Mike Rowe talks about lack of skilled labor

[vi edit]

So white collar peeps don't work hard? Whatever you say, mental work > physical if you want to live longer. Not going back to physical labor ever again, I strive for mental perfection in my field.

That's a pretty ignorant assumption. There's a whole pile of farmers out there that bust their asses from the crack of dawn (or earlier) until sunset 365 days a year and are still out there tossing hay bales or rounding on the animals into their 70's and they are in better shape than a lot of people 20 years their minor. I know a lot of retired tradesmen that are up fishing and hunting into their 70's or 80's. My neighbor is 82 and a mechanic by trade and *still* runs a chainsaw, splits wood, and spends countless hours a day working in his yard. No signs of him slowing down.

Sure there's some disgusting slobs and horrible lifestyles with construction workers, but I see the same thing with many office workers in their 50's. Many of those guys could easily have as good a chance of dying from a heart attack before they reach retirement age.

Simple answer is that shitty lifestyles have shitty ends of life. And that transcends all types of work. At least with physical labor you still get some kind of exercise while you work. Which is much more than a huge portion of middle age office workers will ever get. Walking from the parking lot to your cubicle doesn't count.

 

[lxskllr]

your opinion of IT is far too low. Aside from a call center helpdesk, No IT staff dedicates a staff member to such sole tasks such entry level tasks as workstation maintenance. Most office have a staff of 3-5 workers and everyone needs to know how to do everything. Ever read recent IT job ads? 5-10 years experience with a plethora of skills in a wide variety of areas. Apprenticeships in IT do not exist for all of the reasons I told you in my previous post.

Businesses want to pass costs on to someone else?! I'm fuckin' shocked!! An IT worker is a technician, not a professional. Technicians learn on the job. That's the way things worked before 30 hour weeks, and "contract" employment. Businesses aren't willing to step up to the plate, and take responsibility for their workforce. They'll suck the money from the government's dick, and not give anything in return. It's their job to train, not anyone else's.

 

[SP33Demon]

That's a pretty ignorant assumption. There's a whole pile of farmers out there that bust their asses from the crack of dawn (or earlier) until sunset 365 days a year and are still out there tossing hay bales or rounding on the animals into their 70's and they are in better shape than a lot of people 20 years their minor. I know a lot of retired tradesmen that are up fishing and hunting into their 70's or 80's. My neighbor is 82 and a mechanic by trade and *still* runs a chainsaw, splits wood, and spends countless hours a day working in his yard. No signs of him slowing down.

Sure there's some disgusting slobs and horrible lifestyles with construction workers, but I see the same thing with many office workers in their 50's. Many of those guys could easily have as good a chance of dying from a heart attack before they reach retirement age.

Simple answer is that shitty lifestyles have shitty ends of life. And that transcends all types of work. At least with physical labor you still get some kind of exercise while you work. Which is much more than a huge portion of middle age office workers will ever get. Walking from the parking lot to your cubicle doesn't count.

Yep, and I grew up and worked on a farm so I know exactly what you're talking about. It's an honest living but people close to me have already had skin cancer three times from farming. Lyme disease twice from ticks. Thank god no West Nile from mosquitos. Not even going to get into the falls/slips (barns, combines, tractors). The bottom line is that it will wear your body down.

On average the lifespan of someone that does mental work will live longer than manual labor who is exposed to more external factors (pesticides, sun, chemicals, diseases, etc). This is with the exact same diet, exercise, and genetics in a controlled environment. It's simple logic.

 

[vi edit]

An IT worker is a technician, not a professional. Technicians learn on the job.

It's not 1995 any more. Technicians are a dying breed. In my company of 6 major sites, 1200 smaller ones, over 12,000 employees, and an IT staff of over 400 people...we've got maybe 15-20 real "technicans" that take care of desktops, servers, network equipment, and storage. Do the math on that. The rest of us are more in the analyst role doing application build or support. We working with business on needs and wants and rolling that back into the application. It's more of a "professional" role than a technical one. You need to more about workflow and the application space than how to use or fix a computer.

Hardware is so consolidated and easily managed that you don't need a team of techs out doing things all the time. As things continue to move to virtual hosting and shared storage that need will continue to drop.

 

[vi edit]

Yep, and I grew up and worked on a farm so I know exactly what you're talking about. It's an honest living but people close to me have already had skin cancer three times from farming. Lyme disease twice from ticks. Thank god no West Nile from mosquitos. Not even going to get into the falls/slips (barns, combines, tractors). The bottom line is that it will wear your body down.

On average the lifespan of someone that does mental work will live longer than manual labor who is exposed to more external factors (pesticides, sun, chemicals, diseases, etc). This is with the exact same diet, exercise, and genetics in a controlled environment. It's simple logic.

That's fine and all but life isn't that simple. And there are so many variables that simple black and white comparisons don't work. For every farmer that gets melanoma I can probably show you 5 other people that get it from the beach or a tanning bed. For every farmer that gets run over by a combine there's some office worker that committed suicide after he got laid off one too many times. For every construction worker that gets hit by a car on the job there's some office guy that got smoked crossing the street when somebody blew a red light. For every mason that blows out his back lifting block there's some weekend warrior that does it putting in landscaping in his yard or shoveling snow.

Yes, I agree that on a job vs. job black and white level physical labor and many more "hands on professions" have higher risks associated with them. But you completely ignore all of the other risks in life that people face or take on a day to day basis.

 

[ShawnD1]

On average the lifespan of someone that does mental work will live longer than manual labor who is exposed to more external factors (pesticides, sun, chemicals, diseases, etc). This is with the exact same diet, exercise, and genetics in a controlled environment. It's simple logic.

This never happens. My office might be full of skinny people but none of us are "in shape" really. I'm skinny and sexy as hell but I get tired pushing a lawn mower. Some of the other guys here fish in their free time. That's not even a thing. That's sitting in a boat and sleeping while waiting for a fish to do all the work. That's how lazy we are in the office.

/sits back and gets paid to sit back and get paid

 

[DrPizza]

Yep, and I grew up and worked on a farm so I know exactly what you're talking about. It's an honest living but people close to me have already had skin cancer three times from farming. Lyme disease twice from ticks. Thank god no West Nile from mosquitos. Not even going to get into the falls/slips (barns, combines, tractors). The bottom line is that it will wear your body down.

On average the lifespan of someone that does mental work will live longer than manual labor who is exposed to more external factors (pesticides, sun, chemicals, diseases, etc). This is with the exact same diet, exercise, and genetics in a controlled environment. It's simple logic.

Wear your body down? Does going to the gym 5 times a week wear someone's body down? Does jogging every morning wear someone's body down? There's a farmer that I buy some of my hay from - he turns 99 this year. He STILL works on the farm. I'm not sure what the right word is to describe an old man who pulls his oxygen tank behind him, while pulling and repositioning a hay wagon to work on - a task that I think I could name posters on ATOT who would be hard pressed to accomplish.

How can you say "exact same exercise" - that's something you can't have, and something you won't have.

 

[IcePickFreak]

There's definitely a big difference between working out in the gym and doing manual labor. Gym equipment is designed to work your muscles without fatiguing your body (ie. wreck your back etc.)

 

[skyking]

There's definitely a big difference between working out in the gym and doing manual labor. Gym equipment is designed to work your muscles without fatiguing your body (ie. wreck your back etc.)

Working properly does the same thing. Working smart allows you to do a task all day long, faster than anybody doing it "dumb".

Here's the kicker for me: I cannot stand going to the gym. On the other hand, if it is work I think little of it. After a while I'm back in shape. This recession is very bad for my health

 

[Zeze]

That's a pretty ignorant assumption. There's a whole pile of farmers out there that bust their asses from the crack of dawn (or earlier) until sunset 365 days a year and are still out there tossing hay bales or rounding on the animals into their 70's and they are in better shape than a lot of people 20 years their minor. I know a lot of retired tradesmen that are up fishing and hunting into their 70's or 80's. My neighbor is 82 and a mechanic by trade and *still* runs a chainsaw, splits wood, and spends countless hours a day working in his yard. No signs of him slowing down.

Come on.

Did you just compare back-breaking manual labor being better than a proper workouts at the gym?

My poor mom came home with terrible sunken eyes because she was dead tired from working in front of scorching grill all day.

Same goes for my dad who worked at a factory and developed a permanent condition on his right arm for moving in repetitive motion 15 hours a day.

Manual labor work doesn't you it's healthy for your body or is even a workout.

 

[BoomerD]

Come on.

Did you just compare back-breaking manual labor being better than a proper workouts at the gym?

My poor mom came home with terrible sunken eyes because she was dead tired from working in front of scorching grill all day.

Same goes for my dad who worked at a factory and developed a permanent condition on his right arm for moving in repetitive motion 15 hours a day.

Manual labor work doesn't you it's healthy for your body or is even a workout.

Huh? whachoosay?

 

[shortylickens]

Come on.

Did you just compare back-breaking manual labor being better than a proper workouts at the gym?

My poor mom came home with terrible sunken eyes because she was dead tired from working in front of scorching grill all day.

Same goes for my dad who worked at a factory and developed a permanent condition on his right arm for moving in repetitive motion 15 hours a day.

Manual labor work doesn't you it's healthy for your body or is even a workout.

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Easy for you to say.

 

[vi edit]

Come on. Did you just compare back-breaking manual labor being better than a proper workouts at the gym?

Did you even read what I wrote? I don't think I ever remotely compared the two. Even though I can easily say that someone that works out 3-5 days a week can still be absolutely humbled with a weekend worth of landscaping or log splitting. There's just a range of motion and combination of muscles that you build up doing actual work that a gym can not replace. And you actually do something productive or meaningful with the time spent.

And as far as repetive tasks go, I know a dozen or so people around my office that are wearing carpal tunnel splints from jockeying a desk for 20 years. You guys can sling all the comparisons you want, but length of life is almost entirely driven by genetics, lifestyle choices (drinking, smoking, eating like shit) and social structure (strong family life, church, friends, ect). Occupation is far down that list. It certainly can accellerate things, but so can poor life choices or a shit hand dealt to you in the genetic poker game.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Businesses want to pass costs on to someone else?! I'm fuckin' shocked!! An IT worker is a technician, not a professional. Technicians learn on the job. That's the way things worked before 30 hour weeks, and "contract" employment. Businesses aren't willing to step up to the plate, and take responsibility for their workforce. They'll suck the money from the government's dick, and not give anything in return. It's their job to train, not anyone else's.

Just stop.

Seriously, STFU if you're going to devolve into brainless stupid shit like "suck the money from the govnerment's dick". God damn. Stick to ranting about pull-tab cans and your inability to get everything out of them.

Everyone "learns on the job" that doesn't make everyone a technician. But yeah, keep believing that you can just learn it right then or overnight. To give you an idea of how stupid what you're saying is, its like saying "so what if I don't know a certain language, I'll learn it overnight so that I can proofread a critical technical book the next day".

Wear your body down? Does going to the gym 5 times a week wear someone's body down? Does jogging every morning wear someone's body down? There's a farmer that I buy some of my hay from - he turns 99 this year. He STILL works on the farm. I'm not sure what the right word is to describe an old man who pulls his oxygen tank behind him, while pulling and repositioning a hay wagon to work on - a task that I think I could name posters on ATOT who would be hard pressed to accomplish.

How can you say "exact same exercise" - that's something you can't have, and something you won't have.

Its true, and many people don't exercise right either. There's plenty of healthy old farmers. There definitely is some work though that would tear you down. Were it not for many modern technologies, farming would be much more burdensome on your body.

 

[lxskllr]

Just stop.

Seriously, STFU if you're going to devolve into brainless stupid shit like "suck the money from the govnerment's dick". God damn. Stick to ranting about pull-tab cans and your inability to get everything out of them.

Everyone "learns on the job" that doesn't make everyone a technician. But yeah, keep believing that you can just learn it right then or overnight. To give you an idea of how stupid what you're saying is, its like saying "so what if I don't know a certain language, I'll learn it overnight so that I can proofread a critical technical book the next day".

RoFL! I'm collecting quite the fan club of mental pygmies around here :^D

Pro tip... Don't fuckin' worry about me, or my posts. You should stick to improving yourself. You've got quite the challenge ahead of you ;^)

 

[SP33Demon]

Wear your body down? Does going to the gym 5 times a week wear someone's body down? Does jogging every morning wear someone's body down? There's a farmer that I buy some of my hay from - he turns 99 this year. He STILL works on the farm. I'm not sure what the right word is to describe an old man who pulls his oxygen tank behind him, while pulling and repositioning a hay wagon to work on - a task that I think I could name posters on ATOT who would be hard pressed to accomplish.

How can you say "exact same exercise" - that's something you can't have, and something you won't have.

In a theoretically controlled environment, you could simulate the same amount of stress on a heart in a gym vs a farmer. I stand by the theory that same diet/genetics/exercise, on average a white collar worker would live longer due to less exposure to harmful variables (disease, cancer, physical dangers).

How many parents (especially immigrants) work hard manual labor to give their kids a college education so they don't have to do the same backbreaking labor? It's not like this is something new.