JOBS AMERICANS WON’T DO — In response to my earlier post on lost handyman skills, reader Chris Anderson — not this Chris Anderson — sends this email:
Just an anecdote dealing with your recent article regarding the lack of handiness in general. In 2001, I was laid off of my job as a Director of Technical Services for a software company. This was at the height of the dotcom bust. I had an MBA, and an MS in Computer Science, but couldn’t find a job for love or money in my area. Thankfully, I had also built 2 houses from the ground up with my father as a teenager, and had never been afraid of handyman work over the years. I didn’t realize it, but apparently I had skills that most people lacked.
Flash forward a few months… still couldn’t find a job in my industry, but I was working full-time being a handyman. I just fell into it by accident, having decided to replace my roof at the behest of the insurance company. I couldn’t afford a professional roofer, so I did it myself. Two neighbors noticed, and over that summer, I replaced 7 roofs in my neighborhood. I was making more as an unskilled roofer than I was as a Director.
That winter, I painted, installed appliances such as garbage disposals, refrigerators, stoves, and dishwashers. I replaced windows and rebuilt fences. I fixed sprinkler systems and installed ceiling fans. I installed dimmer switches and repaired water damage.
None of this is difficult. In fact, it doesn’t even require any real skills beyond following directions and not being afraid of the problem. Yet people were willing to pay me — an uncertified and unlicensed guy off the street — to do these things. My income was limited by the number of hours I was willing to work per day, and I had more work available than time to do it in.
Eventually, I got back into the computer industry. What’s funny is that my income is less now than it was as a handyman.
The moral of the story? I think that people are so used to farming out these kinds of jobs that they don’t develop any kind of appreciation for how easy they are. Fear of screwing up, more than anything else, holds people back and they never develop any skills as a result. I think that the concept of methodically tackling a problem and solving it one step at a time is the biggest skill that my father ever taught me. It’s a pity that people can do this in their workplace, but can’t manage to bring that home.
Interesting.