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Post by gato on Jul 31, 2020 9:21:09 GMT -5
The thread about the lady mowing her lawn in hot weather, along with the responses, got me to thinking about jobs in general. Jobs I wouldn't want under any circumstances and jobs I've had in the past but wouldn't do again.
My "couldn't pay me enough" list is not in any particular order of horror:
Car Wash
Landscaper (aka lawn mower)
Roofer
Asphalt Road Resurfacer
Carpet Installer
Jack Hammer Operator
Freeway Maintenance
Parking Lot Striper
Street Sweeper Driver
Parking Enforcer
Day Care Operator
Jobs I've had in the past that you couldn't pay me enough to do again:
Punch Press Operator
Door-to-Door Salesman
Soldier
Laundromat Maintenance
Newspaper Delivery
Grocery Check Out
What about you?
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Post by modbus on Jul 31, 2020 9:35:35 GMT -5
Anything dealing with poop.
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Post by Pinetree on Jul 31, 2020 9:38:17 GMT -5
I drove a street sweeper for the USAF, went to the factory for training even. Kept the runways clean for the planes and the housing area free of cigarette butts.
Had a thermos full of coffee and my "boom box" with the new Steve Vai CD. Drove around all day by myself... first one there in the morning and the last one to leave. Got an award for keeping the place so clean.
Man, I loved that job.
Steelworker, on the other hand, which pays substantially more... Well, I've just about had enough.
My garbage man, George, is the happiest man I know. It could be 20° and three in the morning, but he's grateful to be working.
Dealing with the public... like a waiter?
No way I could do that.
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Post by gato on Jul 31, 2020 9:40:11 GMT -5
Anything dealing with poop. Forgot that one ... as a teen I worked at a vet clinic cleaning dog/cat cages and squeegeeing the vomit / diarrhea flooded dog runs. Good times!
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Bronx
Wholenote
Posts: 273
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Post by Bronx on Jul 31, 2020 9:47:14 GMT -5
Message board moderator
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Davywhizz
Wholenote
"Still Alive and Well"
Posts: 443
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Post by Davywhizz on Jul 31, 2020 9:50:17 GMT -5
I've done a load of strange jobs including managing a day centre for homeless drinkers, labourer in a ship yard building oil rigs, delivering beer...but I really wouldn't want to be a high school teacher.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jul 31, 2020 9:56:28 GMT -5
My 34 year career was in service, from running a parts department to field management to field technician on Fax and Copier equipment. When Canon gobbled my company up I was relegated to a full time field tech managed in a bizarrely and seemingly deliberate convoluted manner. The thing about office copiers is, people are either indifferent to them or they hate them. And when they're broken they hate them and they hate you. After a couple months of deliberation I quit my job and called it an early retirement. Having moved to Ocala Fla, the horse capital of the world I vowed if I ever decided to return to work I'd sooner shovel horse manure on a farm than work in that world again, a conviction I still hold.
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Post by Leftee on Jul 31, 2020 10:00:34 GMT -5
Class 8 truck mechanic working on a loaded garbage truck in June in Phoenix. The truck isn’t allowed in the shop because it smells so bad. The maggots that have dropped on to the frame rails are gagging it smells so bad.
I’ve seen it. That was enough.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jul 31, 2020 11:56:45 GMT -5
I'm not entirely thrilled with having to work at any job to get paid. I should be entitled to it just based on my endless charm.
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Post by jazzguy on Jul 31, 2020 12:02:37 GMT -5
my first job as a teenager was a busboy. there's obviously way more miserable work out there, but the kitchens are like ovens and we relied on the waitresses for tips and typically got less than $10 a night. and you couldn't stop for even a second, it was non stop.
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Post by Opie on Jul 31, 2020 12:05:00 GMT -5
From the age of 17 to 21 I did the following,none of which I would do again. Drywall hanger,my neck still ain't right from all that. Fly Ash bagger at a power plant, dust full of dioxins and god knows what else, stuff would get crammed in every crevice of my body. Think I picked a couple boogers out just yesterday from the 4+ decade ago job. Aircraft stripper/painter. You think the stuff at the hardware store is nasty,try working with 50 gallon drums of stripper makes the other stuff seem like mild soap. Boat builder working on fiberglass trawlers, mixed pure asbestos with fiberglass resin to make paste used to fill gaps, to be ground off later with air sanders by thankfully another crew, but we all breathed the crap. I'll probably be dead before I get a chance to read this post.
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Post by jazzguy on Jul 31, 2020 12:14:49 GMT -5
attic fiberglass installer. did it once, that was enough, I'm still sweating and itching.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jul 31, 2020 12:20:49 GMT -5
Retail. Not because I didn't enjoy it, I just can't see myself working that hard for so little money again.
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Post by rok-a-bill-e on Jul 31, 2020 12:52:56 GMT -5
I have always done whatever it takes. If any of those jobs were my best option then I would not hesitate to give it a go until I found something better. But I would be actively looking for something better. I have had highs and lows over the years but I never considered any job to be beneath me, and I was always grateful of any offer of employment even if I hated the actual job. I respect anyone working any job over those who beg for a living.
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Post by tele68 on Jul 31, 2020 13:14:45 GMT -5
Retail. Any job where you have to deal with people. Especially with todays social climate.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jul 31, 2020 13:15:53 GMT -5
^ Absolutely, if I needed a job I would do whatever is available.
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Post by digiboy on Jul 31, 2020 14:24:52 GMT -5
I'm not sure if this is for real, sounds like urban legend. Company that manufactures explosives. One of the jobs is quality control for blasting caps. Your job is testing them for bad batches. When you try a defective piece, it detonates. Controlled environment so apparently no actual danger but I probably wouldn't last a day.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jul 31, 2020 14:31:43 GMT -5
Reminds me of this:
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Post by LVF on Jul 31, 2020 14:32:43 GMT -5
I would not do anything janitorial, work in a cube, retail anything, telemarketer or, the 'honey bucket' dude or many other tumultuous jobs. Currently, I enjoy being a retired hobbyist. It pays well and I work my own hours.
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Post by Blacksunshine on Jul 31, 2020 15:03:42 GMT -5
Anything requiring me to sit at a desk, sit inside an office, or sit inside an office inside a cubicle.
I'm a hands on, moving around type of guy/worker. I couldn't stare at a screen or be on the phone all day. Kudos to those of you that can, we need you!
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Post by Leftee on Jul 31, 2020 15:19:41 GMT -5
Anything requiring me to sit at a desk, sit inside an office, or sit inside an office inside a cubicle. I'm a hands on, moving around type of guy/worker. I couldn't stare at a screen or be on the phone all day. Kudos to those of you that can, we need you! Ditto! Been there, done that!
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Post by Opie on Jul 31, 2020 15:20:23 GMT -5
attic fiberglass installer. did it once, that was enough, I'm still sweating and itching. Oh Jeez, I blanked that one right out of my mind. Did I mention all this was in humid hot as hades Florida? Oh yea, spent some time when I was 16 picking oranges by the bag in Mims Fl.Only white guy in the groves. Slowest picker too,them folks could really pick. I made enough to buy my first decent rig, an SG styled Les Paul Junior ('61 I think) along with a silverface Fender Super Reverb. P90's through that rig was a thing of beauty,wish I still had 'em.
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Post by Laker on Jul 31, 2020 15:25:59 GMT -5
A job you couldn’t pay me enough to go back to was the first I ever had when I graduated from high school; working in a metal plating company. Back, 50+ years ago, it was mostly all bull work done by hand with robotics coming in just as I left that job. The worst chore I did was bright dipping brass in a mixture of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrochloric acid. I’d agitate (by hand) a plastic sieve loaded with 50 lbs of brass components in that mixture and then rinse in fresh water with that same agitation. When you’d pull it from the acid mixture clouds of red smoke/vapors would come billowing out of that sieve. You didn’t want to inhale that smoke.
I have acid burn scars from working that job.
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Post by FlyonNylon on Jul 31, 2020 15:36:30 GMT -5
Before my current, and favorite, job I worked:
cleaning up bricks for my uncle in summers from ages 10-14 dishroom 30 hrs/wk in the summer, 15 hrs/wk school year ages 15-18, along with other summer construction-type jobs taught 2-3 guitar lessons a week from ages 16-23 or so waiter 25 hrs/wk through college, 18-24 (a year teaching English overseas in there and a changed major regarding the time lapse..) medical research assistant (6 weeks at 25)
The worst was the desk job, research assistant. I'd never had a job where I just came in at 9a and sat around putting numbers in a computer for 6-7 hours before. It was terrible other than one of the techs there was kind of hot in an older lady sort of way.
I spend probably half my time now charting at a desk but could never work a job solely at a computer without random crazy interactions. If I manage to retire fairly young I've actually thought about tending bar or something just for the experience. I really liked waiting tables.
I'm introverted but like social-ish jobs.
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Post by HenryJ on Aug 1, 2020 8:01:56 GMT -5
Retailing in the 21st century. Particularly for Corporate America. It was fun at first, then the landscape changed, from selling fun items for a profit to more or less selling subscriptions to things, such as cell phones, security systems, satellite dishes, etc. Stuff that gives the ivory-tower corporate executives a monthly residual.
But that's the current business model. Microsoft does not want to sell you Office; they want you to subscribe to Office 365 (I think they have started calling it Microsoft 365 now) and then when the year is up you pay them again.
Dealing the the public can be not all that bad if you treat them nice, smile at them, and make sure they understand what they are getting.
There are some things that are like selling a car to someone who has never learned how to drive.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Aug 1, 2020 8:22:27 GMT -5
Out of high school I briefly had a job at an industrial soap manufacturing place. Mixing chemicals with caustic soda, pouring into molds and grinding into flakes when cooled. Despite the mask I'd still come home looking like Tony Montana after a hard day at the desk. The shop foreman looked like he was an old man but I found out he was 26. I quit.
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Post by Seldom Seen on Aug 1, 2020 11:05:29 GMT -5
Just out of high school my buddy took a job cleaning out storage tanks for an asphalt tar facility. Hot summer spent chipping hardened tar off the walls of steel tanks. Hmmm no wonder he found another line of work.
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Post by rickyguitar on Aug 1, 2020 14:11:56 GMT -5
As long as I am not driving the honey wagon I can be consoled knowing someone has a crappier job than me.
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Post by fkaJimmySee on Aug 1, 2020 15:11:26 GMT -5
^^^^ but, for all these, is it "you couldn't pay me enough," or "you'd have to pay me enough?"
That's the question.
I had a second shift job in high school one summer on a factory floor at a commercial printer that paid $2.85/hour -- not bad in 1966. I quit after one day. Had it paid $5 or $6, maybe a different story.
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Post by gato on Aug 1, 2020 15:21:03 GMT -5
^^^^ but, for all these, is it "you couldn't pay me enough," or "you'd have to pay me enough?" That's the question. I had a second shift job in high school one summer on a factory floor at a commercial printer that paid $2.85/hour -- not bad in 1966. I quit after one day. Had it paid $5 or $6, maybe a different story. In 1966 I had a job as a "layout man" in a commercial water tank plant. (Cutting holes in 1/4 inch steel water tanks and then welding in the fittings). I was making $2.61 an hour, and thought "life couldn't possibly get any better than this." Kept at it until I was laid off. No biggie. I just fell back on my rock band earnings. Ha! That's when I took up the punch press operator job across the street, which met the criteria for "you couldn't pay me enough to do this job again."
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