On Wednesday, I pulled into the parking lot of Cub Foods at 5:50 a.m. I love doing errands early but this was early even by my standards – it was still dark. As I pulled into a parking spot, I noticed that there were shopping carts all over the lot. Not in their nice, neat corrals but stranded in various spots, one here, another couple there. It struck me as funny because you never see this during the day – most folks are pretty reliable about putting the carts where they belong. Are folks who shop in the very late and very early hours (when nobody is out shagging carts) lazier than daytime dwellers or not willing to spend more time in the dark in a parking lot than necessary? Or does somebody come between midnight and 5 a.m. and free the carts from the corrals?
What’s the most boring job you’ve ever done?
Trail Baboon 
Parking lot attendant on campus at the U. A typical weekday morning shift from 6 to noon consisted of two hours of selling parking spaces, taking money, guiding cars into the last few spaces, and putting out the “Lot Full” sign. Then it was four hours of studying, intermixed by turning away a car every now and then that begged you to “squeeze me in” somewhere.
Chris in Owatonna
*BSP* Hate to be a broken record about this but a no-name indie author’s gotta hustle with the marketing these days. TOMORROW, Rosemount Writers Festival and Book Fair, Steeple Center, downtown Rosemount. 9-4:30. MN author Faith Sullivan is the keynote speaker at 9:00 am. Book Fair starts at 10. Sessions for writers or interested folks start at 10:30. More than 30 MN authors will be there selling and signing, including moi. Workshops cost $15 but you can sign up just before they start although space is limited. I’ll be moderating a panel on “Writing Female Protagonists” with other members of my Minnesota Mystery Works writing group. Should be fun. It’s a well-run event that I look forward to every year. Hope to see some TBers there.* *end BSP*
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Ooh, have fun, anyone who goes… I love Faith Sullivan.
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I got to talking with other authors as we set up or display tables. Next thing I knew, it was 9:30 and I was too late to hear her. 😦
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Detasseling seed corn for DeKalb. Walking acres and acres of corn and pulling the tassels off. If it was wet out, our shoes got weighed down with mud. Waitressing at Mr. Steak in Moorhead, MN was pretty mind numbing, too.
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We always called it “Mr. Snake”.
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Right next to Nels Vogel music shop.
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Factory job at Marshall Manufacturing – drilled threads into tiny brass pieces for… something bigger. I can still repeat the motions required.
Ya know, it might have been more interesting if we’d known what they were a part of, or could have seen how they fit into the product. 15 minute break and half hour lunches.
At least there were a couple other friends there, and we’d all pile into the Tan Bomb (the 1950 Plymouth my folks let me drive) and drive down to the Dairy Queen once we got off work.
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It’s funny, but when I think back, I can’t recall any of the jobs I’ve had that I would describe as boring. I’ve had jobs that were unchallenging, like janitorial work in college as work/study and I’ve had aggravating jobs but I wouldn’t describe them as boring. There’s always something to occupy my mind.
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I wish I had known then all the songs I know now – could have just sung them in my head. I think factory work like I had is more repetitive than something like janitorial, and that’s part of what makes it more boring. There is absolutely no decision making to be had.
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My thoughts exactly, Bill. I’ve never had a boring job. Some weren’t very challenging or rewarding, and I didn’t stay in those very long.
During summer vacation in high school I worked in a factory doing the lowliest and most repetitive work. When I found one task too mind numbing, I’d ask for another assignment. I had three different assignments during my six week stint there. I left to return to school after the summer “vacation.”
I worked as a waitress in three different restaurants in Carbondale the summer before I started school. Lasted only a few hours in one of them and left without pay (but with my $6.00 in tips), not because I was bored, but because conditions were intolerable. In the second I lasted five days, not because of the job itself, but because of being required to clean the restaurant after it closed on Sunday morning without pay. I had been told this when I was hired, and it was a minimum pay job. Tips, and some of the late night customers, were what made that job worth while. Absent both of those, it was just a chore that I didn’t want any part of. My last job as a waitress lasted the remainder of the summer. I met what is, still, my best friend there.
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I had NOT been told this when I was hired.
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I’ve done data entry, but that’s not so bad if the workers are allowed to listen to music/podcasts. Even when I couldn’t do that, I had my imagination to fall back on, so I’ve never been very easy to bore. What I hate is busywork–if I can be doing something productive I’m fine, but having to look busy for hours while accomplishing nothing? I can’t stand that!
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Of course, I’ve never done factory work, so perhaps I shouldn’t boast about not being easy to bore.
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See below. I agree about data entry. Very dull.
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I agree. Trying to look busy when you really have nothing to do is very taxing.
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Rise and Shine Baboons,
“Keypunch” or data entry for the U of Mn’s school of dentistry was by far the most boring job I ever did. They had a research study going about dental care and I entered data about the health of each tooth. 😴😵💫. Every tooth. Of many people. Day after day, week after week. Every tooth.
OT. Yesterday I tried to enter a post from my laptop (I usually work from my ipad, as I am doing today) and WP threw multiple fits requiring many log ins and responses that WP did not recognize me. Thus my “Anonymous” test and comments at the end of the day yesterday. Add to that I am now 2 hours off your schedule due to Daylight Savings Time, so working in MN on a different schedule gets to be a hassle.
My siblings and I were trying to cope with my mother’s health crisis this week. Monday I checked in with a brief reference to this, then was off on a train trip through the Verde Canyon. Mom got a urinary tract infection. Little known to us, the very elderly can become psychotic with the onset of such an infection, which is what happened to Mom. Then in that state she injured herself in a bizarre manner. Nursing home staff found her in this condition. My sister took her to the ER where Mom was admitted to a psych ward in DesMoines. There they treated the UTI, the psychotic symptoms and agitation disappeared within hours, and the cause was determined to be the UTI, not a psychosis, Thank.Goodness.
I worked T,W,Th this week. Between appointments I was coaching my siblings about who to contact and the language to use in the psychiatric world so Mom did not lose her Nursing Home bed, which appeared likely at first. We had a long scheduled care conference which the social worker at the nursing home wanted to cancel. I insisted we have the meeting and develop a plan to cope with the facility director present. That preserved her placement there (as well as what is left of my sister’s sanity, since she is the lead decision-maker which has nearly broken her). I am waiting to hear that Mom is discharged back to the Nursing Home today.
Unlike the boring job, this was way too exciting.
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I shudder to think of the old folks who don’t have advocates who are knowledgeable about the how the “system” works. Glad you were able to intervene, Jacque, to make sure your mom’s nursing home bed wasn’t lost.
I might add, I’m wondering about the care she is receiving at said nursing home if they didn’t realize she had a urinary tract infection until it triggered a psychotic episode. Is your mom not able to communicate verbally? Or were they just not paying attention?
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PJ, to your point, they did respond, but the LTCs have strict rules. They called me last Thursday for permission for a UA which I gave. They found bacteria, then had to culture it to find out which exact bacteria, so they can match medication to the bug (they call this superbug protocol). That took until Monday when she already had this reaction. My only question is why did they not know that this is a side effect of a UTI. We now have a plan in place if it happens again, including some sedation if needed.
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Yes, that was my question too, whey they didn’t recognize it as a side effect of UTI – I’ll bet they know now!
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The first question I ask when referred someone for a rapid onset Dementia evaluation is about UTI’s.
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They can be very disruptive, and it happens pretty often.
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Oh, man. This is hard to believe. She will not be discharged until Monday so they can continue wound care. She injured herself seriously. My sister says the LTC staff over the weekend is the B team and no one wants more problems.
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Driving from Fargo to Williston job sites was boring.
I usually select a cart from parking lots and return it inside the store.
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You must have gone through Grand Forks and Minot on Highway 2. That is a pretty boring stretch. North on Highway 85 out of Belfield is more exciting.
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2.
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Boring can have different meanings to different people. My brother thought farming was the most boring thing in the world. Just going round and round the field! But now he comes out to help me. He still thinks it’s boring but I guess he feels it’s useful.
And I like going round and round the fields. Except raking hay. That’s the most boring job in the world to me. It’s still going round and round the field but I guess it doesn’t feel as important? Different tractor?
I’ve always thought being the cart wrangler would be the most unsatisfactory job there is. Why take them all back in when people keep taking them back out!? Ranks right up there with being a janitor. (I was a janitor for a while.) It wasn’t boring but it sure felt unrewarding.
Most jobs it seems like if there are good co-workers, it’s better. Most of my jobs I’ve worked alone. Or the cows weren’t always much company.
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In my therapy office, it is amazing how many meanings the word “boring” has when uttered by teens.
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When I hear it, it is usually, “I hate shrinks. So boring.”
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Oh, it can mean scarey, Intimidating, worrying, overwhelmed, you name it.
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Teens get bored because they have so few personal resources.
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When confronted with something like data entry, I tried to make it interesting by figuring out how to program the computer to do data entry on its own. I enjoyed that. I guess the only time I’ve been very bored was one day when I was working at the local newspaper in the classified ads department as a proofreader. One day so many people either took the day off or called in sick that I didn’t actually have time to do any proofreading, I had to just keep approving ad after ad without reading it, just to get the workload through the system on deadline. It was just hours of repetitive keystrokes while thinking, This is really stupid and pointless.
OT, we had a beautiful blazing sunset in St. Paul tonight.
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This reminds me that I had a temp job in San Francisco – 3 days of photocopying the contents of huge notebooks – this was 1969. Uffda.
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Actually, it’s a little known fact that after most of the customers are gone and the stores prepare to close, the shopping carts get together and party. After their long days of hauling stuff and being rammed around by thoughtless humans, they need a little R & R. You must have seen them, VS, during one of their dances, and they played “stationary” while you were on the premises.
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