Dean Kamen, Manual Laborers, and You

[gvarndell]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

I'm not a manual laborer -- I'm a teacher. (Ok, and a part-time beekeeper. Which is manual labor. But that doesn't really count.)

Right. I like wood working -- with hand tools.
It's manual, dirty, therapeutic, and I do it (or not) at my discretion.

The mentor I quoted, however, is a manual laborer, he chose to be a manual laborer, he loves what he does, and he (rightfully) thinks that his place in society should be valued.

Yes, his place in society should be valued -- by society -- and I believe it is.
But if nobody is willing to pay him to do what he loves doing, is it honestly inaccurate (much less offensive) to say that what he does is valueless?

He (Dean) specifically said that we don't want the old jobs back (which is hard to hear when you know a lot of people who would really, really, REALLY like to have their old jobs back...

In 1983, I worked at the Western Electric Plant in Dundalk MD.
At the time, there were about 5,000 essentially unskilled laborers working there in 3 shifts.
We had a strong union, good benefits, and excellent pay (when I left in '83, I was making over $13.00 an hour).
By 1986, the entire plant was shuttered and all the jobs gone.
Those jobs didn't disappear because society deemed the people who did them valueless -- the economy deemed them valueless.
The people who did those jobs had no control over their own destiny, no say in their own future, no recourse but to hope (for most, in vain) that 'something else would come along' -- or that the old jobs would come back.

The real problem here is not with Dean's words but with the effect those words had on certain people.
We are all largely a product of our life experiences.
How we react to words and phrases is more a function of who we are than it is about the words themselves or the person who uttered them.
Is it bad, shameful, or undesirable to be a manual laborer?
It's a pointless question in absence of a precise meaning for those two words.
And let's face it, as this thread shows, 'manual labor' seems to have many meanings -- ranging from noble to 'no way'.

I simply argue that it's unfair to take someone's words and project one's personal bias onto that person as if there's no question what was meant.
I will relent that Dean could have (OK, should have) been more precise -- 'menial unskilled manual laborers' might have been safer.
But I don't believe he was referring to brick-layers, or plumbers, or HVAC mechanics, or skilled carpenters when he said 'manual laborers'.
I believe, based on my life experience, he was referring to those 5,00 poor folk who bet their futures on an industry that outgrew the need for them.

The bottom line of my issue here is that his comment very likely cost my small, rural team mentors and sponsors that they cannot afford to lose. Speeches being what they are, they shouldn't be negatively impacting teams.

Whether or not you agree with my gripe about the speech, I'm certain that I'm not the only person with the same take on it -- nor my mentors the only mentors, nor my sponsors the only sponsors.

Whether or not I agree with how you 'feel' about the meaning of ambiguous phrases is irrelevant.
Whether or not others agree with how you 'feel' about them is equally irrelevant.
You have a selling job ahead of you and, as hard as it may be to accept, I'm trying to help you.
You could try to convince your sponsors and mentor that Dean is an elitist buffoon and that, because you are so completely mortified and embarrassed by his insensitive words and callous attitude, they should stick with you in spite of him.
Or you might try to get them to understand that possibly, just maybe, there was no actual offense in what he said.
Whichever way you go, I really hope you succeed -- really.
We are a small rural team too, and I think we share your vulnerabilities.