Web site gives people a place to vent about worst jobs; psychologists say this can be therapeutic.
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November 20, 2006
OK, so your job is lousy.
Your boss is the Peter Principle incarnate, elevated to mind-numbing incompetence; co-workers are backstabbing scavengers of spoiled dreams; and your workload has doubled as health and retirement benefits fall under the budget ax.
You can whine. You can quit. You can even get fired in a fit of momentarily satisfying, yet ultimately impoverishing, and perhaps imprisoning, rage.
Or, you can point your Internet browser and do what more than a 1,000 do every day -- head to http://www.worst-jobs.com to indulge in one of the oldest of human traits, delighting in the deeper misery of others.
Stuart Macfarlane, a Glasgow, Scotland, information technology consultant who launched the site in February, promises that, "There are many jobs out there that are much, much worse."
For those convinced otherwise, he invites brief entries for his "Worst Jobs Trophy." With the caveat that he cannot verify any of the e-mailed contributions by a global village of disgruntled, usually anonymous employees, you are invited to consider the curious case of one "Hans."
So far, Hans is Macfarlane's inside favorite for the trophy. The Swedish toilet attendant writes that he works at a Stockholm clinic that treats constipation. Hans complains that when patients are cured, the facilities are often overwhelmed -- leaving him the subsequent cleanup and plumbing repairs.
"What do I get paid for this disgusting job? Eighty-thousand Swedish krona (about $11,000 a year). Not a lot for all the crap I take," Hans wrote.
The therapeutic value of worst-jobs.com and other such sites should not be dismissed, says Janiece Pompa, president of the Utah Psychological Association. "I love sites like this. If we read about someone in worse condition than we are, we seem to feel better. It's a human thing, the way we are built."
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