Blue collar vs white collar: which type of job do you prefer and why?

[pw_1016]

I have a blue collar job now which I hate (warehouse) and I am looking to make a career change but I don't know how some of y'all sit an office in front of a computer all day, like most white collar jobs.


I mean, there are advantages to both. White collar jobs have office politics to deal with, but blue collar jobs are physically demanding but at least I get most weekends off. Lots of people I know who have white collar jobs do a lot of work at home.

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[dochalladay32]

It depends on what you want to do. I am a software engineer, but I do a lot more than that and I don't necessarily sit in front of a computer all day. Last Monday, I had meetings for pretty much the whole day and was on my computer for maybe an hour or two.

There's been periods of time where I just put in 8 hours a day and I've gone months without working a weekend. And then there were weeks like this past week where I worked 50 hours across 4 days. Not every job and company will be the same. My dad is in accounting and the first 5 or 6 business days of every month, he knows he's going to be working 10+ hours a day.

There's office politics, sure, but I generally have people I like on my team of business analysts so even though there have been times I've hated it, I'm not going to find a team as good as them anywhere else any time soon. Going from a warehouse job to something like I do would be a hard change without the education background which is why I say it really depends on what you're trying to do.

[Sinner]

I've been Blue Collar for most of my life, I work in a warehouse which is crazy cause I graduated with a degree in Graphic Design. I try to do a little freelance time to time but at this point in my life not sure I could sit at a desk and deal with all the office stuff, deadlines and such.

I'm basically the back up lead, the manager who as become a friend since I've worked there...14+ years looks to me to help him and his lead(s) run the receiving department. It's funny cause he's actually respected me more than his lead at times and talked to me about problems with his lead.

There are times when the lead is out or when a couple left the job that I ran receiving, going into the office more, doing most of the work on a computer and I can't get with that ALL the time. I've been offered a lead position a few times, I'm mainly a forklift driver and I've turned it down quite a few times. I look at it like a work out and while I can do the physical work I don't mind doing it when they need me to get off the forklift and actually help on the floor.

I've been told that I'm good at doing the lead job and getting the guys to do the job...they respect me..I don't stress out about things that come up cause it doesn't bother me. So right now I definitely prefer blue collar type work.

[msuduo]

Have worked both. Have enjoyed both. Worked gas station, warehouses, janitorial, etc through high school and college. Am a teacher now.

Based on the way I have things set up (no summer job, papers stay at school, weekends are mine), I would take white collar over blue.

[dickey1331]

I'm in the military so I guess that's more blue collar but my current job is more into the white collar category. I'm currently in school for my electrical engineering degree. I'd say I like white collar work better but I think it really depends on what it is plus I've never had a true white collar job. My other jobs were Walmart and I worked at a machine shop for a university.


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[TheMatrix31]

I don't consider myself as doing anything of relevance. One day perhaps.

Really can't see myself doing either. I'll have to find a way to do something on my own.

[countryboy]

I have worked both, and really don't mind either. My current job is white collar as I'm a Sales Rep for a small family owned Electronic Parts Distributor. And the office politics here is minimal as there are only a total of 13 people who work for the company.

[Herky]

I did blue collar jobs in the summers when I was in college back home. I've worked for the city (cemetery/parks), a ham factory (we packaged it), and for the railroad (was on a team of college kids hired for a contract job).

Pros: I was outside for most of the jobs, they were all physical labor jobs and kept me in shape, and learned some skills (used a cutting torch for example).

Cons: When the days were slow they were SLOW. At the ham factory there were a lot of depressed people there and the atmosphere sucked. I hated that job since I was in the cooler sanitizing ham logs all day. Rode my bike to work in long johns and a sweatshirt/jogging pants and worked all day in 40 degree temps.

They all certainly wanted me to finish college because the alternative was working at one of those places. My Dad made me work at those places to appreciate things. It was all grunt level work so not trying to knock blue collar jobs at all. I was the lowest on the totem pole at all of them.

Now I have 2 college degrees and work as a IT consultant/SharePoint developer. I love what I do but office politics suck, and I don't like sitting down all day. However the money is good and so are my direct co-workers. I learn new stuff and better ways to develop all the time and the days go fast.

I learned the value of hard work for sure when I did blue collar work. It showed me I did not want to do that the rest of my life. I'm glad I did do that type of work however as it's made me a better person I think.