     At some point today 61.8% of adult Canadians will go to work. They will manage, teach, file, minister, heal, build, repair, invent, paint, assemble, haul, sew, farm, cook, write, input data, balance books and provide care. They will be in offices, factories, kitchens, vehicles, care facilities, schools, homes, indoors, outdoors, and every other place where work needs to be done by someone with the ability and willingness to do it.
         I readily acknowledge there are countless jobs in which I would be completely ineffective. As I glance at engineering drawings or consider what dental hygienists do or think about the conditions in which roofers work, I am particularly mindful how good it is we all have different temperaments and aptitudes and are therefore drawn to different occupations.
         Certain professions are the favourite subject of TV shows as each season networks roll out series featuring police officers, doctors, lawyers, forensic scientists, government agents and politicians. These works of fiction often have consultants on set to ensure the dialogue is correct and the situations plausible yet they are first and foremost a scripted TV show. Our perceptions of those jobs are shaped by those dramatizations and it makes it look like they've got the best jobs.
         Reality TV has changed a lot of that. TV has made stars out of cake designers, hair stylists, real estate agents and chefs. Although the accuracy of their portrayals may be called into question at times, these shows can give us an insight into a day-in-the-life. As cameras follow we get a glimpse of what it might be like to be a long-haul trucker, oil rig worker, logger or customs agent and it looks like they've got the best jobs.
          As producers and editors put an episode together they are looking for the moments and interactions that are going to attract and keep the viewer's attention. There are hundreds of hours of tape filled with events not worthy of being broadcast but the cameras need to continue rolling to ensure those big moments are captured.
         Yet think about how much of the job is all about the preparation for those big moments. We don't see the individuals loading freight into the truck but we see the driver struggling to keep the rig upright despite snow, ice and dangerous conditions. We don't see the countless individual passports a border agent processes to keep everyone safe, but we see the traveler who is caught in a lie and creates a scene the agent now has to diffuse.
         Some jobs are by their nature more public than others but even in those jobs there are some aspects that we see, and much more we don't. It is often in what isn't seen that is the heartbeat of the job, but because that is the not the visible part, we may have a rather narrow idea of what the job actually entails.
         A graduating class of high school seniors was asked to identify what their ultimate dream job was on the eve of their graduation. No choices were given--the students were to simply name what the job would be if they could step into it in the morning. The top responses of their perceived best jobs included actor, president, and NBA player. Highly visible jobs to be sure. But what isn't seen are the failed auditions, stress of decision-making, affect of illness and injury--just as starters.
         What we see often has little to do with the full impact of the job. Those who do their jobs well know the difference. They are acutely aware of the importance of the preparation needed, knowing that's what makes the vocation fulfilling. It's about the attention given by the one who carefully packs the supplies, maintains the equipment, cares for the facilities, updates the inventory, safeguards the patients, secures the job site, cares for the clients, reads the results, charts the vision, plans the lessons, collects the information, and crosses the t's and dots the i's.
           So who's got the best job? The one who conscientiously and willingly takes care of all the details knowing that when it is done right the work can be done well. That's my outlook.
