If you have even half a brain, then you probably know it takes a whole lot of different people with different jobs to ensure everything remains cozy on this little green and blue haven we call earth. Unfortunately, most people don’t really know (or even care) who cleans up after them. A majority of the people aren’t even aware of the fact that there’s often someone who gets paid to handle the filth they leave behind.

If you thought these jobs were easy, you couldn’t be more wrong. These jobs are hard and painful, but worst of all they are downright disgusting. So if you’ve been planning on handing in that resignation letter, how about you go through this list first and see if you still hold the same sentiments at the end of the read. We can assure you, unless it involves wading through human excrement, counting farts or having to prick a fat pimple, then you’ve got it good. We have compiled a list of 20 stinkiest jobs from around the world. Brace yourself because what you are about to read will have you feeling sick to your stomach! Got your throw-up bucket ready? Let’s go!

20. Gynecologist/Female Reproductive System Doctor

Dreadful internet stories have been told of cases handled by gynos on a day-to-day basis. The tale of one doctor’s encounter with a prostitute would, in my opinion, be the grossest; a prostitute walked through the ER unit and while grabbing her privates, started shouting that she was ‘stuffed’ down there. The docs hurriedly took a look and found pieces of toilet paper, some crumpled dollars and worst of all, a handful of maggots! Gagging yet? This is but one scenario of the frequent dramatic cases that gynos have to go through, in addition to the number of times they have to peek into different types of “V–regions”, some clean, some dirty and some…well, let’s not even go there!

19. Maggot Farmer

When you think of farming, what comes to mind first is probably cute lambs frolicking around a field of rich green grass, or fat red strawberries almost bursting with succulence. Oh! And of course the picture wouldn’t be complete without some golden honey sparkling in the sun and a couple of bees buzzing beside the hive (For some funny reason bees are always much friendlier when they are only in our imagination!). Farming has always been associated with everything beautiful, but here’s the thing; there’s an ugly side to farming. Farmers deal with dirt, poop and vegetable rot, and all the smells that come with it. Funny thing, ‘normal’ farmers still have one group of people to look down upon; maggot farmers. It just goes to show, no matter how bad you have it, there’s always going to be someone who has it worse! Now before you go gagging all over the place, remember you need these guys to make your father-son fishing trip possible. Here’s to maggot farmers; keeping families close since the beginning of fishing!

18. Forensic Entomologist

We’ve all been tiny entomologists at some point in our lives; if you never owned a few bugs in your earlier years, then you were robbed of your childhood, and should probably seek the services of a shrink! An entomologist is a person who studies insects for a living. Hmm, being around butterflies all day…Cool yeah? Bet you think we made a mistake having this profession on this list. Think again. Being an entomologist is amazing. Being a forensic entomologist? Not so much. Forensic entomologists study the development of insects that are found on dead bodies to determine how long the person has been dead. While this is a very important job, can you imagine spending your whole day around gross bugs and having to deal with dead bodies that are rotting, some as old as a few months? You would definitely need some therapy! Boy, it seems shrinks keep getting more in demand every day!

17. Esthetician

Remember your teenage years? How awesome was it? When your days consisted of football, cheerleaders, binge-drinking and a ton of pimples on your face! We just had to spoil that memory for you with that last one, didn’t we? The truth is, we all couldn’t wait to be through with the pimples phase! And if you never went through that phase then boo to you, little Mr/Miss perfect! Pimples were not only embarrassing, they were painful, but worst of all, disgusting. We still all get the shudders when that one pimple resurfaces and we have to ‘clean it up’. And oh don’t even get us started on boils! Those little devils could ruin your day! You couldn’t get paid enough to pop someone else’s zit, right? Well, that’s exactly what estheticians get paid to do; get pus out of pimples or boils from people’s faces while they are getting facials. How exactly do they do this? By literally squeezing out the pus from boils and pimples from their patients. No really, close your eyes and picture it! If you thought that was gross, check out what we have listed next!

16. Pedicurist/Foot Attendant

Imagine you are a pedicurist, and a woman, looking all fine and dandy, walks up to your workstation. You get all excited because that’s one more client to your list and well, fine as she is, her feet are probably perfect! Things go well until she removes her shoes, and a foul cheese smell erupts, threatening to literally peel off your nose. The list on the nightmare of feet varies from corns, bunions, fungus, a mass of peeling dead skin, dumpy feet, moist dirt in between toes, hairy toes, overgrown cuticles covering toenails, the aftermath water left from the footbath, and if you’re just unlucky enough, a heavy splash on your face or body, made by that one client who just couldn’t just dip their feet back into the water slowly.

15. Masseuse

As they try their best to relax the client, some clients make the work of the masseuse almost unbearable. The first batch of annoying clients – let’s call them the “no-shower-type” – are the worst! I mean, they come from whatever errands they were running all sweaty, and don’t want to hop into the shower or steam room before their session, in a bid to ‘save time’. So the poor masseuse has to massage through your smell, as well as constantly be in contact with your sticky skin. Gross! The second batch – call them “Hairified” – walk into the massage room with a whole mound of hair on their bodies, and expect the poor masseuse to add a lump of oil and rub it on… No thank you! The last batch – the pervs – expect to be touched and massaged in certain ‘inappropriate’ areas without a tinge of embarrassment. One word; Eew!

14. Garbage Collection

The world would be a wreck if this set of people decided to strike. It is a difficult and stinky job (literally too!), with its logistics revolving around picking up waste, which in this case is a general term, ranging from a poop-filled diaper, to used sanitary towels, rotten food, plastic, metal cans…practically anything that gets thrown away. Nobody likes being asked to take out the day’s trash (We bet you know a couple of relationships that failed because of this!), think about having to ‘take out’ the whole city’s waste! They also have to work through all seasons throughout the year; can you imagine handling frozen diapers, or having to deal with the stench of trash that’s been hit by the sun just right, and just long enough? Bet you’ll treat your garbage man better the next time you see him!

13. Chimney Sweep

If you thought Santa’s job description was amazing but you are not fat enough to fit the suit, worry not, you could always live out your dream by being a Chimney Sweep. Just kidding, the two jobs could not be further apart! For starters, no milk and cookies for any chimney sweep, all they can hope to encounter during their job are rodents that live up the chimney. Sometimes these animals are riled up by being forced to vacate their premises, especially when they have young ones. Guess who bears the brunt of this rage? You got it; yours truly. While they might be able to avoid this on a good day, they most definitely cannot avoid getting smeared with tar and oil from top to bottom, every day! How gross is that? So while kids will run when they see them, it won’t be towards them as in the case of Santa, it will be away from them. It must suck to be a walking scarecrow, no?

12. Restaurant Dishwasher

So you washed up all the kids’ dishes during Christmas, and you thought that was gross? Well, you would have to work as a restaurant dishwasher to appreciate the dishes you wash at home. So what does a dishwasher do? They clean up after hundreds of strangers on a daily basis. Forget the fact that it is so tiresome, can you imagine cleaning the plates of people who might have spat on them, or left their bones all over the place? Can you imagine how many different drops of saliva dishwashers come into contact with every day? Oh and imagine having to dispose of the food residue once they are done cleaning the dishes! It is just too much to handle!

11. Pathologist

Can you remember how mortified you were when you first saw a dead body? Do you still get the shivers at the thought of a week-old corpse, and the stench and maggots that come with it? Well, a pathologist gets to deal with such horrifying cases on a daily basis. Some of their ‘clients’ include humans with scattered body parts, rotting skin and internal organs that they have to cut into to get a precise postmortem. Did I mention the rooms they work in are full of dead bodies? Talk about an opening for a horror story! Hey here’s a good idea; try eating a meat burger after this. We dare you!

10. Septic Tank Cleaner

Waste from your lavatories goes straight to the sewer, which is characterized by a horrendous odor, rats sprawling around, traces of feces, some dry and others flaccid (feel free to throw up at this point), and the decomposing smell of human shit in totality. Septic tank cleaners have to go through this mess on a daily basis, to ensure the tanks are not blocked and are in good shape. In the case of a septic tank outburst, guess who’s got to charge through the stench and sludge in search of a blockage, and guess who has to get rid of excesses when it gets full? Want to try that burger now?

9. Sewer Cleaner

Quite similar to the septic tank cleaner is the sewer cleaner. Their job entails spending their days holed up in the sewer repairing faulty pipes, unclogging drains and on some occasions swimming through the murky waste to remove objects blocking the sewer’s flow. This includes rats, roaches and in some instances the occasional corpse. Sounds glamorous, doesn’t it? As you have probably already guessed, the smell down there does not help in any way, so if you are planning to venture into this profession it may be time to start familiarizing yourself with these scents.

8. Fart Statistician

We all have a good laugh when someone farts in class or at a train station, but it stops being funny when you are stuck in a small space with the smell, or when someone keeps doing it over and over again. So it turns out there’s someone whose job it is to deal with farts every single day, studying them and even counting them! You probably didn’t know such an occupation existed; nobody blames you. The concept sounds ridiculous! However, thanks to these number crunchers, we now know that the average human farts 13 times in a single day! Look at you trying to count how many times you’ve farted today! And if that’s already grossing you out, imagine how much worse it is counting someone else’s farts!

7. Portable Toilet Cleaner

The definition that captures this job aptly is ‘a cross between garbage collector and sewer cleaner’. As daunting as the prospect of using a portable toilet in public sounds, things could be worse; imagine having to actually clean up after everyone is done. They use tanks and vacuum wands to suck up all the filth, which at times includes cleaning up the walls. Grossed out yet? Well, I’m just getting started! On average, these guys clean up to 60 toilets a day. This means they always have to be on call, you know, in case a ‘messy’ situation comes up. But do not feel so bad for these guys, on average they pocket about $60,000 a year. Not so disgusting anymore, is it?

6. Embalmer

Close your eyes and picture this; washing and disinfecting corpses for a living. If you are looking for rock bottom, I think you’ve finally found it. Petrifying doesn’t even begin to describe what these professionals go through to help preserve our deceased loved ones before the process of burial. In many quarters they are referred to as the unsung heroes of the community. This job involves dealing with nauseating chemicals and strange smells, not to mention cold corpses whose internal body parts you have to extract. So if you don’t have a strong stomach, you are just not cut out to be in this profession. The lengths these guys go to prepare a deceased person for burial is shocking, and it takes a certain kind of person to endure such conditions.

5. Slaughter House Worker

Blood, death, and gore on a daily basis. These components make up the unfortunate life of a slaughterhouse worker. This professional’s job entails killing animals one after the other, as they yelp, kick, scream, and ultimately, die. This is bound to take a lot out of anyone. They are forced to work continuously in extremely gut-wrenching conditions, and eventually, the sight of blood and the shrieks of pain do not affect them. This profession needs the worker to completely block out all their emotions; taking the life of any living being is not the easiest job around. Unless of course, you are a kind of psychopath who gets your kicks from such stuff. In that case, you have just found heaven on earth! So (last burger reference, we promise), next time you’re digging into your delicious burger, spare a thought for the guy mandated to kill the animal that provided that juicy piece of meat you just can’t get enough of.

4. Roadkill Collector

Every time you drive by a dead animal on the side of the road, I’m sure you wonder what happens to the remains of these unfortunate animals. Well I guess you can now tell what a roadkill collector does. They often locate and collect these creatures from the country’s highways. Some of these victims include deer, wolves, squirrels and possums. These professionals often spend their days driving around highways looking for these poor creatures. The extent to how smelly and depressing this job can be at times cannot be perfectly expressed in words, but somebody has to do it.

3. Whale Snot Collector

We know what you’re thinking but no it’s not a made up job. Someone actually wakes up in the morning, kisses their family goodbye, and spends the rest of the day fishing up whale’s noses. Talk about taking the love of science to a whole other level! So disgusting is this job, that scientists have been forced to invent a helicopter whose purpose is to manually harvest the snot on their behalf. But they still have to study it themselves; unfortunately, no helicopter can do that for them! Despite how nauseating this job might seem, it actually does a lot of good as it helps scientists study the variation in disease patterns in large animals.

2. Crime Scene Cleanup

This profession is definitely not for the faint of heart. This job description comprises of cleaning up blood and various body fluids from the scene of an accident, homicide or suicide. It couldn’t get any worse, right? Trust me it could, and it does. In some situations, these guys have to delve into extremely contagious areas like the recent areas affected by the Ebola crisis. These professionals go by different titles depending on the specific job you decide to pursue. These include crime scene decontamination, biohazard remediation or in some cases biohazard removal. Funny thing is the popularity of this job is growing by leaps and bounds. I guess we can blame this on popular television shows like ‘Crime Scene Investigation (C.S.I.)’ showcasing the glamorous aspects of the profession.

1. Butt Doctors/Gastroenterologist

Who examines the butt when someone has rashes or pains pasted all over it? Have you ever thought about what happens to the food you eat in the digestive tract, or even how the stomach smells? Well, your fart can give you a hint on the state of smells and affairs in your system! Nobody takes delight at the thought of visiting a gastroenterologist, commonly known as a GI, or, in cruder terms, “butt doctor”. This is simply because they major on problems related to the awful gas you exude, abnormal poop, and anal pains. They do a thorough examination of all butts of different shapes and sizes, and in some instances have to stick their fingers up the patient’s butt just to get a correct diagnosis. It pays well, but it’s a no-go for most people.