What is the most boring job you have ever been asked to do?
We have all had to do monotonous tasks at some point in our lives. What is the most boring job you have done?
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31 Answers
12 hr swing shifts of culling bad bathroom tissue rolls off a conveyor belt. Paid well at the time for an 18 year old though
Having to sit through school ceremonies and conferences in the hall. Just those old men talking political shit and making themselves feel good. I would have died of boredom a long time ago without my phone or sketch book.
Placing a small silver coin inside a plastic case bottom, placing a punched-out card over the case bottom, placing the cap case on, repeat 15,000 times.
Working in the bank’s mailroom. Often had down times
Checking the open, high, low, close prices of stock options.
I think @Seek “wins” this one.
Most boring I have known of was a friend who worked in a pear cannery. His job was to make sure each can had three pear halves.
I just helped a friend stuff about 500 horsey goodie bag last week before a big endurance race here.
She sells equine supplements as a side job and hands out product samples, flyers & coupons for all sorts of equine stuff at horse shows and events. Each plastic bag had about 6 different flyers/inserts, for supplements, tack, etc. we then added plastic mane and tail combs with hoof picks and salt and mineral supplements. You started with the large papers first, topped them off with the smaller flyers and inserts, added the supplement samples and combs last.
We started together but I decided that her making the contents piles and me stuffing the bags was a better and more efficient production line. Took about 3 hours, man, it was tedious. haha
Working for Edward Jones
A LOT of down time.
Mowing the lawn at a pet cemetery on a rider-mower. Incredibly mind-numbing. In the Florida heat. In the summer. I was sixteen. The highlights were mowing around some of the big monuments. Like tall, granite Corinthian columns with a little, dinky, life-size Toy Yorkie on top and a bronze plaque that read, “Good Night, Sweet Prince”.
I got fired for swimming in the “Memorial Pond” while people were contemplating their dearly departed princes..
Weeks spent hand-collating a 300 page medical directory back in the mid-1970’s.
Deadly boring. It’s pretty much what ensured I’d go to university.
@Espiritus_Corvus LMAO, you are the winner in this category. haha
I lived next to a memorial park that had a pet cemetery included a couple years ago. It was a beautiful place for a stroll but it never crossed my mind to go swimming in the memorial pond.
Most jobs that required me to sit on my butt all day. Data entry and receptionist.
@zenvelo – on the upside this was during my normal work, so I occasionally had to answer the phone for mind-numbingly stupid IT support questions such as “what does login mean?” and “Do I have to put the dubyadotcom address into my email to get to the website?”
Cleaning. Boring and disgusting
@Stinley It is boring, but the end result is nice.
@Stinley – Ugh. I worked in the laundry room of a nursing home when I was 18. That was a special kind of hell.
@Stinley Well no, haha, I thought you meant cleaning your own house. haha
Accurately count 1,500 cartons of cigarettes. Every night.for a year . Then get told that I didn’t have to.
Front desk reception for only one or two visitors per day, and about twice that many calls per day. I was allowed to draw designs for my needlework, but not to do the actual sewing.
In other words, I was paid to do practically nothing all day. I watched the leaves grow outside the window.
Boring and mind-numbing tedious are different.
Boring was in a TV station where I sat at a desk with a computer waiting for something to happen. Nothing ever happened.
Mind-numbing tedious was when I worked at a distribution center for Nordstroms. That was racks of clothes going by and I had to grab the top of the plastic and pull it down to the ground on each piece of clothing. Thousands of the same motions a day for 4.75 and food stamps.
Thanks for making that distinction, @johnpowell. Sitting without having anything to do is the worst. I could survive some of the tedious jobs listed above. At least I’d have something to do.
I have to give @RedDeerGuy1 a thumbs up on this one.
Counting occupies your mind, preventing you from entertaining yourself.
Boring is a lack of imagination.
Mind numbing is repetition that prevents you from using your imagination.
My first part-time job in high school was clerking at a small shop that sold what was then called ladies ready-to-wear—much of it undergarments that scared me.
Let’s see—my boss was a tyrannical jerk, the pay was paltry, and worst of all, I had to deal with the poorest, saddest customers you can imagine.
And I was ALWAYS bored.
Lifeguarding part-time at a large pond was THE most boring job ever held. It wasn’t like lifeguarding at a pool where one could read until a guest entered through the gate.
Fire staff, done it so often it’s become ever so tiresome
Hey, maybe I can hire a firer…now there’s a thought
^ HAPPY BIRTHDAY have you grown your big buck antlers yet?
@Coloma Thanks. They are coming out nicely.
No wonder your head is hot at night.
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