Plumbing. . . Seriously

Yesterday, I happened upon a YouTube video from a segment of the TV show “Dirty Jobs” about plumbing. As I watched it I noticed that the host, Mike Rowe, couldn’t resist taking the theme of plumbing to the humorous side of our profession: tight places, butt crack jokes, smelly/dirty work, that kind of thing. Normally, I’m pretty light-hearted as well in my approach to all things plumbing on this blog (e.g., my last post), but in my next couple of posts, I want to take things a different direction – the serious side of plumbing.

We have a poster in the AttaBoy Plumbing office that comes from a 1930’s advertising campaign that shows a plumber standing with the earth behind as a backdrop and surrounded by a myriad of admiring people gazing up at him with grateful looks on their faces. The caption over the young, strong, overalls-clad technician states: “The Plumber Protects the Health of the Nation.”

I have to admit that I’ve always looked at that poster as a somewhat fanciful bit of plumbing propaganda from a bygone day in our country when people were a little more gullible to advertising. I actually believe people are just as gullible today, but our advertising has gotten a little more sophisticated.

Well, I am humbled to say that a couple of days ago one of our plumbers was sitting in my office talking with me and during our discussion he referred to that poster and said to me, “I believe that.” He went on to say that he feels his job is very important and that, in fact, the work he does IS vital to helping our customers live healthy lives. He was dead serious. Somehow, as General Manager, I felt a little ashamed for not having been the one to make that statement, but at the same time, I was very proud knowing that he was one of OUR plumbers!

I am proud to be a part of AttaBoy Plumbing Company.

– The Thought-full Plumber