Praise for Work That Gets Dirt Under Your Fingernails
by Steve Watters on 05/27/2009 at 8:37 AM
As more "information worker" jobs get the axe in a recessionary economy, jobs that tend to put dirt under your fingernails are getting a second look from young workers. Last week, the New York Times Magazine ran a lengthy article on this topic by Matthew Crawford called "The Case for Working With Your Hands." I read quite a bit over the course of a week and I haven't read anything this engaging or provocative in a long time. Here are some appetizers:
Many of us do work that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any tangible result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the end of any given day?
...The imperative of the last 20 years to round up every warm body and send it to college, then to the cubicle, was tied to a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy. This has not come to pass. To begin with, such work often feels more enervating than gliding. More fundamentally, now as ever, somebody has to actually do things: fix our cars, unclog our toilets, build our houses.
...One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”
...The trades suffer from low prestige, and I believe this is based on a simple mistake. Because the work is dirty, many people assume it is also stupid. This is not my experience.
...So managers learn the art of provisional thinking and feeling, expressed in corporate doublespeak, and cultivate a lack of commitment to their own actions. Nothing is set in concrete the way it is when you are, for example, pouring concrete.
...Why not encourage gifted students to learn a trade, if only in the summers, so that their fingers will be crushed once or twice before they go on to run the country?
...For anyone who feels ill suited by disposition to spend his days sitting in an office, the question of what a good job looks like is now wide open.
I suspect this article will hit home with anyone who has looked for purpose among cubicle walls and failed to find anything quite as rewarding as their hands-on projects of days gone by.
1. mary kate said the following at 8:44 AM on May 27:
i agree with much of this. i spent 5 years working for a digital advertising agency, and we would often lament the fact that the construction workers across the street were building a giant high rise while we were building 'digital media' that would disappear in an instant if the power went out. i'm now pursuing a degree in art education, so i can get my hands dirty and create things that last :)
2. Texas Craig said the following at 8:46 AM on May 27:
I think it ought to be required that students in high school must spend a semester working in some manual trade (auto mechanics, construction, plumbing, etc.), regardless of their intended future career path. It will help to "round out" the cerebral students, and it would hopefully build some level of respect by all for those who engage in those trades.
3. Dan Gill said the following at 9:27 AM on May 27:
I firmly agree that we need more emphasis on trades. One big problem is that money and prestige have for many years been focused toward those who do not work with their hands. Look at what a carpenter makes vs. what a lawyer makes. Look at where those two professions put one in society.
Another problem is outsourcing of manufacturing. It is harder and harder for a machinist (just to name one trade) to keep a job in the U.S. Someone overseas will do the work for one tenth of what the machinist can live on in this country.
Now we're finding that the information age jobs are just as susceptible to outsourcing and off-shoring.
We are reaping the results of greed.
4. Jaime said the following at 9:57 AM on May 27:
I was a high school special ed. teacher prior to becoming a SAHM. Many of my students over the years thought that the only way to have any worth was to go on to college, as if learning a trade and doing it well wasn't good enough. Good for you all, highlighting this! I know so many students who found high school to be difficult because of the focus on going on to college, instead of focusing on opportunities to excel in WHATEVER you're good at.
My husband noted that when he went to Germany in high school, that students there who were interested in trade work began that work in the middle school grades, and there was no stigma attached to it - why the need for everyone to be college-bound here?
5. yet another jen said the following at 9:59 AM on May 27:
I Thessalonians 4:11
And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.
6. Casey (the Graduate Nurse) said the following at 10:04 AM on May 27:
I spent two and a half years working as a maintenance guy for my church, and I can tell you, it was the greatest job I've ever had. Seeing progress that your hands have helped to create, and interacting with the staff and kids at the school there was just amazing.
I'm all for getting your hands dirty, you just might find that you like it.
7. obewan said the following at 10:43 AM on May 27:
There are many good professions that include the best of both worlds.
When I was in High School, I was on a duel path. It was vocational and technical college prep. I took vo-tech building trades with 12 other guys, and we built a 3-bedroom brick ranch house in 8 months from the ground up. We did everything including the blueprints and kitchen cabinets from scratch. The profit from the sale of the home went into a scholarship fund for college for each of us.
I wanted to go on to be an architect, but instead became a Welding Engineer. That is another career path that includes hands on work. I am now a senior engineer and help build jet engines, but even though I am a white collar professional on paper, I call it a gray collar job because I get to get my hands dirty in the materials laboratory every so often.
I would not have it any other way. I am not tied to a desk all day long, and I get to see the results of my work. And even though most of my processes are computerized and automated now, I still need to have the hands on knowledge to know how to program the computers.
Just to put in a plug for the welding business, there will be something like a hundred or two hundred thousand boomer welders retiring in the not to distant future, and a severe shortage of skilled welders is expected since young people prefer computers and are afraid to get their hands dirty. And currently, a good pipeline welder with his or her own rig truck can make well over $100K a year doing contract work in the oil business.
8. Erin Hale said the following at 10:47 AM on May 27:
Amen! Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) has an AMAZING talk about this on the Ted Talks website...It's really insightful and humbling...
9. Scott said the following at 11:41 AM on May 27:
I agree with much of what Matt said in his article. one of the best jobs I had was volunteering at a local ISP and building new computers from old ones people donated. Then the rebuild computers were sent to needy families.
Thanks for posting this article Steve.
10. Renee said the following at 11:57 AM on May 27:
I dont think so. Most manual labor jobs dont pay as much, you dont get as much respect or benefits. You are more likely to be hurt and its harder to recover.
Plus if you suffer from regular debilitating pain its the worse. I am so thankful for my white collar job. I would die if I had to work with my hands and on my feet again.
11. Janelle said the following at 12:01 PM on May 27:
Another amen from this corner! I love working with my hands. There is nothing quite like literally seeing the fruits of your labors at the end of a long day. For me, this is a major part of my attraction to the "home arts" of cooking, knitting, gardening, or woodworking. There is a sense of pride in what I am able to make with just my own hands.
But let's not split the world into brainy work and hands-on work. I think there's great benefit to going to university, whether or not you have a white-collar job. Learning to use your mind is every bit as important as learning to use your hands, and I think it does students a disservice to assume that some people are meant to be thinkers and others to be doers.
Everyone has the capacity to think deeply, to understand, to some extent, the disciplines of theology, philosophy, politics, and literature. And everyone has the ability to create a good meal, to build something useful, to dig a garden, to make repairs to a home. We ought to help young people, especially, learn to engage both sides of their brains. I love that Obewan was taught, in high school, to combine his capacities in architecture. It's too bad more schools don't run that sort of program!
While it would be great to be jack-of-all-trades and master-of-all, that's not realistic. Most people do lean toward one side or another. We can, though, encourage one another to love God with our minds and strength, to serve with head and hands.
12. Keith said the following at 12:36 PM on May 27:
Having worked in both the trades and in an office environment, I can say that both are admirable callings.
The important thing is that people work in an area they sincerely feel called to, rather than work in a place because it offers comfort or job security. People shouldn't reject the trades and pursue an office job just because it appears to have higher status; neither should we reject office work in favour of trades just because many trades people make large incomes.
God has given each of us a gift and a calling, and we have to use it in His way to glorify him, rather than in our way to bring glory to ourselves.
13. Scottie in WI said the following at 12:56 PM on May 27:
I read through the NYT article and am inspired! I grew up on a farm in northern Wisconsin and have recently taken a job as an avionics/electrical engineer after college and grad school. God has blessed me with the opportunity to work in the medical field, manufacturing, and aerospace. The most memorable and rewarding work I've ever done though, has been working on my parent's dairy farm and working for a neighbor's dairy farm. There is an inexplicable reward in tilling the land, planting the seed, and harvesting, all while taking care of the 'bosseys' and milking. When something breaks, you don't call a repair-person. You just fix it. Working in the cubical maze now, and for the past few years, I really appreciate and understand the article and post to a personal degree. God-willing, I will be able to raise my family working on the farm; even if only tending chickens and pigs.
14. Amy said the following at 2:18 PM on May 27:
Thanks for posting this! I'm going to pass it on to my younger brothers--who have all expressed their desire to work somewhere other than at a desk for 8+ hours a day.
15. BDB said the following at 3:57 PM on May 27:
For those who are just not cut out to spend all day in an office, I definitely recommend vocational training in a field instead of college. When my grandfather ran the Education Building at the local fair (attendance: 1.3 Million!), he structured his program so that some days the 2 and 4-year universities had time to make their presentations, and some days the vocational-technical schools did. The annual Welding demonstration was always one of my favorites. The military was also present to round out the set of opportunities post high school.
Of course, the other down side of manual trades is physical injury.
My great-grandfather was a ship's engineer. After he emigrated to the U.S., he was working someplace and they ordered him to go do work out someplace that was unsafe. He pointed out to them that it was unsafe, but it was the depression, so you did what you were told, and the structure collapsed, permanently injuring him. They gave him a desk job, he could no longer do the physical work. But, he was an educated engineer.
I know so many construction guys who've fallen off a roof or lost a finger or had something else happen to them that prevents them from working again. I remarked to someone once that the machinist jobs being advertised paid better than what I was making. They said yes - until a flying piece of metal blinds you in one eye.
Heck, my high school Calculus teacher was killed when the car he was working on collapsed on him.
It is an interesting question: is it better to build a Ford that the owner can fix himself? Or a Honda that is engineered so well it never needs to be fixed? The latter is designed by engineers and largely built by robots - but even the robot operators need some education - albeit a college degree is not required.
One of my MBA professors liked to spend a lot of time on a case study of Lincoln Electric, where he made sure we all understood that the non-union factory workers typically made more than $100,000/year - and the MBAs in marketing made less.
16. obewan said the following at 6:39 AM on May 28:
One of my MBA professors liked to spend a lot of time on a case study of Lincoln Electric, where he made sure we all understood that the non-union factory workers typically made more than $100,000/year - and the MBAs in marketing made less. (BDB)
-----------------------------------
Back when I worked in the Naval Nuclear program for a non-union private defense contractor there was a journeyman machinist in our shop who worked enough overtime one year that he made more money than the company president. The president was so surprised that he promptly went to the shop to shake the man's hand when he heard about it. And the president had an engineering degree from MIT and a Harvard MBA to boot! He probably worked just as much OT as the guy in the shop.
17. Chris said the following at 9:00 AM on May 28:
Renee writes:
I dont think so. Most manual labor jobs dont pay as much, you dont get as much respect or benefits. You are more likely to be hurt and its harder to recover.
If by manual you mean unskilled, you're right. But skilled labor (machinist, electrician, certified welder, plumber, etc.) can make very good money.
The one thing that can be a downside is getting older if you don't want a supervisory job. Sooner or later, that physical work gets very tiring as you age. If you move into a supervisory/owner position, it's a little bit easier. But if you just want to do your job, age can be a factor, depending on the job.
18. Kellie said the following at 10:00 AM on May 28:
BDB in #15 wrote: "For those who are just not cut out to spend all day in an office, I definitely recommend vocational training in a field instead of college"
I went to college and my job is not in an office (and you better hope that people in my occupation have a degree!). But it's good to know if you don't want to work in an office (I always knew I didn't) and pursue education that allows for a different work environment.
19. Dan RealName said the following at 11:44 PM on May 28:
As someone who gets paid handsomely for their mental abilities and skills, I have to chime in, but not in a critical manner.
I am now 10 years into my chosen career field which requires a minimum of a 4-year degree in a specific physical science. Most of my life I knew deep down that I was better suited for a job that required mental acumen as opposed to a job that required excellent physical or manual skills and endurance.
When I was in high school, I did take the required shop classes, and I did perform fairly well in a few of them. The one class I do regret not taking was an automotive/automechanics class. However, despite doing well in these classes, they just didn't appeal to me.
Yes, someday our society and our economy may drift towards more jobs being manual/physical labor-oriented as opposed to the more "white-collar" jobs. However, remember that there will always be need for people who are visionaries, thinkers, designers, etc, as will there be the need for people who love to get their hands on things and build and tinker and invent. The Bible in several places states that we are to glorify God in WHATEVER we do. Whether that be typing at a keyboard, hammering nails, dispatching airplanes, developing new foods, vacuuming floors, developing theories and implementing them, etc.
I for one do feel blessed by God that I am working where I am, and I have to trust that whatever happens in the future, He will help me.
20. Joyce said the following at 7:36 AM on May 30:
Thank you for your wonderful post on work!
I have never worked as a manual laborer, but I do have great respect for them. In fact, I have a lot of respect for people who have these technical or manual skills because the only time I use them is for household chores and when I need to fix something in the house.
However, I am a bit saddened when people who do manual or service work get less respect from other people. I come from a country that sends a lot of overseas workers. The treatment that our citizens get can range from very kind to inhumane and abusive. Sometimes, it makes me think if these heartless people are still human.
Another issue is the conflict of money and work. Sometimes, a lot of teachers would rather work overseas and earn more as domestic helpers or even welders than practice their profession here. It seems such a waste since education is a big need, but money still rules the world.
21. Lauren T. said the following at 3:23 PM on May 30:
I've done white collar and manual labor jobs and I find I'm much more suited to what someone earlier called "gray-collar": office work combined with physical/hands-on work. Our general contracting business rehabs houses in our area and that's pretty rewarding work. We don't do much of the actual labor, but we still have to work pretty hard and the results are concrete (sometimes literally!) and easy to see. It also takes a lot of skill and thought: this is not just grunt labor. You have to know how to plan for money streams, solve unique problems, work with people, and occasionally handle a lead-paint cleanup project.
Added to this the work I do maintaining our rental houses and I've learned I'm a landscape architect at heart. Working hard to prepare soil, plant a variety of different trees and bushes, and then do the work to get them started is quite a bit more rewarding to me than all the data entry I did in the white-collar job I had. The data entry was needed and was a terrific tool, but it wasn't something I felt the same toward as I do toward the work I do now.
Skilled plumbers, carpenters, and electricians, by the way, are worth their weight in gold: and a really good one is usually capable of training assistants so he (occasionally she) eventually becomes a manager and a problem-solver rather than the guy with his hands on the tools.