I started my first job at 06:00, the day after I finished my A-levels (I must have been keen to work in those days
). It was a labouring job at a small factory in Coventry.
One of the tasks I had to do was to help unload sacks of plastic granules. The factory was so tight up against a railway viaduct that the fork lift truck didn't have access to the delivery lorries. A typical load was about 10 tonnes, made up of 400 25 kg sacks. I'd usually have one other worker helping me.
The lorry driver would stand on the back of his trailer and place (a) sack(s) on our shoulders. We'd then have to walk in through the rear factory gate, up the fire escape and about 25 metres inside the factory to the area where the sacks were stored. Unfortunately, that meant a heck of a lot of walking.
Since I'd be doing half the work, that amounted to carrying a fairly heavy load 5 km with about 750 m of vertical ascent, and another 5km without a load. It was tiring and took a long time. There was always pressure on us to get a move on.
When I first started, I'd take 1 sack at a time, draped across the back of my neck. Soon I got strong enough to carry a 25 kg bag on each shoulder. It was harder than carrying 1 bag at a time, but it was quicker and meant half the walking. After about a month, I tried carrying 75 kg at a time. I was strong enough to do it, but I tripped going up the fire escape and nearly put my back out so I decided to go back to carrying a 50 kg load.
I was really amazed one time when the foreman came to help. I'm 6' 1" but that guy was quite a bit bit bigger than me. He'd carry a 100 kg load - two 25 kg sacks on each shoulder.
He barely broke into a sweat...
There didn't seem to be any concept of Health & Safety there in those days (1974).