Every job has its ups and downs, but some jobs really can be worse than others. A recent survey identified the jobs that Americans think suck the most. You would expect difficult or unpleasant jobs would pay more than the average to compensate for the unpleasantness, but that’s not always the case. Where these two things intersect is where the suck is worst. Hopefully, your job isn’t one of these…or, if it is, then hopefully you personally don’t find it as bad as the folks in this survey did! 🙃
Here are Five Fast Facts on the worst jobs in America:
- 📉💲 Why Does It Suck? The single biggest factor is low pay, but some others are poor company culture, no purpose, no opportunity for growth, and plain ol’ undesirable work. Moving rocks from one pile to another and then back again would qualify on all counts.
- 🌃 Variations On A Theme - Some other elements can make an otherwise-good job into something bad, like working a night shift, working weekends, contract work, or starting early. Not a lot of early birds getting worms in this study, apparently.
- ✋ Not So Fast - It’s important to note that just because these are on top of the list here, that doesn’t mean they are always bad, nor are they necessarily unimportant. In fact, some of these jobs are super important for our society to function properly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…as is the definition of “good” and “suck.”
- 📝 So What Are They Already?! Okay, enough setup! At the top of the list is a cleaner, making an average of roughly $34k. After that comes waiters/waitresses, janitor, laborer, and truck driver. All of these pay lower than the national average wage of $55k. And have lots of other negative factors on top of that, too.
- 😱😭 It Could Be Worse - Even with these being considered the “worst” jobs in the country, it could be worse. Another recent list of terrible jobs around the world included such gems as a pet food taster, portable toilet cleaner, roadkill collector, animal masturbator, paint dry watcher, and odor tester. No, this is not a joke.
🔥Bottom line: Like we said before, how good or bad a job is really depends on each person. What you may think is a terrible job could be the perfect thing for another person, and vice versa. Lists like this are interesting and good for discussions, but don’t read too much into it. The bottom line is that if you love your job, kudos to you and stick with it! If you don’t, then go find a different one! There’s no shortage of jobs available right now, so take your future in your own hands and make it a better one.
What’s the worst job you ever had, and what made it bad?
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