The Electrician Who Tended Bar
We were planning a party at our house and needed a bartender. We were having some work done at the time, and the electrician overheard us. He said, I am a bartender. I said, come on, you are an electrician. He said, I bartended for seven years.
So we asked him to come one afternoon and make us all drinks, to see whether he knew how. He did. He was fine at it.
Where I grew up, people are specialists. The electrician does wiring, and the bartender makes drinks. In many places where people want to earn a living any way they can, they are generalists.
The most absurd example is a young man who became our regular bartender. He went to law school, and he did some legal work for us. Once a week he came to trim my beard. At the end of my father’s life, he became one of my father’s caregivers. As I write this, he and his girlfriend are expecting a baby in about six months, and they are planning to marry.
His father does our pest control. His father was also, once, a minister, and he came and said prayers with my father when my father was about to die.
Life there runs differently from where I grew up, and I like a lot of it. I might not have known if I had not met the people.
I do not think the generalist is odd. In places where steady work is hard to find, many people learn many skills, because one job was never enough. A person who can do six things may be the most resourceful person in the room.
There is one caution, and it matters. Some jobs are the kind where a mistake costs a lot: wiring, anything medical, anything legal. For those, you could ask to see a license or a certificate, and you could ask who else they have done it for. For the rest, the bartender’s afternoon works well. You could give a new helper a small, low-risk first job and see how it goes.
You could also ask the person who helps you what else they do. You might find a bartender in your electrician, or a lawyer who trims beards.
Who surprised you with what else they could do? Tell us in the comments. Someone reading may be about to meet their own.
Tell us in the comments