Any DUers presently employed doing manual labor

[Hardrada]

Or are we mostly paper pushers? Just curious.

[Heidi]

1. How about paintbrush pushing?

Making art is manual labor, I believe.

[enigmatic]

2. I can't do the 9 to 5 thing

never could..

[givemebackmycountry]

3. I'm a paper pusher now and I'm paid well for it...

BUT.

I've done every from dig ditches in the Denver winter to lug concrete block in the Mile High summer.

I've pushed, pulled, toted, dug, drove, carried and lugged everything from 100 lb bags of cement to 18 foot conference tables.

I'd rather push paper any day of the week.

How much manual labor you think Rove or the Monkey have done in their miserable lives?

Huh?

[Hardrada]

15. None!

Bush anyway has probably always had a staff of some kind to pick up after him.

[punpirate]

4. I did manual labor of some sort...

... almost up until the time I was fifty, and I've got the back to prove it.

[BulletproofLandshark]

5. I'm in manufacturing

I've worked in the bindery area of a press for the last 7 years, working from 8 P.M. to 8 A.M. Wed.-Fri., and then every other Saturday. It's very fast-paced work, and a lot of people can't do it. But it pays the bills and it's nice to only have to work 14 days out of every month.

[ForrestGump]

6. No, but I'm outside in extreme heat (like 120 F or more) and dressed

suboptimally in a job that is still very physical.

Done afair bit of manual labor, though, and a big chunk of my main career involved what many consider a dangerous activity under arduous circumstances. Most of my jobs have been very physical in nature, come to think of it. I've never had a job that consisted solely of desk work.

[Hardrada]

28. Take care in the heat!

I liked your Phil Ochs quote. Miss his help to us a lot.

[BigB]

7. grounds keeper

I'm a groundskeeper at a local assisted living center. I most cut grass and fix things

[xmas74]

10. Welcome to DU!

[nytemare]

19. Welcome to DU, hope you enjoy it!

[SarahB]

8. Kind of.

Pretty physical patient care stuff. I'm pretty toned and can now eat cookies sometimes without putting on weight.

[Maine-ah]

9. I do.

But I also push paper as well. I work at a Foodservice, in which we also operate a Cash and Carry. I toss around cases of wine and beer, along with 30lb cases of french fries, canned goods, 50lb bags of flour, ect... and I deal with accounts receivable. I hurt at the end of my day...summer hours about 50-60 per week, winter hours are 40 per week.

I also have a second job at a restaurant as a retail consultant. Which about another 10-20 hours per week.

My husband works with me at the foodservice. He pulls a longer week there than I do. He works about 60-70 hours per week, and he throws around alot more shit than I do.

[xmas74]

11. I've worked in factories, slaughterhouses and nursing homes.

I would never be ashamed to go back to that (I'm actually thinking about it since I could make more in a factory than I am making now).
In the factories and slaughterhouses my hands hurt more than anything else. In a nursing home (I was an aide/med person) my back and legs always hurt.

[Hardrada]

18. I know nursing home work is demanding.

And good for you that you did it. Not everyone can.

[xmas74]

21. I needed the money.

I think that they rip off CNAs. They are paid too little for what they are expected to do and then they call them "unskilled labor". I take offense to that. Any job that you work demands a skill-any job.
IMHO, "unskilled labor" is just a term thrown around to promote classism.

[Hardrada]

25. It's the same story all around

With health care institutions. It might be because of the crazy wage differential between hospital admin and M.D.'s and everyone else practically. (although some surgical RN's around here make some good $$). I was in housekeeping and was basically a serf.

[xmas74]

30. RN's can make decent money

but they get awful hours and there is no real respect for them anymore. I have an aunt and a close friend who are both nurses and I've heard the story often.
There is no respect anywhere anymore for the working wo/man. We are supposed to be happy w/ what we get and never ask for anything else. So many work harder than most would ever expect yet there is zero respect given to them.

It makes me want to puke!

[Hardrada]

31. I have always had the thought

that our capitalist economic system REQUIRES women to work for less. The system must be changed. Once women are equal to men in respect to social, economic and political justice we will find much more satisfaction in our work, and I am speaking as a man who has always supported the cause of women.

[KG]

12. push paper M-F, then about one w/e a month spent doing handy-man

stuff. also been a carpenter, painter, unloaded trucks, shelf stocker, fast food. i can cut a board, swing a hammer and paint brush, and mop a floor. this city boy can survive.

[FLSurfer]

13. At the present I'm a paper pusher

But, I earned the money for my business by doing manual labor.
I'm no stranger to 'real' work.
My family and I moved into our new house last year after spending the preceding three years building it.
We all worked on this thing. Even my, then 11 y/o, daughter was driving nails and fetching tools and wood.

[Hardrada]

14. Sounds like you folks put in a lot of hard work.

I did a lot of hospital work myself, mostly maintenance and housekeeping. And yard work and snow shoveling grade school and high school, worked on a loading dock one summer and then did delivery for a several years in hot and cold weather in an unairconditioned vans in a hot city downtown! My current biz is books used and rare and boxes of books are always heavy and I carry a lot of them around. Helps keep some weight off maybe. I write too but that is more mental stress than anything else.

[RetroLounge]

16. I type all day on a computer

but it IS manual, after all...

and my knuckles are in great shape!

RL

[Hardrada]

22. Manual by Definition!

[LeftyMom]

17. I do both

most days I shuffle paperwork and answer phones, but sometimes I get stuck doing cleaning, buiding repairs and stuff like that.

[hfojvt]

34. aha, so on a bad day, you do my job

Once I found out I could do factory work, that is all I have been able to get. Actually before that I could not get anything. Is retail considered manual labor? It pays less than factory work.

[MrSlayer]

20. I'm a skilled laborer. Union Electrical Constructor.

I.B.E.W. Local 98. I could never work in an office.

[Hardrada]

23. Love the unions!

We get a lot of support from them around here at election time.

[LincolnMcGrath]

24. Trade Union Worker

[Hardrada]

26. Good for you.

I am always cheered up when I see a car with that union logo. What union?

[WhollyHeretic]

27. Carpenter, hoping to join electrician's union tomorrow

I've got an interview at 8:00, I've got to get to bed in a minute.

[two gun sid]

29. Union Electrician

[WMliberal]

32. until August 22nd, I work in a kitchen.

then I'm starting my career as a high school social studies teacher.

[Cobalt Violet]

33. Hairdressing and Artist here.

If you call standing on your feet cutting hair for 6 hrs. + with no break manual than I am a manual laborer. It does require a lot of skill for which we are so underpaid, and the benefits suck. I can't afford to buy into the company health plan.

[ChaoticSilly]

35. Manual labor here

although I sat behind a desk as a dispatcher for a courier company for a few years before asking to be transferred to the warehouse. It's hot in the summer & cold in the winter, but at least I get exercise and I'm not chained to a desk all day.

I'm thinking of making a change soon though, the company I work for has really been letting the working conditions slide the past few months. We're extremely under staffed, half of our equipment doesn't work & management prefers yelling at the employees when the customers get upset rather than actually trying to fix the problems. The worst part is, any suggestion that doesn't come from management is automatically disqualified, then a week or 2 later, someone higher up on the food chain suggests exactly the same thing & gets all kinds of raves about it.