Disgusting Jobs

[Alaskan Survivalist]

With so many losing there jobs and having to settle for less suitable work I was wondering what you would be willing to do for a buck. My most disgusting job was "Sqeezing Herring". Herring sits in tubs until the fish gets soft and the eggs get hard then you sqeeze them to get the roe out. That's the easy part, the hard part is telling the difference between a male and female. What ever comes out of the males when sqeezed is....beyond description. Can any body top that?

[doug1980]

Worked on 2 hog farms. Besides the horrible smell, that stays in your clothes forever, I worked in the ferring houses where the babies were born. I casterated hundreds of pigs, scraped lots and lots of poo and afterbirth up. Not to mention what I had to do if a baby pig got stuck in the sow, it envolved a glove that went to my shoulder is all I'm saying.

[Alaskan Survivalist]

Worked on 2 hog farms. Besides the horrible smell, that stays in your clothes forever, I worked in the ferring houses where the babies were born. I casterated hundreds of pigs, scraped lots and lots of poo and afterbirth up. Not to mention what I had to do if a baby pig got stuck in the sow, it envolved a glove that went to my shoulder is all I'm saying.

I think that's going to be tough to beat!

[hunter63]

Catching turkeys to be slaughtered, throw your clothes away after you got done for the evening.
$.25 cents apiece. 1965 Fall.

[randyt]

crawling under a house with broken drain lines and the crawl so shallow i had to practically belly crawl.

[doug1980]

I think that's going to be tough to beat!

That was my first job ever and there was no recession. :) I'm just glad I wasn't the guy who had to catch the boar semen, now that would be worse.

[Ken]

I worked at a supermarket in high school and college. Started bagging groceries and shacking carriages in the parking lot. Absolute bottom of the food chain. I got to clean the restrooms! :)

One day, the store manager comes up to me and says he hates to ask, but he needs me to clean the ladies room right away.

I walked in there and gagged. Some sicko had crapped all over the place and smeared it all over the place. Handprints on the walls, mirrors, stalls, fixtures, door, towel and sanitary napkin dispenser.......... I never thought that one bowel movement could cover so much surface area.

I'll never forget that day. I was being paid less than $4.00/hr. - which was way above minimum wage - back then. To this day, everytime I spend a buck, I remember cleaning someone's sh*t off restroom walls for 15 minutes to earn a dollar.

[Ted]

Most disgusting job was in a hospital laundry! Nothing like empting 100# bags of sugery stuff thats 2 weeks old, maybe more! The OB/GYN stuff was the best, afterbirth, embilical cords, you name it, was all waded up, stuck in a laundy bag and put in a closet!
One time emping a bag in a washer I heared a clang and it was somebodies hip joint, you know the ball joint, rotten meat and all still attached!

[randyt]

I worked at a supermarket in high school and college. Started bagging groceries and shacking carriages in the parking lot. Absolute bottom of the food chain. I got to clean the restrooms! :)

One day, the store manager comes up to me and says he hates to ask, but he needs me to clean the ladies room right away.

I walked in there and gagged. Some sicko had crapped all over the place and smeared it all over the place. Handprints on the walls, mirrors, stalls, fixtures, door, towel and sanitary napkin dispenser.......... I never thought that one bowel movement could cover so much surface area.

I'll never forget that day. I was being paid less than $4.00/hr. - which was way above minimum wage - back then. To this day, everytime I spend a buck, I remember cleaning someone's sh*t off restroom walls for 15 minutes to earn a dollar.

as a plumber i can tell ya that the ladies are harder on a restroom than the men.

[Batch]

These conversations always come back to mice. LOL

[Alaskan Survivalist]

crawling under a house with broken drain lines and the crawl so shallow i had to practically belly crawl.

I was a plumbers helper for a time and what may not be apparent to everybody is what you are crawling in when then drain line is broken. They never seem to notice it until the smell gets inside the trailer. On jobs like that the highly skilled plumber would hand me the tools!

[randyt]

that's called the rite of passage

[Ken]

crawling under a house with broken drain lines and the crawl so shallow i had to practically belly crawl.


I was a plumbers helper for a time and what may not be apparent to everybody is what you are crawling in when then drain line is broken. They never seem to notice it until the smell gets inside the trailer. On jobs like that the highly skilled plumber would hand me the tools!

If it was my home and I was a plumber, I'd call another one. :innocent:

[randyt]

what gets me is that after performing said service and it is nasty, only then and i mean only then they want to complain about the bill.

[Rick]

I've worked in other peoples homes. Trust me, it does not get nastier than that. I've worked in homes where cock roaches dropped on you from the walls and ceilings, where rats were running under the house and all you could see were eyes staring back at you as you crawled through the crawl space. Lots of eyes. Where food on dishes was moldy in the sink and where you literally had to climb over stuff just to walk through the house. Ask any pest control, plumbing, electrician, HIVAC, appliance repair person. They know.

[trax]

Drove the "honey wagon" in an underground mine. Health regulations demand that you actually haul the pails back to the surface for disposal, there were a whole lot of mined out stopes (basically great big holes in the ground) down there that were going to be backfilled anyway, so needless to say, health regulations were often overlooked. The smell would leave me nauseous for days. (copious amounts of whiskey when I was off work tended to help)

[hunter63]

I've worked in other peoples homes. Trust me, it does not get nastier than that. I've worked in homes where cock roaches dropped on you from the walls and ceilings, where rats were running under the house and all you could see were eyes staring back at you as you crawled through the crawl space. Lots of eyes. Where food on dishes was moldy in the sink and where you literally had to climb over stuff just to walk through the house. Ask any pest control, plumbing, electrician, HIVAC, appliance repair person. They know.

10-4 on that!
As an HVAC guy, I'm still Missing a 5/16 nut driver that fell into a layer of dead roaches in the bottom of a furnace, disappeared.
I left it there, rather than fish it out.

House trailers,crawl spaces in general, really bad, just don't look around, get in, get the job done, and get out, you don't want to know want under there with you.
Wear coveralls, had some of the disposable sets, because to next job will be installing a thermostat in a living hall way with white carpet.

[crashdive123]

Treating a home that probably had in excess of 500,000 roaches, 7 rats in various stages of decomp, two cats in various stages of decomp, and one sofa that a human was in an advanced stage of decomp (about the consistency of soup). Yep - that one was less then fun.

[red lake]

Middle Management.

[Alaskan Survivalist]

Middle Management.

We have a WINNER!

[trax]

Middle Management.

whoa.....too gross to even consider....

[chiggersngrits]

I had a little rental house and the sewer main clogged up. The renters called one day and said the toilet overflowed. I went to check it out and had to call the rooter guy to clear the line. Problem solved. Three months later they call and say they smell sewage. I go take a look, everythings working fine. I go check the crawl space (max. height 2 ft.) and there is an ocean of crap. I had to get a pumper truck to pump it out as best they could. 2500 gallons. I spent the next 2 days on my belly spreading 800 lbs. of lime in the crawl space. Just lucky it was during the winter or they would of had to evacuate the whole block.
I sold that house about seven years ago. Every now and then I drive by and I swear that house has the greenest grass you've ever seen growing around the foundation.

[crashdive123]

Another that comes to mind - and thankfully I never had to do it.

To dispose of the waste in the holding tanks on board submarines, the tanks were pressurized to a bit above sea pressure and the contents were "blown" overboard. While the tanks were pressurized all of the "facilities" had to remain sealed. If that seal was broken while the tanks were pressurized, the contents of that tank would, under several hundred pounds of pressure, would erupt from the 2" line, and fill the entire bathroom (4 commodes, 3 sinks, 2 showers) with the contents of the tank. The fool that did not heed the warnings was the one that had to clean it up and disinfect the head.

Oh, and that eruption usually went straight into the face of the person trying to flush to a pressurized tank.

[Rick]

I think I posted on this before. I had a buddy that was stationed in Greenland. Some general flew in about 2:00 a.m. and he had to go out and pump the poop tank. While he was hooking up, the general stepped down out of the plane. My buddy gave him a decent good morning but that was it. The general asked him if he knew how to salute. He turned to the general and said, "Sir, I'm in Greenland. It's 2:00 o'clock in the morning, the temperature is -20° F. There's a 30 mph wind and I'm pumping sh@t out of your plane. What on earth could you possibly do to me that would be worse than this?" The general smiled and told him to carry on. At least that was his story.

[DOGMAN]

I pick-up approx 20 lbs of poop every day, put it in old dog food bags and then haul it all off every few weeks. I look at every piece of poop, examine its consistency, check it for worms, traces of blood etc...I have been doing this for years and years. Poop- human or animals no longer phases me. I can pick-up a piece of dog poop with my bare-hands to look at it, then a few minutes later eat a sandwich without washing my hands. I am completly desensitized to feces.

The most disgusting thing I've done for money? Probably exploit wildlife for profit. I am ashamed of some of the things I've seen and done- and, to me thats more disgusting than any body fluid, etc...

[crashdive123]

So Jason - WTSHTF, it'll just be another day?:innocent:

[Rick]

And probably a lot easier to look at for "consistency, check it for worms, traces of blood etc".

[Dennis]

I've worked in other peoples homes. Trust me, it does not get nastier than that. I've worked in homes where cock roaches dropped on you from the walls and ceilings, where rats were running under the house and all you could see were eyes staring back at you as you crawled through the crawl space. Lots of eyes. Where food on dishes was moldy in the sink and where you literally had to climb over stuff just to walk through the house. Ask any pest control, plumbing, electrician, HIVAC, appliance repair person. They know.

Yes I know been there done that. There's one I'll never forget.

[Stargazer]

If anyone else here flips burgers for a living you may be able to relate..I had to clean out the greas trap once a month.Its not all that bad once you get past the smell.The thing you dont want to happen is for the rotting stinking slop to oozze past youre rubber glove and fill a finger or two.I had a dish washer that tried to help me one time.He grabbed a wet dry vac and sucked the slop out.What he did not think of was that the trap held more than the vac did.A wet mist of stink flew out the exhaust.We cleared the kitchen and dining room that day.

[Old GI]

Another that comes to mind - and thankfully I never had to do it.

To dispose of the waste in the holding tanks on board submarines, the tanks were pressurized to a bit above sea pressure and the contents were "blown" overboard. While the tanks were pressurized all of the "facilities" had to remain sealed. If that seal was broken while the tanks were pressurized, the contents of that tank would, under several hundred pounds of pressure, would erupt from the 2" line, and fill the entire bathroom (4 commodes, 3 sinks, 2 showers) with the contents of the tank. The fool that did not heed the warnings was the one that had to clean it up and disinfect the head.

Oh, and that eruption usually went straight into the face of the person trying to flush to a pressurized tank.

Hey crash, that brings to mind - burning sh!t. Ask the old grunts around here.:gagged:

[rwc1969]

crawling under a house with broken drain lines and the crawl so shallow i had to practically belly crawl.

Especially when there's a dead opossum in the standing water. Been there done that. Other than cleaning out the refrigeration equipment and such of restaurants that's probably the most disgusting for me. Both had dead things floating in stagnant water and both were vile and disgusting.

I guess the only thing more disgusting would be eating the food that came outta those fridges.

[hoosierarcher]

I have smelled and seen human and animal decomp and while that smell is truly atrocious only one beats it in my opinion. A restaurant grease trap that has not been cleaned in living memory. Human, animal decomp and grease trap are all fat based so the smell gets in your clothes and even attaches to your skin. You can't get it out of your clothes and it takes three showers with lemon juice to decrease it enough from your skin that you can stand to be in the same room as yourself. Camphor under your nose has no effect. Decomp is behind all the worst smells. I think the reason we as human's find them so disgusting is that we have, in comparision to other animals very delicate digestive systems and eating decomposing meat could kill us. There is a chemical compound, I have no idea its use, however it is widely considered the foulest smell in the world. It smells so bad it causes physical pain and knocks you out cold. It doesn't poison you. It just smells so bad it makes your brain shut itself off temporarily. It is indescribable. Yes as a chemlab assistant I have smelled it and I did pass out. It makes me deeply shiver to recall it. Some scientists have wicked senses of humor. I almost killed him for it. If it hadn't knocked him out too I would have.

[Pal334]

Hey crash, that brings to mind - burning sh!t. Ask the old grunts around here.:gagged:

One of my NCOs used it as a motivational method on me, and of course I carried on that tradition, a crude but extremely effective method for attitude adjusting :)

[Rick]

Thank you, Mr. Pal, for that informative lesson...sir.

[Badawg]

crawling under a house with broken drain lines and the crawl so shallow i had to practically belly crawl.

Yeah.... I've done that... And also had to do it to remove a skunk hat got it's back end all smooshed by a car...

[huntermj]

Middle Management.


hey, i represent that remark!:tongue_smilie:

[red lake]

I've cleaned grease traps before. Biggest one I ever saw (did not clean) was at a factory in Toronto that processes the skin from pigs and turned it into gelatin for yoghurt and stuff. It was bigger than most swimming pools.

Still Middle Management is the most disgusting job I have ever done.

[rwc1969]

I never got to experience the grease traps, but I heard it was the worst of all.

[Pal334]

Thank you, Mr. Pal, for that informative lesson...sir.

I was my pleasure. In middle management, it is necessary to be knowledgable of all tools available :innocent:

[your_comforting_company]

do hobbies count? did I mention I'm a braintanner?
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg184/your_comforting_company/Brain%20Tanning/DSCN2780.jpg
I have helped clean out the grease-drip from a smoke house before. Not terribly unpleasant considering the smoke masked the smell, but looked pretty gross.

[Mtnman Mike]

Be hard to top most of those experiences.

But I have cleaned a lot of things especially when I was younger such as 30 years ago. Cleaning inside tanks which were over 100 degrees maybe 110, cleaning in pits with rotten corn etc. with thousands of maggots crawling around.

And the best was right out of high school when for two summers I cleaned the blood pit at a beef slaughterhouse in CO, with many inches of blood having to squeegee it down a drain which went to the blood tank then wash the blood off the floor. And cleaning the gut table which was over 100 feet long as a conveyor belt. Lifting many large cow stomachs off the floor which fell off the belt and pushing them into the trap door which went into the condemned room.
The condemned room is a room where a couple guys cut the cow stomachs open to empty the paunch inside. Never got the pleasure of working in there except to clean it. They padlocked that room to keep them inside or I guess to keep others out, found it interesting they padlocked it.
Which one time I had to go into the condemned room and clean up a mess, messier than usual with over 4 feet of cow stomachs, cow skulls etc. on the floor. :dead: That was in 1977 and still remember it clearly for some reason.

I also burn the waste out of my outhouse every summer on my mtn place, for the hole filled up years ago and I don't want to move the outhouse since there are two springs which I don't want to have it near. Which burning waste and many other jobs are nothing after my first jobs at the slaughterhouse.

[hoosierarcher]

I've cleaned grease traps before. Biggest one I ever saw (did not clean) was at a factory in Toronto that processes the skin from pigs and turned it into gelatin for yoghurt and stuff. It was bigger than most swimming pools.

Still Middle Management is the most disgusting job I have ever done.

Yea I've worked middle management too.

[Stargazer]

Hoosier, A few years back I helped with a Whale necropsis.The group I was with could not understand why it didnt bother me as much as it did them.I asked them if they had ever cleaned a greas trap.Then said No.Well there you go I said.

[doug1980]

So who wins the prize? Who has had the worst job?

[Alaskan Survivalist]

That would be tough call but I know sqeezing herring doesn't sound so bad anymore!

[Rick]

Grease traps, dead whales, pfffft. You oughta try being a moderator.

[Old GI]

Grease traps, dead whales, pfffft. You oughta try being a moderator.

NOW, that is going TOO far!!!!!!!!

[Rick]

'Zactly......

[Stargazer]

Pink thong wearing,twinkie eating moderator.Yup Rick wins hands down.

[Rick]

You know, that's pretty disgusting if you think about it. I hate pink.

[hunter63]

I vote middle management.

[red lake]

I think middle management had the most votes too.

The thing with middle management is that you do all the disgusting things and then get crapped on from above and below making it even more disgusting.

[Old GI]

OK, OK. Although I wasn't one, being a military aide in the White House has got to suck!!!! (especially in certain administrations).:innocent:

[Rick]

And the nominees are....


http://stayviolation.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834515bc269e20105371f640e970b-800wi

[Rick]

http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog/uploaded_images/bad_job.jpg

[Rick]

http://www.stolaf.edu/services/cel/4_18_08/worlds-worst-jobs-1.jpg

[Rick]

http://mrjam.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c00c753ef011168a8a36a970c-pi

[Rick]

http://www.jobs-and-career.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/indian-sewer-man_1375125i.jpg

[Rick]

http://onlyfunnyjokes.com/bestoftheweb/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/worlds-worst-jobs-5.jpg

[hoosierarcher]

http://onlyfunnyjokes.com/bestoftheweb/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/worlds-worst-jobs-5.jpgThe only thing that really freaks me out is being really high up on a man made structure. This picture almost gave me vertigo.:blushing:

[hunter63]

There was a story about a job opening for 30 people to smell pig manure and report on it.
Some University in Illinois
Bad enough right?

How how about all the people that got turned down for the job.............

"You ain't good enough to smell pig shmitt!"

[your_comforting_company]

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are!

On a topic related note.. I scraped a nice roadkill doe yesterday. I don't know how long it laid on the road, but 2 days of rinsing in running water did not help this thing at all. It was quite a challenge getting the hair off to rid it of the rancid smell while holding my breath. I didn't buck the hide at all and it was probably the easiest hide I ever scraped.. wierd.. It must have been REALLY close to rotten to scrape that easy. You really gotta love doing something a lot to put up with that kind of smell...
That being said, I probably overqualify for smelling pig shmidt.