If you can have fun digging the ditch on the beach and dig the best damn ditch you can, why not dig the ditch? And because you don't _really_ care that much about the ditch, it's easier not to burn yourself out. After 8 hours of digging you feel no remorse from going home. On some days you might dig for 10 hours (best damn ditch you're ever gonna dig while having fun, remember?) and feel no remorse when you stop digging real early next Friday.
I would tend to agree actually that digging a ditch on the beach together with the kids, seeing it fill with water, frantically trying to keep the walls from caving in and ultimately loosing to the incoming tide regardless is much more fun than digging a ditch in a swamp somewhere because $EMPLOYER likes swamp ditches. But swamp ditches pay the bills.
I will happily dig beach ditches for employers, no doubt, but only with adequate shade and breaks (don't work 80 hour weeks), drinks provided etc.
