The premium on a good tradesman remains extremely high. Is AI going to come and paint your walls or hang your pictures? No, and the unsung heroes of the AI age are still those who are good with their hands.
Indeed OpenAI, the US industry giant, has urgently called for a massive ramping up in skilled labour. It declared: ‘The country will need many more electricians, mechanics, metal and ironworkers, carpenters, plumbers, and other construction trade workers than we currently have.’ Sounds good to me. Meanwhile Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said America needs for 500,000 electricians. Yes please! No doubt Britain is going to need just as many if we’re to join the AI revolution.
And I’ve recently suffered a slew of home disasters included an infestation of moths in my cupboards; a broken boiler valve; and the onset of strobe-esque flickering in all my lights. I was reminded of one of the other major advantages to boosting Mr Fixits’ numbers: they are the most attractive men around.
There is no terrain more depressing than app dating. Spending an hour on one makes the skilled manual labourer starts to look very attractive indeed – and that’s before you see his muscles bulge under his scrappy T-shirt. So while the tech world wants more manual labourers to build their machinery, I want more of them out of a desire to perv.
Might this type of worker actually be getting more, rather than less, sexy? I wonder. I haven’t seen an aged plumber or a grunting handyman for a while. By contrast, the ones I have encountered of late have all been under 40, tall and fit. They’ve been polite, the English-born ones among them sporting charming accents of the actual working class. The pest men, who had once solved a bed-bugs problem for a friend, were perhaps the most beguiling. They were a pair of skinny, intelligent-faced brothers who were in business with their father and lived somewhere like Enfield or Harrow. As they unloaded their lethal chemicals, they happily told me how they deal with everything from pigeons to rats, as well as the kinds of bugs and insects that would make me collapse in horror. They were efficient, friendly and happy with their lot. They were probably earning a very handsome salary, and well they should.
The boilermen, or ‘heating engineers’ as they call themselves, I have known for years. They’re a couple of fit Asian men, soft-spoken, endlessly patient both on the phone and in person, prone only to the odd technical slip-up. They’re family men, so the vibe is less flirty, but I still feel that sense of grateful relief on seeing them walk through to the boiler, bulging toolbox in hand.
I still feel that sense of grateful relief on seeing them walk through to the boiler, bulging toolbox in hand
And then there is the pair of Greeks who have been dealing with the lighting situation. First Klay, more of a baby-faced sort; and then his chum Claudio, sent to do the major work. Claudio is downright gorgeous and tattooed. But with blokes like this, it’s not about inane boring small talk. Or bland descriptions of non-work. It’s about ladders, tools and parts. Admittedly, these aren’t dates, where perhaps they might unleash boring small talk over Pinot. So I am more than happy to keep them in the workmen zone, where I can really enjoy their masculine energy.
I haven’t mentioned the characterful late-thirties Bulgarian appliances guru who comes, sometimes with his ancient Irish boss (they’re based in Kilburn), and sorts my dishwasher and washing machine like they’re naughty teens. This is because the pair, while impressive and friendly, lack sex appeal. But, having seen the qualities of problem-solving and dexterity displayed by the Bulgarian on a number of occasions, I’d be more willing to consider him than I would any number of dead-eyed, digital-nomad app men.
All in all, a resurgence of manual fixers-and-builders-of-things is welcome. If those leading the AI charge find themselves the unlikely champions of hot man who can fix things, then – in the absence of finding AI particularly exciting – that’s something we can agree on.
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