America’s toughest jobs land primetime shift
“What if you had a chance to change your job? Would you take it?” That’s the question the host of NBC’s new reality show, “America’s Toughest Jobs,” asks the audience at the beginning of the first episode. But these contestants won’t be ditching their office chairs for a cushy corner office or a six-figure paycheck—they’ll be trying their hands at some of the most grueling, back-breaking and dangerous jobs in the United States.
Bull riding, oil drilling and Alaskan crab fishing are just a few of the jobs these competitors will be asked to tackle, gigs that include having ship captains and site managers screaming in their faces and pointing out every mistake. Still, we picture many viewers sitting at home and thinking, “That’s easy, I can do that.” But in the first five minutes, the participants have to bite the head off of a dead fish—and swallow it. Do you think you could do it?
So if you would leave the water cooler talk behind and become a lumberjack or an ice road trucker, maybe you should try out for next season. As for us, we’ll stick by the coffee pot and leave the hard labor to more adventurous folks. But we would like to give kudos to those men and women who brave the elements to perform those tough jobs every day, despite the risk of a bull horn to the rib or falling overboard into below-freezing waters. Yikes.
We want to hear about your toughest job. Leave us a comment below and tell us about the hardest job you’ve ever had–even if you only lasted a day.
ALSO: Read our job advice to help you in your job search.
September 1st, 2008 21:55
My hardest job experience would have to be ” Hot Work” as they call it in the Roofing Business. My job consisted of carring two five gallon buckets of “Hot Roofing Tar” which was about 1500 degrees hot and i would along with other workers go to the pipe that would pump the hot tar up to the roof that was a aircraft hanger at Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, Calif.
The building was so big that the supervisors would drive quad runners on the roof deck to check out all the roofers and crews that worked only nights in the summer due to the hot weather. At midnight it would be 90 to 100 degrees. And the desert
winds would get so gusty and sand blowing that you had in your eyes, nose, mouth, ears.
We would have to keep the foreman of the crew who also was the hot mopper that we had to keep supplied with hot tar at all times. We would have to run with the two buckets of hot tar across the roof and pour it into what they call the murphy.
And we would do this none stop the full eight hours of our shift. I have got burned many times and talk about “Pain” the tar would burn your skin and the first thing you had to do was find water.Pour the water on the burn and let it cool before you pull the hot tar off your skin. When you pull the tar off you also pull the first two layers of skin off with it. A third degree burn and scar for life!
Very painful!
I have seen guys running with the tar and slip and fall and the tar would spill and the worker would and did fall on his back or knees into the tar. Never seen them again. Your back would be so sore at the end of the day that i would be so tired when i got home that i would wake up the next morning still in my work clothes from the day before and have arms like an ape from carrying the buckets. Up and down roof ladders, carrying materials to load the roofs, Walking on steep slope roofs. Every part of your body takes punishment from roofing. Try it!
Jimmy James Jr.
Lamont, Calif