The Worst Job Ever Unofficial Challenge Winners

Last month, I posed an unofficial challenge for everyone in the Vocal community to tell me about the worst job you've ever had.

I was inspired by my own reflection on my prior employment. While I can firmly say that my last job was not, in fact, the worst job ever, leaving was the right decision, and reading the few entries that came in was a fun way to commiserate.

All in all, I got what I needed out of hosting this challenge. Participation was lower than my last unofficial challenge, but that is to be expected. Not everyone feels comfortable putting a former job on blast for all to see on the internet.

Lower participation does make things easier for me as a judge. Everyone is a winner. I only had to decide who got first place or second.

Runner-Up Goes To:

Mike tells us about a terrible project manager he worked under back in the '80s, and it sounds like that guy needed managing more than he was actually managing anything at all.

I wish I could say I can't relate, but a few jobs ago, my boss was shockingly similar.

Mikey, this $1 prize was earned. I had a flashback or two of my own angry, lying, inconsistent past supervisor while reading your work. Those are always a job killer, even when they don't choose to fire you.

And The Winner Is:

This was my first time reading Sasha's work, and it is clear that I have been missing out.

The reflection here is exactly what I was hoping for from this challenge. Sasha guides us through the discovery of the worst job ever, the way it never starts off seeming so bad, and the complete lack of humanity a terrible job tends to come with in the end. In this case, it was essentially an elaborate scam, but isn't it always?

Thank you both for participating in this mini unofficial challenge. Tips will be processed shortly.

And thank you to anyone who read the initial challenge and the entries. Especially after being away from Vocal for a bit while settling into a new job and new home, this was a nice way to return to our online community of writers, readers, and terrible-job-survivors.