I don’t have it so bad

The TV show, Dirty Jobs serves two purposes for me. On the one hand, I enjoy the juxtaposition of Mike Rowe tossing out one-liners while casually shoveling road kill into the back of a van. On the other hand, and even more profound for me, is the impact the show has on how I view my own job. I think we all have days where we look around our work environment and ask ourselves how we ended up where we did. Don’t get me wrong – I like my job, but sometimes I take it for granted, and that’s where Dirty Jobs comes in. No matter how bad of a day I’m having, I know it’s a thousand times better than if I had taken a different vocational path and become the sludge containment officer at a water treatment plant. Believe me – there were times in my past that I was nearly forced into taking that detour.

That being said, I’m certain that to all of you who currently hold dirty jobs, the thought of sitting behind a desk in an office all day sounds equally appalling. In fact, there’s probably enough of you to constitute a suitable viewing audience for a show named “Clean Jobs.” But let’s leave that for another discussion. For now, I’ll continue on my campaign to have all of my office’s ‘motivational’ posters of rock climbers and eagles snagging trout from a lake replaced by prints of men with shovels standing next to small mountains of animal parts in a cattle rendering plant. Customers might get offended, but the resulting productivity will be well worth it. Thank you Discovery Channel for keeping it real.