Collaborative robots and exoskeletons may offer a new solutioh to improving productivity, health, and safety in manual forestry work. Even though exoskeletons do not fulfill the strict definition of a social robot, it is still worth discussing whether developing powered exoskeletons could be an important step toward creating collaborative robots. We studied the physical and mental load of manual forestry work, as well as the use of passive exoskeletons for assisting with this work. The results indicate that passive exoskeletons can reduce physical load and represent a crucial step toward developing powered exoskeletons and collaborative robots.