Hidden Hurts
Did you know that the women who grind coffee at the market suffer headaches and insomnia? Constant coffee dust inhalation keeps them permanently wired.
I’d asked as a joke, but it was not. Fascinated by this explicit occupational hazard, I wondered if other businesses had ‘hidden hurts’.
We all know about dog bites on posties, bad backs on shearers and big stresses on ambulance crews.
What interests me are the hazards peculiar to each profession that customers neither see nor suspect.
What agonies do butchers, bakers and wood-oven pizza makers suffer in silence? Here are some thought starters:
· Last week I learned that Clancy from Skippy the Bush Kangaroo endured koala lice and possum piss for the cause.
· As a youth, I pulled 12 consecutive 14-hour Christmas shifts at a Myer department store. I was forced to absorb The Jackson 5 Christmas Album (piped into every crevice – including the toilets) 172 times. By Boxing Day, I’d named every terrorist training facility in Adelaide.
· Fonnie’s nail technician seems OK, until you see his hands. They look like they’ve been soaked in kerosene, lacquered and freeze dried.
· On reading Dirt Cheap – Life at the Wrong End of the Job Market by Elisabeth Wynhausen, I discovered a frightening array of role-based perils.
Now it’s your turn.
Tell us about the hidden hurts specific to your field (or that of someone you know).
Maybe we can fix them.
At least, by raising awareness, we can make clients more understanding and sympathetic.
Let’s break the silence, before it breaks you!
Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire
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Perils indeed – One part of our business is a foundry with molten metal, exposed flames, airborne soot, fumes and excessive temperatures. Those blokes have it easy, I jabbed myself with a pen today, now that’s at the pointy end of taking one for the team.
And what if the air conditioning doesn’t work, or god forbid, the coffee machine run out of beans? Who does buy the milk anyway and the dishwasher wasn’t put on last night? And even worse, my PA was late this morning so I had to make my own coffee.
I have it tough, real tough.
Thank you Malcolm; you are bloody hilarious!
PS: what happened to your face?!
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I always wonder about hairdressers inhaling hair spray fumes all day, and ditto nail technicians…having seen our local farrier in action I reckon they’d cop their fair share of kicks…
Hi, Megan. My hairdresser has suffered some vicious cuts from her $800 uber scissors over the years.
But her greatest hurt was when someone slammed a car door on her finger and broke it.
Due to her workload (and being a sole trader) she had to tape it up and carry on. It mended crooked – following the curvature of her clients’ skulls.
She may suffer terrible arthritis down the track. Poor thing!
Fonnie just came up with a heart-rending example. The train driver we saw interviewed in the recent doco on the Mumbai Rail System has run over 74 people in his 40 year career.
None of these was his fault, as pedestrians take terrible risks illegally crossing the lines. Yet 74 fatalities would surely take the edge off your enjoyment of the role.
His face said it all. Another sad case.
That last example really puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?
Oh yes. I’ll take headaches, paper cuts, writer’s block, RSI, literary criticism and a sore back ANY time!
Sorry I was off my face yesterday!
Great post, I was away and missed you last one and 2 days later you had over 30 comments so had missed the boat on that one. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your kind words, Malcolm. I saw ‘Faceoff’ a few years back, so there’s hope for you yet. Best wishes for speedy recovery!
Ah yes! Good ol’ this!…Suffering!
Man!..Oops! I mean ‘Person!’ Have you opened the flood-gates here or what?
From the Bible to current mainstream work ethics, suffering is so very, very unfortunately become enculturated and dare I say it; endemic.
Interesting (to me anyway:-P), is the etymology of the word…not to mention it’s actual meaning – http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Suffer
Alas, like so many other aspects of our societies, cultures & personal identities, suffering too has, possibly irrevocably, become associated with pain…when it actually means to “undergo, experience” (ref: above URL).
And I simply cannot resist your almost flattering reference to “wood-oven pizza makers” ’suffering in silence’…:- )
Now obviously I can’t speak for all wood-oven pizza makers, but Moi? Suffering in silence? Yeh! Like that’s gunna happen? :- )
This subject, like so many others you have deftly nailed Paul, is one of those nebulous pet issues of mine. I reckon before we can even begin to address the specifics of ‘Hidden Hurts’ associated with particular roles, that there is one major, underlying and in my view Universal HURT, which most folks will gratefully acknowledge in conversation, but as individuals, we yet seem powerless to change culturally…it’s called PATENTLY INSANE & UNSUSTAINABLE WORK HOURS!!!
But don’t worry, it’s only taken us over 100 years to go from working 100 hours a week and sending our children to work in mines, to working 120 hours a week and calling it a 35 hour week. So there’s still hope!…:-P
As you can see, this is already turning into another of my ’soap-box’ rants, so I’ll take my leave and open the floor to our other erstwhile commentators.
Cheers
Stephen G
PS G’day Malcolm…good to see you again…is your finger ok? ;- P
PPSS And Yes! My Launch went well yesterday :- )…but that’s a whole ‘nother story. I’ll file a full report on that one a bit later :- )
Good on you, Stephen. You can grace our spillway any time! Love the etymology. And your work hour point is a ripper. Can’t wait for your field report.