What's the dumbest thing you've ever had to do at work?

[sniffles]

The "What Do ENworlders Do In Real Life?" thread got me thinking about previous jobs I've had, and about stupid/redundant/outdated things jobs may require employees to do. So what are some of the things you've done that just didn't make any sense, or were done because 'we've always done it that way'?

I'll start:
I used to work in group homes for developmentally disabled adults. The last home I worked in had a group of residents at the lower end of the functional scale. Most of them couldn't talk, or bathe or dress themselves. But in order to keep receiving state funding, the home had to show that it was training the residents to become independent, never mind how unlikely that prospect was.

To that end, the one client who could actually speak, bathe and dress herself was supposed to be learning to handle money. The staff were supposed to take her once a week to a frozen yogurt shop for a treat. She had to be taken on the city bus, so she could learn about riding public transit, using money, and how to cross the street. It didn't matter that abstract concepts like money and how to cross a street didn't mean anything to her, and that the word 'yogurt' wasn't even in her limited vocabulary (she called it ice cream). It had to be done, because someday she would become independent. Yeah, right. :\

I could go on about my current job in the corporate world, but Dilbert pretty much has all those issues covered.

 

[BOZ]

there are so many, that i'd rather not have to try to think of them all and pick a worst one.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Hmm. Tough pick.

I'd have to say having to go through a stack (like 5000+ copies) of a pre-bound publication to manually remove and insert a half dozen pages because they'd left off one of the degrees after the name of one of the contributers. He was John Smith, PhD, JD, or some such twaddle and they'd made a mistake and he pitched a hissy.

Of course, I ended up contributing to him getting fired a year later, so I guess I won.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

Try to explain to people that we don't serve x item on our menu. And having to deal with those who lie about us messing up their orders.

Or giving somebody directions to Taco Hell (which was next door at the time) and they drive out in the opposite direction.

 

[Shadowbane2]

My first job at the local supermarket. A week and a half in, I made an obnoxious old lady pack her own bags, then load them, then pick up the loaf of bread that "fell" onto the floor. I immediately quite before the administration had the opportunity to fire me.

Loading an unloading the same bag of groceries repeatedly for 5 minutes because they're never packed just right wears on you, believe me.

 

[bento]

In the early 1980s while in high school I worked at a fast food resturaunt for a couple of years. One day the district manager came in to get us ready for an inspection from some VP. He chewed out my manager because my hair was past my collar. She turned to me and chewed me out for not taking care of it, but because it was a busy Saturday she could afford to let me go to a barbar. She handed me the scissors and told me to go to the bathroom to take care of it.

I learned an important lesson that day - never try to cut your own hair, especially in the back. I butchered it, then let a co-worker give it a try. Funny when you're 18 you really don't care about these things. I had hunks cut out of it and kinda thought it was funny. Later I went to a Supercuts and they told me I had done such a bad job that they could barely fix it. Remember this was a period when NO ONE had short hair like they do today unless you were in the Army or recovering from cancer.

As pissed as I eventually became over this everyone told me "don't quit a good job when your mad." So I quit a month later.

-bento

 

[Nyaricus]

There are a few, but here's a goodie:

When I used to work at McDinks, a manager there was emptying the fry vats, which are, fo course, filled with hot oil. So, then get symphoned off into this sqare cake-pan sort of tray (except it's huge and fits a goos 20+ litres) and then we have to switch it into a big bucket to transport it across WalMart (in many places in Canada, McDonalds are located right in Walmarts) to the back room through the automotive dept. and out the back door into a special dumpster. So this manager takes out the big tray, hoistes it up, and begins to poor this still-quite-hot oil right into the bucket. Big Mistake. Seems there is still some ater in the bottom of the bucket and the oil immediately starts to boil when it hits the water. Since this guy was beefy and strong, he'd lifted the oil tray up quite high and had emptied out a good 10 litres of this oil. You know what comes next. The oil goes EVERYWHERE in the back-end of McDonalds, under every table and in every corner. It's like a literal Grease spell, with the floors being EXTREMELY slippery. And guess who had to clean up this crap. Yeah, that's right, me. Took me four hours to finally get the floors clean, and it was really ugly.

Luckily, he played D&D and was a buddy of mine, so we chatted about his level 35 +5 Red Dragon Plate-slayed-by-he-himself Dwarven Pureclassed Fighter for the night. Ah, good times

 

[Bront]

I once got fired for not synchronizing the network files on the laptop of a CEO.

 

[Wycen]

At my currect job, customer service, the most idioted task I've ever had to do is cut down legal size paper to letter size. I still cut down legal size note pads to letter size. My manager...

 

[Jdvn1]

"Pardon me, there's a security sticker on your forehead."

Seriously.