Current Events > Office jobs paying more than blue collar jobs is such a scam.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I work with both in my job.

Office workers
*talks about fantasy football half the day*
*attend some meetings talking about bullshit metrics the other half of the day*

Blue collar worker
*working frantically to get shit done, sweat rolling down their face*
*time is monitored closely to make sure they're productive*

And the whole more "skilled" labor thing is bullshit. None of the office workers could do what the blue collar workers are doing as well, and they're the ones actually getting the work done.

Engineers are fine though.
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Agreed, its dumb as fuck. Blue collar is much more difficult and valuable.

And yet here we are:


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Give me a man who can understand the following and I will give them the world

Your USERNAME is your EMAIL you REGISTERED
Please ENTER your EMAIL in the space for USERNAME

Seriously, I get that at least once a week "WHAT MY USERNAME MR IT GUY"
Motherfucker, I don't fucking work that fucking section, stop fucking annoying me.
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Some If the highest paid people where I work are people that work with their hands. Harder to replace since everyone went to school to sit in an office.
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Ultimately the wage levels are going to be set by supply and demand of the skills involved.

Skilled blue collar workers make more than most office jobs though.

I'm referring to tradesmen, like plumbers, electricians, etc..

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Annnnd thats why Im going to school so I can get out of retail and make a lot more money for doing a lot less work.
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ArchiePeck posted...

Ultimately the wage levels are going to be set by supply and demand of the skills involved.

There's a major demand for tradesmen right now, but not enough people filling the jobs.

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EzeDoesIt posted...

Agreed, its dumb as fuck. Blue collar is much more difficult and valuable.

And yet here we are:

So many of my meetings are like this. It's like why do you fuckers get paid so much. I don't know if it's my upbringing or what, but I always get along better with blue collar people than other corporate folk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg" data-time="
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Corporate folk have learned to hide their real self.
Blue collars tend not to care as much about how their perceived.

You're less likely to be dragged into HR as a plumber shouting "fuck, the fucking thing is blocked now" than you would be if you were in an office and said "fuck, the fucking computer is stuck"
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Office jobs don't make much unless you're working a tech job.
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...

Corporate folk have learned to hide their real self.
Blue collars tend not to care as much about how their perceived.

You're less likely to be dragged into HR as a plumber shouting "fuck, the fucking thing is blocked now" than you would be if you were in an office and said "fuck, the fucking computer is stuck"

I work for one of the 5 largest corporations in the world, dealing in Healthcare. We all swear like sailors.

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pres_madagascar posted...

I work for one of the 5 largest corporations in the world, dealing in Healthcare. We all swear like sailors.

I think in my job I've said the word "fuck" more than the word "client" and we work solely as a client role for finance with other businesses.
My point is that a lot of corporate places are expecting you to behave a certain way compared to blue collar field jobs.
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ArchiePeck posted...

Ultimately the wage levels are going to be set by supply and demand of the skills involved.

My point is that this is utter bullshit. A lot of manual labor takes more skill than office jobs. They just weaseled their way into the cushy job through nepotism or some other bs. Like their position can be eliminated and no one would know. Conversely, if you are down a person in a manual labor job, you are going to be hurting bad that day.

I'm not saying all office jobs are useless, but there's just so much bloat.
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blue collar work is monitored closely and paid less because the workers themselves are extremely replaceable

as said, supply and demand

office work is cushier because office workers can't be replaced with someone who has an identical skillset the same day they're fired
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The majority of the blue collar workers I've worked with have been lazy as fuck. They get replaced by overqualified migrant workers who actually have some work ethic.

What sort of blue collar?
Cashier or skilled trade?
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TC sounds like you work for the government

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You guys are confusing blue collar skilled jobs to manual labor.
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i wish I went to trade school. Electricians, HVAC and plumbers make serious bank once they graduate out of apprenticeship. Even mechanics make good money these days. Being a cop is easy AF and although the pay is crap initially, you're set for life (as long as you don't die obviously) with that sweet pension. And if you pass the tests and become a lieutenant or captain you make serious money.

White collar jobs are not what they used to be. Too much competition and even the most entry level positions suddenly require a minimum bachelor's degree + experience. And the compensation is crap unless you're extremely accredited or have an internal connection.
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Veggeta_MAX posted...

You guys are confusing blue collar skilled jobs to manual labor.

This

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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...

What sort of blue collar?
Cashier or skilled trade?

Yeah, this.

Almost every guy in the trades I know is pulling close to 6 figures while I only know one white collar worker who isn't complaining about how poor they are.
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Like, putting up drywall is a blue collar job but you can bet your ass you'll get paid good doing it.
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KillerSlaw posted...

Yeah, this.

Almost every guy in the trades I know is pulling close to 6 figures while I only know one white collar worker who isn't complaining about how poor they are.

Lol one of my friend's boyfriend pulled in $106k last year as a plumber.

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The romanticism of blue collar work always tickles me. I did the blue collar thing for a while, there's nothing romantic about it or the people doing it. It's just the same old shit but you're more tired and the people are dumber.

Most people would rather not break their back every day doing physically hard work, but not everyone is educated enough for that.

Go figure, you go to school so you don't have to do a shittier job.
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pinky0926 posted...

The romanticism of blue collar work always tickles me. I did the blue collar thing for a while, there's nothing romantic about it or the people doing it. It's just the same old shit but you're more tired and the people are dumber.

Most people would rather not break their back every day doing physically hard work, but not everyone is educated enough for that.

Go figure, you go to school so you don't have to do a shittier job.

Some people just enjoy that laborous work. Not me, though. One of my friends owns a small lawn company and he loves lawn works from cutting grass, cutting down trees, trimming bushes, putting those nasty smelling woodchips around bushes.
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Zangulus posted...

Yeah. Blue collar doesnt mean only manual.

For the most part even skilled blue collar work involves pushing yourself physically beyond your years.

I'm not faulting it, it's obviously a profitable and fulfilling thing for a lot of people. And OP has a point: there is a lot more wasted time in white collar work. I'm just arguing that the reason for that is probably because most people do not want to do physical hard work for their entire lives if they can help it.
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pinky0926 posted...

For the most part even skilled blue collar work involves pushing yourself physically beyond your years.

I'm not faulting it, it's obviously a profitable and fulfilling thing for a lot of people. And OP has a point: there is a lot more wasted time in white collar work. I'm just arguing that the reason for that is probably because most people do not want to do physical hard work for their entire lives if they can help it.

It's also fairly different for Americans too. The American college situation is a fucking mess right now. Unless you're in STEM or have an actual game plan post college, it's basically a $40,000 high school diploma.

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Like, get this. We have multiple people at my job who went to university and have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, just to do a job that non grads do as well too. It's wild.

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game plan is more important than field

i have an english degree and manage proposals for an IT firm. i do pretty well, plus i work from home full time
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Hairistotle posted...

i would trade my current desk job for backbreaking manual labor

So... whats stopping you?

Ive already worn myself out hauling groceries around for the past thirteen years, otherwise Id look into trades. But Im just done breaking my back, which is why Im hoping to be able to get a more white collar job.
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Sackgurl posted...

blue collar work is monitored closely and paid less because the workers themselves are extremely replaceable

as said, supply and demand

office work is cushier because office workers can't be replaced with someone who has an identical skillset the same day they're fired

Took awhile for someone to dig into the real scenario.

You can replace an office worker quickly but it's not something you're just going to flip on a dime. Being able to troubleshoot a plumbing, AC, or electrical problem is something anyone who was trained to do it can do (because the problem is very standardized; there are rules and practices long-established that make doing such work a matter of simply learning those and applying them to any variant) but being able to tease out budget irregularities and schedules is something that needs a bit of spin-up in the very least.
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I dunno man. To an extent you're right, but I'm an "office guy" in the construction field and what we do is just as important. No, it isn't as physically demanding as going out there and installing carpet or wall tile or anything but you're kidding yourself if you don't think both jobs are as "important" as each other.

You still need people to figure out costs, quantities, deal with all the blueprint shit, all the contract shit, all the warranty shit, get all the stuff ready to tell the blue collar guys where and when they will have work, etc.

I think what you're saying is "physical effort is not equal to mental effort" and that's where you lose me.

Edit: Sidenote: Our install guys make BANNNNNNNNNNNK. Yes, more than me for some of them. But what I don't have to do is go out and destroy my knees by 35, work long weekends and evenings, etc. That's a choice I made.

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Skilled blue collar work pays pretty well....
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Solid Sonic posted...

You can replace an office worker quickly but it's not something you're just going to flip on a dime. Being able to troubleshoot a plumbing, AC, or electrical problem is something anyone who was trained to do it can do (because the problem is very standardized; there are rules and practices long-established that make doing such work a matter of simply learning those and applying them to any variant) but being able to tease out budget irregularities and schedules is something that needs a bit of spin-up in the very least.

inevitably a big piece of this is that the office is a big web of people's nonstandardized organizational systems that are understood only by people who actively work within those systems. no amount of college education prepares you fully for the work you'll do, you have to do it to understand it.

so when someone quits or is fired, the process of taking that system apart and making it usable for the new person hired to replace them isn't easy, and identifying a person who can do that quickly isn't easy either.

if employers treated office workers as though they were under a microscope 24/7, they'd quit constantly, and this process would slow productivity to a crawl
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