My blue collar friends are more fun than my white collar friends?

[Keim]

It has been fun reading all the stereotypes. My experience has been that both blue and white collar people have just as many and varied interests; and are equally social.

People are people, regardless of race, creed, gender or color of their collar.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life

I've thought this before. I guess if we answer, we all are self-selecting one group or another! Based on profession, I am white-collar. At the risk of sounding prejudicial, though , "I have lots of blue-collar friends," and I have a LOT of fun with them.

Overall, the blue-collar crowd seems easier to please. When we go out, even mixed with white-collar folks, they are more welcoming to newcomers to the group. Not as much complaining about food or accommodations. Just happy to be there!

I wonder if it comes from a "leaving work at work" attitude? Once you clock out, you are done thinking about work, whereas my white-collar friends are thinking and talking about work or trying to impress each other about work.

I think the "kids" comment means using your kids and their accomplishments as your social capital, or just talking about them nonstop.

I noticed this when I worked at a Union Shop...

The time clock ruled all... work started precisely at the bell and ended with the bell. Five minutes after the doors to the shop were locked and the parking lot was empty.

Being paid hourly for the most part meant your time outside of work was just that your time.

When I made the switch... I was the one always on call and coming early and staying late...

Not complaining... just saying I had a lot more free time and less worries when I was in the Union...

Sadly, most of these type of shops have folded over the years... at least here.

Not a bad way of life and yes... for the most part the hourly guys were more fun and had more control over how they spent their off hours.

[Threestep2]

Originally Posted by robertpolyglot

I would say that people with bachelor's degrees ONLY, and who aren't uptight, are the most fun of all ... having friends who range from blue-collar (seen some reverse snobbery) to highly educated professionals (who have been programmed by their extensive education and can't let their hair down, with Top 10 MBA investment bankers being the worst). Clarification: I do not have investment banker friends, I only know them cursively and I'm certain they wouldn't want to hang out with me, which is fine.

I will make sure to resumes on file of the people I socialize with.

[Ragazza2011]

YES! YES! YES! I couldn't agree more with the OP!! I much prefer dive bars and rock joints than clubs or fine dining anyday! (Although I can afford it!) Yuppies are so pretentious, boring and afraid to drop the facade. Much prefer blue collar anyday!

[Grandpa Pipes]

Originally Posted by Johnny Danes

I'm talking middle people here.

Seems like even though I am white collar, I enjoy hanging with my blue collar friends more.
They seem to have the coolest interests: hunting, off roading, hiking, camping, photography, flying Cesna's,etc....

My white collar friends are the typical yuppies: they only like "nice" resturants, movies and their lives rotate around their children. They seem not to have ANY hobbies of interest. "Date night" is the highlight of their lives. Their conversations are boring and it's all about putting on the image of being "high class". Social status is what's important to my white collar friends.


Have you ever noticed this difference with white collar and blue collar people?

It has to do with educational backgrounds in some cases and business management jobs where white collar's work. White collar folks have to meet a different social standard and work expectations of the "at will" work place.

I've worked and lived in both white collar and blue collar worlds and IMO the blue collar world has much lower expectations of those who populate that world. No one expects blue collar to do anything but show up for work, be drug free, and do a good job while they live crime free lives.

White collars are always under the gun to meet a much higher level of expectations that saps the free spirit out of all of them. I was offered a fully paid ticket into the white collar world but after understanding the difference I declined the offer and stayed with a foot in both worlds content to mind my own business during my off hours.

[St. Josef the Chewable]

I'll jump into this already chaotic pile of opinions with my own two cents (That's what the internets are for, right!?)

I think I get the gist of what the OP is describing, but in my experience it centers more on personality types than careers or class, per se. I'm into the Myers-Briggs personality test (MBTI), and one of the distinctions it makes is between Intuitives and Sensors. Intuitives tend to be more abstract thinkers, punsters, "head-in-the-clouds" types, while Sensors are "doers", active "here-and-now" types.

I think Intuitives tend more towards white-collar jobs (especially academia) and advanced degrees, while Sensors prefer hands-on, practical careers --- even if they go to college for degrees, they often chafe at sitting in classrooms. (Sitcoms like Frasier and Big Bang Theory clearly build their humor on the contrast between Intuitives and Sensors, for example.)

Although my wife and I are both Intuitives, we actually enjoy hanging out with a (white-collar) Sensor couple. We can relax, play games, go for hikes, etc., rather than sitting around talking endlessly about doctoral dissertations and the State of the World. It's refreshing to JUST DO IT! (the arch-typical Sensor motto) once in a while. My best friend is also a (blue collar) Sensor; I do a lot more stupid fun things when I'm with him, whereas if I'm by myself I tend to brood.

[Truth11]

Originally Posted by Johnny Danes

I'm talking middle people here.

Seems like even though I am white collar, I enjoy hanging with my blue collar friends more.
They seem to have the coolest interests: hunting, off roading, hiking, camping, photography, flying Cesna's,etc....

My white collar friends are the typical yuppies: they only like "nice" resturants, movies and their lives rotate around their children. They seem not to have ANY hobbies of interest. "Date night" is the highlight of their lives. Their conversations are boring and it's all about putting on the image of being "high class". Social status is what's important to my white collar friends.


Have you ever noticed this difference with white collar and blue collar people?

The kind of blue collared types around here just seem to like to party and get drunk all the time...I'd tend to side with the white collar types you described,minus a bit of the fake high class bit

[JrzDefector]

I went to an Ivy League college and private school, and am currently "white collar." That said, my family is more lower middle class once you look past my parents. I tend to move between the groups fairly comfortably, as do many of my friends, who are also in that kind of grey area. Which group is more fun? I really couldn't say. I tend to skew more working class in my tastes, but my friends are mostly people who are in that grey area - often college-educated, but from working class families or backgrounds with strong working class influences. I don't have many close traditionally white collar friends, really - my two best friends in the world are white collar and from very white collar families, but their sensibility is very working class. Basically, even though I'm a yuppie by many standards, I've rejected the yuppie lifestyle and outside of work, I don't really hang with those types. I guess what it comes down to is that I wouldn't know if the white-collar crowd is any fun simply because I don't really associate with them. Which kind of sounds a little snobby, but there ya go.

[caroljm36]

oh come on, anyone over 25 ought to have figured this out. The entry to blue collar circles is easier, and their pleasures are more spontaneous. White collars are all, should we have this New Person to dinner, or not....probably better for your financial future to negotiate that milieu but so boring in the short term.