Do you consider yourself Blue Collar, White Collar or sonething else?

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Originally Posted by Alfred_B
Hourly wages = blue collar
Salaried, exempt = white collar
My friend is in a salaried on-the-tools construction job. It's not that simple, you can tell by the amount of people who claim to be both at the same time in this thread.

Before insane technological progress it was easy to distinguish. You were either in some sort of trade where you could not keep a white collar clean, or in management or in an industry where you did not get dirty. The wikipedia definition claims hourly wages or piecemeal work makes a blue collar which is far too broad of a definition. Not all tech sector jobs are white collar: I wouldn't consider a programmer a white collar although they certainly aren't blue collars.

If you work with your hands you are most likely a blue collar. The problem is blue collar=working class=filthy proletarians. We have to create titles that jive with 21st century sensibilities. Pink collars are blue collars in gynocentric industries who don't want to be called a blue collar because they have perceived lower social status.

Baby Boomer blue collars = middle class
Millenial blue collars = Men: working class lumpenproletariat sexist xenophobes. Women: pink collars.
 
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Blue collar, I wear blue jeans and a t shirt everywhere lol. I would go insane in a white collar job.



Depends on the job. I worked summers in a factory while I went to college. I'd go insane in some of those jobs. Standing in one place all day long. Doing the same thing all day long. Every day is something different at my job and we have a strict no jerks policy.
 
I wear a company logo plain cotton t-shirt and cargo shorts most days unless it's very cold. Requirement is technically collared company polo shirt and pants, but there was management turmoil, somehow I became the shirt ordering person, and I just decided my own uniform. Nobody bothers me about it because they have bigger things to deal with.
 
These days the line is blurring. You have factory workers filing reports and going to meetings, conference calls, talking to customers, and you have managers and sales going into factory floor investigating what can he sell to the customers.

Just last week we have a VP started going into the lab trying to investigate what went wrong and whether it is worth fixing or scraping something. Technically he should be white collar but not sure anymore.

The only reality is, work is getting more and more automated and you can't just leave the radio on and turn the same screws 8 hours a day anymore.


I'll wear anything to work as long as it is free (mostly t shirts and hoodies), still have to buy pants, shoes, and socks though.
 
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Originally Posted by RDY4WAR
100% disabled veteran so no collar anymore.

Thank you for your service Brother. no collar here strictly Tshirts and shorts.
cheers3.gif
 
My job description specifically requires a masters degree in chemistry but also outlines physical tasks such as "lifting items more than 50lbs several times per week" from a gigantic check-list of potential stuff.

Realistically I have what Wikipedia specifies as a "gray collar" job per the link above. This past week, I spent the better part of one day consulting with someone from a different department on how to analyze specific metabolites in blood for a study that they're doing, "building" a computer from scavenged parts, getting an LC-MS fitted to its semi-permanent home, doing some plumbing on it to get it working(inert gases from cylinders, high vacuum, and some specialized liquid chromatography fittings designed to hold back 2,000psi+ of liquid) and trying to get the mass spectrometer to give results somewhere in the ballpark of what it should look like.
 
Originally Posted by bunnspecial
My job description specifically requires a masters degree in chemistry but also outlines physical tasks such as "lifting items more than 50lbs several times per week" from a gigantic check-list of potential stuff.

Realistically I have what Wikipedia specifies as a "gray collar" job per the link above. This past week, I spent the better part of one day consulting with someone from a different department on how to analyze specific metabolites in blood for a study that they're doing, "building" a computer from scavenged parts, getting an LC-MS fitted to its semi-permanent home, doing some plumbing on it to get it working(inert gases from cylinders, high vacuum, and some specialized liquid chromatography fittings designed to hold back 2,000psi+ of liquid) and trying to get the mass spectrometer to give results somewhere in the ballpark of what it should look like.

The language about 50 lb, etc. is for risk management and to legally exclude disabled applicants.
 
Originally Posted by Alfred_B
Originally Posted by bunnspecial
My job description specifically requires a masters degree in chemistry but also outlines physical tasks such as "lifting items more than 50lbs several times per week" from a gigantic check-list of potential stuff.

Realistically I have what Wikipedia specifies as a "gray collar" job per the link above. This past week, I spent the better part of one day consulting with someone from a different department on how to analyze specific metabolites in blood for a study that they're doing, "building" a computer from scavenged parts, getting an LC-MS fitted to its semi-permanent home, doing some plumbing on it to get it working(inert gases from cylinders, high vacuum, and some specialized liquid chromatography fittings designed to hold back 2,000psi+ of liquid) and trying to get the mass spectrometer to give results somewhere in the ballpark of what it should look like.

The language about 50 lb, etc. is for risk management and to legally exclude disabled applicants.


No, my wife was doing a similar job and they have to "wash" and "clean" lab equipment once in a while that weight that much. Bio lab jobs can be both high demand physically and intellectually.
 
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