Mike Rowe: Bring Pride to the Job
This week’s Convenience Matters podcast talks with “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe about employment opportunities at c-stores.
Nov 06, 2018
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – On this week’s episode of Convenience Matters, “Rewarding Work Featuring Mike Rowe,” NACS hosts Jeff Lenard and Carolyn Schnare discuss jobs with Mike Rowe, CEO of mikeroweWORKS Foundation, at the NACS Show. Part of Rowe’s passion in life has been to remind America about the “number of people who are doing things that are out of the limelight and spotlight … [and] who are actually satisfied in their work and engaged in their work.”
To Rowe, there’s been more than a little career confusion in this country. “Everyone on both sides [of the political fence] want people to be able to earn a living if they work hard, but if you look at your career like a ladder, then there’s going to be rungs that are higher than others,” he said. “The bottom rungs are the most important rungs, and when you do things to make those rungs less available to more people, then you create all kinds of difficulty.”
Rowe pointed out that “there are thousands of jobs that have tremendous dignity and importance because they lead to the next one.” However, when every single job is treated like a career, then it becomes harder to fill those bottom-rung jobs and for those working there to find satisfaction in their work. “The better word between job and career is opportunity,” he said. “All jobs are opportunities.”
Americans also have “elevated careers at the expense of jobs,” Rowe stated. “We’ve elevated certain forms of education at the expense of others.” That means two-year associate degrees, trade schools and apprenticeship programs have become subordinate to four-year bachelor’s degrees.
The convenience store industry isn’t often thought of as a starting point for someone’s career or as a full career, but it should be. “I think your industry—and really every industry—can do a better job of telling its own story,” Rowe said, reminding listeners that “where a person’s career starts is absolutely as important as where it ends up.”
Each week a new Convenience Matters episode is released. The podcast can be downloaded on iTunes, Google Play and other podcast apps, and at www.conveniencematters.com. Episodes have been downloaded by listeners more than 60,000 times in 80 countries.
