From a young man: how do you deal with people who look down on you for having a blue-collar job?

32 comments

1. Most men won’t look down on another man for having a job let alone a blue collar job. These are the men that make society work.

2. There are people that looked down on me when I did construction, then that all changed when I got office jobs that paid nothing by comparison, had no satisfaction, no time out in the sun, no physicality, and I missed them. Then I got a gov’t job and found out what it was like to be much more broadly looked down on. Grass is always greener.

3. It doesn’t really happen. And especially not openly.

   Also, don’t *look up* for anyone’s approval in matters like these

4. Tell them to mind their own fucking business.

5. I’m a white collar dude. I’m super envious of most blue collar folks. A lot of them are their own boss. They have a practical skill. What can I do? I can say “Let’s have a meeting about that.” These people are out making shit it’s baller.

   How would I deal with people who look down on those people? I wouldn’t. Fuck them.

6. Most women I’ve met absolutely show MORE interest when they learn that I’m an electrician. I can feel the eyes on me when I walk into an office building wearing my work jeans and boots. It’s fucking AWESOME

7. “When your girlfriend needs something fixed, be sure to give me a call, ok?”

8. you say, and i quote, “fuck em”. if your job keeps your expenses covered, what does it matter what someone else thinks? if they’ve got that much of a problem with it they’re more than welcome to start chipping in.

9. Australian woman here – blue collar and tradesmen are basically royalty here. Skilled with great incomes and a lot of them have this own
   Businesses.

   Take pride in what you do, the right people will see how valuable you are as a person

10. Other men will always find a good reason to intimidate you. This is a different level of bullying but leading to the same outcome you become more likely to sacrifice your interest.

    How to deal, always look at your own interest and act so as to assure your own goals.

11. Whatever you are and whatever you do, there are people who are going to look down on you and judge you badly or make you feel small.

    The overall advice on how to be less affected by what other people think of you is to know yourself better. Such as:

    1. Know your values. Some people put everything in their careers and professionnal success is how they measure themselves and how they measure others. Maybe you are different.

    Maybe you choose a career because it’s what you love to do, even if it’s not prestigious or powerful. If it makes you happy, you are right!

    Maybe you choose a career because you had few options. You didn’t study in school, whatever, etc. Know your circumstances and be compassionnate with yourself. it’s easy to think you should simply have studied in school, but when you were a kid or a teen, you didn’t know better.

    Maybe you choose a career because other things than work are important for you. You prefer a honest job where you work hard during the day but go home and don’t think about it anymore, rather than these office jobs were people go home with head full of work and can never relax.

    2) Know your circumstances. Depending on your family background, or your early life, or so many things really, you couldn’t make it to a prestigious job. People who had priviledges in the race to good education and good position would be blind to that and judge you inferior because you lost the race. Don’t be blind to that. Be fair to yourself.

    3) Take accountability. You have circumstances, it’s good to know them, but it’s also good to take accountability for your action. Yes, I have this job and not something better because of the consequences of my action. If you own this, it hurts less when other people point it out. Shame and guilt thrive in the shadow and die in the light.

    4) Apply yourself at what you do. If you are a lazy waiter or a lazy construction worker or a lazy manager or a lazy engineer, you are going to despise yourself. If you are a great waiter or great construction worker or great manager etc, you are going to be proud of yourself. There is pride in doing your job very well.

    Or if you really have a shitty position in a factory and it’s really depressing, remember that you are working to survive in a capitalist meat grinder, and that your employment doesn’t define who you are.

    Edit: I forgot to say most people are c*nts so who care about what c*nts believe?

12. Any one who looks down on a blue collar job dissent have an opinion worth hearing.

13. I generally don’t worry about or be around those types.

14. I have a “blue collar” job and earn more than my friends who have to wear a tie everyday.

    There’s no shame in working with your hands

15. I get the feeling most people commenting aren’t blue collar workers

    People will absolutely look down on you – you’ll just have to ignore it

16. Unfortunately the only advice I could give is to not care but that’s a lot easier said then done when you’re already in a place where you care

17. Not really a thing here, trades and skilled labour are respectable careers.

18. By not having student loans and crippling faux depression/anxiety from being in disneyland all day with no responsibilities (aka ‘college’), and by living your best life.

19. I ignore them. I have neither the time nor the patience for anyone who looks down on someone who works with their hands.

    Alternatively, just remember that if it all goes to shit, a plumber is going to be worth a hell of a lot more than an insurance broker.

20. I’m in a “white collar” job, i have absolutely ZERO friggin issue or care what others do. Do you take care of your responsibilities like an adult? Cool, welcome.

21. Never had this happen, but I’d just keep it pushing.

    Tf I care what another man think or say ? Only my mom could move me with words. No other human has had that ability on me

22. See how things feel after they go to college with 100s of thousands in debt and you’ve already got a few k in the bank. You can make just as good a living in the trades. A master electrician, mason, carpenter can make 6 figures. Then you can ask them when’s the date their debt is paid off. Hahahahaha

23. Ignore them. Blue collar jobs are important and help society function. They’re just stuck up and sour that you make decent money without the crippling student loan debt.

24. Have a hot girlfriend and disconnect from your job after 5pm and have a nice house and vacations.

25. Laugh at the all the way to the bank

26. You just don’t. When talking to someone doesn’t provide added value, you just don’t talk to them. Their loss.

27. Those people aren’t worth wasting your energy on. Focus on your own life and where you want to go and forget about what other people think of you.

28. I just laugh because they worry sooo much about our union jobs.

29. The way I see it is do you hate waking up in the morning to go do your job? I personally don’t and love what I do.

30. Never in my life has anyone looked down on me because I’m an electrician. How is 80K a year a bad thing?

31. Laugh in their face. Anyone with enough “fuck you” money doesn’t care what you do, just that it gets done. Other men with real work ethic don’t knock another man if he’s hard working as well. The rest are just insecure pretenders that don’t realize how much you’ll be making in the next decade that will utterly dwarf what they make with no major increase in work performed.

32. take it from a dude entering middle age, coming from a working class household and currently grinding in academia: fuck people who look down on you for working hard. no matter the amount of money you make or how intelligent you are, you bring something valuable to the table and possess skills others do not have. in my experience, craftsmen etc are worth their experience in gold and are crucial for everything else to work in society.