A lot of people look down on blue collar work, which I think is misguided. Especially for skilled blue collar work (and most type of work does benefit from skill/experience).
Basically, thereās a popular notion that itās objectively better to be a CEO than a plumber, or an engineer than a barber, and thatās pretty off base. So itās not that they criticize blue collar work in any overt way; itās that they assume that that people in ālowerā jobs would all want to be in āhigherā roles if they had the choice. A technician would want to be an engineer. A janitor would want to be a CEO.
There are a lot of studies on job happiness and one of the most consistent correlations is that people are happier when they get more immediate feedback. Like if you cut peopleās hair or fix mechanical issues or wire up electronic boxes, you often resolve things in minutes, hours, days, or weeks depending the specific task, and with progress along the way, so you get that quick feedback loop where you see the positive results of your work quickly and tangibly. Nothing lingers, unclear and vague.
And for those jobs, often when youāre outside of work hours, youāre truly out. You donāt have to think about it. You can fully devote your focus elsewhere. Thereās not some major thing hanging over your head, other than sometimes financial stress or indirect things.
Now, obviously jobs with more complexity and compensation and scale give people other benefits. More material comfort and safety, more power to impact the world at scale, more public prestige, etc. and for some people thatās important for happiness, and for others it is not. And the cost is that itās generally highly competitive, rarely if ever turns off, and usually comes with much slower and more vague feedback loops in terms of seeing or feeling whether your work is making things better or not.
There was a time in my life where wiring up electronic boxes was really satisfying. Each project had a practical purpose but then also was kind of an artform since I wanted it to look neat for aesthetic and maintainability purposes. I would work on these things like a bonsai enthusiast would sculpt bonsai. And then eventually I would design larger systems and have technicians wire them instead, but for some of the foundational starting points Iād still set up the initial core pieces to get it started right. I wasnāt thrilled when I realistically had to give that up when I moved into management for a while.
I have a housekeeper clean my house every couple weeks. Sheās a true pro; she used to clean high-end hotels for years and now works for herself cleaning houses. When we travel, she can let herself in and clean our place, since we trust her.
She doesnāt speak much English, but her daughter does, and that daughter recently graduated college.
Notably, she consistently sings while she cleans. She could listen to music or podcasts but doesnāt. She just sings every time she cleans. I can tell sheās generally in a state of flow while cleaning. Sheās good at what she does, and itās kind of a meditative experience involving repetition but also experience to do it properly and efficiently and then a satisfying conclusion of leaving things better than how they were found. Turning chaos to order.
Last year she was hit by a truck while driving, and had to be out of work for a few months to recover. When she came back, we just back-paid her the normal rate for those few months as though she cleaned on schedule, so she wouldnāt have any income gap from us. Full pay despite a work gap. She was shocked when we did that. We werenāt sure her financial situation (I assume itās pretty good actually based on her rate), but basically we just treated the situation as though she were salaried with benefits even though she works on a per-job basis. Because skilled, trustworthy, and happy people are hard to come by and worth helping and maintaining connections with.
If I were to guess, I honestly think she is a happier person than I am on a day to day basis. Itās not that Iām unhappy; itās that I think whatever percentage I might be on the subjective mood scale, she is visibly higher. I experience a state of flow in my work, and my type of work gives me a more frequent state of flow than other work I could do, but I think her work gives her an even higher ratio of flow.
Anyway, my point is that optionality is important. While itās true that some jobs suck and some jobs are awesome, and financial security matters a lot, for the most part itās more about how suited you are for a particular type of work at a particular phase in your life. And youāre not defined by your work; itās just one facet of who you are among several facets.
Find what gives you a good state of flow, pays your bills, lets you save a surplus, and lets you express yourself in one way or another.
