Mine is a pretty tame example: I never minded the smell of garlic was fine around it… but I took a job for DHL and they had these large tubs of garlic for horses that had to go out to people. There were about 10 of them coming down the belt.
Now I can’t stand it. I’m just reminded of how strong that smell was I was actually gagging. The tubs were heavy, the handles were feedble. Some of the tubs were damaged so I got a bit on me.
I stunk of it for the rest of the shift. It wasn’t even a normal garlic smell it was just so powerful and nauseating.
Christmas carols. Being forced to come back to a retail job over the Christmas rush a little over a week after my brother was found dead on the floor outside my bedroom :)
The boss there had a very personal bone to pick with me, made it clear she didn’t even have to give me any bereavement leave since I was part time, and when a customer went on a Mach 4 tirade because I wasn’t smiling hard enough (not kidding), she backed them up and threatened to fire me in front of everyone.
12hrs+ of this every day. I preferred working by myself in back because people would leave me the fuck alone to do my job, but it turns out it was also useful for intermittent off-camera crying!
To this day, 13 years later, I can still tell you the exact playlist that was on the radio. That was when The Fray’s How to Save a Life was still big and I used to really like that song, but I can avoid it now a lot easier than I can avoid “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
It got me forcibly stopped by the police once, when I couldn’t take it anymore, ran out of the store, and the owner assumed I stole something. I really just don’t leave the house after October.
Fuck! that’s rough.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your ex-boss’s armpits.
I’m sorry to hear that, that’s strong of you to share that. Christmas is already hard enough for a lot of people who lose their family. I can’t begin to imagine your situation, I wish you the best
12hrs+ of this every day
And this is legal where you live?
Yes? Although I should back up and say that for retail, those are holiday hours. My normal hours were like…16 per week, tops, and that’s all that was available in the area. Because as long as my total hours per week are kept just barely under 40, I don’t get to have healthcare!
…So we just played russian roulette with the bills and I had to quit when the stress combined with simply not eating began to impact my health at work. Being unemployed did not improve the situation.
I don’t know if you’re aware that full-time often goes to 60-80hrs+ per week, but that works out to about the same. I’ve only very recently persuaded a roommate to stop pulling all-nighters on a salary. They were literally going all last week surviving on naps, but eventually admitted that they almost never actually hit the cash bonuses they were
aiming forhaving dangled in front of them anyway. So hopefully I can keep them to that.These are extremely common tactics, as is any job from a temp service having an employment policy that resembles a revolving door, wherein no matter how hard you go, they are going to fire you just shy of a month or two, after which they would have legally had to hire you and give you super gross things like benefits.
By the time the French revolted, their peasants were eating grass to survive. Most of us are still at least eating food for humans. We’re probably going to ride this to collapse.
In the UK, there is a working time directive that prevents a company from asking you to work more than 48 hours a week / 13 hours a day, but any company can just ask you to sign an agreement to waive your rights which makes it totally pointless.
My last job before my current one, I would routinely work 20 hour shifts, with 4 hours off, followed by a 20 hour shift. Normally would do that 4 days, followed by 4-5 normal 12 hour shifts with a 12 hour turn around.
Security jobs can really suck.
Mirrors and moreso scales. Having overcome an eating disorder makes me avoid those.
Bananas … Ate them before marathons for more than a decade and now they just taste like 3 hours of suffering.
Childbirth.
I can’t watch scenes in movies, tv, mentions in books/papers, friends talking about it etc. I can’t do it.
My daughter’s birth in 2020 was all kinds of traumatic and I avoid the topic at all costs.
Same. I’ve had two traumatic childbirths for different reasons. I do not care to be reminded of the experience.
Melted/melting ice cream
Vodka. I had a bit too much of it a few times (100% my own fault, don’t copy me) and now I can’t stand the taste at all.
Vibe. Hard vibe. Strong vibe. No vodka for me ever again please. I will toss my cookies at the smell. I also avoid absinthe. That gave me a three day hangover. It tastes way too good.
I’m ok now but for many years anything coconut would roil my stomach. Thank you Malibu rum.
Red Bull. For several years when I was late teen / early 20s, I’d go clubbing all weekend… always drinking red bull, then inevitably overdo it with the disco biscuits and have to puke.
~4 years of that, and I’ve anti-Pavlov’d myself so that even the smell of red bull sets me heaving.
Eggs. Scrambled, fried, poached, hard boiled, soft boiled, sunny side up or down. My little brother stuck Nickelodeon gak in my mouth while I was sleeping and it had the same texture/taste as cooked eggs after being chewed.
I can’t do eggs. After being pregnant even the smell of them being cooked turns my stomach now.
For me, anything “bubblegum” flavoured or smelling. When I was a teen, I had to have 4 teeth taken out, but it was done in 2 sessions so I didn’t have my entire mouth out of action (it was my back teeth on both sides, top and bottom), and both times the mouthwash, and the numbing gel they used before the injected one was bubblegum flavoured, and I can’t stand it anymore because of dealing with my teeth being pulled out my face
Nacho Fake cheese that stuff make me vomit from a bad experience in the cinema
