Here is Mike Rowe's Response to a man writing about how "bad jobs" (as if there is such a thing) are bad for our economy, bad for the workers, and just, well, BAD. It is so telling of the attitude of so many folks when it comes to work - "I would love to find a job, but I just can't find one" translates to "I can't find one that I don't condsider to be beneath me."
There is no such thing as a job that is beneath anyone, if that person needs work. Mike pretty much flays the guy:
Mike
Rowe here, Dirty Jobs. Thanks to the necromancers over at Google, I’ve been
alerted to your most recent Question of the Day: “Are Bad Jobs Good for the
Economy and the People Who Work Them?” Immediately
under your headline I noticed a photo of me, taken on the Mackinac Bridge while
filming a segment on Dirty Jobs.
Given the juxtaposition of my face with your headline, a
reasonable person might conclude that a “Dirty Job” and “Bad Job” are one and
the same. This sentiment is not only inconsistent with my own view of hard
work, it’s completely at odds with the Dirty Jobs
Code of Conduct, a collection of life lessons painstakingly compiled from the
men and women I’ve met on Dirty Jobs.
Over the years, the Dirty
Jobs Code of Conduct has kept
me from saying stupid things in the press. Today, it’s used primarily to assist
writers like you with the approved use of my name and likeness. Obviously, you
have never seen or heard of the Dirty
Jobs Code of Conduct, since most of your article violates every clause and
restriction therein. I must therefore take a moment to assure your readers that
the appearance of my face in
such close proximity to your headline is in no way a personal affirmation that
certain types of jobs are in fact “bad.”
Here, then, are a few basic guidelines on the proper use of my
name and likeness, pulled directly from the most current version of the DJCC. Since
your Question of the Day is clearly not rhetorical, I’ll attempt to answer it
here, with a level of detail that could only occur on a cross-country flight
with no movie, no crossword, and a dead Kindle.
(I have no expectation that anyone with an actual job will have
the time to read much further than this.)
Steve Kloosterman, MUSKEGON, MI –
Most of us can tell a story about a job from hell somewhere in our past. There’s
the first job, the one we took because our parents said, “You can’t hang around
the house all summer long.” Maybe it was at a fast food place or in a retail
outlet.
Mike Rowe – First
of all, Steve, the Dirty
Jobs Code of Conduct contains
a Damnation Clause that
clearly and unequivocally states that my photo “can not be used in conjunction
with any satanic reference, including but not limited to Lucifer, Hades, Old
Scratch, Hell, Perdition, Beelzebub or Honey Boo Boo.”
Secondly, jobs don’t come from hell. They come from people with
money who are willing to pay other people to work for them.
Thirdly, I have worked in both fast food and retail and neither
one reminded me of the Netherworld. (Although the Taco Bell drive-through at 2
a.m. does smell vaguely of brimstone and sulphur.)
SK –
None of us expected these jobs to lead to a career, but we did them anyway
because we wanted spending money, needed to build a work history, or just plain
needed something to do.
MR – Jobs
are different than careers, but when you suggest that one is subordinate to the
other, you diminish the value of ordinary work. According to the Work Is
Not the Enemy Clause in the DJCC, my
image may not be used in conjunction with “any statement or action that
disparages the value of hard work, regardless of nature of the job or the
amount of compensation involved.”
SK –
There’s the desperate job, the one we had to take because the price of gas shot
up, or we bought a new car and had to make payments on it, or needed to pay
college tuition. Maybe it was a second job, or something informal on the side,
like fixing up and selling cars.
MR – You
make the option of working a second job sound like the problem, not the
solution. Under the Personal
Responsibility Clause of the DJCC, my
image “must not be used in association with any language or expression that
attempts to portray hard-working people as helpless victims.” The DJCC maintains
that meeting one’s financial obligations is an act of responsibility, not an
act of “desperation.”
SK- And then there’s the kind of job we
wouldn’t take again under any conditions, no matter how desperate or bored we
were. The conditions were unpleasant if not dangerous, and the pay didn’t make
up for it.
MR – I
understand that some jobs are beneath you. Specifically, those jobs that you
find to be “unpleasant” and “low-paying.” Unfortunately, under the Hubris
Clause of the DJCC, I am
forbidden from endorsing “any third-party comments that could be interpreted as
elitist, judgmental, haughty or condescending.”
SK – We
can all agree that jobs falling into this last category aren’t worth having.
MR – This
one, I’m afraid, is in direct conflict with the Don’t
Shoot Yourself in the Foot Clause of the DJCC. You
see, Steve, when your air conditioner breaks, or your toilet explodes, or
termites set up shop in your home, the solution to your problem will almost
certainly require people who are willing to do something … “unpleasant.” (When
you find yourself in need of these people, you’d better hope they haven’t read
your column.)
SK –
But let’s talk about the first two categories of jobs.
MR – OK.
Fast-food workers, retail clerks, auto mechanics, car salesman and part-timers.
The “jobs from hell.” Let’s talk.
SK –
Are they good for the people who work them?
MR – Of
course they are.
SK –
Are they good for the economy?
MR – Of
course they are.
SK –
Tell us what you think in the poll and comments below.
MR – I did.
I voted and then I checked the results. Then I threw up in my mouth.
Apparently, most of the respondents see no value in the kind of work you’ve
described. That’s a seriously bleak outcome, and a blatant violation of all the
aforementioned clauses, including the Glass
Half-Empty Restriction of the DJCC, which
forbids me from lending my name and likeness to anything “heartbreaking,
dismal, grim, pessimistic, soul-deadening or just plain depressing.”
SK –
The Muskegon Chronicle and Mlive just finished the second segment in a
months-long series of articles about jobs in the Muskegon area. In the most
recent segment, we wrote about low-paying jobs, and the “shadow” economy of
people who hack out a living by mowing lawns, scrounging odd jobs, and anything
else that comes their way.
MR – I read
it. Nowhere does the writer congratulate anyone for their resourcefulness or
self-reliance. Instead, you wrote that “desperate times call for desperate
measures,” a clear infraction of the Hyperbole
Restriction. According to the DJCC,
desperation means selling a kidney to ransom your wife and kids. Desperation is
not a $10 an hour construction job with no benefits, as you suggest. That’s
just work.
SK –
Not all, but some, employers of low-wage workers give their employees
opportunity to advance, we wrote.
MR – I have
never seen a job that didn’t come with the opportunity for advancement. Union,
non-union, high pay, low pay, part-time, full-time, freelance or salaried. Any
worker who consistently shows up an hour early and stays late will quickly
become indispensable on any job site. That’s still a great truth in the wide
world of work. Unfortunately, you didn’t mention that. Instead, you implied
that a worker’s only hope of advancement lies with the employer, another
screaming inconsistency with the Personal
Responsibility Clause.
SK –
People working odd jobs or doing day labor for money under the table sometimes
do so because it’s the only option they have, we wrote.
MR – Agreed.
But nowhere do you suggest that having one option is better than having no
option. Certainly, these people are struggling, but they have not given up.
They have not become wards of the state. They are looking for and in many cases
finding a way to get by in a brutal economy. Certainly not ideal, but the Glass-Half
Empty Restriction and the Context Clause of the DJCC both
prohibit my endorsement of all “one-sided comparisons that fail to illustrate
how things could always be much, much worse.”
SK –
Some people might take an optimistic view of these jobs.
MR – Of
course. Some people still see hard work as something to be respected in all its
forms. The point is, fewer people share that view than ever before. The
majority of people in your poll voted “no” to every question. They believe that
whole categories of jobs are “bad” for the worker and “bad” for society at
large. That’s a clear infraction of the Work Is
Not the Enemy Clause of the DJCC, and a
radical departure of the attitude I encountered in my previous visits to the
great state of Michigan.
SK –
Some people might say the work needs to be done and the workers are filling
that need.
MR – I
would hope so. Your own paper reported that 2 trillion dollars is being
generated by this “shadow economy.” That’s 8% of our GDP. I’m no economist, but
I’d wager an 8% drop in the GDP would start the next Great Depression. And
while the Dirty Jobs Code of Conduct doesn’t
address it directly, I’d prefer that my name and likeness avoid any direct
association with the any type of economic collapse.
SK –
Some will say that nobody forced people to take these jobs. That these jobs
enable these people to earn money and pay for things that matter to them. These
jobs may mean that individuals are able to rely more on their own earnings, and
less on taxpayer-funded assistance programs.
MR – Now those people
sound more like the Michiganders I remember! The Soo Lock workers in Sault Ste.
Marie, the log cabin builders in the U.P., the mobile butchers in Holland, the
Bone Black workers in Melvindale, the many good folks on Mackinac Island (in
those “hellish” retail and food service positions), the craftsmen at Novadai
Furniture right there in Muskegon, and of course the maintenance workers on The
Mighty Mac. Those people would never look down their noses at an honest day’s
work. No way.
SK –
Others might take a more negative view. Advocates of living-wage policy might
say that low-wage jobs are hurtful to the people working them.
MR – The
world is full of well-intended people who believe that prices, wages and rents
should should have nothing to do with pesky things like supply and demand.
While I applaud their intentions, I’m afraid the Common
Sense Clause of the DJCC does not
allow my name or likeness to be associated with any views or expressions that
could be interpreted as “unrealistic or childlike.”
SK –
Some might say that people working in a “shadow economy” are part of the
symptoms of an economic system breaking down.
MR - I have
no idea if the economy is breaking down or just evolving, but regardless,
low-paying, part-time and off-the-grid jobs are here to stay. We can either
talk about these jobs with a measure of dignity and respect, or we can adapt
your labeling system of “Bad, Unpleasant, Dangerous, Not-Worth-Having, and
Hellish.” Honestly, I don’t see the point of attacking honest work under any
circumstances (although the Futility
Clause of the DJCC prohibits
me from expecting a cogent reply from those who do.)
SK –
A few might even quote the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which states that “Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of
employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against
unemployment.”
MR – That’s
very sweet. Unfortunately, the Delusional
Thinking Restriction of the
DJCC is very clear on this: “under no circumstances will artist’s name and
likeness be used to declare or proclaim anything that might suggest the
endorsement of a utopian or fairy-tale state.”
Too bad, really. If it weren’t for the Delusional
Thinking Restriction, I might very well petition the UN to declare and demand
“protection from the ever-widening skills gap.” According to the Bureau of
Labor and Statistics, 3.7 million jobs are currently available that companies
can’t seem to fill … 600,000 positions in manufacturing alone.
All of these jobs pay more than the “living wage.” Many provide
free training and benefits. None of them are “off the grid.” They’re available
right now to anyone willing to learn a new skill. Unfortunately, no one seems
to want them.
SK –
What do you think?
MR – Well,
Steve, I’m no expert (and the Hubris
Clause of the DJCC forbids
me from pretending to be one), but after a lot of careful reflection, I think
we might have our head up our ass.
There’s a trillion dollars of college debt on the books, and
we’re still pushing a four-year degree like it’s some sort of golden ticket.
Dozens of states are facing massive shortages in the skilled trades, but we
still talk about trade schools as “alternatives for the academically
challenged.” And now, with record high unemployment and Detroit flat broke, you
want to focus on the problem of …“bad jobs?” Can you imagine our grandparents
bemoaning the existence of “unpleasant” work? Can you imagine the greatest
generation agreeing that some jobs were just “not worth having”?
Look, I don’t want to sound like the cranky neighbor on the
front porch, screaming at the kids to get off his lawn. (And yes, the Cranky
Neighbor Clause of theDJCC expressly
forbids this.) But come on — 12 million people are looking for work and 3
million jobs can’t be
filled? How come nobody is asking questions about that? Why is no one
taking a poll on whether our expectations have replaced our common sense? Why
do we talk only of “job-creation,” when we can’t even fill the jobs we have?
On Dirty Jobs, I met hundreds of men and women who found success
and happiness by doing the “unpleasant” thing. I remember a guy in Washington
whose first job was cleaning the grease trap in a Mexican restaurant. He moved
on to washing dishes and then waiting tables. Today, he owns the restaurant,
and six more just like it. I’d like to read more stories about people like
that, and I bet I’m not alone.
Don’t get me wrong, I care about the people you write about. For
what it’s worth, I run a modest foundation that’s focused on scholarships for
those who are willing to learn a useful skill. But let’s not forget about the
people who did it the hard way. People who took the jobs you dismissed as “not
worth having” and then prospered. People who didn’t shy away from the “bad
jobs,” and ultimately learned to love them. If you ever write a story about
them, please feel free to use my image. According to the spirit of the Dirty
Jobs Code of Conduct, that’s what it’s there for.
In the meantime, give my regards to the maintenance men next
time you drive over The Mighty Mac. And if the bridge is still standing, tell
them I said thanks!
Best,
Mike Rowe
Mike Rowe
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