Hi Reader,

whoever has been in the workforce for a while, must have experienced this: THE crappiest job ever 😱

Crappy jobs feel a bit like early dating. In the beginning it seems like a good match but after working at this hellhole HR loves calling a 'great workplace' you notice how awful things actually are.

Not even the crappy salary, that should be considered a compensation for all the emotional pain, can make up for it!

On LinkedIn, I did a poll on crappy jobs. Retail won the title! Followed by barista ☕

I've worked as a barista in a bakery shop for a couple of months out of sheer financial desperation.

And yes, it was one of the crappiest jobs ever. Not even the cake and bread I could take home after the late shift would compensate all the BS I had to deal with there.

Not really surprised that retail and barista were hated among voters almost equally.

In both cases you gotta deal often with highly unintelligent coworkers and bosses and same goes for clients - of course I'm not saying they're all like that, but unfortunately a vast majority is. People shared in the comments the horrors they experienced while working in their crappiest jobs.

But it doesn't stop with the bakery, I also had crappy office jobs. Let's talk about working in a call center! OMG, just no.

But, in retrospect - the bakery barista job was even worse! It was my first desperate attempt of working as an employee again part-time after 7 years of freelancing!

And the saddest part was, despite working more hours than in my former freelance job, I still earned less money since the hourly rate was just minimum wage.

I reached the lowest point of my life wondering why I did an apprenticeship, went to college, learned languages, worked abroad...

For ending up asking clients a million times per day:

'you want chocolate powder on your oat latte?' ☕

'you want your bread sliced or not?' 🍞

It sucked the life out of me!

This era of 2024 caused many crying spells and nervous breakdowns - until I quit.

Crappy jobs aren't a personal failure - they're merely a symptom of a very broken work culture system that rewards survival over skills, personality, actual talent and creativity.

What have I learned from this? I will never ever kill my own dignity and self-respect again with such a job.

The CRAPPIEST job ever gave me more clarity about what I'm willing to accept - and what is an absolute no - than any therapist could ever have.

Underpaid jobs I'm overqualified for are an absolute non-negotiable from now on!

Tell me, what was the crappiest job you ever had? And how did you get out of it? I hope you're no longer stuck in any crappy job!

xoxo,

Phyllis

P.S. feel free to forward this email to anyone who has ever been stuck in a crappy job or is still stuck in that work hell place!

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