Author Topic: Differences between Blue Collar and White Collar company culture  (Read 4453 times)

trailrated

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Differences between Blue Collar and White Collar company culture
« on: December 02, 2015, 01:52:25 PM »
These are just some of my experiences, feel free to share your own.

 I have worked for a few years at a fortune 500 company, and a blue collar small business. I have come to find the sense of community within the blue collar small business seems much more like a family. When someone is sick, other people band together to prepare meals for them and their family. People actually hang out outside of work. Also, I have heard some of the most vile racist fucked up shit ever, but it is said directly to the person's face as a joke... and taken as such with nobody getting offended. It just seems more honest with less bs.

Gone Fishing

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Re: Differences between Blue Collar and White Collar company culture
« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2015, 02:16:47 PM »
I worked several blue collar jobs in college.  Many of my coworkers were overt substance abusers, more likely to have had interactions with law enforcement, and often abused by management (mostly wage theft).   It was like watching a slow motion train wreck watching these people make poor decisions day after day.   The white collars certainly have their fair share of screw-ups, but they seem to do it more gracefully for what that is worth.  People are people, get a good group of them together and life can be gravy, but a few bad apples can spoil the bunch.

The only thing I miss is the manual type labor vs staring at a computer screen and getting my tps reports correct.     

trailrated

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Re: Differences between Blue Collar and White Collar company culture
« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2015, 02:25:39 PM »
Many of my coworkers were overt substance abusers, more likely to have had interactions with law enforcement

I have seen my fair share of substance abuse at both, but I have to say the law enforcement part rings more true for the blue collar employees.

Apocalyptica602

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Re: Differences between Blue Collar and White Collar company culture
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2015, 02:32:05 PM »
I get a unique mix of this as a white collar Mechanical Engineer in a Fortune 500 medical device manufacturing company with plenty of blue collar production operators, technicians, warehouse workers, but also engineers, scientists, businessmen and women.

One day I'll be in a button down and slacks giving an up date to our Senior Vice President about the status of my multi-million dollar project, the next I could be in jeans and a polo wrenching on a machine with a technician bs'ing about sports and our favorite beers.

People can be a little cliquey and there sometimes is a bit of 'there's us, and then there's them' sentiment between the production floor and the 'office people'. It's not overt but for example I might say hi to two of the production operators joking in the hallway and their tone, appearance, even word choice changes like it's an entirely different conversation.

StacheInAFlash

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Re: Differences between Blue Collar and White Collar company culture
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2015, 03:18:28 PM »
Blue Collar: Everyone smoked, the place was very Republican, people fished or watched Nascar on weekends, lots of sports talk, etc.

White Collar: Half the office is vegetarian, not an obese person in sight, very Liberal, sports talk is rare and is more about what they are doing rather than watching (mountain climbing, triathlons, marathons, etc.) and I think there might be one person who smokes.

Blue Collar: Thanks, Obama!

White Collar: Thanks, Obama!

Reynold

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Re: Differences between Blue Collar and White Collar company culture
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2015, 04:10:50 PM »
I have worked for a few years at a fortune 500 company, and a blue collar small business. I have come to find the sense of community within the blue collar small business seems much more like a family. When someone is sick, other people band together to prepare meals for them and their family. People actually hang out outside of work. Also, I have heard some of the most vile racist fucked up shit ever, but it is said directly to the person's face as a joke... and taken as such with nobody getting offended. It just seems more honest with less bs.

Some of what you describe could also be small company vs. big company; I worked at a company that started at 45 people and grew to 1000.  There was more of a family atmosphere when it was smaller and younger, basketball games during lunch, cookouts, etc., when it was big everything was measured and compartmentalized, so everyone had as much work as they could handle, and when work was over everyone wanted to just leave. 

Another factor can be that white collar people these days tend to be tethered to the office, so they never have "time off", and if they do, they aren't wanting to hang out with the people they ALREADY interact with 12 hours/day.  Blue collar people are usually actually off duty when they are off duty. 

I was at another small company, though, where I did see what you describe.  I think blue collar people and, more generally, people in lower socioeconomic strata tend to be each other's safety net.  White collar/upper income people expect to pay for their own safety net, so major loss of face if you have to ask a neighbor for help paying for your car repair, for example, or food when you are sick.