Toughest Job

[skyhigh]

The toughest job you've done or just the toughest job you are aware of.
Most physically demanding job I did was builder's labourer but there are far tougher jobs.
I'm told roof tiling can be really hard and also concreting.
As for dangerous, those high window cleaners are brave.
Psychologically and emotionally, teaching was the hardest but one of the toughest is caring. Looking after one person who needs high care. showering, toileting, feeding and dressing. But it is potentially the most rewarding.

 

[Roro1972]

My first job was on the rear bumper of a garbage truck at 15-16. It was work lifting some of those garbage cans, some with a few gallons of water in them after a rain and if you tried to empty the water other stuff would spill sometimes a two man job for one can.
I worked at a metal erecting company and any thing we did was high off the ground. Myself and another had to put an antenna on top of a 60 feet pole on top of the USS Lexington, scary.
i spent two years on a ship 1000 feet long we hauled Jet fuel to Navy bases, been shot at while pulling in to Vietnam
ports; one hit and one boom. Not to mention being out in the middle of the ocean and have to deal with a hurricane that has nothing between it and your boat to help stop the winds. it did not matter which angle you were from the hurricane the wind would treat the ship like a small boat. scary
A firefighter in the Air Force mostly jet fires that happened when the jet was landing but some time taking off.
Installed telephone, paging, Nurse calls, burglar alarms, fire alarms, in hospitals, and Hotels and complete towns.
Retired now.

 

[skyhigh]

My first job was on the rear bumper of a garbage truck at 15-16. It was work lifting some of those garbage cans, some with a few gallons of water in them after a rain and if you tried to empty the water other stuff would spill sometimes a two man job for one can.
I worked at a metal erecting company and any thing we did was high off the ground. Myself and another had to put an antenna on top of a 60 feet pole on top of the USS Lexington, scary.
i spent two years on a ship 1000 feet long we hauled Jet fuel to Navy bases, been shot at while pulling in to Vietnam
ports; one hit and one boom. Not to mention being out in the middle of the ocean and have to deal with a hurricane that has nothing between it and your boat to help stop the winds. it did not matter which angle you were from the hurricane the wind would treat the ship like a small boat. scary
A firefighter in the Air Force mostly jet fires that happened when the jet was landing but some time taking off.
Installed telephone, paging, Nurse calls, burglar alarms, fire alarms, in hospitals, and Hotels and complete towns.
Retired now.

Your story is making feel like I don't know what "tough" is.

 

[skyhigh]

Interestingly I find it is very easy to dismiss someone else's job as "a piece of cake" until you've tried it.
Even working in an office. I had never worked in an office until about 10 years ago. Whilst I was relieved not to be doing physical work, I noticed gradually how tiresome office politics can become. Often, having little to do, employees would indulge in gossip and mind games. Boredom can be the perfect scenario for the devil. People exaggerating anothers' faults, lack of loyalty and respect, I found myself falling for the same sin as others. Losing my own self-respect, losing my sense of purpose, I soon made office enemies. Psychological tension and paranoia became a daily reality. I lasted 4 years to my own surprise but even now I think back of some of those poisonous conversations with people I could never trust.

 

[JoChris]

The toughest job you've done or just the toughest job you are aware of.
Most physically demanding job I did was builder's labourer but there are far tougher jobs.
I'm told roof tiling can be really hard and also concreting.
As for dangerous, those high window cleaners are brave.
Psychologically and emotionally, teaching was the hardest but one of the toughest is caring. Looking after one person who needs high care. showering, toileting, feeding and dressing. But it is potentially the most rewarding.

I had two tough jobs. Surprisingly the second was worse than the second.
During university I worked as a nursing assistant and then as a registered nurse at a large nursing home. I did that until I had my first boy. After that due to health issues I decided to not retrain.
In nursing you see very best and worst of people. It can be very rewarding and heartbreaking.

Years down the track I decided to do librarian training. Big mistake. Doing university degree online did not give me all the skills expected in that workplace. Office politics, non-believing boss mocking God, overall negative atmosphere made me very depressed. I did not fit in there at all.

Thankfully God had me work there long enough to pay off our block of land and I wasn't offered a permanent position, so I stopped. A negative work environment could make the easiest job very tough.

 

[skyhigh]

Office politics, non-believing boss mocking God, overall negative atmosphere made me very depressed. I did not fit in there at all.
Thankfully God had me work there long enough to pay off our block of land and I wasn't offered a permanent position, so I stopped. A negative work environment could make the easiest job very tough.

I agree. The office job I had, still reverberates in my mind as if it was yesterday. Totally toxic.

 

[skyhigh]

I'd be interested if any researchers did a study on this theme of "tough jobs". Some days teaching you would do hundreds of interactions with kids. Hundreds. Easy for an extrovert maybe but an introvert like me is just exhausting by the end of the day. Trouble is at the end of the day, you have to mark a whole lot of papers. You pass through different pain barriers of exhaustion.

 

[Roro1972]

Interestingly I find it is very easy to dismiss someone else's job as "a piece of cake" until you've tried it.
Even working in an office. I had never worked in an office until about 10 years ago. Whilst I was relieved not to be doing physical work, I noticed gradually how tiresome office politics can become. Often, having little to do, employees would indulge in gossip and mind games. Boredom can be the perfect scenario for the devil. People exaggerating anothers' faults, lack of loyalty and respect, I found myself falling for the same sin as others. Losing my own self-respect, losing my sense of purpose, I soon made office enemies. Psychological tension and paranoia became a daily reality. I lasted 4 years to my own surprise but even now I think back of some of those poisonous conversations with people I could never trust.

you are so right.

 

[Roro1972]

I had two tough jobs. Surprisingly the second was worse than the second.
During university I worked as a nursing assistant and then as a registered nurse at a large nursing home. I did that until I had my first boy. After that due to health issues I decided to not retrain.
In nursing you see very best and worst of people. It can be very rewarding and heartbreaking.

Years down the track I decided to do librarian training. Big mistake. Doing university degree online did not give me all the skills expected in that workplace. Office politics, non-believing boss mocking God, overall negative atmosphere made me very depressed. I did not fit in there at all.

Thankfully God had me work there long enough to pay off our block of land and I wasn't offered a permanent position, so I stopped. A negative work environment could make the easiest job very tough.

I agree.

 

[jasonc]

Meter reading ,after being deployed for me.

Of course if go to water aND sewer that might change