Where is the strangest place you've ever worked?

[BeniCreative]

I went to the Let's Talk Business seminar last night which was fantastic. There was a survey to fill out which had this question listed. After chatting with some great people, we got onto the topic of Flying Solo and thought what a great question it would be to post to the forums. So I in no way take credit for coming up with this question. However, I am very curious to find out bizarre locations than people have worked. Looking forward to reading your responses...

[Jexley]

I was actually discussing this with wife and in-laws only just Sunday.

More a strange-ish job than a strange place, but I was remembering a stint along the Southeast of Texas when I was in Uni, where I was contracted with a housemate to change the flouros in the gimongous roadsigns that litter the landscape.

55 metres in the air, crawling out of a cherrypicker the size of our area rug and into a Macca's sign the size of our coffee table all with wind gusts that move both back and forth a few feet.

All this for a guy that's not crazy about heights for what equalled out to about $4/hour. That's bloody strange I reckon.

[Robert Gerrish]

Hey BC, Great to see you last night and I'm so pleased you started this thread.

The strangest place I ever worked was in a disused public lavatory in West London in the early nineties.

I persuaded the local council to let me have the building to convert into a contemporary art gallery. It made a great gallery space and did quite well for a short while. Our opening show was entitled 'Now wash your hands' and was a real success.

While the gallery drew the crowds, sales were another matter.

I sold the business after a year and last I heard the building was operating as a childcare centre.

Looking forward to reading other strange stories...

[BeniCreative]

Hi Robert,

Great to meet you also! The event was great and I'd love to attend some of the others in the upcoming months.

That's a classic about the disused toilet! I like the theme too... very clever.

I think one of the more different places I've worked was at the Lyric Theatre, Star City. It was the time when Slavas Snow Show was running where we'd have to clean up thousands of peices of paper all over the auditorium that created the blizzard effect. Every night paper somehow escaped out the doors and filtered it's way down the street.

[Renee Barber]

Hmmm, I'm almost afraid to post this as it sounds like it should be in 'True Confessionals of the Medical Profession', but the strangest place I've worked (apart from my home office around 3.30 am) was a hospital in the states.

As part of the transcription work I did (which is why even today when I'm a bit rusty—as I don't have to type fast, just think fast—people always say, 'Gee, you type quickly!')

Anyway, part of my job was transcribing the research of one of the doctors. His speciality was fertility (or lack thereof). I can tell you that I sometimes wonder if the truly strange genetic anomalies I catalogued are one of the reasons I don't want kids! [This is a joke ... although 'they' do say things said in jest are often true!]

Incidentally, am I the first female poster in this thread? Maybe that should tell me something about keeping my confessions to myself! :-)

[tildavirtual]

I don't know if this counts but I have on occasion hidden myself in my walk-in-robe just so I could talk to a client in peace (aka, away from the kids) and couldn't let the call go to voicemail.

[Robert Gerrish]

Ha! That's great. It reminds me of a jazz club I visited in New York many years ago, where the music license only allowed three band members on stage at once. Their solution was for the bass player to play from within a small cupboard to the left of the stage!

Have a great week!

Robert

[VacuumRobot.com.au]

Hi all, strangest place for me would be to work at casino.. seeing people wager their week's pay on a single bet. Seeing people win big, then lose it. While it's interesting with all the glitz and glamour, it's sad on the other hand knowing that the punters have less than the fair chance of winning. Casinos make their money in 2 ways:

1: The rules of the game is in favour of the house by 2% or more.. depending on what type. This is small advantage, but over a long period of runs.. you're losing 2% + 2% + 2% + 2% of your advantages.. which is a lot.

2: They have more money than you do, and open 24/7 a day.. so they don't care if you win today, or 30 days in a row, they know that you have nothing.. they have everything.

So, these are their only 2 weapons needed to take all your cash away, if you're careless. Even while poker may seem like a good bet, playing with other players (not against casino), if you find out how much rake (commission) you've been giving away to the casino, you'll be disappointed. But with skills and patience, and also luck you can win at poker, which is the only game I recommend if you're playing for the long run.


Dave

[peppie]

On the other hand, the only way the casinos are going to be able to take your money away from you,,, is if you gamble!

Likewise, the only way you can avoid being injured playing sport is to not play (in a dangerous) sport! I don't say to not be prepared to take risks, maybe even in business, but why take risks playing dangerous games when the odds seem so much against you? And it should be said, often stacked against you deliberately by mean, unscrupulous and yes even selfish people!

I cannot really say that I have worked in very strange places, but I can say that I have worked with and observed some very strange workers. Maybe some day I should write a book, at least possibly not until they are passed on - the dead cannot sue!!!

[Merlin McCloy]

I can remember working in an Employment Agency and wondering why it was so difficult for us to find people to work in a carrot packing shed. I talked my sister into coming with me and we went out into the field for the day.

It was very interesting, I didn't realise that carrots grew soooo big. These ones were being exported. We chatted with the people who worked there permanently, some had been in the job for 10 years.

It certainly wasn't hard work but very repetitive.

Lots of laughter and a good memory...carrots.