Mike Rowe

From the MRW Water Cooler: Q: Mike, Years ago this country’s workers were deliberately kept in the dark about the dangers of their work and to stand up against employers or to question the practices would risk them being fired. Personal responsibility is obviously important and when we feel it is the company’s fault we look for justice. We are a country of litigation – the need to have consequences for unduly risk and lack of safety concerns is important so history does not repeat itself. How do you feel about the evolution of safety practices? – J Safety in Read More

From the MRW Water Cooler: Q: Mike, I can’t imagine any company saying that safety is not their number one priority and companies offer items to keep the workers safe, so maybe I do not understanding the concept of “Safety Third”. Also, I think many of us feel profits are put before worker safety.  Is it just disregarding employee’s verses the economic bottom line? What else does “Safety First” mean? Fact is, I can’t think of a single, publicly traded company that does not claim in writing that employee safety is the most important thing. You’re referring it seems, to Read More

Companies spend millions and millions of dollars trying to convince their employees that individual safety is the company’s NUMBER ONE PRIORITY. In my opinion, that is illogical, untrue and counter-intuitive to encouraging optimum vigilance in an employee. Certainly, management based safety programs are critical and greatly reduce on the job injuries; I’ve never said otherwise. But dangerous environments cannot be made “safe”, safer, sure – but never safe. There is no such state and believing otherwise is hazardous to your health. I’m not so sure that relying exclusively on “empirical evidence” is the best road to common sense.  This, from Read More

One of the really cruel things about television is the way it bends time, at least for the people who make it. A few weeks ago, for instance, the final episode of DJ aired for the current season. (Rather good, if I don’t say so myself.) In it, I found some part-time work for my erstwhile crew on scenic Mackinac Island and gleefully prepared for my first official hiatus in five years. As I watched the episode at home, I became completely engrossed with the narrative arc and very excited at the prospect of having four months off forgetting, of Read More

If you’d like to donate to the Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial in honour of Captain Phil, please visit FISHERMEN’S MEMORIAL A few years ago I was in Seattle, preparing to film the first round of After the Catch. For those of you unfamiliar with the program, After the Catch is a talk show in a bar, where The Captains and crew from Deadliest Catch gather to chat about this and that. I impersonate a moderator, and do my best to keep things on the rails. (Think Charlie Rose with cigarettes and whiskey.) Anyway, on that first day of shooting, I arrived Read More

Yard work. Never cared for it. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a giant yard in the middle of a forest? Or maybe it’s because the chores never seemed to end? Or maybe it’s because my father embraced a pointless but unwavering commitment to landscaping and curb appeal?  Beats me. I can only tell you that my brothers and I were drafted into this eternal conflict at an early age, with what one might call a conspicuous lack of basic training. Armed with a vast array of modern weaponry, we were sent out every weekend to confront a determined foe. Read More

11/23/09 Hi All – Tonight’s episode of Dirty Jobs is a repack called Safety Third. In it, I look back at some of the bumps and bruises we’ve accumulated in the process of putting this show together and offer a few observations about the role ofrisk in the workplace. The observations made are mine and no one else’s, except where attributed, and reflect nothing but my own experience over the last five years. Like Brown Before Green, the expression itself – “Safety Third!” – has already prompted some to accuse me of deliberately trying to stir up trouble – a charge to which Read More

July, 2009 Aloha, from somewhere over the Pacific. As I prepare to re-enter the contiguous 48 for the second time this  month, I can finally begin to see the light at the end of a particularly nasty tunnel of production – one that has succeeded in kicking my butt harder and more consistently than any of its predecessors. Not that I’m complaining, but this last week in Hawaii has confirmed once again that hard work and paradise seem perfectly willing to share  the same lanai. The boys and I had a jolly time washing windows and making tofu on the Read More

I know that mikeroweWORKS is not even a year old, so this is probably going to be an impossible question to answer. What has to happen for you to consider this a success? Is merely getting the word out to the masses and those in power enough? Do programs have to be started/implemented? Does trade school enrollment have to bump up? Or is it simply a matter of not going up in a spectacular ball of flames? Success is a tricky word. Do I really believe I can single-handedly launch an effective PR campaign for hard work? No, I don’t. Read More

What are your views on the effectiveness and usefulness of Union organizations and the decision to go on strike to achieve their goals and demands? The role of unions, and their relevance, has changed over the years. Personally, I’m of the mind that certain industries still justify their existence, while other do not. But one thing is certain – once a union is formed, it will not go gently into that good night. Like any other group, they are loath to disband, ever. I have mixed feelings. As a believer in the individual, I will always support a persons right Read More

When I was eight years old, my Father bought a picnic table at a yard sale for a dollar. A whole picnic table, complete with two separate benches. For one dollar. He brought the thing home in the back of the old station wagon – the one with fake wood paneling on the side – and summoned his wife and sons to examine another tangible expression of true thrift.   “Gather round boys and have a look. They wanted twenty-five dollars for this down at The Sears. Can you believe it? Twenty-five dollars! Your old man just picked it up on Read More

Letter to Mike and company I saw your talk on TED.tv..and wanted to tell you..  I have a 19 year old son who watches your program religiously. He’s a very bright kid; talked for a long time about going into law. A year or so ago..I stopped hearing so much about that. He graduates from highschool in a week or so. Two weeks ago, he sat down with me and said..mom? This is what I want to do. This summer, instead of heading to Oregon to work for his uncle, he’s enrolled in an apprentice program for carpentry. Its a Read More

From the MRW Water Cooler In reading some of your writings I wondered if you feel blue-collar workers are better, work harder or are happier than white-collar workers? Is wishing for a better life for our children limited to one or the other “collars” or is it just the universal hope for “the good life” for our families? — M The reason I think blue and white are so tough to balance, has to do with he fact that we tend to see them as opposites, like weights on different ends of a seesaw. A healthy society knows that each Read More

From the MRW Water Cooler: Q:  At the risk of sounding like an anarchist, or worse, “anti-American” (whatever the hell that means) can I postulate the obvious..Ocham’s Razor, as it were… Won’t most Consumers want to pay the best price for the best version of the commodity they wish to purchase, be it a car or a house or a Washing Machine? Deep down, when dollars are tight, will the averge American-Joe chose to spend more for a car that was “built American” or “built by a non-bailout company” if they can get a better car for less cash elsewhere, Read More