The Worst Jobs in the World

Who says Facebook isn't educational?

Yesterday one of my friends posted this very interesting chart - the Worst Jobs in the World Throughout History, presented as a matrix which places a number of jobs on a matrix rating them in the range from "treacherous" to "tedious" along the y-axis, and "difficult" to "disgusting along the x-axis. Click it to enlarge, or check out the original at the link above ...

There are days at the office when I think I'm channelling a wool fuller, and at home (particularly around April 15th) when I'm the reincarnation of a leech gatherer.

So, how does your job rate? And what are some present-day jobs that might fit into the matrix? One of the commenters on the matrix suggested that fast food workers are the modern-day equivalents of spit boys. And anyone who's been the parent of a small child can sympathize with the woes of the banquet attendant.

Other modern jobs that are treacherous and difficult include fighting raging wildfires ... 

Washing windows on high-rise office buildings might be considered treacherous and tedious ... 

At the intersection of treacherous and disgusting we might find septic tank pumping ...

And a sadly necessary, yet tedious and disgusting job nowadays is that of crime-scene cleanup ... you'll thank me for not including any of the pictures I found.

These days, it's good to have a job at all. But where that job falls on the matrix of worst jobs might make you think that unemployment ain't all that bad.

No matter how tough your job, remember this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr ...

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper that did his job well."

Have a good day. Enjoy sweeping those streets. See you back here for Cartoon Saturday.

Bilbo