1. writewizard

    writewizard New Member

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    Occupational Hazards

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by writewizard, Jan 10, 2010.

    Hopefully, this thread doesn't break the rules in any way, shape or form...

    What is your current job? Even if it is just a high school student put that.

    Next, what are the hazards of your job? Please do not describe them in grizzly detail.

    MINE:

    Student (19 credit hours. Hazard: Becoming exhausted.)

    Freelance writer: (Hazard: Not getting paid, overbooking myself).

    Writer: (Hazard: Loosing my muse).

    And you? :D
     
  2. afinemess

    afinemess Active Member

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    as a former hairdresser, hazards include: cutting your fingers, second hand smoke, gaining weight, waxing too much of your own eyebrows off, stress, burns, unwanted changes in skin pigmentation due to sloppy color application, hair splinters...and the list could go on.

    Currently as a stay at home mother, hazards include: exhaustion, confusion, loss of dignity, inability to communicate with other adults without references to your child, children shows jingles being stuck in your head... and as with the other, the list could continue.
     
  3. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    Location:
    Coquille, Oregon
    my 'day job': practicing philosopher/writer

    hazard: none, since those who don't like the blinders-off image of their species that my work exposes wouldn't bother sending a hitman all the way out here, to the middle of nowhere...
     
  4. rory

    rory Active Member

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    Formerly, I was a horse trainer which hazards I'm sure you can guess (bucked off, stepped on, bites, kicks, etc...) but I really loved it.
    I'm currently working front desk at a hotel (not my dream job, but it pays more so I can go back to school sooner). It's not particularly hazardous. They don't let girls do the graveyard shift (no security guards) so mostly it's sore feet, stress, and paper cuts.
     
  5. Unit7

    Unit7 Contributor Contributor

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    No wonder my hitman hasn't had any progress. I told him to search the North of Nowhere...

    Seriously though.

    Writer: Suffering from long periods of 'I suck, I should just quit' being paranoid that my stories have already been written... almost word for word. Paper cuts... but I do most writing on the computer.
     
  6. hiddennovelist

    hiddennovelist Contributor Contributor

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    Retail management. Normal hazards include potentially running into ridiculous customers, sore feet, having too much to do than you have the hours to do it in, etc. Heather hazards could be anything. Cutting yourself on anything and everything, falling off ladders, dropping things on your head, hitting your head on shelves, tripping over absolutely nothing, tipping my chair over in the office...I get hurt a lot at work.
     
  7. NaCl

    NaCl Contributor Contributor

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    Back in the mid-60's, my night job was to shovel chemical sludge out of metal plating rooms in a Massachusetts factory. After filling a wheel barrel with this foul-smelling, caustic substance, my orders were to dump it in an open pit behind the building. The pit remained warm all winter as some slow reaction caused bubbles to rise through the thick muck. It was like a small pond of toxic waste that sat about four feet below the surrounding land level.

    Ten years later, I visited the factory and slipped quietly out back to see if the chemical pit was still there. It wasn't. I asked an old acquaintance what happened to it and she said they brought a big bulldozer out back and covered it with dirt. It's probably still bubbling below that inconspicuous grass.
     
  8. Nackl of Gilmed

    Nackl of Gilmed New Member

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    Sweet Lord, that sounds like a Stephen King short story.
     
  9. writewizard

    writewizard New Member

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    And the search for the "dream job" continues onward...
     
  10. Rei

    Rei Contributor Contributor

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    Working with children who have autism. Hazards: Being bitten, spit on, and hit, by the children.
     
  11. Pierce

    Pierce Member

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    I'm currently a high school student, which can be quite hazardous. The hazards include stress, overworking, peer-pressure, and continued contact with people that are bad for my mental health. It's all good, though. :)
     
  12. Carmina

    Carmina Contributor Contributor

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    Church secretary. Physical hazards: papercuts, carpal tunnel syndrome, cuts or scrapes or broken feet from beating the copier, the secretary spread (also known as desk job butt) Emotional/Psychological Hazards: the stress of being the first to know when someone is sick/in hospital/dying/dead, knowing everyone and therefore knowing everyone who dies (older congregation), being told people's life stories/personal tragedies, trying to worship in the same place I work and people asking me work related questions on Sunday
     
  13. lessa

    lessa New Member

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    housewife and mother and grandmother.
    hazards.
    no children at home anymore.
    loneliness, lack of respect for the job I do.
     
  14. writewizard

    writewizard New Member

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    Yeah, I agree. Sometimes, it's like, "Ohmigosh, you're a stay at home mom? But don't you DO anything?" And you're just like, "*glare*" :rolleyes::rolleyes:
     
  15. lavendershy

    lavendershy New Member

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    ^Lol.

    Anyway.
    a) I'm a homeschooled highschooler. Hazards: overloading one's brain, getting too little sleep, too little interaction with people.
    b) I pretend I'm a writer. Hazards: serious sense of having deluded one's self once one actually tries to read one's own work, serious depression when one reads a good author's work. :p
     
  16. lessa

    lessa New Member

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    A perfect answer before you say housewife or stay at home mom is
    "I run a very successful small family business."
     
  17. hiddennovelist

    hiddennovelist Contributor Contributor

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    Hahaha I'm going to pass this on to my sister-in-law. :) It's so true! My mom was a stay at home mom until all my siblings were in school (eight of us total), and it always irritated me when I heard people belittle the job of a housewife.
     
  18. madhoca

    madhoca Contributor Contributor

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    Location:
    the shadow of the velvet fortress
    University teacher
    Danger - high likelihood of being stabbed between the shoulder blades by that colleague in the office down the corridor
    Writer
    Danger - my eyeballs are about to explode from over-exposure to the laptop
     
  19. Mercurial

    Mercurial Contributor Contributor

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    High school senior hazards can consist of:
    - sleep deprivation
    - working around the clock = chronic fatigue
    - pleasing seven different bosses (AKA instructors) can sometimes be impossible
    - chronic boredom
    - decreased quality of vision (staring at a computer / slide projector all day has you either too close to the comp screen or squinting to make out what the slides are saying)
    - FRESHMEN.

    ;)
     
  20. lavendershy

    lavendershy New Member

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    ^ Hey, I was a freshman last year! Lol. Then again, I am not your typical high school kid, so I guess I don't count. . . .
     
  21. Coldwriter

    Coldwriter New Member

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    Some say in an idealistic bubble they cant wait to
    Here's a hazard for ya:

    Worked for a window making/cleaning/building company for a summer and this guy I worked with once raised this 3M77 adhesive spray can, squeezed and sent a spray into my back. Oh, I forgot to tell you he also had a lighter, flame flicked on.

    Not cool.
     
  22. bluebell80

    bluebell80 New Member

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    Current job: Jack of all trades, working for my parent's retail store. Doing everything from sales person, networking, marketing, and all marketing materials, wayyy too many hats on my head.

    Hazards: That I'm likely going to kill my father. The realization, that as an adult, I can't stand my father as a person, isn't all that shocking, but annoying when being badgered into working with him. Also wanting to slap my mother out for being an enabler, she enables his stupidity. Another hazard -- developing a drinking problem.


    Other jobs:Mother (obvious hazards like temper lose, sanity lose, weight gain, and zero time alone.) Wife -- (don't seem to have any hazards with this one anymore. But I've spent lots of time training him, so it's nice to see it paying off.)
     
  23. 67Kangaroos

    67Kangaroos New Member

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    occupation: office monkey

    hazards: being bored to death; self-mutilation caused by having to listen to coworkers tell the same story over the phone to everyone they've ever met; diminished capacity to concentrate caused by that one coworker who talks to you, starts to leave, comes backs and talks more, starts to leave again, etc. etc. for at least 30 minutes to one hour per session without any encouragement from you (b/c you're typing and staring at the computer saying almost nothing for the entire session); brain annurism caused by the supressing of psychotic outbursts which are caused by the 'male chauvanist pigs' you thought had become extinct with the modern times.
     
  24. Destin

    Destin New Member

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    My job sounds downright ludicrous compared to all of yours...

    I run a gas plant. At any given time there is enough natural gas in my plant to blow a hole in the earth the size of an atom bomb. An operator's job is to process that gas. If I make a mistake at any time, it would cost my company anywhere between $10000 to $100million.
    The gas we process here is acutely toxic... it will kill anyone who breathes it in one breath. An operator's job is to monitor for leaks, and ensure they are taken care of before they get bad enough to wipe out everybody in the plant.
    We also deal with a vast variety of other toxic chemicals on a day to day basis, all sorts of acids, bases and other terrible stuff.
    The pressure in the plant is enough that if a piece of pipe let go, it would come off with enough force to launch about 30 miles. And that would be the least of our worries.
    To top it all off, if anybody has an accident at my plant, be it a man hanging 40 feet in the air, a 200 foot fire, lost limbs, or people unconcious in an invisible cloud of poison, it is my job to evacuate the remainder of the plant, devise a plan to rescue them, and execute it along with my co-workers.
    That said, I love my job. The pay is great, I rarely go home tired, and I feel like I am getting something done every day. The catastrophic failures I am talking about are very rare, and the hazards are manageable. You just have to keep your head up.

    Oh yeah, don't let my wife read this.
     
  25. writewizard

    writewizard New Member

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    Really - that's awesome. Working with autistic children is what I want to do when I grow up. I'm thinking more the teenager area, though. :) :cool:
     

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