The UK’s 7 Worst Jobs

According to a recent survey, these seven jobs are the United Kingdom’s WORST jobs ever. Not only do do the people who have these jobs sound utterly miserable with their daily tasks, but they are also paid a pittance for it.

I wonder though, if some of these jobs could actually be more interesting than say, sitting in front of a computer all day in a tiny cubicle where you rarely get to see any real daylight or form of nature. In that case, I’d rather have the Zoo Keeper’s job – but no thanks to the hospital laundry, a cubicle sounds just fine to me.

1. ZOO KEEPER

IT sounds like a great job, but London Zoo keeper Sebastian Grant reckons life on the other side of the animal enclosure is anything but rosy.

?The thing about looking after animals is there is a lot of mess,? he explains. ??What comes out of the end of an animal needs cleaning up. Animals are also potentially dangerous. Even an anteater can tear a hole in a man.
?As well as being dirty and dangerous, this job has long hours. We start every day at 8am ? even on Christmas Day. And you don?t go home until the work is done, so the hours can be very long.

?I?m not saying driving a cab is easy, but it?s certainly not a harder job than mine.?

2. FRUIT MACHINE ENGINEER

ROGER EASTAFF reveals he would drive round pubs in Coventry fixing fruit machines, payphones and pool tables.

He says: ?An average day was spent in horrible urine-scented dive pubs. Aside from finding used condoms and syringes in pool tables and cleaning vomit off payphones, there was the constant threat of having a pool cue wrapped round your head for the sake of a handful of change.?

3. HOSPITAL PORTER

WHILE working as a porter, Frazer Payne?s daily duties involved wheeling the dead to the morgue.

He says: ?On one occasion as I tried to move the body, the trolley scooted away from me and I stumbled after it with the corpse in my arms. This set off a whirlwind of panic as the other patients began screaming and fainting. When I finally got the body to the morgue, rigor mortis had begun to set in and the body started to sit up.

?In order to slide the bench into the freezer I had to put my knee on the legs and lie across the body to push the upper torso down. I was never so glad to be sacked.?

4. JIGSAW MAKER

WORKING 11-hour shifts in a cramped factory with two 15-minute breaks for ?3 an hour was normal for James Prendegast.

He recalls: ?My job was to lean on and deflate the plastic-wrapped boxes of jigsaws as they rolled out of a plastic wrapping machine.

?Every week this machine would seize up and when they opened it, thousands of jigsaw pieces would fall out. Virtually every jigsaw was missing at least one piece.?
5. BOX FACTORY WORKER

SAM JORDISON worked in a warehouse for a week where they flattened old cardboard boxes and sent them to wholesalers.

He says: ?It was physical agony but it was the mental pain that weighed heaviest. I was working with a guy who?d been there for 20 years. He told me he dreamed about boxes, saw boxes when he closed his eyes and could taste boxes when he ate. And every 20 minutes or so he would shout ?BOXES? at the top of his voice.?

6. LAUNDRY WORKER

HOSPITAL laundry worker Ralph El Turk was paid 18 pence an hour extra to work with dirty bedding.

?It just wasn?t worth it,? he says. ?Masses of dirty laundry would come down these big shoots.

?They would be covered in human waste, blood, and once, with what looked like someone?s kidneys. You spent most of the day with your face in, or near, urine.?

7. WEEDKILLER SPRAYER

AFTER dropping out of university, Dan Kieran took a job spraying weedkiller along roadsides.

He says: ?Every day I had to wear a green boiler suit and carry a 35-litre tank of toxic weedkiller on my back. My 12-hour shift consisted of scaling the banks that run alongside motorways.

?When three months of this hell had ended I went on to spray the streets of Slough, which was worse.

?Kids would run up shouting, ?Ghostbuster!? and laugh in my face. One day an incontinent lady tramp came up, patted me on the arm and said, in a soothing voice, ?I bet your parents are proud.? ?

The New Trend of Reality TV Shows

Survivor, Amazing Race and other reality TV shows have obviously become the new resort for most networks to be able to jack up their ratings today. No longer is it a world where the usual TV sitcoms and movie re-runs would be what viewers would look forward to. It has all boiled down to finding something more interesting and catchy for people to be able to enjoy home entertainment without having to know what the actual plot and twist would be.

The twists are different. Having their own way of making the storylines to be indifferent from the usual expected output of these reality shows has really been something that has made TV network ratings skyrocket above the charts. With this new trend, all producers and network bigwigs have tried to make do and create a new concept to help bring their ratings above their competing networks. Just like in business, the key is to be able to find new innovative strategies to make it to the top. Most TV networks have obviously been resorting to it today.

Santa Closets

Around christmas time everyone seems to transform into the kids they are at heart. Suddenly no hiding place is safe since they have all become expert detectives. They always seem to find where you hid the presents.

If you are looking for a way to help keep things a surprise, try what Nashville is doing. They have Santa Closets.

No, the closets do not contain the big guy in the red suit. A Santa Closet is the term used for the self storage units that have become a favorite hiding place for many adults. Some people rent Santa Closets to store items like a new TV, iPod, recliner or boat that you hope they won’t see til Christmas day. The gifts can be any size. The important thing is that they are away from the curious fingers of the christmas detective squad.

With Santa Closets, the stash will be safe ’til you decide to put them under the tree. Just make sure to keep its location secret.

Laughter Is Contagious

Ever noticed that if you see someone laughing, even if you can’t hear what they are saying, you will often find yourself smiling, in some cases laughing as well. If you’ve been wondering if it was just you, relax. It is something that affects everybody. Besides laughter is the best medicine – as the saying goes.

The Journal of Neuroscience published the study last December 12. Among the findings is that people respond more quickly to positive sounds than negative ones. Scientists have discovered that a portion of our brain called the premotor corticol region, which controls the facial muscles, responds to sounds.

We have always known that we tend to automatically mimic the facial expressions of people we talk with. Apparently our brain does the same with laughter. The result: “laugh and the whole world laughs with you” exactly as another old saying goes.

Dressing Up For The Holidays

If you are like most people, you probably have a wardrobe full of the little black dress. It’s perfect for all occasions; except this one. Get ready to kick your heels up and add some color to your closet. It is Christmas time after all.

Take a page from the December issue of O Magazine and brighten up your days. You’ll feel the immediate lighteinging of your spirit as you go about in your vibrantly coloured frocks. No crows hanging around this holiday season.

Instead of going for your usual somber shades, go for some reds, yellows, blues and greens. Choosing a material like satin brings an added texture. Think of it as your gift wrapping. You take the time to wrap your presents in beautiful gilt paper. Your colorful dresses go around your best gift – yourself. Isn’t that a great reason to leave the little black dress in the closet this month?