Before becoming an academic, I worked a succession of jobs that didn't suit me, including selling financial services (insurance, mutual funds, etc...), being a headhunter (the executive placement type, not the shrunken head type), and working as an orderly in a locked inpatient adolescent psychiatric ward (which was probably the best possible preparation for working in academia).
But my least favorite job was being a tax collector for the state. I spent my days calling people up and threatening them with dire things if they didn't pay the sales tax they'd collected. So this Dilbert cartoon really hit home:
I think I'll keep this one above my desk to set me straight whenever I start griping about how hard my day is.