“I’m 24 years old. I have just completed by bachelor’s degree and graduated from one of Singapore’s finest universities. I’m looking for a job. No, not just any job. No way am I going to work as a maintenance technician or as a MacDonald’s employee. That’s way beneath my abilities.” Unfortunately, that’s the way society works in the 21st century. It’s shocking how narrow our perception of success is.
Ever wonder why people toil through the hardships of school? Ever wonder why they sacrifice sleep, their social life, and maybe even quality family time just to study for their examinations? And why they get that bank loan just to get through university?
Definitely, it’s because you’ve always had your eye on that “white-collar job”. To gain all the public recognition and praise you could ever hope for. The reality is inescapable; Our society criminally glamorizes white-collar professions at the expense of their blue-collar counterparts. The job we have instantly defines our image in our society. Our social status, our reputation, depends on our job. People associate office jobs with wealth and success, and bue-collar jobs with “menial”, “unimportant” and “uneducated”. Waiters will never be likened to a Lawyer. Sad as it may sound, everyone dreams to be the latter while they look down on the former.
You cannot deny it; we dread imagining ourselves being cleaners at a mall. We look down upon construction workers who toil hours in the sun. Society has taught us that the money is the key to a successful and fulfilling life. And so, university students elevate themselves to righteously believe that being a waiter at MacDonalds, a cashier at NTUC, or a part-time plumber is shameful. They are taught that they are failures if they go through education only to fail to be a big shot at your office. The perception of success has become a sick-twisted tale. We need to change that. We don’t want our children growing up thinking that being a banker and earning $30 000 a month is anymore superior to dishing out western food in a school canteen for $2.50 a plate.
Blue-collar jobs are no less vital to society than a white-collar job. People have associated blue-collar jobs to be menial tasks for the uneducated. Wrong. Blue-collar jobs simply require a different set of skills. The office can teach you how to design a smartphone app, but a construction site will teach you how to piece a building together, brick by brick. People have wrongly labeled the hands-on work involved in blue-collar jobs to be tiring and undesirable. These blue-collared jobs require one to learn on the job, picking up a set of skills that cannot be taught in a classroom. The different situations one adapts to bring invaluable lessons and skills that are the true rewards of a blue-collared job. Add that to the sense of satisfaction you get when you see the smile of a hungry man you served, the satisfaction as you walk by a skyscraper knowing you contributed to that beauty; that’s fulfillment. It’s not just found in money, it’s found in meeting new people, learning new things, and giving to society. The other huge misconception is that white-collar jobs hold a larger importance to society. We have accepted the hideous flaw in logic that scientists working in cancer research should get all the glory while being a roadsweeper is disdainful. Sure, it may be an exaggeration, but is keeping the streets clean really inferior to medical science? People assume that since medical science requires a higher level of education and could impact many lives, it’s a job that deserves all the glory. We have to admit that many blue-collared jobs can never match the intellectual capacity required in white-collared jobs. But we overlook the glaring factor of societal contribution. Those uncles and aunties you see pushing a cart around in shopping malls? They spend countless hours of effort to keep the mall clean for you to have the luxury of hygiene. That undergraduate working behind the stall counter? He faces huge level of stress to satisfy your impatience and to put that bowl of noodles on your tray, so that you can have peace of mind as your re-energize yourself to go back to the office. We simply cannot undermine the vital contributions of blue-collar workers in our society. Without them, brilliant designers could draw up plans for skyscrapers but we would never see the Marina Bay Sands built into our skyline. Without them, no one would be there in the polluted factory to give you shoes or clothes. Without them, our country would have garbage-filled streets and poor-hygiene-born diseases will be more widespread than cancer.
This societal perception has to change; no more looking down on jobs in the fastfood industries, no more belittling every single drop of sweat of the road sweeper you passed by. No more overlooking these everyday heroes as we heap praise and recognition on cash-loaded businessmen. They deserve some credit too.