I love Discovery TV’s Dirty Jobs.  

They are always looking for new ideas for those dirty jobs.  I wonder if I should send a note to the producers and invite them to come out my way.

Dirty Jobs is a popular show where host Mike Rowe performs some of the most difficult and frankly, disgusting jobs done by real people.   These jobs run the gamut from the needed cleaning of shipping lane buoys ( crusted molting squishy marine life that needs to be chiseled off) to scuba diving for hippo poop at a zoo ( where else is it going to go?) and everything in between.

My wife loves Dirty Jobs too but I think she’s just in love with Mike Rowe.   He’s funny, smart and good looking.  Whenever the show pops on she’ll stop whatever she is doing and say “Oh, my Michael is on.”  Once, as she sat next to me on the couch watching the show, she began think out loud and dreamily blathered to nobody in particular, “I wonder if he’s married.”   (He isn’t).

Mike might be a smoldering hunk of handsomeness to some but truth is Dirty Jobs is a tribute to the people who do these jobs.  Mike Rowe simply adores these folks and it shows.  Most are people take great pride in either the “dirty job” at hand or they take pride in that the dirty job is just part of a larger endeavor that needs to get done right.  We here in our work have some jobs like these.  Jobs that are difficult and tough and hard and done by prideful, caring people.   They may lack the “ick” factor for TV but I’m betting they’d be some of the toughest work Mike and crew would love to try. 

Selling On The Phone:   Lots of rejection.  Lots of pressure.  Lots of importance.  Mike and crew would arrive and he’d strap on a headset and give selling a good try.   And he’d fail.  He’s get a lot of “no’s” and even more “annoyed” customers.  He’d get the kind of rejection Mike probably isn’t used to being a TV star and all.  But that’s OK because he would spend time with the pros who do sell well and then cut to a new scene where he’d share what he learned and say “It’s not really “selling” with these sales people, it’s more like they are helping out someone”.

Training:  Especially the “stand up in the classroom 10 hour day with the adults” kind.   This is simply exhausting stuff.  You have to be “on” all day.  Be on target, on message, on time and totally on hand with people who all learn differently and bring and array of attitudes to the party.   We’d give Mike a couple of hours to prep and have him lead the class.  By4 o’clock he’d be triple dog tired and barely able to speak.  No worries though, he’d turn slightly, smile into the camera and tell us how “crazy and tough” real trainers need to be to make learning happen.

Team Leader:  They’re the boss, the support, the help desk, the number watcher (and often the number cruncher), the master listener, the coach and oh by the way, they have one of the most difficult professions in the world; continually improving the performance of people (and sometimes 30+ people at a time).   Mike would set up in a cube and start leadering’ and Boom he gets an irate customer, then the system crashes ( everyone on paper!), the mid day numbers deadline comes and goes and then his boss walks by wondering where first pass of all the employee reviews are.  That’s enough and as Mike’s head is nodding in surrender he looks up at the camera and says “Boss’s day only comes once a year?  What a rip off!”

I think the producers of Dirty Jobs would like the opportunity to come here.  If they decide to come, do me a favor and keep it just between us.  My wife doesn’t need to know.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark