‘What’s the strangest or most pointless task you’ve been given at work ?’ – 21 people wondering why the heck they’re bothering

13.

‘I had to watch output of one of those tits and talk channels like Babestation because someone had complained that the subtitles weren’t working correctly. Please know that broadcasters take accessibility complaints very seriously.’
–mellonians

14.

‘Polish the grease off spindles and gears using strong degreaser. My lads were ever so grateful when they came back (after shutdown ) and couldn’t adjust anything because it was all seized up. I had spent 3 days flossing every nook and crannie just as commanded. Especially the spindles were, for the brief moment before the rust set in, beautifully shiny.’
–Merlisch

15.

‘Moving empty containers from one side of the warehouse to another. Solely because the manager didn’t want to send me home early. I didn’t mind, it was 1.5x pay on a Sunday and I was 18.’
–JeffSergeant

16.

‘I had to do a “seat move” where I moved pretty much every desk for about 150 people. One week later they announced hot desking.’
–mkaym1993

17.

‘Many many years ago, I had a summer job in a factory that ran out of work. I do remember a load of incredibly old components for products they no longer made or would ever make being cleaned and restacked. I polished the copper water pipes in the break room, they looked really good when I finished. No idea why they kept me on.’
–Zestyclose_Key_6964

18.

‘Stewarding at a festival: had to guard an unlit fire pit for several hours – I don’t think it was ever lit over the four days.’
–magpie1138

19.

‘My very first job, I was 16 working in a smallish supermarket. I got tasked with rearranging the wine so it was by region. The reason this was tasked to me is because no one else on staff had the slightest clue about Geography. They didn’t know Bordeaux was in France or that Swartland was in South Africa for example (this was in 2006, a year before smartphones became a thing).

I spent 3 entire shifts removing all the wine, organising it by region, then putting it all back up. Within a week I had to redo it back to what it was before because none of the customers knew where any of these regions were either. Total waste of time.’

20.

‘I had to paint all the white lines black, on a huge car park. When I had finished, several days later, it was clear that the black paint was darker than the tarmac, so then, and only then, I had to paint the bays, too.’
–Pedantichrist

21.

‘We were doing a job at a festival rigging in a big circus tent. Team of about eight of us spent the best part of four hours laying in the groundwork, fastening the tent together, lacing it up. We raised the roof up and was more or less finished, then some production manager came over and said he wanted the whole thing moved back about 1 meter.

We honestly thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. He hadn’t accounted for a sculpture space for when he gave us the go ahead to start work. So we took the whole thing back down, and moved it all back one meter. Would have made more sense to have moved the sculpture. We all got paid an extra 250 quid for the extra work though, so no complaints. This by the way was in a huge field.’
–T-Roll-

Source r/AskUK Image Screenshot