Michael Maynard has dropped in for yet another interesting perspective, this time on Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs TV Show. If you haven't yet seen this program, it's definitely an entertaining and educational viewing experience worth a visit.
Most wives and girlfriends would agree -- their man still has a little boy in him. It doesn't matter how young or old, how educated or self-taught, or how rich or poor, the man has a little boy in him somewhere. Usually he will find an activity that is fun and gets him dirty, like rearranging the landscaping, even when the landscaping doesn't need rearranging -- again. Even after hours of this hard manual labor, the man will have a goofy grin on his face. Remember this was the little boy who spent hours in his backyard digging a hole to China using a tablespoon.
For us men, having a job that involves getting dirty, having fun and getting paid well in the process would be nirvana. My last dirty job involved working in a lime quarry the summer before my senior year of college. I pounded away on the limestone until it broke or used a pneumatic jackhammer for the tougher-to-break rock. I quickly found out that it was better to use as much of my physical labor as possible because the jackhammer was waist-high and the constant vibration caused other physical activities to malfunction at inopportune times. This job was supposed to only be be dirty, not libido-lowering.
After watching the Dirty Jobs TV show marathon during the Thanksgiving Day mini-vacation, my new hero is Mike Rowe, producer and star of this hour-long weekly Discovery Channel hit. Mike Rowe is smart, urbane, funny and likeable. He had the bright idea to show jobs that are hidden from the public, sometimes hazardous, but need to get done for every day life functions to occur. Somebody has to do this and Mike Rowe spotlights the jobs that those previously faceless workers perform. Renovating a sick house, plucking out non-standard potato chips before being packaged, and any job involving getting rid of waste products, no job is too dirty for Mike Rowe. I admit that part of my interest in this show is seeing a pretty boy, a man usually too good looking to be doing these grungy dirty jobs, putting on his coveralls, rolling up his sleeves and literally getting down and dirty.
My favorite show in the Dirty Jobs marathon involved fertilizing turkey eggs, an appropriate job for the Thanksgiving holiday. It seems that turkeys are none-too-bright, therefore cannot be relied upon to produce quantities of fertilized eggs on schedule by themselves. No fertilized eggs? Look forward to eating ham at future holiday feasts. While most of the functions in the egg processing process can be automated, getting the most reluctant turkeys to do their should-be biological imperative is not so automatic. These recalcitrants turkeys must be captured, put into their pen and have their reproductive organs stimulated so that the eggs are laid and later fertilized. Mike Rowe found out how hard it as to capture a reluctant turkey and get the cob or hen to cooperate. Afterwards, he had to orally operate a pipette to ensure proper non-mechanical egg fertilization.
This week's (post-Thanksgiving Day) Dirty Jobs features maggot farming. I'll watch the show but I don't want to know any of the details ahead of time. This is one dirty job that I'm sure that the little boy in me doesn't want to get dirty doing. That's why Mike Rowe is such a success.
About Michael Maynard: Michael is a free-lance journalist and management consultant. As a freelance writer he has written for CEO and CIO magazines and other magazine and newspapers. He was managing editor and featured columnist for Global Business Newsletter. He was also a featured columnist for the Washington Post-Newsweek syndicate. For more than 25 years, Michael has been President and Co-Founder of Azimuth Partners, a marketing and business development consultancy. Michael is currently lending his consultant talents to Improved Experience, which helps employers use feedback to measure and manage competitive advantage, engagement, and retention. You can reach him at michael@improvedexperience.com.
Technorati tags: Mike Rowe, dirty jobs, employment, Thanksgiving turkey.
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