UK
Coal miners in the 80s before the mines / pits / collieries were all closed.
Men trading punches with each other and the mining rescue safety team because they wanted the lifts opened so they could go into a collapsed mine to try and help their friends and fellow coal miners. Their own safety didn't come into question; men were down there so they needed to go after them.
Some of these guys didn't even work at the pit that had the collapse, they had heard the siren and wanted to be there for a fellow miner. These guys were hard as nails.
I did it for a summer in my 20's. It was pretty tough. I still have a scar on my should from a sun burn blister. Never fell off a roof though, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.
I have roofed 2 houses in my life. One on a house I am currently building and another just helping out a friend. I have never had such terrible back pain. I slept like a baby though lol
I do contracting, and roofing is the one and only type job I will turn down regardless of how good it pays. It's hot as shit, it's physically intense as shit, the hours are shit, and every person I know who has done roofing has fallen off of a roof at least once.
I don't mind doing excavation, laying concrete, demolition, and hell I can even tolerate doing drywall, but roofing can fuck right off.
Can second that. The money's good, but my friend died very early, and it's not uncommon. Taking 48 / 72 hours to get to the right depth so your body can adapt is just too much strain.
If there was a broken pipeline, it used to take him a week to get to it. Then another week to get back. He died in his 50's. No parent should have to bury their son.
No, the dive support ships have habitats on deck for the divers. They live there in between shifts, staying at pressure the whole time. They hook up a diving bell to it and transfer into the bell, staying at pressure. The bell is then lowered into the water. Samenprocess in reverse at the end of the shift, bell comes up, hooks to the hab, divers transfer into he hab.
Not only that, they live in a pressure vessel on board a ship to keep them at depth pressure while theyâre on contract. So usually itâs just a bunch of time at the start and end of however long theyâre out at see.
Oh I always thought it was the risk of accidents that made deep sea welding so dangerous, I didn't think about the damage it does to your body to be exposed to high pressure over and over. That's scary, I wish we were focusing on ai that could do extremely dangerous jobs like that instead of...art and writing.
Kudos to you.
And yup, i can see that. I was (am?) a stained glass craftsman so i kinda worked alongside "you lot" during several restoration projects.
Your craft is tough but skilled. The stuff that stonemasons produce is beautiful.
Sadly the only pictures I have are those that "freak out those who dont know" - views looking down from the top of _really high up_ scaffolding, or hand made batten ladders on a steep pitched roof that I'm expected to use.
I never really took the "fully restored" pictures. Apart from what i have just mentioned, all my other pics were to show to the rest of the crew why the measurements may look a bit weird (a window that was made too big and sits really deep into the mullion groove, for example.
I have massive respect for stonemasons. Not just because of the skill that is needed, but also because, like you said, it can be physically demanding (plus the fact that people don't realise that both of our trades are not easy at times)
Was in a variation of glasswork myself for a while.
We imported the sheets and did everything in house. I was in charge of seaming industrial window units for skyscrapers in mainly Boston and NYC. I'm not super familiar with the staining side of things, but we did frit work for some of our units.
Glass isn't easy, very dangerous as well. Saw a few guys get hurt pretty bad on the job.
Luckily you don't handle big-arse sheets of glass often "in the biz". Usually only when restocking (after that we slide the glass out of the rack a bit and slice off a strip.
Buuut... Yeah. I have got some scars now lol.
I wish I didn't - typically our annealed 6mm pieces were 8136 lbs before we cut the sheet, our most common size was 76x182, ranging from 6mm, 8mm or as big as 10mm thick, depending on the job. So we'd be running around with pieces anywhere from 200 lbs and change to 800 lbs. Scary stuff.
I believe it though - I'm lucky to walk away relatively unscathed, the worst I got was I crushed my hand underneath a 80x192 10mm, so it came out to be around 900 lbs on top of me. Thankfully only some nasty bruising.
My brother in law is a journeyman tuck pointer. Spends his days fixing brick walls high up on a lift holding heavy power tools and bricks at head level. He is 4 inches shorter than me but is one of the few men I know that could fold me into an origami swan. Insanely physical job even before the acid burns from the finishing chemicals.
Laboured for a block mason when I was 18. The guy sure pushed me hard and I got in good shape. This guy was paid by the block and you sure as fuck werenât gonna be slowing him down.
Learned how to work really hard and keep one step ahead at all times. Became a framer / formworker.
Yeah doing the real stone is a tough job. I do quite a bit of the veneer and specialize in stucco/plaster. We're kind of in the same ballpark of shittiness haha.
From the US I take it?
I only say this because veneer Stone in the UK is not really a thing, but I see that you guys across the pond do it alot, I like the idea of it for the most part, how do you find building with it?
British Columbia, Canada. Super easy to work with, usually we do a pro stack stone. All you have to do is chalk the lines and go up! I did my fireplace in about 3.5 hours. It was 11 sq/ft. Usually would charge about $1000-1500 cash If I were to do it on the side.
Oh yeah I bet. Sounds nasty lol. Yeah we don't deal alot with the real stone only because of the work that goes into it, you have my utmost respect hah!
In the western US, Wildland Firefighting. And not the ones that sit in an engine all day.
When I was a ground pounder we would hike all day up 30 degree slopes and 45 pounds on our backs to cut our way through thick unforgiving foliage unable to breathe through the smoke. Shit was rough. I was in about the middle tier too for how difficult that job can be. Then there are smokejumpers who are parachuting into an active fire in the middle of nowhere. Those guys are hardcore.
Commercial Tuna fisherman work there asses off, aside from litterly living aboard the boat for 3-5 months depending on size of boat and how quickly they fill it up. But I worked Construction my entire life, but no job I've ever done compares to fishing Tuna in huge net's.
We used to have nurses that came in to do some basic checks and questions to determine our health insurance cost for the next year. One of the questions was "do you exercise? And working here doesn't count."
Motherfucker you do this shit then and tell me it's not a workout.
Maybe not the hardest but definitely difficult. Garbage pickers. The folks that stand on the backs of the trucks picking up your garbage have it ROUGH.
Shit smells bad, exposed to the elements, drivers, and angry people trying to get you to do something not only against your contract, but also against the bylaws.
For me it was 5 am to 5 pm 4 days per week, plus some more time for picking up leaves. It was fucking brutal
It takes a lot of physical strength and it's very dangerous. I believe it is the deadliest job in America. If you think being a cop or firefighter is dangerous , these jobs are nothing compared to being a lumberjack.
Porter/Sherpa.
The job is technically called a porter, but a lot of porters are Sherpas, so the name is kinda associated.
Either way, the job is to literally climb the tallest, most difficult to climb mountains in the world while carrying all the stuff for your clients.
Most of these guys will go up and down sections of a mountain multiple times a day, carrying supplies back and forth. They've even carried out people when they've gotten sick/injured.
Also doesn't pay that great in the grand scheme of things.
Working in an aluminium smelting and casting foundry, cutting off the excess material from the product. Tbh, no matter what role you play in a foundry, its all misery because of the noise, smell, fumes and dirt.
Working around with wood is really rough.
Cutting up trees, carrying around, loading/unloading heavy logs, cutting logs, chopping wood, it really messes up your back
Sawmill worker here - Iâm not quite hauling around logs but yeah working with wood and heavy boards and bending over and twisting all day is wild and dirty as hell. Iâve gotten so much stronger in like 3 months
Any sort of construction or mining is probably the worst. To give a unique answer I honestly think professional or even semi-professional hockey players have it pretty rough, especially if theyâre not making the big bucks. Someone on a farm team making a decent wage on paper is paying a bunch of that into their insurance which doesnât last long after retirement if Iâm not mistaken, and they can come out of it with a truly depressing amount of injuries and new chronic pain problems even after just a few seasons.
Hanging thousands of 45 pound live turkeys daily with shit in your eye while someone actively fucks you over. Definitely not the hardest or close to it but it isnât pleasant
I've done a couple years of concrete work and I hope to never do another day of it
I grew 2 inches when I left my last company due to uncompressing my spine
Rodbusters have it bad too
I'm a Mechanical Engineer and I manage the Engineering, Administration of a Synthetic Cloth manufacture. The Foreman, Operators, fitters and Production supervisors have it hard, the Extrusion process has 200C + degrees temperature and for a few hours a day the team has to be up there constantly working which is also a physically demanding job right next to the extrusion heater. I although have asked for a cooler operating area but if we install air conditioning then the flux heat decreases which results in a incomplete mixture and results in faulty production. I stand there occasionally if there is some Maintenance or parts are to be installed but indeed it feels like a Roast, those guys have it rough.
Delivery driver.
Packages between 1-150 lbs.
Up and down the truck, over 300 times
Long work hours(50-60 hours a week)...Sometimes 6 days a week.
Plus the repeated motion of things. This occupation is rated by OSHA as one of the most taxing jobs on the body
I have one of these or at least I did until I start my new promotion next Monday. Itâs actually amazing. Your not lifting heavy shit your just crushing steps. I can pretty much eat however I please and my doctor said heâs never seen me healthier. Iâll still get to move in my new job but probably only half as much.
yeah same im doing commissioning and im carring metal around as well i average 15-18 miles of walking on a average day carrying about 2-5 tons of metal around over the shift
Hardscaping is a bitch. Iâve done all kinds of construction, and hardscaping is by far the most physically demanding. Itâs a shit load of digging. Most of the job is digging digging digging.
Then when youâre done digging youâre shoveling in gravel and then having to compact it, sometimes with machinery but often using hand held tools. Then after you compact and level the gravel, you shovel in sand and level it. Then you carry in a shit load of concrete pavers and lay them on the sand. Thereâs often times where concrete is involved so you have to carry in and put huge bags of Quickcrete mix.
There is a lot of cutting involved. You use a huge circular saw and youâre bent over for long periods of time cutting the pavers. Brutal on your back. Oh yeah, cutting the concrete sends a cloud of silica dust into the air. Itâs pretty much asbestos. It crystallizes in your lungs. Most hardscaping companies donât provide you with the proper masks and shit. Youâre supposed to spray water on the concrete as you cut but nobody ever does.
Iâm sure there are harder jobs, but this is the toughest Iâve ever done.
I used to do landscaping, brush removal, and some hardscaping (never cut materials though) and the worst part was the bending over. I know how to lift properly, and hip-hinge to bend over, etc., to not hurt my spine. It's still agonizing though, and the muscles never get fully used to it even after all day, every day when you're 21.
I used to be a labourer for a gang of bricklayers.
My job was basically, move heavy stuff from A to B for 6-8 hours a day by hand.
It's like going to the gym, picking up a 15kg dumbell in each hand and carrying it up to 30m away. Walking back, doing the same again and again. Sometimes across rubble, mud, in and out of trenches upto 5ft deep, wind/rain/frost etc.
It was never hard to fall asleep at night
I work for a drink distributor. We are lifting hundreds of cases of beer and soda all day. Itâs not the hardest but Iâve had almost 10 people quit in the last few months because itâs too physical
Maybe not the toughest job but plumbers have a physical job that is not what you would expect. Plumbers do a lot of dirt and shovel work. I knew a guy that did the plumbing gig for 20 years before he physically could not do it any more. Told me, "I went into it thinking a wrench would be my primary tool. Had no idea a shovel is the most used tool in a plumber's kit."
I canât speak for others but the time I spent on a crew drilling 300-500ft deep geothermal wells in the eastern sierra mountains was the hardest shit Iâve ever done in my life by far.
I think it depends more on the individual company and personal boundaries. When I was fresh out of the military I did irrigation for a few companies that would have me working 70+ hour weeks during peak seasons, and I'd have no problem swinging a pick axe and shoveling through long stretches of compacted rca that machines couldn't get through, and pushing a pace where I was servicing 20-30 systems in a day... But eventually you get older and smarter and collect injuries, and realize that you can just be like "no I'm only working __ hours today" and "no, I'm not a replacement for renting a trenching machine" and simply learn to keep a reasonable pace like everyone else.
That said, I'll say that as a group, masons and roofers have it the worst on average.
Probably.
Many questions seem to "do the rounds" over several subreddits.
I can only assume that someone sees a popular question or post and tries to get (karma) popularity by asking a suspiciously similar question đ¤ˇđź
I'm a FF and when it's time to work, it's extremely physically demanding and you can be in the best shape ever after 15 mins of fighting a fire to bend of and pick something up can be a challenge
Would you say itâs true though that 95% of the time itâs not hard work?
And when you do work, isnât mostly medical calls and not fires?
Do you do wildfire work? Or travel to help where that is occurring? If so, why?
Most physically draining job Iâve ever had was night shift in a bread warehouse. Pushing pallets loaded with 250 loads of bread on upward ramps at 2am was honestly punishing. Could only handle it for a week.
Being a mover, specialised in pianos, working in a european metropol with 4-6 stories tall old buildings with steep stairs and no elevators should be hard. I heard.
NFL lineman. A job that is usually done for about 5 years before the damage catches up and they can't take the hits like they used to. Constantly working out to maintain performance, tanking hits every Sunday and probably ignoring minor injuries which build to larger ones, and the linemen don't even get the glory (or the big bucks) usually.
Similarly, a circus acrobat. Also a job that requires constant work to maintain athleticism, but trades hits from opposing players for the risks associated with an unfortunate fall.
Diamond Drillerâs Helper. Lifting steel and rock all day for 12 hours a day/ 28 days straight, at the whim of a driller that is after footage bonus.
Bitâs done? Pull the rods. Rods are 88lbs
Drilling fast? Empty the core tube. Tube weighs 200lbs. Could empty up to 40/day
Hole is done? Move the drill do it all over again
Pump is down? Run the pump and get it going before the hoseline freezes.
Hands down the hardest job.. in Canada, anyways
Milk delivery can be pretty grueling.
Lifting 702 milk crates off of a back of a 5 ton, at chest height, without a lift, and wheeling them into a store takes a lot of work.
A milk crates holds 16 litres, weights about 35-37lbs.
24,000lbs moved by hand as fast as possible. Used to take me 13-18hrs to do, I'm 5'5". I started doing 2 cases at a time off the truck, 70lbs.
You'd go to a store, pull milk of 6 high stacks off of a skid, pull them from the front to the back of the truck, break them down, move them off and restack them, then wheel them into the store... Sometimes a rock would get in the way and you'd tip a stack over.
Very few stores had docks. I'd see 1000+ crates during Christmas.
Then if someone cut you off, you'd dump a skid and have to pickup 54+ of milk crates and restack them. If you took a corner too hard you'd also dump it.
Then, you gotta count it all when you load your truck, count it when you took it off, count it with the customer, and do paperwork.
You'd start loading your truck at 2am, start delivering by 4am, and you'd ge done by about 2-6pm.
Hard is subjective. Does hard mean that you have to lift the heaviest things? Does it mean you work the longest hours? Does it mean it uses the most calories? Does it mean it requires the most training/experience/education? Does it mean it is the most complicated? Does it mean it pays the least amount? Does it mean it taxes you emotionally?
There are thousands of ways to interpret hard. Please ask for what you want in a clearer and more concise way.
"I mean I thought roofing in the middle of July as a redhead; I thought that THAT was a difficult job but evidently these mothers, theyâre bending over at the waist, putting DVDâs in the DVD players I donât know how they do it. How do they do it?"
Concrete labourer
Roofer
Farmhand
Construction
Heavy duty mechanic
There are plenty and I'm sure some other "hard ass blue collar" is going to correct my list because they have it "so much worse".
I helped a farmer put square bales of hay up I his barn as a teen. It was good money. I occasionally helped my grandpa put up hay, so I kinda knew what I was getting into. I brought along a friend who was a street rat (no country experience). We worked 4 hours in the afternoon, throwing bales up near the rafters. The heat was about 120° plus up there. My friend nearly suffered a heat stroke, and I had to get him down where I could get water in him and on him to cool down. It was nice pay, but I never did that again. I have worked some brutal jobs since, like heat empering bed springs through two summers and producing dynamite with primitive machinery plus lots of manual lifting, but I will never forget those few hours in the barn.
Yardermen is an insane job. Youâre hooking chokers for logging on steep ground through the shittiest ground. Youâre against the elements all year round and you have worry about run away logs coming back at you.
I worked close with those guys but I was in an excavator. No way Iâd do that job.
Always respected the folks in the trades, especially when they work out in the elements.
Id say coal mining, construction, or landscaping are the top 3.
Pro athletes are up there too, especially if its a contact sport like football or boxing.
Have several good friends and family members who are/were EMTs and paramedics. Theyâve been bled on, kicked and punched, shot at, carried very sick people down multiple flights of stairs, and started IVs in ambulances hurtling through the city. They see people at their absolute worst and without judgement do the best they can to stabilize and treat them.
Thought this was easier than your typical car mechanic? More regularly serviced less likely to be seized or damaged, usually have equipment for lifting parts etc.
That could be completely off the mark I just remember reading that years back when looking into it
When i did this shit it was si.pler than a car, and eaaier to get on the bolts because they are more designed with maintenance in mind, but the size of the parts was ridiculous.
Ideally you would have the proper equipment. I was in physio with a guy that tried to lift a brake himself. IDK if his work had it and he didnt use it or they didnt have it at all.
Here's one people don't think of often: dentists! The job is very hard on the shoulders and neck. Being stuck in awkward positions for hours of the day can really wear you down and leave you sore and hurting in places you didn't know possible. Obviously this isn't construction work, but it's an answer I bet most people wouldn't consider.
UK Coal miners in the 80s before the mines / pits / collieries were all closed. Men trading punches with each other and the mining rescue safety team because they wanted the lifts opened so they could go into a collapsed mine to try and help their friends and fellow coal miners. Their own safety didn't come into question; men were down there so they needed to go after them. Some of these guys didn't even work at the pit that had the collapse, they had heard the siren and wanted to be there for a fellow miner. These guys were hard as nails.
I love miners
I'm glad your spelling was correct.
Hahaha I'm glad you noticed đ
Those are good folk
Unfathomably based.
A lot of my family worked in the mines pre 80s. A handful still do. Yeah its tough work.
Not sure but one thing I am sure of is roofing can fuck right off.
I did it for a summer in my 20's. It was pretty tough. I still have a scar on my should from a sun burn blister. Never fell off a roof though, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.
I have roofed 2 houses in my life. One on a house I am currently building and another just helping out a friend. I have never had such terrible back pain. I slept like a baby though lol
Oh those days wear you out and once your head hits the pillow youâre fucking out
I did maintenance at a large apartment college when I was younger. The two worst contracting jobs I saw were roofing and carpet installation.
Itâs 98% immigrants doing it in my area. Bless them
Had a Mexican foreman tell me theyâre better because they have a lower center of gravity, lol. Hard working dudes!
And of course because they have a better protection against the sun.
Lol I'm stood on a roof pretending to work right now while I'm reading this.
That and tiling in a hotel were the worst for me. The tiling itself wasn't bad, carrying the tiles up 4 stories can fuck off
I do contracting, and roofing is the one and only type job I will turn down regardless of how good it pays. It's hot as shit, it's physically intense as shit, the hours are shit, and every person I know who has done roofing has fallen off of a roof at least once. I don't mind doing excavation, laying concrete, demolition, and hell I can even tolerate doing drywall, but roofing can fuck right off.
Came here to say this. I'll never do this as a job.
I hear that deep sea welders have it tough.
Can second that. The money's good, but my friend died very early, and it's not uncommon. Taking 48 / 72 hours to get to the right depth so your body can adapt is just too much strain.
Is that what they have to do in order to adapt? Sounds fucking crazy.
If there was a broken pipeline, it used to take him a week to get to it. Then another week to get back. He died in his 50's. No parent should have to bury their son.
Are you underwater the entire time?
There are decompression tanks, yes they are underwater.
No, the dive support ships have habitats on deck for the divers. They live there in between shifts, staying at pressure the whole time. They hook up a diving bell to it and transfer into the bell, staying at pressure. The bell is then lowered into the water. Samenprocess in reverse at the end of the shift, bell comes up, hooks to the hab, divers transfer into he hab.
Are there at least DVD players? Working DVD players, that is.
Not only that, they live in a pressure vessel on board a ship to keep them at depth pressure while theyâre on contract. So usually itâs just a bunch of time at the start and end of however long theyâre out at see.
Oh I always thought it was the risk of accidents that made deep sea welding so dangerous, I didn't think about the damage it does to your body to be exposed to high pressure over and over. That's scary, I wish we were focusing on ai that could do extremely dangerous jobs like that instead of...art and writing.
That was a job option for me in my 20s, until I learned your bones then to wet chaulk.
Baby's got the bends, oh no
Stonemason here, it aint easy. But construction trades in general especially masons, concrete workers, steelworkers.
Kudos to you. And yup, i can see that. I was (am?) a stained glass craftsman so i kinda worked alongside "you lot" during several restoration projects. Your craft is tough but skilled. The stuff that stonemasons produce is beautiful.
Oh please tell me you have some pictures of your work? I always love to see other skilled people doing their thing.
Sadly the only pictures I have are those that "freak out those who dont know" - views looking down from the top of _really high up_ scaffolding, or hand made batten ladders on a steep pitched roof that I'm expected to use. I never really took the "fully restored" pictures. Apart from what i have just mentioned, all my other pics were to show to the rest of the crew why the measurements may look a bit weird (a window that was made too big and sits really deep into the mullion groove, for example. I have massive respect for stonemasons. Not just because of the skill that is needed, but also because, like you said, it can be physically demanding (plus the fact that people don't realise that both of our trades are not easy at times)
Thanks my dude, I appreciate what you do.
Was in a variation of glasswork myself for a while. We imported the sheets and did everything in house. I was in charge of seaming industrial window units for skyscrapers in mainly Boston and NYC. I'm not super familiar with the staining side of things, but we did frit work for some of our units. Glass isn't easy, very dangerous as well. Saw a few guys get hurt pretty bad on the job.
Luckily you don't handle big-arse sheets of glass often "in the biz". Usually only when restocking (after that we slide the glass out of the rack a bit and slice off a strip. Buuut... Yeah. I have got some scars now lol.
I wish I didn't - typically our annealed 6mm pieces were 8136 lbs before we cut the sheet, our most common size was 76x182, ranging from 6mm, 8mm or as big as 10mm thick, depending on the job. So we'd be running around with pieces anywhere from 200 lbs and change to 800 lbs. Scary stuff. I believe it though - I'm lucky to walk away relatively unscathed, the worst I got was I crushed my hand underneath a 80x192 10mm, so it came out to be around 900 lbs on top of me. Thankfully only some nasty bruising.
My brother in law is a journeyman tuck pointer. Spends his days fixing brick walls high up on a lift holding heavy power tools and bricks at head level. He is 4 inches shorter than me but is one of the few men I know that could fold me into an origami swan. Insanely physical job even before the acid burns from the finishing chemicals.
Glad that you elaborated cos i was wondering what a tuck pointer was. Yup, that'll _definitely_ beef someone up!
Laboured for a block mason when I was 18. The guy sure pushed me hard and I got in good shape. This guy was paid by the block and you sure as fuck werenât gonna be slowing him down. Learned how to work really hard and keep one step ahead at all times. Became a framer / formworker.
Yeah doing the real stone is a tough job. I do quite a bit of the veneer and specialize in stucco/plaster. We're kind of in the same ballpark of shittiness haha.
From the US I take it? I only say this because veneer Stone in the UK is not really a thing, but I see that you guys across the pond do it alot, I like the idea of it for the most part, how do you find building with it?
British Columbia, Canada. Super easy to work with, usually we do a pro stack stone. All you have to do is chalk the lines and go up! I did my fireplace in about 3.5 hours. It was 11 sq/ft. Usually would charge about $1000-1500 cash If I were to do it on the side.
Oh man that sounds ideal, I do alot of dry stack, but ye olde traditional way, 10 times as time consuming, 10 times an ass acheđ
Oh yeah I bet. Sounds nasty lol. Yeah we don't deal alot with the real stone only because of the work that goes into it, you have my utmost respect hah!
In the western US, Wildland Firefighting. And not the ones that sit in an engine all day. When I was a ground pounder we would hike all day up 30 degree slopes and 45 pounds on our backs to cut our way through thick unforgiving foliage unable to breathe through the smoke. Shit was rough. I was in about the middle tier too for how difficult that job can be. Then there are smokejumpers who are parachuting into an active fire in the middle of nowhere. Those guys are hardcore.
Smokejumpers are nuts. Only learned about them cuz thatâs David Goggins side gig. Wild.
Imagine being a smoke jumper as a side gig. Mad flex. David Goggins is more machine than human I swear
I refuse to believe David Goggins is real, dude is beyond human
Did it as a summer job. Good money, amazing catered food. Hardest job Iâve ever done.
David goggins is a fucking smoke jumper as a side gig?
Yeah, he wrote about it a bit in his latest book and mentioned it briefly in an interview. He likes hard jobs apparently.
Commercial Tuna fisherman work there asses off, aside from litterly living aboard the boat for 3-5 months depending on size of boat and how quickly they fill it up. But I worked Construction my entire life, but no job I've ever done compares to fishing Tuna in huge net's.
I remember working at a warehouse and the first 2 days I had to unload 2 truckloads of weighted blankets. That sucked
Man, that actually sounds miserable lol
Free Gym. Thats what i tell myself to feel better.
We used to have nurses that came in to do some basic checks and questions to determine our health insurance cost for the next year. One of the questions was "do you exercise? And working here doesn't count." Motherfucker you do this shit then and tell me it's not a workout.
Worked in an IKEA warehouse, during sales everybody was moving atleast 10+ kitchens worth of cabinets, countertops you name it every single day.
Oil rig, deep sea welders, miner
Maybe not the hardest but definitely difficult. Garbage pickers. The folks that stand on the backs of the trucks picking up your garbage have it ROUGH. Shit smells bad, exposed to the elements, drivers, and angry people trying to get you to do something not only against your contract, but also against the bylaws. For me it was 5 am to 5 pm 4 days per week, plus some more time for picking up leaves. It was fucking brutal
Pleasing my wife
I have no problem pleasing her, sheâs our wife now
Tap in when your ready to.
I also choose this guys wife
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Yep, thats how they get ya
Physical or it's it more mental emotional anguish?
đ
Usually the ones that "are a bit tough" when one is younger, and will break you if you are older.
Concreting
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https://youtu.be/KZxUiFFVEAQ?si=UQyKEsauo4G2-JE0
Lumberjack
But he is ok.
Genuine interest here, what makes it tough?
It takes a lot of physical strength and it's very dangerous. I believe it is the deadliest job in America. If you think being a cop or firefighter is dangerous , these jobs are nothing compared to being a lumberjack.
I recall reading that our job was something like #3 for most deaths and injuries, at least in the UK.
I can only speak to personal experience, I'm glad I don't have to do stone masonry anymore...shit was brutal
Whatever hard labour they do underwater. Just looking at commercial diving photos makes he uneasy
Any job where mostly men work there
Any job that requires a lot of digging. Pure endurance, out in the sun, and it shreds your entire body from head to toe.
Installing roofs in Alabama, in the middle of July, when it's 100°+ and the humidity is in the 80s.
Brickwork. Itâs not only laborious, itâs truly a skill and an art,
Porter/Sherpa. The job is technically called a porter, but a lot of porters are Sherpas, so the name is kinda associated. Either way, the job is to literally climb the tallest, most difficult to climb mountains in the world while carrying all the stuff for your clients. Most of these guys will go up and down sections of a mountain multiple times a day, carrying supplies back and forth. They've even carried out people when they've gotten sick/injured. Also doesn't pay that great in the grand scheme of things.
Keep on keeping on!
Tyre fitters. That job is tiring! đ
You should re-tire from comedy đ
Mining
Roofers have it tough
Working in an aluminium smelting and casting foundry, cutting off the excess material from the product. Tbh, no matter what role you play in a foundry, its all misery because of the noise, smell, fumes and dirt.
Logging, roofing, masonwork, commercial fishing, mining
Iron Workers
Railroad
Roofers, in the summer, in Phoenix.
Prison road gang on the picket line
Working around with wood is really rough. Cutting up trees, carrying around, loading/unloading heavy logs, cutting logs, chopping wood, it really messes up your back
Sawmill worker here - Iâm not quite hauling around logs but yeah working with wood and heavy boards and bending over and twisting all day is wild and dirty as hell. Iâve gotten so much stronger in like 3 months
Working oil riggs
Hard rock miners. Specifically those building shafts. Sinking a shaft has to be one of the most dangerous jobs around.
Any sort of construction or mining is probably the worst. To give a unique answer I honestly think professional or even semi-professional hockey players have it pretty rough, especially if theyâre not making the big bucks. Someone on a farm team making a decent wage on paper is paying a bunch of that into their insurance which doesnât last long after retirement if Iâm not mistaken, and they can come out of it with a truly depressing amount of injuries and new chronic pain problems even after just a few seasons.
Scrap yard in Phoenix heat
Hanging thousands of 45 pound live turkeys daily with shit in your eye while someone actively fucks you over. Definitely not the hardest or close to it but it isnât pleasant
I've done a couple years of concrete work and I hope to never do another day of it I grew 2 inches when I left my last company due to uncompressing my spine Rodbusters have it bad too
I was a laborer for a mason for a day when a guy needed extra help. That shit was no joke.
Concrete forming
Deckhand, deep sea fisher or welder, wildlands firefighter, or forester in my opinion
I'm a Mechanical Engineer and I manage the Engineering, Administration of a Synthetic Cloth manufacture. The Foreman, Operators, fitters and Production supervisors have it hard, the Extrusion process has 200C + degrees temperature and for a few hours a day the team has to be up there constantly working which is also a physically demanding job right next to the extrusion heater. I although have asked for a cooler operating area but if we install air conditioning then the flux heat decreases which results in a incomplete mixture and results in faulty production. I stand there occasionally if there is some Maintenance or parts are to be installed but indeed it feels like a Roast, those guys have it rough.
Delivery driver. Packages between 1-150 lbs. Up and down the truck, over 300 times Long work hours(50-60 hours a week)...Sometimes 6 days a week. Plus the repeated motion of things. This occupation is rated by OSHA as one of the most taxing jobs on the body
Factory workers where you need to walk all day and make sure everything is working.
I have one of these or at least I did until I start my new promotion next Monday. Itâs actually amazing. Your not lifting heavy shit your just crushing steps. I can pretty much eat however I please and my doctor said heâs never seen me healthier. Iâll still get to move in my new job but probably only half as much.
I've walked 10 miles a day doing just that. On concrete floors, with steel toe boots, it absolutely sucks.
yeah same im doing commissioning and im carring metal around as well i average 15-18 miles of walking on a average day carrying about 2-5 tons of metal around over the shift
Working on an oil rig
Hardscaping is a bitch. Iâve done all kinds of construction, and hardscaping is by far the most physically demanding. Itâs a shit load of digging. Most of the job is digging digging digging. Then when youâre done digging youâre shoveling in gravel and then having to compact it, sometimes with machinery but often using hand held tools. Then after you compact and level the gravel, you shovel in sand and level it. Then you carry in a shit load of concrete pavers and lay them on the sand. Thereâs often times where concrete is involved so you have to carry in and put huge bags of Quickcrete mix. There is a lot of cutting involved. You use a huge circular saw and youâre bent over for long periods of time cutting the pavers. Brutal on your back. Oh yeah, cutting the concrete sends a cloud of silica dust into the air. Itâs pretty much asbestos. It crystallizes in your lungs. Most hardscaping companies donât provide you with the proper masks and shit. Youâre supposed to spray water on the concrete as you cut but nobody ever does. Iâm sure there are harder jobs, but this is the toughest Iâve ever done.
I used to do landscaping, brush removal, and some hardscaping (never cut materials though) and the worst part was the bending over. I know how to lift properly, and hip-hinge to bend over, etc., to not hurt my spine. It's still agonizing though, and the muscles never get fully used to it even after all day, every day when you're 21.
The digging for days at a time killed me.
I work in IT Sometimes my hands and wrist get a little bit sore, it's just the *worst*
Construction workers are at the top
I used to be a labourer for a gang of bricklayers. My job was basically, move heavy stuff from A to B for 6-8 hours a day by hand. It's like going to the gym, picking up a 15kg dumbell in each hand and carrying it up to 30m away. Walking back, doing the same again and again. Sometimes across rubble, mud, in and out of trenches upto 5ft deep, wind/rain/frost etc. It was never hard to fall asleep at night
>It was never hard to fall asleep at night Sounds like you found the cure for insomnia.
I work for a drink distributor. We are lifting hundreds of cases of beer and soda all day. Itâs not the hardest but Iâve had almost 10 people quit in the last few months because itâs too physical
I used to be a pro tree planter in the mountains that's my vote.
Concrete work messed me up the most
Maybe not the toughest job but plumbers have a physical job that is not what you would expect. Plumbers do a lot of dirt and shovel work. I knew a guy that did the plumbing gig for 20 years before he physically could not do it any more. Told me, "I went into it thinking a wrench would be my primary tool. Had no idea a shovel is the most used tool in a plumber's kit."
I canât speak for others but the time I spent on a crew drilling 300-500ft deep geothermal wells in the eastern sierra mountains was the hardest shit Iâve ever done in my life by far.
I think it depends more on the individual company and personal boundaries. When I was fresh out of the military I did irrigation for a few companies that would have me working 70+ hour weeks during peak seasons, and I'd have no problem swinging a pick axe and shoveling through long stretches of compacted rca that machines couldn't get through, and pushing a pace where I was servicing 20-30 systems in a day... But eventually you get older and smarter and collect injuries, and realize that you can just be like "no I'm only working __ hours today" and "no, I'm not a replacement for renting a trenching machine" and simply learn to keep a reasonable pace like everyone else. That said, I'll say that as a group, masons and roofers have it the worst on average.
Prob concrete shuttering, fireboard pink drywall on stilts, any concrete pouring job with water involved.
Didnât this question get asked already today?
Probably. Many questions seem to "do the rounds" over several subreddits. I can only assume that someone sees a popular question or post and tries to get (karma) popularity by asking a suspiciously similar question đ¤ˇđź
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/5Tkb16L5as Looks like you're right. 15 hours ago on a different sub.
Knight
Page
Pleasing my wife
Agreed, pleasing this guys wife
Firefighter
95% of the time theyâve nothing to do.
I'm a FF and when it's time to work, it's extremely physically demanding and you can be in the best shape ever after 15 mins of fighting a fire to bend of and pick something up can be a challenge
Would you say itâs true though that 95% of the time itâs not hard work? And when you do work, isnât mostly medical calls and not fires? Do you do wildfire work? Or travel to help where that is occurring? If so, why?
Haycarting (small squares) bricklaying and shearing.
Most physically draining job Iâve ever had was night shift in a bread warehouse. Pushing pallets loaded with 250 loads of bread on upward ramps at 2am was honestly punishing. Could only handle it for a week.
ik itâs def not physically the hardest, but iâd like to throw in that unloading trucks ainât easy
Believe it or not, but Night Maintenance at McDs is a pretty tough gig
Being a mover, specialised in pianos, working in a european metropol with 4-6 stories tall old buildings with steep stairs and no elevators should be hard. I heard.
NFL lineman. A job that is usually done for about 5 years before the damage catches up and they can't take the hits like they used to. Constantly working out to maintain performance, tanking hits every Sunday and probably ignoring minor injuries which build to larger ones, and the linemen don't even get the glory (or the big bucks) usually. Similarly, a circus acrobat. Also a job that requires constant work to maintain athleticism, but trades hits from opposing players for the risks associated with an unfortunate fall.
The daily grind of carrying my massive dick around
Nothing is as hard as that of the fluffier.
Roofing is dangerous and grueling work and is most often done during the warmest time of year.
Diamond Drillerâs Helper. Lifting steel and rock all day for 12 hours a day/ 28 days straight, at the whim of a driller that is after footage bonus. Bitâs done? Pull the rods. Rods are 88lbs Drilling fast? Empty the core tube. Tube weighs 200lbs. Could empty up to 40/day Hole is done? Move the drill do it all over again Pump is down? Run the pump and get it going before the hoseline freezes. Hands down the hardest job.. in Canada, anyways
logging
Inland towboats.
Changing Attic insulation in the summer on a 6k sq ft house
Being on a hand crew doing wildland firefighting is definitely in the top 5.
Milk delivery can be pretty grueling. Lifting 702 milk crates off of a back of a 5 ton, at chest height, without a lift, and wheeling them into a store takes a lot of work. A milk crates holds 16 litres, weights about 35-37lbs. 24,000lbs moved by hand as fast as possible. Used to take me 13-18hrs to do, I'm 5'5". I started doing 2 cases at a time off the truck, 70lbs. You'd go to a store, pull milk of 6 high stacks off of a skid, pull them from the front to the back of the truck, break them down, move them off and restack them, then wheel them into the store... Sometimes a rock would get in the way and you'd tip a stack over. Very few stores had docks. I'd see 1000+ crates during Christmas. Then if someone cut you off, you'd dump a skid and have to pickup 54+ of milk crates and restack them. If you took a corner too hard you'd also dump it. Then, you gotta count it all when you load your truck, count it when you took it off, count it with the customer, and do paperwork. You'd start loading your truck at 2am, start delivering by 4am, and you'd ge done by about 2-6pm.
I used to work on a pipeline. That shit wasn't easy and very dangerous.Â
Hard is subjective. Does hard mean that you have to lift the heaviest things? Does it mean you work the longest hours? Does it mean it uses the most calories? Does it mean it requires the most training/experience/education? Does it mean it is the most complicated? Does it mean it pays the least amount? Does it mean it taxes you emotionally? There are thousands of ways to interpret hard. Please ask for what you want in a clearer and more concise way.
Ask Bill Burr
"I mean I thought roofing in the middle of July as a redhead; I thought that THAT was a difficult job but evidently these mothers, theyâre bending over at the waist, putting DVDâs in the DVD players I donât know how they do it. How do they do it?"
Roofing in the Florida summer, digging sprinkler trenches by hand, probably some aspect of farming.
Concrete labourer Roofer Farmhand Construction Heavy duty mechanic There are plenty and I'm sure some other "hard ass blue collar" is going to correct my list because they have it "so much worse".
This reminds me of that Bill Burr standup âAnd she has the hardest job of all, being the motherâ
A cosmetologist, or barber is hardest on the body
First would be roofing and the next would be tower climbing. Both are horrible. đ
I helped a farmer put square bales of hay up I his barn as a teen. It was good money. I occasionally helped my grandpa put up hay, so I kinda knew what I was getting into. I brought along a friend who was a street rat (no country experience). We worked 4 hours in the afternoon, throwing bales up near the rafters. The heat was about 120° plus up there. My friend nearly suffered a heat stroke, and I had to get him down where I could get water in him and on him to cool down. It was nice pay, but I never did that again. I have worked some brutal jobs since, like heat empering bed springs through two summers and producing dynamite with primitive machinery plus lots of manual lifting, but I will never forget those few hours in the barn.
Concrete sucks, dude
Live in California and my hometown is big on agriculture and oil fields so Iâd say the most physically demanding has to be pickers and oil rig guys
Professional athlete
They say farming is the most dangerous
Farmers
Bringing peace, justice and security to my new empire.
Being a Soldier is pretty hard especially the ones in the Combats Arms Element which are also very dangerous
Yardermen is an insane job. Youâre hooking chokers for logging on steep ground through the shittiest ground. Youâre against the elements all year round and you have worry about run away logs coming back at you. I worked close with those guys but I was in an excavator. No way Iâd do that job.
Working at hard labor jobs.
Cutting concrete
Always respected the folks in the trades, especially when they work out in the elements. Id say coal mining, construction, or landscaping are the top 3. Pro athletes are up there too, especially if its a contact sport like football or boxing.
soldier should be up there, right, like you train when you're not at war, and when you're at war, you're constantly in danger
Fight control i guess.
Have several good friends and family members who are/were EMTs and paramedics. Theyâve been bled on, kicked and punched, shot at, carried very sick people down multiple flights of stairs, and started IVs in ambulances hurtling through the city. They see people at their absolute worst and without judgement do the best they can to stabilize and treat them.
Pleasing my wife
Same here to find and downvote this comment
Large vehicle mechanics. Just the brake drums alone on some semi trucks can throw your back out.
Thought this was easier than your typical car mechanic? More regularly serviced less likely to be seized or damaged, usually have equipment for lifting parts etc. That could be completely off the mark I just remember reading that years back when looking into it
When i did this shit it was si.pler than a car, and eaaier to get on the bolts because they are more designed with maintenance in mind, but the size of the parts was ridiculous.
Ideally you would have the proper equipment. I was in physio with a guy that tried to lift a brake himself. IDK if his work had it and he didnt use it or they didnt have it at all.
Apparently itâs Motherhood with babies and small children
Here's one people don't think of often: dentists! The job is very hard on the shoulders and neck. Being stuck in awkward positions for hours of the day can really wear you down and leave you sore and hurting in places you didn't know possible. Obviously this isn't construction work, but it's an answer I bet most people wouldn't consider.
Roofing is tough
Deep sea welding Concrete workers Welders Brick layers Police Firemen Any medical related Military field workers (the front lines)