My job is not hard work? I have had multiple discussions with people about whether what I do for a living is hard work or not. The implication goes beyond stating that what I do does not involve physical labor. Sure it is not hard physical labor but what I do for a living is hard work. When I get home at the end of the night I am mentally drained. It is at times so taxing that I cannot even relax and stop thinking about the work that I have to do. That is not even counting my ability to telecommute and continue working after I’ve had dinner.
It is a difficult subject to discuss because there are several ramifications, cultural, social and economic. My Mother always told me that if I wanted to keep a friend I should never discuss politics or religion with them, well I think this subject is up there in that category also.
I also want to include a little side note here. I hope it will illustrate the respect that I have for the people that do perform physical labor type jobs on an every day basis. What I did last night is a job that I certainly would not want to do every day. One of our ceiling fans at home became loose, so Cielo and I tackled the task of fixing it, which by the way we completed successfully. I had looked into the attic when we first bought the house and it looked crammed but not too bad. I thought going up there was not going to be the most difficult part of this little electrical endeavor.
Well I had a surprise coming to me last night when I had to literally crawl to move up there. I am still itchy from the insulation all over my arms. I spent probably 15 minutes there fixing the support for the ceiling fan with limited oxygen and limited maneuverability. So don’t think for a second that I do not have the utmost respect for people that perform physical tasks everyday for work. Also I want to note that I was a UPS loader, not for very long at all (I think about a month) but I did experience how difficult and taxing on your body it is to perform physical labor. All my jobs in the service and fast food industry I consider borderline.
Where to draw the line is the first murky decision that needs to be made to steer this discussion. I could draw a line between professional jobs that require a college degree and vice versa, but for this subject I think we can concentrate on mental vs. physical labor. It is a lot more difficult than just that, because how can we say that a doctor who performs a job that at times can be very mentally taxing does not have to also perform tasks that push the human body to its limits. Wow, when I first started to write about this topic I did not think it would be this difficult.
To simplify things lets just say that I have had people come up to me as a computer programmer and told me that a days worth of my work is not the same as their job as a carpenter building houses. I don’t have the skills to perform that job and vice versa. But at the end of the day did he work harder than I did? Is he more able to relax since he cannot perform his job while not at the site, but I am left to still think of how to make a program bug go away?
I am on call pretty much 24-7. The times for support come and go with projects, some require me to work 30 hours straight until something is completely set up and running, others a call in the middle of the night: come out of a deep sleep to remember details on how to make something work. My point is not that my job is a lot more difficult, I just want the recognition from people that perform physical jobs that what I do while not physical is still hard work.
28 Jul 05
Who in the hell said something to make you upset like this John?
28 Jul 05
Being waked up in the middle of the night is horrible. It also would make your work MORE physical because it changes your schedule. Isn’t the sleep schedule something physical? Doesn’t it affect your whole body?
28 Jul 05
No one in particular, but it has happened several times in different degrees. Most of the time I just don’t continue the discussion because the other person truely sees what I do for a living as an easy job…
28 Jul 05
John, I think you were right to just drop the discussion. There would be no point in arguing.
Arhuaco, yes, being woken up in the middle of the night is terrible especially if you can’t get back to sleep–not the case with my husband.
As someone whose sleep schedule is completely messed up, I agree that it does mess up your whole body, physical as well as mental.
02 Aug 05
I am doing a paper in school on physical labor vs. mental labor so I was happy to stumble onto this blog. I do physical work, housekeeping in a motel, and go to school full time. I am more drained after 5 hours of class than 6 hours of work. I was an assistant manager for a fast food chain and I found that I liked the balance of being up moving around and then I also did the bookwork and the banks. Wouldn’t it be great to have a job that balanced out your mind & your physical labor….and a paid you well! PS I am going to school for accounting & business, I hope I can find that balance!
12 Oct 05
Likewise, i am doing a paper on this topic. There are days when i feel like i could be doing physical labor and be more content. There are also days in which i am glad i’m writing a paper instead of hoisting twelve foot drywall sheets in a cape cod house. I have worked both with physical and mental jobs. There are a few things to consider when comparing the two. One being age and the other is physical limitations. If there are any other things that might be considered or any other opinions i sure would like to hear them. Feel free to email me or post a response as i will be checking back frequently. Thank you.
Kurt
30 Nov 05
i have had the same arguement with my mother. she works at verizon as a rep and i work as a dog groomer. (yes do i have nightmares about dogs and fur.) i have done jobs where it was mental i was a loan processor and a medical biller and they were tiring also as well as worked at a factory and for the airforce. i did research on it and i found an article saying something like it requires energy to keep your body still that causes exhaustion of mental labor. im bais i suppose but when i get off work all i want to do is sleep. also before the military i had bad insomnia but once i went to boot camp doing physical training (which i believe also works you emotionally) as soon as i hit the pillow i was out (which i found interesting because falling alseep in a room with 50 people- if you’ve never done it -isnt an easy task) i think you should also consider the amount of time at a job as a factor because when you first start a job (mental or physical) you waste energy because you haven’t found the short cuts and easier ways to complete the task at hand… ps all work sucks
28 Mar 06
I stumbled across this topic as a search for evidence for my partner that my work is as equally as draining as his.
I work in an office as an administrator and also train in computing. He’s always saying that he’s so exhausted from work. He’s a tree loper. I believe that we both do equally hard work, and I do come home stressed from work, but unlike him, my job doesn’t stop there! When he gets home, he can relax and watch tele, read a book, go for a swim, etc.. Myself on the other hand, I get home after waking up the same time as him in the morning, and I have to get dinner organised, do the washing, work out the bills, do the shopping, take care of the kids and all the other housework that goes along with it.
I’m sorry, but I don’t believe he’s physical job outweighs my mental job and the housewife job!
02 Nov 06
I totally agree with the mental vs physical being a hard thing to compare. I work from home on the computer all day. I think my problem is compounded by the fact that when I am done work, work is still sitting there in the other room haunting me. That’s where balance comes in.
I also work with my husband on his side jobs in construction on a regular basis. We just laid some hardwood flooring last night. Working all day, going to the gym then helping lay flooring til 10 pm is very exhausting. Slept so soundly for the first time in a long time tho. Maybe a good mix of both is the key!
Ciao.
07 Jan 07
I too am doing a paper on this subject for school. The main reason I am is because I am currently going through a career change from a job that was VERY physical to one that is TOTALLY mental. I agree, it is equally as stressful to work your mind all day. And what’s more, at least physical labor can easily be left at work, try getting your stressed out mind to shut off after straining it all day.
16 Mar 07
I just had an unpleasant discussion with my mother about labor as a farmer in the 30’s vs. the labor today in this world of computer technology. I agreed with her that physical labor as a farmer is very, very hard. But, then I told her mental labor in today’s world is very hard, too, since many work around the clock. I told her farming was done generally from sun up to about 8 or 9 p.m. in those days. She got incensed with me and told me that people working in the computer field don’t know what work is, and have and will never work as hard as her generation has done on the farm. I don’t agree? I feel we work just as hard but in a mental capacity and in some physical capacity, too, and we certainly work much longer hours. Was I wrong?
25 Jun 07
My husband seems to think that him doing physical labor is harder than me doing Accounting as an Office Manager in the VERY BUSY Environmental Industry. I am pretty much on-call 24/7. I normally do not get calls in the middle of the night, but in the event that I do, my phone is on and ready to be answered.
I have a 2 month old child as well as a 13 year old child. I work at least 45 hours per week. One week before I had my 2nd child, we bought a house. I have soooo much stuff. I am slowly but surely going through everything and weeding out what I want to keep and what I want to put in a garage sale.
He says that I am LAZY because I haven’t gotten all of the stuff unpacked and put up or put into boxes to sell.
I had my child on April 26, 2007. I started back to work from home (working 40 hours) on May 7, 2007. I took off a total of 7 business days… BUT in those days, my phone and email were constantly going off for work issues. I helped them out the whole time. I was in labor and delivery and my work cell was going off.
He thinks that I am not tired because all I do is sit on my a$$ all day…
Is there somewhere that I can show him that the stress of mental labor can be just as tiring or exhausting as physical labor?
Thanks a bunch!
TG
06 Jul 07
Just like the rest of you in my family there is a constant discussion on how hard my job is. I work in the IT department which means I am constantly on the computer doing different things. I am the first of my family to go to college and get a job which does not require “physical” labor therefore there is nobody in my family that knows exactly what mental labor is all about. My husband, parents, siblings and friends are constantly reminding me that there is no reason for me to be tired and that unlike them who are always working I do nothing at my job but sit around on the computer all day. My answer to them is “I have done my share of physical work and while it has been tough it does not go home with you, my job follows me everywhere and whether I like it or not I am always thinking about it and therefore I am always working” of course this does not make them stop but fortunately for me a few weeks ago my husband went into training for his job and found out that mental work is in fact exhausting, in a few weeks my dad will go out to training for his job and will also find out what I go through everyday. This is exactly what they need to understand that mental work is just as tough and exhausting as physical work. All of those who do physical work need to be reminded that maybe, just maybe they did not continue school or decided to take the path of physical work because all that mental work was TOO MUCH WORK!!