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.

  • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

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

    Now I sit behind a desk.

  • That_Devil_Girl@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        I’m shit at welding for someone who’s generally handy in just about every other area. If you want two pieces of metal that barely stick together, with wires sticking out all across the seam, then I’m your guy!

        • domdanial@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 months ago

          Right? I tried my hand at welding a rec tube to a plate to make an oil tank for knife making. I had to use epoxy to keep it water tight.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      Do you get covered from head to toe with grease and grime? Does it pay well? I have a friend who’s about ready to wrap up his underwater welding classes, and supposedly he’ll make some big bucks after he graduates.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    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.

  • Agrivar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    2 months ago

    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!

  • rowinxavier@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    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.

  • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    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.

  • BluescreenOfDeath@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    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.

  • skmn@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    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.