Is there a fairy job in the world that wage earners like? Probably not.
Because more money and less work, work close to home is like a fantasy, a beautiful legend that does not exist.
At the beginning of April this year, a recruitment notice issued by the British-administered Lockroy Port Post Office only recruited four staff members, but it attracted 6,000 people to sign up, and more than 4,000 resumes passed the review. The degree of competition is comparable. Civil servant selection.
However, this job has nothing to do with the “immortals”, and even turned on the hell mode——
First, the remoteness.
The Port Lockroy Post Office is nicknamed “the most remote post office in the world” . How far is it? It’s on Gaudier Island on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula.
It is the first permanent base established by the United Kingdom in Antarctica. It was transformed into a museum and officially opened to the public in 1996. It receives 18,000 tourists every summer, so it is necessary to recruit staff to manage operations.
Second, people are less busy.
There are a total of four people in the entire post office, but the work to be responsible includes not limited to operating the post office, selling postcards, sending emails, managing cultural relics on the island, monitoring wild animals… By the way, they also need to shovel penguin shit.
Finally, the monthly salary is 1600.
As the saying goes, “money can make a ghost run the mill”, but the people who do this work are obviously sheep that don’t eat grass and milk.
Depending on the position, their monthly salary ranges from $1,600 to $2,300 (about 10,497 yuan to 15,089 yuan), but the UK’s per capita income in 2021 has reached 350,000 pounds.
In the most remote places, with low wages as cattle and horses, I am afraid that only the Bodhisattva goes down to earth to do charity.
But the miraculous thing is that thousands of people are rushing to do a job with such poor conditions. After half a year of screening, four women finally stand out.
Clare Ballantyne , who just got her master’s degree in earth sciences from Oxford University this year and ran an ultramarathon in the Azores, will serve as postmaster, handling some 80,000 handmade sheets destined for more than 100 countries. postcard.
Mairi Hilton , who is studying for a PhD in conservation biology in Australia , is the wildlife inspector this time around, counting penguins on the island and keeping tabs on the newborn chicks and their nests.
Lucy Bruzzone , a former scientist on secondment to Arctic expeditions from Cambridge University , had to coordinate visiting ships and liaise with expedition leaders.
She, who once applied to join the team but was unsuccessful, was very excited: “It’s my lifelong dream to work in the Antarctic Post Office, and I can’t wait to go to that place where birds don’t lay eggs and hens don’t poop!”
Natalie Corbett , a newly married bride, can’t wait to leave her husband and son to go to work in Antarctica immediately after receiving the offer. Having been in the retail industry for more than ten years, she has to shoulder the burden of the gift shop manager, and it is up to her to complete the sales task.
These four Iron Maidens passed the test and worked tirelessly to work in Antarctica. It was not that they wanted to experience a period of isolation from the world. In fact, they knew very well how difficult the conditions were.
The Antarctic is frozen for many years, and the location of the Port Lockroy post office, even in summer, the average temperature is between -15 ℃ and 5 ℃ , and they have to work outside in the cold for several hours a day.
It is almost impossible to eat canned and freeze-dried food. Rice and pasta are high-end meals. If you want to eat fresh vegetables and fruits, it is impossible.
The place to live is simple and poor. All four employees are crammed into one bedroom, with up and down beds, no separate toilet, only a simple camping toilet, which needs to be cleaned every day.
There is no running water and shower room at the base. They can only wait for the visiting ships to replenish the water source and take a bath. In extreme cases, they may not be able to take a good bath for two weeks.
There is no internet or signal in Antarctica, and communication with the outside world relies on expensive satellite phones, so everyone can only be allocated ten minutes of phone calls per week.
In addition, solar panels can provide a small amount of electricity. The disease that modern humans cannot do without WiFi and mobile phones may be cured in this uninhabited land.
If you accidentally get sick, if it is a minor illness or pain, there are always medical drugs on hand, but if it is a serious emergency, even if the doctor rushes over, it will take about seven days.
Therefore, a person who is competent for this job must not only endure hardships and loneliness, but also have a healthy body so that they can live and work in this extreme environment.
But even if everything is bad, going to the Antarctic post office to count penguins and shovel penguin excrement is still the ideal job that many people dream of.
Laura MacNeil, who worked at the Port Lockroy Post Office, still remembers those five months of work vividly.
She remembered that the ship set off from Argentina and sailed for seven days to reach its destination. Because Gaudier Island was surrounded by sea ice, she had to disembark and walk through the sea ice to get to where she lived.
The summer days in Antarctica are particularly long. They will start receiving tourists from thousands of miles in the morning, one person will explain, and the others will go to sweep the snow and clean up penguin excrement.
Usually a work is 12 to 16 hours, and only one day off after two consecutive weeks of work.
However, in their spare time, Laura and her colleagues watched rare wild animals up close, and saw the penguins mate, build nests, lay eggs until the little penguins hatched and then grow wings, which is also the process of purifying and comforting the soul. the process of.
Especially when I see the beautiful scenery of Antarctica every day, all the tiredness and fatigue disappear in an instant.
Laura and the three partners forged a deep friendship and still maintain a close bond today. For them, this wonderful but short-lived experience is a precious memory they will never forget.
She still often misses the time when there was no internet and entertainment in Antarctica. It was quiet and leisurely, as if there was only a dialogue between heaven and earth and all creatures and self.
“I would like to go back to a place like Lonely Planet if I have the chance.”
What is the fairy job that the workers envy?
Now it seems that it may not be the secular definition that money is more busy and less close to home. Sometimes it may be more of a spiritual and spiritual prosperity .
And you, if there is such an opportunity in front of you to go to Antarctica to be a shit shovel officer, would you be willing to go?
Image source / Internet
Writing, Editing / Huoshaoyun
Editor in charge / Seventy-seven, honey