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(36,827 posts)TrogL
(32,822 posts)The HR folks decided to implement a "team building exercise" and guinea-pig it on the IT department.
It was great. We bonded together as a team to totally trash the entire exercise. One HR lady was almost in tears. Another was muttering darkly about "herding cats".
Strangely enough, they never implemented the exercise with the rest of the employees. Wonder why?
noamnety
(20,234 posts)our army (civilian) group reduced a team building trainer to tears and the whole program was canceled after our escapades in there. Our joint refusal to share anything personal with each other in that setting, on demand, became the thing we bonded over.
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)My father in law has the tool thingie, and I was thinking of trying to tune our piano myself...should I skip it?
Things like this:
Why not use the Korg tuner to tune all the notes directly?
Even if you tune every note perfectly with a simple electronic tuner like a Korg, you will not get a very pleasing result. The different lengths and types of strings in a real piano tend to alter their resonant characteristics from the ideal. Tuners call this phenomenon "inharmonicity." The mathematically-calculated equal-temperament pitch actually sounds out of tune for many keys, getting worse the further you are from the middle, and more so on smaller pianos with shorter strings. In a piano that has been entirely tuned with a simple electronic tuner like the Korg, the top registers will sound flat, and the bottom registers sharp. In practice, only A4 (A above middle C) is tuned to a outside standard pitch, 440 Hz; all the other keys are tuned relative to A4. In fact, a purely aural (by ear) piano tuner may just tune the "A" with a tuning fork and tune the rest of the piano by ear.
I didn't know that.
The "thingie" my FIL has is a wrench-like thing, not a tuning device. I figured I'd use a tuning fork one pitch and then do the rest by ear, like I do with the guitar.
Sound like I'd be better off checking the yellow pages for a professional.
gkhouston
(21,642 posts)4_TN_TITANS
(2,977 posts)Hardest work I've ever done for the least pay. Took it between jobs in 2001. Every day was a chance to push your strength even farther than you swore you could go. A year and 1/2 of that was probably = to 10 years of mild exercise.
I can't count the number of times some asshole looked me straight in the eye and said, "That conference table house up the fire stairs."
hunter
(38,340 posts)It used to pay pretty well too.
Sadly wages haven't kept up. I see people getting paid the same I was around 1980.
Mostly it's because the unions are gone or severely weakened, and people are much more desperate for work.
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)he's sick of kitchen work, so he'll do that for the summer and then probably back to the kitchen for the winter. he's not thrilled about it, but it was his best option right now.
Rambis
(7,774 posts)wait
whistler162
(11,155 posts)so it isn't a hard job!
Initech
(100,129 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)ohiosmith
(24,262 posts)riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)a backbreaking task (for which he is well paid) which he performs to perfection, a rare feat. When he's sick, we all put on our game face and work together to get them done but after the first 10 stalls or so, the body strain is incredible.
Bertha Venation
(21,484 posts). . . you're talking about horse stalls, yes? Because the first stalls that came to mind are in bathrooms.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,762 posts)dana_b
(11,546 posts)you are so right. Those people are angels and they need patience and backs of steel!
MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)guitar man
(15,996 posts)Cleaning out oil storage tanks
Shoveling out semi trailers that carry livestock
They didn't seem quite so hard when I did them as a young man, but looking back and imagining trying to do those jobs now...yikes!
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)A friend of mine did that for a couple summers. He said that there was nothing like standing on a big, flat tar/stone roof on a humid 90-degree day dumping that nice hot tar onto the roof. Makes me woozy just thinking about it.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)irisblue
(33,047 posts)MiddleFingerMom
(25,163 posts).
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... are with the guy who was cleaning the Port-a-Potties there.
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Older guy -- and I bet COOLER than most of the hippies there. Really laidback and non-judgmental,
as I recall (it's been quite a few years since I've seen it).
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alphafemale
(18,497 posts)I stepped into one once where the contents were within an inch or so of the seat.
I found out my levitation skills were actually quite good that day.
Bertha Venation
(21,484 posts)Hahahaha
hunter
(38,340 posts)Some people can do it, I could not.
That was the hardest job I ever had.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)Spend the day sorting sheets, gowns, towels, etc., soaked with every imaginable body fluid and "product"
MiddleFingerMom
(25,163 posts).
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DESPITE the bad apples, I believe MOST of them ARE out there to protect and serve -- and
the stress and danger and CRAP they take does explain some of the attitudes and behaviors
that I do see from them.
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I couldn't do it. I believe I'd be scared shitless half of the time.
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It's hard enough to tune a six-string guitar. I agree with BV -- piano tuner. When I was growing
up, we had an upright piano (I had a HORRIBLE teacher who shouldn't have taught me past the
first year of SIX -- I learned nothing new after that first year. Her name made you think of an
airless musty room and she wore GALLONS of this awful perfume -- so we CALLED her that
synonym behind her back. It was TERRIBLE sitting right next to her for half-an-hour!!!)
.
Our piano tuner had no sight whatsoever... he had a companion who would lead him into our
house holding his arm and sit him at the piano. He did an AWESOME job -- and his disability may
have made him even more suitable for that work.
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He was a Black man, so as a 7- or 8-year-old, I used to wonder if he were related to Ray Charles.
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byeya
(2,842 posts)US National Park Ranger.
MiddleFingerMom
(25,163 posts)byeya
(2,842 posts)in officers in the federal sector between 1995 and 2000 and published their results in late 2000.
Law enforcement park rangers suffered from injuries or death as a result of assault at a rate of
15.1 per annum per 1000 officers; next were the Customs agents at 5.1. FBI and DEA were down at
1.2 and 1.1.
Lack of meaningful backup; radio dead zones; lack of management support were all factors cited.
LASlibinSC
(269 posts)Exact same piano tuner! Used a fork for one note, tuned the rest by ear. These big guys did all the moving of the piano. Never knew he and Ray were tight. Damn! Hardest job? Gotta go with Psychiatric nurse
applegrove
(118,880 posts)MiddleFingerMom
(25,163 posts).
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GREAT hands-on boss (who LOVED me as when I first moved into the area, he and his wife were
having serious marital problems and she came over and blatantly hit on me. I sent her home to
her husband -- who eventually, as they worked their way through successful counseling, found
out about that).
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He was a BIG man... a hunter who didn't need a rifle or a bow -- he could have crushed me with
his bare hands.
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She, on the other hand... was SMOKIN' HOT!!!!!
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Digging ditches for a sewage system in a new subdivision was hard, HOT work. My first day on
the job, by lunchtime, I literally could not keep from dropping the shovel when I tried to hold it
(the boss turned me on to Gatorade... the water I had been drinking was not replacing my
electrolytes nor potassium and my forearms were cramping like iron rods).
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However, not too long after I got out of the Army, I took a temp job picking tobacco in Tennessee.
Tons harder than digging ditches -- that pushed me to my then fairly impressive limits.
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Sorry... that's TWO jobs, not one.
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trof
(54,256 posts)I did that for over a year.
Periodically, every county has to update appraisals and do first appraisals on new construction for tax purposes.
NOBODY wants to see or talk to you.
For some, you're a mild annoyance.
For others you're a goddam communist who wants to suck their blood.
And worse...raise their taxes.
When I was 'escorted' off the property of a farmer in the Alabama boonies at gunpoint I turned in my badge, 100' measuring tape, and clipboard.
So...they made me a supervisor and guaranteed I'd never have to set foot on private property ever again.
We called the new appraisers "Cannon Fodder".
Lars39
(26,117 posts)That's when he was introduced to the term SWAG.
trof
(54,256 posts)davsand
(13,421 posts)Here in Illinois I don't argue if they tell me to get off the property. I just say ok and leave.
The reason for that is if I have to stand on the center line of the road and "value" ANY piece of property, it will IMMEDIATELY have a base value of $1,000,000. It might be a run down "pile o crap in the woods", but it is still gonna be worth a million for tax purposes.
If the property owner objects to that value they can PROVE that it is over valued. At that point they are gonna have to either submit an independent fee appraisal (meaning they are gonna pay somebody to come out and measure it) or else they're gonna have to allow somebody from the county on that property to get an accurate measure.
Either way it will get taxed.
Right now I've got a guy that has threatened to sue me because his local assessor promised to look the other way for a few years--meaning his new house was not being taxed. I put him on the tax rolls and now he's threatening to sue me for (I just love this one...) "breech of promise."
Laura
trof
(54,256 posts)"If you won't let me on the property I'll have to 'estimate' everything."
begin_within
(21,551 posts)BlueIris
(29,135 posts)I've never done it, but the stories I've heard...one of my Internet friends was an EMT in PA and wound up on anti-depressants after a few months because of the stress.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)... employee ...
I could go on and on, and I haven't even mentioned "dishwasher." What is wrong the prior responses? Is DU this out of touch?
nadine_mn
(3,702 posts)Plus we had to peel and grate cooked potatoes to make hash browns for each shift. I was 15 and lugging that huge pot of potatoes from the basement was hell. In the winter, I reeked of lutefisk, rest of the year just fried food. Ugh
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Bertha Venation
(21,484 posts)...there are just a lot of really hard jobs out there.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Hard jobs plus crap pay equals the hardest jobs by far.
If not, why hasn't anyone listed ER nurses and docs?
Initech
(100,129 posts)HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)whistler162
(11,155 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Old SNL joke...
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)Most jobs associated with schools are back-breaking, stressful, and hard on one's health.
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)They really just suck the life out of staff in those jobs.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)TrogL
(32,822 posts)I burned out in three years and had my nervous breakdown. Apparently that's about average.
My favourite grade to teach is Grade 4 (let's ignore for the moment that's the class the South Park kids are in). They're old enough to actually be able to do something but they haven't hit puberty yet. Also, Grade 4 humour is surreal. They understand the mechanics of how to tell a joke or funny story, but it usually runs off the rails into absurdity.
MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)George Cauldron
(14 posts)Every day must be like a year's worth at a coal mine.
SOteric
(22,557 posts)You really did make me laugh out loud!
chrisa
(4,524 posts)madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)Fricking disgusting.
Rochester
(838 posts)because time ran out on them before they got adopted.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)There is no way that job could ever become "routine". It would be so heart-breaking and infuriating at the same time.
RFKHumphreyObama
(15,164 posts)Sure, you get a lot of the perks and privileges but -if you're serious about it and want to get things done and you're not there for your own personal glory and legacy like Dubya is -I can imagine it could be one of the hardest things in the world. Look what President Clinton and President Obama have had to go throw
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)gkhouston
(21,642 posts)Kaleva
(36,384 posts)The first time wasn't bad as I could crawl on my hands and knees thru the stuff. The second time was terrible as the crawl space was so tight, I had to turn my head sideways to keep my face out of the shit. In another job, the homeowner held me by my boots as I hung upside down in the opening of his septic tank so I could reach and clear out the plugged exit pipe. I had pumped out most of the sewage out but there was still enough left for me to swim in had he let go.
And the stuff I had to remove from toilets. A kid's shoe, toys, gravel, a fish, a tape measure, and the ever popular tampons,
DiverDave
(4,890 posts)I worked laying in mud-puddles with an 8" wand cleaning truck transmissions before dis-assembly.
I had walking pneumonia all winter.
Hardist job physically was delivering to dunkin donuts.
Not only did I have to drive the truck, I had to unload and PUT away the freight.
The dude standing there pointing where everything went.
I was sooo tired after every shift.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)Physically demanding
Gross
Stressful
Emotionally demanding
etc.
Kaleva
(36,384 posts)Not everyone has had a job that demanded hard physical labor for instance.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... and of course, there's nothing to constrain their definition, sarcasm, wit, etc.
panader0
(25,816 posts)It's harder than it used to be.
cliffordu
(30,994 posts)and kids in long term inpatient A&D treatment.
It was run by the St.Vincent DePaul. If a kid had ANY resources they were sent to other facilities. We got kids who had nothing.
I'd say about 90% of them were sexual abuse survivors, and more than a few had been selling or scoring drugs for their parents before running away.
And then we had gang members - I had one wonderful therapy group with a skinhead and a Crip. Both sentenced by the court for treatment instead of jail.
Actually - that group made BOTH of them think about race more than anything I can think of.
Good times.
Out of the hundreds of kids I had in my range at one point or another, I remember three or four who actually made it.
A mother of one sought me out after several years to tell me that her son - one of the hardest children I had ever met, got sober, married, was working construction and attending community college.
I wept like a child.
Kaleva
(36,384 posts)But thanks to you, there are 3-4 who did make it.
cliffordu
(30,994 posts)In the vast majority of cases the best we could hope for was to completely ruin alcohol and drugs as an answer forever.
Breaking their denial.
I broke denial in lots of people, knowing that down the road many would seek further help.
And that, folks, is the name of the game.
Once denial goes, the rest - recovery - can follow.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)krispos42
(49,445 posts)Or whatever his job title is. You know, the guy that feeds, trains, grooms, catches, and places atop Trump's head the critter that's there in all the photos.
MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)jmowreader
(50,580 posts)These are the soldiers (they go out in pairs--one officer, one sergeant) who knock on a family's door and tell them their soldier was killed, and then help them through the whole process of final arrangements. This job is hard enough on the people who do it, the regulation describing how to perform this duty tells you not to get drunk before you go out there for the initial contact with the next of kin--obviously people HAVE done that.
pa28
(6,145 posts)Turn the key and you are responsible for the death of millions.
The other side of the argument is "I was just following orders".
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Sometimes people pay you well to do those jobs and other times you endure the work and abuse for minimum wage.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)It's what my dad does. He lines tanks and pipes with rubber so they don't corrode. He has crawled into 16 inch pipes before, although not so much since he's nearing retirement. He says it's really, really hot (because the rubber is heated, you need coverall so the chemicals don't eat your clothes) and it's not easy to drink your water in those tiny pipes. He's only gotten really stuck once, and he said the key is to just relax and eventually you'll be able to move. Definitely not a job for the claustrophobic, or the out of shape.
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)Any provider. That shit is murder. Especially if the senior or seniors in question are 65+.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)mikeytherat
(6,829 posts)"I know you're closing tonight, but you've got to stay so we can start cooking again at 4:00. We need to make 1500 Egg McMuffins."
mikey_the_rat
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)And unlike most of these, they xcan't even fall back on "Well, it's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it."
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)railroad.
begin_within
(21,551 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)geardaddy
(24,931 posts)ThoughtCriminal
(14,050 posts)Oh sure, it impresses, but after all the introductions there's always that awkward silence.
Broken_Hero
(59,305 posts)Wolverine's proctologist......
Taverner
(55,476 posts)AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)Watched the movie BONE COLLECTOR last night... eeesh!
raccoon
(31,130 posts)Cronkite
(158 posts)80 are killed every year by tigers, there are crocs in the river, venomous snakes and "honey pirates" that will kill the honey collectors.....