The thing that always used to piss me off is that you would quote someone based on what they told you needed to go, and then inevitably at the end of the job they would say "Do you mind taking "this" with you since your going to the dump anyways? I never wanted to be a shyster and charge the person an extra 5 bucks for 5 minutes of work, but the 5 extra minutes of work, added to the extra load in the box on every job always added up at the end of the day...... One time some 90 year old lady got me to remove a bunch of rocks from her lot which was a bitch of a job to begin with, and then after we were done she basically coerced us into loading up her entire set of living room furniture for free always assuring us that we "just had to move this one piece of furniture" By the time we were done, I wanted to tell the old battle axe that She should have died in the ice age, but i didnt have the heart to do it....
Yea, I got some moving jobs too. One guy built a nice picinic table at his campsite and wanted me to move it back to his house at the end of summer. I put a moving blanket on the bottom of my Pu and slid the table upside down on top of the blanket. he rode back with me to his house (about 50 miles). Cruising down the highway I throw my cigarette out the window and no shit, it ends up on the blanket, cathces fire and burns the guys picnic table. I pull over on the side of the road and throwing sand on this thing, leave the blanket on the side of the road. It was an intense ride, to say the least. I gave him a break on the price...
I don't necessarily think a low paying labor type job is a worst job, especially if you're young. I remember working at McD's when I was 16. We'd be shooting mustard and catchup at each other all day and eating junk food till we puked. All for .90 an hour. It was great! Horrible job was as a Site Manger on a industrial construction site. Half the day was spent trying to convince 80 f'n cry babies they actually needed to do some work for their paycheck. The other half spent trying to explain to some corporate moron that welding flanges on a 30" dia., 6 foot long, schedule 160 spool piece takes more than 5 minutes. In between all that dealing with a manager at the client site who was pissed off because his buddy didn't get the contract. Then I got to go home and answer the phone all evening for one crisis after another. Same on weekends. Paid really, really well. Company vehicle, gas card, expense account. Hated every minute of that 10 month project. Best gig as an adult. Owning my mom and pop pet shop. Starved, but it was a labor of love. Worst gig as an adult, the absolute worst job. Gathering up the personal items of a dead marine who I had spent nearly two years with while across the pond.
Yeah, truth be told, my time as a McMonkey was probably the funnest job I ever had, Our Hockey coaches brother owned the joint so half our team worked their, and when it wasnt busy, all we would do is eat chicken mcnuggets and think of pranks to play on each other..... If I still worked there today I would probably weight 400 pounds, cause i used to put back like 30 mcnuggets a shift.....
I haven't had too many 'shitty' jobs but the worst had to be 1 week as a camp cabin counselor for 8 retarded guys (no, real retards). One kid could barely walk, barely talk, and would shit in his bed now and then. Fortunately there were 2 smokers and I controlled their cigarettes, I made them clean up the shit before they got their smokes. The ~40 year old guy would stare at me like a 3 year old on christmas morning until I woke up, then start with his 'hey buddy, it's smoke time'. I called him Rev. Jim and also made him play pranks on other counselors before he got his smokes, my favorite being a cheek-to-cheek whisker rub. One guy really went off on me for that one, guess he had issues. Other than that, pretty smooth sailing other than my work has been damned stressful and difficult at times. I watch "Dirty Jobs" to see how others work. Waiting for janitor at a porn theatre episode.
And it's recession proof. You can try to save money on other things but when the toilet backs up, or the sink won't work...you call the plumber. I remember stepping out of our office every morning. There was a construction site two buildings down and the smell of the sewer work there would always waft over to us. My boss would take a deep breath and go "Aahhh....the smell of money."