Workin' hard or hardly workin'?

November 29, 2006 8:47 AM

Manual Labor - Are you drawn to it, OR do you make a living doing it?

This is really a two-pronged question:

1. Are you drawn to manual labor from another chosen vocation, which doesn't involve much physicality? What makes it appealing to you, and what manual labor jobs attract you?

2. If you currently work in manual labor, are you satisfied? Why/why not? Is this a temporary or permanent thing for you?

Manual labor examples:
Construction, logging, some shipping jobs, warehouse, landscaping, roadwork, oil rigs, mining... I'm sure there are plenty more.

posted by zhivota to Work & Money (24 answers total)

I've often said that my favorite job was working as a construction laborer one summer between college semesters. We were building a park, and it was nice to be outside, in the sun, keeping lean and tan and building something tangible.

If I could earn in construction a similar salary to what I earn in software consulting, and I could shake this drive to be a "success", I'd trade in my desk, chair and laptop at the drop of a construction helmet.
posted by syzygy at 8:55 AM on November 29, 2006

it ain't bad when thought of in that idealic sort of summer job way, which plugs into the emotion all sorts of other feelings...freedom, youth, no need to worry about much, summer and the sunshine etc....

but man, working it in the cold sucked when I helped remodel a house in early spring...no glamour then.....and I'm a journalist now and love my job, but I don't know if i'd like to be out there rain or shine....

on a nice day though, manual labor does get enticing...that's when i go home and mow the lawn - that usually tires me of the notion pretty quickly...
posted by Salvatorparadise at 9:01 AM on November 29, 2006

I repeatedly toyed with the idea of pursuing Masonry, particularly stone masonry, but the classes, training, licenses, etc. are prohibitive right now (I'm a database rat, former newspaper journalist, and English major).

I like the idea of actually making something, something useful, something physical, something that will last. A lot of office work is, not necessarily pointless, but feels insubstantial and often requires the same process the next quarter/year. If I built a wall, and built it right, it would stay built.

Manual labor, whether it be construction, fabrication, or small engine repair, also has practical applications in the home, whereas computer skills enter in only peripherally. I also like the possible creative uses for the various skills.

Also, my father used to try to convince me to develop a useful and marketable skill in case of technological collapse/Armageddon (cabinetry, woodworking, barrel making etc), but he's a little eccentric.
posted by JeremiahBritt at 9:02 AM on November 29, 2006

My mom's landscape contractor has a PhD in English Lit and used to teach it. He discovered he liked construction and landscaping better. California is chock full of people like this. They've found creating something tangible through physical effort more rewarding than anything else they've done.
posted by small_ruminant at 9:26 AM on November 29, 2006

My husband has been working in construction for 16 years. He spent 4 years at an accredited technical college and got his ticket in carpentry. His only other non-construction job was stringing and selling tennis rackets.

It's his life's work. He has been working 40-60 hours a week for the last year renovating our house. He keeps daily work notes so he knows how long each step of the project took. He has a sketch pad that he uses to draw out the roof and deck designs. He'll work on those sketches for hours. Many times I see him staring out the window (in the evenings and on weekends, which is his "rest time") at work in progress, thinking. Right now he is outside, in 20 degree weather, building steps for the front porch. He doesn't do it because someone else is telling him to - he does it because he wants to.

I'd say he's fairly satisfied with his work. It's the only thing he knows. He's very talented and thorough, and does fantastic work. It's also reasonably creative - he's built sheds, treehouses, cabinets, and big extensions to houses. He's renovated pubs and refinished basements. He's also constantly learning new things - now he's learning basic plumbing and wiring so he doesn't have to hire it out.

Right now, he is working full-time on the house and does not need to work for pay. He is enjoying the break from having a "real job" - dealing with bosses, clients, traffic, and unreliable coworkers. He'd rather rig a rope to hang a 16 foot soffit (soffet?) than hire somebody to help him and deplete our budget and deal with sketchy contractors. His main challenge is the weather. He is also stressed because this is the first time he's owned the place he's working on - lots of additional responsibility. He's out there rain or shine, though. There's no shortage of things to do.
posted by crazycanuck at 9:29 AM on November 29, 2006

If you Google for interviews with Mike Rowe (host of Discovery's Dirty Jobs), he has some really interesting insights on manual labor, with the experience to back it all up.
posted by sarahsynonymous at 9:30 AM on November 29, 2006

I worked as a house painter for about six months. Aside from the poor wage and lack of benefits, I loved that job. I think it's about actually using your body. You don't realize how a desk job can wreck havoc on your body unless you've used your body in a work situation.

Here too, if I could make a decent living on it, I would. Actually, I suppose I could, but I like the cushy world I live in a bit too much right this moment. I wouldn't hesitate to pick it back up if I needed to though.
posted by FlamingBore at 9:32 AM on November 29, 2006

I did warehouse work one summer (not the heavy lifting though), and I enjoyed it. It was a pretty social job. I was surrounded by other people, and we could talk while we worked, though we'd fall quiet when we were focused or whatever. There was always something to keep me busy, but the work moved at a steady enough pace that I wasn't bored and was varied enough that I wasn't stressed. I also liked the pay.

Annoying: we hired on someone who was really obsessively perfectionistic and a bit of a workaholic. This person wanted to do everything super-fast, which made the rest of us look bad. When you work super fast in a physical environment you'll either wear yourself out or run out of work. Neither is ideal.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 9:37 AM on November 29, 2006

er, steady enough that I wasn't stressed and varied enough that I wasn't bored.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 9:40 AM on November 29, 2006

Fieldwork - being a dig rat - is my best first-hand experience. I know a few people who don't want to advance so they don't have to go into the lab to analyse the stuff they dig up. Some of it can be pretty heavy lifting when going through backfill on rescue sites, or just carting around 5 gallon buckets of the silty clay crap along the sound here. On the other hand, I know people who left the field do to advanced degrees because they ended up with near-crippling carpal-tunnel and other RSIs. I...I don't do fieldwork much (and switched into museums) because I am the clumsiest thing in the world if you give me a shovel. Fieldwork for CRMs (private archaeology firms) are also notoriously sexist and a pain in the ass to get hired by if you don't have an 'in.'

That being said, I've been looking at manual labor jobs while I've been underemployed. I work doing data entry at a hospital and it is killing me to be inside all day. This time of year I don't see the sun at all. I applied for a farm job, but my inability to drive stick foiled that. I may look again in spring.

Now, my brother is an example of someone who was pushed and pushed into academia and then just went into mechanics. I don't know if that fits your example of manual labor, but he enjoys it because he likes the physical result of having things work. Not just logically, but when things click into place and work smoothly together again, he's happy as hell.
posted by cobaltnine at 9:44 AM on November 29, 2006

I enjoy manual labor as a break from my paying job; it makes me feel good and sleep better to get some exercise and enjoy seeing the fruits of my labor around the house, whether it is a room I painted or some landscaping I did.

I have a friend who is a carpenter and says it is a skill that is marketable around the world. I don't know how he finds jobs, but he has worked in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, among other places.
posted by TedW at 9:52 AM on November 29, 2006

That being said, I've got friends who do theatre carpentry, and many of them are looking at getting out of it. I've done it in the past, and it is rewarding in many ways, but it's also very draining. Quite often my friends just get home and crash on the couch because they've been doing physical labor all day and they're just plain worn out.

I've enjoyed it in short bursts, but I got out of it, in large part for better paying opportunities. They're in about the same boat. If it's something you think you'd enjoy, take it up as a hobby also. I'm always fixing stuff around my place, and around friend's places. It's sort of a running joke that I'm the group boyfriend for many of my female friends since I end up fixing stuff so much. It really is satisfying to complete a project and have it be a job well done.
posted by KirTakat at 10:04 AM on November 29, 2006

I worked as a manual laborer for nearly ten years (sorting packages and loading aircraft). That was almost 20 years ago but I still sometimes miss being able to visually experience a job completed. Unload the planes, sort the packages, load the planes, the flights departed, job done, you go home and don't take your work with you.
posted by Carbolic at 10:12 AM on November 29, 2006

I loved doing manual jobs. I was a lifeguard/swim instructor 19 summers (no, the kind of guard that fixed everything and really worked), but I also cleared brush, landscaped, worked in warehouses, did a bit of carpentry and everything in Dad's electronics manufacturing plant. Then I became a preschool/kindergarten teacher, which was continuing to do a very physical job (Don't believe me, do it yourself!). Was easy stuff as I was super strong, and I loved that feeling of putting all that effort into accomplishing the work. Pay for them was good, except some warehouses and the preschool were poor, more's the pity. Morale & pride for all but some of the warehouses was VERY good....for the most part, great folks doing great work they enjoyed.

I wish I could still put in days of that kind of work, but genetic problems with my back prevents normal activity at times (Not caused by that manual work). Desk jockey isn't my cup of tea, but all I can do for now.

Mike Rowe and his show Dirty Jobs has done great work showing the value & pride of physical and filthy jobs done well. Do check it out on the Discovery Channel if you haven't seen it yet (might want to not eat dinner then though!).
posted by mattfn at 10:23 AM on November 29, 2006

You listed mining alongside everything else: Every miner I know with kids does not want his kid to be a miner. It's a filthy, dangerous job.

I've never worked in the mines themselves, but I worked in the zinc processing plant. It was still the best paying job I've had but I wouldn't go back.
posted by RobotHero at 10:25 AM on November 29, 2006

This seems awfully chatfiltery (i.e. I'm not sure why you really want to know), but I work full time in a cubicle and teach flying trapeze on the side. I was VERY drawn to the idea of teaching flying trapeze when I started because I wanted to work with real people and physical moving things instead of words and data, and I get restless behind a desk. I also thought it would be less stressful than an office job. As it turns out there's still plenty to make me anxious in the trapeze job (oh, you know, being responsible for people's lives) but I do really enjoy moving around and using my body. For the time being I am sticking with the office job full time because I find it more interesting and mentally stimulating, and it takes less energy out of me.
posted by nevers at 11:03 AM on November 29, 2006

I work offshore, again, which I first did fifteen years ago. Then, I was in my early twenties, and offshore work was exactly the kick in the ass I was looking for.

Now I'm back, because I needed the money and didn't finish what I was doing last time.

I was drawn to it before, but I make a living doing it now. I enjoy it a lot more now, though, than I did then.

The aspects I enjoy, or enjoyed the first time: hard physical labor that pushes my limits; being outside; being at sea; the pay; my vanishing gut; coworkers who address their differences openly, unvarnishedly.

The aspects I don't enjoy so much: coworker drama; coworkers who get their cues straight from Fox News; weeks away from home.
posted by atchafalaya at 11:17 AM on November 29, 2006

My most recent job involved grabbing a sheet of metal, throwing it on the machine, stepping on a pedal, pushing a button, going to next machine, grabbing a cut piece of metal, placing it in machine, stepping on pedal three or five times, returning to first machine, taking punched sheet metal from machine, putting new sheet of metal on machine, pedal, button, shaking out metal from punched piece and stacking, returning to second machine, repeat, repeat, repeat. I didn't like going to work in clothes that were torn and covered with grime, and I was always embarrassed when people asked me what I did, answering something like, "ah, I just work in a factory". But I was okay doing it and intended to stick with it, because at three 12 hour days a week I had more days off than on, and, while not great money, it was enough to cover my rent, more than I'd make at lots of other mostly unskilled manual labour jobs, and I'm tired of looking for work when my opportunities feel limited.

But last week they called me into the office and said they had to let me go, because the slowdown in the housing market has crippled sales. I'm almost 45 and this is my recent history - going to temp agencies for light industrial manual labour, where on any phonecall I could end up in a decent factory for a few months of steady work or picking up garbage for an afternoon, but eventually someone would hire me on, only to face layoffs or closure or retrenchment within a couple years, so back to the temp agency. I'm a little guy who doesn't own a wrench or a hammer, who never tore apart motors as a teenager; I don't feel suited to these types of jobs, but I don't know what the alternative is. I'm afraid the cycle is going to get tougher in the latter half of my working life, and now that I'm again unemployed I'm trying to think of some marketable skill I could train for rather than running back to the temporary agencies.

I do see people in the factories who are satisfied with what they do. There are some jobs that are highly skilled, technologically advanced, with good futures, where employees have to work with their heads as much as their hands. But in much of it, the work is boring, simple and repetitive; done for no other reason than a paycheque. But then go-nowhere drone work isn't exclusive to manual labour employment.
posted by TimTypeZed at 11:44 AM on November 29, 2006

I think by Salvatorparadise has it right, a lot of us who sit in offices putting on weight now had manual summer/college jobs where we had a great time, had few expenses, and an end date in sight. We remember it fondly ... for me it's all the high school and college years spent bartending.

However, I think we can over romanticize it. I manage construction projects now, and am often jealous of the guys on our sites who are young, fit, skilled and don't take their work home every night ... but on the other hand, one contractor I worked with had some sixty-something labourers and plasterers on staff who looked exactly as you'd expect for people who spent their whole lives breaking their backs and dealing with lousy weather. Some of those guys looked defeated, but unable financially to quit.
posted by jamesonandwater at 1:37 PM on November 29, 2006

Thanks everyone, there are too many best answers to mark, but I'll come back in and try later on when it looks like the thread is about finished.

To the person who said they didn't see what I really wanted out of the question, that's a fair statement. I intentionally left that part out because I wanted to discourage the type of seat of the pants psychology that always comes up, analyzing why the poster wants to ask what they're asking, etc. I was truly looking for real experiences and opinions from people, unbiased by a specific question which the answerer probably doesn't know or care anything about. I think the information that came out of this query could be valuable to people considering where they want their lives to go, and so I'm going to leave things the way they are.

Some themes I have observed so far:

-Not all manual labor jobs are created equal.
By this I mean that it looks like people who are creating something themselves tend to take a specific pride in that, while those who are simply doing a repetitive motion which doesn't necessarily have an end product in sight may not get as much out of it. Being able to see the end result is a big reward.

-Secure factory jobs are hard to come by anymore.
Hey I know all about this, if you look at my location, I'm right in the heart of the Rust Belt.

-Some people do choose to move to manual labor, especially creating things, and even better if it involves the outdoors.
One person said there were tons of people like this in California, my take would be that maybe that's because of the weather? If you can have great weather the majority of the year, an outdoors job can be a great thing. Where I live, I'm not sure I would want to work construction, because they have to shutdown for months at a time when the snows start (they also call this the Snow Belt).

Once again, thanks everyone for responding.
posted by zhivota at 1:42 PM on November 29, 2006

I've always wanted to start a "blue collar vacation" service for those of us in officeland who are sick of spending days writing powerpoint presentations. I'd gladly pay someone to let me jackhammer something for a day. Yes, it'll suck if you do it every day, but one day would be really fun.
posted by mtstover at 2:30 PM on November 29, 2006

I started woodworking six years ago after I gained the distinct impression that I was losing contact with my fingers. I had been doing a lot of IT development, graphics work and teaching (and still do) and increasingly felt that I was a brain in a bucket. Besides which, I needed furniture, and everything I looked at was far too expensive and/or poorly made.

While my woodworking has been on hiatus for a few months (pending a workshop refurbishment), I have found great satisfaction with it. It's creative work, lighting up different areas of my brain, while having a refreshing physicality. It engages my senses - hearing, smell, and vision - in ways that IT work does not.

It's not work that I would want to do full time, or under a deadline or budget, even for pay. That would reduce the pleasurable aspects of it and make the work more of a chore. I don't believe I'm alone in this: in there's a hand plane commonly known as a "gent's plane", popular with professional gentlemen of an earlier era who needed a small, handy plane to do occasional work.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 3:50 PM on November 29, 2006

I grew up in southeast Michigan, and most of the men in my extended family do manual labor for a living. None of them have college educations, and some don't have highschool diplomas. My dad loads stock from a warehouse to a truck then to store shelves, and does not enjoy it. It's just a job for him - it supported a family of five and gave us health insurance. I have cousins who work on factory lines, and for them it's pretty much the same. The only benefit, as pointed out above, is that you can leave your work at work, and don't have to stress out about it when you come home (unless Ford is laying people off...).

My cousins and uncles who do construction, housepainting, and RV repair do seem to like their jobs more. I don't know whether this is because they are outside and can see the finished product, like you suggest, or just because they are inherently less repetitive and more creative jobs. However, these jobs don't pay as much or come with the benefits and steady workload of factory/warehouse jobs. Plus, they seem to take more of a physical toll, so it's a tradeoff.
posted by twoporedomain at 7:27 PM on November 29, 2006

One of my maternal uncles is a manual laborer -- "in construction," he says, as mystifyingly as possible. As I understand it, his job involves lots of carrying heavy things, lots of putting nails into things, and also (although he isn't an electrician) lots of wiring, especially of phones and TVs.

He's a pretty big guy, probably 6'2"ish and really, really solid. I believe he attended community college (where I think he got an associate degree) -- because my grandfather was very firm about the benefits of education. But I can't picture my uncle working in an office, or indoors at all. Physically he's not as big as other men in my family, but my uncle seems larger than life -- his voice is louder, his tread is heavier, his gestures are broader, his manners are much more dominant and less deferential. To me, he doesn't seem suited to any office environment I've seen.

He doesn't love the job itself, but he does like some of its benefits. He talks about work a lot, and I just saw him over Thanksgiving, so I think I have a pretty good list.

Dislikes:
-most customers (he works on a lot of new developments)
-bad weather
-irregular days/hours (staying and working until a problem's fixed or a task's done)
-problems that arise ("why won't this %$ phone line work when it did five minutes ago?")
-some coworkers
-one boss/overseer
-pay is "less than he deserves"

Likes:
-exercising on the job (means he stays relatively fit but doesn't need to exercise on his own time)
-being outside in good weather
-irregular days/hours (getting in later, having days off)
-problems that arise ("how can I get this %$ phone line to work again?")
-some coworkers
-one boss/overseer
-pay allowed him to buy a house, and to support himself, his girlfriend, and his dog
-standards the job and culture hold him to (shoulder-length hair, large visible tattoos, drinking, and smoking are all things that are okay in his line of work, but wouldn't necessarily be in another)
posted by booksandlibretti at 9:06 PM on November 29, 2006