The Hidden Work of the Trades

My wife and I hired a landscaping crew to reshape our yard. As they arranged flagstones, spread pea gravel, and worked the soil, I thought about a podcast featuring Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general. He drew a clear line between fixing and healing but argued we need both.

Though landscapers and surgeon generals aren’t usually in the same business, in this case, they’re aligned. Murthy’s message applies to the crew in my yard and to nearly everyone in the trades and service industries: The work you see is only part of the job.

Fixing is just the start

We initiated the project to prevent water from leaking into our lower level. Poor drainage caused rainwater to accumulate near the foundation, rather than being directed away from it, and the house suffered the consequences.

We fixed the problem by installing a new downspout that can handle heavy rainfall and by regrading the area to shed water from the house. The healing that followed caught my attention even more.

The target area included an unpaved, gravel walkway I had neglected for years. Runoff from a nearby embankment slowly accumulated and nudged the grade toward the house, ultimately leading to the leak.

Each time I walked that path, I told myself to deal with it, then pushed it to the back of the list. The neglect bothered me. It chipped away at my pride in our home and dulled the beauty of that space.

Don’t forget the healing

In the trades and service industries, the physical result matters, but it isn’t the whole story. Healing often sits beneath the surface. Because most of us never received training to address emotional fallout, we usually overlook or undervalue it.

That’s why soft skills—communication, empathy, adaptability, listening, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence—belong in every toolkit. These skills ease the anxiety, pain, guilt, blame, isolation, and other hurts that travel with the problems clients hire us to fix.

In our case, healing started as soon as the fixing began. I stopped wincing at the walkway and started taking photos to share with friends. My mood lifts when I step into the refreshed space. Even the flowers we planted along that path seem a little brighter.

Our services provide us with front-row opportunities to deliver that kind of healing to customers, both internally and externally. If we notice the need and make space for it, we provide more than a repair. We provide relief.