Should Be Hard Enough...

 

This concrete pour went smoothly, right up until the end. Poor planning put him in a corner. I know the feeling. In my younger days, I did the same thing while finishing a basement floor. After troweling myself into a corner, I had to climb out and let my two younger brothers lower me upside down over the wall to finish the last spot.

Still Under Construction

Why is it that it seems to take forever for road construction to end?  And even after the road looks done, the cones and barrels stay up long enough for everyone to forget what it looked like without them.  At that point, they're not traffic control anymore.  They're decor.  Part of the road's character.  They quietly transition from work zone to permanent, long-term infrastructure.

You're Fired!

 

Some people brighten a room when they walk in... others when they walk out.  And then there are those, like this guy, who make the team stronger when they're no longer on it.  

As Jim Collins put it in Good to Great: 

"Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people."

Your Bill?

Will people like this guy be the only ones left with a job after AI takes over?  

Some predict that by 2040, more than half of all jobs will be replaced or radically transformed by artificial intelligence.  

But, not to worry.  As Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe says, "People who can adapt, solve problems, and show up consistently will always be in demand — AI or not."  

We've been here before.  Blacksmiths who once forged horseshoes and horseless carriages became auto mechanics and fabricators.  Telegraph operators transitioned into radio and telecom technicians.  Factory workers now manage and maintain the robotic systems that once threatened to replace them.  Entire industries powered by AI—and the jobs that go with them—haven't even been invented yet.

Not At Work Anymore

This cartoon is wrong—everyone knows all construction workers go to Heaven!

Construction work is enjoyable and rewarding...most of the time.  But some jobs can feel an awful lot like hell.  

In my younger days, I worked for my dad's small construction company.  One summer during high school, I spent several days in the blazing sun breaking up sidewalks with a sledge hammer, hauling the broken chunks of concrete in a wheelbarrow, loading them onto a pickup by hand—and then unloading them the same way.  It was exhausting, dirty, and miserable work.  Coincidentally, that's also when I started thinking seriously about a different career path.

As the old proverb goes, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."  Unless that job involves breaking up sidewalk in August.