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1 February 2004
Occupation revelation
There are worse jobs than mine
By Terry Riley
On a recent trip to Kauai, my wife and I visited the facility where
the ubiquitous Original Red Dirt Shirts are produced. We saw how they
churn out the shirts that are sold on the island and are shipped to stores in Sedona and other
southwestern tourist destinations where visitors snatch up authentic
desert dirt shirts.
We saw scoops of dirt and loads of nice clean white clothes being
loaded into banks of churning washing machines. The place was awash in red
mud. (The Maytag repairman would have freaked!)
Standing in that goop, watching young guys in storm gear go about
their jobs, it occurred to me that there are a lot of jobs in the world
that are worse even than mine. Moreover, as a part-time travel writer, I
realized that many of those jobs are in the travel business.
So I've assembled what, from my point of
view, seem to be the ten worse jobs in the travel biz.
#10 Shuttle bus driver.
Driving 'round and 'round all day with a truck full of grumpy businessmen
and screaming kids.
#9 Airplane baggage handler.
This job might actually improve my health and be fun—riding around in a
little truck, tossing weights to and fro in the outdoors, looking in luggage
for an occasional goodie—until the rain or snow comes.
#8 Airplane de-icing. I
hate the cold.
#7 Parking lot attendant.
It's kind of like a shuttle bus driver except you don't even get a chance
to move.
#6 Airplane lavatory truck
operator. Actually this job isn't so bad until there is some problem
with the operation and things start to leak—or worse.
#5 Hotel security guard.
When the phone rings, it is almost never good news.
#4 Elevator operator:
Where's the challenge in this job?
#3 Airport screener.
Poking through people's dirty socks? No thanks.
#2 Air marshal. When I
think of this job, I'm reminded of what is said about sailing: Hours of
boredom interspersed with moments of shear terror. Except for these guys those moments
never come.
#1 Suicide bomber. The
drawbacks here are that you are dead if you succeed, disgraced if you fail, and ugly in either case.
© 2004 Applied Psychology
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