Obscure jobs you'd never thought about ...

[gbb]

At Salvesens cold store we had a fella named Henry who was actually a Pedigree Petfoods employee, he used to smell the frozen slabs of 'meat' to gauge their acceptability. I say meat ...blood, lung and offal were commonly used products.
He always had a cleaver with him, chop into the rock solid slab of product and smell it. We all assumed it'd be pretty hard to actually smell something frozen rock solid...apparently not.

 

[Beebo]

Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station, for some reason they employed a contractor as a lift attendant (not a particularly unusual job)

I had forgotten that lifts used to be manned by someone who pressed the buttons for you.

Seems very strange nowadays to think that was actually paid employment. A bit like the first job I had in an office where they employed a tea lady to push a trolley round all day.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

I had forgotten that lifts used to be manned by someone who pressed the buttons for you.

Seems very strange nowadays to think that was actually paid employment. A bit like the first job I had in an office where they employed a tea lady to push a trolley round all day.

Didn't there used to be people who brought round your emails on a trolley too?

 

[steveindenmark]

Chicken and turkey plucker. I did this for several seasons when I was at school. It started just before christmas. We would go into a huge barn filled with hundreds of birds. It was simple grab one, despach it pluck it. We got through dozens in a day. The turkeys could be a handful. They grow to a huge size. They are strong, have claws and like to fight back. We got paid more for turkeys than chickens. Maybe thats where the expression "Your just chicken" came from.

Im now a sailmaker. Thats quite obscure as well.

 

[screenman]

Pdr guy, I am told there are a lot more airline pilots in the UK than there are dent guys.

 

[Freds Dad]

Professional funeral mourner.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world...omen-paid-to-cry-at-the-funerals-of-strangers

 

[perplexed]

Didn't there used to be people who brought round your emails on a trolley too?

I remember having to check the 'teletext' box once a day in the morning as part of my first job. It was turned on, took ages to 'warm up', then it was turned off until the next day. I then printed out any message (usually one, if there was one at all) then take it to the boss!

 

[perplexed]

Not obscure as such I suppose, but I once spent about a year as a 'load builder/master'.

This involved being engaged in a fight against a) the clock, and b) the fact I (there was only me) was being supplied by at least a couple of dozen pickers bringing pallets into my area.

I had to drive a fork lift with the aim of 'topping' loads for 40 foot HGV trailers - about 30 to 40 a day. The pallets contained all sorts of stuff of varying shapes/sizes/weights, and I had to, using eye only, judge and physically stack them to make the most space-efficient loads for the HGVs which were going all over the country. The task was tough because I was on my own and being supplied faster than I could 'top' the stuff.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

There's a lift up to the cliff top in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight that has an attendant. What an awful boring job on a sunny summer's day.

Has its ups and downs I suppose

 

[byegad]

Seasonal and not well paid. Very much a hand-to-mouth existence

I didn't realise they did it that way!

 

[HLaB]

Replaced by two thin tubes and a small box.

Not entirely. There were traffic surveyors sitting by roundabouts in High Wycombe this week. Seems like a nice job when you have retired.

The box only gives flows in one direction and isn't 100% on accuracy especially in congestion. People are still needed for a classified turning count although a lot of companies are doing that with video counts because not many people want to get up for a 7am count especially in rubbish weather in the middle of winter; as its not really a nice job :-/

 

[Elysian_Roads]

The box only gives flows in one direction and isn't 100% on accuracy especially in congestion. People are still needed for a classified turning count although a lot of companies are doing that with video counts because not many people want to get up for a 7am count especially in rubbish weather in the middle of winter; as its not really a nice job :-/

Good point on the weather. I spotted the surveyors on a particularly glorious summer's day....

 

[Cycleops]

Keeper of the crown Prince of Denmark's underwear.

 

[Cycleops]

@Drago 's minder and his bib short puller?

 

[Bazzer]

Chicken sexer.
Until speaking with a farmer some years ago, it hadn't occurred to me that male chicks are largely useless to the poultry industry.