Day 86: Why Everyone Should Be a Dishwasher Once in Their Life

Everyone should be a professional dishwasher so that they can appreciate the luxury of having a more comfortable job with better pay while enjoying their four-course meal. In restaurants, dishwashers are about as low on the totem pole as it gets. Hostesses have it better. Dishwashers are constantly surrounded by dirty dishes that contain your uneaten food and spit. And they clean those dishes day after day for a paycheck that should be more but isn’t. Trashmen deal with waste every day, but they get paid much more. It is rare, in my experience, that a dishwasher makes much more than minimum wage. That’s just the way it is. I’m not advocating for better pay for dishwashers (even though many deserve more), I am saying that by doing a job like dishwashing, it gives us a better appreciation of the actual work that goes into making businesses and this country run. It gives us empathy for all those other people behind the counter.

I’m going to lump in dishwasher with every other minimum wage position throughout the United States that very few people want to do but have to to pay the bills. The two industries that we interact with and use the most on a daily basis are retail (grocery or otherwise) and restaurants. I.e., where we get our food. The convenience of our modern way of living is so astonishing. I take it for granted almost every day because it feels normal. It has been apart of my life forever. Everything is so convenient that when there is a slight hiccup (food is taking longer than expected, a register breaks down, etc.) then we go nuts. The hiccup disrupts our flow of convenience and we look for the first person to blame. It could be the server telling you the bad news or the road worker on the side of the highway trying to make travel smoother and safer for everyone. It could be the immigrant workers that work fourteen hours a day so that we can have fresh produce right down the street from our home.

It is easy to spot people that have worked in the tough industries and the thankless industries that work in the background of America. It is easy to spot people like this because they (usually) have much more patience for when something goes wrong. This psychology ranges across the board for every job. We like blame policemen, teachers, government workers, bank employees, or the guy on the corner selling hotdogs that has to lug his cart to and fro every day. But when we have been in those people’s shoes then we develop more understanding for their struggles.

I think Mike Rowe’s show Dirty Jobs was more about empathy for the unknown workers of this world. The dirty part was just to hook the audience. I think everyone should be a dishwasher or a garbage man or a TV cable installer or a clerk at a gas station so that they understand that those jobs can carry just as much stress and turmoil as any other job. Sometimes, more so. Serving hundreds of people every day in any capacity is taxing and sometimes too much to handle. Almost every job, even the ones we like, will become stressful at some point.

So the next time that you are driving in your car or about to eat a meal prepared and brought to you by other people, remember that they are people; they are not robots programmed to do a job perfectly. Hell, robots still fail all the time. Technology fails. Every human is going to mess up but not every human has to get angry and point their finger. Instead, we can imagine what those people must feel. I know I feel embarrassed and angry at myself when I make a mistake. More than anything, I am worried that I am going to make someone else upset. So when that person isn’t mad, it only encourages me to try again and fix the mistake. Making a mistake and not having someone be mad at you is one of the greatest gifts in the world. Being a dishwasher taught me to be humble in any place in life because status is an illusion. It taught me that a person can be proud of every job as long as you are working hard at it. And dishwashing taught me that I don’t want a job where I come home smelling like garbage. But many people are still cleaning those dishes, pulling those carrots, cutting that grass, and stocking those shelves for us every day. We can all appreciate the convenience of this country because of people that are willing to do those jobs.