Intense, dangerous work-life of a “toxic masculine” oil rig worker – IOTW Report

Intense, dangerous work-life of a “toxic masculine” oil rig worker

Revolver News– Is there a job more toxically manly than being an oil rig worker? It appears they’re also called  “oil rig roughnecks” – that’s a person employed to do really tough physical labor. Another name that is used is “roustabout.”

But don’t be fooled, these are not mindless lugs lumbering around – the work they do is hard, but it’s highly-skilled labor.

What these hardworking guys do is amazing and takes great expertise and finesse. One step out of place, and they could easily lose a limb, or two… maybe even their lives.

And this short, on-minute clip of a “roughneck” at work really amplifies how much skill and know-how is involved.
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23 Comments on Intense, dangerous work-life of a “toxic masculine” oil rig worker

  1. When I was young “Roust Abouts” and Hod Carriers made $5.00 an hr. 5 times min wage. For good reasons

    Routs about and hockey players were easy to spot. Hockey players had no teeth. Roust about generally had less than 10 fingers. sometimes only 1 arm
    Dad’s Dad was an oilfield carpenter with 30 years.Made $4.50 – which was GOOD $. I did not see many hockey players but saw lots of roust about; some totally intact!

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  2. When I retired from carpentry I moved up north for a couple years and got into logging. I mostly drove skidder all day but when you did get out of that thing to do something you kept your head on a swivel because every bit of machinery out there would maim or kill you in a blink of the eye.

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  3. Patric: “Everything would be much thafer if they just painted the equipment in rainbow colors!”
    Gerald: “Then the only time you’d have to worry about it is when you bend over!”

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  4. Search “feller buncher machine”.
    I only operated that if the cut guy didn’t show and the boss couldn’t make it.
    Hated that thing. My butt would clench so tight I’d have to fart out my ears. Tall trees like to break at the top and crash down on the cab. Never got used to it.

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  5. Brad
    FEBRUARY 4, 2023 AT 1:46 PM
    “I think Mr. Blue Collar John Fetterman should give it a whirl.”

    …I’d like to start him out with something simpler, like pushing the 500-900 pound carts by hand across our crowded factory floor all day long like we have tough kids do for 10 hours EVERY DAY.

    He’d pussy after 10 minutes, if he didn’t break a nail first…

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  6. SNS

    He’s one of the most worthless pieces of shit I’ve ever seen, and he has a say in our future. How does this happen. But there’s a lot of them that fit in that category.

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  7. There’s a really beautiful statue memorializing the roughnecks who worked the Long Beach off shore oil rigs and the oil fields of Signal Hill. It’s on the top of Signal Hill in a small park overlooking Long Beach. Beautiful spot fof it and I always liked to stop and admire it when I visited my in-laws who lived a stone’s throw from it.

    Easy to find photos on the internet if interested. Roughneck statue on Signal Hill

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  8. SNS

    I might add, would I hire this guy? Oh hell know. He’s not qualified for jack shit, before the stroke. And here he is helping shape our future. Which ain’t looking real bright.

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  9. CONSERVATIVE COWGIRL

    One of the oil fileds my carpenter (other was a lamp lighter in Frisco) grand dad worked was on Signal hill.

    First time I came to Cal was a family vacation back to Cal 1952.
    Grand Dad 8 * took my sibs and I to Signal Hill. Told us how “The experts” Harvard and Yale geologists said in 1920 Signal Hill would be “pumped dry” by 1930! This year -1952 – we’ll pump 7 TIMES AS MUCH as we did in 1920! I learned how bright Ivy leaguers were at a young age.

    I still think GWB and BHO are smart. – NOT! NICHT!

    His wife, my nanny, was on of the smartest folk I have known. She did not gradate from grammar School! Ut use a double negative, or end a sentence with a preposition and she’d whip ya. BTW. I still advocate corporal punishment!

    PS

    103 years later we are still pumping oil there! Ivy League Smart guys know so much!

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  10. Those of us who have or still do work with their hands are the ones who built & continue to build this nation. Hear me politicians? We also have more smarts than any one of you useless fuckers could acquire in 100 lifetimes & we use our brains to benefit our families, along with the rest of the population, unfortunately, that includes you. The faux intellectual class looks down their noses & sneer at honest working men & women, yet not one of you would not even know how to swing a hammer, as none of you are even on nodding terms with what real work is.

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  11. My third son worked as a roughneck for a year on one of the huge triple-decker drilling riggs up near Fairfield, Texas. I worried about him the whole time. When I was growing up, I lived on the edge of the famed Spindletop Oil Field. There was once a huge drilling rigg less than 200 yards from our home for an entire year. My friends and I would watch the roughnecks as they slung pipe on the drilling deck 24/7. It was like watching a testosterone-fueled ballet. My son worked himself into the best shape of his life. It was great pay, but you’d better never lose your focus on the drilling deck. He loved it, but he quit to join the Navy. Today, he is a EUV Field Service Engineer for the Dutch company ASML. The EUV photolithography machines he works on are said by many scientists to be the most complex machines ever built by man. Read about them if you want your mind blown. They are beyond science fiction. His brothers also work with the EUV machines for different companies that use them.

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  12. I had no idea a rig job was that dangerous and complicated. Awesome video clip. Men who do these kind of jobs are heroes. Also, may I say as a normal woman, men working that hard, earning a honest living with such skill are super sexy…in my opinion.

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