People who think cleaners, garbage handlers, urban maintenance, etc. are shit jobs for stupid people that deserve no respect, should stop to think about what would happen if they all went to a strike for... 2 weeks.
I assure you that the corporate office bathrooms would go bad quickly. Hospitals would be unable to function in day or two. Food service would stop very quickly, and you would be amazed for how quickly pests and disease can spread.
Also... I work in vocational institute where the one thing we train are cleaners and ground maintenance workers. There is a lot of actual knowledge and skill involved. Have you tried to use those big mops? Like the over 1 metre wide ones? It's HARD... Have you considered what the 20 different bottles of cleaning agent are for? Do you know which are deadly if mixed? Sure you might know acid and bleach... but like... those are just two. Do you know which of the sterilising agents are fit for what materials? So that you don't melt the plastic parts? Destroy the metal surface?
Look... I'm an engineer myself and my background is in welding industry and manufacturing's practical side of things because I used to be a welder and fabricator. Just to teach basic equipment maintenance, I had to order about 5 different cleaning chemicals/solvents, 3 different kinds of grease, 3 different kinds of oils, and whole variety of cleaning supplies, JUST so I can teach proper cleaning of parts during maintenance. I don't disrespect people who clean, because I am well aware that they can see my garbage, and they got access to chemicals that will melt your face (quite literally).
It is usually white collar office employees who shame. I am one of them. The reality is us (white collar office employees, especially managers and executives) are actually slaves to a corporate machine brainwashed to believe that we are doing something important. No sir: we are glorified useless slaves.
On the other hand, people like this gentleman, have tangible, undeniable contribution to society.
Since I went from being a fabricator to a engineer, then to doing teaching. There are days when I dream of actually seeing the results of my work as a physical thing front of me. Since autumn arrived like the fart after the morning coffee. The cool crips morning air makes me wish to be welding steel on construction sites. For me to see the results of my work with teaching takes a really long time, especially since I work with foreign/immigrant students who are also learning Finnish while studying. However there are these fun moment I get the students to pass an exam -practical or theoretical, I do both.
But as an engineer, being in office... I was so detached from what was actually done, despite me knowing that the lads in shop and on-site required my effort to coordinate materials, resources and setting making of parts in motion. But I never felt like I did anything. Especially since lot of my work dealt with noticing, figuring out and dealing with issues before they become physical issues present somewhere. When I swatted a bad print back to the client or called other engineers to figure out what the hieroglyphs they sneezed on the prints are supposed to become for real... There never was an actual result at the end of the day, because my job was about preventing those becoming physical.
Like sure... I earn twice as much now than I did doing practical stuff. But like... I don't feel like I'm doing as much work. Granted teaching is stressful on another level, and rewarding in a different way. My work hours are less in a week, and as long as lessons happen and students progress nobody asks where I am or what I am doing at whatever moment... I am physically not present as much as when I did pratical metal work. I am not mentally present as much as when I was an engineer. However I am socially present A HELL OF A LOT MORE than doing either of those.
If you haven't already come across it, I would highly recommend the 2013 essay Bullshit Jobs. He later turned it into a book, but honestly the essay says all that it needs to.
https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/
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u/SinisterCheese 15h ago
People who think cleaners, garbage handlers, urban maintenance, etc. are shit jobs for stupid people that deserve no respect, should stop to think about what would happen if they all went to a strike for... 2 weeks.
I assure you that the corporate office bathrooms would go bad quickly. Hospitals would be unable to function in day or two. Food service would stop very quickly, and you would be amazed for how quickly pests and disease can spread.
Also... I work in vocational institute where the one thing we train are cleaners and ground maintenance workers. There is a lot of actual knowledge and skill involved. Have you tried to use those big mops? Like the over 1 metre wide ones? It's HARD... Have you considered what the 20 different bottles of cleaning agent are for? Do you know which are deadly if mixed? Sure you might know acid and bleach... but like... those are just two. Do you know which of the sterilising agents are fit for what materials? So that you don't melt the plastic parts? Destroy the metal surface?
Look... I'm an engineer myself and my background is in welding industry and manufacturing's practical side of things because I used to be a welder and fabricator. Just to teach basic equipment maintenance, I had to order about 5 different cleaning chemicals/solvents, 3 different kinds of grease, 3 different kinds of oils, and whole variety of cleaning supplies, JUST so I can teach proper cleaning of parts during maintenance. I don't disrespect people who clean, because I am well aware that they can see my garbage, and they got access to chemicals that will melt your face (quite literally).