I work, you jerk.

[hamster mk 4]

I used to be a dock worker with a Computer Science Degree just after the dot com burst. A crew of 3-5 guys and I would unload and sort those 8 wheel trailers the semis haul arround. Now I have a programming job and would no go back. Doing manual labor for a living has taught me to enjoy a not standing on concrete for 8 hours a day. A luxury far too many of us take for granted.

 

[A BigCup of Tea]

i work with children who have a range of disabilities and its very physical and emotional work, it is very hard work but its very fullfilling and i love it, so yes i do work and i work bloody hard

 

[Julianking93]

There's more types of hard labour than physical labour.

Many jobs have a very high "emotional labour" component, which means keeping a smile on your dial the whole day regardless of how you might be feeling. Call-centre work is particularly gruelling in this aspect..

Indeed. This was very similar to my last job. That's why I got the fuck out.

Having to sit there and take verbal abuse from customers all the while smiling and just accepting whatever they have to say to me drained me emotionally.

I don't like being someone's *****, so I quit and got am getting a job where I won't have to deal with that as much.

Though, I've had a job since I was 11, so I do know what it's like after a hard day's work even though I enjoyed it everyday.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

Worked in a family business from when i was just a wee kid, it was a series of market stalls in several towns and cities.
Pretty hard work too, lugging big metal bars around at 4am to set up, shifting crates of produce about. Then after all that i had to spend a good 12-15 hours serving the village plebs on a till which was basically a metal box and a calculator.
After that i'd have to pack up the gear back into the vans and go back to the warehouse to store all the unsold gear.

From 3am to 9pm was good and hard work, i found it made me a lot more mature than i would've been without it. Taught me to respect and take care of money too.

 

[swolf]

Well, my job is surprisingly physically demanding (and painful due to some lingering injuries that refuse to heal despite physical rehab..and I'm only 23). By the way, I'm a baker/finisher that makes all the donuts, bagels, pastries, etc for 3 stores. Though I also do mental work with performing magic on the side, trying to save $ by figuring the tricks out, memorizing countless steps and then putting them together in a routine that lasts 30-45 minutes that has to be performed flawlessly while keeping up banter. I know it's prob not what most would consider as mental work but whatever, also taking care of the wife and daughter.

 

[Savage_Girl]

I'm 19 and I had some kind of job since I was 14. All of my jobs have been physical labor. I've been a waitress, bagger/cashier, and techie (technical theater). Out of all of them, I like being techie the best, physical and mental labor. I did debate all through high school, so I'm pretty familiar with mental work as well. Honestly a combo of both types of labor is best for most. I'm going to uni for a BFA in ceramics or sculpture so I can have both in work.

Growing up I knew ton of kids who never worked, or rarely worked through high school/college. I'm a working class kid from an upper-middle class town in the mid-west, so it kinda sucked. Lots of kids from my high school treated people who had to work service jobs like crap. So I'm all for making working a customer service job as graduation requirement.

To the dude who started this topic read Shop class as Soulcraft. It's about the value of physical labor, and why there has been a resurgences of interest in manual labor.

 

[nick n stuff]

i'm 17 and i work 4 days a week in a bakery (i have college as well so 4 days isn't as little as it seems). pretty physical, 20kg flour sacks to be shifted and i spend all the time on my feet. it's done me some good cos before i was a lazy slob with no independence...3 years later i'm ready for university and living alone...and free cake. s'all good

 

[chronobreak]

I used to do landscaping and some shipping/receiving work, now I just work at a desk for the most part. Physical labor is very important to me, I'm always outside mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, planting, and all that junk, just for that sense of physical accomplishment. It's a good thing, I know way too many guys who are real soft, who punked out on helping me move the last time and probably couldn't even install an air conditioner without a hand, it's crazy.

 

[steamweedlegoblin]

I've worked a physically demanding job for close to five years now. I'm lucky in that my job doesn't carry a lot of emotional stress, like many other people have mentioned. Although, I have worked emotionally demanding jobs in the past. I've also been to college, but I haven't graduated yet because I'm taking a break from my studies for a short while.

I've always preferred physical jobs to more emotionally and mentally stressful jobs. I've been in retail and I know what it's like to be harassed by customers over and over and not be able to stand up for yourself. I can't handle it. That kind of situation is harder for me than any of the physical work that I do every day.

 

[QuickDEMOL1SHER]

You work, I jerk? Sounds good to me! Oh wait.........

 

[Samuel Cook]

I work with for my dad, in a labour intensive job. Everybody seems to think that I have it easy being the boss' son, but I can say without any doubt, it's a lot fucking harder. I have to work to the reputation of my family, which has a history of hard workers, and everyone on the river knows my dad and grandad. I pretty much do a 6 day week and would do more if needed, and I can drive most machinery better than people twice my age who have done it for longer. My dad has said on more than one occasion that I'm the hardest working employee, and it's only experience that the others have on me.

Would I say I'm a hard worker? Maybe. Would I say I'm still a boy that wants to impress his dad? Definitely baby.

EDIT: Forgot to say what I actually did, Marine-based civil engineering, so a lot of heavy lifting, driving machinery like cranes, tugs etc. Welding and so on. I'm not one to beat my own bush but I love being around a table of people who go to university, or have some casual/common job and then get asked what I do.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I don't work for money while at university (I work to earn a degree to get better paying work when I leave)

But for some examples, I came home for Christmas last year and working solidly through, including a shift on Christmas Eve and a late shift on Boxing Day preparing for the New Year rush (I was temping, stuffing letters and running automail machines for an executive mail firm) It's very physical work.

Before I went to university I worked from the age of 16-18 stacking shelves every weekend after having been at school for a week (not working, it was boarding school so I couldn't have an evening job). I stacked shelves, I earned money, and I became one of the top employees at my pay grade (I was outright told this by one of my line managers) and I was proud to have achieved that.

This summer I am going to have three jobs. Monday to Friday 7-3 I'm working at the executive mail company, Monday to Thursday 5-9:30 I'm working at the catering department of the UEA, Friday 6:30-10:30 I'm working back at Waitrose stacking shelves and every fourth Sunday I'm going to be working 8-4 at the UEA, and if I can get more Sundays I will.

I work bloody hard for my money. Having none of it while at uni has really made me appreciate working hard, and not feeling entitled to owning things.

 

[ottenni]

Currently i am a factory worker. I think that qualifies as physical labour. In fact nearly everyone my age in my area works a physical job. There really aren't any other jobs around. Also physical labour is surprisingly easy. Especially once you realize you need to eat more and get more sleep.

 

[Cari-des]

I'm a student working at an internship right now. I feel like I was working much harder as a student than I am at my job because of all of the mental stress you got from things like finals, papers, assignments, etc. This makes me kind of depressed; that I'll probably never work as hard as I have in college...

 

[Nerf Ninja]

It always upsets me to see these threads when the ones that have never done any physical labour seem to think that it's somehow fun or noble to do.

I work retail and have been doing it for over 16 years now, I'm in my mid thirties and because most of my time was spent doing all of the heavy lifting jobs behind scenes, I have painful arthritis in both hands, arms and shoulders. I've managed to cleverly dislocate my knee. Have cut myself seriously several times once across the wrist on various pointy out bits of the warehouses I've worked in, There are other injuries such as the fact that I'm currently in quite a bit of pain as I put my back out recently but you get the gist.

I wanted to be a writer and was actually rather good in my youth, unfortunately I became so tired from doing all this I stopped, and now I regret it with all my heart and can barely string a couple of paragraphs together. Plus, I've forgotten basic grammar.

My advice to anyone that thinks physical labour is something all men should strive for to make them feel more of a man is: Don't.

Get smart and get out of it.

Also, retail is the devil's work sent to break your soul. Next time you're in a shop, look at the staff and remember, at least half of them want to die.

 

[Ham_authority95]

When I'm dedicated and enjoying the work, I usually try my best.

Otherwise, mental or physical labor, I dislike it.

Hopefully the summer job I'm getting will be rewarding to me...

 

[AlphaOmega]

I am unable to walk for large parts of the year, so I can't even do Manuel labor if I wanted.

that said I have worked 32+hours a week for a year between schools, and I have had some kind of job ever since I was 16 for a bout 10h a week next to my education, mostly working in stores and keeping a smile on my face throughout the day.

 

[AndyboyH]

I used to work in a stockroom, hauling around big CRTs, Fridges, Freezers, Cookers, Hobs etc. I used to think it sucked at the time, but we had a decent amount of fun, messing on with trollies having races, smashing up old broken stock, etc. (Kinda like the bit in the 40 year old virgin where they're messing with tube bulbs) but it was definitely hard and tiring. It's also the most exercise I've ever done I think. Try unloading a van at Christmas time while the phone for customer stock is ringing off the hook. It gets old. But there was no worries to take home. You knew the routine, and it was easy to follow. I was there for about a year and a half.

I moved into call center working after I finished Uni. Sometimes it was really rewarding, but it was a hell of a different kind of draining to the 'muscle work' of the past. One guy who's PC had fucked up lost all the pictures of his recently-dead wife. That phonecall will be one of the worst conversations I've ever had in my life, no question. I only lasted 6 months.

After a while, I moved into my current job. This is both the best and the worst. There are long hours. The pay given the pressure and responsibility involved is terrible. There's stress to the point of breaking (I've actually had clinical depression for the last year due to it) but it's arguably the most creative and involving that I've ever done in my 10 years of working. I've been there since 2005.

The key is definitely to find something you love and work to live, rather than live to work. I could get an easier job that probably pays more and doesn't affect my mental state in quite the same way. But it'd be far less rewarding at the same time. And I know that I couldn't work in a job that I don't enjoy.

 

[Aur0ra145]

Yes I work, three jobs infact. I do have alot of physical labor and stuff at one of my jobs while the other two are more intellectual.

Let me say this, on my vacation I went to the desert in west Texas. At this wonderful place we worked our asses off because we wanted a bar on top of a mountain, mind you it was 106* F in the shade out there. But, in the end we had our bar, it took a week to get all the materials up to the top of the mountain, but we got it done, and now we can have margaritas overlooking Mexico.

 

[Evil the White]

I deliver papers. And because we're understaffed for delivery boys, it means one of us ends up delivering what three people should be doing. And those papers bags are a lot heavier than they look. Mind, we do get a bit more than we should because of this, so its one of the perks. Balanced by the fact its every damn Sunday morning I have to be up at half five.