All I can say is that it sounds like if most of you are ever assigned a trip to say, ORD, LAX, SFO, BOS or EWR you should definitely call in sick. You will be filling out ASRs for months....
When I was a kid growing up flying light jets out of ORD we were lucky when we DIDN'T hit another airplane while pushing back - uphill in the snow! AND we had to get out and push it back ourselves!