What manual-labor jobs have you done?

Idle curiosity, as I was washing the dishes this afternoon, which I used to do as a job. Just wondering what jobs Lizards have done. Let's define manual labor loosely as any work that is more physical than not, or that you come home and need a shower, and/or need to change your clothes, etc. Feel free to edit that as you see fit, I realize I've probably missed some descriptions in there...

For me:
Worked on my best friend's farm in high school, throwing hay, feeding pigs, planting tomatos.
Washed pots and pans in college to make my car payment.
Tended horses for a summer at the camp down the road.
Broke down ~130 cubes and associated computers, chairs, etc. and packed them into pallets to put on a 52' truck - we filled it.
Edited to add: worked as cashier/counter help/waitstaff in a fish restaurant one summer. Less physically intense, but definitely needed a shower after that shift... :rofl:

Um... I think that's it. :) How 'bout you?

When I got home, my mom made me take my clothes off in the laundry room and put them in the washing machine right away because the smelled of gas. She didn't want me coming into the house smelling like that, and I can't blame her.

Does that count?

Oh, I also close and lock my own briefcase sometimes before one of the porters carries it.

:rofl:


:loveya:

which was more put up signs, paint, cut brush, just basic manual labor.

I do not count the hours I spend on my farm because those are not jobs, but entertainment.

And I hate it.

I've:
-worked as a janitorial assistant at my high school (my first job)
-worked as a maintenance assistant at local nursing home
-dietary aide in nursing home kitchen
-retail for many years
-worked in a press room stacking bales

:puke:

Only took a few hours, but it was definitely physical work.

For a landscaping company.
The worst was rainy days. We worked even if it poured all day. You'd be out there lugging mud while the general contractors stood around indoors or on a porch sipping their dunkin donuts coffee chatting about when and if the rain was going to stop.

I tell you what though, I was effing ripped after working that job for a while!

dishwasher, bakery assistant(basically a gopher), ditch digger, construction laborer(great work here, if you want to stay in shape that is), Donut fryer, Deli worker, Cafeteria cook/clean and freight handler...a ton of temp jobs out in Sac, all of them were manual labor aka mail rooms, book moving, things like that....

Dishwasher, lawn maintenance, janitor, construction labor and believe it or not, some of that work and the clients were more preferable than what I do now.
If I could afford to I'd go back for sure.

Sometimes I'd like to leave "white-collar" for "blue-collar," for sure. I miss being strong, and I miss being able to see the results of what I've accomplished, every day. It's a different kind of stress, and sometimes I really think it was easier, in its way.

Off-time was actually off-time.

Punch out, and go home.

But one of the beauties of the white collar job is being one's own boss and much more flexible time, although the disadvantage is that "flexible" time sometimes means taking work home, doing it on the weekends, and other interruptions...


I also sometimes miss the days when I could clock out and be fucking done with it, AND be able, at the end of the day, to point at something and say "That's what I did - that's I produced today!"

The stress is a different kind of stress, the productivity a different kind. But if you have to miss work for a doc's appt. or a sick kiddo, you probably pay for it directly out of your paycheck, as opposed to making it up on your own time.

At least half of the jobs that i have had in my life have been the sort that induced one to hit the showers as soon as you get home... sweaty work, at the very least... stinky work, too.

I have worked in all manner of restaurants, always in the kitchen.
I have painted houses
I have worked for a temp agency that sent me for assignments to industrial laundrys, recycling centers, and even to work the grounds crew at Woodstock '99.

I'm about to embark on another 'manual labor' career... baker and kitchen assistant, but this time, NOT for some mindless corperation. This time, i'm working for a small co-op natural foods store! I'm pretty excited about it.

but heard about it - how pysically demanding is it?

You just walk up and down the rows and pull weeds.
My first assignment (age 14) was a field that had never been walked. It was full of thistles with stems the size of my wrist. I broke my hoe on one of them.

did food service from the age of 16 to the age of 28 - every back of house position (dishwasher, prep, cook, pantry, line) and spent the last 8 years of that as an artisan bread and dessert baker which was not so bad. Did a few front of house jobs, but ... let's just say it wasn't the best fit, even though I was not bad at it.

My construction experience is more hit and miss - sometimes as side jobs and sometimes as 'fill-in' between jobs, and now I do it for "free" on my own house. Most of my experience was as a painter, but I've also done a little bit of most other things in some form or another. I enjoy carpentry as a hobby as well.

I occasionally miss the fact that I was in better shape then, but don't miss being on my feet all day or being poor, not that I am rich now, but at least a little more stable.

I used to make a game of it to see if I could stay ahead of the stacks of dishes as they came in.

I grew up about 1/3 mile from there, and worked there for many summers... :)

I always felt really lucky to have gotten a chance to work around those kids. They taught me alot.

I learned a lot working at Camp Horizons, too - it's a camp for mentally handicapped kids and adults. You learn some amazing things from places you'll least expect it. We always had a ton of international counselors, as well, so the dynamic is very unique.

paperboy, snow shoveler

I did the toe-seaming on Gold Toe socks.
And sewed the sleeves on men's t-shirts.
I'm very thankful I don't have to do that any more.

Packing bacon
Waitressing
Sweeping factory floor

Line Cook
Corn Dog Cooker at a Houston, TX theme park - when I was transferred to the Ice Cream parlor, I was in heaven
Landscaper

http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/Detasseling-Faces-Extinction9aug02.htm

Other jobs....

Paper route - ironing and steam pressing wedding gowns and formals - counter clerk at concession stand - watering/mowing yards - wait staff at fast-food restaurant - cleaned out barn where sows had their babies - cleaned out barn where 'little' pigs lived - folded t-shirts & filled bulk orders of screen printed t-shirts

Whew - I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of right now.

I also had cousins who worked in the tobacco fields in the summer - that was even worse than detasseling corn, if you can believe it.

Man, my sister would come home either totally soaked and muddy, or totally sunburned and wasted.

x( But it was good money for a few days work and as a single mom I HAD to do it!

in addition to my regular office job, I clean offices in the evenings and cook at a diner on the weekends.

Both of those jobs suck ass in Texas in the summertime.

I made people salute me when they came "on deck". Or I'd spray 'em with the Hobart hose.

over the course of two years.

The choker setter runs a long heavy wire rope out to a felled tree, attaches it around the tree and then runs for his life as the yarder jerks the tree up the hill. problem is the yarder operator is impatient and doesn't wait for you to get out of the way. sometimes you don't even have the cable hooked together yet. Very bad news! Once my gloves went up the hill with the log, trapped between the cable and the log, I having jerked my hands free seconds before losing all my fingers!! etc. for two years.

Firstly, I didn't know that existed as a job, and second, I don't blame you for getting the heck away from there! I'm amazed that you stayed for two years! :wow:

commercial fisherman, crabber, scrubbed boat bottoms, stock boy, picked blueberries.

in roles where I had to do a lot of heavy lifting of IT equipment: switches, servers, laser printers, etc. You would only think it wasn't labor if you've never done it.

hanging parts on racks to be dipped in some kind of anodizing solution. (?)

It was so much fun! :sarcasm:


I also worked as a clothes-hanger-upper in the back of a clothing store. I'm not sure what the technical term for it is, but I unpacked clothing and put it on hangers, then moved the racks out onto the floor.

I think that's it... my memory is fuxored... if I remembered more I'll post again. :)

in high school one summer (my Uncles)
did retail...

cashier, stock, even got to sit out side the dressing room and hand out numbers

LOL

not to much compared to the others here


lost

but physical/manual labor does not scare me.....

I'll group it to say. About all aspects of construction in almost every trade. All the stuff you have to do to live on small Appalachian farms. Newspaper routes. Helped run a political sign operation in South Florida then when the season was over we took the signs down and made several doghouses out of the scrap. Drove truck. Lumper. I once got $6.75 and hour for hauling daily laborors to various jobs. That was after getting 4 something for picking rocks out of a baseball infield. Washed dishes. Served beer at a bar. I made some coin shooting pool. Demolition of homes after hurricanes. Mechanic's helper. Motorcycle assembler at a Yamaha place. I sold truckloads of wood for heating one winter. Secratary, office assistant, tutor, receptionist. I dont remember all of the jobs, but I enjoyed most of them.

:hi:

And I basically telemarketed my way through college, selling all sorts of useless shit to people who probably couldn't afford it.

Jackhammer Operator, Furniture Mover, Handyman

and now when i'm in the field, it's usually manual labor (land surveying) depending on the job.

one job required that I sit inside the mainframe to air bolt nuts!! :rofl:

Good thing I was small enough to fit and on a conveyor belt, no less! :P

I've done a lot of physical jobs...

from fabrication to house cleaning in a nursing home to waitressing (when I was a teen)

to grocery bagging, shoveling snow, raking leaves, babysitting .... etc.

;)

for real, unlike you know who.

I've also washed dishes, bussed tables, and shelved books in a library. The latter was mental as well as physical, but not too physical, and was almost stress free. That was the only manual job that I actually enjoyed.

Hand loading/ unloading 50ft trailers at a trucking distribution center. You would NOT believe how much Pier One crap they can stuff into one semi-truck!

missing a few I guess

by your definition of needing a shower and/or change of clothing... teaching art in a 90-degree classroom certainly qualifies! We don't have AC and in the winter the school is way over-heated. Ugh.

In college I loaded luggage at an airport, worked at a kennel cleaning shit (but did get to walk some nice dogs), and on a production line in a sweltering/freezing warehouse depending on the season.

... roofing, worked in a greenhouse, bundler at a publishing company, pressman at a publishing company (I still have "tattoos" from the newspaper ink).

were A) when I worked at a pizza place. Covered in flour, grease, ect. and I'd been sweating all day next to a 500 degree oven. And most recently B ) When I worked at an open-air warehouse in Florida for three years.

I think I sweated a bit more in the second job than the first.

1. Landscaper
2. Dishwasher
3. Line cook in lots of restaurants
4. Pizza shops
5. Construction
6. Painter
7. Carpenters Apprentice
8. Factory work- production line, flat cutter, Levi factory, Quality control at JVC disc plant, print
press, scotch tape line worker, cardboard folder, and glass plant line worker.
9. Maintenance
10. House keeper in private homes and in various factories
11. Plumbers Apprentice
12. Carpet cutter/layer
13. Christmas Tree Farm

Now I work in a library and only have to change clothes when I come home so I can get out of my fem gear.

long stints without hot running water...

Warehouser
Building Demolition
Carpentry
Highway construction

The above were jobs I got paid for.

I have done a million other things that I have not been paid for:

Landscaping, plumbing, roofing, helped a friend build a house, electrical work, concrete work, etc.

Ditch digger
Sand blaster
Steam Cleaner
Worst job I ever had was guinea hopper.

I've done them all

dishes, laundry, housekeeping, diaper changing, snow shovelling.....


and got paid for none of it.

...short-order cook, green-chain pulling, woodworker. I also defended our nation as a professional floor-buffer in the Army. :D

Framed houses for a summer. Most physically exhausting work I've ever done. Passed out from the heat a handful of times (everyone did, so I feel less of a wuss).

I don't think it's any stretch to believe that the tan and muscle tone (who knew I had muscle tone?) I got from that job resulted in a few more dates than normal the following autumn... :)

occured when i was about 13 yo and helped this guy carry a couple of empty coffins off of a truck into a funeral parlor. i got like 50 cents for it.

i have also been a janitor,loaded nursrey stock onto trucks, and washed dishes at a arestarant.

mostly summer jobs while I went to college.

Now that I am a homeowner, I do tons of manual labor. It is called maintenance and repair.

I cleaned outfilthy animal cages and momped uo dog pee in a vet clinic, I worked in a sawmill keeping saw dust shoveled out from underneath the saw deck which meant a lot of shoveling while bending over underneath the deck, I've delivered newspapers (on my New York Times route in McLean Va I had Ted Kennedy, Sam Donelson, Pat Buchanan - until he cancelled his subscription - and Alexander Haig - I once got stuck in the snow in Haig's driveway; I kept expecting him to come out and take charge, but he wasn't home)

Oh, and in college I unloaded trucks, worked one season in my father in law's cotton gin baling cotton and staking the bales and on the farm in the summer, I also worked in the Warehouse at Wilson's and probably some other stuff I can't remember or don't want to remember. :rofl:

With a friend in high school. Her stepfather owned them and it was a chance to make some extra money. After two of them I vowed to try and never have that kind of job again -- and, that when I had my own apartment in college -- not to leave it the pigsty that these kids did.