How much pay would induce you to take such a job?
For me, I’d never do it. I have an extreme fear of heights. I know they have security belts and what-not, but I’d still never do it.
The reason I ask is that I have a friend who is trying to get his license to be a crane operator. He’s asking me to help him with the mathematics, which is no problem for me. But I’d never take a job going up in one or those things.
I admire him that he’s willing to go up in one of those things.
If you had asked my brother when he was 6*, his entire career plan was to be a window washer because it looked SO COOL.
Then, after he retired, he’d become a policeman.
He’s an engineer now. 
A kajillion dollars a year and a continuous delivery system for Valium.
Otherwise…No. Fucking. Way.
::shudders::
I admire anyone who can do it.
Well, he was
crazy.
The heights wouldn’t bother me too much - I always enjoyed skydiving, bungie jumping, climbing and I can carry on a casual conversation while on the highest roller coasters around.
Standing on a little platform in the cold, doing the same task over and over and over and peeing in a bottle might get a little old though.
I’m with frekafree, though I might hold out for more money…and better drugs.
Yeah. I could never do it. Maybe with Valium, but still…
When I look up at those guys, I just think, “How do you do that!!!”
I’d do it, if the pay was right.
I don’t have a fear of heights, but I do suffer from vertigo (not the same thing). I would do it with lots of valium . . . and only if the pay increased exponentially with the height.
And yeah, the boredom would get to me.
No way no fuck no how.
A few of the NY Times 9/11 obituaries still stand out in my mind, one was of a window washer. According to his family, he just loved his job.
Found the cite. And there was another that I missed the first time around. God bless people who do that kind of work.
I might do it for $500,000 an hour. Work one day and quit.
I don’t think 9/11 is a realistic job hazard for window washers. There’s plenty of actual ones though. :eek:
I seriously couldn’t. I keep trying to deal with my fear of heights, but I haven’t conquered it yet. I just don’t think I could force myself to get out there once, let alone every day.
I spent a couple of days in one of those cradles, but that was waterblasting - after a few minutes where nothing bad happened, the adrenalin rush faded and I just got on with the job. Windows day in and day out would be boring.
The job is really crappy, so I wouldn’t. But the height wouldnt bug me much.
I would not, however, take a job washing spiders for any amount of money. Unless i got to use a pressure washer. 
Oh, Hell no. They’d have to much improve the little bench that they sit on - it would have to be more enclosed, so I couldn’t just topple the hell over with a gust of wind. Photos like this make me terrified.
Joe
I’d like to do it, but only for a few days, not as a long-term thing. I don’t exactly like washing windows. I think it would be fun. It’d be quiet and if you can see inside the builiding, that’s a big plus. YMMV, obviously.
Just out of curiosity, how much do those window washers make, on average?
Just to get a rise out of our resident acrophobics…
How about working with these guys across the street from my office?
photo 1
photo 2 (closer view)
This.
Holy crap! What’s the story behind that?
