In my last blog I started an eight part series concerning “Today’s Jobs and Economy” which was a brief outline of what I intended to accomplish with this series. I noted that I would breakdown today’s business jobs into six basic categories and give a brief explanation of each.
In this Part 2, I am covering Blue Collar Career/Jobs and White Collar Careers/Jobs in their simplest forms.
Blue Collar Career/Jobs
I started out by going to Wikipedia and seeing their definition of the blue-collar worker. Here’s what they say:
A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled, manufacturing, mining, oil field, construction, mechanical, maintenance, technical installation and many other types of physical work. Often something is physically being built or maintained.
To paraphrase in my own words … someone who labors to fix, build, clean, make, or service something.
And I might add, that anyone who has ever done blue collar work knows there is a certain pride or satisfaction in a job well done.
Note: Today there is a trend toward skilled labors that are highly trained to operate large efficient machinery that does the work of many workers. Based on the necessary training and efficiency requirements it is hard to classify these as blue-collar workers … but we tend to think that way for some reason. This is an example of the changing ways toward the new economy.
White Collar Career/Job
Next, I went to Wikipedia to see their definition of the White Collar Career/Job. Here’s what they say:
The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work. Typically, white collar work is performed in an office or cubicle..
To paraphrase in my own words … someone who is employed by someone else to do work other than manual labor or sales.
It seems that many people choose a white collar career, as it is one of the most socially acceptable occupations available. Many consider it to be a safe and secure option, which in my opinion has changed the last several years. For years, there was an implied unwritten contract that, if you were loyal to the company, the company would be loyal to you. And this contract is gone now. In my experience, there are two types of people who do this type work … Doers/Fixers and Stealth-workers.
Doers/Fixers are the people who want to do their job at a high level. They are energetic, motivated, and ambitious. They offer up ideas or solutions with the goal of moving up the corporate ladder. But there seems to be a downside for the Doer/Fixer. Once it is known that a person is a Doer/Fixer, they become a target of others. Their boss or other higher ranking individuals see them as threatening to their jobs, so they start coming up with ways to hold them back, or begin to take pot shots at their reputation. Then their peers see them as someone who will either embarrass them or keep them from getting a promotion … so they start to do what they can to undermine their accomplishments. Therefore, in order to remain a Doer/Fixer and survive in this hostile environment, a person must become good at something that has nothing to do with their work … and that is learn corporate or office politics. They have to learn how to navigate the “politics” by outwitting their enemies and strengthening their relationship with powerful people above them within the organization. In fact, it seems that some of the most successful people in the business world are not Doers/Fixers at all … they are pure politicians. Therefore, if you decide to work in the business or corporate world and want to be a Doer/Fixer, you need to realize that you must become a good politician also.
Now let’s address the Stealth worker. These are the people who HATE office politics and just can’t play that game … but they need a job. They learn not to be the ambitious Doer/Fixer. They don’t stand out … they don’t speak up in meetings … they don’t submit new ideas … they are almost invisible. They keep their heads down and do as they are told … no more, no less. They do just enough so that they aren’t talked about negatively. They simply want to survive. Moreover, this has worked for many years. But in today’s New Economy, it’s becoming much more difficult to be invisible.
Next Post: Sales
What are your thoughts on the blue collar and white collar workers?
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