Free Custom «Working with Your Hands and Working with Your Head» Essay Paper

Some people want to have a job where they can make things work mainly by using their hands while others prefer having a job where they can use their heads (to think). Different people have different priorities concerning the above scenario. This essay will compare and contrast the two types of jobs above: working mainly with your hands and working mainly with your head.

The Case of Working Mainly With Your Hands

Millions of workers daily drag themselves into the office contemplating spending some time on their job, many do wonder if they are in the right job. According to writer and mechanic Mathew Crawford, many of us think that we could be better off trading the mouse (working with the head) for a screw driver (working with the hand). He postulates that that is the reason why many people are miserable at work (Crawford, 2009).  He argues that jobs have become so much specialized and process driven that sometimes we may not notice the difference we may be making at the office. He further points out that even if sometimes the results have an obvious impact, the results again seem pointless plagued by jealousness.  He says that unlike working with your head, working with your hands is an easy task that does not need to be reduced to following set dealings. He gives an example of an electrician installing pipes and says that this is the kind of job requires improvisation and adaptation and not following set procedures.

He also argues for the pay. According to him, working with your hands can enable you earn well than working with your head. He cites the example of a skilled mechanic who is likely to earn more than a sociology graduate (Crawford, 2009).  

Drawing heavily from his background, Crawford also believes that working with your hands gives people more satisfaction than working with your head. He says that trading makes people happier like mending a bike and see it run brings a lot of satisfaction. Agreeing to this opinion, a journalist with the ‘The Times’ says that he found weeding allotment satisfying than just sitting and Goggling. He even says that he wished to be a fireman, this is despite his salary. This confirms that job satisfaction is an important factor in bringing people satisfaction (Castella, 2011).  

Contrasting Argument

But is working with the head really that bad as envisaged by Crawford? Other people like to pursue their careers with their heads rather than with their hands. This is because working with the head gives people great opportunities to use the knowledge they have gained to make a living. People with the ability to calculate, organize and analyze information will be better off working using their hands than hands. Working with the head gives one the opportunity to improve the knowledge gained as opposed to working with hands. It enables one to continue acquiring information in order to give solutions to problems (Working with Your Hands or Your Head). 

For others, working with the head is a soft job that is not as challenging as working with hands. They believe that working with their hands puts them at more physical risk. They see it as a dangerous job to use machines like a saw, screwdriver, sew or getting involved in building a house (Working with Your Hands or Your Head).  

Conclusion

I feel that a good job, whether it involves mainly the use of hands or mainly the use of head, is the field where one can put his best capability into practice. In this regard, I feel that academics do not really matter as long as one is able to work satisfactorily. As long as one is happy and satisfied with what he/she is doing, it is okay if he/she is using the head or hands.