In the big city life is hard, it’s dog eat dog. But the rent still has to be paid and you gotta eat, man! As a result some people take whatever job is available. Sometimes it’s a 9 to 5, sometimes it’s the night shift at a gas station. Sometimes it’s not even legal. To that end, here is my Top 10 List of The Worst Urban Jobs in America. If you have had experience in any of these jobs, tell us about it in the comments.
Unless you are patrolling Mayberry, you are risking your life every day you start your shift. Most cities have budget constraints that prevent an adequate number of police on the street in the first place. They are often under trained and out gunned in the most dangerous situations. Every traffic stop, domestic dispute call or drug house bust could be their last. Although the benefits are great the pay is only adequate and many officers moonlight doing private security or as bodyguards. Moving through the ranks and becoming a Detective or some other non street level position is usually the best option for a long career.
Arson for profit. Old, abandoned buildings full of homeless people. These are a couple of reasons that that big city fireman have to risk their lives everyday. They have to go in, save lives and put out a fire before it spreads to surrounding buildings. In times of riots (Detroit and Watts in the 1960′s and LA after the Rodney King verdict) they are actually the victims of attack from angry mobs. It is a demanding job not for those weak in mind or body.
If a roach or rat infested house is your idea of fun then this job is for you. For the rest of us, the prospect of going into a stranger’s house that is overrun by disease spreading vermin is a nightmare job. This is such an awful job it even inspired a Stephen King short story!
A job where your life could be lost over a few dollars in the till. Some stores are mom and pop businesses that are family run. Others are large 24 hour conglomerate stores that offer a chance for people to work hours suitable to their lifestyle. Despite closed circuit cameras and even an occasional gun hidden under the counter, many employees are shot even before a demand of money is made.
The world’s oldest profession is alive and well on city streets all across the planet. Besides the risk of being raped, assaulted or even killed, there is always the real chance of catching an STD or AIDS. Since it’s illegal in most states, prostitutes also run the risk of being arrested and jailed.
The $5 a day that Henry Ford offered people to work in his Detroit factories almost 100 years ago was life changing to some families. Many laborers and skilled tradesman jumped at the chance to double their income. Although conditions are safer nowadays and the pay is much more thanks to unions and collective bargaining agreements, the typical factory job is still dirty, hard and tedious.
A long commute to spend an even longer day in a cube. You work just hard enough to keep from getting fired and get paid just enough to keep from quitting.(That’s a quote from Les Brown, the motivational speaker). Most people spend a lot of time surfing the net, exchanging humorous emails or updating their resume. It’s a wonder any business gets done at all!
Most drivers have to put in long hours behind the wheel to make a living. You have to deal with traffic jams and passengers that don’t tip. Sometime passengers are actually out to rob you of the few dollars you have made and will kill you in a heartbeat. This is why some cabbies will not pick up certain fares which of course leads to more controversy.
Crack, weed, meth, etc. They’re available on any street corner for a few dollars a hit. In neighborhoods where drug use is rampant and jobs are scarce, many people choose this fast money option to make some cash to pay the bills. Whether it is the low level, street corner dealer or someone in a “middle management” capacity, the risks are high (prison, rival gangs) and pay is surprisingly low.
They call at dinner time, in the middle of your favorite movie or right when you finally get the baby to sleep. They are pre-scripted, auto call generated denizens of call centers calling to sell us magazines, insurance or to get us to change our long distance service. The truth is most of those people calling us are hard working young people that really are paying their way through college or older people in between “real jobs” trying to keep up with their mortgage payments. They are practically tied to the phone by a headset and breaks and lunches are also tightly monitored.
Contributor: MT
Great list as usual.
ok i think i’ll appreciate my job a bit more haha i was gonna do a telemarketing job once, then after a minutes thought realised how stupid i was to consider it
God I could not do number 4. All the jobs on here are better than that. Except maybe *****…….actually being a prostitute would be better than the office job. At least it would be exciting, like the drug dealer.
hahaha i do market research . . which is like telemarketing but we don’t sell things we just do survey’s . . hmm it actually is quite tedious but the people that work there are soo much fun! . . but gosh we don’t get paid enough lol
Only in America this are actually bad jobs…In my country guns are illegal so armed robberies are basically unheard of.
Number One is inexcusable. Selling your soul to telemarketing, just go shoot yourselves now.
I think that here in Philly, number 10 should be number 1. Our poor officers are killed everyday by illegal gun owners and #2′s.
i don’t know how you came up with the order of this list. Office worker at 3! give me a break…
Perhaps this would have been better titled 10 worst American jobs? As with a lot of things the American way isn´t the global standard.
Nice. I think I’ll appreciate telemarketers more.
Good list. I worked in a convenience store for more years than I wanted. I was robbed at gunpoint 3 times, and accosted physically several times. IT IS NOT WORTH IT!!!
Well, I think most of these jobs actually qualify as luxurious in a historical and geographical context. But then it is contemporary America, where anyone can become President, and currently has.
Dr Tony Robinson (the smelly one in Blackadder), did a lovely series in 2004 – 2006 on the “worst jobs in history”.
He also has books:
Robinson, Tony (2004). The Worst Jobs in History
Robinson, Tony (2005). The Worst Children’s Jobs in History.
These included chimney sweep, executioner, leech collector, Plague burier, rat-catcher, leather tanner, gong farmer, fish wife and sin-eater…
Luxury!
I’d like to share my experience as a drug dealer…
Just kidding.
I’m an office worker and it definitely blows. What a way to make 8 hours seem like a full week.
Oh and any convenience store workers who are sick of having guns pointed at them.. move to England, you’re far less likely to get shot.. stabbed, maybe.
To me #4 is dangerous, I might die from ennui.
Like cab drivers, School bus drivers in urban areas have to deal with traffic and passengers. Mobs of passengers who have the mentality of children, ’cause they ARE children. It was a job I loved and hated at the same time. There were times when I thought “Holy cow, I’m responsible for the safety of these kids.” and “I might have the future president of the U.S. on my bus!” (haha)
p.s. Try navigating a large modern school bus in a neighborhood, on a hillside, that was developed about 40 years before the invention of automobiles. Narrow cobblestone streets built for buggys and horse carts.
@ Rowen. First.
Great list.
I am a software engineer, guess it will come under category 4 (office worker). I wud have put it at #1 but then I dont have an experience in any of the other jobs.
At least a shout out to:
Sanitation workers (street pickups)
Sanitation workers (sewage processing)
Didn’t you ever watch Mike Rowe’s Dirty Jobs?
Wow, I’ve actually had/have 3 of these jobs. Ok, I’m not admitting to one more but if you want to get technical …… Moving on, I currently work in the accounting department of an office and wouldn’t consider it a bad job. I am fortunate to have an office and not a cubical which may make it better. I will admit that the description and quote from Les Brown are fairly accurate but I think that’s why I like my job so much. Plenty of time for ListVerse.
And Office Space rocks!
yeah.. office worker..
..cause surfing email in a chair just sucks?
seriously you basically sold it as an average job with creature comforts.
honestly office work is a lot better than food industry.. on your feet all day, dealing with losers, making minimum wage.
people must be confused, working in an office is way better than so many jobs.
jobs that suck worse/are more dangerous than the office:
bouncer (standing still, assaulted nightly)
poultry processor (killing chickens, dirty facility)
farmer (unstable, long hours, low pay)
commercial laundry (HOT, chemicals, blood, *****)
high steel worker (you want to work up WHERE?)
roofer (hot crappy work)
soldier (bang, you’re dead)
I mean coooome on.
Cool list. I work in a hospital, and most of the jobs here suck, unless you’re a doctor or an administrator. Housekeeping and food service have a pretty high turnover. Landscaping and construction also seem hard, especially here where it is very hot most of the year.
being a drug dealer isnt that bad really. you just have to know a lot of people to sell to when you get started because making customers is what will get you arrested. Other than that, if you don’t sell PCP, meth or heroin there isn’t really all that drama with police and violent customers and rival gangs.
I’ve been a couple of these. Telemarketing really sucks but the pay is really good for the level of work.
if i had to pick i'd grow my own and distribute – you'd make more money than the street dealers and requires less effort – having made larger & fewer sales, and not being on the front line presents a lower risk of getting noticed or caught, you need only expose yourself once every 5 months, however if caught you'd come off far worse
Rusty, thanks for mentioning Tony Robinson, because it made me recall turnips shaped like thingies. Snorted coffee out my nose.
But that’s not the subject…
I admit, I used to give telemarketers a hard time. I used to hang up , make smart jokes or even go off on them. I wasn’t nice and I’m not proud of that.
Then I realized they are people trying to pay bills… and I was an ass. No one wakes up and says, “Yay! I today is the day I start my job as a telemarketer! my dream has been realized!”
I would think it is a depressing job. Getting abused all day for a buck… just so some stupid company can make more money that you’ll never get your hands on!
Disgusting.
not among the better lists
office worker just doesnt make sense because it covers such a large expanse. you could be getting paid a lot for sitting in an office and surfing LV!!!
.7 beff
I should have indicated that the list is in no particular order. Thanks for your comments.
i did telemarketing for a few weeks in college. for beer money. it sucked so hard i wanted to kill myself. fast food was a better job and that’s saying something.
Oh Rushfan… when you talk about the hospitals, don’t you dare forget to mention the poor nurses and nurses aides. Overworked, underpaid, verbally and physically abused, treated by the administration like sh**.
I know… I worked in nursing homes and hospitals as an aide and am now a student nurse.
Thanks to HIPPA, ypu won’t see “Dirty Jobs” doing a segment on nursing (dammit!!!!) but, it really is a dirty job.
However, it is a dirty job with a greater good…. peoples’ lives.
A telemarketer (which I just commented on) doesn’t even have that incentive.
I just thought of another one. Unarmed security guard. I used to work in HR for a security company and we hired armed and unarmed security guards. I always felt bad for the unarmed ones, what if they confront someone with a gun? What are they supposed to do? What do cops in England do? They don’t have guns, either, right? What if the criminals have guns?
Can we add debt collector to the list?
rushfan: Hey im an unarmed security guard and its not that bad. It forces you to develop good interpersonal skills and deal with people on a whole diferent level. Specially forces you to handle conflict more profetionally. It can be done….
Interesting list, but it might be wise for spouses of people who do many of these not read this- it would probably add to their already considerable stress!
I work in an office, and generally enjoy it. So I guess I’m the exception here. Office jobs get a ton of bad pub, but I think it really depends on what job you are doing and what type of industry you’re in. In good humor, I’ll take slight exception to the sentence about “most people” spending most of their time surfing the net, etc- we stay busy enough that we don’t have time for such indulgences. Although I know people who do… particularly during fantasy football season. LOL
I second the reference to Dirty Jobs- I love that show.
Have a friend who was a drug dealer at 15….apparently he went out and bought his brother a car for his birthday(private owner). I also know another guy who had boxes of cash stashed in his closet because making frequent large deposits make them suspicious. So maybe not all drug dealers make good money but some do.
Office work isn’t that bad, I’ve done it for 3 years now but I have the personality for it. Prostitute is easily the worst…lets not kid ourselves here people. Often they are turning the tricks to support a drug habit so it turns into a vicious cycle that ends in death. So ya I’d say the order of this list is out of wack and that there are worse urban jobs than some of these…..ever had to work in the city sewers? EXACTLY!
29.Fromthefuture
I am an unarmed security guard, Of sorts, at a University. Previous training has made me aware and my people skills has got a long way. If I had a gun there has been a couple of times that I may have used it just because the law student was better than I.
want to know a job that is lacking here?
Veterinary Technician.
yes.
it’s not all hugging and loving animals all day. oh no. it’s being a nurse, radiologist, dental hygienist, poop-scooper. it’s being a phlebotomist, record-keeper,animal behaviorist, kennel attendant. it’s soothing the egos of veterinarians, handling clients, bill collector. it’s housekeeping, rodeo-star, and exposure to dangerous chemicals daily. it’s avoiding needle-sticks, snapping teeth, and pet owner’s verbal attacks. it’s exposure to zoonotic diseases, heartbreak, and frustration daily.
and it’s all for usually under 12$ an hour. even if you went to school for 2 years and are licensed.
so why do i do it?
I adore animals and the people who love and care for them. i enjoy the challenge of my job, but really have issues with the ignorance prevalent in American society to their pets.
i gain deep personal satisfaction in educating people on how to relate and care for their pets. i soak up the kind words and appreciation. i truly could not be happy doing anything else. which is why i am spending the next 2 years and thousands of dollars i don’t have to get my degree in veterinary technology.
rtr
I work in an office and have done so since getting out of school. I absolutely love what I do and have more than enough work to keep myself busy – and I do get good compensation for my knowledge and productivity. I don’t think it should really be on this list, but the entire list was interesting.
So MT, I take it you would rather be a prostitute than an office worker… weird.
#6 Prostitute…reminds me of a joke Bill Maher (who I don’t usually like) once said about prostitutes and how tough they have it. He said words to the effect of “With the way young girls dress these days, I feel bad for prostitutes. I mean how are they supposed to stand out anymore? How do they let the world know ‘I’m really selling this, it’s not just a tease’…..Since so many young girls dress the same way, how does a hooker distinguish herself? I think they may need to start carrying signs.” LOL
Gigi, where do you live? Singapore? I live in Singapore, yay! THE WORLD’S FIRST FORMULA 1 NIGHT RACE IS COMING VERY SOON!
This is actually pretty funny, considering the fact that I just started working as a telemarketer a week ago. I get paid around $500 dollars twice a month [we get paid on the 15th and last day of the month] and to a college student, that’s a lot of money. Not to mention we also get bonuses depending on how much we sell.
It’s really hard work. I’ve been yelled at, cussed at, insulted, and hung up on more times than I can count.
The other day I called a woman whose friend had just recently passed away, and she started crying on the phone.
Most of the people we call are in the California area [since I work the night shift and we're nice enough to not call people at midnight], and many of them can’t speak english.
It’s also really REALLY hard to try and sell insurance when the company I’m trying to sell the insurance from recently went bankrupt. [AIG].
I wish people weren’t so rude to me. I’m just a college student trying to pay for my education. I hope all of you remember this before you decide to try and humiliate a telemarketer or scream at them.
We’re just trying to do our job.
.35 tobbytoy
I’m always open to new opportunities! Thanks for your comments.
A pretty good list, and I agree with most of it, BUT:
I think “office worker” is too broad a term to be used in a list like this. It includes everything from the most boring low-paying temp jobs to corporate executives, as well as a lot of engineers, city planners, secretaries, *****ysts, architects, etc. And a lot of these want their jobs and have studied and worked for years to achieve them!
If you had focused on a specific type of “office worker”, it would be a lot clearer. Right now it all depends on the reader to define what goes into the term.
And yes, I’ve been an “office worker” all my life. I’ve had completely sucky jobs where I literally got sick every morning by the thought of going to work, and I’ve had wonderful jobs (like my current one) where I have a lot of fun, great co-workers and interesting, challenging and varied work that I enjoy a whole lot.
Do a drug dealer really and a prostitute really qualify as “jobs?” I mean, if they go into a place and apply, under previous work history, do they really put drug dealer? I doubt it.
I work in advertising for a major newspaper..it’s a cube in an office but I love it. I think cubes get a bad rap. Oh well…at least mine is a real job I can put on my resume one day. Guess I’m ahead of all the drug dealers and prostitutes.
Fireman (aka firefighter) really? The most overrated profession in the world.
Overrated in what way mate?
Iâran ~ I agree. Maybe “temp” would have been a better term. Also, as someone above mentioned, your personality greatly influences how you will feel about working in an office. I find that very social people enjoy the office environment much more than I do.
jake ryder ~ care to expand on that nugget of wisdom? how can fearlessly rushing into a burning building risking death not be considered heroic?
I spent four and a half years as a convenience store clerk. It wasn’t the danger of being robbed that made me hate it. It was the customers.
i think the list is in reverse order.
being a cop is much more dangerouse (ergo, worse) than an office drone.
jake?
Overrated? My uncle is a firefighter and I’m pretty sure he’d be kind of upset with that. How are they overrated?
ha..all the office worker stuff reminds me of the office episode where Michael tried to convince everyone its more dangerous to be in the office than in the warehouse and pretends to jump off the building.
“dwight, you ignorant slut!”
…priceless
Copperdragon: This isn’t a list of the most dangerous jobs.
I’m a prostitute. Not.
Actually, from what I’ve observed (my step-father is a retired fireman), the toughest thing about being a firefighter isn’t the life-risking, but the emotional toll dealing with all the medical calls/accidents they have to go out on. While they might not literally risk their lives every day, they deal with pain, suffering, tragedy, and loss all the time. Anyone that has to deal with that day in, day out, has my respect.
Well Callie I am so glad you ask.
As a 16 year member of a combined emergency service for a urban center of over 1.5 million people I get tired of hearing about the hard working Fire Fighters who have to notify the press every time they do their job. They do not “Risk their lives everyday.” Their job is dangerous but no where near the extent their very able public relations department has brainwashed the public to believe.
No statistic ever compiled by a reputable firm has ever shown Fire Fighting to be a most dangerous or “worst job” This list speaks to Urban jobs. Therefore the firefighters included on this list would most likey have full benefits and a pension.
Statistics tend to put the worst jobs in America as. Fisher, Cab Driver and Truck Driver near the top.
I call in to question the order of the list, too. I have much more sympathy for the police and firefighters than I do prostitutes, office workers, and telemarketers.
I was a telemarketer for 2 1/2 days and quit shortly after the training. I wasn’t even selling anything- I was just trying to get people to go to a time-share workshop. It wasn’t that I didn’t have thick skin, I just didn’t agree with it. BIG TIP: When you fill out any form to win a drawing, ALWAYS read the back. That’s where you’ll see, in tiny print, that you agree to have someone call you about time-share classes.
That’s not even the worst job I’ve had. I was a head lifeguard for an inner city pool. Every day, from when I woke up to when I went to sleep, I had a stomachache, which probably turned into an ulcer (when I was 20). I had to deal with rioting, insubordination from my lifeguards, a broken management system, safety violations, and a gun being pulled out on the grounds. All in two months.
Actually, statistics put the jobs you mentioned as the most DANGEROUS. There will never be any statistical evidence regarding “worst” jobs because worst is a relative term and can’t be quantified. There are statistics detailing job satisfaction, but thats not the same.
Additionally, this is a list based mostly on opinion. The order is already being disputed in good old listverse fashion.
By emergency services, I’m assuming you mean you work as an EMT or 911 call center. While I commend you for this work, as I find it selfless and have surely apprieciated every EMT (and by extension, the 911 call takers who send them) that I’ve ever come into contact with, it sort of sounds like there might be a bit of bad blood between EMT’s and firemen? Perhaps you’re frustrated they get praised for fighting big fires while you do your job day in and day out with no recognition. That doesn’t mean firefighters are overrated.
Callie ~ By far my favorite episode is the George Foreman grill injury.
Sorry Callie I should have mentioned. I have done 6 of these jobs. (I have never, worked in an office, sold myself or drugs or professionally killed bugs). All the other 5 jobs I had were far worse than being a fire fighter. i still think there are jobs far worse than anything I have done. Soldier comes to mind.
In lieu of other comments, I will correct my previous statement. I still believe that being a police officer is worse than an office worker. Yes, office work sucks, but at least you don’t put your life on the line. I’m pretty much an office worker/secretary and I find my job nowhere near as bad as a firefighter or police officer.
OMG,I’m a telemarketer and I couldn’t believe it,I’m worse than a drug dealer and a prostitute..
I know sometimes were so annoying but were just doing our job..
We’re paid so little to annoy people..
And sometimes it hurts when people hung up on you..
I guess we deserve it,..hahahaha
so you’ve been a policeman, firefighter, factory worker, convenience clerk, cab driver, and telemarketer?
Prolific.
Rush-
That’s a good one!! I don’t know if I have a favorite episode, but it’s definitely one of my top three shows on TV right now. The opener last night was amaaaaazing