I swear to god this is so true! There are two welder "foremen" at my job. One recently came out as a trans woman, the other one has hoop earrings and acrylic nails.

The trades can attract fairly diverse people because you don't have to fit into an office. Generally you're just given your work and you're expected to do it. Welders especially can easily be specialized enough that they can't really be micromanaged.

I can make the connections for computer science, but how the hell does welding attract da queerness? (And how the hell did my phone autocomplete that sentence?)

The only welder I know is a cishet guy but super woke. That said his union is very not

But have they tried gender studies? They might learn just how good they have it being a welder.

I feel like they might be an outlier.

That’s not even considering the existential dread that comes with having your soul sucked into fluorescent lights and listening to the idiotic words, phrases and mannerisms of the people you’re forced to sit by.

Someone in my office always says “dut da da” as a stand-in for “et cetera” and it drives me batty. Another person has daily lung-shredding coughs and doesn’t cover their mouth. Another person screams and squeals like a pig when they’re talking on the phone.

And I get the pleasure of hearing it every single workday, every single week!

Lucky me!

Used to work 9 hours a day stacking pallets. It was great until my body couldn't handle it. Even so, losing that exercise has clearly impacted my health. I'm not dying or anything, but it felt easier to smile. I wouldn't even say I'm unhappy. I don't know how else to describe it.

My one friend is a contractor, and we both talk about this, how it may seem nice that he gets to walk around and do stuff all day, and that it's nice that I get to chill in a chair all day, but we each know that it's not the one day that you do it, it's the every day.

Ideally, a job that allows you freedom to roam and sit is perfect.

As far as the caloric intake, I watched a Kurzgesagt (sp?) on it, and your body basically adjusts to whatever you're doing. So if you go from a job sitting to a job running, your body will eventually even back out and need the same amount of calories regardless. Now, I think there were some other factors at play, but I can't even remember how to spell the channel name, let alone all the content in the video.

God you make me so happy to have my work from home IT desk job. The secret is to get the hell out of help desk and into something more specialized/higher level. Glad you made peace with your circumstances though