How to stop people from looking down on manual labor jobs

[Anabolistair]

The idea that people look down on manual labor is nothing more than blue collar insecurity being projected onto other people. In the United States the rich look down upon the poor, and how you got rich is only really important when it interacts with when you got rich, old money versus new. If you make your millions cleaning toilets then you're a businessman, not a shit scrubber. And if you're a broke ass lawyer, then only broke ass people who are insecure about their own educations really see that education as significant.

I hear well off peoples bitching at blue collar all the time. Its no projection or fiction. You are out of your mind dude. I used to work as one in my college days working on construction and renovation, rich clients would bitch becose whe where making too mutch money for our ''education'' in fact on certain jobs we made more an hour than them... Rich peoples in general are assholes.

 

[Anabolistair]

Also, an interesting story from about 4 years ago:

My mom pleaded with me to help out her friend's son. He has a masters degree in something that I can't remember. I got him a union job with the local 501 as a maintenance technician at a casino in Las Vegas starting at, I think, $24/hr, which is very decent pay in this city. He didn't want to work with his hands. He was lazier than shit and had this, "holier than thou" attitude because he has a college degree, which none of us had. He kept on spouting all this bullshit about he'll be promoted to a management position within a year and he'll be telling us what to do and shit. Well, he managed to piss off the wrong people and he got the boot.

$24/hr. to start, then within 2 years, he would have been making $29/hr. and $33/hr within 5 years. Now, the local 501 pay is increased to $38/hr. plus pension, plus benefits and certifications coming out of the ass... he blew it.

A year or so later after he got canned, I found out he was working at a pizza place as an assistant supervisor making $12./hr and he fucking BEGGED me on the phone and on my Facebook to let him back in. Fuck that piece of shit. I didn't even reply. He had his foot inside the door, where THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of people were waiting and DREAMING to get in... and he threw it all away. Never again will I vouch for someone I do not personally know.



Are you saying that you're not using your brain when you're working with your hands? You use your brain more figuring out how to fix something mechanical than sitting in front of the computer punching numbers in or talking on the phone.

I wish I had someone like you getting me in. I've been tying to get hired by a certain local here and I can't. You need someone from the Inside to get you in.

The guy was really dumb.

What is your job exactly?

 

[MicroBrew]

I wish I had someone like you getting me in. I've been tying to get hired by a certain local here and I can't. You need someone from the Inside to get you in.

The guy was really dumb.

What is your job exactly?

That's my expereince too. For me innitially it was about wanting a job in the construction industry. Later on it was about learning the skills rather than having a paying job. There's no substitute for hands on expereince.

 

[funcrusher2007]

I wish I had someone like you getting me in. I've been tying to get hired by a certain local here and I can't. You need someone from the Inside to get you in.

The guy was really dumb.

What is your job exactly?

I am a general foreman of a company based out of las vegas. I am from southern california(union local 2361) journymen are at 39$/hr and apprentices come in at 18$ an hour..through the apprenticship you would recieve a 3$ raise every 300 hours of work..these benefits also are identical in the las vegas carpenters union. Right now there are a couple monumental jobs beginning in las vegas. City center2 and largest mall in the world aswell as other casinos starting to get going again since recession hit so its a good time to get in..contact the las vegas carpenters traing center and they will give u the info you need to sign up..the vegas construction is about to break open bigtime with those jobs and vegas currently does not have the manpower needed to fill these jobs so alot of out of state workers will be brought in.

Back to topic:
I see the blue collar stigma first hand on jobsites..i deal with alot of white collar owners/employees/reps for the projects i supervise...the worst are hands down hospitals..when we carry on construction in hospitals ...from patients to nurses/doctors will always give demeaning attitude/looks and all around lack of respect. Over years you grow accustomed to it..i make more then everysingle person in those hospitals aside from doctors and executive positions so its actually rather funny to see how ignorant there stance is towards us. I do believe it stems back to the super college push that was going on in 90s and 2000s..wereas if you didnt go to college you must be a fuck up or something. Alot of college degree owners have been coming into our ranks since the economic downturn and 9 ouyta ten last no more then a week before they quit or are fired..absolutly the most entitled/lazy group of people i come across. But ive noticed its just not college guys that suck its basically the 25 and younger crowd in general..alot have the mentality that manual labor is beneath them and they are only gonna be here temporarily until there dream job opens up and they can leave...they usually call back three months later begging for there job after they burned there bridge.

 

[Bloody Pulp]

Mike Rowe talked about this on Bill Maher's show a little while back. Forget how to embed from my phone but here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls1YhhMHdNY&sns=em

 

[seamus1979]

Electrician here
I made the whole mistake of going to university and getting a law degree which I never used. Blue collar work was really looked down and it was the time of a huge push towards 100% attendance to university in England. I had a two minute conversation with a guidance councillor and he advised law.
At 22 I was unemployed with a degree whilst my older friends in the gym where making bank as electricians. I retrained and have been a sparkie ever since.

I find it hilarious when I enter offices and people attempt to look down on me. I made

 

[Leverage]

Having moved from Germany to the US at a young age, I was surprised at the difference in the way we hierarchise so-called "blue-collar" and "white-collar" jobs.

In Germany, when a child tells his parents he wants to become a chef, a car mechanic, or a carpenter, the parent is just as glad and supportive as when the child wants to pursue a career in academics, law or medicine.

The vocational training system in Germany is also set-up in a similar fashion to the university system; meaning that there are several reputable and highly regarded schools that offer the best vocational training.

Getting a degree from one of these schools is worth much more than a degree from a particular humanities university, which are separate institutions and have fewer ties with the vocational training academies than the polytechnic unis which operate independantly from the humanities universities.

Do things need to change in the US in terms of the status and appeal of manual labour jobs, especially at a time when people are overeducated and ending up with degrees that are essentially worthless?

Germanys approach has been talked about quite allot here in the UK. I think it's a brilliant idea.

 

[Anabolistair]

I am a general foreman of a company based out of las vegas. I am from southern california(union local 2361) journymen are at 39$/hr and apprentices come in at 18$ an hour..through the apprenticship you would recieve a 3$ raise every 300 hours of work..these benefits also are identical in the las vegas carpenters union. Right now there are a couple monumental jobs beginning in las vegas. City center2 and largest mall in the world aswell as other casinos starting to get going again since recession hit so its a good time to get in..contact the las vegas carpenters traing center and they will give u the info you need to sign up..the vegas construction is about to break open bigtime with those jobs and vegas currently does not have the manpower needed to fill these jobs so alot of out of state workers will be brought in.

Back to topic:
I see the blue collar stigma first hand on jobsites..i deal with alot of white collar owners/employees/reps for the projects i supervise...the worst are hands down hospitals..when we carry on construction in hospitals ...from patients to nurses/doctors will always give demeaning attitude/looks and all around lack of respect. Over years you grow accustomed to it..i make more then everysingle person in those hospitals aside from doctors and executive positions so its actually rather funny to see how ignorant there stance is towards us. I do believe it stems back to the super college push that was going on in 90s and 2000s..wereas if you didnt go to college you must be a fuck up or something. Alot of college degree owners have been coming into our ranks since the economic downturn and 9 ouyta ten last no more then a week before they quit or are fired..absolutly the most entitled/lazy group of people i come across. But ive noticed its just not college guys that suck its basically the 25 and younger crowd in general..alot have the mentality that manual labor is beneath them and they are only gonna be here temporarily until there dream job opens up and they can leave...they usually call back three months later begging for there job after they burned there bridge.

Thanks you very mutch sir!

Me and a friend of mine working in an other trade can vouch for that. 25 and less are basically worthless exept some few.

 

[WorldofWarcraft]

I wish I had someone like you getting me in. I've been tying to get hired by a certain local here and I can't. You need someone from the Inside to get you in.

The guy was really dumb.

What is your job exactly?

Maintenance technician. Very good pay, but the REAL money is from side jobs. Paid off my mortgage before I was even 30 years old through side jobs and now I feel like I'm a retiree. I can stop working altogether well before my 50th birthday.

 

[jukebox]

Reminds me of back when I was at school.

Everyone was like "whoa look at that Bentley in the car park". There was lots of speculation as to whose it was.

It belonged to an electrician who was performing some work on the school.

 

[sangreporsangre]

Reminds me of back when I was at school.

Everyone was like "whoa look at that Bentley in the car park". There was lots of speculation as to whose it was.

It belonged to an electrician who was performing some work on the school.

So he drove his Bentley to a job site? That seems a little weird. Did he have his company name and phone # on the side of the car?

 

[jukebox]

So he drove his Bentley to a job site? That seems a little weird. Did he have his company name and phone # on the side of the car?

That's what I thought too. It was just a normal version.

 

[WorldofWarcraft]

Maybe it was just a Chrysler. Back when those wannabe Bentleys came out, I thought they were Bentleys.

 

[sangreporsangre]

Yea I got fooled by a few 300's on the road back when they came out, like in 2005 or whatever it was. Anyways, as to this thread I definitely agree that a lot of people look down on the trades. I've worked in manual labour jobs my whole life and I loved it, made decent money, but yea the respect wasn't there. Actually my education and background was as an arborist, which is a skilled job, but nobody gives a fuck about it or knows what it is. They think you're just some jerkoff who climbs a tree, and anyone can do it. I got out of it because I was making decent money, but not enough for the risks I was taking on a daily basis - it's an extremely dangerous job.

So I went to work for a landscape construction contractor. I did a bit of everything there, cement finishing, carpentry, interlock, some basic plumbing (for pools, we built pools), and a whole lot more. Jack of all (most, I'm pretty useless with wiring) trades, master of none. And again, I got the feeling that a lot of people looked down their nose at me....even some people that were making less than me. But from the wealthy people whose homes I worked at, I often felt outright contempt from some of them. Like I was just scum.

I recently got a job as a bus driver for the city. Pays well, great benefits and pension, the whole 9. I hate sitting on my ass all day, but you know what? For some bizarre reason, I get a ton of respect from people when they see me in my uniform or if I tell them I work for TTC. And broads on the bus straight up ask me for a transfer, write their # on it and give it to me. It's awesome.

 

[devilfisted]

Definitely need to take a page from the German playbook on vocational training. Also, I would be in favor of using the tax code to incentivize the sort of employer sponsored apprentice -> journeyman style work training that I think is pretty common there. Of course, German business and unions work together a lot more effectively than in America, which probably contributes to the willingness of firms to invest in skilled labor.

We have programs like this in Canada. Plus we have cash incentives from the gov for the apprentices.

 

[UpaLoompa]

Maybe it was just a Chrysler. Back when those wannabe Bentleys came out, I thought they were Bentleys.

There's a Hyundia out right now that's quite attractive and the front emblem also looks like it is for a Bentley. I drove by and said to my wife, what an awesome car, don't know the model but very nice. Then we passed by the back and saw the Hyundia emblem.

 

[Anabolistair]

Maintenance technician. Very good pay, but the REAL money is from side jobs. Paid off my mortgage before I was even 30 years old through side jobs and now I feel like I'm a retiree. I can stop working altogether well before my 50th birthday.[/QUOTE

Yeah having your stuff all paid for shure ease up on life in general. No need to chase after the greenback demon.