this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Soil scientist. I spent 10 years stomping through the bush and digging pits when I got there.

Now I sit behind a desk.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's a good picture, great beard. And it's exactly how I imagined someone in your profession.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Shipwright welder. I crawl all throughout the bowels of Navy and civilian ships with my gear in tow. I build new areas, cut out old areas, and perform repairs on hulls and pipes.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I love welding. One of my favourite things to do in my previous job. I'm highly skilled at oxy-acetylene welding steel pipes in really tight and difficult places but my favourite one was TiG welding stainless steel with automatic and ventilated mask while listening to podcasts. Really meditative just being in your own bubble staring at the bright spot of molten metal.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'll go first.

Self-employed general contractor / plumber

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do you happen to be in the Toronto area?? I'm looking for a plumber. Lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Sorry, I'm across the Atlantic

[–] Crazyslinkz 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for your service

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

My boss just had me change two coworkers' passwords so they wouldn't be able to log back in.

I keep washing and washing, but the blood won't come off.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Flooring and Flooring Accesories

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Ah, the ol' Hank Hill of flooring.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Awesome. What do you farm?

[–] theatomictruth 12 points 2 months ago

Tallship sailor/rigger

[–] rowinxavier 10 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] Agrivar 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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!

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Software engineer. Sometimes I spill coffee, sometimes it's chocolate or chips crumbs.

It's honest, hard work, but someone has to do it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

As a software dev, I have spilt coffee on myself a number of times. People just don't understand what a hard working environment it is. 😞

[–] Anticorp 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Tyfud 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

what about industrial carpentry caused that?

[–] Anticorp 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] Cryophilia 9 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I load and run two large fiber lasers cutting sheets of metal up to 1 1/4 inch thick.

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[–] timduncant 8 points 2 months ago

Diesel mechanic, the black never washes off!!

[–] BluescreenOfDeath 8 points 2 months ago

I work for an ISP in the southeast USA as a field technician and it's dirty work sometimes. Fixing rodent damage to fiber connection boxes for businesses, placing temporary cables when underground lines get cut, working in dusty equipment closets, etc.

It's not bad or hard work most days.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I work in tech now, so I’m a lazy schlub. However, I’m also a college dropout out (English major) who had a ton of actual jobs in the past. Warehouse loading delivery trucks, worked in a cabinet shop, food service, etc. i

I think college grads who go into tech should have to work a normal job for at least a year before getting their tech job and making six figures right out of college.

Otherwise you end up with these entitled shitbags who complain that their company provided duck confit at lunch doesn’t have crispy enough skin (an actual thing that actually happened when i was at a big FANG company. Fucking unbelievable)

So even though I’m a techbro shitlord, i have respect for the people who work jobs.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Are you me? I’m also a lazy tech schlub now who was formerly a paint store warehouse worker, home renovation worker, etc.

Fully agree that everyone going into tech should spend real time working hard labor and retail. I genuinely feel that my non-tech experiences made me a better person and a better tech schlub.

I remember tech coworkers complaining that the wall filled with free snacks and candy didn’t have the right kind of snacks and candy, and having to hold myself back from going full Everett True.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Man i feel that complaining about the free snacks 100%.

Covid was so hard for some of these kids because they had to fend for themselves during the work day while working from home. Constant complaints.

You and i would get along great i bet :D

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Window manufacturing Our 2-part industrial sealing silicone gets everywhere; hands, clothes, hair, whatever. Never comes out of clothes and you gotta scrub hard to get it off skin.

[–] Sterile_Technique 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

I'm a mechanical engineer for a small manufacturing plant and I run their maintenance department. Its more hands on than most engineering jobs though.

[–] spankmonkey 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)
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[–] spittingimage 6 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] LovableSidekick 6 points 2 months ago

Proctologists need not reply.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I generally wash they with warm water and soap after I'm done or taking a break. I usually take one of those little dish soap bottles from the hotel when I travel to keep in the truck, cuts right through the grease and grime pretty well even if all you have is a jug of water on hand.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I work as an assembler in a sporting goods store. I assemble bicycles, indoor and outdoor furniture, bbqs, snowblowers, lawnmowers walk behind and rideon), log splitters.

[–] over_clox 5 points 2 months ago

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..

[–] JustRalph 4 points 2 months ago

Masterbate.

[–] RedAggroBest 4 points 2 months ago

It's not really "dirty" in the same sense but I'm a massage therapist. Don't think it gets more literally hands-on as far as a job goes lol. I primarily do deep tissue work, I REALLY enjoy injury-focused work, so it can be a bit tiring but it's generally pretty satisfying.

[–] Turbofish 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I process meat. My hands are rarely dirty but sometimes there seepage through my overalls.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I do janitorial work. I wear gloves though, so I'm not really getting dirty? I've done auto assembly work and some bullshit dealing with produce crates being sorted for cleaning that always left my hands black and shit after my shift in the past, though.

I've only ever worked 2 jobs that were not manual labor. I did network IT shit right out of highschool for about 2 years, and I also worked as a relay operator twice. Even as an ISP installer, it was mostly bolting things into things and running cable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I work in a factory supervising and working in a department of a company that is making accessories for yachts and oddly enough the military. Luxury and military equipment is definitely an odd combination.

I don't want to be too specific as there aren't many companies that do this, but some of our orders are 2-4 items, that are a very small part of a yacht and they sell for my whole salary and then some.... It's gross.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

My primary job is that of a software engineer, but I also run a small farm business. Out in the dirt, greasing equipment, repairing equipment, etc. all make me long for the Lava soap I remember as a kid.

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