By Jonathan Shanahan
Work is an unavoidable part of life, and it can certainly feel like a chore. However, if the worst part of your day is having to interact with rude customers, or deal with the tedium of spreadsheets, you should count yourself lucky. Throughout history, people have had to take jobs that were disgusting, humiliating and dangerous – often all at the same time. In fact, some people still do! After reading this list of the worst jobs to have ever existed, we doubt you’ll be grumbling about having to sit through pointless meetings anymore.
Railroad worker
Throughout the 19th century, ambitious settlers conquered America’s inhospitable frontiers with networks of railroads. While these railroads laid the foundations for the United States of today, building them was thankless work, involving hours spent toiling in the hot sun and working with explosives that frequently malfunctioned.
Barber surgeon
In the Middle Ages, doctors exclusively treated maladies that occurred inside the body. Any ailments afflicting the outside were the preserve of barber surgeons. These medical professionals handled everything from pulling teeth to popping boils, although on quiet days they’d just give customers haircuts.
Flamethrower operative
Soldiers fighting in The Second World War faced terrible odds of survival, but things were even worse for flamethrower operatives. Because these weapons were so reviled by both sides, high importance was placed on quickly killing the soldiers who wielded them.
Body snatcher
Victorian doctors and scientists were absolutely obsessed with dissection, so much so that they quickly ran out of bodies to slice up. This is where body snatchers came in. These individuals would dig up recently buried corpses and covertly deliver them to medical professionals, and it could be incredibly lucrative.
Sulfur collector
In Indonesia, villagers living near active volcanos often earn a living working as sulfur collectors. This job involves running up a volcano – often with just a damp cloth to protect from the punishing heat – before grabbing chunks of sulfur and hurrying back down. It’s considered one of the world’s most dangerous jobs.
Plague bearer
The Black Death was a terrible time for all involved, but it was particularly horrific for the plague bearers. These individuals were hired by towns and villages to collect and dispose of the dead, which of course put them at a much higher chance of contracting the deadly disease themselves.
Worm breeder
Worm breeding can be surprisingly lucrative, with anglers paying top dollar for the finest specimens. However, it’s not a job for those with weak constitutions. Because worms live in muck, breeding and harvesting them is a job that involves getting absolutely filthy.
Pet food taster
Pet food companies need to assure the quality of their products, but – for obvious reasons – they can’t get feedback from the animals that eat them. Instead, these companies hire pet food tasters, who have to chow down on kibble, wet food and a whole assortment of treats.
Credit: OSU Special Collections & Archives : Commons via Wikimedia Commons
Lime burner
When limestone is crushed and burned for several days, it eventually transforms into quicklime, a substance that was valuable to tanners and dyers. The professionals who created quicklime could earn a lot of money, but many of them suffered horrific injuries due to lime’s violently caustic properties.
Catfish fisher
Catfish meat is prized in many parts of the world, but these underwater monstrosities aren’t easy to catch. Most catfish are too strong to be reeled in with a rod, which is why catfish fishers often lure them in with bait before grabbing them with their hands and physically wrestling them onto shore.
Sin-eater
In Medieval Europe, sin-eaters were individuals who agreed to take on the sins of the recently deceased, guaranteeing their passage into heaven. To do this, the sin-eaters ate a piece of bread off the chest off the dead person’s chest, which – as you can probably imagine – was often pretty disgusting.
Nit picker
While most people have experienced the horrors of nits firsthand, these days the parasitic critters can be easily disposed of with special shampoo. This is a recent luxury, however, and for most of history if you had nits you’d have to get them manually picked out by a professional nit picker.
Ice road trucker
If you’ve ever watched The History Channel show Ice Road Truckers, you’ll know that it one’s of the world’s most perilous jobs. Even if you’ve never seen the show, it’s not hard to imagine how driving massive trucks across thin sheets of ice would be incredibly risky.
Jam boy
When the British colonized India, they brought along golf, one of the gentry’s favorite pastimes. However, British golfers quickly discovered that India’s mosquitoes are both numerous and rapacious. As a result, they hired “jam boys,” local children who would smother themselves in jam or honey and accompany the golfers for the day, basically acting like lightning rods for mosquitoes.
Oil rig worker
Oil rig workers can make a lot of money, and – because they don’t have to pay for accommodation – most of that money can be saved. However, it’s a dirty, dangerous job, and one that involves spending months at a time in the middle of the ocean, far away from loved ones.
Executioner
Most people assume that medieval executions were bloodthirsty sadists, but in reality most inherited the job and had little say in the matter. Executioners were often shunned by their communities, which isn’t particularly surprising given the grizzly nature of their work.
Mummifier
In Ancient Egypt, the bodies of Pharaohs and other nobles were preserved through the process of mummification. Mummifying a corpse involved removing the internal organs and scooping the brain out through the nose using a long hook, before embalming the body and tightly wrapping it in bandages.
Galley rower
Although galley rowing eventually became a way to punish criminals, during the early Middle Ages it was a relatively well-paid profession. However, it was absolutely grueling, consisting of backbreaking labor in hot, sweaty conditions, and during naval battles galley rowers were often the first to perish.
Gong farmer
Before the invention of underground sewage systems, people living in towns and cities simply flung their waste out of the window. This created quite the mess, and it was up to gong farmers (also known as “night men”) to clean it up, a foul job that was only allowed to be carried out at night.
Chimney sweep
Chimneys were common until relatively recently, especially in parts of Europe with lots of old brick houses. The job of cleaning these chimneys fell to chimney sweeps, many of whom developed respiratory diseases due to the large amounts of soot they breathed in.
Underwater welder
Underwater welding is widely considered to be the most dangerous job in the world, with a fatality rate of 15 percent. This is an astonishingly high number, but not a surprising one given that these professional work with electricity while submerged in water.
Whaler
If you were a whaler during the 19th century, your life consisted of long stretches of tedium punctuated by moments of pure terror. Actually catching whales was extremely dangerous – with as many as one in 20 whalers dying on the job – and violent storms were also an ever-present threat.
Snake milker
Modern snake milkers extract snake venom to use for research, and – thanks to protective gear – it’s a relatively safe profession. In the past, snake venom was used in warfare, and snake milkers didn’t wear any protection. As a result, many died horrible deaths.
Wool fuller
After wool is sheared from sheep, it needs to be thoroughly cleaned to remove all traces of dirt and natural oils. In 14th century England, this job was accomplished by wool fullers, who spent their working days trampling wool in vats of old human urine.
Podiatrist
We can probably all agree that feet are pretty disgusting, which is why podiatrists have one of the least enviable jobs of all time. These doctors work with nothing but feet, and they spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with heinous fungal infections.
Carcass butcher
Carcass butchers patrol busy highways, looking for deer, boars and other large animals that have ben killed by cars. They then collect these carcasses, butcher them and sell the meat. It sounds like a shady side hustle, but it’s actually legal in most states.
“Room and pillar” miner
“Room and pillar” mining involves using wooden beams to hold up the roofs of mines, and it was popular amongst coal miners in the 18th century. Unfortunately, these beams were prone to breaking, which meant miners often got buried alive.
Vomit cleaner
As you can probably imagine, vomiting is a common occurrence in theme parks, thanks to the stomach-churning nature of most rollercoasters. In addition to standard cleaning staff, many theme parks employ people who are solely responsible for finding puke and quickly cleaning it up.
Arming squire
Arming squires were responsible for maintaining the armor worn by knights, which was – for the most part – a pretty chill job. However, arming squires were sometimes required to perform this job during battles, which meant that many were inadvertently slain in the melee.
