I work at a big diagnostics laboratory. Doctors send us blood and we test it. My boss is a very nice guy, low on the company ladder who deeply romanticizes the work we do. He considers it a “rare, noble industry” and takes a great deal of pride in it.
I’m apathetic. For me it’s just a job. We aren’t philanthropist. We’re charging lots of money for the work we do. Our corporate guys are loaded. Our CEO keeps diamond encrusted cock-rings in humidity regulated mahogany cases
Fifty employees from my business unit were laid off recently. Our national IT department has been out-sourced to India. Morale continues to plummet as “exciting changes are implemented.”
Is this a rare noble industry? Is it different or better than RJ Reynolds? AT&T? Ford? Blue Cross/Shield?
Slightly OT,
This seems fairly normal - The people at the top care about Money. The people at the bottom care about Money. The people in the Middle (Managers) care about the job.
I applied for a job in a lab that did blood tests(expensive gene based ones) and got a tour of their facility a while back. The way it was explained to me - samples come in, reports go out, about a 1000 a day, soon to become 5000 a day. The programmers were working very hard to make everyone else at the place redundant. The handlers/data enterists seemed more like blue collar folks. The scientists were scientists, same as everywhere else. I didn’t get to talk to any of the management. It looked like any other health science business to me. They provide a vital service to people, but for money and without exceptions. I didn’t get the job.
At one level, a factory is a factory and a product is a product.
At another level, it matters whether you’re making bullets or bandages.
If someone can convince themselves their daily work has some intrinsic good for the world, in addition to the $x/hour it yields them personally, in general they’re going to be happier.
Whether that extra happiness is truly a good thing or merely makes them just comfortable enought to stay trapped where they are, well that’s an individual matter.
So is a medical lab rare or noble? Not really. Perhaps moreso than a telemarketing call center selling Florida swamp ripoffs, but probably less than running an orphanage or (insert your favorite doogooder activity here).