34 Replies to “Dirty Jobs: The War On Work”

  1. Thank-you for this Kate. I especially liked his quote “my job isn’t to bring you home alive, my job is to bring you home rich”.

  5. no teleprompter .
    infrastructure jobs that people want. wow
    and no job as a “community organizer”

  7. I have shown the Mike Rowe video to 25 classes of pre-appentice electricians over the last 4 years at the Wirtanen Electric Training Foundation in Edmonton. Even here the young people have a strange attitude that mommy will do everything for them. We change minds and help start Real Canadians on their way. The girls (sue me; my grandmother was still a girl at 102) in my classes get a kick out of the beginning statement.
    —-
    SDA is first on my list, partly because it loads faster than BCF.

  8. I loved his comments about “following your passion”. I followed my passion (commercial interior design) for over 30 years. There were many good years, but more often than not, there were years I just eked out a living. I now clean houses for a living – and guess what, great physical activity, benefits, 2 weeks paid vacation and I make a decent living (not a great living – but decent). Plus I usually am off work between 3:00 to 3:30 pm, so have time to cruise the Internet or garden in the summer. My twin passions now are politics and travel.

  10. The ones who need to hear/see it are so wilfully deaf/blind, they’ll not be moved.
    The lefty education (sic) system and pampered, no-fault upbringing has cemented their reason.

  11. What he said about going against the grain is going to be especially true with the latest generation. I can’t tell you how many people I know that just want slack jobs and cruise through life.
    I’m a 29 year old truck driver, bought a truck when I was 21. How common is that story? It’s very rare these days. Nobody wants to be a truck driver any more. Yet rates keep going up because of this.
    I also think the trades are going to explode over the next few years. Also the highest engineer job right now is oil engineers. They get paid on average 50% more than nuclear engineers. Because of oil prices in the 80s there’s a large gap that needs to be filled. Most oil engineers are retiring, and very few are graduating. I read an article about that somewhere, I should find it.

  12. Dirty Jobs and How Its Made are the two greatest shows on television, hands down. Additionally, all those Biker Build-off and Monster Garage shows have introduced an entire generation to the idea that making stuff is cool.
    Rowe is entirely correct. There IS a cultural cold war on work. Work is uncool. To be avoided.
    Unless you live in the -new- counter-culture of tattooed gear heads. Here, work is something you show off. The coolest stuff is one-off hacks that guys fabricate at home.
    The light at the end of the no-work tunnel is ubiquitous customization. People are willing to pay money for one-off kewlness so long as it isn’t obscenely more expensive than the boring mass-produced item.
    Its possible to get a hot-rod built for roughly the same money as a Chevy. Example, Shelby Cobra kits from Factory Five can be completed for about half the cost of a Chevy Camaro, unless you go nuts with the chrome plating.
    So, Mike Rowe is right, and there is hope fore something better on the horizon. Yay!

  13. The older I get, the more I want to simplify my life, prioritize, and pare down. Being able to do things for myself not only saves money but it gives me a feeling of accomplishment. My job is hands-on, physical, and I’m learning more about human nature every single day. I get a lot of satisfaction from it. REAL work is good for people.
    BC is going to be gearing up for ship-building contracts. We need all manner of tradespeople, and the jobs that go along with that pay well.

  14. Yeah I can relate to that…
    I was amazed at Rowe’s conclusions….he manages to see the forest….
    allan
    What is amazing is the contempt that dispatchers project towards drivers…..and then bitterly resent the well founded contempt of the drivers.
    eg:
    Engineer’s brains cost about $25/lb.
    Dispatcher’s brains cost $1,000/lb.
    Reason:
    How may dispatchers do you have to kill to get a pound of brains…….

  15. That was good. He has been really annoying in the recent Ford commercials so I needed reminding that he’s not a twat. I might watch some episodes of his show now.

  16. Great speech.
    I believe the war he speaks of has it’s battle ground also in the home. There are too many parents who raise their children to do “better” by getting a white collar job through university. This unfortunately has created an imbalance of those workers necessary to do the “dirty” work.
    I like his part on “Innovation without imitation”.

  17. @CHUTZ
    I agree i think this next generation is going to be the ones who will make the biggest difference in peoples opinions about WORK sitting at a desk is no longer going to be the job to have …watch your t.v. look at the jobs that are now being glorified and talked about , AXE MEN,DEADLIEST CATCH,ICE ROAD TRUCKERS,ICE PILOT’S,GOLD RUSH,AMRICAN LOGGER,AMERICAN CHOPPER,AMERICAN RESTORATION,HOWE AND HOWE,SO ON AND SO FORTH .
    I am currently in victoria hleping catch up on the parts manufacturing of the twin otter 400 series aircraft it is being revived …there is not enough skilled trades people to build that aircraft so the rework is high ..viking thought they could throw people into a six week course and have em stamping out parts and building sub assemblies with out any hitches …but my friend they are wrong dead wrong while the guys are giving it there all they do not have the expirience or where with all and knowledge of what they are building or what iti s for.
    i walked by a guy on the floor and siad hi we started talking he was building the rudder peddal assemblies but he had no idea what he was building it absolutley loved his job but he did not knwo what he was doing what part of the plane he was building or the critical importance of it …he told me he had been there for 5 months and before that he managed a starbucks he hated it he said he makes less here for now but loves his job he is producing something with his hands . i went on to explain to him what he was building and how important it was and he was even more excited at knowing that he was important and heh ad some serious responsibility he loved it.
    alot of people in viking and around b.c. are getting worried because these ship building jobs are going to pay very well ,very very well , and people are worried they are going to suck the employees away from there buisnesses . so yeah it may be the left coast bunch a dope smoking hippie bums but there are alot of good hard working men and women there as well who love a good day’s work …as they keep telling me they like earning the beer at the end of the day !! no joke. i love this country.
    me i am like you i am simplifing my life and prioritizing right now it is all about making babies (im 33) nothing else matters out side of providing but that , we are ready i was ready long ago but just didn’t find the right woman now i have and we are moving ahead married so on and so forth she will not work once she has our first she wants to be a traditional house wife …..i know shocking eh. she wants to take care of me our kids and our home!!! people are waking up !!!

  18. Interesting posting, paul in calgary! TV shows about WORK and how things are made are popular for a reason. Celebrity ‘culture’ is BORING. Life is about creating and maintenance.
    You’re right; people are waking up to the realities of what has been wrought by decades of derision aimed at nuclear families. I think that young women are now seeing clearly what has been lost. Making babies and nests is the natural order of things. You and your wife are part of the new wave. 🙂

  19. Hey paul in calgary, good luck with that and if it is a boy name it Samuel David Adam or SDA for short. 🙂

  20. I wish I could be as optimistic as others here. To me it seems the chickens are starting to come home to roost when it comes to work ethic,and personal responsibility.
    The progressives here in Ontario have done a “splendid” job the last twenty years.

  21. Paul in Calgary,
    Probably what you were attempting to commnicate was great stuff (I think so) but your poor English made it very uncomfortable to follow.

  23. Mike Rowe has done more for the everyday working stiff than anyone I know and that was before I even heard about his mikeroweworks website. Mind you, I think he is following his passion. Pushing 60 and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up!

  24. There is also a world wide shortage of family doctors, engineers, etc. What I’m wondering is if the elephant in the room is the demographic free fall we are about to enter into. Where a family used to have 3 or 4 or 5 kids who would go on to be butchers, carpenters, plumbers and maybe a doctor, we now have families with one child entering the workforce. So maybe it’s not all about people being unwilling to do the dirty jobs; maybe there just aren’t enough young people to do the jobs.

  25. That was a very interesting talk; probably should have watched Dirty Jobs more often for the brief period of time I had cable. How it’s Made was an excellent show but haven’t been able to find any DVD’s of that show. Another great show was “Junkyard Wars”. For women there’s a sewing show equivalent of Junkyard wars that I’ve forgotten the title of.
    There’s something I find very satisfying about building things or repairing things. That’s probably why my outlet after a day of seeing patients is to do some gardening or fix something. Programming is almost the same as one starts with nothing but an idea and the result is a large piece of code that is the embodiment of that idea. More akin to art than engineering.
    While I’ve helped castrate calves and lambs, I’m not sure I’d go for the method mentioned in the video.

  26. @Robert of ottawa
    No offence my friend i was tring to communicate alot of things but i find in here if you go on to long people don’t read all fo it .
    Soi do tend to ramble and my gammar and spelling and puncuation is pretty bad i will admit that.
    I guess what i was tring to say is that although contradictory to mike rowe’s point’s they still flow the same way if you can wrap your head around that. lemmi try to splain it to ya.lol.
    So mike said there is a war against work ..but not all work just good old fashioned hard manual skilled work/labour like he said it is being portrayed by hollywood and the likes as loser work (big fat lazy plumbers)..only idiot’s and gimps do that work ..almost like it is shunned kinda like a royal family who’s nephew works a seven eleven they shun him for being an underachiever,also is this nanny state notion that saftey first is the only way to profitability and liek the guy on the boat told him plain and simple it is not my job get you back it is my job to get you rich the getting back part is on your shoulders (self reliance).
    And to that point mike rowe is right ..BUT what he failed to recognize is that economies and civilization does not revolve around hollywood blockbuster movies , no does the mainstream media speak for the carhartt wearing sweating ,powerline tachnicians, or the wleders, or the so and so’s you get my point.
    And to that point i am making my point the men the real men the guy’s who kick ass on a daily basis and pay the price with there physical bodies know this they know they will not live a long healthy happy life and most of us do not give a sh!t , what the history channel has tapped into and to a degree tlc,and discovery, have tapped into is an audience who like to see there fellow men working and sacrifising there bodies as well to provide for there families. So while the eleites sit at desks ,and the radical man hating feminist’s chatter on , the real men and women are getting the real work done . those shows are sucessful becasue we admire those men as i am sure they admire us it is a hidden comrodery amongst real men and real women i see women in construction and then i see my brothers wife wit hthere three kids and my brothers wife blows that woman away anyday of the weak for effort put in , the patience she has, the ability to not get pushed to the brink , the abiltiy to laugh love and play as wwell as be a doctor ,a lawyer,and nurse,a friend , a judge, a singer,and an entertainer,a cheufeer, so on and so forth …real women tough women the kinda women REAL men like are at home tending the home and children do there part as only they can do.
    As for the viking rant i was merley making a point that men need to look into themselves and just ask what can i handle can i handle being a welder? can i handle running a starbucks ? god puts us all here with a purpose period end of story like mike rowe said follow your passion? are you crazy do you think my passion is building airplanes? No . Who knew i would do that for a living i sure as sh!t didn’t but god points us in a direction “vocation” and sometimes it take 20 years to find it through expirimenting with lots of jobs careers so on and so forth ..but we are all talented in many different way’s …but i digress i bet the welder could not run a starbucks nor would he want to ..and i bet the guy running the starbucks would not want to be a welder ….we all have different tolerances for what we can handle as labour ,and physical and mental labour the lord does not give us more than we can bear and we all bear different loads just the way we are. most men are alike we like working we like building wel ike seeing the fuits of our labour even in the ear piercing cries of a new born baby …makes us want to beat our chest’s and say see i made that …lol. sorry ladies you did to …but i am talking from a mans perspective here so naturally you will be shoved to the side for the moment.
    So i am sure your all kinds of confused now my point is contrary but alos in line with what mike row said while there is a war on work , we the real men are winning, we joke at my workplace because there is a sign on the door that say’s “nothing comes before saftey, no production,not profit’s,nothing”
    So we alway’s say ..oh great so now we will safely go out of buisness lol.
    I think work place safety is valid but to the extent it has gotten is just more nanny state beurocracy more paper pushing buerocrats. so yeah mike rowe is spot on but i have to add the war on work will be won by the next generation as these fruitless attempts at destrying mans work ethic through beurocracy is starting to fail in most places while still thriving in a few others eventually it will be destroyed . and instead of watching men to real men jobs on t..v. we will al have the opporunity to risk it all for the big reward and some will die in the process we are men that is what we do. look at war same thing battle of wills , men may be scared but not so scared as to be led like sheep to the slaughter they eventually fight out of the drive to survive and so that is what we all do now .. why go onto the bearing sea and risk your life to make 40k in six weaks when you can spend ten years in university and get a degree and a job as a ceo of a mega corporation …cause we arem en and that is what men do no risk no reward baby do you think those guy’s even think about dying while out there ..no they are to busy tring to get the job done!!! they are aware of the danger but don’t worry about it. sh!t happens. i think i splained it .

  28. @Sally
    your right on them oney with that but as my points have pointed out sally while it may get tougher beforei t get’s better women are having more kids at least in airdrie where i am located , a few years ago alberta broke it’s previous annual birth rate record by 15k more babies that was held since 1982.
    It will get worse before it get’s better but it is getting better and it is because of women returning back to traditional roles , as well as balancing (once kids are older) work with home. i hope daycares/day homes ect ect. are a thing of the past.
    I encourage people to have at least three kids if we have three kids each we will not need immigration and also our kids will beb etter assimilated onceo lder to our culture and traditions. I pray women start craving more babies and men to for that matter becasue if we don’t we are screwed!!
    Plain and simple.

  30. “We’re waging war on work on four fronts….”
    Five Mike – you forgot regulsation.

  31. Great video.I will be passing it on.
    I’ve worked some tough jobs,never had to bite off testicles,though I’ve done time on three different kill floors.There is a lot to be said for doing a difficult job,you do appreciate your time off for one.
    Everything gets to the table one way or another,sometimes we should all think of how it got there.

  32. TRIVIA ALERT!!! TRIVIA ALERT!!!
    Errol Flynn wrote an autobiography, “My Wicked Wicked Ways”. In it he described one of his very early jobs: sheep castration. He did it exactly as Mike Rowe describes it above.
    More trivia: Flynn had an alternative title for his book. He figured he was the only one in the world with a rock-solid claim to the title, but the publisher nixed it. Flynn’s first choice? “In Like Me”.

  33. I pray more people get a revelation like this.
    What we need besides more Trades is innovation. Regulation is killing us off one job at as time.

  34. Great video, I enjoyed Rowe’s presentation but I can’t help wonder why the farmer didn’t use the Aussie method for docking tails and castrating the lambs.It (the Aussie method) is the same except the Aussies I worked for used a knife that had tongs as the knife handle. One cut gets the wooly scrotum tip and then the tongs are used to grip and pull the testicles. I did several hundred lambs in the first few days working in NSW and I am sure it’s the most efficient way to do that particular “dirty job”.

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