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Working Man's avatar

Here is an excerpt from a post of mine “19. Working for a Living” which largely confirms your thesis. I think there is always going to be a kind of man who won’t be happy on a construction site, but he usually has grander expectations of his place in the world.

“But, in truth, the biggest difference between working in an office, as had been my lot in advertising, and working with my body on the jobsite was the experience of an unexpected freedom of mind. In a way, everything I’ve ever written about construction work is a response to my startled discovery of this fact. While my arms thrust the posthole digger into the ground to make a hole for a fence post—in this example of unremitting labor—my mind was quite free to wander where it would, all day long, everyday, without direction or supervision. No one could own or rent my thoughts. Even if I dared to speak, no one felt entitled to object except as one man does to another. The servitude of my body had limits not enjoyed by the ordinary office worker. Would everyone delight in that freedom as I had? Probably not. Certainly not the Cal student who shuddered at the prospect of digging a ditch.”

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Brandon Daily's avatar

Yeah this is great, thanks!

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Sam Jampetro's avatar

Just some reaction:

In the mid eighties I left my corporate management job in NY to start a business in Pittsburgh where I grew up.  I took a job at a forgings factory in the McKees Rocks bottoms to get us through while the business gained traction. I was basically a laborer: forklift driver, grinder, overhead crane operator. It was open to the elements and cold enough to freeze your overalls stiff when you left them in the locker overnight.

I remember talking with a guy who told me how the job allowed him to make the 500.00 monthly payment on his new Chevy Malibu. And in that moment realizing that, while I assumed I was in a temporary situation, for him this was his reality. 12 hours, a shot and a beer down the street and then home to start all over the next day.

A realization reinforced a few days later when the boss said to me "I've been watching your work. Keep it up and I'll promote you to the furnace". That was meant to be encouraging.

True, all this time I could find a way to let my mind wander and think, but this was imposed upon my work, rather than a happy element that was built-in to it. So, I don't know. To this day that particular work context is not my first choice. Sometimes necessary, but never desired.

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Brandon Daily's avatar

Yeah so I’ve written this as a reflection on at least one “dull work” job that I’ve had that I really enjoyed. But I also have plenty examples of factory or warehouse work that I did not. I’m not entirely sure what the differences even are between the jobs I hated and the ones I liked that were in this genre. I think because this one was very physical, it helped. It also helped that I could do things like print out and repetitively read small passages. At the time I was also doing an internship at a church so I would read for a few hours during the day and then go into work—it gave me more to think about. I assume that’s why Eric Hoffer never needed anything more stimulating—he was reading all the time.

I think this tank refurbishing job with a wife and kids would also feel way differently.

But perhaps there is a certain segment of the population who for at least a season of their life wouldn’t actually enjoy factory jobs and they aren’t as dystopian as the Chinese memes make them out to be.

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Carrie the gardener's avatar

I understand what you mean about the freeing nature of menial work, under certain circumstances. For me, working as a self-employed gardener was less stressful and more fulfilling than the job I had previously, working for a conservation NGO that required constant meetings and (seemingly) endless networking. I can see how a repetitive factory job could be similar, if you were left in peace to do your job. However I've never had a job in that kind of environment (and I've had a lot) that hasn't come with aggressively overbearing supervisors who think they have to earn their position by barking at people all day long. And (I've found) people can be very cliquish if you do anything against the grain, like reading a book at breaks instead of looking at a phone. Maybe I just don't have the type of personality that can handle petty jibes all day, every day, even though the work itself is fine. There's a very high demand for gardening work at least, and the mind can certainly wander freely doing that!

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Brandon Daily's avatar

My managers at that particular job were great! But many of my fellow employees definitely acted like kindergarteners! Of course, I’ve been around higher classes of people that act like kindergarteners too, just with better vocabulary. It’s everywhere!

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Jane Baker's avatar

I can testify from personal experience that doing a job that is routine,that you HAVE TO DO in a certain way by a standard way is actually very freeing,but maybe not so great if you face the prospect of 40 years of it before you. But if you already have a life but need to pay bills,that sort of work can be a kind of freedom. Also I once read an article by a woman in her 30s who had written a novel at university that was accepted, published and a best seller (I've forgot name etc) her second book was equally successful but on nearing 30 and being a successful author and having the sort of 'creative life' we are all taught to aspire to, and reject 'crap jobs' to get,she decided to train as a nurse and in the article written worked as a senior nurse in a Hospice,the sort of job,that while revered,entails a lot of the sort of dirty,smelly,'low' work we are really taught to despise and reject. But she saw her nursing work as much more of value to society than her writing even though her friends saw it the other way

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Autonomous Truck(er)s's avatar

This reminds me of my time at a dog food factory as a kid, a job I did in the evenings in the 10th grade - riding my bike to the plant from school, into the stinky confines of the factory, and to the packaging bin at the back. Bag, seal, stack, repeat, all night long.

I learned some lessons doing that for the princely sum of $6.85/hour.

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James K. Hanna's avatar

John Williams, author of the novel “Stoner,” in an interview: “The important thing in the novel to me is Stoner’s sense of a job—a job in the good and honorable sense of the word. His job gave him a particular kind of identity and made him what he was … It’s the love of the thing that’s essential…You never know all the results of what you do. I think that boils down to what I was trying to get at in Stoner. You’ve got to keep the faith. The important thing is to keep the tradition going, because the tradition is civilization.”

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Marijke (Maria) Huisman's avatar

I completely agree with this analysis: I love my summer job of apple picking for the mental rest from studying and the joy of physical labour. Unfortunately, it pays so badly that I'll probably switch to a better-paying tutoring job this summer. It will be a much less restful job, but the difference could be a hundred euros a day in pay, and that's too much.

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Jay Callahan's avatar

Good point!

Also, the factory is not the only opportunity to experience repetitive physical work.

Repetitive work interacting with living things (that are forever or at least often changing), like small-scale gardening, farming and work with animals, can be very pleasant, especially if you or your family owns the place and are not pressed to the edge by the economy. (Not talking about industrial agriculture!) Small craft factories like chairs, etc. (yeah, I know they don't really exist anymore) also offered the advantages of repetitive but also varied work in a more pleasant and human environment.

I tend to think that the nature of modern factories on the model spread in early 19th century Britain and around the world itself means it is very hard to maintain health and an inquiring mind in them except for limited periods.

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Brandon Daily's avatar

I feel this way about chopping wood! One of my favorite things.

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