I&#x27;ve done both. I found manual labour hard but overall easier hours by a big margin. I have physical issues from the non-physical work and I know people who&#x27;ve had (true) burn-out and stress-related illness. My personal experience is that I can keep going physically when I&#x27;m exhausted but productivity drops to near zero when mentally tired. My experience is that people massively underestimate the toll of non-physical work rather than that they underestimate physical work.<p>I&#x27;m not understanding the level of emotion. Sorry if your friends &amp; relatives are suffering from their jobs.