This current recession is grinding on…and for many professionals, there are nojobs in their fields. I have heard that this is leading many programmers, engineers, manager, etc., to look for blue-collar jobs.
Given that one musyt earn a living, and honest work is no shame…what’s it like to revert to the blue collar world? Suppose you are a Harvard MBA, and you have no option but a blue collar job…is it worth it?
And, when you finally see a revival of the economy, will it hurt your prospects tohave to admit a periodof blue collare employment?
How about socially…you are used tonice restaurant lunches (frequently on an expense account)…now you are faced with a lunch box…is the humiliation a problem?
I expect that if this recession lasts much lomnger, we are going to see a whole buch of people reverting to a blue-collar lifestyle…do you fear this happening toyou?
Many of my white-collar colleagues bring lunch boxes to work. I’ve never heard of white-collar workers getting expense account lunches every day. I guess the executives do, but I’m just a lowly programmer who doesn’t come in contact with that type.
Having come from a blue collar family, I can tell you this: the money can be quite good (especially for mill jobs and the like), but the work is hard. I know of many blue collar workers who make as much money as my husband and I do (upper middle-class, white-collar college graduates), but they often work many more hours to do so. My parents wanted us to go to college so we wouldn’t have to take those jobs, but a lot of times they’re also more rewarding, because you might for once feel as if you’re accomplishing something. I’m painting the whole concept of blue collar work with broad strokes, obviously.
I don’t think most white-collar workers have the skills or experience to get anything but unskilled positions, and I don’t think they can even cut the competition at that.
I’ve been alarmed by the number of graybeards working fast food these days…
I’ve worked both blue collar and white collar jobs and I am now making a go of a business of my own which (I hope) to be the ideal balance between the two. I have always felt more of a sense of accomplishment from the blue collar jobs I have held, even though the white collar jobs are better pay. I was a consultant for a long time, and what I would run into now and then was the thought that if a person were applying for a job “below” their previous experience, they were more likely to quit as soon as a better job became available… The term “Overqualified” get tossed around and people with little to no experience were getting jobs while I was collecting unemployment… Very frustrating… Now consulting contracts that were paying $45-50k are paying in the mid 30s and where they did not used to require any college education, they now require a masters degree… Jobs that were (are) considered entry level used to pay in the 30s and now pay in the 20s and require a bachelors degree… I’m so glad I got out of that field…
“If you aren’t part of the solution, there is a great deal of money to be made by prolonging the problem.” - The Consultant’s Credo
Office Space anyone?
It’s funny you mention that, metroshane, because I did nothing but blue collar jobs until this summer, and with one exception, I would rather work for those than in some stuffy office staring at a computer, I really liked that guyin the movie, and one day to work in an office so I can do what he did…of course, in real life we get fired for that 
The first jobs I had were doing construction for my uncle. The first two years the pay was horrible (less than $5/hr (it was because I was doing very simple tasks, and was only 14 + 15 getting pais under the table.) ) But the next summer, once I had my license, the pay went up to $9/hour, and then the last time I worked for him it was almost $10/hr, which is more than any other job I’ve had, and I actually enjoyed it more than any other job. I just enjoy being outside and actually doing something for work, as oppossed to what I do now, which is a lab monkey. The only time I didn’t like a blue collar job was last summer when I worked in the asbestos industry. I didn’t remove it, I monitored the removal. Shit job, usually 60+ hours per week, and I had contractors yelling at me all day telling me they are right and don’t have to follow the state laws on removal. The only good thing was the pay, $9.50/hr, plus with at least 60 hours a week, that’s a lot of overtime, and I got paid for the miles I drove if I used my own car. So to some people, the money is worth that kind of work.
Honestly? I hope that when I graduate I actually do enjoy what I will be doing, because I will not stay at a job I hate, and I would not want four years at $32,000 a year to go to waste…
I was in one of those Internet companies that went no where. I could tell it was going no where. I enjoyed it while it lasted (steak dinners, alot of free drinks, five star hotels, etc). But then I was going to be unemployed for four months. Since I knew the layoffs were coming, I got a job at Target for $6 hr. Here comes the retarded part. I made more money collecting unemployment than working 40 hrs/wk at Target. So I had to cut back my hours so it didn’t take away from my unemployment check. Since I worked for Target while in high school, I didn’t think it would be hard to adjust. To me it’s all a state of mind. Target=turn your brain off and work like a mindless drone. It was kind of soothing in a way. Almost like meditation. I feel sorry for the suits that can’t adjust as easily as I can.
What about the culture shock aspect? I mean, say you had a decent white collar job-like sales manager or product mgr. All of a sudden, you are working at “Shite-Mart”, and you are spending your lunch break with HS grads (or less). How do you converse with people? Instead of discussing the latest stock market plunge, nowyou have to memorize the latest NASCAR results! The whole notion of coming down is a hard act to swallow!
Just tell them you are more into Open Wheel racing… NASCAR fans just kinda glaze over when they are confronted with Indy fans… You’ll still fit in because you like racing after all, but they won’t expect you to actually talk about it. They may think you are kinda snooty, though.
:rolleyes:
Ralph is this for sure happening? I mean come on now. The recession is kicking all our asses. I sort of have the best of both worlds. My job requires me to travel a lot. And I have worked really hard to get where I am. I’m 31 and make a very decent wage. As an archaeologist - an employed one at that - I have to be grateful. As for go’in blue collar. I think you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Are you planning on going down to Wal-mart and filling out an application? Do you have to do that? If so go somewhere fun, like home depot. My fiance’s best friend is a marketing person there and she makes 50k. Granted they put her through her masters and hired her to the new position after having worked there for a while.
I’m basically saying your options are open ralph. You’ll not be destitute…
I agree with Antiquarian in that Ralph seems to be over-reacting a bit. You know, Ralph… There are some truly decent people in blue collar jobs. I have seen far fewer back-stabbers and ladder climbers willing to screw over their co-workers in blue collar jobs than the white collar world. As was said in Fight Club :
Just sayin…
Hey, I find it humiliating going from one of the largest professional service firms in the world with a view of the Hudson to a po-dunk company in Mid-town for less money. Forget working in Home Depot. But I guess I’m happy to just have a job.
Doesn’t make sense anyway. As ewakko pointed out, at $405 a week, that pretty much rules out any minimum wage jobs and I’m not going to study machining or HVAC technicianing since I don’t plan to make a career in that field.
I could not imagine reverting to a blue-collar lifestyle. Recession or not, considering the amount of time and money I spent on getting an engineering degree and an MBA, I would view such a move as a colossal personal failure. I already had my share of McDonalds and factory jobs in high school. Yeah. I used to get a real sense of acomplishment making 10,000 “$”, “4” and “*” keys a day for Pitney Bowes.
No…I’m afraid it’s the psychotic cross-country drug-addled rampage in a stolen car route for me. 