The Hardest and Worst Jobs Ever Done

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Discussion Overview

This thread explores personal experiences and opinions regarding the hardest or worst jobs ever undertaken. Participants share anecdotes from various fields, including physical labor, service jobs, and unique roles, reflecting on the challenges and conditions faced in these positions.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes the physically demanding task of clearing trees and managing burn piles, highlighting the challenges posed by heavy equipment and harsh conditions.
  • Another participant humorously suggests that working in the forum could be considered a difficult job.
  • Several participants mention various physically taxing jobs, such as working in a mill, spud picking, and mucking out chicken farms, reflecting on their past experiences.
  • One participant shares a negative experience working as a personal assistant to disabled individuals, emphasizing the emotional toll and lack of appreciation in the role.
  • Multiple participants express strong opinions against working in oil refineries, particularly in cleaning roles, citing hazardous conditions and discomfort.
  • A participant discusses the extreme working conditions faced by papermakers, including high temperatures and humidity, which can lead to serious health risks.
  • Some participants share experiences of jobs that are mentally taxing, such as instilling eye drops in children, indicating that not all difficult jobs are physically demanding.
  • Others recount their experiences in retail and food service, noting the unexpected challenges and physical demands of seemingly simple jobs.
  • A participant humorously reflects on the challenges of parenting, comparing it to the difficult jobs mentioned in the thread.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a variety of opinions on what constitutes the hardest or worst jobs, with no clear consensus on a single job being the most difficult. Many share personal anecdotes that highlight different aspects of job difficulty, leading to a rich discussion of diverse experiences.

Contextual Notes

Participants' experiences vary widely based on personal circumstances, job expectations, and individual perceptions of difficulty. The discussion reflects a range of physical and mental challenges associated with different types of work.

Ivan Seeking
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I don't recall having a thread about the hardest or worst jobs ever done.

Tsu and I have been clearing about thirty trees on a hill. Today we had what was I believe our ninth burn pile, with each pile blazing perhaps ten to fifteen pick-up loads worth of brush, branches, and logs. As the day progresses, the fires get so hot that one can hardly get within ten feet without getting burned.

Things were cooking along pretty well until the 18" chainsaw failed. Since then I have been using a 30" saw that easily weighs twice as much as the small one. That was the tipping point. Between the heavy saw, the branches that don't moved when pulled, the heavy logs, the steep hill, the blazing hot fire, the constant pokes, cuts, trips, and slides, and the sheer mass of twenty years worth of growth, this definitely qualifies as one of the hardest jobs that I've had to do in a very long time. We're having a blast, and Tsu can't get enough of burn piles, but cripes, what a butt-kicker!

Beyond that, while in HS and living in N. Calif where the summer temps can reach as much as 125 degrees, I ran a jack hammer in rock one summer, and set mobile homes the next. Those were the two worst jobs ever, by far. Working conditions can't get much worse. If you layed a tool down in the sun and forgot about it, within ten minutes it was hot enough to give you a nice second degree burn [blisters]. We had to stop and drink water every fifteen minutes or so to keep from dehydrating. And the boss was a thoughtless type who nearly got me killed a couple of times. Once, a mobile home fell off the jacks while I was under it and I barely got out in time. That was my last day.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I think Evo has the worst job

and that's just counting the forum
 
Experimental string theorist.
 
Rach3 said:
Experimental string theorist.

haha it would be funny if the name itself wasn't such a glaring contradiction. Maybe experimental string researcher?
 
Hmm, experimental string physicist?
Oops, still contradictory...
 
That was mean. I apologize.
 
Working in a mill humping cwt bags 8hrs a day, or spud picking, or mucking
out 30,000 bird chicken farm, or bailing at harvest time, all things in the past
that i did as a youth.
 
I spent 1,5 years working as a personal assistant(more or less slave) to mentaly and/or physicaly disabled. That was by far the worst job I have ever had.

I don't mind physicaly heavy jobs. I enjoy them a lot. I would love to work in the woods or something like that.

But I just can't stand taking care of totally ungratefull people that behave like ****. Cleaning there apartments, cooking there food, wiping there asses, changing diapers, doing all that while they are *****ing, nagging and screaming. Not to mention the pay was a disgrace. Never again.
 
I don't know about the worst jobs...

But I would say the coolesst job would be An Indian Shaman :-p
 
  • #10
Rach3 said:
That was mean. I apologize.

You can't be mean to something that doesn't exist.

Zz.
 
  • #11
You're mean! :frown:

Never work at any job in an oil refinery, especially not cleaning jobs. You wear bio-hazard kind of suits and boy is it messy!
 
  • #12
University administration.
 
  • #13
Mk said:
You're mean! :frown:

Never work at any job in an oil refinery, especially not cleaning jobs. You wear bio-hazard kind of suits and boy is it messy!

Haha I just applied for a job at an oil refinery working shutdown, I think I applied to late though so I don't think I'm going to get it :frown:
 
  • #14
Roofing and Framing
 
  • #15
Any job that requries you to work form 7pm-12pm and then wake up the very next 7 in the morning
 
  • #16
Papermaker on a high-speed coated paper machine with insufficient ventilation. After a while you get chilled when entering a control room air-conditioned to 80 deg F. Step back out onto the operating floor with ~125 deg F at nearly 100% relative humidity, and you bead up with condensation - you can sweat, but it won't evaporate. Working hard under those conditions (often required) can kill you with heat stress, and if the heat stress doesn't kill you, the machine will gobble you in a heartbeat if you faint and fall.
 
  • #17
Instilling eye drops that sting like h*#!*&^ in children all day long.....makes for a very long day :frown:
Not physically testing but mentally so.
 
  • #18
larkspur said:
Instilling eye drops that sting like h*#!*&^ in children all day long.....makes for a very long day :frown:
Not physically testing but mentally so.

Unless you are a certain kind of person :devil: :biggrin:
 
  • #19
Speaking of jobs, I had my first day of work to day pushing shopping carts at Target. They basically lied right to my face saying it was an easy job. I just talked to someone today that had my position for over a year and said it was easily the hardest job their. The managers just lie to new people so they'll take the job. Sigh... My legs are so sore right now...
 
  • #20
I just got a summer job as an auto detailer, 12 hour shifts but lots of days off to compensate. I think it should be fun.
 
  • #21
I work full time as a butcher during the summer at the St Lawrence Market in Toronto, which basically means being there at 6 am (it takes me an hour to get there), and working till about 6 - 7 pm, 5 days a week. And sometimes 5 and a half.
And summer's coming.

Although the pay isn't half bad...
 
  • #22
Being a parent.

All those boring, stressful, dangerous, uncomfortable tasks that are mentioned throughout this thead - imagine something so hard to do, that you would volunteer of your own free will to do those boring stressful, dangerous, uncomfortable tasks, day in and day out without complaint - as simply a means to a greater end - just to make that one primary job go better.

Add in: no pay, no sick leave, no vacation time.
 
  • #23
Markjdb said:
I work full time as a butcher during the summer at the St Lawrence Market in Toronto...
Hey, maybe I'll come down and say hi!
 

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