Hard Hat Dreams

I haven’t written a word on this site in over three years. What have I been doing? Well, I got away from the computer for a spell, and I got a job slinging power tools with the union. Let me explain.

Back in 2021, as the country forced us back to work post pandemic, I had only the faintest idea how I would earn my living. I had edited a few books during the lockdown, but I didn’t feel up to the constant hustle required to make it as a freelancer. Earlier public-facing career dalliances, like food service and teaching, demanded a degree of forced extroversion I hated summoning on a daily basis. I needed to escape the office, to hide from screens and stretch my legs, outside in the sunlight.

I toyed with the idea of moving back to the commune. I went there, but it felt like the past and not the future. Not home anymore.

I flexed my creative skills as production designer on the set of an indie movie: crafting fake fireflies, 90s heartthrob wall collages, and a bluegrass bar in an old church basement. I had a knack for it. I also did production design for a music video and a short film, but I soon lost my nerve. I wanted a steady income. I needed health insurance.

I marched with the crowd at the Nashville Labor Day Parade. The Central Labor Council set up a table in Riverfront Park; they were giving away T-shirts in exchange for your contact info. I took my free T-shirt home and one day I found a brand new idea in my inbox: Why not consider a career in the unionized building trades?

For the past three years or so, I’ve been working and training to become a fully fledged journeyman electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, an “inside wireman” (I don’t mind appropriating the masculine terms). I’ve helped build a data center, a factory, and a power plant. I’m getting up early, working long hours on my feet, learning countless tips and tricks of the trade, and crafting some things that may outlast me. I’m happy with my health insurance. I have a pension (two, in fact). A couple years ago, I bought my first house.

So much has changed for me since embarking on this new adventure in an industry I’d never considered before. Nowadays, it seems like more people with a background in higher education are entering the trades. As an apprentice, I’ve met numerous people like myself who fell into this line of work as a second, third or fourth career. We are sick to death of the rat race, of starvation wages and unstable or nonexistent benefits. We want to work under a collective bargaining agreement that ensures we all can make a fair and predictable wage, man or woman, young or old.

I’ve discovered my passion for organized labor.

I still have a final year of study to complete before I “top out” and become a journeyman. I’m working six days a week, and between the overtime and classes, my biggest struggle has been to maintain a strong sense of myself as a creative person and traveler. I’ve made significant sacrifices to follow this path, but the positives are undeniable.

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Time, when scarce, becomes so precious. It took me years to acclimate to this level of daily and weekly activity. Between the physicality of the work and then school, as well as regular union meetings and other gatherings, the remainder of sleep, hygiene, relationships, nourishment, fun and creativity must be negotiated. You must settle into your priorities, but remain flexible too: I find that creative routines fit best before a work shift (which can start as early as 6:00 AM), but if sleep evaded you the night before, you must forego it. Sleep is king.

In the coming months, I plan to return to this platform. I need to return to my studies, to practice investigating some truth claims and see if I can craft a better essay (and a better mind). I’m writing a novel, a story about the tragic and hilarious conditions facing modern day construction workers; I’d love to explore some themes and vignettes here. The plight of craftmanship in the skilled trades, at the altar of increased efficiency and a bloated, out-of-touch upper management structure, will resonate with workers far outside this industry, I’m sure.

If you’re still here, or if you’ve found me through some shared interest or tag, I want to know: What’s the highlight of your life since the pandemic? And how do you balance your obligations with the creative urges of your soul?