As I am matriculating into a young adult, I see people much older than me holding jobs that I am able to get. I am referring to jobs such as crew members or cooks at a fast food place, waiters at some type of dine in, even janitors at nearly every organization. These are referred to as blue collar jobs because they focus a trade or skill learned through training. There is a huge stigma overhead these type of jobs where all people think if you choose to work this, you are close to the scum of the earth. What I find peculiar about these thoughts is that these so called “scum of the earth” are people working hard to get somewhere higher in command or perfecting their craft. I have had the pleasure (yes I said pleasure) of working at a fast food restaurant towards my last couple of years of high school because of the people I met. You cannot simply categorize everyone in a restaurant because each person has their own motives. They may need extra money to pay for a habit, raise a family, help parents pay bills, etc. For example, society cannot falsely tag me as scum because I look like a young kid who just wants some extra money. For the other majority of the workers who were employed belong to the age group of 23-40 which did not surprise me, are subjected to the type of discrimination I discussed earlier. It is depressing that no one gives these blue collar workers to show themselves as a person outside of work. We're all similar except for being on different paths to success or satisfaction. One of the main misconceptions is that these low-grade blue collar jobs are easy to get and perform. From experience, I can tell you that is a blatant lie because any job dealing with people is difficult. Working with co-workers and bosses all the way to dealing with customers is a chore in itself. Then comes focusing on the job which are things like prepping food, cooking, cleaning, and giving attentive and inventive vibes in the workplace. Those may sound like things you do at home, but at a job, it’s a must and on a commercial scale. It takes not only skill, but you have to keep cool in high-pressure situations and work at the speed of you guessed it “ fast”. I believe anybody who has not done fast food, service or janitorial work should not be able to criticize that line of work. They will never know how intense it could get especially if you compare it to a cubicle desk job. In its own way, these blue collar jobs are just as important and necessary to society. The next time you order from your favorite place or dining at your favorite buffet, remember that the workers are people with lives too.
Have you ever worked a blue collar job? If so where at?
Where is your stance on how valuable these jobs are to society?
I have never had a "blue collar" job, but those jobs are very important to society, in my opinion. I could only imagine how difficult it is with customers with bad attitudes, horrible managers and all. I had an experience with a horrible set of managers, so I think I can get the feel of that.
ReplyDeleteI have never worked at a fast food or any type of restaurant or been janitor but I have worked on farm and done construction work which is blue collar. Its hard work that you don't need an education for. I think the reason for the older people working in this line of work is because they did not finish their education. There is nothing wrong with doing this kind of work because like you said someone has to do it.
ReplyDeleteI have worked a "blue collar" job, I've worked in retail at Macy's also at a soul food resturant. Somebody has to do these jobs because this is a great part of society and we don't appreciate these jobs as much as we should. Also, these jobs needs someone who will be able to work long term because these are places that are always going to have business so they need great staff. This is why I don't look down upon adults that work "blue collar" jobs.
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