I often get the sense that I’m in the only one here doing manual labor but I’m sure there are others.
Identify yourselves.
Soil scientist. I spent 10 years stomping through the bush and digging pits when I got there.
Now I sit behind a desk.
How can I reduce my poly count IRL to look more like a Dire Straights video like you do?
I’ll go first.
Self-employed general contractor / plumber
Thank you for your service
o7
I used to be a programmer, but I got sick of the whole corporate scene. Now I build and maintain houses - and my hands are dirty a good amount of the time!
Damn that’s a crazy transition. How do you like it?
Well, it’s been about twenty years and I haven’t gone back to the cubicle farm!
Diesel mechanic, the black never washes off!!
I don’t have a dirty job anymore, but the dirtiest job I’ve had by far was industrial carpenter. I’d go to work with clean jeans and a clean white shirt, and every day I’d come home with jeans that were black from the knees up, and a shirt that was black from the chest down.
I had to wear white shirts because nothing else would come clean. Only white with a lot of bleach would give any appearance of being laundered after a day at work on that job.
I still have a T-shirt from that job, some-odd 20 years later, and it has Hilti C100 industrial epoxy stains all over it, just as hard as the day the shirt was stained. That’s my “shit’s about to get real” work around the house shirt.
what about industrial carpentry caused that?
Working up in the rafters for concrete tilt-up buildings that had already been in service for decades. There’s so much nasty-ass grime up there, and years worth of dust and crud.
crud being a technical term I assume
I believe the industry standard term is “fucking bullshit”. ie. “Now I’ve got this fucking bullshit all over me!”.
Tallship sailor/rigger
Facility maintenance. We grease motors, change belts, tighten bolts. One of the fuel pumps on our generator has a leak, so that’s a fun bit of dirty hands.
My approach to maintenance also involves a lot of cleaning, because I believe clean equipment runs better over time. So cleaning off fan blades, insides of electrical cabinets, sumps, etc. We also fix sinks and toilets.
I work in disability support so I may use various creams while massaging, I get messy while helping people with washing and toileting, and I feed people which can get messy. I also help people with their yards, cleaning their house, washing their pets, whatever they need.
Proctologists need not reply.
Nice try FBI
Hands themselves stay clean, but through my gloves/gown, I’m regularly elbow-deep into blood, guts, and poop.
Surgical technologist. It gets pretty nasty.
Pay is kinda shit though, so I’m trying to switch over to nursing.
Damn, I wouldn’t expect the words “surgical” and “shit pay” to go together, especially when a basic surgery gets billed at $40,000+. From what you described your day at work to involve, you deserve all the money! Especially since you’re helping people.
We’re ultimately ‘just a tech’. We make enough to pay the bills, but not enough to make things like the check engine light not-terrifying.
It’s a good foot-in-the-door job, especially if your path of entry is like mine (enlisted USAF, they just told me “You’re going to be a surgical tech!” and I was like “Cool! …what the fuck is a surgical tech?” and they covered all my training for it).
I generally discourage people from actually paying to go through a surgical tech school, cuz if you can afford that, then you can afford to go to nursing school, and nurses make about twice what we do.
Super cool experience, but not a good long-term career choice.
Masterbate.
Caretaker for my father. Lots of poop.
Also still paying my dues to the electrical union. That was a dirty AF job. Miss it a bunch, tho.
I do occasional vehicle maintenance, like replacing brakes, starters, alternators, water pumps, radiators, etc.
Last one I did the other week was replace an old rotted leaky fuel line. Fun fun…
I unload pallets of computer gear. That’s not the main part of my job, but it’s something that happens from time to time.
