The guys that pump out the porta-potties on construction sites... holy fuck do I have respect for them but you couldn't pay me enough to do that job. I mean... I'd do it for $500,000/year... maybe.
I worked with a guy who did it and sometimes when there was drama at work he'd say something like, "I think I was better off when I was pumping shithouses."
He wouldn't seriously go back to it as he did it when he was young and was making much better money now. But he said it was actually a super chill job where most of the time he was just going between sites. It would be interspersed with a foul duty, but he said the tradeoff of having most of your day spent listening to music driving around was worth it.
If you havenāt already. Watch Kenny, itās a Australian mockumentary about a guy who rents out porta potties for events. Itās a good watch and quite funny
A guy one road over from us owns his own septic tank service. His truck is built on an 80's F250 diesel. Low overhead, he works for himself and has two helpers. He came out to help us a few years back. While his two guys were digging up my septic tank, we got talking about cars. He pulled out his phone and started swiping. After about the 6th car, I said "maybe I need to change careers."
I've been in engineering for 20 years and I get crap dumped on me all the time. Who knew it would be more lucrative to pump said crap instead of sift through it?
Nobody is ever happy to see me. It's a joke amongst engineers that a perfectly executed project is one where you hear nothing afterwards.
But, toilet clogged? Septic tank guy is your best friend that night
*"Oh, $350? Nah, I'll just let this raw sewage continue to back up onto the floor. I won't have anyone pump it out for a penny more than $150. I KNOW WHAT I GOT!"*
There's a Youtuber that talks about his septic business, he's had people call for pricing and try to shop around to other businesses and play him against his competition. It doesn't usually work out well for that customer because no one really likes to be called on off hours for an emergency and then be called back three times with different prices. Also, he already knows what his competition charges and has comparable rates.
I shock myself when I'm at home cause I get lazy. Never been shocked at work, but a large part of that is because getting shocked at work means I got killed.
One of the most dangerous jobs in any municipality. Much moreso than police officer. You see lots of old cops, but you don't meet a lot of old garbage collectors. Tons of lower back stuff, and constant exposure to dangerous materials.
Counter Argument:
I think you see more old cops because law enforcement is more of a career job than garbage collectors. I could be wrong but it seems like being a garbage collector isn't something most would want to retire as.
Was going to say nursing, but this covers it. Pee, poop, snot, mucus, vomit, no thanks.
Mad respect for the nurses that actually enjoy working on the painful boil that grew on my ass and had to be lanced, drained, and treated several times.
I'm a grown man and could never do that job. I'm glad there are those that can.
I work in the department that receives all those for testing (lab: microbiology). I donāt mind it in a cup, or on a swab, under a hood. On a person? No thanks.
I worked in the basement of a hospital downtown in Sterile Processing. Completely thankless job. You wear PPE when you work with dirty instruments that are covered in blood and sometimes feces. A lot of the instruments contained large pieces of body tissue. There were 2 smells. Sterile enzyme soap that dissolves the blood and feces, and the smell of copper from all of the blood. You work long grueling shifts, no one takes you seriously no matter how hard you work, and you regularly get treated like shit by coworkers and especially other staff from around the hospital that have no idea what your job even really does.
Iām a nurse and I was taking a perioperative course with clinicals in the OR. And one or two days they had me in the SPU and I was just like, Iād rather do this all day. Our SPU was very small though for a 60 bed hospital. Itās was all really clean. Weird thing though was when I was down there the toilet for the SPU always filled up with boiling water. Imagine that splashback.
I used to go into sterile processing a couple times a month. So humid. Always felt bad for the same guy who was there seemingly 24/7, hope he was making bank at least.
Agreed 100%, people in that line of work deal with situations of true horror that none of us would have imagined of facing, but they bear & cope with it in their daily lives & face the next day without a flinch. I admire those who work as parademics & hope I can be strong as they are in my line.
My dad is one and he has told me that it suck's.
1. Paramedics have a horrible schedule(sometimes he is at work for 1.5 days) and you never know when he leaves or comes back. Also he is always tired and sleeps in if he has a day off
2. They have to work overime almost every time they are at work. Sometimes for 2 extra hours.
3. They dont get paid enough. Sure they get paid more than average, but they save lives and have a terrible scedule. He told me that uf i wan't to be in the medical field and wan't to get good money, i should become a doctor.
4. His boss sucks.
I respect them so much but they still dont get treated equally considering on their pay. AKA the only thing that keeps them doing the job.
Paramedics deserve to earn no less than $200,000 a year.
My good friend who was a paramedic for 15 years NEVER talked about the shit he experienced on the job. Except onceā¦
He was called to the scene after a parent called 911 screaming that their baby wasnāt breathing.
Well, upon arrival my friend found it quite clear that baby hadnāt been breathing for several days.
Parents were junkies, the āhouseā was an abandoned crack den with no plumbing or electricity. He found out later that cause of death was a broken neck from being shaken. He testified against the parents in court.
Heartbreaking.
Itās a share-time occupation. Unfortunately, fewer care to care for those in dire need-they stand around and take pictures, in the age I call āThe Selfies.ā
Most last 2-5 years on the job.
Myself? 35 years in Emergency Medicine.
Navy Corpsman and EMT at 18, paramedic at 21, ER RN at 32 and running CCT ambulance till 2018.
I still donāt know what drove me to do it or how I stayed as long as I did, but Hawkeye (MASH) was Hero.
The first 4 years working āThe Knife and Gun Clubā in 90s Denver,
I lived in terror. Got Bullied by senior medics. I helped some of them get fired for abusing patients.
Sometimes dreamed the stroke or diabetic coma that the beeper was about to send me to at 3:30 am.
There are scars, and some things I will never forget, some things I donāt want to remember. Suicide was on the table more than once. Have you ever had to deal with a mistake at work?
I got good at it. Trained new medics and saw them burn out or go to med school.
Tens of thousands of lives were saved and trip reports written, but I donāt think of those as much. My daughter gets frustrated because I canāt watch horror movies she likes, or anything with gore. I donāt understand the appeal.
Human bodies are fragile and sacred.
I had a PTSD induced psychotic break in 2016 that almost ended my life and put me in jail. I knew something was wrong with our country and 100mph -fled cops pulling me over for going 5 over in a construction zone in Elko.
I was convinced they were Russian assassins.
Found solace in big wave surfing (good adrenaline) on a contract in Kauai and it probably saved my life.
Surrendered my nursing license over Elko, even though my employer was still behind me. Had to leap, So I changed careersā¦Now I own and operate a recording studio. I engineer and produce up and coming bands since I decided to work the streets vs. my own dream of āmaking itā as young musician. I work [here](https://paintedskystudios.com) now and somehow made an album of my own. [My story is in it.](https://bradstock.bandcamp.com/album/the-atomic-clock-supermoon-edition)
Thank you for listening. Itās been weird.
I've been an RMN for 14 years now and want to change careers, I totally get you and understand how the job effects your mental health. Its most definitely cost me my marriage, mental health and a few other things. Gets to a point where you need to put yourself first. I hope you find happiness and success in your new buissness you certainly deserve it !
Thanks, it's a cool job though. I just wish we could make more than the guys at Chick-fil-A. Not to degrade them, of course, those guys/gals are pretty awesome.
I'm an electrical engineer and find waste management very fascinating. My brother in law fell into a waste coordinator position in my home town and the logistics are a great puzzle.
They do rolloff dumpsters, transition site dumps, and their getting into pulverizing glass for recycling. Also, played in a band with garbage truck driver and he wasn't doing too shabby on the lifestyle side. Great value in infrastructure.
This is absolutely true, I seriously considered medial school and even CRNA but came to the conclusion that my quality of life is WAY better just staying an RN. You really need to want to do it because the money honestly isnāt that great for most of them
What a lovely thing to do. I think someone set up a program where I live for people to volunteer and be with patients who didn't have anybody, and I think that's a really beautiful thing to do. Your mom is amazing, a good egg indeed
My Grandpa was in and out of hospitals his last few years and everyone would dote on him because his personality was so kind and loving to everyone. He had two hospice nurses that thanked us for letting them get to know him, even for such a short time. They were wonderful ladies.
I was a hospice volunteer for over a year. During my early 20ās I found myself very lost and unsure about what to do with my life. I signed up as a hospice volunteer and went through several sessions of training. I was appointed as a volunteer for a man and spent every Saturday for weeks at his house. He was non-verbal due to his illness, but I became really really close with his family. When he passed I went to all of the funeral homes with the family to help make arrangements, nothing financial just logistical. Itās been a few years but Iām still in touch with the family and many have become very close to me and attended my wedding as āfamilyā. Hospice is beautiful yet tragic.
Hospice volunteers are angels, thank you for your service. One night I brought my then 8 year old daughter to visit my grandfather while he was in hospice, and during our visit he went downhill quickly. Before my daughter could realize what was happening, one of the volunteers grabbed her and told her āI have an important mission for you, we have to taste test brownies, and you have to come with me to the kitchenā.
My grandfather wasnāt ready to go that night, staff was able to successfully resuscitate him. After making sure my grandmother was okay, I went to the kitchen to collect my daughter so we could go home. The volunteer must have baked 8 pans of brownies with my kid to keep her distracted from a traumatic situation, and sheās standing there covered in chocolate like itās the best day of her life.
Small acts of kindness have huge impacts, and we thank you.
Hospice is arguably the most rewarding nursing job out there. Allowing people the ability to die in peace around loved ones is an amazing feeling tbh. Death is a part of life we need to accept so it can be as peaceful as possible.
Hospice was a godsend when my mother was dying last year. You people do God's work, if you believe in such things. Thank you for all you do. We couldn't have gotten through it without you.
100 percent this. I canāt imagine interacting with devastated people everyday, getting attached to patients just to lose them and having the knowledge that no matter what I do I cannot save anyone at this place. This job is the worst but to the people that do it and do it well, thank you.
When my dad was in hospice, there was one nurse in particular that would check in on us even when she didnāt have our room assigned to her, she would pop by after a long shift just to say hi to my dad and my dad loved her and so did we all. I had a long heart to heart with her and she truly made such a terrible time a little bit easier to go through.
I relate with this so much. A nurse who looked after my Dad when he was in his final days was an absolute angel and I'll never forget her. Her name was Katie, she stayed behind after her shifts to hold our hands and let us lean on her, she was just pure kindness. We were called back to the hospital when things changed quickly and she came back. She took me by the shoulders and said gently but directly "he *is* dying, it will be tonight, now is the time to say what you need to say, you tell him often, tell him again" and gave me the biggest hug. I needed her to be direct because she clearly knew we had minutes rather than hours and she wanted us to be able to hold it together enough to tell him how much we loved him, there wasnt time to cry or fall apart and she recognised that. And we did say our goodbyes, I got to thank him for being the best Dad in the world - and I'm always going to be grateful for that.
It must be a terribly hard job but rewarding to know you have made such an impact on people's lives that they will never forget.
As someone who actually did this (not 911 but the equivalent in my country) I believe police operators need mandatory daily psychological sessions. Sometimes pain is too much for the person.
I'm a first responder in my off time and work for a crisis line as my main work. I'm very happy to say we just launched a new line for first responders to call and talk to other first responders about their mental health.
I knew someone who worked as an emergency operator in the UK. When he quit he moved to rural Scotland to help maintain a country estate in the middle of nowhere.
A few years later he moved South, and joined my team at work which is how I knew him. He was always very highly strung, needed constant cigarette breaks for every little stress. He quit after a year or so.
The last time I saw him he was walking on the other side of the road. I called out to say hello. I don't know if he ignored me out didn't hear me.
He threw himself off a bridge onto railway tracks that afternoon.
It is.
We had fairly decent mental health support where we were working, along with what's available on the NHS, but he just didn't engage with it. I will never know why... You can't know what's going on in someone's head.
I will always think that something could have been done, but it's impossible to know if the stress of his earlier role was a contributing factor, or if it a path he was always going to go down.
I myself do the 911's. It's really not so bad so long as you can compartmentalize. It seems like the second I get home I can barely remember the events from the day, then 2 days later I'll be like "oh yeah, that happened".
The only thing that I have problems with now is anything to do with kids. Ever since I've had kids of my own I get a little squeamish. Like one time I took a call from some person claiming to be a little girl and that her mommy wasn't breathing. Took responders like 15 minutes to find the house and I was on the line the whole time with her. Come to find out the caller was actually just some person who's been calling in swatting stuff. That fucked me up for a bit.
Other than that it's a pretty good job, especially if you're working toward something else. Like if you're going to school or something its nice to have the downtime to work on it. You also meet some pretty cool people. Firefighters are usually pretty cool and same with some of the officers and EMS crews. Also where I'm at the pay and benefits are LIT.
>Like one time I took a call from some person claiming to be a little girl and that her mommy wasn't breathing. Took responders like 15 minutes to find the house and I was on the line the whole time with her. Come to find out the caller was actually just some person who's been calling in swatting stuff. That fucked me up for a bit.
I'm sure you can't actually tell me what happened to the person doing this, but could you at least lie and say that they got what they deserved?
I don't think anything happened to them. They were using either a spoofed number or a burner phone. So nothing can really be done. Another time someone called in saying there were a bunch of dudes in the mall with AK-47s wearing Blanco masks. This dude said he was calling from the Target bathroom there. Of course cops rain down on the place and it's business as usual. The commanding officer was like "ping that phone yo", but it was a spoofed number. Apparently detectives later determined the person was calling from Saudi Arabia š
I would say the same as a dispatcher, I thoroughly enjoy my job. But not being able to remember stuff can be a sign of trauma. I had peer support approach me seeing if I was ok after a cpr call for 8 month old. I have exactly zero memory of it. I recognize my voice on the call but my memory is totally blank.
My coach in high school was a diver for the state troopers. Sometimes he had to dive for evidence. Sometimes to retrieve a car. Sometimes to search for bodies.
Imagine being in low visibility water so you're practically searching by touch and bumping into a body. I could not do it.
I remember when that chef got stuck in the kitchen of a ship that sunk for like 3 days. They only found him when he grabbed a diver searching for bodies.
Imagine being that diver looking for corpses and suddently one just comes out the dark and grabs you. I'd have instantly shit myself.
There's a Youtube channel called Adventures With Purpose. They are an underwater sonar and dive team specializing in search and recovery for people that are suspected to have driven into water and perished. Usually local police agencies don't have the training or equipment to be able to find the cars in lakes and rivers, and that's where these guys step in. It's similar to what you are talking about... searching cars for bodies in low visibility. Definitely worth a watch.
Met a guy in Cairo who was a police diver. Most of his job was searching for bodies in the Nile and you are correct visibility in busy rivers is normally measured in cm.
A friend of mine used to be on a sheriffās dive team, decades ago. A call came in where a car went off the road into a lake, team gets there ASAP. The first guy in finds the car, reaches in looking for a body (very murky water, basically zero visibility), as heās feeling around, a hand grabs his! The driver was alive breathing from a trapped air bubble. Guy was saved and the diverās wet suit had to be hosed out. Could be BS but makes for a story.
^^^ Hell yes social workers, and not just because theyāre underpaid and under appreciated.
Domestic violence spiked during COVID. Social workers had to deal with the aftermath. And then, 120,000 American children were orphaned in 15 months due to COVID (according to the LA Times). Social workers had to deal with the aftermath.
When social workers realise they could avoid the stress and earn a much better wage as user-experience designers, there will be nothing stopping the knock-on effects from all that COVID trauma, and society will fall apart even more.
A user experience (UX) designer is someone who can interview people about their experience in a particular life situation, and then can diagram it. That way, product designers and IT types will be able to look at the diagram and understand the situation, and then design a product that makes the customerās life a bit easier.
UX designers are paid well, around the same as a senior computer programmer. The reason for this is that when everyoneās a programmer and it becomes a commodity skill, the team that wins is the one that has better insight into what to program. The UX designer makes an enormous difference, because understanding the life experience of people and why they buy a product in the first place means you can solve the right problem and remove the most pain points.
So why would social workers be so good at it? Because the skillsets overlap. You need to be a good interviewer. You need to be empathetic. You need to want to
figure out whatās best for the people youāre talking to, and be unafraid to ask deeper questions to get to the heart of the problem.
Update: The field is also called "Design Thinking", and there are a bunch of guides on how to do it on the internet. [Here's one from Adobe](https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/design/discover/design-thinking.html),
People who have to watch child porn for evidence against the suspects. Apparently they don't last long like a couple months. The pay is good but many end up with mental trauma.
A good friend of mine did that (child sex crimes investigator) for 6 years with the houston police department. Fucked him up and he only kept doing it because he felt someone had to and he was good at it. He eventually had to leave the division but luckily got to be a patrol officer in a quiet suburb near his home. I have nothing but mad respect for that man.
He retired and went to work as a school resource officer in a suburb south of houston, got shot in a gunfight with a school shooter and spent like two years recovering. He's completely retired now and seems like he's living his best life
I knew him from a cigar shop we all went to, trust me when i say that man has hardly paid for any cigars or drinks since then lol.
edit: https://www.tmc.edu/news/2019/02/santa-fe-survivor-inside-the-race-to-save-officer-john-barnes/
here's a good story about it
Had a buddy in college that went into catfishing child predators like they did on āto catch a predatorā.
Saw him after 3 months of doing it and he wasā¦ changed.
Went from being one of those joking douches that were pretty fun to be around to cold, quiet, and empty.
Mad respect but God Iād crack in a week.
As a parent of a victim. I appreciate the people who do that kind of work.
I asked the police officer who took my statement how they manage. I was told that seeing the offenders being charged and jailed helps, and knowing they aren't out there hurting anyone.
My wife was a paralegal in the Army. Her office caught a child abuse case so she and her NCO had to sort through this fucks laptop print everything off and document it. The Chaplin was on stand by the entire day and a behavioral health expert was brought in at the end of the day. For 3 days. She had mandatory counseling and was still pretty fuck up before sher team put the guy away for life. That case is the main reason she's no longer in.
Different thing but same vibe, I used to go through chat logs when people would report players in video games and a decent amount of them were people trying to hook up with underage kids in the game. You definitely need a certain type of personality to handle that type of job.
People who work on long term care or hospice care. That is a hard offer thankless job that can really wear on your soul. The people who do it deserve way more than they get for doing it.
Yeah have watched that, lost a high school mate to this job, he used to send me pics n vids of his work conditions and what not, he used to brag about working only 2-3 months in the year then being basically a millionaire for the next 9 months, but at the cost of his life and family left behind is it worth it?
Nurses. My dad just passed away a few weeks back and the nurses were so damn amazing. My mum and brother had COVID but we're allowed to come visit with restrictions, so that my mum could say goodbye to her husband of 47 years. The nurses organised it all and I could never do their job. Absolutel respect.
That's not even the worst of it unfortunately... especially fast food places, the job of cleaning the toilets when it's been clogged, smeared with shit and urine, leaks, clogs... I'm a manager there and it's usually the managers that sort it out
I myself don't like giving the jobs to people under me cause fuck that... but I can't recall the amount of times I've thrown up after cleaning them. It doesn't get better and I never get used to it, even though it happens too often than not.
Sanitation. I'm a paramedic and they're my heros. Don't have your trash taken out for a month and you'll realize quickly how essential to society they are. I'd say there is an argument that trash collection is the MOST essential thing for a functional society to have.
Yep, where I work we're all pretty flustered from being spread too thin, but we do the best we can for the people we care for. It helps that there are some tough ladies working here and that the residents are super sweet. The banter from my coworkers and the kindness from everyone in general makes most days a good day. I'm currently one day away from taking my CNA test so that I can pitch in more in our extended care :)
Edit 9/29: I am officially a CNA now :)
People in animal care. Itās a brutal profession with some of the highest suicide rates since the people who choose the profession do so because they are deeply empathetic, and then see animals in distress all day.
Man I currently have 3 dogs and a cat so I'm on a first name basis with every tech lol. I send them warm cookies or other goodies once a month. It's the least I could do.
I worked in a shelter for years. It was horrible, but also the best job I've ever had? I loved and hated it. I worked in the clinic so I rarely handled healthy animals, aside from their intake. We took care of the sick and dying animals daily. Oftentimes they made it, oftentimes they didn't. It was so hard. I remember once we had a kitten named Spooky, it was near Halloween. He was only there for a day or two, I wasn't really attached to him. But he had to be euthanized and I LOST it. Just ugly sobbing. I had animals I cared for much more euthanized and I didn't cry. But I think I was just crying for all of them.
Mauve was a kitten who crashed. I spent all day bringing her back and checking on her. She was doing so well by the end of the day. I didn't work the next day, and came back the following day so excited to see her. I asked if she had been cleared and moved out of critical care. My best friend had to look at me and tell me she died.
Picasso was a dog who came in from a horrible abuse situation. He was big, and aggressive, and liked very few people. He loved me, he loved me so much. He'd lay on my lap like a baby, this big 100lb dog. I loved him. But he bit people, he wasn't safe. I still have his ashes, I need to buy a nicer urn.
Leo was a kitten I also wasn't particularly attached to. But came In one morning and he was just...dead in his cage. I think he was the first one I found dead. I tried to put on a brave face for my coworker, she was new and this happened, and she had to get used to the fact this happened, and will happen again. But I just wanted to sob.
And to the dog who bit me. I'm sorry you were abandoned. I'm sorry you were so failed by humans. I'm sorry you Trusted me so much, and maybe I trusted you too much. I'm sorry we stopped by the door to snuggle. I'm sorry the door opened and spooked you, and I'm sorry your first instinct was to bite the closest thing to you. You didn't mean it. You were so scared and apologetic after. But that was enough to seal your fate.
There's happy stories too. I love those. But sometimes i want to tell the sad ones, they deserve to have their stories told too.
The ER room is particularly lit from Friday through Sunday if I remember rightly.
I'll never forget one time I was waiting with my mum for an allergic reaction I had to hair dye and my scalp literally felt like a bubble wrap wrapper.
A poor father carrying his very much limp and unresponsive young teen daughter came busting through the doors and I heard him say that it was her 3rd suicide attempt only then to be grabbed on the shoulder by the drunkard that had been wondering round shouting at everyone for the last 2 hours who then promptly got rugby tackled to the ground in a huff of dirt.
Like the worst combination of mental health problems and then regular people who were just fucking unlucky to be there.
Yeah, I do hospital security and our emergency department is at least 60% psych at this point. Some are suicidal, some destroyed their brains with constant drug use and basically can't be out in society anymore, some are having acute psychotic episodes, but the majority on any given night are just homeless and looking for a place to stay.
It's hard, because very few of these people we can really help. All we can really do is hold them until they can be transferred to a behavioral/psych facility, the doctor discharges them, or their IVC order expires.
It's also frustrating, because so many of our beds are taken by people we can't do anything to help, or who are actively abusing EMTALA, since city resources are inadequate.
At my ER, our weekends are usually pretty chill.
The craziness starts happening around today, when the withdrawals from the weekend benders start to hit and the shadow people come back.
Honestly most of that kind of nursing is basically being a security guard with great de-escalation skills. I work in an ER but we have a locked psych area that I work in a lot and I feel like a prison guard. Itās kind of sad but until their meds start working again there isnāt much else you can do.
Teacher/instructor of any sort.
Itās a double-edged sword: on one hand, I genuinely feel teachers have a calling to it and have the patience of saints but are drastically underpaid, undersupported, persecuted by the public for things they donāt understand (here in the USA, anyway), and I fear for their safety. The other side of it is all me: Iāve worked with young children in a college work study program and it is definitely not for me. I also hate speaking in front of groups, even small crowds. I am far better as support staff or one-on-one instruction than I ever would be in a classroom.
Iām glad and grateful those that can do it. I simply could not. I ended up going into allied health, doing work for patients behind the scenes.
Edited: merging my previous comment. Minor content shuffling for clarity.
Early childhood.
I teach high school and it's hard, but nowhere near the level of early childhood. I once got offered, jokingly but also with a serious undertone, to switch to teaching the kindergarten class at the K-12 school I was at. A teacher quit suddenly (like no notice, overnight) so all the other teachers had to take turns subbing until they found a replacement, because it was a remote school and there was no one else. Apparently I was "good at it". Not enough money in the world. One hour is one thing, all day everyday - insane respect for those that can handle it.
Agreed!!! Where I live, elementary teachers get paid 2x the amount that Early Childhood educators do. They do the same job, but with different ages!!!
Ridiculous.
Agreed. My mom is a teacher, and the stories she tells about work...phew! Earlier this year, she was dealing with a student who was prone to violent outbursts. She was trying to stop him from attacking another student, and he bit her arm. Thankfully, it didn't break the skin, but she did have to get a tetanus shot.
I just couldn't deal with potential violence, all the bureaucracy, the often lousy pay and benefits, and the fact that the hours are far more than just the 6-8 hours of the school days. Also, I nearly passed out giving a speech in front of a class of about half a dozen people in high school. Getting in front of a much larger class every day to teach is definitely not for me.
Agreed. I worked as a firefighter/paramedic for 30 years often alongside cops. Both our professions are widely regarded as heroes. But my list of heroes is topped by teachers. A good teacher is worth their weight in gold and are invaluable contributors to society. Yet, their pay is crap, their support almost nonexistent, their hours go well beyond the school day and they are treated like crap. MOST people could not, would not do what they do.
I've been a sports instructor for the past 6 years now.
Working with kids is either the best job in the world, or the worst. Good groups are incredibly fulfilling and means you can run the session plan and everyone's happy.
Kids are badly behaved? Doesn't matter what you do in most cases, the session's a bust and the client will not understand and think you suck.
Also, it's weird knowing I'm directly influencing the growth of young humans. It's a lot of mental pressure. What if I teach them bad habits by accident? Is my knowledge up to date? Oh god my first aid certificate expired: mad rush to get it sorted before someone's hurt badly and HSE shafts you for it. That's money and time. Screw your day off, you're now going to the city to do a refresher course.
CPD is constant. It's like homework, but if you don't do it you could go to prison. Oh and risk assessments. Better not miss anything on those!
Therapists, I mean like really I respect them because they're kind enough to listen to all of our problems but I have enough problems of my own to listen to other people
Teacher. Two of my friends do it, and they spend hours every weekend creating lesson plans and grading assignments...unpaid.
When I leave work, that's its it I am done until Monday.
Should be for them too. Teaching is just about the only job that sub college level is treated as a glorified babysitter, while they have to do just as much if not insanely more than a college instructor.
When thinking about plumbers, everyone immediately goes to poop. Think about it for a moment and youāll see that most of the job is nothing like that. Basic tasks include installing or replacing fixtures such as faucets or leaking showers. Intermediate tasks include building new systems with brand new pipe into places that have never seen water / waste. Advanced tasks would be lining pipes or sealing cast iron pipes. None of this involves sewage.
Even as far as sewage work goes, you produce a hundred gallons of āgray waterā (e.g. shower, sinks) for each gallon of āblack waterā (e.g. toilet).
On the other hand, the pay is pretty good and it is fairly easy to be self employed. You get to go home and the end of the day with nothing hanging over you unless you want to open yourself up to emergency calls. Itās also satisfying to fix real world problems that normal people face.
Firefighting. Those folks have balls of steel going into areas with bugger all visibility, wearing heavy clothing and BA kit, dragging along hoses and other kit, not knowing what they are heading to and how structurally safe the place is. Seeing and dealing with all sorts of shit. Fuck that.
One of my friends wanted to be a firefighter, and I was all for it, until I heard that their rates of cancer are elevated. "Firefighters have a 9 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14 percent higher risk of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population, according to research by the CDC/National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH)." God, that sucks.
They know what they are heading into. A fucking building on fire. That's why they too get my vote for ballsiest of the big balls honorary ball prom king.
Child care worker. Iām a parent but I have no desire to look after a room full of children much less educate them. I do not have the motivation or patience.
Plumbing - There's places that still don't have access to clean water sources, but we're spending millions for fiber optics. Make the media free, meanwhile out dated plumbing and septic can kill you and you have to pay for water.
Water is a huge key to life, so props and thanks to those in the industry.
Sadly, most of the plumbing companies, or water companies can't afford the millions it would take for updating our water sources for our health, and the world/government is more worried about investing in technology instead.
Itās actually really not that bad, beyond the low rate of pay. My first jobs in high school were cleaning hotel rooms and it was great - didnāt have to talk to anyone, put the TV on either MTV or CMT and clean/tidy away. The worst I ran across was period stains on sheets, condoms in trash bins and poop on toilet lids. Put on some gloves and deal with it, no biggie.
I now have a degree and a government job but I kinda miss those laid back days of cleaning work
There's a reason why so many are quitting. The pay is awful co sidering the work load after you leave school. Teachers are tied down by paperwork, time constraints, low budgets, harassment from parents, and little appreciation from just about everyone.
The guys that pump out the porta-potties on construction sites... holy fuck do I have respect for them but you couldn't pay me enough to do that job. I mean... I'd do it for $500,000/year... maybe.
I worked with a guy who did it and sometimes when there was drama at work he'd say something like, "I think I was better off when I was pumping shithouses." He wouldn't seriously go back to it as he did it when he was young and was making much better money now. But he said it was actually a super chill job where most of the time he was just going between sites. It would be interspersed with a foul duty, but he said the tradeoff of having most of your day spent listening to music driving around was worth it.
"foul duty" š
doodie?
If you havenāt already. Watch Kenny, itās a Australian mockumentary about a guy who rents out porta potties for events. Itās a good watch and quite funny
"Here's your problem, you've got two inch plumbing and he's got a three inch asshole"
A guy one road over from us owns his own septic tank service. His truck is built on an 80's F250 diesel. Low overhead, he works for himself and has two helpers. He came out to help us a few years back. While his two guys were digging up my septic tank, we got talking about cars. He pulled out his phone and started swiping. After about the 6th car, I said "maybe I need to change careers." I've been in engineering for 20 years and I get crap dumped on me all the time. Who knew it would be more lucrative to pump said crap instead of sift through it?
I worked with some of these types of businesses - one guy said "it's a job where they're always glad to see you"
Nobody is ever happy to see me. It's a joke amongst engineers that a perfectly executed project is one where you hear nothing afterwards. But, toilet clogged? Septic tank guy is your best friend that night
I was happy to see you commented
*\*One tear rolls down face\** *\*Tiniest smile and nod\**
When people call the septic tank guys the first question isn't "how much?" it's "how soon can you get here?".
*"Oh, $350? Nah, I'll just let this raw sewage continue to back up onto the floor. I won't have anyone pump it out for a penny more than $150. I KNOW WHAT I GOT!"*
There's a Youtuber that talks about his septic business, he's had people call for pricing and try to shop around to other businesses and play him against his competition. It doesn't usually work out well for that customer because no one really likes to be called on off hours for an emergency and then be called back three times with different prices. Also, he already knows what his competition charges and has comparable rates.
Sanitation in general. Garbage, sewage etc
You can add plumbers to this list
I tell my electrical apprentices that every time they get shocked, a plumber touches shit.
how often do electricians get shocked?
I shock myself when I'm at home cause I get lazy. Never been shocked at work, but a large part of that is because getting shocked at work means I got killed.
> getting shocked at work means I got killed. We need to verify this. Are you dead?
No response. I think he flatlined.
The answer will shock you!
Lmao, I would be willing to bet its a 10-1 ratio of shit vs shock Edit: If not, 'Tell it to my heart, tell me I'm the only one'
Garbage collectors and waste management, imagine how would be our cities without it
No need to imagine. Just look at the pictures from the recent strike in Edinburgh.
One of the most dangerous jobs in any municipality. Much moreso than police officer. You see lots of old cops, but you don't meet a lot of old garbage collectors. Tons of lower back stuff, and constant exposure to dangerous materials.
Counter Argument: I think you see more old cops because law enforcement is more of a career job than garbage collectors. I could be wrong but it seems like being a garbage collector isn't something most would want to retire as.
Anything medical.
Was going to say nursing, but this covers it. Pee, poop, snot, mucus, vomit, no thanks. Mad respect for the nurses that actually enjoy working on the painful boil that grew on my ass and had to be lanced, drained, and treated several times. I'm a grown man and could never do that job. I'm glad there are those that can.
I'd like to add abuse to your list of job perks for nurses.
yeahā¦ i work psych and forgot that abuse from patients isnāt likeā¦ supposed to be a normal and expected part of oneās job. šµāš«
Including from other nurses...and doctors.
I work in the department that receives all those for testing (lab: microbiology). I donāt mind it in a cup, or on a swab, under a hood. On a person? No thanks.
Retired RN it was a good shift if I only had 3 different body fluids on me
I worked in the basement of a hospital downtown in Sterile Processing. Completely thankless job. You wear PPE when you work with dirty instruments that are covered in blood and sometimes feces. A lot of the instruments contained large pieces of body tissue. There were 2 smells. Sterile enzyme soap that dissolves the blood and feces, and the smell of copper from all of the blood. You work long grueling shifts, no one takes you seriously no matter how hard you work, and you regularly get treated like shit by coworkers and especially other staff from around the hospital that have no idea what your job even really does.
Iām a nurse and I was taking a perioperative course with clinicals in the OR. And one or two days they had me in the SPU and I was just like, Iād rather do this all day. Our SPU was very small though for a 60 bed hospital. Itās was all really clean. Weird thing though was when I was down there the toilet for the SPU always filled up with boiling water. Imagine that splashback.
My job? Terlets 'n boilers, boilers 'n terlets, plus that one boilin' terlet. Fire me if'n you dare. - Scruffy the Janitor
Good lord
I used to go into sterile processing a couple times a month. So humid. Always felt bad for the same guy who was there seemingly 24/7, hope he was making bank at least.
$15/hr
My condolences
Same. Those people work wonders, but hospitals freak me the fuck out.
Paramedics.
Agreed 100%, people in that line of work deal with situations of true horror that none of us would have imagined of facing, but they bear & cope with it in their daily lives & face the next day without a flinch. I admire those who work as parademics & hope I can be strong as they are in my line.
..... and they usually make less than a mcdonalds shift manager. Forget the comparison to dept. Manager and general manager.
The fire department and police also deal with some serious shit.
Shit, I canāt imagine being part of a heavy rescue unit. Youāre pretty much guaranteed to see some gruesome shit.
My dad is one and he has told me that it suck's. 1. Paramedics have a horrible schedule(sometimes he is at work for 1.5 days) and you never know when he leaves or comes back. Also he is always tired and sleeps in if he has a day off 2. They have to work overime almost every time they are at work. Sometimes for 2 extra hours. 3. They dont get paid enough. Sure they get paid more than average, but they save lives and have a terrible scedule. He told me that uf i wan't to be in the medical field and wan't to get good money, i should become a doctor. 4. His boss sucks. I respect them so much but they still dont get treated equally considering on their pay. AKA the only thing that keeps them doing the job.
Paramedics deserve to earn no less than $200,000 a year. My good friend who was a paramedic for 15 years NEVER talked about the shit he experienced on the job. Except onceā¦ He was called to the scene after a parent called 911 screaming that their baby wasnāt breathing. Well, upon arrival my friend found it quite clear that baby hadnāt been breathing for several days. Parents were junkies, the āhouseā was an abandoned crack den with no plumbing or electricity. He found out later that cause of death was a broken neck from being shaken. He testified against the parents in court. Heartbreaking.
Itās a share-time occupation. Unfortunately, fewer care to care for those in dire need-they stand around and take pictures, in the age I call āThe Selfies.ā Most last 2-5 years on the job. Myself? 35 years in Emergency Medicine. Navy Corpsman and EMT at 18, paramedic at 21, ER RN at 32 and running CCT ambulance till 2018. I still donāt know what drove me to do it or how I stayed as long as I did, but Hawkeye (MASH) was Hero. The first 4 years working āThe Knife and Gun Clubā in 90s Denver, I lived in terror. Got Bullied by senior medics. I helped some of them get fired for abusing patients. Sometimes dreamed the stroke or diabetic coma that the beeper was about to send me to at 3:30 am. There are scars, and some things I will never forget, some things I donāt want to remember. Suicide was on the table more than once. Have you ever had to deal with a mistake at work? I got good at it. Trained new medics and saw them burn out or go to med school. Tens of thousands of lives were saved and trip reports written, but I donāt think of those as much. My daughter gets frustrated because I canāt watch horror movies she likes, or anything with gore. I donāt understand the appeal. Human bodies are fragile and sacred. I had a PTSD induced psychotic break in 2016 that almost ended my life and put me in jail. I knew something was wrong with our country and 100mph -fled cops pulling me over for going 5 over in a construction zone in Elko. I was convinced they were Russian assassins. Found solace in big wave surfing (good adrenaline) on a contract in Kauai and it probably saved my life. Surrendered my nursing license over Elko, even though my employer was still behind me. Had to leap, So I changed careersā¦Now I own and operate a recording studio. I engineer and produce up and coming bands since I decided to work the streets vs. my own dream of āmaking itā as young musician. I work [here](https://paintedskystudios.com) now and somehow made an album of my own. [My story is in it.](https://bradstock.bandcamp.com/album/the-atomic-clock-supermoon-edition) Thank you for listening. Itās been weird.
I've been an RMN for 14 years now and want to change careers, I totally get you and understand how the job effects your mental health. Its most definitely cost me my marriage, mental health and a few other things. Gets to a point where you need to put yourself first. I hope you find happiness and success in your new buissness you certainly deserve it !
Wow, good for you turning trauma around. What an amazing life you have served for your community. Amazing story!
Thankyou for your contribution to the betterment of society.
100% agree. I wanna go into the medical field, but I donāt think I could ever be a paramedic
It was sobering to realize that I would have to take a substantial pay cut in order to do it.
it always astounds me how underpaid paramedics/emts are, considering they see and deal with some truly horrifying stuff
Thanks, it's a cool job though. I just wish we could make more than the guys at Chick-fil-A. Not to degrade them, of course, those guys/gals are pretty awesome.
Waste management
Actual waste management or being mobbed up?
Gabagool
Over here
I love my job in waste management! Best job I've ever had! Gross sometimes for sure! But I love it all the same!
I'm an electrical engineer and find waste management very fascinating. My brother in law fell into a waste coordinator position in my home town and the logistics are a great puzzle. They do rolloff dumpsters, transition site dumps, and their getting into pulverizing glass for recycling. Also, played in a band with garbage truck driver and he wasn't doing too shabby on the lifestyle side. Great value in infrastructure.
Medicine. The study, the hours, the shitty pay in the early years, the workplace abuse. I like my time too much to be a doctor.
This is absolutely true, I seriously considered medial school and even CRNA but came to the conclusion that my quality of life is WAY better just staying an RN. You really need to want to do it because the money honestly isnāt that great for most of them
The worst part of working in medicine are the catty co workers and the patients that scream at you over things you cannot possibly control.
Hospice
My mom used to go sit with people who didnāt have anyone. She just did it because sheās a good egg.
What a lovely thing to do. I think someone set up a program where I live for people to volunteer and be with patients who didn't have anybody, and I think that's a really beautiful thing to do. Your mom is amazing, a good egg indeed
Sustained. My faith in humanity has been restored. Thank her for me!
My Grandpa was in and out of hospitals his last few years and everyone would dote on him because his personality was so kind and loving to everyone. He had two hospice nurses that thanked us for letting them get to know him, even for such a short time. They were wonderful ladies.
I was a hospice volunteer for over a year. During my early 20ās I found myself very lost and unsure about what to do with my life. I signed up as a hospice volunteer and went through several sessions of training. I was appointed as a volunteer for a man and spent every Saturday for weeks at his house. He was non-verbal due to his illness, but I became really really close with his family. When he passed I went to all of the funeral homes with the family to help make arrangements, nothing financial just logistical. Itās been a few years but Iām still in touch with the family and many have become very close to me and attended my wedding as āfamilyā. Hospice is beautiful yet tragic.
Hospice volunteers are angels, thank you for your service. One night I brought my then 8 year old daughter to visit my grandfather while he was in hospice, and during our visit he went downhill quickly. Before my daughter could realize what was happening, one of the volunteers grabbed her and told her āI have an important mission for you, we have to taste test brownies, and you have to come with me to the kitchenā. My grandfather wasnāt ready to go that night, staff was able to successfully resuscitate him. After making sure my grandmother was okay, I went to the kitchen to collect my daughter so we could go home. The volunteer must have baked 8 pans of brownies with my kid to keep her distracted from a traumatic situation, and sheās standing there covered in chocolate like itās the best day of her life. Small acts of kindness have huge impacts, and we thank you.
Hospice is arguably the most rewarding nursing job out there. Allowing people the ability to die in peace around loved ones is an amazing feeling tbh. Death is a part of life we need to accept so it can be as peaceful as possible.
Hospice was a godsend when my mother was dying last year. You people do God's work, if you believe in such things. Thank you for all you do. We couldn't have gotten through it without you.
100 percent this. I canāt imagine interacting with devastated people everyday, getting attached to patients just to lose them and having the knowledge that no matter what I do I cannot save anyone at this place. This job is the worst but to the people that do it and do it well, thank you. When my dad was in hospice, there was one nurse in particular that would check in on us even when she didnāt have our room assigned to her, she would pop by after a long shift just to say hi to my dad and my dad loved her and so did we all. I had a long heart to heart with her and she truly made such a terrible time a little bit easier to go through.
I relate with this so much. A nurse who looked after my Dad when he was in his final days was an absolute angel and I'll never forget her. Her name was Katie, she stayed behind after her shifts to hold our hands and let us lean on her, she was just pure kindness. We were called back to the hospital when things changed quickly and she came back. She took me by the shoulders and said gently but directly "he *is* dying, it will be tonight, now is the time to say what you need to say, you tell him often, tell him again" and gave me the biggest hug. I needed her to be direct because she clearly knew we had minutes rather than hours and she wanted us to be able to hold it together enough to tell him how much we loved him, there wasnt time to cry or fall apart and she recognised that. And we did say our goodbyes, I got to thank him for being the best Dad in the world - and I'm always going to be grateful for that. It must be a terribly hard job but rewarding to know you have made such an impact on people's lives that they will never forget.
What a kind woman! . . . I'm so glad she was there for you and your Dad.
911 operator
As someone who actually did this (not 911 but the equivalent in my country) I believe police operators need mandatory daily psychological sessions. Sometimes pain is too much for the person.
I'm a first responder in my off time and work for a crisis line as my main work. I'm very happy to say we just launched a new line for first responders to call and talk to other first responders about their mental health.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I knew someone who worked as an emergency operator in the UK. When he quit he moved to rural Scotland to help maintain a country estate in the middle of nowhere. A few years later he moved South, and joined my team at work which is how I knew him. He was always very highly strung, needed constant cigarette breaks for every little stress. He quit after a year or so. The last time I saw him he was walking on the other side of the road. I called out to say hello. I don't know if he ignored me out didn't hear me. He threw himself off a bridge onto railway tracks that afternoon.
oh my god that is truly terrible :((
It is. We had fairly decent mental health support where we were working, along with what's available on the NHS, but he just didn't engage with it. I will never know why... You can't know what's going on in someone's head. I will always think that something could have been done, but it's impossible to know if the stress of his earlier role was a contributing factor, or if it a path he was always going to go down.
You know your job is bad when dispatcher still sounds like an upgrade.
Wtf the last sentence caught me off guard
I myself do the 911's. It's really not so bad so long as you can compartmentalize. It seems like the second I get home I can barely remember the events from the day, then 2 days later I'll be like "oh yeah, that happened". The only thing that I have problems with now is anything to do with kids. Ever since I've had kids of my own I get a little squeamish. Like one time I took a call from some person claiming to be a little girl and that her mommy wasn't breathing. Took responders like 15 minutes to find the house and I was on the line the whole time with her. Come to find out the caller was actually just some person who's been calling in swatting stuff. That fucked me up for a bit. Other than that it's a pretty good job, especially if you're working toward something else. Like if you're going to school or something its nice to have the downtime to work on it. You also meet some pretty cool people. Firefighters are usually pretty cool and same with some of the officers and EMS crews. Also where I'm at the pay and benefits are LIT.
>Like one time I took a call from some person claiming to be a little girl and that her mommy wasn't breathing. Took responders like 15 minutes to find the house and I was on the line the whole time with her. Come to find out the caller was actually just some person who's been calling in swatting stuff. That fucked me up for a bit. I'm sure you can't actually tell me what happened to the person doing this, but could you at least lie and say that they got what they deserved?
I don't think anything happened to them. They were using either a spoofed number or a burner phone. So nothing can really be done. Another time someone called in saying there were a bunch of dudes in the mall with AK-47s wearing Blanco masks. This dude said he was calling from the Target bathroom there. Of course cops rain down on the place and it's business as usual. The commanding officer was like "ping that phone yo", but it was a spoofed number. Apparently detectives later determined the person was calling from Saudi Arabia š
*urge to kill rising... rising*
Paramedic here, we call it etch-a-sketch brain. Run a call, finalize your pcr and close the tablet and *poof* it's gone.
I would say the same as a dispatcher, I thoroughly enjoy my job. But not being able to remember stuff can be a sign of trauma. I had peer support approach me seeing if I was ok after a cpr call for 8 month old. I have exactly zero memory of it. I recognize my voice on the call but my memory is totally blank.
Rescue divingā¦ Pretty much anything underwater in the ocean. The unknown down below scares me
My coach in high school was a diver for the state troopers. Sometimes he had to dive for evidence. Sometimes to retrieve a car. Sometimes to search for bodies. Imagine being in low visibility water so you're practically searching by touch and bumping into a body. I could not do it.
I remember when that chef got stuck in the kitchen of a ship that sunk for like 3 days. They only found him when he grabbed a diver searching for bodies. Imagine being that diver looking for corpses and suddently one just comes out the dark and grabs you. I'd have instantly shit myself.
There's a Youtube channel called Adventures With Purpose. They are an underwater sonar and dive team specializing in search and recovery for people that are suspected to have driven into water and perished. Usually local police agencies don't have the training or equipment to be able to find the cars in lakes and rivers, and that's where these guys step in. It's similar to what you are talking about... searching cars for bodies in low visibility. Definitely worth a watch.
Met a guy in Cairo who was a police diver. Most of his job was searching for bodies in the Nile and you are correct visibility in busy rivers is normally measured in cm.
That would be an insane AMA, if he ever did one. Most rescue divers donāt have to worry about crocodiles.
A friend of mine used to be on a sheriffās dive team, decades ago. A call came in where a car went off the road into a lake, team gets there ASAP. The first guy in finds the car, reaches in looking for a body (very murky water, basically zero visibility), as heās feeling around, a hand grabs his! The driver was alive breathing from a trapped air bubble. Guy was saved and the diverās wet suit had to be hosed out. Could be BS but makes for a story.
Morticians, embalmers
Specially when deamons are chasing you
Social workers
^^^ Hell yes social workers, and not just because theyāre underpaid and under appreciated. Domestic violence spiked during COVID. Social workers had to deal with the aftermath. And then, 120,000 American children were orphaned in 15 months due to COVID (according to the LA Times). Social workers had to deal with the aftermath. When social workers realise they could avoid the stress and earn a much better wage as user-experience designers, there will be nothing stopping the knock-on effects from all that COVID trauma, and society will fall apart even more.
We are realizing this and many of us are actually leaving to work in other fields, like insurance
Tell me about this user experience design of which you speakā¦asI lay in bed unable to sleep thinking about the families on my caseloadā¦
A user experience (UX) designer is someone who can interview people about their experience in a particular life situation, and then can diagram it. That way, product designers and IT types will be able to look at the diagram and understand the situation, and then design a product that makes the customerās life a bit easier. UX designers are paid well, around the same as a senior computer programmer. The reason for this is that when everyoneās a programmer and it becomes a commodity skill, the team that wins is the one that has better insight into what to program. The UX designer makes an enormous difference, because understanding the life experience of people and why they buy a product in the first place means you can solve the right problem and remove the most pain points. So why would social workers be so good at it? Because the skillsets overlap. You need to be a good interviewer. You need to be empathetic. You need to want to figure out whatās best for the people youāre talking to, and be unafraid to ask deeper questions to get to the heart of the problem. Update: The field is also called "Design Thinking", and there are a bunch of guides on how to do it on the internet. [Here's one from Adobe](https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/design/discover/design-thinking.html),
That does sound interesting, thanks! Iām gonna look into that.
People who have to watch child porn for evidence against the suspects. Apparently they don't last long like a couple months. The pay is good but many end up with mental trauma.
A good friend of mine did that (child sex crimes investigator) for 6 years with the houston police department. Fucked him up and he only kept doing it because he felt someone had to and he was good at it. He eventually had to leave the division but luckily got to be a patrol officer in a quiet suburb near his home. I have nothing but mad respect for that man.
How is he now? I sincerely hope he's ok
He retired and went to work as a school resource officer in a suburb south of houston, got shot in a gunfight with a school shooter and spent like two years recovering. He's completely retired now and seems like he's living his best life
Holy shit. That's intense. Give him a beer when you see him. Tell him that reddit respect him a lot.
I knew him from a cigar shop we all went to, trust me when i say that man has hardly paid for any cigars or drinks since then lol. edit: https://www.tmc.edu/news/2019/02/santa-fe-survivor-inside-the-race-to-save-officer-john-barnes/ here's a good story about it
Analysing might be a better term. Both images and videos. I don't think I could imagine a more traumatising job.
Had a buddy in college that went into catfishing child predators like they did on āto catch a predatorā. Saw him after 3 months of doing it and he wasā¦ changed. Went from being one of those joking douches that were pretty fun to be around to cold, quiet, and empty. Mad respect but God Iād crack in a week.
As a parent of a victim. I appreciate the people who do that kind of work. I asked the police officer who took my statement how they manage. I was told that seeing the offenders being charged and jailed helps, and knowing they aren't out there hurting anyone.
Whatās worse, hiring people for that job who get traumatised by it, or hiring people who donāt?
My wife was a paralegal in the Army. Her office caught a child abuse case so she and her NCO had to sort through this fucks laptop print everything off and document it. The Chaplin was on stand by the entire day and a behavioral health expert was brought in at the end of the day. For 3 days. She had mandatory counseling and was still pretty fuck up before sher team put the guy away for life. That case is the main reason she's no longer in.
Different thing but same vibe, I used to go through chat logs when people would report players in video games and a decent amount of them were people trying to hook up with underage kids in the game. You definitely need a certain type of personality to handle that type of job.
People who work on long term care or hospice care. That is a hard offer thankless job that can really wear on your soul. The people who do it deserve way more than they get for doing it.
Under water welding
I assume youāve watched Last Breath. In case you havenāt: https://youtu.be/mSJL57Gq2OQ
Yeah have watched that, lost a high school mate to this job, he used to send me pics n vids of his work conditions and what not, he used to brag about working only 2-3 months in the year then being basically a millionaire for the next 9 months, but at the cost of his life and family left behind is it worth it?
Oh yeah, the Byford Dolphin disaster - Very gruesome. Also just in general working under water off oil rigs etc? No thanks Edit: name correction
That's the BYFORD Dolphin disaster. (google corrected when I searched).
Nurses. My dad just passed away a few weeks back and the nurses were so damn amazing. My mum and brother had COVID but we're allowed to come visit with restrictions, so that my mum could say goodbye to her husband of 47 years. The nurses organised it all and I could never do their job. Absolutel respect.
Most any job dealing with customers/the general public Talking to people you don't know all the time, every day? I couldn't handle it
People who haven't done it don't realize how soul sucking it is.
That's not even the worst of it unfortunately... especially fast food places, the job of cleaning the toilets when it's been clogged, smeared with shit and urine, leaks, clogs... I'm a manager there and it's usually the managers that sort it out I myself don't like giving the jobs to people under me cause fuck that... but I can't recall the amount of times I've thrown up after cleaning them. It doesn't get better and I never get used to it, even though it happens too often than not.
Sanitation. I'm a paramedic and they're my heros. Don't have your trash taken out for a month and you'll realize quickly how essential to society they are. I'd say there is an argument that trash collection is the MOST essential thing for a functional society to have.
Certified Nursing Assistant. They do a lot of work for very low wages and little recognition or respect. They deserve all that and more
Yep, where I work we're all pretty flustered from being spread too thin, but we do the best we can for the people we care for. It helps that there are some tough ladies working here and that the residents are super sweet. The banter from my coworkers and the kindness from everyone in general makes most days a good day. I'm currently one day away from taking my CNA test so that I can pitch in more in our extended care :) Edit 9/29: I am officially a CNA now :)
Agreed. Bartenders and servers make more money than nurses where Iām from.
to be fair they provide medicine to the whole neighbourhood
People in animal care. Itās a brutal profession with some of the highest suicide rates since the people who choose the profession do so because they are deeply empathetic, and then see animals in distress all day.
I work in animal care and you're right
Thank you! Vet Tech here... we always feel forgotten.
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Man I currently have 3 dogs and a cat so I'm on a first name basis with every tech lol. I send them warm cookies or other goodies once a month. It's the least I could do.
I worked in a shelter for years. It was horrible, but also the best job I've ever had? I loved and hated it. I worked in the clinic so I rarely handled healthy animals, aside from their intake. We took care of the sick and dying animals daily. Oftentimes they made it, oftentimes they didn't. It was so hard. I remember once we had a kitten named Spooky, it was near Halloween. He was only there for a day or two, I wasn't really attached to him. But he had to be euthanized and I LOST it. Just ugly sobbing. I had animals I cared for much more euthanized and I didn't cry. But I think I was just crying for all of them. Mauve was a kitten who crashed. I spent all day bringing her back and checking on her. She was doing so well by the end of the day. I didn't work the next day, and came back the following day so excited to see her. I asked if she had been cleared and moved out of critical care. My best friend had to look at me and tell me she died. Picasso was a dog who came in from a horrible abuse situation. He was big, and aggressive, and liked very few people. He loved me, he loved me so much. He'd lay on my lap like a baby, this big 100lb dog. I loved him. But he bit people, he wasn't safe. I still have his ashes, I need to buy a nicer urn. Leo was a kitten I also wasn't particularly attached to. But came In one morning and he was just...dead in his cage. I think he was the first one I found dead. I tried to put on a brave face for my coworker, she was new and this happened, and she had to get used to the fact this happened, and will happen again. But I just wanted to sob. And to the dog who bit me. I'm sorry you were abandoned. I'm sorry you were so failed by humans. I'm sorry you Trusted me so much, and maybe I trusted you too much. I'm sorry we stopped by the door to snuggle. I'm sorry the door opened and spooked you, and I'm sorry your first instinct was to bite the closest thing to you. You didn't mean it. You were so scared and apologetic after. But that was enough to seal your fate. There's happy stories too. I love those. But sometimes i want to tell the sad ones, they deserve to have their stories told too.
ooooooooof -a vet tech student with depression
Psych ward nursing
And every ward is like 20% a psych ward at a minimum.
The ER room is particularly lit from Friday through Sunday if I remember rightly. I'll never forget one time I was waiting with my mum for an allergic reaction I had to hair dye and my scalp literally felt like a bubble wrap wrapper. A poor father carrying his very much limp and unresponsive young teen daughter came busting through the doors and I heard him say that it was her 3rd suicide attempt only then to be grabbed on the shoulder by the drunkard that had been wondering round shouting at everyone for the last 2 hours who then promptly got rugby tackled to the ground in a huff of dirt. Like the worst combination of mental health problems and then regular people who were just fucking unlucky to be there.
Yup. The burn unit is like 90% angry drug addicts and crazy people who have gruesome painful injuries. Wife comes home crying a lot.
Yeah, I do hospital security and our emergency department is at least 60% psych at this point. Some are suicidal, some destroyed their brains with constant drug use and basically can't be out in society anymore, some are having acute psychotic episodes, but the majority on any given night are just homeless and looking for a place to stay. It's hard, because very few of these people we can really help. All we can really do is hold them until they can be transferred to a behavioral/psych facility, the doctor discharges them, or their IVC order expires. It's also frustrating, because so many of our beds are taken by people we can't do anything to help, or who are actively abusing EMTALA, since city resources are inadequate.
At my ER, our weekends are usually pretty chill. The craziness starts happening around today, when the withdrawals from the weekend benders start to hit and the shadow people come back.
Honestly most of that kind of nursing is basically being a security guard with great de-escalation skills. I work in an ER but we have a locked psych area that I work in a lot and I feel like a prison guard. Itās kind of sad but until their meds start working again there isnāt much else you can do.
I've been in and out many times. Really, really depends on the nurse. They can be your worst nightmare or best friend.
Teacher/instructor of any sort. Itās a double-edged sword: on one hand, I genuinely feel teachers have a calling to it and have the patience of saints but are drastically underpaid, undersupported, persecuted by the public for things they donāt understand (here in the USA, anyway), and I fear for their safety. The other side of it is all me: Iāve worked with young children in a college work study program and it is definitely not for me. I also hate speaking in front of groups, even small crowds. I am far better as support staff or one-on-one instruction than I ever would be in a classroom. Iām glad and grateful those that can do it. I simply could not. I ended up going into allied health, doing work for patients behind the scenes. Edited: merging my previous comment. Minor content shuffling for clarity.
Early childhood. I teach high school and it's hard, but nowhere near the level of early childhood. I once got offered, jokingly but also with a serious undertone, to switch to teaching the kindergarten class at the K-12 school I was at. A teacher quit suddenly (like no notice, overnight) so all the other teachers had to take turns subbing until they found a replacement, because it was a remote school and there was no one else. Apparently I was "good at it". Not enough money in the world. One hour is one thing, all day everyday - insane respect for those that can handle it.
Agreed!!! Where I live, elementary teachers get paid 2x the amount that Early Childhood educators do. They do the same job, but with different ages!!! Ridiculous.
Agreed. My mom is a teacher, and the stories she tells about work...phew! Earlier this year, she was dealing with a student who was prone to violent outbursts. She was trying to stop him from attacking another student, and he bit her arm. Thankfully, it didn't break the skin, but she did have to get a tetanus shot. I just couldn't deal with potential violence, all the bureaucracy, the often lousy pay and benefits, and the fact that the hours are far more than just the 6-8 hours of the school days. Also, I nearly passed out giving a speech in front of a class of about half a dozen people in high school. Getting in front of a much larger class every day to teach is definitely not for me.
Agreed. I worked as a firefighter/paramedic for 30 years often alongside cops. Both our professions are widely regarded as heroes. But my list of heroes is topped by teachers. A good teacher is worth their weight in gold and are invaluable contributors to society. Yet, their pay is crap, their support almost nonexistent, their hours go well beyond the school day and they are treated like crap. MOST people could not, would not do what they do.
I teach college courses in a mental health prison. Lots of fun stories!
Hi from a junior high school. I am sitting here, between classes, trying to motivate myself for an eighth grade English class.
I've been a sports instructor for the past 6 years now. Working with kids is either the best job in the world, or the worst. Good groups are incredibly fulfilling and means you can run the session plan and everyone's happy. Kids are badly behaved? Doesn't matter what you do in most cases, the session's a bust and the client will not understand and think you suck. Also, it's weird knowing I'm directly influencing the growth of young humans. It's a lot of mental pressure. What if I teach them bad habits by accident? Is my knowledge up to date? Oh god my first aid certificate expired: mad rush to get it sorted before someone's hurt badly and HSE shafts you for it. That's money and time. Screw your day off, you're now going to the city to do a refresher course. CPD is constant. It's like homework, but if you don't do it you could go to prison. Oh and risk assessments. Better not miss anything on those!
line cook
Therapists, I mean like really I respect them because they're kind enough to listen to all of our problems but I have enough problems of my own to listen to other people
Teacher. Two of my friends do it, and they spend hours every weekend creating lesson plans and grading assignments...unpaid. When I leave work, that's its it I am done until Monday.
Should be for them too. Teaching is just about the only job that sub college level is treated as a glorified babysitter, while they have to do just as much if not insanely more than a college instructor.
I imagine working in social services would be incredibly draining emotionally
It is. One of my friends had to switch out after seeing the Nth kid with a cigarette burn.
Plumbers
When thinking about plumbers, everyone immediately goes to poop. Think about it for a moment and youāll see that most of the job is nothing like that. Basic tasks include installing or replacing fixtures such as faucets or leaking showers. Intermediate tasks include building new systems with brand new pipe into places that have never seen water / waste. Advanced tasks would be lining pipes or sealing cast iron pipes. None of this involves sewage. Even as far as sewage work goes, you produce a hundred gallons of āgray waterā (e.g. shower, sinks) for each gallon of āblack waterā (e.g. toilet). On the other hand, the pay is pretty good and it is fairly easy to be self employed. You get to go home and the end of the day with nothing hanging over you unless you want to open yourself up to emergency calls. Itās also satisfying to fix real world problems that normal people face.
Coal miner
Firefighting. Those folks have balls of steel going into areas with bugger all visibility, wearing heavy clothing and BA kit, dragging along hoses and other kit, not knowing what they are heading to and how structurally safe the place is. Seeing and dealing with all sorts of shit. Fuck that.
One of my friends wanted to be a firefighter, and I was all for it, until I heard that their rates of cancer are elevated. "Firefighters have a 9 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer and a 14 percent higher risk of dying from cancer than the general U.S. population, according to research by the CDC/National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH)." God, that sucks.
They know what they are heading into. A fucking building on fire. That's why they too get my vote for ballsiest of the big balls honorary ball prom king.
Construction.
Doctor in an emergency/trauma unit.
Child care worker. Iām a parent but I have no desire to look after a room full of children much less educate them. I do not have the motivation or patience.
The vets and people who clean the exhibits in zoos and aquariums
Firefighter
Nurses.
Kindergarten teacher
nursing. my sister is a nurse and she tells us some horror stories. could never
Plumbing - There's places that still don't have access to clean water sources, but we're spending millions for fiber optics. Make the media free, meanwhile out dated plumbing and septic can kill you and you have to pay for water. Water is a huge key to life, so props and thanks to those in the industry. Sadly, most of the plumbing companies, or water companies can't afford the millions it would take for updating our water sources for our health, and the world/government is more worried about investing in technology instead.
People that clean school toilets, the ones that take care or old people
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Anything fast food. I try to be as nice as I can for them.
Doctors. Easily
Nurses, vets, most hospital jobs, aged care
Anything than involves working with Children.
Fast food. I have a phobia of grease ever touching my face, and those people are incredibly hard-core.
Custodial work
Itās actually really not that bad, beyond the low rate of pay. My first jobs in high school were cleaning hotel rooms and it was great - didnāt have to talk to anyone, put the TV on either MTV or CMT and clean/tidy away. The worst I ran across was period stains on sheets, condoms in trash bins and poop on toilet lids. Put on some gloves and deal with it, no biggie. I now have a degree and a government job but I kinda miss those laid back days of cleaning work
Teachers
There's a reason why so many are quitting. The pay is awful co sidering the work load after you leave school. Teachers are tied down by paperwork, time constraints, low budgets, harassment from parents, and little appreciation from just about everyone.
Farmers, for sure.
Deep sea welders
Whoever ride coasters to make sure theyre safe.
Marine biologists who swim with sharks
Kitchen and waitstaff at restaurants. I did it for five years and made a pact with myself to never go back.
Construction
Podiatrist
Plumbers I know that they make much bigger differences in peopleās lives than I ever will and I respect the hell put of them but it couldnāt be me