John O. Andersen

Rick and Deborah,

I hear you loud and clear. People who look down their noses at manual labor
are often clueless anyway. Manual labor work is some of the best work there
is in terms of what you get out of it. A lot of it beats office politics by
miles and miles.

>the job does not make the person, though
> there are many who believe it does.

And they are sadly mistaken.

> because they have no life outside of
> thier work. ok i'll be done ranting.

Precisely.

Below is a "short" statement I made on this very topic.

John Andersen
http://members.xoom.com/joandersen


Manual Labor: An Attractive Career for the College-Educated
By John O. Andersen
May 10, 1998
Manual labor conjures up negative images for many people. Some think
that making a living with their hands is beneath their potential. When
parents encourage their children to have high career aspirations, this
invariably means some form of white-collar work. Have you ever heard of an
honors student whose career goal was to become a plumber or house painter?

Manual labor careers are clustered near the bottom of the job status
hierarchy. Yet if the truth be told, many of us truly enjoy manual labor. We
love to show off our manicured gardens, and remodeling projects. We also
like to brag about the leak we fixed, or the old motor we rebuilt. Work
which employs both our brains and our brawn is good for us and feels right.

There are many people who recognize this and a few of those who are
actually turning down white-collar careers in order to do manual labor.
Perhaps this unconventional choice stems from a growing desire among workers
for more authenticity and meaning in their work. They just want to be real
people when they go to work, not feel like they have to put on a mask. They
want to make a tangible difference, not just do a bunch of inconsequential
paper-shuffling. And they want a life outside of work as well.

Many people believe that the best jobs are invariably white-collar.
Through my experience I've found this not necessarily true. Manual labor for
me has always been more satisfying and enjoyable than anything I've done in
the white-collar world. Unfortunately, social conditioning and traditional
ideas of success made it very difficult for me to break free from the notion
that I should choose a better career than manual labor. It took me several
years of outward success yet private frustration in the white-collar world
to even entertain the idea that I could do manual labor without feeling like
a "failure" or needing to apologize to people who thought I was loony for
even considering such things.

My experience in manual labor has been as the owner of a cleaning
business. I chose business ownership because when it comes to work, I'm very
independent and a poor teamplayer. Self-employment is nirvana for me. I
absolutely love it. This path is not for everybody, however, and I'm certain
that others not so inclined can find the same degree of satisfaction in
manual labor as an employee.

It has been five years since I embarked on my career in manual
labor. During that time I've discovered a few major benefits of manual
labor. Here they are:


1. It's a good way to continue learning.

I make a living cleaning carpets. This brings me in contact with a
wide spectrum of people. For instance, in the past few months I've had
career-related conversations with landlords, doctors, realtors, homemakers,
school teachers, writers, an interior designer, a drapery manufacturer,
stockbrokers, a sculptor, an opera singer, an executive recruiter, and a
professional storyteller.

Not many careers offer the same degree of exposure to so many
different people in their homes and the chance to chat with them about their
career. Any service business which covers the residential market is a gold
mine for such opportunities.

When I did the job for the opera singer, he gave me suggestions for
learning to understand and appreciate opera. Other customers tell me about
their home projects or hobbies. Each day is packed with learning
opportunities. About the only boring jobs are those in the "pop-n-fresh"
suburbs where dual careers and daycare leave the house uninhabited for the
bulk of the day. Those customers leave me a key and I just take care of the
job.

Each night when I record daily service calls in the customer
records, I include interesting tidbits such as "she is a piano teacher" or
"they are from India." These entries are a permanent record of my business
adventures. I've threatened more than once to someday write Memoirs of a
Carpet Cleaner.


2. You get a lot of physical exercise.

If you do manual labor for a living, you generally don't need to
spend money on fitness clubs, exercise equipment, or diet plans. The daily
exertion and sweat go a long way in maintaining physical health. Also, many
manual laborers work outdoors and therefore take in the benefits of fresh
air and sunshine. Jobs requiring physical output contribute to hearty
appetites, restful nights, and overall well-being. Manual laborers who burn
thousands of calories a day, can also find it easy to control their weight.


3. You produce tangible results which people sincerely appreciate.

When I compare job satisfaction as a military officer with the
satisfaction of cleaning soiled carpets, the military career pales. Yes,
there was pride in being an officer, but because very little of what I did
was tangible, I often wondered whether I was making a difference. The senior
officers told us our job was to be a spokesperson, but that always seemed
too passive and indirect to me. When I was on leave, the unit carried on
quite well; arguably even better than when I was there. I had to keep
reassuring myself that I was doing something useful even though my
conscience suspected the opposite.

The usefulness of carpet cleaning, on the other hand, speaks for
itself. When I'm not there, the work doesn't get done. Praise from customers
is honest and sincere. When a soiled carpet comes clean, it makes everyone
happy. If the customer is satisfied with my work, I get paid. If not, I
don't make a cent. Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but that's the way I like
things: simple and straight-forward. That's manual labor in a nutshell.


4. You're emancipated from the "job world."

Imagine if you can a working life free from the torture of boring
meetings, clueless managers, trendy mission statements, and threatening
annual performance reviews. Such a dream is reality for the self-employed
manual laborer. As far as I can tell, it is one of the few ways to escape
all of those insults to your intelligence and still make a decent living.

It often seems that the job market rewards those who most
successfully suppress their true personalities and recast themselves as
one-dimensional gung-ho teamplayers. In more than a few workplaces, people
are pressured to publicly spout the "party line" even though privately they
may think otherwise. They are also compelled to squelch non-mainstream
interests and ideas. Frequently, those who successfully jump through these
hoops are "rewarded" with the "good jobs" and promotions.

The self-employed manual laborer is largely exempt from those rules.
While image plays a role in their success, it is far less important than the
quality of their tangible work. White-collar workers often don't have
tangible results, and therefore must sometimes resort to "impression
management" as the way to showcase their value to the organization. In other
words, they must pay attention to things like wardrobe, quality of their
handshake, smile, haircut, and concocting daily evidence of their
teamplaying attitude.

Hence, in terms of having to "play ball" i.e. create a "winning"
image to get ahead, manual laborers get off lightly.


5. You have true job security.

When you have several hundred happy customers who call you back year
after year to do their cleaning, repairs, etc., and those people also tell
their friends about your service, you enjoy the ultimate in job security.
About the only thing that will get you "fired" is if you allow your
standards to slip.

Such businesses usually do well regardless of the economy. In good
times, customers call because they want to keep their homes tidy and in good
repair. In bad times they call because they don't have the money to replace
their investments, so they want to maintain them. Carpets become soiled,
toilets clog up, paint chips and peels, and cars break down regardless of
whether the economy is up or down.

There is nothing like having your own business in which you are
daily complimented by the simple fact that the phone continues ringing with
previous customers who want your service again and again. That's what I call
job security.


Some excellent manual labor businesses.

What are some of the best manual labor businesses in terms of the
advantages outlined above?

There are thousands of options, but my personal preference is for
service businesses which primarily repair, restore, clean, and maintain. A
few sure bets include: cleaning (carpets, windows, furniture, etc.),
gardening and lawn mowing, auto repair, house painting, plumbing, and
handyman services.


How does a person get into manual labor?

The beauty of it is that the world isn't stampeding toward manual
labor careers. If you want to do manual labor and don't care about status or
what anybody thinks of your career choice, you should have no problem
finding work.

Sometimes though it isn't clear how a college graduate gets into a
manual labor business. The path to a corporate career is well laid out in
books, courses, and by college placement offices, but how to become a
successful self-employed laborer is less documented.

While in college you might take a part-time job in manual labor.
There are always plenty of jobs mowing lawns, cleaning buildings, or
painting houses. After getting some experience as an employee, you may be
ready to run your own business. Many self-employed janitors, carpenters,
plumbers, and electricians got their start as employees during college.

To make the transition from employee to self-employed, sometimes you
can purchase the company you work for. If the owner is nearing retirement or
has other interests, this can be a good option. Once you've proven your
knowledge of the trade and ability to work hard, treat customers right, and
run an organized operation, you usually won't have trouble convincing an
owner to sell the business on a contract. What this means is that after a
down payment (sometimes that isn't even necessary) the owner will finance
the rest.

Some claim that all you need is a dream, and a positive mental
attitude to succeed in business. Those notions can be misleading. I don't
know anyone who has successfully run a service business for more than a few
years who would say such things. From my experience, the service businesses
which supposedly "succeed" overnight often bend ethics in the process.

Enthusiasm is important to business success, but far more useful are
qualities like hard work, financial discipline and patience. A successful
business with many repeat customers is built one job at a time over a period
of years. Many intelligent and hard-working people report that it usually
takes three years or more before you can harvest repeat and referral
customers, and that is if you run a high quality business. There are no
shortcuts to true business success.


Answers to common objections.

Over and over again, I hear objections from people about why they
wouldn't do manual labor. Here are responses to three of the most common
ones.


1. What if I get hurt or I can't do physical labor as I get older?

These are valid concerns. There are many ways to deal with them.

To avoid financial difficulty due to injury, you might build a
business which includes several employees. This would reduce your
involvement in the physical work. However, this option carries the
considerable burden of the employer role. Some employers find that their
health (mental if nothing else) suffers far more than if they just did all
of the work themselves. It all depends on the individual. For some the
employer role is a panacea, for others a nightmare.

Another strategy is to develop secondary or passive income sources.
Income from real estate, securities, or part-time businesses could fit this
description. For instance, for the past few years I've had a part-time
tutoring business. This provides a modest supplemental income, and a way for
me to teach young people without having to be a full-time teacher. In the
future I may choose to increase the amount of tutoring I do. Should an
accident force me out of carpet cleaning, I would hopefully have enough of a
tutoring business established that I could rely on it as a primary income.

Some people don't fret too much over the danger of an accident or
physical disability. Over and over again I hear of people who live into
their nineties and beyond who credit a lifetime of physical labor as a major
factor in their longevity. I like to think that the majority of those who
take the necessary precautions, work carefully and methodically, and
practice healthy living habits, should be able to perform physical labor
well beyond the traditional retirement age.


2. How can I ever take time off?

This one is a cinch to answer. People who say they can never get
away from their business, are usually those who haven't taken the necessary
steps to keep the business from controlling their life.

People who are strapped to their business with no time or money to
get away, often could buy their freedom by cutting overhead, and regularly
saving money to cover expenses during the slow season. It usually comes down
to having the discipline to avoid the frills which only increase overhead,
without a corresponding increase in the quality of service to the customer.

Occasionally to meet customer demand, the self-employed have no
choice but to put in long hours for several weeks or months at a time. The
reward, however, can be weeks or months of time off. The important point to
remember is that when it's slow season, don't sit around waiting for the
phone to ring. That is the time to take a vacation or pursue a hobby.


3. But I won't be able to "use my degree."

Manual labor may not be the most obvious way to "use your degree,"
but it is certainly an excellent way to use your brain.

You'll discover that manual labor provides a wealth of ways to use
your brain, ingenuity, creativity, what have you. As an entrepreneur, you
get to wear many hats: production, marketing, public relations, accountant,
repairperson, purchaser, janitor, etc. With such a range of tasks, it's hard
to get bored, and even possible to get smarter.


Conclusion

Clearly, manual labor is not beneath the "dignity" of a college
graduate. Those who think that such work is only for the uneducated
underachievers, are either misguided or just plain ignorant.

College graduates who are so inclined should consider a career in
manual labor. Just because they earned a degree, doesn't mean they have to
take the white-collar path. Some of them may discover a lifetime of job
satisfaction and opportunity in manual labor.
From such a discovery, a person would be foolish to turn away.


Copyright � 1998 John O. Andersen. All rights reserved.
Please e-mail John Andersen regarding comments or permission to reprint.

[email protected]

In a message dated 10/15/99 12:23:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
andersen@... writes:

<< Below is a "short" statement I made on this very topic. >>

Well said, Bravo!!

Laura