Quick Musing
You know, plumbing would be an interesting job. Do you think the nature of the problem would always color, to some degree, the satisfaction of a problem solved?
Is there the same sort of gratification to be had from cleaning up other people’s shit physically, as there is metaphorically?
I wonder.
Tags: career, crappo, job, job satisfaction, plumber, problem solving, work
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March 28, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I do not know how much gratification they get from the actual work, but I have many plumbers who are customers of mine and they all seem to have the same odd mix of total insecurity and unbearable arrogance.
It’s probably because everyone looks down on a plumber’s profession until they are standing knee-deep in sewage, whereupon the plumber’s eventual arrival turns into something resembling the second coming, and those who previously mocked him fall to their knees in gratitude.
They make pretty good money, too.
March 29, 2008 at 12:48 am
Ooh, good analogy!
I once dated a septic man. He truly was full of it too.
March 29, 2008 at 2:28 am
Not to sound disgraceful toward other plumbers who like their jobs, but all the plumbers I knew have either gone into other professions, are still in the profession and despise it, and one has committed suicide. He could not find business, he thus went broke and did a stupid thing by taking his life.
March 29, 2008 at 7:42 am
errr. cleaning up other people’s shit physically and metaphorically does in the long run make a person, as you put it - “full of it”.
why are we discussing this again?
March 29, 2008 at 8:54 am
Have you ever seen the Australian film “Kenny” ? It answers this question perfectly.
March 29, 2008 at 10:33 pm
The highest rate of suicide among the professions, I understand, is among dentists. Maybe getting in our mouth is no more pleasant than getting in our septics.