After my first week of being a white collar worker, I have noticed some rather irritating things. White collar workers are generally 8-5 salary workers, a decent chunk of the population. The opposition: Blue collar workers who work anytime from 6am-Midnight for an hourly rate. Already I have noticed that there are many organizations whose hours of operation are the same as my hours of employment. For example: the post office, the banks, and the ups store. How is this possible? Back when I lived in Chattanooga, the banks and post offices liked to close around the same time as the end of the white collar work day (and close completely on saturdays) leaving White collar workers little to no opportunity to utilize these organizations. Now that I live in Valparaiso, I have noticed that those same organizations are open slightly longer, as to occasionally provide a 1 hour window of opportunity for the white collar folk. Many blue collar workers also work the same hours that white collar workers do, and therefore are also in the same predicament. These organizations are shunning a large part of the population, and definately a big spending part. I would think that organizations would cater to the needs of a majority of all people, or at least to the population that spends the most money.
Posted by kposey at July 23, 2003 07:00 AM | TrackBackThe problem is that the people that work at these places are basically white collar workers themselves. Therefore they work the same hours that all the other white collar workers work. So then everyone is screwed.
Posted by: bhuffine at July 23, 2003 07:36 AMWhat really distinguishes a blue collar worker from a white collar worker? Is it the industry in which they work, the job in which they perform, the method in which they are paid, or some freaky combination. Because I could consider bank employees white collar, but post office and ups folk don't exactly seem like white collar.
Posted by: kyle at July 23, 2003 10:03 AMPersonally I don't believe in white or blue collar workers. There are simply left over sets of Industrial Revolution rules. The Industrial Revolution was perhaps a mixed blessing/curse. It brought us the so-called 8-5 work day, unions, and fixed pay rates. Examples of how our society is slowly breaking away from these rules are such concepts as round the clock software engineering or stock trading. As the day ends in one part of the world the work day is beginning somewhere else. So really in the end it is a matter of businesses realizing what you are talking about Kyle. Some of us are graced with the ability to have some flexibility in our work day and let us hope that as businesses realize there is money in providing services during less than traditional times they will do so. I'd say the shift of fast food and some grocery stores towards this is an example of that shift.
Posted by: mkrueger at July 23, 2003 06:14 PM