The Great American Swindle

Worst Job Ever:

They moved us all into a small room with no ventilation. They installed ductwork that recycled the same air at 80db, 24-7. We had an exposed ceiling of steel girders, coated with flame-retardant chemical foam. It had been coated with flat black paint. Both substances flaked off the walls and got in our lungs, on our clothes, and made us all very sick--a typical day would involve 12-15 of 54 people being unable to come in, and the coughing was nonstop.

We were under the bathrooms. The pipes leaked. At times someone might get toilet-water dripped on them when you heard a flush. Alarms malfunctioned and went off at random, right over our heads. They could run for half an hour or more, and were much louder than the ductwork.

We were under a cafeteria. The gas pipes for the stove leaked when they fired things up for breakfast or lunchtime, and would cause headaches. The kitchen waste pipes were leaky, and dripped "kitchen waste", sometimes rupturing and gushing all over the floor, the walls, or in one case someone's computer. There was a water leak from the cafeteria's ice machine, and there were flying insects that lived in the salad bar and would swarm down the holes in the floor.

Needless to say, you never ate at the cafeteria, you always left at lunch to get some air, and you always kept any food covered or wrapped as you were eating it.

Here's the punchline: know where I worked?

Public Health.