddit
when someone starts a sentence with "we're offering you a self-employed position..." you know that the conversation isn't going to end well.
decentlyfair@reddit
In training companies despite being a fully qualified teacher with subject specialism you don’t get paid as well as school teachers but some pay okish. I have 25 years experience and a high success rate and it it the only thing I can truly say that j am good at. I was getting recruiters call me offering 26k a year. My first question was always what is the salary when they told me I always said no thanks don’t bother talking any more.
Dry-Stick-7753@reddit
Cleaning planes after flights especially air India 💩💩💩💩
TeHNeutral@reddit
What made it worse than other airlines? And which airline was the best? I'm assuming ANA or JAL as they're always very clean when I take them
kbwe1@reddit
Working for a recruitment agency, awful people and awful company to work for, the atmosphere was vile and the way they spoke about those signing up looking for work was horrible.
Pancovnik@reddit
I used to work in hospitality as a restaurant manager. I left in around 2017. I got a call from a recruiter in 2024 (somehow they dug out my CV) asking me if I am open for new positions. Out of curiosity I asked what was the salary. It was 20% less that what was making in 2013.
PhilosopherSalt9322@reddit
Ermm probably the time I starting dj got £20 for like 6 hours work
LibrarySoggy6644@reddit
Job application stated 16 hours a week flexible, got there and was told its a weekends only, i ask who wrote the job application. they did not know... i told him your company needs better internal communication and walk out thanking him for wasting both of our time.
Nitrogenflux@reddit
I was at university and looking for a part time job, I was obviously to inexperienced to see the massive red flags of a job post that offered 'great rates of pay and massive opportunities' without telling you what the job was. The interview was in a hotel lobby and the guy took me through a load of questions until I got a chance to ask hon what the job actuality entailed. The guy refused to tell me, said I would find out at the next interview, I didn't take any followup calls from them...
banananey@reddit
A job at Ticketmaster
Phishstixxx@reddit
Door-to-door karate lessons salesman.
ARobertNotABob@reddit
picking lobsters from Jane Mansfield's backside
GlamorganTestesWard@reddit
This. I came here for this ❤️
fastestman4704@reddit
The company I work for's main competition offered me a position below starting salary here with enforced Overtime every other weekend and all bank holidays and also didn't want to Pay for my Van insurance or diesel.
Like yeah, let me take a pay cut, work more hours, and be out of pocket a couple of thousand pound a year on top of the pay gap. Great offer guys 10/10 when do I start.
geeered@reddit
Maybe there wasn't as much competition as you thought and they had a deal with each other to aid staff retention/not push wages up!
fastestman4704@reddit
Oh no they're dying for staff and contacted me without me applying for anything recently at their company. They have my details from when I first applied maybe 3 years ago now.
They've contacted a fair few of our engineers, all with similarly bad offers, and we all got Payrises at our company in April.
purehallion@reddit
got offered a job, money benefits etc. over the phone. Kept in contact with them over the next while as to when they would have the official offer with all the neccessary paperwork etc. They kept saying they would "have it over soon" which turned into "sorry our HR person is off atm, but we still want you" which turned into, "our director is at a trade show he'll be back on monday" etc etc etc.
Eventually got a phone call from the recruiter that i had originally applied for the job with to say that they had sent him an email and had gone with someone else after offering me the job and keeping me waiting for 2 weeks. He seemed more angry than i was (don't know if he was putting it on or not) Thank fuck i had the sense to not hand my notice in.
cactusdan94@reddit
As if "free parking" is even listed as a perk😂
What next? "We used to charge for the toilets but they are free aswell now!😄"
Nuo_Vibro@reddit
go on indeed. Fucking loads advertise free parking and 20 days holiday as perk
WrongExplanation1065@reddit
Don't get a job with the NHS, lots of staff don't get free parking.
Saltysockies@reddit
Look after a £35m year spend by myself. Work hours, 8:30 to 5:30. Benefits included an hour break, bank holidays off, and birthday.
£31k a year.
I'm currently managing a much smaller spend and earn £60k. Even when they knew my salary they tried to convince me that it's a good offer.
Master-Tank6719@reddit
My very first job interview, was a trial shift at a posh hotel, it was for a room service position, specifically for breakfast. I would have been on absolute pittance because of my age and when the words " we would require you to come in 30 minutes early and on some days stay around for the lunch service, you won't be paid for that , but we will give you free lunch" I immediately said no thanks, ran to my car and never looked back at hospitality.
dustyfaxman@reddit
£20 to "sort out" a friend of a friend's historic tax avoidance problem. this was after i'd sat and listened to him walk me through the problem. his 'full job' offer wouldn't have covered the initial meeting we had if he was an ordinary client, but i'd agreed to meet him as a favour to the friend we had in common.
it wasn't a surprise he lowballed me that badly and thought it was fine after hearing how he viewed paying bills.
Was offered a permanent post after temping in one place and the package offered was 15% less than i was making as a temp, this is including the 'benefits' package of bike hire, coupons for a specific supermarket and other corporate affiliated company nonsense.
hhfugrr3@reddit
Clinton Cards. Not much to say. Shit job in a tiny area all day. Manageress was a prick. I quit after 3 weeks.
mk6971@reddit
Fishmongers in the mid-late 80s. Earn £1.36/hr. Would get home stinking of fish. Put me off fish for the rest of my life.
OverlyAdorable@reddit
The first job I got a job offer for after uni was pretty bad. I had a phone call from a place I had apparently applied for but had forgotten about (I'd applied for so many).
They phoned up and asked me to come and interview for an office based based job. I Googled the company and didn't find any info other than they were a somewhat recent company that worked with charities.
I went for the interview, aced it, got told I got the job and I was to attend the following Monday for training. Monday came and I showed up. Turned out the job wasn't office based, I would've had to go door to door, trying to get people to sign up to donate money to charity on a monthly basis. I left, telling them I had food poisoning (which was true)
girlandhiscat@reddit
A teaching contract that was temporary until midway July and then permanent from September.
Basically they didn't want to pay me for the holidays.
Kindly told them to go fuck themselves.
Chronically_Quirky@reddit
"Marketing" - which involved walking around sketchy estates, knocking on doors and trying to get people to sign up and donate to charities.
Did the interview as I was in the middle of an area I didn't know and never bothered getting back to them.
AirSorvete@reddit
Ask this in a few months to a year when I've managed to leave.
Tbh I'd say it is a toss up between this one and the call centre.
Ok_Heart_7193@reddit
A headhunter aggressively pursued me for a job position where the company had specifically said they wanted me or someone with my exact skills and experience. They had already contacted me before the headhunter got involved and I’d pointed out I’d be taking a 15% pay cut, they weren’t offering flexible working, and I’d have to move away from my family, so no thanks.
Three months of messages showing what could be my office (smaller than my current one), the great free leisure facilities (a windowless cupboard with a rowing machine, treadmill and some weights), and that they were prepared to increase my salary by 5% after a year (still less than I was already making).
I ended up blocking him three times, but I had to contact the company’s HR team and say I was one unsolicited contact away from serving them a C&D for harassment before it was over.
yearsofpractice@reddit
Genuinely - a dude offered me the opportunity to be the sole UK distributor for a certain toe of vacuum cleaner specifically designed to clean Persian rugs. It was a “I give you two camels for your woman” kind of place back in the day - holy shit, the bloke was for real as well.
Healthy_Chipmunk_990@reddit
Live-in care for an elderly lady with early stage dementia. The pay was £250 pw and I quote verbatim ”all the food you can eat and free wi-fi”. It was 2019. Yep. The man who offered me this job opportunity was an investment banker making £150kpa.
I suggested he takes a look at live-in care agency fees. And if grandma does not have savings, they can also get funding from the nhs and social services, but the family has to make up the difference, which is still substantial. Live-in care for someone with dementia was around £1000 pw around that time in London.
Btw I am a registered nurse with years of experience working with the elderly and specifically dementia patients, hence I was approached. But even as a carer £250 pw for a live-in role like this is basically modern day slavery.
I was paid £30ph working as a private nurse for another elderly lady and I could go home at the end of the day or stay in Central and sleep in the off duty staff room if I did not want to commute back and forth for the next day. I just hope the guy’s grandma’s care was eventually sorted out properly.
goodmythicalmickey@reddit
I have two very similar ones. One was a junior marketing role which turned out to be a business management course and one was a marketing assistant which was actually door-to-door sales.
refundpackage@reddit
Aircraft cleaning. Shit pay, shit hours, shit job
buginarugsnug@reddit
"We're moving our office later this year so you'll only be based here for six weeks then you will be based at [Address]."
[Address] was sixty miles away from the current office in a city centre. The move wasn't mentioned until I'd accepted the offer. I withdrew.
No_Ring_3348@reddit
Tech support for a now-defunct ISP. I was too young to realise it at the time but one of the managers was clearly chinged off his nut every day, sweating like Ballmer, gimlet-eyed with hands covered in cuts and bruises from bashing his desk and chewing his knuckles etc. I lasted 2 weeks.
FunkyYoghurt@reddit
I was once offered a job at a school to teach English and Maths to bottom set Y7s-Y9s and spend the rest of the time working in Behaviour Support. They refused to pay me a teaching salary. Not only was I teaching lessons (not as much as "proper" English and Maths teachers), but Behaviour Support is a joke. You spend time with the most challenging children in the school and are expected to ensure they get all of their work done that their teachers have left for them. They offered me £1400 a month. At the previous school it was £2000. Still not amazing but I definitely cut the day-long interview short and walked out of the school.
Successful-Watch3814@reddit
Having a manager that was a dictatorial bitch for 17 years 😞
montyrattus@reddit
How can they legally offer below minimum wage?
thierry_ennui_@reddit
They didn't, they illegally offered below minimum wage
montyrattus@reddit
The spiteful side of me would have fun with that then.
No_Ring_3348@reddit
You'll find that there's nothing on paper so the job doesn't actually exist, and that's that.
Phat-Lines@reddit
You can’t
eoghan7698@reddit
He didn’t say legally tbf
Phat-Lines@reddit
montyrattus did say legally
Desperate-Drawer-572@reddit (OP)
Dodgy place
dan-72@reddit
Offered to advance my role with extra work assigned to a different dept, wouldn’t be paid anything extra as I was already there….
ClockAccomplished381@reddit
The worst actual offer I've had (ie excluding all the irrelevant spam from recruiters that isn't an actual job offer) must be the first job I had after uni. £10k salary and had to work every other Saturday morning (on top of mon-fri). High stress/responsbility, and not learning many transferrable skills.
Unlike you we didn't get free coffee, it was 12p from the machine.
genxerrr@reddit
Amazon Warehouse.
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