Jobs you couldn't do

[Jacksgranda]

11 hours ago, Caledonian1 said:

about thirty years ago I was in a job where a few of us were sent on a course at Ross On Wye - It was Leadership Trust.  There was an activities day and you had to rank the activities in order as not everyone could understandably go canoeing for example.  I put pot-holing last and was shocked when they said they wanted everyone to do the activity they least wanted to do. It was actually fantastic but a few of the others I can recall screaming with fear as they believed they were stuck. 

I could never do it now and absolutely believe I would have a panic attack .  I have had a few MRI scans on my back and if I ever need another one I am not so sure I could go through with it.

As for the question - sewage treatment plant worker....or one of those guys who goes into drains to clear fat bergs...or worse

I've had one, and that was enough, tbqh

[oneteaminglasgow]

There’s a long list, but I think the worst would be being in a call centre. Either people phoning up with complaints all day, or cold calling and being told to f**k off. Plus, the nonsense targets and ‘team building’ crap that you hear about would get to me. Think I’d inevitably end up saying f**k this and walking out one day.

That and I don’t think I could handle the pressure of being a big wheel down at the cracker factory. 

[Jacksgranda]

58 minutes ago, Slacker said:

Prison Officer. It might actually be a fulfilling and interesting job but just the thought of going to prison every day for work and dealing with a load of dangerous arseholes isn't for me.

Pilot. Just wouldn't like the lives of hundreds of people being in my hands each day, as I'm more than capable of making an arse out of basic tasks.

Flying a plane is apparently pretty simple.

It's the getting up and down part that's a bit more complicated.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

10 hours ago, G_&_T said:

Undertaking! I didn't fully understand what it entailed until recently. When a corpse is moved for the first time, all the faecal matter is released from the body...they warned me not to watch, and I imagined it was because they thought it might be emotional. But the room stank so badly that I almost vomited. True story.

The worst ones are the ones who die beside the radiator and its switched on, you can tell before you even get in the house that theres a body. My brother dealt with a guy  The easiest way to deal with having to deal with dead bodies is to either (and i know this sounds absolutely mental) talk to them or what I do, just dont think about it. I find it more distressing when family turn up and you see how much that person meant to them. 

10 hours ago, CountyFan said:

Couldn't be one of those family liaison coppers who has to chap doors in the middle of the night to tell someone their kid has died. Incredible respect for people who are able to compassionately deal with that. 

Have had to help families after baby deaths, fatal road traffic crashes and had to inform the fiancé of a a person who’d just been killed a few weeks before their wedding in a crash, its absolutely awful, i still get horrendous flashbacks to the first baby death and I think i will for the rest of my life. The worst reaction ive had doing the death message was actually when the people didnt care the person was dead, its weird. 

[Northboy]

7 hours ago, BillyAnchor said:

Dentist is mine too, working in that enclosed space would drive me nuts. I'd just smash the feckers and give them wallies.

Aside from the money being a dentist is one of the least appealing jobs I can think of.

[Michael W]

I probably couldn't do most jobs other than the ones that I have done, for a number of reasons. There's a few in particular I certainly couldn't do:

Dentist - I don't like going there and having to see some of the dental messes that they will on a daily basis would give me the boak. The money would be good, but just not worth it. 

Those high building window cleaning jobs posted earlier in this thread - I'm not afraid of heights, but that video put me on edge. No thank you. Again, the money just isn't worth it. 

Cabin crew - I have seen the mess that some manky b*****ds manage to leave on even a 2hr flight. Don't want to deal with that and certainly don't want to have to clean up anyone's puke, which is the stuff of nightmares. Can't even hide behind the money here. 

Surgeon - Whilst teeth give me the boak, other medical gore does not. However, I am useless at most practical tasks requiring decent handiwork, so I'll do the right thing for the patient and stay well away. 

[Hawk89]

Assistant Manager of anything. Couldn't do a job where I'm getting attacked from all sides everyday. 

[Fullerene]

While I enjoy watching films like Goodfellas and The Godfather, I have to say the criminal underworld definitely  looks pretty scary.  Not for me.

[Ric]

I don't mind where I work. While I'm qualified and experienced in regard to programming and web dev, before that I'd had an array of utterly horrible jobs in terms of pay and conditions (one particular one involved shifting the hag off a frozen muddy field in the middle of the Highlands during a very cold November).

However in terms of jobs I can't do? Sales. Basically because it's lying, and I have real difficulty in lying to people - even people I've only just met. Let me give you an example from some time ago when I realised sales is not a job for me. I was working for the P&J in their subscriptions department - this is some time ago when newspapers were relevant - and part of the shift was to cold sell over the phone between 6 and 8 at night. It was the usual: "get a number, give it a ring, explain how great more P&J would make things and hassle them until they cough up the money". Couple of phone calls in and I get this old lady, no idea of exact age but she was desperate for company and was very chatty. I'm obviously there to do a job so I start with asking how often she reads the P&J and would she be interested in extending that, etc, etc.." Within about 10 minutes this woman had talked herself, with very little guidance from me, into getting the paper on a day she normally wouldn't. Her verbatim words were, "Well, I could get it delivered on Tuesday, but that's my milk day. I could maybe not take milk one week". At that point I just stopped her, said I was very sorry if I had pressurised her in any way, spent 40 minutes speaking to her just about her life and allowing her some company, then got up told my manager he was a c**t for trying to force vulnerable people into buying shit they don't want, and walked out knowing I'll never do another sales job in my life.

[eez-eh]

Goes without saying but working in an abattoir would be awful. I’d be sick.

Working on a production line sounds like it would send me mental. Standing in the same place for 8 hours a day doing the same task over and over.

I also think I’d be awful at selling stuff, whether it’s over the phone or being an estate agent or whatever else. Making up bullshit on the spot isn’t my thing.

[scottsdad]

12 hours ago, MuckleMoo said:

Dentist

Sure I heard/read somewhere that they have the highest rate of suicide from all the professions

They look down in the mouth

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, Michael W said:

Cabin crew - I have seen the mess that some manky b*****ds manage to leave on even a 2hr flight.

Was last off the plane for a change on a flight to Malaga a couple of years ago and the mess was unbelievable, it was like some mad rubbish hoarder hadn't left his house for 10 years. The crew even made several passes with bin liners offering to take their rubbish away, but that was too much effort apparently.

Edited September 3, 2021 by welshbairn

[Adam]

I don't mind where I work. While I'm qualified and experienced in regard to programming and web dev, before that I'd had an array of utterly horrible jobs in terms of pay and conditions (one particular one involved shifting the hag off a frozen muddy field in the middle of the Highlands during a very cold November).
However in terms of jobs I can't do? Sales. Basically because it's lying, and I have real difficulty in lying to people - even people I've only just met. Let me give you an example from some time ago when I realised sales is not a job for me. I was working for the P&J in their subscriptions department - this is some time ago when newspapers were relevant - and part of the shift was to cold sell over the phone between 6 and 8 at night. It was the usual: "get a number, give it a ring, explain how great more P&J would make things and hassle them until they cough up the money". Couple of phone calls in and I get this old lady, no idea of exact age but she was desperate for company and was very chatty. I'm obviously there to do a job so I start with asking how often she reads the P&J and would she be interested in extending that, etc, etc.." Within about 10 minutes this woman had talked herself, with very little guidance from me, into getting the paper on a day she normally wouldn't. Her verbatim words were, "Well, I could get it delivered on Tuesday, but that's my milk day. I could maybe not take milk one week". At that point I just stopped her, said I was very sorry if I had pressurised her in any way, spent 40 minutes speaking to her just about her life and allowing her some company, then got up told my manager he was a c**t for trying to force vulnerable people into buying shit they don't want, and walked out knowing I'll never do another sales job in my life.

And everyone else in the call centre stood up and applauded?

[Ric]

9 minutes ago, Adam said:

And everyone else in the call centre stood up and applauded?

Oh, Jesus no...

..my manager just told me to f**k off, and the other lassie working there was too busy shilling old people out of their milk money to pay attention.

 

[scottsdad]

My auntie was a nurse on a children's cancer ward years ago. She retired early - there are only so many kids you can befriend, and helplessly watch them die. I always thought that was about as grim a workplace as you could get, but I totally understand why people do it. 

[Ric]

1 minute ago, scottsdad said:

My auntie was a nurse on a children's cancer ward years ago. She retired early - there are only so many kids you can befriend, and helplessly watch them die. I always thought that was about as grim a workplace as you could get, but I totally understand why people do it. 

Dated an auxiliary nurse for about 4 years. Had the patience of a saint, as you'd expect if they were dating me, but she worked in an old folks home. To this day I cannot imagine how mentally and emotionally tiring it must be to deal with elderly and confused residents who are near their death. Many of which needed constant 24/7 care because they simply couldn't look after themselves in any way.

Anyone who has experienced dementia in an elderly relative will know how heartbreaking it is, imagine that times by 30 or 40.

[thistledo]

41 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

My auntie was a nurse on a children's cancer ward years ago. She retired early - there are only so many kids you can befriend, and helplessly watch them die. I always thought that was about as grim a workplace as you could get, but I totally understand why people do it. 

Something like working in a care home would be fairly high on my list, the death of old people wouldn't bother me, but watching them suffer the indignity while helping them seems quite sad. 

But a cancer ward, with kids on it would absolutely crush me. The staff that work there must be like stone. 

[Alert Mongoose]

Social worker for me. Whatever you did would always be wrong.

[sugna]

14 hours ago, 101 said:

That does sound vile, other than that I think it would be quite a fulfilling job.

"... and after that, it was a simple matter of swapping over the heads!"

[101]

41 minutes ago, thistledo said:

Something like working in a care home would be fairly high on my list, the death of old people wouldn't bother me, but watching them suffer the indignity while helping them seems quite sad. 

But a cancer ward, with kids on it would absolutely crush me. The staff that work there must be like stone. 

Has to be the small things whilst they are there you make them as happy and as comfortable as possible and the buzz from seeing wee kids batter f**k out of cancer must be some buzz. 

But yeh I can't imagine dealing with grieving parents ever gets easy you just have to do you best. I think quickly you would learn a way for it not to effect you.