The working dead

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What is the most boring job you have done?

We asked readers this question after publishing a story about Frenchman Frederic Desnard, who says his 80,000-euro-a-year job as an executive in a perfume business is so boring it has turned him into a "professional zombie".

Here are some of your replies.

The food industry

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I tested the temperature of frozen peas for a whole summer. I used to dream about endless rivers of little green balls. Jane, Yate

My sister had a summer job on a farm in France throwing small amounts of earth on to trays of organic potatoes destined for the supermarket – presumably in order to make them look more "organic". Chris Cooke, Suffolk

I had a summer job as a student squeezing plastic milk bottles for 12 hours overnight to see if they leaked. When they did you smelt of sour milk by the time you went home. Mark Thomas, Manchester

Filling pork pies with jelly one at a time to ensure the "handmade" label. Leigh Dickinson

I worked for weeks unpacking small cereal bars from large boxes and then repackaging the same cereal bars into smaller boxes. Pointless. Jude Connor

I put pepperoni on 14,000 pizzas per day at a factory in Nottingham. If the conveyor belt broke down, we made smiley faces on the pizzas with the pepperoni. So if you ever see a smiley pizza, that"s why. Pete Minting, Helensburgh

Working at a pork scratching factory removing the ones that had been cooked but still had hairs to then be re-cooked, to burn them off. I had 12 hours a day just watching them go past on a conveyor belt. I left after two weeks and have never eaten one since. Maria, Sheffield

Slicing 50lb (23kg) slabs of cheese into four parts, in a room with white walls, harsh fluorescent lights, no windows and no radio… At break one day, I asked someone what had happened to my predecessor and was told that he"d picked up a slab of cheese and thrown it at the wall and nobody had seen him since. He"d been there for three months, so obviously a man of Olympic determination – I lasted around nine days. Rob, North-west UK

Odd jobs

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I had a job polishing small, lacquered, wooden plinths destined for model ships in glass bottles – I lasted two days. Ken, Newcastle

After I left school I got a summer job patrolling a stretch of canal in Burnley to stop people falling in. Problem was, the canal was drained, with hardly an inch of water in it. Following that, I worked in a factory tearing off strips of Sellotape from the tops of flattened cardboard boxes. Simon Mitchell, Sheffield

I once took a two-week job through an agency which required me to stick labels on to the left lens of glasses to go on displays in a well-known optician"s – one on the front of the lens, one on the back. They had to line up perfectly or they had to be peeled off and done again until they were spot on. Unfortunately I was so good they asked me to stay on. I "stuck" it out for another two weeks. Garry Pepper, Stockport

Testing the viscosity of bitumen. (How long does it take for a drop of tar to fall through a funnel? Answer: several years). Martin Williams

The production line

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I had a summer job during university in a vitamin tablet factory. My job was to sit at a conveyor belt all day picking out broken tablets. Green tablets on a red conveyor belt. I"d shut my eyes at night and see green vitamin tablets floating past. I did three weeks and thankfully got promoted to powder mixer. James Tucker, Surrey

Working as a student in a plastic moulding factory on a night shift. I produced toy Frankenstein heads by the hundred, hour after hour. The boredom was so intense and the stink of hot plastic so bad, that today I cannot drink out of plastic thermos cups. Steven, Basingstoke

I used to make the wire binders that hold calendars together. Thousands every night. Once I got put on the machine that made the straight bit of wire with a bump in that you hung the calendar from. That was a night to remember. Toby Barnes, Gibraltar

Sticking labels on animal food bags. There were three types: cattle, pig or sheep. Every few days you would switch between the types and get to stick on a different label. I actually started looking forward to a change of label. Nick, Hove

I spent a month working in a factory threading the string through the holes in the top of bookmarks. Jamie Furlong

Office work

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I once spent six months stapling 400 reports every day. Just stapling, every day. One of many boring jobs. Yawn! Suzy Wild

I once had a temp job which consisted of taking staples out of pieces of paper. I lasted only one morning. Mari, Kent

I was once employed throughout a summer as "someone to talk to". It was a small architectural company that only had three employees. When I queried why there was so little work to do they told me it was just refreshing to have someone else to talk to and discuss ideas with. Jon Davies, London

I spent two weeks temping at a solicitors after leaving a really busy and stressful job. When I asked them what they did when the phone wasn"t ringing their only response was, "We just Google stuff." Needless to say I knew every item of news that came out of the world in those two weeks. Kimberly, Exeter

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The working dead
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