In society today people have began to base their values more so on money and materialistic things. Who you are and your “status” in society has been transformed into a competition in a sense. In some communities you are judged based off of necessities. In the work field status in determined by the job you have, the amount of money you receive from your job, and the level of recognition you receive from your job. Usually in the work field you are ranked into two groups as workers. Either “White collar workers”, such as doctors, lawyers..etc. these jobs are defined as more education required jobs that pay well and are demanding, to an extent. Second is the “blue collar workers” such as factory workers. These jobs require less education, lots of man strength, memorization, and routine, but ultimately pay significantly less than the white collar jobs. This has created serious controversy in the work industry. In the Novel Working by Stud Terkel a Man by the name of Mike Lefevre was introduced. Mike was a steel worker and explains what he describes as status, who has it and who should have it. With a similar opinion, from an article called Blue-collar Brilliance Mike Rose goes into depth about his mothers experience as a Blue collar worker and how hard she worked.
In the novel Working by Stud Terkel chapter one, Who Built The Pyramids a character by the name of Mike Lefevre was introduced. Mike was a steel worker in the 1970’s.He worked long, hard labored shifts doing the same routine work. In the 70’s as well as today many factory workers have argued the fact that they do very hard labor jobs and receive little pay and little to no recognition/ “status” for the time and effort spent in making things. This was in fact the argument in which mr.Lefevre pressed on strongly. In the second paragraph of the interview of Who Built The Pyramids Mike stated “It’s hard to take pride in a bridge you’re never gonna cross, in a door you’re never gonna open. You’re mass-producing things and never see the end result of it”. Describing the lack of status the workers receive for doing these hard jobs. Steel workers have been grouped as “blued-collar” workers. Blue-collar workers are looked at as less educated, and are seen to have less demanding jobs, but this is not in fact true. While these “blue-collar” wokers might have less education the jobs that they are given require more tedious task that ultimately require more man strength and memorization in some cases. Factory and steel workers for example (such as Mike) come from lower income families with little to no education, and have a family of some sort to support. These jobs are given to the people who are working to live with this job being the only means of income in some cases. So why is it that these blue collar jobs might in fact require less education but are more demanding and risky in the sense that they are far more physical than white collared jobs, but offer very little to no status?
Lefevre explains “I worked for a trucker one time. And I got this tiny satisfaction when I loaded a truck. At least I could see the truck depart loaded. In a steel mill, forget it. You don’t see where nothing goes.” In this he describes the frustration of getting to see no outcome of the long hours spent from your family working this horrible job that just gets you by. He explains the frustration of the day to day, 9-5 worker.
In a similar reading, an article by Mike Rose Blue-Collar Brilliance. Rose speaks about his mother who was a waitress in the 1950’s and the hard work her job actually required. He recognized her and many other blue collar workers as brilliant. Rose tells “I couldn’t have put it in words when I was growing up, but what I observed in my mother’s restaurant defined the world of adults, a place where competence was synonymous with physical work. I’ve since studied the working habits of blue-collar workers and have come to understand how much my mother’s kind of work demands of both body and brain. A waitress acquires knowledge and intuition about the ways and the rhythms of the restaurant business. Waiting on seven to nine tables, each with two to six customers, Rosie devised memory strategies so that she could remember who ordered what. And because she knew the average time it took to prepare different dishes, she could monitor an order that was taking too long at the service station.” He shines light on the hard work and dedication blue collar workers actually have.
Mike Lefevre and Mike Rose would suggest that status is given to white collar workers, the one’s at the top who do easier labor jobs that are less physical. Mike would say blue collar workers who do more physical labor should get the status and recognition. They should be the “effete snobs”.
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