Never take me off the tools

I heard about the promotions. A friend went up to the next role. He’d been after it for a while.

I asked him. How is it?

It’s good man. But I’m missing being hands-on. All that’s changed is I spend less time on the tools and more time doing emails.

Then it happened again. Except I was at a different job.

I noticed the trend.

Getting higher up meant more emails. More time away from doing the hands-on work.

More time away from doing the grunt work.

That’s the part I love. Getting dirty. Losing myself in the flow. Forgetting what time it is. Trying to speak to someone afterwards and not being able to string a sentence together because your brain has emptied its pockets. Getting home and being drained. Laying in bed. Staring. Thinking. Today was a good day.

More emails?

No thank you.

Keep me on the tools.