Hardest job you ever had

[sniffer66]

"Thirty years, Man and Boy. 'ardest game in the world that is....."

Reading the post about the job at Amazon got me thinking about some of the jobs I've had. What was your worst ?

Mine was about 20 years ago when I was travelling in Oz. I'd hitched on my own from Sydney to Cairns (North-East tip) and was staying at a Backpackers there. A van turned up one morning asking for guys to work on an old container ship in the estuary. Turns out this ship was about 50 years old and they were pumping out the ballast tanks to be used for fuel storage after its refit. They gave 10 of us overalls, a chipping hammer and a miners light and sent us down into the bulkheads. Each space was about the size of 2 coffins with a smal hole through to the next space and pitch dark.

The seawater used for the ballast had formed sludge and rust pockets on the walls and floor and it was our job to clean all these off with the chipping ammer. Every time you hit one it would explode in your face ! You were also lying in about 6 inches of sludge as they hadnt been able to pump it all out.
We did this for 10 hours a day and because we were out on the lash every night we often went to sleep for an hour or so in the sludge, trying to recover

Once a week we took it in turns to go up on deck and shovel oil drums of sand into a rolling furnace to dry it our for sandblasting. I also spent one lovely day slung over the side in a bosuns chair 50 feet above the croc infested water (no safety line !) with a huge angle grinder cutting away lines of paint so the welders could get cutting.

All of the above was in 40 degree c heat and for $10 an hour. We did get a free meat pie for lunch though !

Kids these days don't know they are born

[loz]

That sounds hard.

But still preferable to collecting Winston Churchill's bogeys.

[sniffer66]

Originally Posted by loz

That sounds hard.

But still preferable to collecting Winston Churchill's bogeys.

Derek and Clive ??

The Queen Mothers......

[mrapbp]

Worked on a Moshav in Israel for 3 months. about 15 years ago. Was working around 18 hrs a day and 7 days a week of THE hardest, most constant manual labour I have ever done in my life. All of this in blistering heat and all for 1 pound per hour............

Would probably kill me now

[SyStemDeMoN]

I was a furnace man for 7 years.

That for me was hard graft.

We used to make car parts, usually engines and heads for mercedes, viper, lotus, mclaren and allsorts.

We even mass produced all the Triumph motorbike heads and crankcases.

It was all aluminium, so we were required to fill furnaces, melt the metal, transfer, sample and modify, degass and cast.

None of the ladels were on cranes until we started doing the Dodge Viper V12, which took a lot of ally, so we were carry around these pots of molten ally between 2 people.

To complete one melt could take 10minutes to an hour, depending on how little the particular parts were. So triumph heads were taking an hour to cast, and in that time your sweating salt out onto your clothes.

And all for 7 quid an hour, with 60hr weeks

It did keep me mega fit though, and I was very strong. Often beating the 'carpet carriers' (our word for musculer prats on steroids) at arm wrestling, pushing and lifting.

Now my job as a HGV driver feels like a retirement job.

[Bill Hicks]

I used to wrap elastic bands together that go into Golf balls.
Used to get plenty of sore fingers and it used to make your hands smelly!

[Iccz]

Originally Posted by SyStemDeMoN

Often beating the 'carpet carriers' (our word for musculer prats on steroids) at arm wrestling, pushing and lifting.

Aren't they just as much technique based as they are strength based challenges though?
Either way doesn't sound like a fun job, nor do the others, makes me realise how lucky I've been with my jobs

[Mr Incredible]

Maintaining/refurbing a steam engine on a gold mine in South Africa. 40 degree heat, ash, steamed ash, dry ash, fine ash, coarse ash.

Not many people can lay claim to having changed the piston rings on a steam locomotive! They were huge!

[Urien Rheged]

Worked in a mental hospital whilst I was a student. Sometimes cleaning human excrement off the ceiling, or toilets so blocked the faeces was piled higher than the toilet seat.

[Iccz]

Originally Posted by Mr Incredible

Maintaining/refurbing a steam engine on a gold mine in South Africa. 40 degree heat, ash, steamed ash, dry ash, fine ash, coarse ash.

Not many people can lay claim to having changed the piston rings on a steam locomotive! They were huge!

But it was no problem for you because you're a superhero right?
All in a days work and such

[loz]

Originally Posted by Urien Rheged

Worked in a mental hospital whilst I was a student. Sometimes cleaning human excrement off the ceiling, or toilets so blocked the faeces was piled higher than the toilet seat.

too much detail.

[Decadence]

Grabbing straw bales as they came off the elevator and stacking them neatly in a barn. It was hot, heavy, painful on the hands and you could not slack because by the time you had stacked one bale another one was practically dropping off the elevator! School Summer holiday job, £2.25 an hour from 8AM until 7PM.

[orpheus]

Originally Posted by Urien Rheged

Worked in a mental hospital whilst I was a student. Sometimes cleaning human excrement off the ceiling, or toilets so blocked the faeces was piled higher than the toilet seat.

We have a winner!

[Urien Rheged]

Originally Posted by loz

too much detail.

I had to show what made it a hard job.

[orpheus]

Originally Posted by Decadence

Grabbing straw bales as they came off the elevator and stacking them neatly in a barn. It was hot, heavy, painful on the hands and you could not slack because by the time you had stacked one bale another one was practically dropping off the elevator! School Summer holiday job, £2.25 an hour from 8AM until 7PM.

Sounds like a job I had stacking bottles on to a conveyor belt in a soft drink factory. Do that all day and you learn the meaning of 'mind numbing tedious job'.