Do you think your job is bad? Look around it could be worse

Another day at the office or at the school or at the store or in the field or on the farm and you ask yourself, why I am doing this job?

Think again, it could be much worse.

What if your job was something far more dangerous, disgusting and lower paying?

That idea got me to thinking about what jobs out there in this tough economic world might be at the low end of the totem pole as far as the job you dreamed about or planned to do as a kid.

All of these so-called "nasty" or really dangerous jobs are essential in everyday life, but you might be screaming to the Good Lord ... don't pick me!

There is no disrespect to any of the jobs that I'm going to describe or the people that do them. The only thing that I am saying is these are some of the jobs that I myself would not desire to do.

How about a bridge painter? I don't mean one of these small county road bridge painters, but a real bridge painter like a bridge that spans the Ohio River near my hometown in Perry County. That's a job that I could never do.

You could throw in the jobs of a roofer, television antenna erector, the ironworker who puts together the metal framework of a skyscraper and anything else that is off of the ground more than six feet.

I'm a wimp when it comes to anything off the ground.

I get nauseated, the hair stands up on the back of my neck and I get that feeling in your backside that tells me whoaaaaaaaaaaa, when I climb on a small ladder to fetch something that has flown on the roof like a toy airplane or one of my grandson's flip-flops that he somehow managed to flip from foot high in the air on top of the roof.

Another job that would not be desirable is the guy or lady who builds one of those giant smoke stacks on a power plant unless you could have a headphone stuck in your ear with a constant reminder message of how good your paycheck will look if you survive 40 hours every week.

What if your job was a bomb or explosives de-activator? Another tough and undesirable job. He's the person called in by police or the military to defuse a bomb or any items suspected to be an explosive device.

One wrong move and it's bang, bang and you're done with this job.

How about if you got up every morning and went to your work job of as a garbage collector? I understand this is an essential service offered in most cities and towns, but it has to be tough to remove people's trash, because frankly I can imagine that some people are pretty disgusting when it comes to the things they toss in the trash can and then they expect someone else to haul the nasty stuff away. I am sure a trash collector could tell you some real horror stories about some of the frightful, stinky things they have had to deal with -- even if most of the time it has to be bagged up in plastic.

Perhaps as I think about it, probably the worst job for me to handle would be the guy who scraps that road kill animal off of the highway.

Can you imagine the stench that job would entail during a hot and humid Indiana summer?

Sometimes, I gag and nearly throw-up when I simply drive over or drive past a fresh road-smashed possum, skunk or a coon on the roadway.

To ask someone to remove that gob of mangled mess from the roadway is an essential job, but one that I don't think many youngsters would have on their list of things they'd like to do when they grow up.

A tip of the hat to all of the folks out there that are doing the not-so-desirable, but important jobs that we take for granted and expect will get done by someone else.

So when you think your job is a bad one, look around, there might just be something out there in the real world that is even worse.

Nick is the assistant editor for the Greene County Daily World. He can be contacted by telephone at 847-4487 or by email at schneider.nick@gmail.com .