Maybe it's not your job . . . maybe it's you!

Posted at 5:25 PM on March 6, 2007 by Sanden Totten (1 Comments)

The other day someone on gather.com pointed out to me that most people are boring when they talk about their job. Perfectly interesting people will suddenly have all the passion of a banana slug when they start explaining what they do . . . even if their work life is interesting. Now granted, many people have boring occupations, but don't you think there is some interesting thing to say about almost any job?

That's why I've always been fascinated by Dishwasher Pete. He's a dude who has made a life out of doing dishes. Pete's goal for 10 plus years was to wash dishes in every state in the union. The cool thing about Pete was that even though he had a job most people wouldn't think twice about, he would consistently spin yarns and write stories about his work that would charm and captivate anybody in earshot. He knew the politics, the history and the art of scrubbing dishes. And he would gladly share this information with others. He made dishwashing sound more interesting than being a fireman, an astronaut, an explorer or whatever.

I've since forgotten but as a teenager I kinda thought Pete was a hero. Not because he washed dishes but because he decided to care about what he did, even if most people didn't. And I bet if you asked him what his job is, you wouldn't be bored by the answer.

Comments (1)

I first heard about Dishwasher Pete some years ago on This American Life and you're right. He's fascinating as are his stories.

Perhaps I should take this as a personal challenge to think about how I could spice up my own job... finding the interesting parts and making it more enjoyable for me in the process.

Posted by nee | March 6, 2007 8:31 PM

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