After a university graduate was forced to perform in a dance off for an interview at Currys, we researched some of the most degrading, humiliating and plain weird things employees have had to do in the line of duty.
Dressed in his smartest suit and armed with a week's worth of research, Alan Bacon, 21 had to fight through chronic humiliation to perform a robotic-style dance "like a scene out of The Office."
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Alan said the interview was like a scene out of The Office
Here, we asked HuffPost staff and readers about their experiences:
- "I had to dress up as a gladiator and stand outside Downing Street in the rain." Elliot Wagland, Group Picture Editor.
- "I once had to interview a dog." Charlotte Meredith, News Reporter.
- "I had to sit on Les Dennis's ex-wife's doorstep for a week. Oh, hang on, that is actually tabloid journalism." Stephen Hull, Executive Editor.
SEE ALSO: Most Embarrassing Job Interview Stories
- "I had to interview a Britney Spears look-a-like - as Britney Spears - only on condition that I sat through her 'Circus Ringmaster' whip routine." Caroline Frost, Entertainment Editor.
- "I reviewed colonic irrigation for my local newspaper. I don't normally conduct my reporting assignments with a plastic tube protruding from my backside but this time I did. It was marvellous." Sara Nelson, Traffic and Trends Editor.
- "Applying for a basic arts administration role, I was quizzed on philosophy - 'What would you say if I asked you whether numbers existed? / What defines postmodernism?' - by an eccentric man eating dried fruit. I was offered neither the job nor any dried fruit." Paul Kilbey, HuffPost reader.
- "When I was interning for a big theatre company, I had to go and buy 6 green apples every day, polish them and place them on a specific plate in the Chief Exec's office. I also had to turn on his light for him ever day before he got in. Apparently he was unable to do it himself.' Anonymous HuffPost reader.
- "I had to travel halfway across the country to deliver a signed guitar to a bratty school kid, then got cornered by a bearded storyteller whilst trying to make my exit." Jacqueline Head, News Editor.
- "When I was a waitress, I dropped a lamb shank on the kitchen floor. I was told to pick it up, put it back on the plate and take it out. So I did." Lucy Sherriff, Students Reporter.
- "I once spent an afternoon looking a new bin to buy for the director's office. Still not sure how the task helped me learn about emerging markets." Asa Bennett, Business Reporter.
- "My boss made me do this cryotherapy treatment for a feature. I thought it was a treat, until the photographer showed up, and the cryotherapist made me wear white shorts, a crop top and a headband, and forced me to jog around a chamber that was -200C. To compound the humiliation, they then printed the picture." Poorna Bell, Lifestyle Editor.
- "Many, many years ago, I was a cold caller in a financial firm on Wall Street, I was the very lowest on the totem pole. My boss sent me to the lobby with 5 cents less money than I needed to buy him a pack of a particular type of gum. I had to come back up to the office, get the money, go back down. Got the gum, went upstairs again, and was told it was the wrong flavour. Went back down, got correct flavour, went back upstairs, was told one of the sticks was partially unwrapped.... went back down, got a new pack. Only to go back upstairs and be told, he didn't want it anymore and to return it. At that point, I walked out of the office, dropped the gum on the floor, walked out of the building and started looking for a new job the following day." Elizabeth Hennessey, HuffPost reader.