To the Unsung Professions

That make the world work and keep us alive.

Quick Note: we rescheduled the Beat Back Burnout challenge. It now kicks off on Monday 3/3, so be sure to sign up.

My daughter, “Pineapple,” is in a phase where she wants to do everything by herself. She’s only 3.5 years old, but by golly, that’s not going to stop her.

I’ve learned the trick to helping her isn’t by coddling her through every experience, nor is it to ignore her completely and let her figure it out like I’m a mama giraffe just expecting her to know how to walk immediately after birth.

Instead, I help her in secret. If she’s climbing a tree, I move branches that she may hit or have my hands ready just in case she falls.

Or if she’s bowling, I make sure she doesn’t try to “soccer kick” the ball.

There are countless, tiny things I’m doing that help her “do it alone.”

I recently realized there are countless industries, functions, and professions that do the exact same thing for our world to function.

“The Power Behind Healthcare”

Yesterday, I had the honor of kicking off the Spring Seminar for the North Carolina Healthcare Engineers Association (welcome to the newsletter if you’re joining us!).

If you’re wondering, “What exactly is a healthcare engineer?”—I had the same question when my bureau contact first pitched me for the event.

After a bit of research (aka a Google search and a deep dive into their About page), I realized that they are a critical part of our health and safety… and yet, I had never really thought about them before.

Think back to the last time you were in a hospital. For me, it was a few weeks ago when Pretzel (my wife) went in for a check-up.

Remember how the doors opened automatically as you walked in? How the heating and cooling system kept the air at an even temperature (even though hospitals always seem a little cold)? Or how all the machines doctors and nurses rely on to diagnose and treat patients seemed to be working?

All of that—and so much more—is thanks to healthcare engineers.

Yet, it’s not a profession most people think about. There are no TV shows about their work. No Grey’s Schematics or The Good Engineer. No dramatic scenes where an HVAC specialist rushes into the ER yelling, "We’re losing pressure in the oxygen system—somebody get me a wrench, stat!"

For All the Unsung Professions

That’s one of the reasons I love what I do.

I not only get a chance to learn about what they do, I also get a chance to serve them (in a very small, hopefully very fun way).

People like the members of NCHEA, who keep hospitals running so that doctors and nurses can save lives. They’re like me with Pineapple, just doing it on a much larger scale, secretly keeping the rest of the world safe or humming along.

If you’re one of those people—working hard in a job that few people understand or recognize—just know this:

I see you. I appreciate you. Even if I have zero idea how you do what you do.

I know that my work is only a tiny fraction of what you all experience on a day-to-day basis. But my goal is help all of you laugh, find connection with others, and ultimately bring smart levity to way you work going forward. So that you can keep doing all the things you do while also enjoying the process.

So here’s to the unsung professionals. The ones who keep the world moving. And the ones who, if they ever got a TV show, would probably be too busy actually fixing things to watch it.

(an)drew

PS. If you want stress-management strategies for surviving any profession, I’ll be sharing them in next week’s 5-Day Beat Back Burnout Challenge. It’s free. Join us.

Silly Joke at the End: I watched the TV show House in Spanish. Who is Dr. Casa?