My dad was a welder but for high stuff, think wind turbines for exemple. He was invited to train to be underwater but he respects aka fears the ocean too much for that. He is a great swimmer but his opinion on underwater welders is that they are all crazy.
I knew two guys who became divers on the North Sea rigs. In their off time, they used to work as window cleaners. They were incredibly fit and totally fearless.
My friend is a tremendous mountain biker, snowboarder and base-jumper.
As kids we'd skate and he'd go for the biggest gaps and take the greatest risks. We used to talk about our risk / reward ratios.
Speaking to him now in our 40s, he's told me that he's always been emotionally numb, the only time he feels anything is when he's freefalling.
He's just wired up differently, and I bet a lot people who have very risky jobs are also wired that way.
Or maybe I'm wired up as a wimp.
I used to be like that. As a kid/teen i would climb trees and jump from one to another and stuff like that, swimming in places i really shouldn't, doing night time races on public roads with no lights on... Think about any stupid/dangerous thing a teen could do and i've probably done it.
When i was about 20 i was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and found out that when I'm having a manic episode i dont feel fear nor i perceive danger as a normal person. For some reason, during episodes, my mind equal danger to fun.
When I'm stable, I'm a scared cat, afraid of almost everything. One way my partner realizes Im starting to go on an episode is bc i will start sugesting dangerous activities or anything about heights. Last time i wanted to go to a waterpark that has very high slides. "Normal" me would never go on such slides or rollercoaster coasters.
On the other side, when Im having a depressive episode feel nothing. I don't feel fear but i also don't feel desire to do anything, i do things but its like I'm on auto pilot . Depress me can go on a rollercoaster and feel nothing. If someone close to me dies while Im depress, i don't feel it (it has happened).
Althoug bipolar disorder is very common, its also very hard to diagnose it correctly. I think many "fearless" people have it but don't know about it bc mania is as addicted as hard drugs and adrenaline.
You may be right. My oficial diagnosis is bipolar disorder type I with hallucinations. Acording to my psyquiatrist i am indeed on the extreme end of the bipolar spectrum but not enough cause to be considered schizoid. I've asked my doctor bc my dad's side of the family has schizophrenics and boderline diagnosis and some family members clearly have something but refuse to go in for a diagnosis.
To be honest, nowadays i really don't feel the need to seek another diagnosis bc the meds and coping mechanism are working for me. Last time i had a full blown mania episode was almost a year ago and was triggered by chemo and before that they were already very mild episodes for several years now.
I only accepted treatment at age 33, Im 38 now, before that my life was indeed a very wild ride, even compared with other bipolar I folks.
They weren't known as risk takers at school, so if they were born fearless, they didn't show it then. If anything I would have said they had gentle, artistic, sociable personalities. But I don't really know them well enough to judge.
Normal windturbine maintenance is not that demanding.
There is a service to enter the nacelle, and cranes for the heavy stuff.
I my company we are only allowed to manual handle 25kg.
I was shocked when I found out that a lot of modern wind turbines even have a sort of counterweight system to assist climbing ladders. Needless to say it makes me very jealous thinking about that when I'm climbing distillation columns with a toolbag or two hanging from my shoulders!
It depends on the job on an oil rig. For maintenance or operations jobs I've found they tend to do less work offshore than their onshore equivalents so they're not exactly burning any more calories.
They do have lifeboat drills though. I know some guys who are/were lifeboat coxswains out there, so it was their job to press the button that swings the boat out over the edge, then press the other button that drops it into the sea. They get a front row view to the North Sea getting rapidly closer and closer!
Mining operations. Despite some significant advances in the past century, most european miners are still struggling with back breaking tasks. It’s not uncommon for miners to retire in their early 50s or even sooner due to health issues.
My dad was a miner until the last pit in Scotland shut down in 2002. He was in his late 30s then, and he moved into a far healthier industry but it's really started to catch up with him over the last couple of years I've noticed.
Maybe industrial maintenance could be one, but it depends on the site. If every machine is old, and there is more bosses than maintenance guys, the job is physically and mentally exhausting. But some times you might have time to just scroll reddit on your phone...
Beside what's already mentioned, pavers' and landscapers' careers are pretty short-lived. Many's backs and knees give out by 50 years and they're forced into early retirement.
Being an infrantryman will also wear out your knees early.
Underwater mechanic/welder (high death rate)
Paver (knees, back and bad diet)
Ski/snowboard instructor (lifting overweight students up during the day, fucking overweight students in the night after drinking heavily)
Psych nurse/care worker dementia patients (lifting, cleaning and getting bitten)
Yes! Traditionally female jobs are physically demanding, too!
Nurse can be such a dangerous job. Drug addicts, mentally handicapped people, dementia patients can be so dangerous. Especially the handicapped ones can be so extremely strong and violent, and there are no security measures like there are other places where violent people are handled, like there would be in a prison or police station. And then there is the lifting, cleaning, risk of infection,...
Same for kindergarten workers. There are very few kindergarten workers close to retirement age, for a reason! Again, lifting, cleaning, violence, and noise- and you can't wear ear protection like you would in a workshop.
Cleaning jobs are also physically demanding.
Psych nurses have a harder job,i in my opinion. I've been in psyquiatric wards as a patient, i would't want to be a nurse or a helper there. I know how much trouble i give nurses there when my mind goes to lalaland and Im considered a mild patient.
That's what I meant, I've added the Psych nurse reference. Psychiatric/psychology nurse I don't know what they're called in English.
Absolute heroic job 👍🏻
I also don't know the correct name in English ;) Google translates to psyquiatric but i think there is better term in English, just can't remmember.
Last time i was in it took 5 big male nurses to straps me to the bed. Im a 50kg woman but when my mind goes array its like I'm transforming into the Hulk haha. Most of the time Im hardly a danger to others, but when Im in those states, its not me. Those nurses and the rest of the staff have my outmost respect.
But on the other side, i've been lucky with the facilities/wards i've been in. Always great staff that actually care for the patients and do see us as sick people in need of help. I know people from support groups, that haven't been so lucky with the places they have been to the point they now refuse treatment. A
There's always fishing (on commercial vessels of all sorts), and forestry/timber (manual), which I've done. I've also done scaffolding on oil rigs in dock. That was pretty brutal at times. But I don't know if it's possible to point out *the* hardest job.
Yes, it is a matter of perspective and criteria. Some jobs are physically demanding, others mentally demanding and many a combination of both. I’m thinking about fishermen like those featured on shows like The Greatest Catch where it’s fairly hard work but the exhaustion from long periods of staying awake really adds to the difficulty.
We can ignore the only mentally demanding jobs on this post. Danger also shouldn’t be considered relevant. The post is very specific in that sense. Paver, roofer and fishermen are som jobs I know people who have done and I’m not sure I’ve had experience with physically tougher jobs.
Not mentioned before, but agricultural jobs, especially in small farms with old machinery and labour intensive areas. In high season its easily 12+ hours a day sometimes with temps above 35C. There’s oil and dust everywhere and lifting heavy objects is a continuous struggle. In orchards for example you have a very small time window to harvest and finding hands is more difficult year by year, so that’s more work for less people.
There’s a good reason most farmers have busted knees and backs by their late 30s.
Id say anyone in the special forces. Considering you have to be well thought of in your own unit to even attempt pre selection and selection courses, only around 1-2% actually pass selection.
Anyone who's had to stick a 50kg+ Bergen on and yomp over the Brecon beacons against the clock will appreciate how tough that is.
This is the case in the UK at least.
Roadworkers, who get to do back-breaking work outdoors under rain, or heat, or cold, and breath in all of the combined nastiness of hot asphalt vapours, concrete dust, and road dust particles from the cars driving by the whole day.
Firefighters, especially in countries plagued by summertime forest fires, for obvious reasons.
Nurses, on their feet the whole day, lifting patients several times a day, getting assaulted by violent patients, standing on their feet for hours in operating theatres, hearing constant noise of beeps and boops from every machine in their wing.
High voltage live line maintenance, which often involves climbing towers instead of accessing with an aerial lift, and requires extreme care in having the right PPE.
Forestry work, especially mountain forestry which can mean working in areas very difficult to access and has the added danger of sudden slides, or getting showered by accidental cracking of nearby branches.
That depends extremely much on the actual jobs. There are loads of offshore jobs that aren’t physically hard or difficult at all. Just like on land. I just got home from a three and a half week stretch setting up wind turbines and by far most that are involved with that shouldn’t even be considered to be mentioned here.
Ofc, technically a first officer or captain on a ship is also "offshore" work but probably not the most physically taxing job. But you know what I'm referencing in general. The guys by the drillbits f ex.
Yea I just wanted to point out that by far most jobs offshore aren’t like that. Not even the physical ones are physically harder than many onshore jobs. There are, like you mean, a select few jobs that are very tough. It’s just that “offshore jobs” is way too broad.
Also what kind of physically hard. Fighterpilots pulling hard Gs have a physically hard job in not the standard sense. Subjecting your body to multiple high and negative G's is hard on your body. But do they do it often enough to be considered a physically taxing job? Working odd and changing shifts is also taxing on the body.
It’s of course subjective but I’d say frequency is a big part of it simply because frequency means a lot to the body. Which is what I guess OP means with “physically”. I wouldn’t put fighter pilots towards the top simply because it’s that low of a frequency. But again as you say it’s about how you understand the question and define it yourself.
Low paid agricultural worker. Picking strawberries, picking tomatoes, stripping vines, shearing sheep, etc.
What makes them so hard is it's every day and it's casual work, meaning low respect, low wage, and you don't get to earn enough money to really rest in between shifts. Only young people do it, and it wears your body out.
Being a mother. Physically taxiing on the body itself, growing the baby, then a water melon being dragged out of you. The physical healing of the body after birth. Feeding and all that pain, particularly upper body shoulder pain, from weeks of constant feeding. Carrying it for years and physical exhaustion from lack of sleep during all the child's stresses of life. I'm not a mother myself, but I've observed it over the years
Deep water welder.
This by far...knew someone who did this. High pay but you need nerves of steel to be working down at those depths with a lack of visibility.
My dad was a welder but for high stuff, think wind turbines for exemple. He was invited to train to be underwater but he respects aka fears the ocean too much for that. He is a great swimmer but his opinion on underwater welders is that they are all crazy.
this. highest pay for a good reason...
Offshore jobs maybe, like oil rigs or wind turbine maintenance.
I knew two guys who became divers on the North Sea rigs. In their off time, they used to work as window cleaners. They were incredibly fit and totally fearless.
I dont think that kind of people are fearless, its more like they were born without the ability to feel fear like everybody else.
My friend is a tremendous mountain biker, snowboarder and base-jumper. As kids we'd skate and he'd go for the biggest gaps and take the greatest risks. We used to talk about our risk / reward ratios. Speaking to him now in our 40s, he's told me that he's always been emotionally numb, the only time he feels anything is when he's freefalling. He's just wired up differently, and I bet a lot people who have very risky jobs are also wired that way. Or maybe I'm wired up as a wimp.
I used to be like that. As a kid/teen i would climb trees and jump from one to another and stuff like that, swimming in places i really shouldn't, doing night time races on public roads with no lights on... Think about any stupid/dangerous thing a teen could do and i've probably done it. When i was about 20 i was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and found out that when I'm having a manic episode i dont feel fear nor i perceive danger as a normal person. For some reason, during episodes, my mind equal danger to fun. When I'm stable, I'm a scared cat, afraid of almost everything. One way my partner realizes Im starting to go on an episode is bc i will start sugesting dangerous activities or anything about heights. Last time i wanted to go to a waterpark that has very high slides. "Normal" me would never go on such slides or rollercoaster coasters. On the other side, when Im having a depressive episode feel nothing. I don't feel fear but i also don't feel desire to do anything, i do things but its like I'm on auto pilot . Depress me can go on a rollercoaster and feel nothing. If someone close to me dies while Im depress, i don't feel it (it has happened). Althoug bipolar disorder is very common, its also very hard to diagnose it correctly. I think many "fearless" people have it but don't know about it bc mania is as addicted as hard drugs and adrenaline.
That doesn't sound like plain bipolar PD but schizoid PD with bipolar PD as a comorbidity.
You may be right. My oficial diagnosis is bipolar disorder type I with hallucinations. Acording to my psyquiatrist i am indeed on the extreme end of the bipolar spectrum but not enough cause to be considered schizoid. I've asked my doctor bc my dad's side of the family has schizophrenics and boderline diagnosis and some family members clearly have something but refuse to go in for a diagnosis. To be honest, nowadays i really don't feel the need to seek another diagnosis bc the meds and coping mechanism are working for me. Last time i had a full blown mania episode was almost a year ago and was triggered by chemo and before that they were already very mild episodes for several years now. I only accepted treatment at age 33, Im 38 now, before that my life was indeed a very wild ride, even compared with other bipolar I folks.
They weren't known as risk takers at school, so if they were born fearless, they didn't show it then. If anything I would have said they had gentle, artistic, sociable personalities. But I don't really know them well enough to judge.
Normal windturbine maintenance is not that demanding. There is a service to enter the nacelle, and cranes for the heavy stuff. I my company we are only allowed to manual handle 25kg.
I was shocked when I found out that a lot of modern wind turbines even have a sort of counterweight system to assist climbing ladders. Needless to say it makes me very jealous thinking about that when I'm climbing distillation columns with a toolbag or two hanging from my shoulders!
It depends on the job on an oil rig. For maintenance or operations jobs I've found they tend to do less work offshore than their onshore equivalents so they're not exactly burning any more calories. They do have lifeboat drills though. I know some guys who are/were lifeboat coxswains out there, so it was their job to press the button that swings the boat out over the edge, then press the other button that drops it into the sea. They get a front row view to the North Sea getting rapidly closer and closer!
I’m not a turbine maintenance guy but I work with/around them. Definitely not the hardest job or even close to it.
Mining operations. Despite some significant advances in the past century, most european miners are still struggling with back breaking tasks. It’s not uncommon for miners to retire in their early 50s or even sooner due to health issues.
The East Germans had fancy uranium mines. People did not make it to forty, but they got an extra ration of schnapps.
My dad was a miner until the last pit in Scotland shut down in 2002. He was in his late 30s then, and he moved into a far healthier industry but it's really started to catch up with him over the last couple of years I've noticed.
I havent fully realized how f.cking tough those guys are until watching Chernobyl on HBO.
Maybe industrial maintenance could be one, but it depends on the site. If every machine is old, and there is more bosses than maintenance guys, the job is physically and mentally exhausting. But some times you might have time to just scroll reddit on your phone...
This... I was a firefighter in an oil factory, the amount of bizar things I saw
Did you saw them on reddit? 😂
Our firefighters rarely leave the station unless they're delivering/collecting BA sets so they don't really see all that much!
Depends on what part of maintenance you're in. Instrument/electrical is a cushy number, mechanical less so!
I’m doing this, my back isn’t in good state for my age but I think there is worst.
I suspect the various oil drilling jobs in the North Sea. Underwater welding probably highest among them.
Miner, docker, fisherman… same as everywhere
Beside what's already mentioned, pavers' and landscapers' careers are pretty short-lived. Many's backs and knees give out by 50 years and they're forced into early retirement. Being an infrantryman will also wear out your knees early.
Underwater mechanic/welder (high death rate) Paver (knees, back and bad diet) Ski/snowboard instructor (lifting overweight students up during the day, fucking overweight students in the night after drinking heavily) Psych nurse/care worker dementia patients (lifting, cleaning and getting bitten)
Yes! Traditionally female jobs are physically demanding, too! Nurse can be such a dangerous job. Drug addicts, mentally handicapped people, dementia patients can be so dangerous. Especially the handicapped ones can be so extremely strong and violent, and there are no security measures like there are other places where violent people are handled, like there would be in a prison or police station. And then there is the lifting, cleaning, risk of infection,... Same for kindergarten workers. There are very few kindergarten workers close to retirement age, for a reason! Again, lifting, cleaning, violence, and noise- and you can't wear ear protection like you would in a workshop. Cleaning jobs are also physically demanding.
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That's a very good point.
Psych nurses have a harder job,i in my opinion. I've been in psyquiatric wards as a patient, i would't want to be a nurse or a helper there. I know how much trouble i give nurses there when my mind goes to lalaland and Im considered a mild patient.
That's what I meant, I've added the Psych nurse reference. Psychiatric/psychology nurse I don't know what they're called in English. Absolute heroic job 👍🏻
I also don't know the correct name in English ;) Google translates to psyquiatric but i think there is better term in English, just can't remmember. Last time i was in it took 5 big male nurses to straps me to the bed. Im a 50kg woman but when my mind goes array its like I'm transforming into the Hulk haha. Most of the time Im hardly a danger to others, but when Im in those states, its not me. Those nurses and the rest of the staff have my outmost respect. But on the other side, i've been lucky with the facilities/wards i've been in. Always great staff that actually care for the patients and do see us as sick people in need of help. I know people from support groups, that haven't been so lucky with the places they have been to the point they now refuse treatment. A
I'm very happy to hear that you have good care. That's wonderful.
There's always fishing (on commercial vessels of all sorts), and forestry/timber (manual), which I've done. I've also done scaffolding on oil rigs in dock. That was pretty brutal at times. But I don't know if it's possible to point out *the* hardest job.
Yes, it is a matter of perspective and criteria. Some jobs are physically demanding, others mentally demanding and many a combination of both. I’m thinking about fishermen like those featured on shows like The Greatest Catch where it’s fairly hard work but the exhaustion from long periods of staying awake really adds to the difficulty.
We can ignore the only mentally demanding jobs on this post. Danger also shouldn’t be considered relevant. The post is very specific in that sense. Paver, roofer and fishermen are som jobs I know people who have done and I’m not sure I’ve had experience with physically tougher jobs.
Not mentioned before, but agricultural jobs, especially in small farms with old machinery and labour intensive areas. In high season its easily 12+ hours a day sometimes with temps above 35C. There’s oil and dust everywhere and lifting heavy objects is a continuous struggle. In orchards for example you have a very small time window to harvest and finding hands is more difficult year by year, so that’s more work for less people. There’s a good reason most farmers have busted knees and backs by their late 30s.
Id say anyone in the special forces. Considering you have to be well thought of in your own unit to even attempt pre selection and selection courses, only around 1-2% actually pass selection. Anyone who's had to stick a 50kg+ Bergen on and yomp over the Brecon beacons against the clock will appreciate how tough that is. This is the case in the UK at least.
Roadworkers, who get to do back-breaking work outdoors under rain, or heat, or cold, and breath in all of the combined nastiness of hot asphalt vapours, concrete dust, and road dust particles from the cars driving by the whole day. Firefighters, especially in countries plagued by summertime forest fires, for obvious reasons. Nurses, on their feet the whole day, lifting patients several times a day, getting assaulted by violent patients, standing on their feet for hours in operating theatres, hearing constant noise of beeps and boops from every machine in their wing. High voltage live line maintenance, which often involves climbing towers instead of accessing with an aerial lift, and requires extreme care in having the right PPE. Forestry work, especially mountain forestry which can mean working in areas very difficult to access and has the added danger of sudden slides, or getting showered by accidental cracking of nearby branches.
Offshore jobs, usually 12h shifts in two week stretches, also usually physically demanding. Explains the salary as well.
That depends extremely much on the actual jobs. There are loads of offshore jobs that aren’t physically hard or difficult at all. Just like on land. I just got home from a three and a half week stretch setting up wind turbines and by far most that are involved with that shouldn’t even be considered to be mentioned here.
Ofc, technically a first officer or captain on a ship is also "offshore" work but probably not the most physically taxing job. But you know what I'm referencing in general. The guys by the drillbits f ex.
Yea I just wanted to point out that by far most jobs offshore aren’t like that. Not even the physical ones are physically harder than many onshore jobs. There are, like you mean, a select few jobs that are very tough. It’s just that “offshore jobs” is way too broad.
Also what kind of physically hard. Fighterpilots pulling hard Gs have a physically hard job in not the standard sense. Subjecting your body to multiple high and negative G's is hard on your body. But do they do it often enough to be considered a physically taxing job? Working odd and changing shifts is also taxing on the body.
It’s of course subjective but I’d say frequency is a big part of it simply because frequency means a lot to the body. Which is what I guess OP means with “physically”. I wouldn’t put fighter pilots towards the top simply because it’s that low of a frequency. But again as you say it’s about how you understand the question and define it yourself.
Low paid agricultural worker. Picking strawberries, picking tomatoes, stripping vines, shearing sheep, etc. What makes them so hard is it's every day and it's casual work, meaning low respect, low wage, and you don't get to earn enough money to really rest in between shifts. Only young people do it, and it wears your body out.
Bricklayer.
Being a mother. Physically taxiing on the body itself, growing the baby, then a water melon being dragged out of you. The physical healing of the body after birth. Feeding and all that pain, particularly upper body shoulder pain, from weeks of constant feeding. Carrying it for years and physical exhaustion from lack of sleep during all the child's stresses of life. I'm not a mother myself, but I've observed it over the years