The idea that they have a wider world view, more analytical, or better educated is frequently a myth,
Although they might be walking around with overalls and a toolbox, don’t let thet mislead you.You will find that it s not unusual to find degree qualifications amongst them, especially the technical types.
Many folk who work in office jobs are effectively working on production lines, but they seem to like the association of being white collar, merely because they wear a shirt and tie.
I’ve found that most of them are as dumb as a box of rocks, not just in a working capacity but also in their cognitive abilities. They have the same dumb opinions on news stories or information as any supposed low level employee.
Oftem their jobs are less secure and less well paid than mine too.
Most white collar folk are not truly white collar at all, they don’t get involved in strategy or policy because they are simply not up to it.
In post industrialized society, there is a higher premium placed on people who work with their mind than with their hands. Work that is performed by hand can be increasingly automated whereas mental work requires a great deal of training and education.
White collar jobs are associated with power. There is a power hierarchy in the blue-collar world, but once you get to a certain level, you become “white”. Think of the average machinary plant. The foreman and the folks he supervises are blue-collar. Perhaps even the foreman’s boss could be said to be blue-collar. But above that, the collar blanches. Everyone knows people in central headquarters are a bunch of clueless paper-pushers who’ve never gotten their hands dirty. 'Cept, that may not be true. It’s just that central headquarters is where the power brokers work. People working under that power resent it. But outsiders admire it.
(The us vs. them mentality isn’t limited to blue-collar workers. I work in my agency’s central headquarters and the regional offices hate us because they think we’re “out of touch”, even though many of us originated from the regional offices and barely have the field dirt out from underneath our nails. On the other side, my supervisor is always talking about “reigning in” certain regions if they aren’t following the “rules”. Some people do hold the regions in certain disdain, simply because we have some power over them and we’re much more influenced by politics from the governor’s administration than “pidley” local stuff that the regions hem and haw about.)
There’s freedom in a typical office building that you don’t get on the factory floor. There’s no talk of “punching in” at the clock or being written-up for not asking for permission to go to the bathroom. Schedules are more flexible–just put that you have a doctor’s appointment on the Outlook calendar and that’s it. On the factory floor, the foreman is always walking around, sometimes literally elevated above his or her crew so that he can supervise better. But in a white-collar environment, supervision is done from afar. My boss’s office is all the way at the end of the floor from mine. I could jet off early and he would be none the wiser. And that’s just the thing. No one really cares if I leave ten minutes early. All they care about is the quality of my work and that I meet deadlines. Of course, all workplaces are different. I’m sure the HR department of my agency functions with a different set of rules than my department does…no doubt because that department is comprised of fewer professional-types and they are responsible for tasks–like having someone at the reception desk at all times–that can’t be left to the employee’s individual discretion. But even the mail-lady has the freedom to chit-chat in people’s cubicles without fearing that she’d get in “trouble” for straying off task.
When you cut everything else out, it’s really these two things.
Both my wife and I have blue collar in our DNA – I come from a line of farmers, and she comes from a family of carpenters, electrcians, plumbers, etc.
After you hit 40 or so, the accumulated wear and tear of working physical labor catches up with you. Hands, backs, knees and hips don’t work so well anymore. At that point you have only a few options: become a foreman (which means you’re a supervisor – in effect, you’ve moved into management), become a contractor (ditto) or become a trainer (effectively going into teaching.)
If you move in any of those directions, you’re separating yourself from blue collar work. If you don’t, your productivity gradually declines and it’s harder to get and keep a job.
This is why a lot of blue collar parents pushed their kids to get a degree in something that would lead to a career.