What job could you NOT do?

Howard Beale · #1 03-14-2007, 04:46 PM

I've consoled myself with the thought that if things ever went horribly wrong I could always get a job at Starbucks. If you are a patron of Starbucks you may have noticed that there are frequently notices posted regarding the hiring fairs that they are holding. Apparently they are ALWAYS hiring and it should be easy to get a job at Starbucks. Also, I've read that Starbucks is regularly listed as one of the best companies to work for.

Then I started to really pay attention to what a Starbucks employee has to do. They have to be incredibly friendly. I'm always greeted by the 'HELLO! How are you today? What can I get started for you? You'll have a double-mocha, frappa triple-pump, two shot, half-caf, no foam latte? Right away, sir. How about one of our delicious pastries today?'

All of this w/ a happy face smile and a great attitude. I don't think I could do this. I'm a former NYer and, frankly, I don't really care if a stranger drops dead as long as it's not a bother to me. I don't care if they're having a nice day and I don't think the Starbucks people really care if I'm havin a nice day either but they have to keep up the attitude.

And how does the Barista (Barista, lol, where did they come up w/ that?) remember all of these customized drinks? It probably takes 2 months to learn how to speak 'Starbucks' and I'd screw everything up.

Lastly, Starbucks calls their employess 'partners'. What is that? If I was a Starbucks partner I'd ask them to buy me out so I could retire to the Dominican Republic.

I think that a Starbucks job must be terrible and that is the reason they are always having to hire people. I don't think I could ever do it which means it's the taxicab for me if things go bad.

By-Tor · #2 03-14-2007, 04:49 PM

any form of Sales and I don't care what the compensation is.

suzzer99 · #3 03-14-2007, 04:52 PM

Golf pro. Auditor.

Skoob · #4 03-14-2007, 04:57 PM

Assembly line, or any repetitive factory work.

I've tried and quit within days.

grando · #5 03-14-2007, 04:58 PM

rig monkey

cbloom · #6 03-14-2007, 05:00 PM

Sales. I'd want to kill myself. That includes things like mortgage brokering where you make your money by ripping off hard working people.

Waitering. The first time a customer was an ass to me I'd spill his food in his lap or just never bring it.

Anything where you have pretend to be cheerful all day, like workers at Disney World or flight attendants or anything like that.

Jamougha · #7 03-14-2007, 05:02 PM

I would find it difficult to do any kind of job.

Skoob · #8 03-14-2007, 05:12 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Anything where you have pretend to be cheerful all day, like workers at Disney World or flight attendants or anything like that.

[/ QUOTE ]
You don't fly that often, do you? Flight attendants don't even pretend. Most have "bitch" tattooed across their forehead.

RayPowers · #9 03-14-2007, 05:32 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Assembly line, or any repetitive factory work.

I've tried and quit within days.

[/ QUOTE ]

Strange side story. I worked for a fortune 300 company, and our Quality group wanted to institue a cross training program. There were people in our warehouse who's entire job was as follows:

1. Pick up piece a from converyor belt 1.
2. Pick up piece b from converour belt 2.
3. Connect piece a to piece b and put in a box.

8 hours a day. 5 days a week. The Quality group assumed that this must be the worst job ever, and we should start cross training these people so that they could move up into better jobs and develop careers in the company.

The cross training was pretty much universally rejected. No one wanted to be cross trained. I guess there really are people out there that want to walk in, shut off their brain, do menial work for 8 hrs, collect a paycheck, rince, repeat...

Ray

suzzer99 · #10 03-14-2007, 05:37 PM

I've done a ton of repetetive stuff as temp jobs. You can actually make it interesting for a while if you try to figure out the most efficient way to do everything and/or try to set records then break them.

Worst one was putting popcorn into a box. You were limited by the speed of the line so there was really no way to do it faster or slower. Oh yeah, also 12-hour shifts. Ugh.

Also the frequency makes a difference. If it's something that happens every few seconds you can kind of zone out and meditate. Or if it takes 15 minutes/a half an hour, then you only have to do so many before it's time to go home. It's something that takes a minute or so that really sucks.