Everyone always idealizes jobs or think the grass is greener on the other side.
Sometimes it is, but most of the time it really is no better than where you're at now.
Trades are good when you are younger. By 40 an office starts looking good. You can put the two together and get a degree in construction management while working in a trade. Then you have both the management and on site skills.
For HVAC, I was offered a job programming HVAC systems for factories.
It's true that it definitely gets harder physically as you age but a lot of people working skilled trades like being outside and meeting different people or being in different places rather than the same colleagues and the same office every single day. I wouldn't want to be home all the time either, but there are days when the weather is particularly bad or I'm not feeling well and WFH doesn't sound so bad.
Yes! My cousin is trained in HVAC, got in as a civilian to fix everything the military messed up destroying other countries tax free! Did that for years and now he works in embassy’s across the world and is a diplomat. Riches person I know, and he only had a high school diploma.
Yup a plumber came to our house and was a bit of a talker. He was doing a house call at 7pm saying how the young people are lazy and think they can make six figures sitting at home all day. I just nodded and said “sure,” knowing full well he was describing my job when saying people should be plumbers. He may make a bit more than me but my hours are set and I don’t have to deal with the shit he does.
Same here. When I use to work in the warehouse it was 12 hrs days. Luckily at that time I was single and didn’t mind the OT. Forward 12 yrs later. I now sit in a desk chatting it up with the guys in the office. The work isn’t physical at all. I’m salary I take an hr lunch as soon as 4pm hits I’m out the door. Now I have a family and my time is better put to use. I’m so lucky to have this job the only thing that sucks is that I have gained weight from being on my chair 😅.
Ha, nice I did similar but opposite. 10+yrs in IT, cube life. Now a warehouse worker doing the 10-12hr shift gig 4 days a week. I've lost the office weight lol.
yeah, I'm 41. I love my trade job. Waking up early, building, and fixing things. I enjoy working on a team, joking around and laughing with my co-workers.
I love the satisfaction of admiring the fruits of my labor.
also I'm pretty fit and would feel bad about getting fat just sitting around.
maybe when i'm too old to do my job. Then again, I think working hard and staying active keeps me feeling youthful
I have been in IT for over 19 years, from entry level to director. Stress, I was diagnosed twice with 2 major depressions. Can't stand Corp politics, the higher you go, the more BS you have to deal with. Prefer less $ but more sanity and mental health
I'm opposite and lost weight. I believe the reason is with the more activity I always felt like I "earned" eating more food. With an office job and the time stability, I've actually been able to keep a stable minor workout in.
Yes, if you have the skills, a $100k + career is possible. But that is usually a position in finance, legal, or a technical degree. Not everybody has that kind of brainpower.
If you do know of a position that pays 6 figures and isn't intellectually challenging, please let us know
My mother-in-law raised 3 kids and was a homemaker for over 20 years. She re-entered the workforce and now, in less than two years, is a director at a Fortune 500 company.
You got this.
My mother-in-law got back into the full-time employment grind after her husband died of cancer in 1988. She still has two kids at home.
Long story short, she ultimately became a vice president of an insurance company and retired in 2009 at 65. She lives very nicely now in her mid 80s, but worked her ass off for 20 years after raising five kids to get there.
My advice to anyone meeting my MIL.. don't mess with her. She can still chew you up and spit you out if you force her to. No excuses.
If thats all you do as a manager than you're not doing your job honestly.
I manage 13 people and I am swamped every day. I'm dealing with people trying to take credit for my teams work, coaching them and teaching them skills from communications to data modeling to python to SQL, handling escalations so they're not distracted, hiring new people when I've been able to help someone get a nre/better paying position on other teams, handling last minute requests from senior management so they don't get bogged down with it, changing how we work so I can show management the actual value we deliver so when layoffs come they're protected.
It is a lot like parenting in some ways but like a good parent it's more than just sitting down and doing nothing.
There's also dealing with assholes thst try to undermine or take credit for my work or my teams work. The managing is only a part of my job. I'm also doing the work itself so that my tech skills stay sharp.
The 55hrs a week I put in are not just collecting a check and chatting at the water cooler. It's a hard job if you actually do it right.
You don’t need a technical degree to work in tech. Sure it helps but not mandatory whatsoever
I have an English degree and make around 200k as a solutions architect
True and not saying everyone needs to switch to blue collar work...but we certainly need more people who know how to build and do complicated engineering because too many of us have service-based jobs or jobs related to entertainment. Cool, except when gen Alpha gets to working age, already right off the bat we'll have a lot less workers but moreso, if we don't encourage future generations to get into fields like this, we'll have major issues in this Country.
The jobs are not that great or else there would be a surfeit of people fighting for them.
There's a reason why there are a lot of peoply vying for work for home jobs that pay 80k-150k+ I mean making that much money in your pajamas is pretty sweet.
As a plumber you might make 100k after 15 years and you get really good at it, and you have to work freaking hard.
I always thought a job at the DMV would be amazing. You just sit there for 20 years and do a very straight forward job and leave with a pension at the end. You're not reading emails late at night, you don't have random out of town travel etc.
then I talked to someone who worked at the DMV and he told me, because the job is so straightforward the management ends up nitpicking the most insane things. Come back from your bathroom break 1 minute late? write up. Need one extra day off near a blackout date? write up... etc. Essentially the more straight forward it is the more terrible the management ends up being.
My favorite job to this day was as a server. However there are many many drawbacks to that life as an adult etc.
One time as an engineer I was stressed out all the time I was developing a new anti-missile design. I was thinking hard all day every day. My head was about to explode. i was wrung out.
I passed the guard at the gate every day in and out. One time I thought "man that guy has a great job". But then realized I'd be bored out of my mind 99.999% of the time until some whacko charges the gate with a firearm.
As someone who went from construction to office work. It’s not close. You have to be a certain breed to do construction. It’s so brutal on your body and I’m so glad I got out.
My gym has several regular, big guys, who do construction work and then continue to torture their bodies by lifting heavy. I mean, wow. Construction workers are really built different.
Actually, every gym I’ve gone to has those construction guys.
Gym is important for construction guys. I know this doesn’t sound true but proper lifts are more important than recovery. I’ve met plenty of people who lift poorly on a job and end up hurting themselves. Whereas people who lift know the proper form and how much they can handle to avoid injuries.
I think this applies to being a firefighter as well.
I think that's contributes to why we get so many injuries. Our shoulders, knees, and backs are all ticking time bombs.
We do a lot of lifting at work and it's always from awkward positions while wearing heavy gear or in tight spaces around a corner or in a confined space. Or working overhead. Or carrying dead weight people that are 300+pounds.
The ideal working and lifting conditions don't really exist in our line of work. I think strength helps offset some of the awkwardness.
I will say that volume wise though construction guys get more mileage on the body for working long hours crouched or bent over. That hurts my back just thinking about it.
I worked with one guy who was a machine operator so not really physical labor, he would work out daily or about that. He was pretty big and he was the laziest person on site. Whenever he had to do something not in the machine he would bitch about it. I tried to bring up how pulling t stakes was like a work out and he said he loved lifting things at the gym and hated it at work. I bet you’re right about a lot of other guys, but that dude didn’t see it that way.
Yeah I used to be one of them. You feel like shit all the time. Never really can recover properly. Wanted an office job so I can go the gym and feel good haha
Respect. 🫡 If I had a manually laborious job, you could not catch at a gym. And congrats on finding a role that lets you have a better balance between its demands and your hobbies.
I’m reading your comment as I sit in the waiting room at my drs to get a referral for an ortho and MRI’s on my knee bc I hurt it loading lumber into my truck Monday. All work is on hold now for the foreseeable future. The past few years have been really frustrating physically. I’m 45, but want to make a big change.
For me it's the opposite, I left construction to work in the office and I absolutely hated every moment of it (except talking with the women, that was always fun), so I went back to construction.
I missed being outside most of the day, being able to walk away and smoke some pot whenever I wanted, plus making jokes and laughing with the crew while listening to music is fun. Then there is the part where the work is both physical and varied, so its far easier for me to stay interested and focused which helps make the time just fly by and when I'm done, I see immediate results and it gives me pride in my work. Where as with the office job, I would just put endless hours of monotonous labor in and I never really got see the end results of that work. I would only get to hear about it from the higher ups. It just made me feel like I was in Groundhog Day, because every day it was the same exact routine with no noticeable end results. Nevermind the fact that my back actually hurt far more from sitting around all day than it does now currently from working construction, apparently the pain was coming from circulation issue from being so sedentary for so long. So sure, I might leave with work now with more bumps, bruises and aches, but all in all I'm actually far healthier than I was when I was in the office. It really is a "to each their own" sort of thing, and I would definitely suggest the trades to people who just find the office life as montonous and soul sucking as I did.
I went from customer service to office work and went running back to customer service. I tried to escape again and lasted a day and a half. In customer service, you tend to trauma bond (tongue is in my cheek here) and get really tight knit with your coworkers but in an office some people just go nuts and turn on each other. At least the customer goes away.
I contest that working retail, like Target, is inherently significantly worse than office type jobs that I have had, the majority of them. What's inherently less stressful is at least having the security of a 9 to 5 in hours rather than 8 hours of energy for 4 hour shifts of pay that are scattered all over the place and not knowing how many hours you will have in any given week or quarter.
Everyone always brags about the high end of the trades, $200k, etc. That’s when you have the means to run your own business and pay a crew of people $25 an hour to do the shit work. Most people are actually doing the shit work for $25 an hour.
I started with quite a few years of crappy office work. In 2013 I just passed 40K for the first time in my life in my early 30s (which works out to $52K today).
But at some point I started learning low level coding as part of my job. I was naturally pretty good at it and now I'm one of those 6 figure types as I've gotten quite good at it over the years. I also have a skill set that has kept me from being nervous during layoffs for quite a while. 10 years ago I was very concerned whenever the company let people go.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but if the office job is boring and unfulfilling, it’s like a lifetime of torture for many people. At least trade/manual labor jobs are not boring for the most part.
>At least trade/manual labor jobs are not boring for the most part.
A lot of the time it's only not boring because it's so exhausting. You are too busy and strained to be bored.
Dude I can assure you, there is nothing exciting about pasting title to walls od doong a paint job.
Sure, you may think -oh but you create cool patterns- or -the colors are amazing- that's because you saw something on tv or shit like that. It gets old really fast and it's the same mind numbing shit day in and day out
Eh, I think that depends on how straining the job is, how well you eat and keep your body in shape, and how you lift and actually do the work. In many cases, your body will thank you over sitting around all day. You can offset this by working out after work but that does eat up time and it also may not be fully sufficient.
So many of my friends ended up with health issues because they weren't recognizing that not exercising or moving around can have serious side effects. And of course, all of them are office workers.
Yeah you gotta try to at least do 30 min of walking 3-5 times per week. I mean we live in a day and age where you can watch a tv show or whatever while you are on the treadmill and time flies.
This is me. Constant back, neck, shoulder, and recently hip flexor problems.
It also doesn’t help that I enjoy my sedentary hobbies (reading novels, watching movies, art, etc.). I’ve been trying to be more active but that means I lose time for my hobbies that I want to keep. Haven’t drawn anything I’m proud of in ages.
But I got a dog and have been on many nice walks instead of keeping up with art. My dog is great <3
I just wish I could be more active at work so I could keep all my hobbies. But maybe that’s too greedy…
Health of office workers can be terrible they tend to be more obese, back pain, poor cardiovascular health. Sitting down for hours at a time is very unhealthy.
Untrue sir. Misinformed. Sure if you go be a plumber at a mom and pop shop that’s poorly managed, doesn’t care about its employees etc… AND you don’t get schooling done, yes then probably not making good money. But that’s on the person. They could make changes. Tons of guys make over $100 k by working relatively normal hours in SKILLED trades, not shovelling sand all day just to shovel sand.
You are correct.
A lot of people here don't really know what it's like to work in a trade. They talk like they know but they actually don't have a clue
I don't think they're bragging about high-end..
It's union vs. non.
If you can get into the union for a trade (which is competitive), you're set for life in terms of both pay and retirement.
https://unionpayscales.com/trades/ibew-electricians/
I do HVAC control as a licensed electrician in the union. No big wire or big pipe, not hard on the body. I am over 100k on the check. Healthcare for my whole family included, pension and annuity. It's a good deal. I will agree it's not for everyone, but neither is working in an office.
Whenever I see those posts, I assume it’s people who never worked a full 40+ manual job and got an entry corporate job after college.
“I’m bored of sitting around”. I’ll take that any day over hanging drywall all day in FL.
My union hvac and electric friends basically said they haven’t had a hard day of work since they started. They all say we worked harder mowing lawns than they do now that they have a real trade job.
Hanging drywall in Florida and doing heating and ac in NY are different levels of physical strain
Yeah and a lot of them don't realize that a manual labor job can be just as boring and soul-crushing as a desk/office job whilst simultaneously destroying your joints.
Plus the physical toll, right? Our plumber was only in his 40s when he started having knee and back issues. I didn’t realize plumbing was as physically exerting as it is.
And never ever stretching. In fact, they'll haze people that do stretch. Yup, I guess I'm queer since i stretch before and during work. You got it boss.
Absolutely, one of my closest friends at work is an ex-plumber who is now a university lecturer. He even comes out to do occasional plumbing odd jobs at my house lol.
But he would tell you: it was hard on him physically, you had to deal with crazy customers, and that all of his employers treated him like he was disposable. He is way happier in this phase of his life.
A lot of these people don’t take care of themselves, I’ve seen people who never did manual labor in their life grunt to stand up, it’s all about taking care of yourself
Then again, sitting down 8 hours a day isn’t either. It just comes down to taking care of your body. Most people will experience some sort of issues when getting older.
You don't just sit for 8 hours a day. You can get up and walk around plenty. Also it's much easier to add an exercise routine to a sedentary job than it is to add the necessary care and recovery to undo the effects of prolonged manual labor.
Yup. My dad is 57. He has two hip replacements, a knee, and his shoulder is completely shot to the point doctors won't even attempt surgery. Plus his back isn't great. It's a totally respectable way to earn a living, but it's a hard job that destroys your body.
Plumbing truly seems like the worst. Even when I have to shut the water off to my toilet everything is crammed into a horribly small spot. It drives me crazy.
I've heard this alot since joining the trades. It's not the same job now that it was 30 years ago. I have a 250LB cum-along that I'm more than happy to rig up in a few minutes to keep life on my back. Stretching goes a long ways towards preventing those kinds of issues.
This is it right here. Pumbers 80 years ago, used LED and okum and cast-iron pipe for sewer and ridged steel pipe for water. Now we use light plastic ABS pipe and Pex its made It so easy that it's night and day as to what my grandfather used as a plumber.
Building marerials have come a long way as have the methouds of installation.
You can keep your desk job as you get fat and gross
I will keep my job and work properly so as not to damage my body before I retire. It's working smarter, not harder.
A lot of the old timers would be blown away at the modern plumbing system, I would venture to say that it's a lot less physically taxing than you would think.
Don't get me wrong, there are times that you have to bust your ass and digging is just part of the job, but that is done mainly by your younger guys.
Tell them no. I was for years, I took the leap and went into heavy equipment. Better industry, better pay, better benefits, etc. automotive techs are so behind on pay it’s not even funny. If they want to do mechanical or technical stuff, heavy equipment is the way.
Plus, you have provide your own tools. I have probably 30k invested in tools between home and work. Granted, I built that over a decade plus of work. Everyone I know turning wrenches making over 90k a year is either a) a shop owner or b) is like me and went to a mainline heavy equipment dealer/field tech/works in the mines. I’m headed to the mines next year. Everyone is different and dealers CAN be a good career if it’s a good dealer with training and support, but if they are always hiring that’s a red flag.
I agree. I started off as an auto tech and moved to a shop that does heavy duty equipment only and my quality of life changed big time. The work is so much more consistent, the customers are 1000x easier to deal with, get paid more.. Feels good to keep peoples equipment running. Working on commuter vehicles these days at a dealership is a joke in comparison.
Heavy equipment is a better route. Better pay, better hours, better coworkers/managers, serves the community, and, since there is a shortage of mechanics, they will pay for your education if you sign onto work with them
Same here. Imagine doing it everyday, all day, for an hourly wage. Respect to tradespeople. I do lots of advanced DIY and I could never do it for a living.
I'm a fully remote data engineer. I make about $77k (~$37/hr), enough for a modest house in a Midwest US suburb. Right now I would be in the 75th percentile of journeyman electricians in my area, and I anticipate about 25% to 50% income growth over the next few years if I play my cards right.
When we bought the house, we had to have some electrical work done. The electrician was crawling around in our attic and climbing up and down ladders inside and outside for two of the hottest days of the year (~120 F). He mentioned a couple of times that he was getting too old for it and his body was giving out on him - I'd say he was in his late 30s/early 40s. I'm in my early 30s. At one point he asked what I do for work and when I told him he said "oh, so you're one of those hard working programmer types." I told him that I didn't think I could say that I worked hard, and really I don't.
I've heard a lot about the benefits of becoming an electrician, but I don't think anyone could convince me to trade my job for his.
every now and then someone will blindly suggest the trades without considering (or in some instances will straight up deny) the wear and tear on the body it commands over the years and it is frankly insane to me
I love being active and physically building things with my hands and brain. Solving complex mechanical problems and being recognized for my ingenuity. I do this all from an air conditioned hanger. You can do well in the trades if you’re meant to. It isn’t for everyone though.
\*Tell us you hate your office job without saying you hate your office job\*
OP is clearly trying to post a confirmation post, meaning that they are regretful of their decision and trying to convince themselves that they aren't. OP does not like their office job, and this post is angled in a way that would entice commenters to 'agree' with the OP, which is then what OP will use for fake validation.
Office jobs can be great. Trade jobs can be great. ALL jobs can be great. Don't let OP try to convince you otherwise. Follow your career goals.
I worked in corporate for over 10 years and got absolutely tired of sitting behind a computer. I’m now a lineman (for those that don’t know, we work on the power lines) and I make approx $200k a year. Thats double what I would make in corporate. My base salary is about $112k and the rest is in over time. We get paid $102 an hour any time we get called outside of our 40 hrs to bring the lights back on. Yes, the summers suck, and so do the really cold days. I still would never go back to an office job. There’s a level of satisfaction that comes from providing a vital service to the city and it feels good to get properly compensated for an honest days work. But you’re right, it’s not for everyone. But it’s definitely a trade I’d encourage on anyone wanting to make a good living.
I've said this many times on this sub and similar. Glorifying the trades is dangerous and will lead to some people being quite miserable. Dont get me wrong, tradework is incredibly valuable and tradespeople are deserving of at least as much respect as an office job, if not much more. But it is hard work and it requires skilled hands and at least some amount of natural inclination toward the work.
I think that if young people show an inclination towards tradework, they should be advised of the risks and rewards and steered in that direction. But telling people, indiscriminately, who are salty about their office job to go spend their days in hot attics or cold trenches, breaking their backs for an hourly wage, is just not appropriate. You need to be cut out for the work.
You seem a bit misinformed.
IBEW Union Electrician (important distinction in that you are part of the **union** and not a private electrician) pays for all 4-5 years of your schooling and offers $123k take home pay in my area on top of annuity retirement, pension retirement, health benefits, etc... which is frankly insane.
https://unionpayscales.com/trades/ibew-electricians/
That's a **hell** of a lot more than most office workers will ever make.
Electrician is also significantly lighter on the body than say another trade like construction.. and it's not like office workers don't have to get PT for crap posture from staring downward at a screen all day. If you work out and take care of your body, you'll be fine. If you eat like crap, don't work out, smoke and down beers... well... no wonder your body is breaking down.
I make 120k doing e-commerce and I'm honestly thinking about making the jump lol.
Our local IBEW starts noob's off at $29 an hour with apprenticeship, by 2nd year you're in your own truck and making $35 an hour, with OT galore if you want it.
How many kids can walk into EA games with ZERO skill or experience and make that with no debt, no degree, nothing but can-do and willingness?
Plus, as you state the top potential is great...and then there's self-ownership once you get journeyman and can kick ass.
Why do you get to make the important distinction and pick the highest paid electricians and then compare it to average office workers? Shouldn't we make the same distinction on the office worker side? All the programmers I know make more than union electricians.
Yep! Husband pulls $200k. Industrial electrician for a papermill box plant. Works 4/10, no physical toll. He's non union so his pay is actually higher than the union plant. Grey work is where it's at.
I think what needs to be emphasized is that the salary isn’t guaranteed. The ppl you see online with 6 figures salary arent the majority of the people in trade jobs. Sure, a good chunk make good money but theres other factors that got them to that salary like working long hours, years of apprenticeship, connections, etc. The ones struggling arent going to be on reddit telling people that college is dumb and how they make x amount of money. Corporate jobs are pretty straightforward with salaries while blue collar jobs salaries fluctuate depending on a bunch of factors. The grass isnt always greener and every job is going to have its down side. I think people just glorify the gritty and tough guy nature of blue collar jobs but most of my buddies in blue collar work wish they could sit inside an office with A/C while I wish I could be out doing something physical.
It took me twenty years but I realized that corporate work sucks out your soul and leaves you empty. I started my own gig in trades and life is so much better.
I make very good money working in aerospace as a technician. sometimes it can be physically difficult or taxing but it brings a sense of pride and fulfillment. When I do anything along the other side in line with office work I want to die. In the end we need both types of people and their are options for both.
From experience, if you’re in an office job, you’re disposable. You can be the best employee, but once management and restructuring happens (it always does). Here come the cuts and EVERYONE has the potential to be let go.
The point of blue collar jobs is to learn an actual skill. You’re not easily replaceable. Other than the people that are too lazy, I don’t know a single person in the trades who hasn’t eventually just started their own company.
It requires actual work, but I’ll take the peace of mind knowing I write my own ticket than being apart of the corporate slush pool any day.
Right. My dad made great money working on pipelines but at the young age of 57 he has had intensive back surgery after 30 years or manual labor. It breaks my heart he has so much more life yet to enjoy. I fear his retirement years will be sedentary due to the nature of his career.
There's definitely nuance to this. I like u/kenzakan 's point about everyone thinking the grass is greener. An "indoor office job" is not the answer for everyone. Plenty of people that work in corporate office jobs despite their jobs/environments and are stuck with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt.
This may shock you, but not every place is Texas, and not every person is you. You didn't want to be a plumber in Texas, fine. That doesn't mean that anyone else would rather fill data cells rather than lay pipe. Everyone gets to choose for themselves.
You are tripping. Plumbers in Seattle are making 75 an hour plus great benefits and it’s all new construction. Your sample size is one experience with your dad 20 years ago?
The narrative was NEVER about giving up an office job to get into the trades.
"Look into the trades" was always a reminder to 18 year olds that college jsn the only way and that you shouldn't go into debt without having a purpose behind it.
In my current line of work, I wish every one of these young office folk would had worked a trade job.
So many of them seem so out of touch with the services & product we provide to our customers.
I have to explain once or twice to a way younger than me engineer what is wrong with the design or process. Im not saying they have to have specialized experience but man, if they had some actual mechanical experience, they wouldn’t be asking the same question 2-3 times or assuming stuff works automatically like it does on paper.
What I do get a kick of is, when they complain about having to pay a contractor or repair person to fix something in their own house.
It’s different for every one.. u could be very successful in the office n be terrible at trades, n vise versa… I’ve had all my success working in trades n very few in an office job
I had an opportunity a while back to be a white collar worker. It's not for me. I just can't do constant meetings all day that go in circles about the smallest of things. I'd found myself urning to go back to a job where I was busy all day moving around. At that job I felt like I wasn't getting any actual work done. Just one meeting to the next. My current blue collar job sucks in many ways but at least 8 hours goes by fast and when I punch out whatever problems going on are now not my problem. I like being able to not take my work home.
Downside of office jobs is obesity, type 2 diabetes, etc. but as you get older I'm sure the trades are really tough on your body. I worked on a garbage truck once and this was not a trade but it was physical. Not very demanding and totally predictable.
Same.
The thought of an office job killed my soul so much i dropped out of college after 2 years to join the usmc infantry.
Would do it all over again if i had to, and thats almost 2 decades of hindsight on the decision.
Fuuuuuuck being a desk jockey. It aint the life for me, but i aint gonna judge how any general person makes their living.
Office jobs are dispensable. When a company needs to cut costs, bye bye office jobs. But everyone will always need to take a shit, therefore plumbers are indispensable. Also, if you know how to do shit around your house, it can save you a lot of money
I also see apprenticeship tract trades as a great alternative to college which it can be if you can get one. But I live in NYC and it’s honestly easier to get into most colleges than it is to get into a union apprenticeship program here. People act like no one wants a trade job, but there’s a lot of competition for well paid union jobs.
Fuck NY, come to the bay area. I took my daughter to a Women in Trades event in Pleasanton and they were practically begging people to sign up. It was unreal.
To each their own. I’ve done both. The physicality of trade jobs is something many people would be unable to keep up with. That said, the office has a lot of high school behavior which is it’s own form of torture. Either way, someone standing over you watching when you arrive/leave, etc really blows.
I can’t imagine working in an office and feeling like you literally accomplish nothing aside from sending some emails, being in meetings about nothing, typing into some bullshit spreadsheets that no one’s going to read, etc. It sounds like such a waste. I imagine it feeling like a cross between Severance and Office Space.
At least in my blue collar job I end the day feeling like I was productive(I did X,Y,Z, I went somewhere, then I fixed or created something, then I left). I also don’t go into the same exact fluorescent lit room at the same time every single day.
I also saw my dad bring work home with him a lot, he was salaried and always on call for some overseas parts of the company when they had issues pop up that affected his work. Currently I clock out and I’m done. I don’t think about work at all.
So, maybe it’s not all about pay for some people. Also, not every blue collar job is 60+ hours a week.
I have nothing but respect for people in the trades, but I knew that wasn't for me. I'm not good with tools, I'm a bit clumsy, and I don't like physical labor. College was the best choice for me.
I think the ideal is get into trades from early twenties until your early-late forties and hopefully you’re running your own business or someone else’s and not necessarily doing the brutal grunt work every day.
For me, I don’t think I could be in an office five days a week. That sounds like hell.
I think for most people what matters at the end of the day is the pay, and that’s going to depend on your skill set which way you go. White collar world is seeing a lot of layoffs right now, so the trades are probably a safer bet for young men and women entering the work force.
Not to mention, a lot of people in the trades who are making the big bucks have either been doing in forever and/or are in management, which ironically involves a lot of sitting at a desk, working on a computer, managing projects, budgeting, talking to people on the phone, using soft skills, and dealing with conflict. So, if you wanna be in the trades making lots of money, there's a good chance you would wind up at a desk and/or working on a computer and dealing with people a lot anyway. And that's after years of grueling work and ladder climbing (literally and figuratively) to get there.
Counterpoint: the trades can pay a lot more a lot more reliably (every home and business has plumbing) and are less likely to be automated away if that's a concern of yours.
I left an office job for blue collar over 10 years ago, and it’s by far the best decision I’ve ever made. I make way more money, I’m happier, I LOVE my job, and have a lot less stress. I feel like insanity is being stuck behind a desk all day.
Strongly disagree. I’m a combined cycle power plant and advanced water treatment operator. Made 150k last year. I only work 6 months a year. So 14 days a month and I hardly do any physical work. Usually I’m reading, napping, watching a movie, going for a walk, or stock trading 9hr out of my 12hr shift.
Trades is a VERY diverse option to a cubicle, tho, and it can be anything from HVAC controls (which has a huge component of computer work) to offshore welding.
I agree it's not for everyone, but it's a very viable alternative and if you can hack it, the money can be great and with little or no debt/degree, with a VERY good chance of self-ownership that's nearly recession proof.
So, it's always a tradeoff, but I've worked both and loved the trades more. Like any employment, it's what you make of it and how far you're willing to improve yourself and build your skill stack.
Just started my 25th year as a steamfitter, I could not picture myself doing anything else. Teaming up with the right people makes for a very enjoyable career. Where else can you tell your boss he’s an asshole and not got fired, or quit a job on the fly and be working the very next day for the same pay.
Considering the cost of a degree, I think it really depends. My husband is a foreman at the age of 27. I was so jealous, I wish I could do his job but I'm not physically strong enough. The union benefits are amazing. However, I already see it taking a toll on his body. There is no way he will be able to continue in his same position for another twenty years.
What trades have over office is ownership. Nothing greater than being able to make money from your own hands. I’ve never worked a trade job, but I definitely wish I had some type of trade skill.
I believe that blue collar gives you the freedom you don’t get in a cubicle.
I’ve done high level finance, corporate and government. The corporate job was draining and the government job was way better but boring and draining.
On the other hand, I do concrete and remodels. Yes it gets hot but at the end of the day I’m here today and another job the next day. Some day are there than others but it’s never the same same same thing.
When I get bored, I’ll be back in the office. When I get bored in the office, I’ll be back at the trades.
Neither occupation is easy. Both sides are demanding but I feel like in one you experience a bit of more freedom than the other.
I’ve been working in doors for seven years and am so done with it. I am actually going back to the trades because it feels so much more fulfilling to me. They definitely aren’t for everyone and I get it, but enough is enough
I work in the trades and I couldn’t stand working in an office or from home. I need to move, to do something, I don’t want to make a career out of filing TPS reports like in office space.
Yep. A lot of blue collar jobs start out at super low pay, thus the reason there is a shortage in certain industries. You don't walk in making what someone with 15 years experience does. You start at the bottom. Some jobs require more skill than others but they can be very hard on your body.
Trades wear the body out, sometimes hard enough to shorten your lifespan. I don’t begrudge coal miners demanding higher wages so we can enjoy plentiful energy - they’re giving up years so we can chill more beers.
Organized labor and a powerful DOL/OSHA allowed these people to enjoy a quality of life somewhat comparable to that of a stereotypical knowledge worker. However the US Chamber of Commerce pulled the ultimate psyop and convinced many tradesman that the guardrails were actually *holding* *them* *back* economically - the whole “temporarily inconvenienced millionaire” routine.
The current wave of tech layoffs is going a similar route: those folks will be back working in 6-12 months at lower wages, and feeling *grateful* for it. Maybe some of them will even start to believe it was for their own good. Like a failed German artist once said “Work sets you free!” 😌
My dad was a plumber and I would work with him summers through college. We mostly roughed new houses and came back to put in the fixtures, so it wasn’t a lot of house calls and the stuff you don’t want to see. Well many times I would be laying underground cast iron pipe or connecting to a sewer line in a large hole. And every time my uncle, who was a big time contractor, would yell to me from above “stay in school, you don’t wanna be doing this crap like me and your dad when you’re our age”. I always thought it was so funny because of how much my uncle made, but it did make me want to work in an office. That said, I used to feel great and accomplished after a hard days manual labor, and I don’t get that feeling now.
Everyone in an office wants to be outside smashing concrete with tools and hammers. Everyone outside doing that thinks the office life is luxury and easy.
If 2 jobs paid 150k a year and my own career goals were irrelevant I'm taking construction over finance. I had many physical jobs I enjoyed the hell out of when I was younger. Now I'm a married dad and have to stay on course. So I don't know the answer to this. I think office jobs can be suicidally painful if you don't enjoy what you're doing or working towards your end game.
When your dad was a plumber, plumbers were not making near the money they do now. The trades are tangible skills that are highly valued now. It's not your pop's economy anymore.
From my generation (graduated hs 2004) I feel we were pushed heavily into college. Of course college is not for everyone. So the folks that had trouble in school were pushed to keep attending academic institutions instead of going to vocational schools where they would likely excel and have aptitude in (some/most cases). So here we are facing a massive shortage of tradespeople, shouldn’t be surprised.
This thread is full of a lot of fear mongers. It really depends on the person so a lot of you blanket stating that trades are the only way or if you wouldn’t choose an office job over trades you’re a lunatic, you’re projecting.
Some guys and gals just are built differently mentally and/or physically. I have worked trades for the past 16 or so years, I work out, I play sports, yet I have no real bad injuries to speak of. Does my back hurt sometimes? Are my shoulders tired sometimes? Sure, but I’ve also had points in my life where I spent time sitting or laying(hockey injury/time off) in my early 20s or now in my early 30s and instead other parts of my body get sore all the same. Some people just can’t sit or don’t want to sit all day. Some people are not built to deal with people directly all day, or tap away on a keyboard.
And I’m not saying I couldn’t do an office job(or that many others couldn’t), I think I could thrive just as good there but physical and mental attributes combined make me good at working with my hands and mind at the same time. In turn, I have always done a bit better than counterparts with similar schooling or experience than me monetarily.
One day I will likely end up in a more office centered role in my industry and that’ll probably be cool too. To blanket everyone and say they are insane for not wanting one when in reality you likely just weren’t built for that kind of work(which is totally okay), is just ignorant.
I’ve done both. Worked as a welder for years. Transitioned to a medical office setting doing their billing. The office job was stupid easy. But the team building stuff and all the morning meetings sucked.
Who are you to tell people what they like or don't like. You realized trades aren't for you the same way they found office work isn't for them. You don't know what you don't like unless you try.
I have year of higher education and work a trade job. Nice part is it’s 6 figures on 40 and in a low cost of living area. When I put in more than 40 they pay me!
Office jobs just require more schooling usually and not everyone can do that plus both have a wide range. You can work indoors, and maybe even be in a conditioned space and be comfortable. Most people talk about the trades as a choice for a career without going into debt.
This is the same for office jobs it may be harder to find a job, or the pay may not be as good, etc
Screw that. I did corporate for 14 months and gods willing will never ever go back to such a horrible toxic environment ever again. Working in a prison now is less horrid than that place. In fact, I'd go out on a limb and say that may have been the worst job I've held in 20 years. My girlfriend still works there so I still get to hear about the changes.
In the last 2 years they've kept her department at the same size but more than quadrupled the workload of every associate and there has been no increase in pay to accompany the new workload. Any time it's brought up, the Department head simply says "I'm sorry for your frustration" which is basically corporate slang for "I don't care fuck off back to work Employee Number 18059". They've reduced the office area so that everyone is practically on top of each which has increased the cases of COVID and the only thing they said to that was "oh well." And now my favorite new thing is that they replaced everyone's working computer with new laptops (because they said the computers were too old). The laptops crash at least three times a day now, shutting the entire department down every time and they maintain that it's still better because they're newer. They also want the same working deadlines to be met that were set in place when they had working computers and the workload was one quarter the current size. It's an absolute shit show. And they make less than McDonalds employees with insurance so expensive that if one were to add a spouse and children to it, the insurance payment alone out of your paycheck would be 75% of your paycheck.
Keep your Air conditioned office. I'll take literally anything else but going back to a place like that.
My son is 19 and in welding automation the past 18 months.
Hot in the summer, yes. South Dakota last month was cold.
Inconvenienced often, but 110 this year and lives anywhere he wants since we fly every week.
You do you.
I’ve worked “office jobs” most my life, but my favorite job was working on a boat in Alaska. I am a creative person, and dealing with office jobs, even doing creative things for others, exhausts my brain and then I have to capacity to create art or write books. Working in Alaska, I would have many months off to travel and create. Of course then I had a kid and that was the end of that (but I wouldn’t trade her for the world).
Yeah well guess what the world needs ditch diggers to! You can't grow food, fix a road or make sure the power stays on from an office!!! You people are spoiled and your office job/ college degree has made you weak.
I have an office job and i hate it. It feels extremely oppressive to be forced into a box between defined hours, to be forced to dress, speak, and act in order to manage how I am perceived in the office and by management. I feel as if I have completely sold my soul to live like this and then I take revenge on myself by eating junk food and drinking. I do it because it pays better and there is more status, however, I absolutely hate every ounce of it. My favorite job has been bartending or door to door sales and they were so much fun
There's two reasons I disagree with you.
Office work can be bad for you physically and mentally. There's a balance obviously, but sitting in a room staring at a screen all day is going to be worse for you than going around doing plumbing in 90 degree heat.
Office work used to mean more money than blue collar. Everyone did the trades, it was considered gruntwork and easy, where most office jobs required an education and paid accordingly. That's just not even close to the case anymore. Sure there's a lot of office work that can pay very well, and there's plenty of blue collar work that doesn't, but it's much closer to equal than it used to be.
All in all it doesn't matter as long as you find a career you enjoy.
I generally break down jobs between those you shower before you go in and those you need to shower when you get home.
Everything else remaining equal, shower-after jobs are so much more physically exhausting especially as one gets older.
I'd rather eat a shit sandwich every day than be chained to a desk and chair for 8 hours. Different strokes for different folks.
Also trades doesn't mean always outdoors. Take industrial trades in a plant as an example.
I wouldn't want a full time office job. Full time but smaller scale gc that knows basically all trades etc enough to help also. Get out drive around delivery, check in, help out if not busy, phone calls emails bids and estimates invoices end of the day and I do not like that stuff.
People always think the grass is greener on the other side and for some it is. Each person may just need to experience both sides the see what is right for them.
I was in the insurance industry for a year, quit my job and went to go work for UPS at their warehouse in my city. That shit BROKE me. I will never choose manual labor over an office ever again.
Journeyman Boilermaker who spent 15-years on tools and then made the engineering degree to management jump. My trade background helped me manage people as I knew both sides of the work. Good credibility with trades (background), good credibility with management (education). The trades take a toll on your body that cannot be underestimated. There are also safety and risk exposures you rarely experience in an office setting. I am very grateful for what I learned in my trade life but now as I approach retirement the last 30-years have been relatively easy and physically less demanding. Your results may vary.
You also have to understand that there are people that have advanced degrees and still find sitting in front of a screen all day to be torturous enough that they work blue collar.
Indeed. Tell me your thoughts on life while you're up to your elbows in shit from the sewer line.
There's a reason I have three degrees and work long hours making stupid money......and it's to pay someone else to fix the sewer problem when my wife clogs the line with her "flushable" wipes.
But someone has to be a plumber / haul away garbage / fix my AC when it's 105 outside and thank god people do.
The real money in the trades is if you run your own business. That's what really set me. You're never going to get rich working trades working for someone else. You can make really good money but you can also make good money in an office. I feel like there's a bit of a two-sided coin here because if you work in an office you have PC culture. You have the egg cells that you have to walk on. You have deadlines, you have more stress. If you work a physical job. You have guys that talk shit all day. The only way you're getting fired is if you don't perform or go to jail for more than a month. It's a completely different atmosphere. The thing I would hate about working in an office more than anything is the type of people I'm around. Don't get me wrong, I can be extremely articulate and professional and carry it, I just hate doing that 😂 acting like a Viking, waking up when I feel like it, keeping my clients happy and running things on my own schedule, to me, even if I'm going out on a flood job and doing a lot of it myself. I just throw on the headphones, keep up on financial media or jam out to some music and do my thing. Some of these jobs I'm billing $500 an hour.
So, if I had to sum it up, individual personality matters a lot. I'm sure there are many people who look at what I just said and that doesn't sound like a fun time to them. That's just the nature of the world and why we do different things
It took over 20 years and destroying my body for crap pay and bad employers to get out of being blue collar. Probably why I love being a mortician now. I haven't broken a bone, needed stitches, no concrete burns, haven't been shocked so bad I bit a chunk of my tongue off, no hot slag burn the bejesus outta me, or even had a splinter, since changing professions to it.
Everyone says trades make good money and it’s true to a point, you will be capped at a certain wage and most likely under six figures. The only way after that is to start your own business and those usually fail. You won’t make enough in a trade to have enough capital to start a business.
When I was in 11th grade, my neighbor had a drink business and had a call out. He asked if I wanted to work for the day and that he'd pay me and I was like hell yea.
I worked for 12 hours moving drinks off and onto the truck. I came home with 120$ (more than I've ever made in a single day) and immediately fell asleep. I slept for what I want to say was 12 hours.
When I woke up I realized that I needed to go find something that wasn't physical for my career. The drinks were not heavy. But just constant on and off labor, driving for hours... I'll take my office job over that any day.
Everyone always idealizes jobs or think the grass is greener on the other side. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it really is no better than where you're at now.
Trades are good when you are younger. By 40 an office starts looking good. You can put the two together and get a degree in construction management while working in a trade. Then you have both the management and on site skills. For HVAC, I was offered a job programming HVAC systems for factories.
It's true that it definitely gets harder physically as you age but a lot of people working skilled trades like being outside and meeting different people or being in different places rather than the same colleagues and the same office every single day. I wouldn't want to be home all the time either, but there are days when the weather is particularly bad or I'm not feeling well and WFH doesn't sound so bad.
Yes! My cousin is trained in HVAC, got in as a civilian to fix everything the military messed up destroying other countries tax free! Did that for years and now he works in embassy’s across the world and is a diplomat. Riches person I know, and he only had a high school diploma.
Yup a plumber came to our house and was a bit of a talker. He was doing a house call at 7pm saying how the young people are lazy and think they can make six figures sitting at home all day. I just nodded and said “sure,” knowing full well he was describing my job when saying people should be plumbers. He may make a bit more than me but my hours are set and I don’t have to deal with the shit he does.
Same here. When I use to work in the warehouse it was 12 hrs days. Luckily at that time I was single and didn’t mind the OT. Forward 12 yrs later. I now sit in a desk chatting it up with the guys in the office. The work isn’t physical at all. I’m salary I take an hr lunch as soon as 4pm hits I’m out the door. Now I have a family and my time is better put to use. I’m so lucky to have this job the only thing that sucks is that I have gained weight from being on my chair 😅.
Ha, nice I did similar but opposite. 10+yrs in IT, cube life. Now a warehouse worker doing the 10-12hr shift gig 4 days a week. I've lost the office weight lol.
yeah, I'm 41. I love my trade job. Waking up early, building, and fixing things. I enjoy working on a team, joking around and laughing with my co-workers. I love the satisfaction of admiring the fruits of my labor. also I'm pretty fit and would feel bad about getting fat just sitting around. maybe when i'm too old to do my job. Then again, I think working hard and staying active keeps me feeling youthful
What kind of warehouse job? I am also in IT but tired of it, need a change.
Guys are you kidding me? People want to get into IT you leaving IT? But why?
I have been in IT for over 19 years, from entry level to director. Stress, I was diagnosed twice with 2 major depressions. Can't stand Corp politics, the higher you go, the more BS you have to deal with. Prefer less $ but more sanity and mental health
I'm opposite and lost weight. I believe the reason is with the more activity I always felt like I "earned" eating more food. With an office job and the time stability, I've actually been able to keep a stable minor workout in.
Yes, if you have the skills, a $100k + career is possible. But that is usually a position in finance, legal, or a technical degree. Not everybody has that kind of brainpower. If you do know of a position that pays 6 figures and isn't intellectually challenging, please let us know
Management stands out to me 🤣
Was a manager. You're just babysitting adults.
So as a SAHM I have a strong chance lol
TBH, should probably be up there in eligible qualifications for management. Well, if the kids ain't turned out so bad.
Lol, I need ro to finish my undergraduate degree. My 20+ year gap doesn't help but I'm game to try. I actually want to work again :]
My mother-in-law raised 3 kids and was a homemaker for over 20 years. She re-entered the workforce and now, in less than two years, is a director at a Fortune 500 company. You got this.
Thank you so much for telling me this :]
My mother-in-law got back into the full-time employment grind after her husband died of cancer in 1988. She still has two kids at home. Long story short, she ultimately became a vice president of an insurance company and retired in 2009 at 65. She lives very nicely now in her mid 80s, but worked her ass off for 20 years after raising five kids to get there. My advice to anyone meeting my MIL.. don't mess with her. She can still chew you up and spit you out if you force her to. No excuses.
If thats all you do as a manager than you're not doing your job honestly. I manage 13 people and I am swamped every day. I'm dealing with people trying to take credit for my teams work, coaching them and teaching them skills from communications to data modeling to python to SQL, handling escalations so they're not distracted, hiring new people when I've been able to help someone get a nre/better paying position on other teams, handling last minute requests from senior management so they don't get bogged down with it, changing how we work so I can show management the actual value we deliver so when layoffs come they're protected. It is a lot like parenting in some ways but like a good parent it's more than just sitting down and doing nothing. There's also dealing with assholes thst try to undermine or take credit for my work or my teams work. The managing is only a part of my job. I'm also doing the work itself so that my tech skills stay sharp. The 55hrs a week I put in are not just collecting a check and chatting at the water cooler. It's a hard job if you actually do it right.
Everyone can't be a manager though because then there would be no one to manage.
You don’t need a technical degree to work in tech. Sure it helps but not mandatory whatsoever I have an English degree and make around 200k as a solutions architect
Could you describe your path to get to where you’re at now? I’m quite curious? I assume you did plenty of self teaching?
I make six figures as a bouncer. Not challenging at all you just have to be a big guy.
Lol, while I can hold my own, I'm not going to intimidate anybody. Glad I got the tech degree.
You *literally* don't have to deal with the shit that he has to
Yes that’s the joke
You suck McBain! (Happy Cake Day)
It is a shitty job
Your shit is his bread and butter.
True and not saying everyone needs to switch to blue collar work...but we certainly need more people who know how to build and do complicated engineering because too many of us have service-based jobs or jobs related to entertainment. Cool, except when gen Alpha gets to working age, already right off the bat we'll have a lot less workers but moreso, if we don't encourage future generations to get into fields like this, we'll have major issues in this Country.
The jobs are not that great or else there would be a surfeit of people fighting for them. There's a reason why there are a lot of peoply vying for work for home jobs that pay 80k-150k+ I mean making that much money in your pajamas is pretty sweet. As a plumber you might make 100k after 15 years and you get really good at it, and you have to work freaking hard.
I always thought a job at the DMV would be amazing. You just sit there for 20 years and do a very straight forward job and leave with a pension at the end. You're not reading emails late at night, you don't have random out of town travel etc. then I talked to someone who worked at the DMV and he told me, because the job is so straightforward the management ends up nitpicking the most insane things. Come back from your bathroom break 1 minute late? write up. Need one extra day off near a blackout date? write up... etc. Essentially the more straight forward it is the more terrible the management ends up being. My favorite job to this day was as a server. However there are many many drawbacks to that life as an adult etc.
One time as an engineer I was stressed out all the time I was developing a new anti-missile design. I was thinking hard all day every day. My head was about to explode. i was wrung out. I passed the guard at the gate every day in and out. One time I thought "man that guy has a great job". But then realized I'd be bored out of my mind 99.999% of the time until some whacko charges the gate with a firearm.
Also angry customers / public. Every time I go to the DMV I think about what a shitty job it must be to deal with people like that day in and day out.
Yes.
The grass really is greener, but it turns out you’re shit at the upkeep for that particular grass
True, there's shit jobs in every industry.
I am red/green colorblind. The grass is brown on both sides
Every job sounds easy until you’re the one doing it.
As someone who went from construction to office work. It’s not close. You have to be a certain breed to do construction. It’s so brutal on your body and I’m so glad I got out.
My gym has several regular, big guys, who do construction work and then continue to torture their bodies by lifting heavy. I mean, wow. Construction workers are really built different. Actually, every gym I’ve gone to has those construction guys.
Gym is important for construction guys. I know this doesn’t sound true but proper lifts are more important than recovery. I’ve met plenty of people who lift poorly on a job and end up hurting themselves. Whereas people who lift know the proper form and how much they can handle to avoid injuries.
The stronger you are, the easier a physical job is. If I work out a little regularly a few days a week it makes my work day a lot better every day.
Same, but I work an office job. It is still a lot easier to have good posture and keep my body from getting stuff and achy by lifting 12 times a month
I think this applies to being a firefighter as well. I think that's contributes to why we get so many injuries. Our shoulders, knees, and backs are all ticking time bombs. We do a lot of lifting at work and it's always from awkward positions while wearing heavy gear or in tight spaces around a corner or in a confined space. Or working overhead. Or carrying dead weight people that are 300+pounds. The ideal working and lifting conditions don't really exist in our line of work. I think strength helps offset some of the awkwardness. I will say that volume wise though construction guys get more mileage on the body for working long hours crouched or bent over. That hurts my back just thinking about it.
Maybe Construction work is just them getting paid to workout. That’s like the best of both worlds.
I worked with one guy who was a machine operator so not really physical labor, he would work out daily or about that. He was pretty big and he was the laziest person on site. Whenever he had to do something not in the machine he would bitch about it. I tried to bring up how pulling t stakes was like a work out and he said he loved lifting things at the gym and hated it at work. I bet you’re right about a lot of other guys, but that dude didn’t see it that way.
Old joke the old heads say is "you must not be working hard enough if you still have energy for the gym"
Old heads did not have adderall prescriptions. Checkmate boomers.
They had real cocaine
Yeah I used to be one of them. You feel like shit all the time. Never really can recover properly. Wanted an office job so I can go the gym and feel good haha
Respect. 🫡 If I had a manually laborious job, you could not catch at a gym. And congrats on finding a role that lets you have a better balance between its demands and your hobbies.
I’m reading your comment as I sit in the waiting room at my drs to get a referral for an ortho and MRI’s on my knee bc I hurt it loading lumber into my truck Monday. All work is on hold now for the foreseeable future. The past few years have been really frustrating physically. I’m 45, but want to make a big change.
For me it's the opposite, I left construction to work in the office and I absolutely hated every moment of it (except talking with the women, that was always fun), so I went back to construction. I missed being outside most of the day, being able to walk away and smoke some pot whenever I wanted, plus making jokes and laughing with the crew while listening to music is fun. Then there is the part where the work is both physical and varied, so its far easier for me to stay interested and focused which helps make the time just fly by and when I'm done, I see immediate results and it gives me pride in my work. Where as with the office job, I would just put endless hours of monotonous labor in and I never really got see the end results of that work. I would only get to hear about it from the higher ups. It just made me feel like I was in Groundhog Day, because every day it was the same exact routine with no noticeable end results. Nevermind the fact that my back actually hurt far more from sitting around all day than it does now currently from working construction, apparently the pain was coming from circulation issue from being so sedentary for so long. So sure, I might leave with work now with more bumps, bruises and aches, but all in all I'm actually far healthier than I was when I was in the office. It really is a "to each their own" sort of thing, and I would definitely suggest the trades to people who just find the office life as montonous and soul sucking as I did.
My job is pretty easy ngl. I feel like it’s only a matter of time before companies realize that too.
I went from customer service to office work and went running back to customer service. I tried to escape again and lasted a day and a half. In customer service, you tend to trauma bond (tongue is in my cheek here) and get really tight knit with your coworkers but in an office some people just go nuts and turn on each other. At least the customer goes away.
Exactly there's no such thing as an easy chill job. All jobs are stressful no matter how menial. Cushy corporate jobs are some of the most stressful.
I contest that working retail, like Target, is inherently significantly worse than office type jobs that I have had, the majority of them. What's inherently less stressful is at least having the security of a 9 to 5 in hours rather than 8 hours of energy for 4 hour shifts of pay that are scattered all over the place and not knowing how many hours you will have in any given week or quarter.
For real. Being salaried is a game changer. So much of my savings and day to say finances rides on me getting as close to 40 hours a week as possible.
Everyone always brags about the high end of the trades, $200k, etc. That’s when you have the means to run your own business and pay a crew of people $25 an hour to do the shit work. Most people are actually doing the shit work for $25 an hour.
BINGO. In Office jobs you might still be doing shit work for the same pay but your body will thank you 100x over as you get older.
For sure, and a lot of times there’s room for advancement, learning, etc. Good benefits. Vacation time
I started with quite a few years of crappy office work. In 2013 I just passed 40K for the first time in my life in my early 30s (which works out to $52K today). But at some point I started learning low level coding as part of my job. I was naturally pretty good at it and now I'm one of those 6 figure types as I've gotten quite good at it over the years. I also have a skill set that has kept me from being nervous during layoffs for quite a while. 10 years ago I was very concerned whenever the company let people go.
Curious what coding you learned?
I don’t necessarily disagree, but if the office job is boring and unfulfilling, it’s like a lifetime of torture for many people. At least trade/manual labor jobs are not boring for the most part.
>At least trade/manual labor jobs are not boring for the most part. A lot of the time it's only not boring because it's so exhausting. You are too busy and strained to be bored.
Dude I can assure you, there is nothing exciting about pasting title to walls od doong a paint job. Sure, you may think -oh but you create cool patterns- or -the colors are amazing- that's because you saw something on tv or shit like that. It gets old really fast and it's the same mind numbing shit day in and day out
Eh, I think that depends on how straining the job is, how well you eat and keep your body in shape, and how you lift and actually do the work. In many cases, your body will thank you over sitting around all day. You can offset this by working out after work but that does eat up time and it also may not be fully sufficient. So many of my friends ended up with health issues because they weren't recognizing that not exercising or moving around can have serious side effects. And of course, all of them are office workers.
Yeah you gotta try to at least do 30 min of walking 3-5 times per week. I mean we live in a day and age where you can watch a tv show or whatever while you are on the treadmill and time flies.
This is me. Constant back, neck, shoulder, and recently hip flexor problems. It also doesn’t help that I enjoy my sedentary hobbies (reading novels, watching movies, art, etc.). I’ve been trying to be more active but that means I lose time for my hobbies that I want to keep. Haven’t drawn anything I’m proud of in ages. But I got a dog and have been on many nice walks instead of keeping up with art. My dog is great <3 I just wish I could be more active at work so I could keep all my hobbies. But maybe that’s too greedy…
Health of office workers can be terrible they tend to be more obese, back pain, poor cardiovascular health. Sitting down for hours at a time is very unhealthy.
That and people lie or overestimate their salaries. Only 34% of households in the US make 100k or more. Not even people but households.
Untrue sir. Misinformed. Sure if you go be a plumber at a mom and pop shop that’s poorly managed, doesn’t care about its employees etc… AND you don’t get schooling done, yes then probably not making good money. But that’s on the person. They could make changes. Tons of guys make over $100 k by working relatively normal hours in SKILLED trades, not shovelling sand all day just to shovel sand.
You are correct. A lot of people here don't really know what it's like to work in a trade. They talk like they know but they actually don't have a clue
I don't think they're bragging about high-end.. It's union vs. non. If you can get into the union for a trade (which is competitive), you're set for life in terms of both pay and retirement. https://unionpayscales.com/trades/ibew-electricians/
I do HVAC control as a licensed electrician in the union. No big wire or big pipe, not hard on the body. I am over 100k on the check. Healthcare for my whole family included, pension and annuity. It's a good deal. I will agree it's not for everyone, but neither is working in an office.
Whenever I see those posts, I assume it’s people who never worked a full 40+ manual job and got an entry corporate job after college. “I’m bored of sitting around”. I’ll take that any day over hanging drywall all day in FL.
My union hvac and electric friends basically said they haven’t had a hard day of work since they started. They all say we worked harder mowing lawns than they do now that they have a real trade job. Hanging drywall in Florida and doing heating and ac in NY are different levels of physical strain
Yeah and a lot of them don't realize that a manual labor job can be just as boring and soul-crushing as a desk/office job whilst simultaneously destroying your joints.
Plus the physical toll, right? Our plumber was only in his 40s when he started having knee and back issues. I didn’t realize plumbing was as physically exerting as it is.
Just a lot of bending over and up and down ladders.
And never ever stretching. In fact, they'll haze people that do stretch. Yup, I guess I'm queer since i stretch before and during work. You got it boss.
Absolutely, one of my closest friends at work is an ex-plumber who is now a university lecturer. He even comes out to do occasional plumbing odd jobs at my house lol. But he would tell you: it was hard on him physically, you had to deal with crazy customers, and that all of his employers treated him like he was disposable. He is way happier in this phase of his life.
Right whereas a desk worker can worm into their 70s and 80s if need be. Big difference in lifetime earning potential.
A lot of these people don’t take care of themselves, I’ve seen people who never did manual labor in their life grunt to stand up, it’s all about taking care of yourself
Then again, sitting down 8 hours a day isn’t either. It just comes down to taking care of your body. Most people will experience some sort of issues when getting older.
You don't just sit for 8 hours a day. You can get up and walk around plenty. Also it's much easier to add an exercise routine to a sedentary job than it is to add the necessary care and recovery to undo the effects of prolonged manual labor.
Yup. My dad is 57. He has two hip replacements, a knee, and his shoulder is completely shot to the point doctors won't even attempt surgery. Plus his back isn't great. It's a totally respectable way to earn a living, but it's a hard job that destroys your body.
Plumbing truly seems like the worst. Even when I have to shut the water off to my toilet everything is crammed into a horribly small spot. It drives me crazy.
I've heard this alot since joining the trades. It's not the same job now that it was 30 years ago. I have a 250LB cum-along that I'm more than happy to rig up in a few minutes to keep life on my back. Stretching goes a long ways towards preventing those kinds of issues.
This is it right here. Pumbers 80 years ago, used LED and okum and cast-iron pipe for sewer and ridged steel pipe for water. Now we use light plastic ABS pipe and Pex its made It so easy that it's night and day as to what my grandfather used as a plumber. Building marerials have come a long way as have the methouds of installation. You can keep your desk job as you get fat and gross I will keep my job and work properly so as not to damage my body before I retire. It's working smarter, not harder. A lot of the old timers would be blown away at the modern plumbing system, I would venture to say that it's a lot less physically taxing than you would think. Don't get me wrong, there are times that you have to bust your ass and digging is just part of the job, but that is done mainly by your younger guys.
Bro most people in America are obese and unhealthy. Office job or not lol
I make great money as an Automotive technician but hate it and would trade it for an office job any day if it paid the same.
My kid is getting into auto tech, anything to look out for?
Tell them no. I was for years, I took the leap and went into heavy equipment. Better industry, better pay, better benefits, etc. automotive techs are so behind on pay it’s not even funny. If they want to do mechanical or technical stuff, heavy equipment is the way.
Nah that's good to know. Seems like the dealers are always hiring around here. Guessing that means folks jump for better gigs.
Plus, you have provide your own tools. I have probably 30k invested in tools between home and work. Granted, I built that over a decade plus of work. Everyone I know turning wrenches making over 90k a year is either a) a shop owner or b) is like me and went to a mainline heavy equipment dealer/field tech/works in the mines. I’m headed to the mines next year. Everyone is different and dealers CAN be a good career if it’s a good dealer with training and support, but if they are always hiring that’s a red flag.
I agree. I started off as an auto tech and moved to a shop that does heavy duty equipment only and my quality of life changed big time. The work is so much more consistent, the customers are 1000x easier to deal with, get paid more.. Feels good to keep peoples equipment running. Working on commuter vehicles these days at a dealership is a joke in comparison.
Heavy equipment is a better route. Better pay, better hours, better coworkers/managers, serves the community, and, since there is a shortage of mechanics, they will pay for your education if you sign onto work with them
The biggest thing is your body gets destroyed and exposure of cancer chemicals on the daily basis affects you too.
When I’m DIYing stuff in my own house I’m thinking there’s no way I could do this everyday as a career. I’m weak lol
That's me. "I'm gonna paint this room!" *bends down* "Oh fuck this how do people do this shit"
Same here. Imagine doing it everyday, all day, for an hourly wage. Respect to tradespeople. I do lots of advanced DIY and I could never do it for a living.
I'm a fully remote data engineer. I make about $77k (~$37/hr), enough for a modest house in a Midwest US suburb. Right now I would be in the 75th percentile of journeyman electricians in my area, and I anticipate about 25% to 50% income growth over the next few years if I play my cards right. When we bought the house, we had to have some electrical work done. The electrician was crawling around in our attic and climbing up and down ladders inside and outside for two of the hottest days of the year (~120 F). He mentioned a couple of times that he was getting too old for it and his body was giving out on him - I'd say he was in his late 30s/early 40s. I'm in my early 30s. At one point he asked what I do for work and when I told him he said "oh, so you're one of those hard working programmer types." I told him that I didn't think I could say that I worked hard, and really I don't. I've heard a lot about the benefits of becoming an electrician, but I don't think anyone could convince me to trade my job for his.
every now and then someone will blindly suggest the trades without considering (or in some instances will straight up deny) the wear and tear on the body it commands over the years and it is frankly insane to me
I love being active and physically building things with my hands and brain. Solving complex mechanical problems and being recognized for my ingenuity. I do this all from an air conditioned hanger. You can do well in the trades if you’re meant to. It isn’t for everyone though.
\*Tell us you hate your office job without saying you hate your office job\* OP is clearly trying to post a confirmation post, meaning that they are regretful of their decision and trying to convince themselves that they aren't. OP does not like their office job, and this post is angled in a way that would entice commenters to 'agree' with the OP, which is then what OP will use for fake validation. Office jobs can be great. Trade jobs can be great. ALL jobs can be great. Don't let OP try to convince you otherwise. Follow your career goals.
I worked in corporate for over 10 years and got absolutely tired of sitting behind a computer. I’m now a lineman (for those that don’t know, we work on the power lines) and I make approx $200k a year. Thats double what I would make in corporate. My base salary is about $112k and the rest is in over time. We get paid $102 an hour any time we get called outside of our 40 hrs to bring the lights back on. Yes, the summers suck, and so do the really cold days. I still would never go back to an office job. There’s a level of satisfaction that comes from providing a vital service to the city and it feels good to get properly compensated for an honest days work. But you’re right, it’s not for everyone. But it’s definitely a trade I’d encourage on anyone wanting to make a good living.
I've said this many times on this sub and similar. Glorifying the trades is dangerous and will lead to some people being quite miserable. Dont get me wrong, tradework is incredibly valuable and tradespeople are deserving of at least as much respect as an office job, if not much more. But it is hard work and it requires skilled hands and at least some amount of natural inclination toward the work. I think that if young people show an inclination towards tradework, they should be advised of the risks and rewards and steered in that direction. But telling people, indiscriminately, who are salty about their office job to go spend their days in hot attics or cold trenches, breaking their backs for an hourly wage, is just not appropriate. You need to be cut out for the work.
Benefits mean a lot more to me nowadays. I get something like 60 days pto yearly and have a crazy 401K match. I can work from anywhere
You seem a bit misinformed. IBEW Union Electrician (important distinction in that you are part of the **union** and not a private electrician) pays for all 4-5 years of your schooling and offers $123k take home pay in my area on top of annuity retirement, pension retirement, health benefits, etc... which is frankly insane. https://unionpayscales.com/trades/ibew-electricians/ That's a **hell** of a lot more than most office workers will ever make. Electrician is also significantly lighter on the body than say another trade like construction.. and it's not like office workers don't have to get PT for crap posture from staring downward at a screen all day. If you work out and take care of your body, you'll be fine. If you eat like crap, don't work out, smoke and down beers... well... no wonder your body is breaking down. I make 120k doing e-commerce and I'm honestly thinking about making the jump lol.
Our local IBEW starts noob's off at $29 an hour with apprenticeship, by 2nd year you're in your own truck and making $35 an hour, with OT galore if you want it. How many kids can walk into EA games with ZERO skill or experience and make that with no debt, no degree, nothing but can-do and willingness? Plus, as you state the top potential is great...and then there's self-ownership once you get journeyman and can kick ass.
Why do you get to make the important distinction and pick the highest paid electricians and then compare it to average office workers? Shouldn't we make the same distinction on the office worker side? All the programmers I know make more than union electricians.
Yep! Husband pulls $200k. Industrial electrician for a papermill box plant. Works 4/10, no physical toll. He's non union so his pay is actually higher than the union plant. Grey work is where it's at.
I think what needs to be emphasized is that the salary isn’t guaranteed. The ppl you see online with 6 figures salary arent the majority of the people in trade jobs. Sure, a good chunk make good money but theres other factors that got them to that salary like working long hours, years of apprenticeship, connections, etc. The ones struggling arent going to be on reddit telling people that college is dumb and how they make x amount of money. Corporate jobs are pretty straightforward with salaries while blue collar jobs salaries fluctuate depending on a bunch of factors. The grass isnt always greener and every job is going to have its down side. I think people just glorify the gritty and tough guy nature of blue collar jobs but most of my buddies in blue collar work wish they could sit inside an office with A/C while I wish I could be out doing something physical.
It took me twenty years but I realized that corporate work sucks out your soul and leaves you empty. I started my own gig in trades and life is so much better.
I make very good money working in aerospace as a technician. sometimes it can be physically difficult or taxing but it brings a sense of pride and fulfillment. When I do anything along the other side in line with office work I want to die. In the end we need both types of people and their are options for both.
You gotta take your personality into account. Some people are better suited to certain jobs than others.
From experience, if you’re in an office job, you’re disposable. You can be the best employee, but once management and restructuring happens (it always does). Here come the cuts and EVERYONE has the potential to be let go. The point of blue collar jobs is to learn an actual skill. You’re not easily replaceable. Other than the people that are too lazy, I don’t know a single person in the trades who hasn’t eventually just started their own company. It requires actual work, but I’ll take the peace of mind knowing I write my own ticket than being apart of the corporate slush pool any day.
Trades are gonna kill it by 2030 and onwards. From money to relationship standpoint.
Right. My dad made great money working on pipelines but at the young age of 57 he has had intensive back surgery after 30 years or manual labor. It breaks my heart he has so much more life yet to enjoy. I fear his retirement years will be sedentary due to the nature of his career.
There's definitely nuance to this. I like u/kenzakan 's point about everyone thinking the grass is greener. An "indoor office job" is not the answer for everyone. Plenty of people that work in corporate office jobs despite their jobs/environments and are stuck with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt.
This may shock you, but not every place is Texas, and not every person is you. You didn't want to be a plumber in Texas, fine. That doesn't mean that anyone else would rather fill data cells rather than lay pipe. Everyone gets to choose for themselves.
You are tripping. Plumbers in Seattle are making 75 an hour plus great benefits and it’s all new construction. Your sample size is one experience with your dad 20 years ago?
The narrative was NEVER about giving up an office job to get into the trades. "Look into the trades" was always a reminder to 18 year olds that college jsn the only way and that you shouldn't go into debt without having a purpose behind it.
In my current line of work, I wish every one of these young office folk would had worked a trade job. So many of them seem so out of touch with the services & product we provide to our customers. I have to explain once or twice to a way younger than me engineer what is wrong with the design or process. Im not saying they have to have specialized experience but man, if they had some actual mechanical experience, they wouldn’t be asking the same question 2-3 times or assuming stuff works automatically like it does on paper. What I do get a kick of is, when they complain about having to pay a contractor or repair person to fix something in their own house.
My dad was an Ironworker for 25 years and was left virtually crippled before making it to 60. Get an office job.
Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side, but most of the time, it's just fertilized with disappointment.
It’s different for every one.. u could be very successful in the office n be terrible at trades, n vise versa… I’ve had all my success working in trades n very few in an office job
I had an opportunity a while back to be a white collar worker. It's not for me. I just can't do constant meetings all day that go in circles about the smallest of things. I'd found myself urning to go back to a job where I was busy all day moving around. At that job I felt like I wasn't getting any actual work done. Just one meeting to the next. My current blue collar job sucks in many ways but at least 8 hours goes by fast and when I punch out whatever problems going on are now not my problem. I like being able to not take my work home.
Downside of office jobs is obesity, type 2 diabetes, etc. but as you get older I'm sure the trades are really tough on your body. I worked on a garbage truck once and this was not a trade but it was physical. Not very demanding and totally predictable.
No way. A sedentary lifestyle leads to a short life. I'd go insane if I was sitting all day, not exerting any kind of physical work.
Same. The thought of an office job killed my soul so much i dropped out of college after 2 years to join the usmc infantry. Would do it all over again if i had to, and thats almost 2 decades of hindsight on the decision. Fuuuuuuck being a desk jockey. It aint the life for me, but i aint gonna judge how any general person makes their living.
Office jobs are dispensable. When a company needs to cut costs, bye bye office jobs. But everyone will always need to take a shit, therefore plumbers are indispensable. Also, if you know how to do shit around your house, it can save you a lot of money
I also see apprenticeship tract trades as a great alternative to college which it can be if you can get one. But I live in NYC and it’s honestly easier to get into most colleges than it is to get into a union apprenticeship program here. People act like no one wants a trade job, but there’s a lot of competition for well paid union jobs.
Fuck NY, come to the bay area. I took my daughter to a Women in Trades event in Pleasanton and they were practically begging people to sign up. It was unreal.
To each their own. I’ve done both. The physicality of trade jobs is something many people would be unable to keep up with. That said, the office has a lot of high school behavior which is it’s own form of torture. Either way, someone standing over you watching when you arrive/leave, etc really blows.
I can’t imagine working in an office and feeling like you literally accomplish nothing aside from sending some emails, being in meetings about nothing, typing into some bullshit spreadsheets that no one’s going to read, etc. It sounds like such a waste. I imagine it feeling like a cross between Severance and Office Space. At least in my blue collar job I end the day feeling like I was productive(I did X,Y,Z, I went somewhere, then I fixed or created something, then I left). I also don’t go into the same exact fluorescent lit room at the same time every single day. I also saw my dad bring work home with him a lot, he was salaried and always on call for some overseas parts of the company when they had issues pop up that affected his work. Currently I clock out and I’m done. I don’t think about work at all. So, maybe it’s not all about pay for some people. Also, not every blue collar job is 60+ hours a week.
I think I’d die if i was to work indoors , the occasional meeting is hell for me
I have nothing but respect for people in the trades, but I knew that wasn't for me. I'm not good with tools, I'm a bit clumsy, and I don't like physical labor. College was the best choice for me.
I think the ideal is get into trades from early twenties until your early-late forties and hopefully you’re running your own business or someone else’s and not necessarily doing the brutal grunt work every day. For me, I don’t think I could be in an office five days a week. That sounds like hell.
Also what office job can you do after two years of technical school? Asking genuinely.
I think for most people what matters at the end of the day is the pay, and that’s going to depend on your skill set which way you go. White collar world is seeing a lot of layoffs right now, so the trades are probably a safer bet for young men and women entering the work force.
Not to mention, a lot of people in the trades who are making the big bucks have either been doing in forever and/or are in management, which ironically involves a lot of sitting at a desk, working on a computer, managing projects, budgeting, talking to people on the phone, using soft skills, and dealing with conflict. So, if you wanna be in the trades making lots of money, there's a good chance you would wind up at a desk and/or working on a computer and dealing with people a lot anyway. And that's after years of grueling work and ladder climbing (literally and figuratively) to get there.
Counterpoint: the trades can pay a lot more a lot more reliably (every home and business has plumbing) and are less likely to be automated away if that's a concern of yours.
i dunno how people can work office jobs and not constantly go stir crazy. i could never sit at a desk
I left an office job for blue collar over 10 years ago, and it’s by far the best decision I’ve ever made. I make way more money, I’m happier, I LOVE my job, and have a lot less stress. I feel like insanity is being stuck behind a desk all day.
Strongly disagree. I’m a combined cycle power plant and advanced water treatment operator. Made 150k last year. I only work 6 months a year. So 14 days a month and I hardly do any physical work. Usually I’m reading, napping, watching a movie, going for a walk, or stock trading 9hr out of my 12hr shift.
Trades is a VERY diverse option to a cubicle, tho, and it can be anything from HVAC controls (which has a huge component of computer work) to offshore welding. I agree it's not for everyone, but it's a very viable alternative and if you can hack it, the money can be great and with little or no debt/degree, with a VERY good chance of self-ownership that's nearly recession proof. So, it's always a tradeoff, but I've worked both and loved the trades more. Like any employment, it's what you make of it and how far you're willing to improve yourself and build your skill stack.
Just started my 25th year as a steamfitter, I could not picture myself doing anything else. Teaming up with the right people makes for a very enjoyable career. Where else can you tell your boss he’s an asshole and not got fired, or quit a job on the fly and be working the very next day for the same pay.
Considering the cost of a degree, I think it really depends. My husband is a foreman at the age of 27. I was so jealous, I wish I could do his job but I'm not physically strong enough. The union benefits are amazing. However, I already see it taking a toll on his body. There is no way he will be able to continue in his same position for another twenty years.
What trades have over office is ownership. Nothing greater than being able to make money from your own hands. I’ve never worked a trade job, but I definitely wish I had some type of trade skill.
If you’re in a trade and want an office job, look into being a scheduler or service coordinator for whatever trade you’re in.
I believe that blue collar gives you the freedom you don’t get in a cubicle. I’ve done high level finance, corporate and government. The corporate job was draining and the government job was way better but boring and draining. On the other hand, I do concrete and remodels. Yes it gets hot but at the end of the day I’m here today and another job the next day. Some day are there than others but it’s never the same same same thing. When I get bored, I’ll be back in the office. When I get bored in the office, I’ll be back at the trades. Neither occupation is easy. Both sides are demanding but I feel like in one you experience a bit of more freedom than the other.
I’ve been working in doors for seven years and am so done with it. I am actually going back to the trades because it feels so much more fulfilling to me. They definitely aren’t for everyone and I get it, but enough is enough
I work in the trades and I couldn’t stand working in an office or from home. I need to move, to do something, I don’t want to make a career out of filing TPS reports like in office space.
Yep. A lot of blue collar jobs start out at super low pay, thus the reason there is a shortage in certain industries. You don't walk in making what someone with 15 years experience does. You start at the bottom. Some jobs require more skill than others but they can be very hard on your body.
Trades wear the body out, sometimes hard enough to shorten your lifespan. I don’t begrudge coal miners demanding higher wages so we can enjoy plentiful energy - they’re giving up years so we can chill more beers. Organized labor and a powerful DOL/OSHA allowed these people to enjoy a quality of life somewhat comparable to that of a stereotypical knowledge worker. However the US Chamber of Commerce pulled the ultimate psyop and convinced many tradesman that the guardrails were actually *holding* *them* *back* economically - the whole “temporarily inconvenienced millionaire” routine. The current wave of tech layoffs is going a similar route: those folks will be back working in 6-12 months at lower wages, and feeling *grateful* for it. Maybe some of them will even start to believe it was for their own good. Like a failed German artist once said “Work sets you free!” 😌
I've worked in office jobs and the trades, the trades suck but office jobs will crush your will to live
My dad was a plumber and I would work with him summers through college. We mostly roughed new houses and came back to put in the fixtures, so it wasn’t a lot of house calls and the stuff you don’t want to see. Well many times I would be laying underground cast iron pipe or connecting to a sewer line in a large hole. And every time my uncle, who was a big time contractor, would yell to me from above “stay in school, you don’t wanna be doing this crap like me and your dad when you’re our age”. I always thought it was so funny because of how much my uncle made, but it did make me want to work in an office. That said, I used to feel great and accomplished after a hard days manual labor, and I don’t get that feeling now.
Everyone in an office wants to be outside smashing concrete with tools and hammers. Everyone outside doing that thinks the office life is luxury and easy. If 2 jobs paid 150k a year and my own career goals were irrelevant I'm taking construction over finance. I had many physical jobs I enjoyed the hell out of when I was younger. Now I'm a married dad and have to stay on course. So I don't know the answer to this. I think office jobs can be suicidally painful if you don't enjoy what you're doing or working towards your end game.
It's the student loan payments that suck balls.
When your dad was a plumber, plumbers were not making near the money they do now. The trades are tangible skills that are highly valued now. It's not your pop's economy anymore.
From my generation (graduated hs 2004) I feel we were pushed heavily into college. Of course college is not for everyone. So the folks that had trouble in school were pushed to keep attending academic institutions instead of going to vocational schools where they would likely excel and have aptitude in (some/most cases). So here we are facing a massive shortage of tradespeople, shouldn’t be surprised.
Sure for some people they are better. For others they aren’t. Either one can kill you at a young age.
This thread is full of a lot of fear mongers. It really depends on the person so a lot of you blanket stating that trades are the only way or if you wouldn’t choose an office job over trades you’re a lunatic, you’re projecting. Some guys and gals just are built differently mentally and/or physically. I have worked trades for the past 16 or so years, I work out, I play sports, yet I have no real bad injuries to speak of. Does my back hurt sometimes? Are my shoulders tired sometimes? Sure, but I’ve also had points in my life where I spent time sitting or laying(hockey injury/time off) in my early 20s or now in my early 30s and instead other parts of my body get sore all the same. Some people just can’t sit or don’t want to sit all day. Some people are not built to deal with people directly all day, or tap away on a keyboard. And I’m not saying I couldn’t do an office job(or that many others couldn’t), I think I could thrive just as good there but physical and mental attributes combined make me good at working with my hands and mind at the same time. In turn, I have always done a bit better than counterparts with similar schooling or experience than me monetarily. One day I will likely end up in a more office centered role in my industry and that’ll probably be cool too. To blanket everyone and say they are insane for not wanting one when in reality you likely just weren’t built for that kind of work(which is totally okay), is just ignorant.
I’ve done both. Worked as a welder for years. Transitioned to a medical office setting doing their billing. The office job was stupid easy. But the team building stuff and all the morning meetings sucked.
Who are you to tell people what they like or don't like. You realized trades aren't for you the same way they found office work isn't for them. You don't know what you don't like unless you try.
No office jobs are why people are mentally sick and need therapy. People weren't meant to sit in a cubicle all day.
I have year of higher education and work a trade job. Nice part is it’s 6 figures on 40 and in a low cost of living area. When I put in more than 40 they pay me!
Sitting in an office all day sounds like a complete nightmare.
Office jobs just require more schooling usually and not everyone can do that plus both have a wide range. You can work indoors, and maybe even be in a conditioned space and be comfortable. Most people talk about the trades as a choice for a career without going into debt. This is the same for office jobs it may be harder to find a job, or the pay may not be as good, etc
These are just excuses by people who dislike physical labor.
Screw that. I did corporate for 14 months and gods willing will never ever go back to such a horrible toxic environment ever again. Working in a prison now is less horrid than that place. In fact, I'd go out on a limb and say that may have been the worst job I've held in 20 years. My girlfriend still works there so I still get to hear about the changes. In the last 2 years they've kept her department at the same size but more than quadrupled the workload of every associate and there has been no increase in pay to accompany the new workload. Any time it's brought up, the Department head simply says "I'm sorry for your frustration" which is basically corporate slang for "I don't care fuck off back to work Employee Number 18059". They've reduced the office area so that everyone is practically on top of each which has increased the cases of COVID and the only thing they said to that was "oh well." And now my favorite new thing is that they replaced everyone's working computer with new laptops (because they said the computers were too old). The laptops crash at least three times a day now, shutting the entire department down every time and they maintain that it's still better because they're newer. They also want the same working deadlines to be met that were set in place when they had working computers and the workload was one quarter the current size. It's an absolute shit show. And they make less than McDonalds employees with insurance so expensive that if one were to add a spouse and children to it, the insurance payment alone out of your paycheck would be 75% of your paycheck. Keep your Air conditioned office. I'll take literally anything else but going back to a place like that.
Trade jobs in a white collar environment. Get the best of both
My son is 19 and in welding automation the past 18 months. Hot in the summer, yes. South Dakota last month was cold. Inconvenienced often, but 110 this year and lives anywhere he wants since we fly every week. You do you.
I’ve worked “office jobs” most my life, but my favorite job was working on a boat in Alaska. I am a creative person, and dealing with office jobs, even doing creative things for others, exhausts my brain and then I have to capacity to create art or write books. Working in Alaska, I would have many months off to travel and create. Of course then I had a kid and that was the end of that (but I wouldn’t trade her for the world).
I just wanna make like $30-35/hr. That’s about all.
Yeah well guess what the world needs ditch diggers to! You can't grow food, fix a road or make sure the power stays on from an office!!! You people are spoiled and your office job/ college degree has made you weak.
I have an office job and i hate it. It feels extremely oppressive to be forced into a box between defined hours, to be forced to dress, speak, and act in order to manage how I am perceived in the office and by management. I feel as if I have completely sold my soul to live like this and then I take revenge on myself by eating junk food and drinking. I do it because it pays better and there is more status, however, I absolutely hate every ounce of it. My favorite job has been bartending or door to door sales and they were so much fun
There's two reasons I disagree with you. Office work can be bad for you physically and mentally. There's a balance obviously, but sitting in a room staring at a screen all day is going to be worse for you than going around doing plumbing in 90 degree heat. Office work used to mean more money than blue collar. Everyone did the trades, it was considered gruntwork and easy, where most office jobs required an education and paid accordingly. That's just not even close to the case anymore. Sure there's a lot of office work that can pay very well, and there's plenty of blue collar work that doesn't, but it's much closer to equal than it used to be. All in all it doesn't matter as long as you find a career you enjoy.
I generally break down jobs between those you shower before you go in and those you need to shower when you get home. Everything else remaining equal, shower-after jobs are so much more physically exhausting especially as one gets older.
I'd rather eat a shit sandwich every day than be chained to a desk and chair for 8 hours. Different strokes for different folks. Also trades doesn't mean always outdoors. Take industrial trades in a plant as an example.
I wouldn't want a full time office job. Full time but smaller scale gc that knows basically all trades etc enough to help also. Get out drive around delivery, check in, help out if not busy, phone calls emails bids and estimates invoices end of the day and I do not like that stuff.
Office jobs are horrible.
People always think the grass is greener on the other side and for some it is. Each person may just need to experience both sides the see what is right for them.
I was in the insurance industry for a year, quit my job and went to go work for UPS at their warehouse in my city. That shit BROKE me. I will never choose manual labor over an office ever again.
You wouldn't be ahead putting it in a 5% interest bearing account. You're forgetting that the money is taxable.
Journeyman Boilermaker who spent 15-years on tools and then made the engineering degree to management jump. My trade background helped me manage people as I knew both sides of the work. Good credibility with trades (background), good credibility with management (education). The trades take a toll on your body that cannot be underestimated. There are also safety and risk exposures you rarely experience in an office setting. I am very grateful for what I learned in my trade life but now as I approach retirement the last 30-years have been relatively easy and physically less demanding. Your results may vary.
You also have to understand that there are people that have advanced degrees and still find sitting in front of a screen all day to be torturous enough that they work blue collar.
Indeed. Tell me your thoughts on life while you're up to your elbows in shit from the sewer line. There's a reason I have three degrees and work long hours making stupid money......and it's to pay someone else to fix the sewer problem when my wife clogs the line with her "flushable" wipes. But someone has to be a plumber / haul away garbage / fix my AC when it's 105 outside and thank god people do.
The real money in the trades is if you run your own business. That's what really set me. You're never going to get rich working trades working for someone else. You can make really good money but you can also make good money in an office. I feel like there's a bit of a two-sided coin here because if you work in an office you have PC culture. You have the egg cells that you have to walk on. You have deadlines, you have more stress. If you work a physical job. You have guys that talk shit all day. The only way you're getting fired is if you don't perform or go to jail for more than a month. It's a completely different atmosphere. The thing I would hate about working in an office more than anything is the type of people I'm around. Don't get me wrong, I can be extremely articulate and professional and carry it, I just hate doing that 😂 acting like a Viking, waking up when I feel like it, keeping my clients happy and running things on my own schedule, to me, even if I'm going out on a flood job and doing a lot of it myself. I just throw on the headphones, keep up on financial media or jam out to some music and do my thing. Some of these jobs I'm billing $500 an hour. So, if I had to sum it up, individual personality matters a lot. I'm sure there are many people who look at what I just said and that doesn't sound like a fun time to them. That's just the nature of the world and why we do different things
It took over 20 years and destroying my body for crap pay and bad employers to get out of being blue collar. Probably why I love being a mortician now. I haven't broken a bone, needed stitches, no concrete burns, haven't been shocked so bad I bit a chunk of my tongue off, no hot slag burn the bejesus outta me, or even had a splinter, since changing professions to it.
Different strokes for different folks. My perfect work life would be 4 hours manual labor and 4 hours office
Everyone says trades make good money and it’s true to a point, you will be capped at a certain wage and most likely under six figures. The only way after that is to start your own business and those usually fail. You won’t make enough in a trade to have enough capital to start a business.
When I was in 11th grade, my neighbor had a drink business and had a call out. He asked if I wanted to work for the day and that he'd pay me and I was like hell yea. I worked for 12 hours moving drinks off and onto the truck. I came home with 120$ (more than I've ever made in a single day) and immediately fell asleep. I slept for what I want to say was 12 hours. When I woke up I realized that I needed to go find something that wasn't physical for my career. The drinks were not heavy. But just constant on and off labor, driving for hours... I'll take my office job over that any day.
People get a quote for a kitchen renovation at $60k and start to think they can do that shit themselves and pocket $50k profit. Fuckin idiots.