What was the physically hardest job you've ever had?

Shirley Martin said:
I picked worms off tobacco plants, pinched their heads off and tossed them to the ground in hot humid weather. Worked in tobacco during barning season. Chopped crops with a weeding hoe. But I didn't know it was hard work. It was just the way things were back then.
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Yuck, I remember those tobacco horn worms; very creepy things and similar to tomato horn worms. Topping and suckering tobacco was also hard work, but when the plants were tall there was a bit of shade in the field.
 
There was some work involved in walking through snow, including drifts, from one side of a 40-acre plat, where our house was located, to the other, where the river formed the opposite boundary, carrying an axe, when you're practically too young to lift the axe. At one time, we had 21 horses, but they wouldn't break the snow; no, they'd all follow behind as I made my way down to the river to break a large hole in the ice so the horses could drink. At the same time, I don't remember how old I was, but I do remember that I had a hard time swinging the axe; still, there was some pleasure to be had in leading a horde of horses to the river and smashing through the ice with an axe. Going back was easier because the horses would have made a trail. Then they'd keep the path and the hole in the ice clear, going back and forth to drink, but the next time there was a hard freeze at night, someone would have to make the trip with the axe again. Somehow, the horses seemed to know when the ice was going to be too thick for them to break through it because there was seldom a path through the snow.
 
I had mostly desk jobs, but for two years I worked in my sister's warehouse (un-airconditioned) and office (thankfully airconditioned) and for another two years, I did route sales and merchandising for her.

I'd have to load my big van in the morning (hot! already in Florida) and then head out to the 125 stores I serviced. I'd have to unload, push a load of the product into the stores, and set up displays or fill them. I'd be dripping wet with sweat and then I'd have to stand in a deeply-airconditioned store and put the stuff on the racks, cold and clammy.

Then it would be back out into the heat and on to the same thing at the next store. Five days a week, at least 10 hours a day during the tourist season.

Surprisingly, I was healthier those two years than ever before or after. I think that hot-and-cold routine killed off any germs in my body. I know I had muscles back then from lifting all that heavy product.
 
Mary Robi said:
I had mostly desk jobs, but for two years I worked in my sister's warehouse (un-airconditioned) and office (thankfully airconditioned) and for another two years, I did route sales and merchandising for her.

I'd have to load my big van in the morning (hot! already in Florida) and then head out to the 125 stores I serviced. I'd have to unload, push a load of the product into the stores, and set up displays or fill them. I'd be dripping wet with sweat and then I'd have to stand in a deeply-airconditioned store and put the stuff on the racks, cold and clammy.

Then it would be back out into the heat and on to the same thing at the next store. Five days a week, at least 10 hours a day during the tourist season.

Surprisingly, I was healthier those two years than ever before or after. I think that hot-and-cold routine killed off any germs in my body. I know I had muscles back then from lifting all that heavy product.
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I used to service security systems in DC office buildings. I'd run 8+ service calls per day. I would get the worse colds going from the van's a/c, then the hot & humid outdoors, then inside the building's a/c, then out to the truck to get parts, back inside. Lather/Rinse/Repeat.
 
Mine was probably a Summer as a teenager working on a crew painting one-story government office buildings. No high heights, but higher than for, say, a house. Lugging and setting up/taking down heavy scaffolding, large paint buckets, climbing like a monkey, and the rolling, rolling, rolling. We couldn't leave anything out over night so lots of the carrying and erecting going on.

I had a factory job doing light assembly and operating a metal lathe after high school. No car, so biking every morning and evening made it more work overall. So not like welding, furniture moving, or anything harder on the body, but I was pretty tired every day.

So I had it pretty easy for the most part. Most of my jobs were in an office, a data center, or a chemical lab.
 
The second to last job I had before I retired was hands down the hardest physical job I had.

I was working for a defense contractor, as a Quality Engineer. The company had 2 buildings, a main building and a satellite building, there was a parking lot between them. I was responsible for all parts and material that was rejected by inspection or returned for repairs. Parts that were rejected I had to retrieve, login to a computer and store in locked stockroom, that was located in the main building.

The rejected parts, had to be kept under lock and key until they were dispositioned. I had to go between the two buildings and retrieve these parts log them in and put them on a shelf in the cage stock room.

Parts that came in from the field needing repairs were usually brought to me on a skid and left at the gate of the caged stockroom for me to log in and store.

We build parts for the Navy, most were very heavy, up to 70 lbs.

You can imagine the difficulty of the physical activity when you had a skid load of 40 lb parts, that has to be stored on a shelf sometimes requiring a step ladder to carrying them to a top shelf.

I would host meetings with engineering to review the rejected parts, and come up with a disposition. Parts that were out of Tolerance by a couple of thousands of an inch, if it didn't affect form, fit, or function, engineering would have to write a rationale on why these parts could be used as is. it was my responsibility to present this to the government representative to sign off and approve the disposition. Parts that could not be used was my responsibility to make sure they got destroyed.

I did have a cart to carry Parts between buildings but the amount of physical activity every day on this job eventually took its toll on me.

I did this for 2 years, I think this job, is what exacerbated my back issues.
 
I've had a few high pressured jobs , lots of running around and timing has to be perfect as in catering.
It really is chaotic behind the scenes in a restaurant.
But I think the most physically challenging one I ever had was when I spent a season cleaning a holiday complex.
Starting at 3am I had until 8am to clean the club, restaurant, toilets, amusements .
Collectively about the size of a football pitch and the mess !
Never did I ever imagine how messy families on holiday can be.
Disgraceful really.
I couldn't vacuum the carpets until I gone round the whole thing with a dustpan and brush sweeping all the chips, popcorn etc up.
Talk about back -breaking.
And the toilets. Well we won't even go there.
 
Liz Adams said:
I've had a few high pressured jobs , lots of running around and timing has to be perfect as in catering.
It really is chaotic behind the scenes in a restaurant.
But I think the most physically challenging one I ever had was when I spent a season cleaning a holiday complex.
Starting at 3am I had until 8am to clean the club, restaurant, toilets, amusements .
Collectively about the size of a football pitch and the mess !
Never did I ever imagine how messy families on holiday can be.
Disgraceful really.
I couldn't vacuum the carpets until I gone round the whole thing with a dustpan and brush sweeping all the chips, popcorn etc up.
Talk about back -breaking.
And the toilets. Well we won't even go there.
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Wow ! That sounds like the people were really messy and not being very considerate to clean up the messes they made, @Liz Adams. I worked at a Leisure Time Resort Campground for several years, and I really enjoyed that job.
I did many of the same things you mentioned because we had rental camper trailers that people could stay in if they did not have their own RV to bring to the resort.

Mostly, I worked in the kitchen cooking food, but I also did laundry, folded sheets, and remade beds in the camper trailers after we had them cleaned up. We had to clean bathroooms with bleach, and sweep up around the outside of the cafe and general store. Most of the people were friendly and also kept the campers pretty clean, so we didn’t have a lot of really bad things to have to clean up .

What I really liked was that I had an employee discount, so if I wanted to rent a trailer or just have dinner at the campground, it made things more affordable, plus I could use any of the amenities. I loved swimming in the pool and going fishing in the little lake; so overall, it was a great job for me.
 
Liz Adams said:
I've had a few high pressured jobs , lots of running around and timing has to be perfect as in catering.
It really is chaotic behind the scenes in a restaurant.
But I think the most physically challenging one I ever had was when I spent a season cleaning a holiday complex.
Starting at 3am I had until 8am to clean the club, restaurant, toilets, amusements .
Collectively about the size of a football pitch and the mess !
Never did I ever imagine how messy families on holiday can be.
Disgraceful really.
I couldn't vacuum the carpets until I gone round the whole thing with a dustpan and brush sweeping all the chips, popcorn etc up.
Talk about back -breaking.
And the toilets. Well we won't even go there.
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When I was in between jobs, I cleaned rental properties in between tenants. It was a side of humanity I wish I had not seen.
 
Liz Adams said:
I've had a few high pressured jobs , lots of running around and timing has to be perfect as in catering.
It really is chaotic behind the scenes in a restaurant.
But I think the most physically challenging one I ever had was when I spent a season cleaning a holiday complex.
Starting at 3am I had until 8am to clean the club, restaurant, toilets, amusements .
Collectively about the size of a football pitch and the mess !
Never did I ever imagine how messy families on holiday can be.
Disgraceful really.
I couldn't vacuum the carpets until I gone round the whole thing with a dustpan and brush sweeping all the chips, popcorn etc up.
Talk about back -breaking.
And the toilets. Well we won't even go there.
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People can be SO disgusting sometimes! I oftened wonder too, if they do the same kind of things in their own homes. You are so right about public toliets. For one thing, do people not know how to flush a toliet. :sick:😠
 
Krystal Shay said:
People can be SO disgusting sometimes! I oftened wonder too, if they do the same kind of things in their own homes. You are so right about public toliets. For one thing, do people not know how to flush a toliet. :sick:😠
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It's not just flushing , it's actually knowing how to sit on it ( without being too graphic).
I think the only excuse I can come up with is that they were all so drunk they didn't know what they were doing.
Ugh.
 
Liz Adams said:
I know what you mean. I could tell you some stories about that. It really does define belief how some people live.
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I used to manage a 24 hour Hess gas station. We prided ourselves on having spotless bathrooms. It really does increase business. One would think it would be an easy goal to accomplish, since there are no greasy mechanics cleaning up in there. Nope.
 
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