I work, you jerk.

[Spinozaad]

I've been working physical-demanding jobs next to my eduction since I was 14 (although I'm currently without a job, sadly), and I agree that it can be a really good experience. Mostly because a) you get out and around and b) it's basically healthy excercise, and you're getting paid for it.

 

[RanD00M]

I only work in the summer time when there is no school.So I work around 2-3 months a year.But the work that I do is no joke.It's hard,it starts early and it is really satisfying to see that paycheck each week,knowing that you earned it.

 

[Keava]

Untrained physical work is easy. Trained is not.

People in physical fields risk things office brats never have to: health and life. They strain and snap muscles, break bones, and determinately damage their locomotive skills, in addition to the life time of illnesses many will suffer due to poisons materials they handle and decades of breathing in hazardous materials. All of this, and it can STILL be mentally straining. You have no idea how much math and creativity goes into something as simple as, say, adding a room to a house, or building highways.

Actually i do. But at least from my own expierience, the guy who makes plans is not really the guy making the physical work. He makes plans and makes sure the rest does it properly, and this is mental work.
Sure there are those few handymans that do both the planning/thinking and actual work but its usually for much smaller projects. Any construction site or factory work is divided between those that do the manual labor and those who plan how to achive it best way.

As for risks that are bound to many types of physical work, in most cases there are ocunterweigths that come either in form of better salary or earlier retirement.

Also, not all mental work is lounging in the office browsing the the internet when your boss isint looking

 

[Skratt]

There is a lot of psychological mumbo jumbo that goes into the thinking of a person who says you aren't really working if you aren't digging ditches or some other form of hard physical labor. That being said, I think the smaller your paycheck, the harder your work is.

 

[tjarne]

I worked 4 weeks at a hospital. Leading patients here to there and similar tasks. And 1 week as practicant at a museum. That's it, it's kinda hard to get a job without contacts or experience. Also I'm 18 years old.

 

[Matt King]

im 14 and i've had a paper round for a year and a half and i do odd jobs like babysitting and car washing so basicly yeah

 

[Nikajo]

My job isn't physically hard but it is mentally fairly taxing. The repitition is a ***** aswell. As are the occasional 13 hour shifts that I have to pull. I enjoy my job though and give it my all. I get to start night shifts soon, not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not...

 

[Shadowkitty777]

I work as a housekeeper. My job involves a lot of physical work. I have to scrub floors and shower bottoms while I'm on my knees a lot so I wear kneepads. Because of that, strangers that see me in my work attire ask if I'm a volleyball player. I think it would be nice to have a non-physical job someday.
I start college in August. LOL So here is hoping!

 

[afaceforradio]

I work 38 hours a week as a legal secretary, and let me tell you it's just as hard mentally as a builder's job is physically and very rewarding to see that nice fat pay cheque at the end of the month. I wouldn't be out of work I wouldn't know what to do with my day.

 

[matt87_50]

I can't help but get the feeling you're over valuing physical labour as though mental work isn't hard. I don't do any physical work, granted, but I still get that feeling of "ahh, home after a hard day's work" after college, which is shortly followed by "...And you have homework and revision!".

mental work is actually usually more straining than physical labor, some of my fellow programmers at work actualy said they saw a study that suggested the ideal work day should be 6 hours, because the original 8 to 9 hour work day was based around physical work that was less on the mental side.

though it may have been programmers just finding yet another thing to complain about...


case in point:

when I was at uni I had no trouble staying up all hours, i was already good at programming so I didn't really find the course all that taxing. I then started doing night fill at the local kmart equivalent right after uni for 5 hrs. I would be at uni at 9am, and wouldn't get home until 11 to 12pm after night fill.

my point being that after I finished uni, and ditched night fill for a 9 to 5 programming job, I find my self MUCH more drained after each day and at the end of the week than when I was doing 9 to 11 with uni + physical labor... some of that may be down to not getting the exercise I was getting free from doing my night fill job (seriously, its great!), and thus I feel drained due to being out of shape. but they might still be onto something...

 

[Marter]

I used to have a babysitting job, but that only lasted about a year, as the kids grew too old.

I'll be getting a job this summer, and I hope to keep it into the new year.

 

[Sennz0r]

I worked at a garden centre for about a year and a half before I went to uni. It was all physical labour and helping customers, the latter of which wasn't even that bad because people that frequented the centre were usually quite kind. Of course there are some jackasses between them but it didn't put me off my job that much.

When I went to uni I started tending bar voluntarily. Every faculty at that university had their own bar that was managed by students. Cheap alcohol and lots of fun. The downside of it was that a lot of people were being pretty rude, especially when the place was packed. They'd shout their order at you when you were busy fixing someone else's order, then had the audacity to call on me when I still didn't have their's done. It pissed me off especially because I wasn't being paid to get them their drinks. I was in fact a student just like them, and they knew it, or should have known it.

Upside though: Students get VERY drunk, and one of our bartenders once got a 48 euro tip because the guy who ordered forgot he was supposed to get change

 

[historybuff]

Just because work isn't overly physical doesn't mean it's not work. When I was sixteen, I held a job for two and a half years working in a computer tech department. Let me tell you that nothing makes you want to kill yourself more than doing phone support.

But I've also done physical labor--we have property with a lot of trees, it's a lot of maintenance. And I've worked at Wal-mart, which is like a mix between physical labor (because I was back in the warehouse quite often) and soulcrushing despair.

While I do value a job where I can just let my mind sit back and let my body work--managing to land that sort of job that will actually pay the bills is sort of not always doable.

As far as young people having jobs--most definitely. I held my first job for over two years. I'm in college now--and most of my peers have never held full-time work, while I have five full and part time jobs that I've had in the last 8 years to pull experience from. It's good self-discipline and it helps you manage money. I paid for my first car myself and I always paid for my own insurance.

 

[JEBWrench]

And I've worked at Wal-mart, which is like a mix between physical labor (because I was back in the warehouse quite often) and soulcrushing despair.

Somewhat like working at McDonald's.

A job wherein you get constant disdain from customers, and then have to pretend that they're not morons when they ask for their drive-through order "To go".

 

[TheDoctor455]

I can't help but get the feeling you're over valuing physical labour as though mental work isn't hard. I don't do any physical work, granted, but I still get that feeling of "ahh, home after a hard day's work" after college, which is shortly followed by "...And you have homework and revision!".

Same here.
Only... I tend to curse more than that.

 

[brodie21]

i have a ton of work experience, i am a raft guide, i work at a pizza place, i have worked at a ski shop, an ice rink, and a park.

 

[Ubermetalhed]

Jobs do teach responsibility and do have some good benifits towards social skills and others. It should be good for kids to at least work in one job before they go to college, uni, employment etc.

Oh btw Merry and Pippin are alot older than they look, so they aren't kids by any means let alone around your age.

 

[Arkvoodle]

I want to work.

 

[bobknowsall]

I work in retail. Its very soulcrushing after a while and you have to take all sorts of s**t from people without ever rising to the bait. its a hard slog man.

Yeah, they seem to take "The customer is always right" to heart. It couldn't be further from the truth. The customer is a grumpy, indecisive ignoramus who will waste your time. But you still have to be nice to them.

 

[SHWiMM]

I'm an assassin, and I work relatively hard. Mental and physical exertion abound.
To headshot or not to headshot, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to poison in one's sleep, or a bare bodkin to the gut to shuffle off one's mortal coil.
A honest day's work for me.