do all blue collar workers think white collar workers dont work?

[brianmanahan]

i have a number of friends of friends who work in blue collar jobs, aka electrician/roofer/construction worker/etc. sometimes at gatherings we are talking about jobs and they ask what i do and i tell them i have a job working on computer programs. then they laugh and some of them say "wow that sounds hard! hahaha" then they go on to talk about how they have to work outside in heat and blizzards and its all hard and etc and that working in an office must be so easy and cushy.

and i am like "do you use the internet? do you even know how that works? and how much work goes into making it work?? and do you realize how incredibly hard it is to figure out what people want and get it done in the timeframe they want it???"

and they just laugh amongst themselfs and tell stories about welding their arms or nailing their fingers or falling off roofs

 

[lxskllr]

If anything, I'd say it's the reverse. Desk jockey's seem like they think manual labor is easy, and the only reason monkeys aren't doing it is there aren't enough monkeys.

 

[Baked]

If anything, I'd say it's the reverse. Desk jockey's seem like they think manual labor is easy, and the only reason monkeys aren't doing it is there aren't enough monkeys.

That's racist!

 

[ImpulsE69]

Why you gotta bring monkeys into this?? As if outsourcing isn't bad enough already you want to give our jobs to monkeys??

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I was a carpenter/general contractor for 10 years. It was harder on my body, but easier to deal with than my current management role. I'd gladly go back to swinging a hammer to get away from stress.

 

[cKGunslinger]

I was a carpenter/general contractor for 10 years. It was harder on my body, but easier to deal with than my current management role. I'd gladly go back to swinging a hammer to get away from stress.

I often feel this way, except when it's >100F or <40F outside.. The physical work was hard, but the stress when sheet-rocking, bailing hay, digging footers, etc was non-existent. Still love the programming, though.

And most of my white-collar coworkers seem to have a healthy respect for manual labor, but my father-in-law and his friends still ask me to show them my papercuts from "work."

 

[BUTCH1]

What exactly is your job "working on computer programs", do you write code??

 

[God Mode]

I've done both and IME, white collar work is easier and the pay tends to be better. I often had to 'act' tired and overworked to avoid scorn from blue collar friends. A lot of white collars I know think rearranging your desktop icons count as work.

 

[hans007]

They just laugh about it because they know we will replace them someday with computer programs running inside robots. That and they know they can't do it.

People always try to trash what they are afraid and jealous of.

 

[Humpy]

I was a carpenter/general contractor for 10 years. It was harder on my body, but easier to deal with than my current management role. I'd gladly go back to swinging a hammer to get away from stress.

I don't know... I'm in pretty much the same scenario. Working as a carpenter when I was younger was fun as hell.

Being a self employed GC sucked. Homeowners withholding a 35K check because the cabinet sample had a mocha glaze but the installed cabinets look more like a cappuccino glaze. The amazing disappearing subcontractor. Architects who insist that their aesthetic vision was obviously implied in the drawings. Female project managers...

Now, going to work for someone else in my clean car, wearing nice clothes, and "managing" people all day in a climate controlled office doesn't seem much like work to me on most days.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I think in general, blue collar = hard physically, easier mentally and white collar = hard mentally, easier physically. I'm a white collar son of two lifelong blue collar workers. I saw how hard my parents had to work physically and I'm very glad I went to college and got an office job. I have a ton of respect for the trades - I learned that while finishing my basement and doing other work around the house. I don't think there's any need today that one type of job is "better" than the other. You have different types of people who are better at different jobs. White collar jobs tend to pay more because they're more specialized. Offices don't really have an equivalent unskilled job that matches up with a lot of lower to mid level blue collar jobs. We don't have "general office worker" to match up with "generic construction worker." This generally means white collar workers have to get some type of training/education before ever working in the industry, while blue collars can typically start without lengthy training.

Sorry for rambling.

 

[Sluggo]

On the other hand, do all white collar workers think all blue collar workers are uneducated dipshits?

 

[zerocool84]

I've done both and definitely prefer being indoors all day in a/c as opposed to being freezing or burning for less pay and being too tired to do anything after work.

 

[Jumpem]

I've done alot of both. White collar is definitely harder. Blue collar is less stressful and much less mentally tiring. Some times at work I think of how nice and relaxing it would be to going back to being a farm hand. The pay is inadequate though.

 

[Imp]

Being a self employed GC sucked. Homeowners withholding a 35K check because the cabinet sample had a mocha glaze but the installed cabinets look more like a cappuccino glaze. The amazing disappearing subcontractor. Architects who insist that their aesthetic vision was obviously implied in the drawings. Female project managers...

Oooo... I'd like to hear more about this one. Seriously.

I'm in a blue collar role with a graduate degree in the field (tech with engineering degree). I'm at the point where I can/should move over into the white collar side, but am very very apprehensive. Pay is moderately better with more respect. I just don't feel like it anymore because the field has lost its lustre for me.

Being in this role, it's hillarious hearing the opinions of both sides. Techs think engineers have their heads up their ass and in books, engineers think techs are simpletons who ain't got no learning. Some merit in both...

 

[hans007]

Another thing is maybe white collar people aren't working all the time. Hell I probably really am working 4-5 hours a day.

That said that 4-5 hours is mentally demanding usually. I mean if sitting around a lot idle meant your life was easy it would be totally OK to say firefighters were totally lazy 99% of their job. And probably cops too

 

[Jumpem]

Another thing is maybe white collar people aren't working all the time. Hell I probably really am working 4-5 hours a day.

That said that 4-5 hours is mentally demanding usually. I mean if sitting around a lot idle meant your life was easy it would be totally OK to say firefighters were totally lazy 99% of their job. And probably cops too

Much the opposite at my office. The white collar people are constantly busy for eight or nine hours a day. The blue collar workers take constant half hour breaks, work slowly, and spend alot of the time just doing crossword puzzles and sudoku.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i worked at a gigantic company for over a decade. the command structure is an inverted pyramid, with 10 queens for every worker bee.

if anyone is useless, it's executives. constantly making bad decisions in an effort to justify their own existence; little if any comprehension of the core business; success has 1000 fathers, failure is an orphan; absolutely cutthroat, greedy, dishonest, spineless people.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

I think in general, blue collar = hard physically, easier mentally and white collar = hard mentally, easier physically.

the blue-collar job i held was at least as intellectually challenging as 99% of desk jobs. ymmv.

On the other hand, do all white collar workers think all blue collar workers are uneducated dipshits?

i think most do. if they weren't uneducated dipshits, why are they doing what they do for what i pay them?

 

[LTC8K6]

I do both, so it's hard for the hourly guys to say I don't work hard.

I'm the plant manager, so I am sitting in my office a lot, but I also go out in the shop and "work" on a regular basis.

I also learn first hand when something works on paper, but doesn't work in reality. :biggrin:

 

[MagickMan]

My housekeeper works, I've seen her. Makes me tired just talking about it.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

The US still has blue-collar jobs?

wtf?

 

[BUTCH1]

I do both, so it's hard for the hourly guys to say I don't work hard.

I'm the plant manager, so I am sitting in my office a lot, but I also go out in the shop and "work" on a regular basis.

I also learn first hand when something works on paper, but doesn't work in reality. :biggrin:

I wish our managers and engineers used this approach, nope, they will by equipment that works like shit and wonder why. Hey, moron, why not ask the person who has been doing the job for 10+years what he/she needs and what other managers have already tried and didn't work but noooo, there's ego's involved here so us on the floor have to come up with "work-a rounds" for stupid decisions..

 

[BUTCH1]

The US still has blue-collar jobs?

wtf?

No, all plumbing since 2000 self installs...On a serious note as the younger generation was educated for jobs in IT and management the older generation of plumbers, carpenters, welders, pipe fitters ect. are now reaching retiring age and there are fewer tradespeople to take their place, soon these jobs will pay big$$ as nobody is coming out of trade schools to replace those leaving..

 

[Doppel]

It's obvious that white collar workers make a disproportionately large amount of income for the effort they put in. But that's life; a $10M/year athlete isn't working a hundred times harder than a guy making a hundred grand.

I'll tell you this: When I go into a fast food joint at peak hours those guys are working harder than I am and making a small fraction of the money. That's why it's so good to have an education.

You want to see a guy working for his money: I had some laborers in the back yard this summer on a 90F day sweating like stuck pigs while I surfed the net from inside with AC. That work is no joke and I know this because I am handy around the house, too, doing a lot of work, so doing it all day is effort. But to the above point physical labor is typically stress-free, whereas when you're affecting changes to a business process that, if done improperly could impact the business immediately and substantially, the stress is much higher.