Today as I sat in my office I glanced casually out the window. I couldn't help but notice two strands of rope dangling between a small crevice in my building. Upon further scrutiny it then dawned on me this was the window washers. I looked up expecting to see scaffolding, but to my shock it was a man dangling from the ropes, sitting on a crude seat which looked to have been made out of two planks of wood. Now first off you should know my fear of heights is unprecedented, so working in a skyscraper is irony in itself. As he finished washing each floor's windows, he would then rappel down the building to the level below and repeat. I struck up a conversation with one of my co-workers about the window washers and he mentioned to me that he had a friend who worked in a similar line of work, and made something along the lines of 14 dollars an hour. I can't even begin to explain the utmost respect I have for these individuals and how futile this line of work seems. Provided this man died from his rope failing, how would his job compensate his family? This man makes a minimal sum of money and probably doesn't even receive hazard pay. And this is just one of many underappreciated lines of work that exist that we don't even give the time of day to think of. Anyone else have any opinions on this topic or have an idea as to what you think is an underappreciated job?
