# Hardest job you ever had...



## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

Being inherently lazy, I spent the last 30+ years of my career behind a desk, but back in the early days, I had some pretty demanding jobs....

Summers I baled hay...The old square bales, where you walk alongside the trailer, and threw the 100 lb+ bales up on the trailer, or stood on the trailer, and stacked the bales...in mid summer...

But my toughest job was in a plant that made roofing products, dragging roll roofing and bundles of shingles off of conveyors and stacking them on pallets...heavy, fast, physically demanding work...


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## arbitrator (Feb 13, 2012)

*While the vast majority of my jobs have been considered to be "cushy," the hardest task I ever had to perform was "to fire" a department head, who I was somewhat friendly with, as I had been ordered to do so by my boss, the President & GM, who did not personally wish to do it face to face as he should have!

Personally, I thought that the guy being fired was an OK Joe, but after we perused his massive insubstantiated expense records over the course of several years going backward, well let's just say that it raised many eyebrows, and that his termination was more than justified! *
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

arbitrator said:


> *While the vast majority of my jobs have been considered to be "cushy," the hardest task I ever had to perform was "to fire" a department head, who I was somewhat friendly with, as I had been ordered to do so by my boss, the President & GM, who did not personally wish to do it face to face as he should have!
> 
> Personally, I thought that the guy being fired was an OK Joe, but after we perused his massive insubstantiated expense records over the course of several years going backward, well let's just say that it raised many eyebrows, and that his termination was more than justified! *
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


They always shove off the $hit jobs....The company I worked for shut down an engineering facility and fired 30 engineers in one day.....These guys had 15-30 years with the company.....

They walked into a cubicle where they met a female 20 year old H.R. generalist, who gave them the news.....

I am glad I spent my last 10 years in a working situation where I could quit on a moments notice, and leave THEM in the bind, not myself....I hate this word, but being in demand is *empowering*....


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## richardsharpe (Jul 8, 2014)

Good evening
Jobs can be tough in a variety of ways.

As a graduate student I had to maintain a large mechanical system (5X 100-300hp compressors and lots of other stuff), working alone night shifts (16-20 hours/ day 7/week for a month at a time). Very dangerous hardware, had two near fatalities when things exploded, or near asphyxiation. (safety rules were different back then - its been long shutdown now)

Right now I sit in an office, but if I don't play politics correctly people I've known for many years will lose their jobs. My job is completely safe. 

I actually preferred the physical hardship / risk to worrying that my incompetence would harm others.


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## jorgegene (May 26, 2012)

not a 'tough' job in that sense, but brutal.

in high school during summertime i worked on the assembly line at the dole pineapple cannery.
12 hours a day, 6 days a week. get up at 4:30 a.m., catch the bus to the other side of town, walk in the dark through
a real bad neighborhood, punch the clock, 1/2 hr. for lunch (which took 10 minutes just to get to your locker).

punch out at 6:30, get home at about 8:00 p.m., eat real quick, go to bed at about 9:00 to get up at 4:30 a.m. and repeat 6 days a week.

sunday, you are too tired to do anything. 

mom made me quit near the end of summer, but i almost got my 3 months in anyway. those were the days......NOT!


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## Runs like Dog (Feb 25, 2011)

I grew up with labor intensive jobs. They're kind of second nature. Some were worse than others based on environment like winter or toxic chemicals or having to wear all sorts of uncomfortable protective gear.


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## farsidejunky (Mar 19, 2014)

Managing an Army Recruiting Station.

Sometimes you can do everything right and still fail.


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## MarriedDude (Jun 21, 2014)

I grew up in a family of contractors -heavy industrial/bridges/power gen/petro-chem/automotive/pulp&paper.....all hard, dusty, loud, dangerous. 

Escaped to the Army for 6 years -19D & 55D -injured then retired (VA pension)

spent another 3 years as a private soldier -all over Africa & south America -dangerous -soul crushing -world view altering -faith in humanity destroying

BUT....I would say -the hardest job I ever had...was bailing hay when i would visit aunt & uncle in kansas. My back aches just remembering it.


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## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

MarriedDude said:


> I grew up in a family of contractors -heavy industrial/bridges/power gen/petro-chem/automotive/pulp&paper.....all hard, dusty, loud, dangerous.
> 
> Escaped to the Army for 6 years -19D & 55D -injured then retired (VA pension)
> 
> ...


Stacking it in the hay loft was the worst....Just too hot...

There was a creek bottom that had a lot of moisture in the ground...The bales were so heavy, they would break the bailing twine trying to pick then up...

And once in a while they would bale a copperhead...Pick up a bale and a foot of snake, head and all would be lashing around...

Really good job...:frown2:


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## bandit.45 (Feb 8, 2012)

Cowboying. Far and away. It's fun in its own way... but man it is all long days, hard-ass work, very little pay, and dangerous as fvck. I would never go back to it.


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## jb02157 (Apr 16, 2014)

The hardest job I ever had is this one. At the surface it's looks like a cushy desk job, but it's the highest stress job I've ever had. It's nowhere near safe, could get fired at any moment for any silly reason they come up with no matter your level of performance. Last year my boss was fired out of the blue for absolutely no reason. Needless to say I've been looking for something else for a long time. Not sure how much longer I can handle the stress.


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## MarriedDude (Jun 21, 2014)

Woodchuck said:


> Stacking it in the hay loft was the worst....Just too hot...
> 
> There was a creek bottom that had a lot of moisture in the ground...The bales were so heavy, they would break the bailing twine trying to pick then up...
> 
> ...


oh yes...the snakes...the damn snakes

corn snakes so terrifying when i was a kid. shaped my view that ALL snakes must die...immediately upon detection


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## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

For my last 20 years I was essentially an itinerant inventor...

I got a project, a budget and a timeline...

I invented the device, farmed it out to contractors, straw bossed the build, worked with the techs to program the controllers, trained the operators, and wrote the manuals...

One boss spent $50,000 to prove a machine I designed was causing issues with the assembled product....A process control expert came in, did measurements and statistical studies....Had a machine shop produce 100 "perfect" parts....Selected 100 random parts off my machine.. and did a statistical study of the functionality of the 200 completed assemblies.....

A meeting was called to discuss the results.....I sat in the hot seat and grinned...The pure math showed that the 100 random parts off my machine were a teeeeeny bit better than the "perfect" parts, but due to sample size, the difference was not statisticly significant....

You can bet, no matter how little the difference had been, if it was in favor of the "perfect" parts, I would have never heard the end of it.....

My parts performed better because the functional feature acted as a pivot point, and my machine roller burnished the part smooth, leaving a mirror finish, that a machine shop grinder could not duplicate.....


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## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

MarriedDude said:


> oh yes...the snakes...the damn snakes
> 
> corn snakes so terrifying when i was a kid. shaped my view that ALL snakes must die...immediately upon detection


Only a person who has done it would know about those damned snakes.....:smile2::surprise:


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## bandit.45 (Feb 8, 2012)

MarriedDude said:


> oh yes...the snakes...the damn snakes
> 
> corn snakes so terrifying when i was a kid. shaped my view that ALL snakes must die...immediately upon detection


I used to keep snakes as pets. I had a corn snake, king snakes, gopher snakes and a rosy boa at various times. They don't bother me at all...



Now spiders?


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## aw9d (Feb 17, 2010)

I've always worked IT jobs so physical work isn't hard at all. But after the end of the day my brain is toast.


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## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

aw9d said:


> I've always worked IT jobs so physical work isn't hard at all. But after the end of the day my brain is toast.


Focus is a brain burner...Operating a solid modeling system required intense concentration....Otherwise you forget what you were going to do with one component while you were modeling another....I was lucky in that I could totally forget the days work while I was walking to my car...Started every morning fresh...


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## john117 (May 20, 2013)

I've had it cushy for ever...

Interned with my father in politics in the old country - very people oriented.

Then RA (research assistant) thanks to a generous research grant by a USA government agency to research computational linguistics and knowledge representation by computers. Cutting edge sh!t.

Then a decade of mundane work at a corporation doing knowledge engineering. 

Then got bored and went back to get my PhD on company fellowship, working part time and playing TA (teaching assistant). Grueling work.

After I finished I came back and got more into consumer decision analysis and user experience. For the last five years I am the team leader of the User Experience lab.

Worst job? Probably being a TA. A lot of hours and kids complaining...


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## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

I did a project for a manufacturer of outdoor gas engine tools and equipment...chain saws, etc...They wanted to be able to mount 40 products at once, saws, weed eaters, edgers, etc...
The stand would cycle the units through WOT to idle, check max rpm, engine temp, etc. for days on end...and record all the data....

I said I would do the hardware, but did not want to do the fuel system, or handle the exhaust gas....They agreed, and a few weeks later I had my part done. I insisted on a full floor pan with liquid sensors, overhead fire extinguishers, and fire alarms....They opted to do without...

The first day they ran, they sent the operator to the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning...Two weeks later, they tried to run it over the week end un attended...I drove up Monday to find the entire stand, and back of the building burned...

For two weeks, people from the insurance company, EPA, OSHA, and corporate prowled the plant, interviewing everyone that had been involved with the project...EXCEPT ME....

Day one, they agreed my portion of the project had nothing to do with the fire....One plant superintendent was fired (for refusing the fire alarm and extinguishers)....


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## richie33 (Jul 20, 2012)

Marriage


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## P51Geo1980 (Sep 25, 2013)

Woodchuck said:


> Being inherently lazy, I spent the last 30+ years of my career behind a desk, but back in the early days, I had some pretty demanding jobs....
> 
> Summers I baled hay...The old square bales, where you walk alongside the trailer, and threw the 100 lb+ bales up on the trailer, or stood on the trailer, and stacked the bales...in mid summer...
> 
> But my toughest job was in a plant that made roofing products, dragging roll roofing and bundles of shingles off of conveyors and stacking them on pallets...heavy, fast, physically demanding work...


I'm an emergency department nurse, it's a demanding job but I don't consider it hard because I love it!

My previous career was a mortgage auditor. I made half of what I make now (I live in California - nurses here start at low six figures); I was salaried so no overtime; I had to go in on some weekends; my manager was an *******; and it was just boring as all hell. That was my hardest job.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Woodchuck (Nov 1, 2012)

P51Geo1980 said:


> I'm an emergency department nurse, it's a demanding job but I don't consider it hard because I love it!
> 
> My previous career was a mortgage auditor. I made half of what I make now (I live in California - nurses here start at low six figures); I was salaried so no overtime; I had to go in on some weekends; my manager was an *******; and it was just boring as all hell. That was my hardest job.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


I took a job in Memphis for a company that built steel utility poles...The job consisted of pulling up a template, and plugging in components....Boring

I caught the H.R. manager going to lunch on day two and resigned...I told her the job was a book keeper job, and I was a cowboy...Landed a GOOD job a couple of weeks later designing miniature submarines....A real cowboy job....


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## Runs like Dog (Feb 25, 2011)

I did a turn as a civilian liaison to a subdepartment of the DoD. Pretty much every single day was a knife fight with jerks and a-holes.


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## tech-novelist (May 15, 2014)

Working for a psychopathic boss who hated me and interfered with my actual supervisor's evaluation of me, even though I pulled their chestnuts out of the fire.
I quit as soon as I got another job.


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## Idyit (Mar 5, 2013)

Two stand out for me. The first was when I was 18-19 years old as a land surveyor in Florida. Boss was a maniac. We did new developments. Cutting line through thick vegetation, mucking through swamp, dodging snakes and gators, was not fun. And it get a little hot and humid for 8-10 hours a day during these summer jobs. When sites were cleared we usually worked in just shorts and boots. Dust would cover us from head to toe by 9am so no sunscreen needed. Didn't miss leaving that opportunity.

The second was in my 40s as a director at a Fortune 500 company. Hated the politics, sniping, butt covering, word smithing, insane schedules, 5+ days a week travel, constant inane conference calls, ...I resigned and now work for myself.

My boss is an a$$ but he does get things done.

~ Passio


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## Red Sonja (Sep 8, 2012)

Short term contract work performing what was called “hot fixes” on the flight control computers of F-16 aircraft, at Edwards AFB, in the summer time while living in the BOQ. This was many years ago and I took the contract, fixing every F-16 in the fleet, because I was paid BIG BUCKS (was a DOD emergency at the time). Hot, dirty, long hours and far away from home.

Runner up was harvesting tobacco when I was 15.


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## optimalprimus (Feb 4, 2015)

I likewise have spent most of my career behind a desk, but two jobs stick out.

One was the most physically demanding, which was lumping defective frozen produce into giant skips to be taken to landfill.

Not only was this a horrific way of disposing of things that were compostable, but it was utterly back breaking. We filled 3 16 tonne containers a day and there was only a lunch half hour and 2 5 min breaks in a whole day.

However my least favourite job was working in our most famous fast food restaurant. It was non-stop, some customers were horrid creatures and because you were serving them they lorded it over you. Some managers were little better although the other workers were cool. To top it all off you absolutely reeked of grease semi permanently.

All of this for below minimum wage. (To be fair it was just pre minimum wage in the UK)


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## Amplexor (Feb 13, 2008)

TAM moderator. I have to be here.... well whenever I feel like it. I can only take time off... any time I want, even months on end. I can wield my ban hammer with impunity and strike terror into the hearts of the plebeian scum that cower at my avatar. I am an almighty Internet god, and it totally sucks.


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## Wolf1974 (Feb 19, 2014)

When I was head of the domestic violence unit.

This was also my most rewarding position ever to date


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## Average Joe (Sep 2, 2015)

For career advice and balancing stress, I tell my teen kids: "Know what your limits are, and aim for something _just below_ that."

I shoveled and bagged fertilizer during college breaks. But I knew it was just a stopover, almost like an anthropological study, so I had a much better spirit than the ex-cons I worked with ... got me through that sh!t.


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## RandomDude (Dec 18, 2010)

Commission-based sales, hands down. The targets and expectations, the discipline required to maintain a positive mentality in the face of failure and rejection, and the resilience required to persist despite the stress of possibly coming home with nothing after a long day's work.

Excellent training in preparation for success in entrepreneurship however.


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## Amplexor (Feb 13, 2008)

RandomDude said:


> Commission-based sales, hands down. The targets and expectations, the discipline required to maintain a positive mentality in the face of failure and rejection, and the resilience required to persist despite the stress of possibly coming home with nothing after a long day's work.


Been one going on 30 years now. My first sales job in the IT field was strictly commission with a draw account. Today, 60 - 70% of my revenue comes from commissions or bonuses. It can be feast or famine. As far as rejection goes, really a none factor for me after so many years. I don't know if it is because I'm thick skinned or just thick headed. But the reward side is something else. There's a definite Adrenalin rush, when you close a big deal with a fat commission. 

As far as my real toughest job? Detasseling corn in my early teens. Man does that job suck!!!


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## DayOne (Sep 19, 2014)

Working in a morgue. Most of the DB's didn't bother me too much, even up close and personal, removing personal effects (jewellery, etc).

But miscarried foetuses, in tupperware containers was rough.


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## UMP (Dec 23, 2014)

I worked as a co-pilot on a Lockheed JetStar. My captain was a full blown alcoholic. He hired me because I was 23 years old, so he figured I would not rat him out.
He would make final approaches on interstate highways.
Took off from LaGuardia at night during a thunderstorm with an engine out.
That kind of shiit day in and day out.

Quit after 3 months and DID rat him out.

Nothing like taking off not knowing if you're going to die today or not.


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## Average Joe (Sep 2, 2015)

Woodchuck said:


> Summers I baled hay...The old square bales, where you walk alongside the trailer, and threw the 100 lb+ bales up on the trailer, or stood on the trailer, and stacked the bales...in mid summer...


I have a delivery to my farm on Saturday for our 2 horses, so w and I will be stacking bales in the barn in the cool evening as the sun sets, with ample music and beer. And that usually leads to a very fun and frisky night. Much much better than a mid-summer delivery. Can't wait!


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## john117 (May 20, 2013)

Any takeoff or landing from Laguardia ranks up there as a bad one even as a passenger .


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## UMP (Dec 23, 2014)

john117 said:


> Any takeoff or landing from Laguardia ranks up there as a bad one even as a passenger .


Adding to the fun, the CEO of the company staggers out of his limo drunk out of his mind. I help him onto the couch. I go and try to start the engines. Midway through this process Mr. CEO calls me to the cabin to ........."tuck me in." WTF !!

Start #1 start #2 start #3 start #4, all the lights go off in the plane and the engine will not start. Try again, same thing. "Mr. Captain, what are we going to do?" "We'll take off anyway and try to start it at altitude. "great."
He had no idea we almost crashed on takeoff. Full rudder and full aileron to compensate for the lost engine, still could not keep it straight. 

Unbelievable.


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## Shoto1984 (Apr 11, 2009)

Worked summers through high school and college pumping concrete. You get to drag and lift a few hundred feet of 4 inch rubber hose filled with concrete around construction sites in the sun. If you're filling a tie beam you get to walk on 8 inch forms while holding said hose sometime two or three stories high. Sometimes those tie beams are set at the pitch of the roof.... If anything goes wrong you'd better fix it fast as a truck full of concrete (mud) has a limited shelf life and everyone's on the clock. Fun!


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## RandomDude (Dec 18, 2010)

Amplexor said:


> Been one going on 30 years now. My first sales job in the IT field was strictly commission with a draw account. Today, 60 - 70% of my revenue comes from commissions or bonuses. It can be feast or famine. As far as rejection goes, really a none factor for me after so many years. I don't know if it is because I'm thick skinned or just thick headed. But the reward side is something else. There's a definite Adrenalin rush, when you close a big deal with a fat commission.


It's a great skill to have though, like, since delegating operations management most of my work is closing B2B deals for events and functions. I wouldn't be successful today if I never did sales


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## chillymorn (Aug 11, 2010)

labor for a bricklaying crew, labor for a roofing crew,


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