That’s not entirely true. I’ve worked many intense labor positions. I excelled in them and loved getting paid to exercise. The pay was shit and the hours were completely unreliable. I tried really hard to get another similar job with a more successful company and got basically nowhere. I now make way more than I ever have now that I work in the public sector in a DBA/development position.

I love the work and have always loved working with code, but honestly I’d prefer doing manual labor. I was in great shape, I could study audiobooks all day, and I could be high all day. Manual labor work is fucking great! The problem was I had no paid holidays, no sick time, no benefits whatsoever, the hours weren’t guaranteed, and my coworkers and boss were extremely racist and often dropped the N word out of nowhere. I’m part Mexican and often reminded them of that fact, but I know they just saw me as "“One of the good ones”. Also they made the position a 1099 position even though I worked for one company and had 0 control over anything.

I’d still switch back to manual labor if I could make the same amount I do now with the same benefits.