(the other major hazard is falling off a ladder and having a cubic foot of photos land on your head)

[sofiaviolet]

I have to say, the biggest hazard of my job may be literal death by a thousand paper cuts.

I'm at the point now where I don't stop working unless the cut is threatening to bleed on the materials (preservation and sanitation issues!). And I should really stop putting bandaids on even the bleeders, due to the positioning.

Basically, because I spend so much of my time plunging my hands into boxes of upright folders and papers, I get a lot of paper cuts near the bottom of my fingernails (I also get them on my knuckles with some regularity, and I have one that is very nearly under my fingernail right now, rendering my left pinky useless for typing due to ouch). Bandaids get in the way pretty badly. And I'm apparently incapable of applying them competently: I just took off the bandaid from earlier today, and there's a band of white, wrinkled skin because I wrapped my finger too tight.

And the sad thing is, that's not even the worst thing I've done when bandaging my fingertips. I once left an overly tight bandaid on over night, and the next morning my fingertip was slightly maroon on the end. :(

Comments

[cleverthylacine]

This is a job for latex or nitrile examination gloves with maybe a touch of cheap lube--it's not going on mucous membranes, so you don't have to consider whether or not glycerin contributes to yeast growth in your system--on each fingertip so you can feel what you are doing. That's what I'd be doing if I had to stick my hands in boxes of upright folders and uncollated paper a lot. Cotton gloves inhibit your ability to feel what you're doing (which means you're more likely to injure yourself if there are loose staples or other metal bits in there, even though you'd avoid paper cuts).

The advantage of exam gloves is that they're relatively cheap, so you don't have to keep reusing them if they get torn.