I am on my feet for 6 hours a day 5 days a week at work. a couple of days ago the ball of my right foot started hurting bad. what is going on?

Pain in forefoot: Metatarsalgia ( forefoot pain ) could be just due to standing for long time. If it persists then you will need x-ray of the foot to rule out stress fracture , fracture of the sesamoid bone, intertarsal bony union or arthritis in one of the small joints. Wearing of broad hard sole shoe may help resolve the problem.

Overload or neuroma: It is likely that you either aggravated a neuroma or just are overloading the metatarsal heads. Make sure you have good Achilles flexibility. Do heel cord stretches. And get a metatarsal pad to put in your shoe to offload that area (try hapad.Com).