roustabouts
Unskilled manual laborers
Roustabouts are unskilled laborers who do heavy, rough work.
The term originated with circus workers who set up and tore down tents, then extended to oil field workers handling equipment and manual tasks on drilling rigs.
The word suggests transient, physically demanding labor: The roustabouts worked through the night to get the derrick ready.
Lacking acquired competence
- manualWritten instructions for use
- physicalOf body or matter
- heavy-liftingMost demanding effort
- loadingAdding weight or cargo
unloading · dock · warehouse · temporary · casual · itinerant · migrant · grunt
unskilled
Lacking acquired competence
- manualWritten instructions for use
- physicalOf body or matter
- heavy-liftingMost demanding effort
loading · unloading · dock · warehouse · temporary · casual · itinerant · migrant · grunt · workboots
tent
Portable fabric shelter
- ringmasterCircus performance director
- carnivalTraveling amusement attraction
- sideshowSecondary carnival attraction
setup · teardown · stakes · poles · canvas · rigging · wagons · midway · fairground · troupe
roughneck
Oil platform laborer
offshore · platform · pipeline · mud · casing · wellhead · crane · chains · tongs · hardhats
- petroleumcrude oil, crude, petroleum, oil wells, oil fields
- carnivalparade, costume, float, ferris wheel, roller coaster
- laborerslaborers, day laborer, day labourer, day laborers, manual worker
- sheep shearingshearer, shears, fleece, shearing shed, handpiece
- work crewscleaning crew, maintenance crew, road crew, demolition crew, film crew
- tradesmenwelders, machinists, carpenters, plumbers, electricians
roustaboutsspecialists
Focused field authorities
master craftsmen · experts · petroleum engineers · journeymen · engineers
roustaboutsexecutives
Senior corporate officers
white-collar workers · managers · professionals · administrators · directors
roustaboutsoffice workers
Indoor professional employees
knowledge workers · clerks · analysts · academics · intellectuals