Have you fallen victim to any of these?
We have all been there. Well… most of us anyway.
JOE readers were asked to spill the beans on other classic work experience tasks they’ve been given over the years. Let’s just say, the responses made me feel a small bit better about being sent off for a ‘long stand’ earlier in the week.
Luckily, being sent for ‘a long stand’ is not that bad in a relative sense, as quite a few people have seemingly been sent in search of much worse. Worryingly, quite a lot of people have been sent in the past for a bubble for a spirit level, a skirting board ladder and tartan paint. Classics all and they never get old.
Some poor crater was even sent to mop the car park.
Here are some of the funniest, humiliating and downright cruel work experience pranks that have been played on JOE readers over the years; contributions have been kept anonymous as they’ve suffered quite enough embarrassment for one day.
Butcher’s assistant
“I got a new butcher’s assistant in his first day to eat 150g of raw lamb’s liver. I told him I’d give him a tenner to do it, he was eager. What I didn’t tell him though (until after!), was that his mother had been in 15 minutes earlier while he was out the back and had asked me to give him that tenner for his lunch.”
Wooden wedges
“A guy I had worked with was sent to get wooden wedges to hold up a door frame. The boss never told him they were wooden, he just sent him to get a box of wedges. One hour later, he returned with a box of wedges from the local deli.”
Today’s specials
” I told a new waitress that the soup of the day was ‘cream of some-young-guy’ and the fish of the day was ‘salmon wings’. We got two orders that day for the salmon wings.”
Replacing the fire extinguisher
“I sent a student down to the stores with a fire extinguisher and a note. I told him to hand the note to the store manager and make sure he signs it before he gives you a replacement fire extinguisher. The note said ” Give me all your f*cking money, or I will squirt this all over you!”
Collecting a prescription
“I remember one job I worked in, somebody sent a young lad to the the chemist asking him to collect a prescription, but handed him a note saying: ‘I’m looking for condoms, I’m very nervous and embarrassed as it’s my first time.'”
Cleaning kegs
“I asked a bar apprentice to clean the beer kegs with some Mr. Sheen wood polish. I had told him that they were been collected in the morning. Three hours later I forgot where he was. I went out to the keg room and found him scrubbing the beer kegs.”
Empty boxes
“I know a guy who was sent across the road from the place he was working in to ask for empty boxes. That place was a funeral directors.”
Pardigan?
Was sent to sort a pile of long cardigans into their corresponding colours for hours in the store room and when I was hanging them up on the shop floor, a customer came up behind me and said “I’m looking for a cardigan”. As I was living and breathing cardigans at this stage, instead of saying “pardon?” I said “pardigan?” She thought I was mocking her and wasn’t impressed at all.
Pudding bender
“A mate of mine got sent around every butcher in Limerick city for a loan of a pudding bender.”
Bike shop
“I knew somebody who was sent into a bike shop to get a Fallopian tube and a menstrual cycle before.”
Have you experienced similar, or worse?
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