The Career White Collar Job

Currently, I grace the white collar world with my presence daily. It is a world of paperwork, stooping over a laptop, and replying with an office influenced political correctness to emails.  Coming out of college, you realize what political correctness is, but it’s still odd when you experience the spin on what political correctness entails at your first white collar job.

Office politics, completely misinterpreted emails, poorly communicated issues, and a wealth of other spirit crushing daily facts of life are a part of the white collar norm.  Or, at the very least, that’s what my friends who have other white collar jobs tell me.  These are other IT white collars mind you, the rest of my social circle are either blue collar or still attempting to finish getting the amount of education necessary to go white collar in their field.

It’s better to be a white collar than a blue collar is something I’ve heard often, but perhaps not in those words exactly. The white collars are often on salary, get paid more for pushing papers around, have great health benefits, and drive Ferraris.  They take trips to Cancun and go on golf outings regularly. They are financially secure and retire well. So, this is why you should strive to be a Career White Collar.

Well, no, not really. I’m not on salary, I don’t get paid very much for pushing papers around, yes my health benefits are great but I don’t drive a Ferrari.  After a year and a half with my current company I was only able to move out of my parents house because I was serious enough about my significant other to believe moving in together wouldn’t be a terrible idea and realizing half a month’s rent is much easier to pay then a full months rent. Then again, rural Iowa isn’t one of the highest paying sectors of the country by any means.

So, why does my generation and the generation after me still strive to be a Career White Collar? There is generally one of two reasons behind it: A) They are like me and had very blue collar parents who weren’t very well off that busted their bums every day after becoming parents just to put food on the table. Or B) they have Career White Collar parents who believe they need to be Career White Collar to maintain their level of living.

To my parents, getting a degree and getting a white collar job meant I would be set for life (and, as my mom has always said, “not have to depend on any man to support you”).  So, here I am, just as white collar as the next college graduate that stumbles into their industry. Am I any better off than my friend the Blue Collar Worker? Well, not really, other then maybe my industry is a bit more stable than his. When he was working at a factory, his health benefits and pay stub were rather similar to mine. Since he lost his job and had to go to work at a certain, overly large retail chain, my job has trumped his.

The simple fact of the matter is, I have blue collar friends who make as much as me doing what they love to do even though the Career White Collar is supposed to have the advantage.  Does this mean that a person’s goal shouldn’t be to be a Career White Collar when they get out of college? No, I’m sure there are still great opportunities in the right companies for people who really know their stuff as Career White Collars, despite what so many experts say about “this generation” and how they will change careers 10 times before they die.

But for some people, making one job their “life’s work” is rather depressing, be it blue collar or white collar.  For some people, the white collar is a bit too tight and for others the blue collar is a little too demanding. And for a lot of people, which style they prefer will change as they grow older.

Myself? Well the white collar is a bit tight, and I don’t see myself as a Career White Collar like I used to anymore. Does that mean I’m going to jump to factory work? No, probably not. Though, I did used to be able to deal a devastating hand of Black Jack when I was in college. Now that was an interesting job!

Whether you are blue collared or white collared you may succeed exponentially at life, whether monetarily or personally. Of course, there’s always the chance that you could wake up every day and hate the idea of setting foot into your place of work too. The simple, clichéd thing to say would be “Do something you love, and you’ll love what you do”, which we know not to be true simply because doing something you love can be quickly marred by your coworkers, boss, vendors, customers, etc.

So, instead, don’t feel stuck where you are, because the experience you are gaining now will propel you to the next opportunity.  Whether that opportunity be a different job in the same field or a trip back to college,  being happy with what you are doing with your life is really what matters. After all, this is your “life’s work” we are talking about!