www.thefabricator.com: There are days in the metal fabricating industry when everything feels normal. You walk in, flip on the lights, hear the hum of machines and the clank of steel, smell of smoke, and you don’t even think twice about it. It’s just what you do. It’s what you’ve always done. Honestly, you get kind of complacent.
I’ve caught myself in that mindset more than once. Everything seems to be on autopilot and nothing seems to be as fresh as it used to be.
9 comments:
It is really interesting to hear this from an opposite point of view as mine–to me, highly specific fabrication (that is, metalworking and some forms of carpentry) usually does nothing but stress me out. I have some trouble deciding when it’s okay to be a perfectionist and when something is “good enough,” (and as a theatre worker, usually “good enough” is fine.) Finding excitement in this kind of thing (and especially after so long working in it) is cool to hear about. First, because this can apply to almost any line of work. Sometimes people tend to see a lot of jobs different to the one they have as “cool,” but we tend to forget that it can become monotonous over time. I even sometimes think about jobs I would never even consider right now as being cool (for example, I’ve firmly said that I’m not doing anything STEM related, but sometimes I’ll see something and think, huh, wow, that is cool. I think the same goes for fabrication, but maybe I’m more susceptible to that becoming monotonous for me.)
I feel like because a lot of the hyper-specific fabrication machines that we have are still very new to me, I still retain a lot of this excitement when I see them. Getting a tour of all the machines in carpentry stagecraft was often eye-opening as I got to be like oh, thats the machine that makes that thing that I never imagined how it was made. However, as soon as I have to start using one of those machines on crew, I lose the excitement. After you cut and assemble 10 stair units, it starts to get a little old and you forget that you’re literally making structures that can support entire people out of planks of wood. I like this perspective - its important to realize that you are creating something out of basically nothing, which is really cool and not something anyone can do right away. Not only that, we’re also solving problems and creating art, which is not something that everyone gets to do everyday.
I like this article a lot. It outlines exactly what I love about shops: making stuff is, in fact, really cool. As someone who’d feel at home working in a shop in the near future, the rhythm of machines and background sounds of a workplace like that make me very happy. I think in all areas of work, be it education like high school or college, or somewhere in a person’s career path, burnout can hit like a truck. Doing the work you love can turn into a repetitive chore that must be accomplished in order to get through the day. But where I think I’d go crazy in a cubicle or office space, workplaces where “making stuff” occurs offer the constant benefit of seeing really “cool stuff”. Whenever I feel weighed down by work I don’t have any particular interest in doing, I can always persevere by promising myself a project where I get to make something at the end. I think a lot of us in this industry have this innate urge to make and fiddle with things. As long as we hold on to that feeling of building a tree house as kids, we can never truly lose the magic.
I really loved this article. I think for me it really encompasses a big reason why I chose to pursue a career in theater production. I have always really loved working with a variety of tools and techniques that make it so that I can do whatever I want. I mean, is there anything cooler than feeling like you are able to solve the challenges that come with making cool shit? Something else I also really appreciated about this article is how it talks about how easy it is to become complacent in the work we do and lose that sense of awe and wonder. I really relate to this feeling, especially as a student. Sometimes there is just so much work and crew that never seems to end and it can be so easy to just go through the motions. I love how this article invites readers to reflect on the joy they experience during the fabrication process.
I quite enjoyed this article. Learning tangible skills is such an important, and such a fun thing. I feel sorry for the people who never experience it. Many of them don't have the desire to, but I really think they're missing out. There was a line in this article that recalled the feeling "when learning something new felt like unlocking a secret portal". That's such a specific idea that I really relate to. Every time I learn a new skill it does feel like my world has expanded a little bit and there are so many new possibilities. But it is also fun to watch someone who truly has no experience in such a realm when you show them a really simple mechanical thing, and they think it's super advanced and really cool. It's like getting to play show and tell and show off your little knick knacks and special tricks.
I concur with this article: making stuff is in fact very cool. I can very much see, though, how as time goes on, and you do things every day, it is easy to forget how cool it is. I think this is true of basically any job someone could have, that after a while, it gets monotonous, and the joy you may have previously found in it disappears. Personally, I don’t think I’ve been around in the industry for long enough, or done enough work to get to the point where I forget how cool it is to do what I do. I’m still the young person who comes into the shop and thinks everything is new and exciting and cool. But sometimes, it hits me more than others how lucky I am to get to do what I do, and I’m going to try to remember that as I continue on through my career.
I think the point of this article is a bit further than it initially seems, and speaks to our industry as a whole, beyond the shop. What we do, as theatremakers, is really cool. To us, going into a theatre on a crew call and hanging lights or building a set or stitching a costume is so normalized, it becomes so simple and casual to us, whereas to the world beyond our industry, what we do is (sometimes) seen as incredible. We make brilliant art with painstaking craftsmanship, skill, and certainly a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Our work often can feel like it really sucks, a torrent of never-ending crew calls, drafting assignments, design projects. I try to remember that when a week has felt like it has stretched out for a month. At the end of the day, what we get to do is really awesome, and we should remember that more often.
The feeling that this article is describing is the main reason that I started doing theater, and specifically doing carpentry or other technical elements for theater. I too get a genuine feeling of excitement that I get when I have the opportunity to create something cool and or fun in the shop or other similar space. I truly enjoy creating things with my hands I really feel fulfilled even if it is something that I am not to excited to make. I really like the comparison that the article made about working in a shop being like trying out rides in an amusement park. I also like seeing that there is a shop that is hiring people based off of the fact they the new hire was just excited to learn and work in a metal shop, and on that not working on cars and in a metal shop do have some similarity and similar skill sets.
It is always a good idea to periodically take a step back and remind yourself why you do what you do, especially when the day to day tasks feel unfulfilling. If you are ever unable to find something about what you are doing that sparks joy, then perhaps it is time for you to find a new career or hobby. Life is too short to waste on doing something that you hate if you have the means to find and do what you love. Joy is important, studies have shown that people who are happier live longer and healthier lives. A long life of being happy sounds very appealing to me. I worked for a manufacturing company this past summer and I found it to be a rewarding experience. A lot of the time people look down on jobs that are repetitive or entry level within an environment, but depending on your point of view any job has the potential to bring someone joy.
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