White-collar
workers and blue-collar workers have different knowledge and emotions at work.
White-collar workers are intellectual laborers whereas blue-collar workers are
physical laborers. I am not trying to classify them by their capabilities and
values but trying to classify them by characteristics of their work. It doesn't
mean that intellectual laborers are clever and nice or that blue-collar workers
do physical work because they lack knowledge. It is just to explain their work
from psychological points of view.
When
the human mind and psychology are operated, the conscious is operated for
white-collar workers whereas the unconscious is operated for blue-collar
workers. The conscious and the unconscious must be understood accurately. Generally,
human psychology is separated into two: the conscious and the unconscious. The
conscious is the psychology that operates when we feel emotions and recognize
through thoughts and memories. The unconscious operates but is neither felt nor
recognized.
White-collar
workers are called intellectual laborers since they constantly plan and make
something by perceptions, thoughts, and memories as their conscious operates,
which makes them have more knowledge of jobs. Intellectual labor is static work
from a psychological point of view. Static work generates lots of stress because
of constant thinking as the conscious is strengthened. Blue-collar labor, on
the other hand, is dynamic work that requires the physical body. It consumes
the physical energy whereas intellectual labor consumes the psychological
energy as the conscious (thoughts) operates. Also, the body feels tired when
stress is generated in psychology, which causes psychological tiredness.
White-collar workers do not feel physical but psychological tiredness.
Blue-collar workers are different
from white-collar workers. The unconscious, which makes expressions in
speeches, actions, and facial expressions, operates in them; it is pretty
dynamic. Whereas intellectual labor that the conscious operates is static and
quiet, dynamic labor comes out in forms of speeches, actions, and facial
expressions in most cases; these expressions are due to the operation of the
unconscious. The operation of the conscious is made partially for them. Thus,
blue-collar workers require to have more in speeches, actions, and facial
expressions in their office work, because they fortify the unconscious
resulting more expressions. For example, working as an operator at a call
center doesn’t mean that it is a white-collar job. The duty of the job uses
speeches, actions, and expressions. This is called emotional labor. As the
emotional labor, it is a blue-collar job that wrapped up a white-collar job.
For example, if you work at a call center, you are not
white-collar just because you sit on a chair and talk on the phone. The call
center's job is to do it with words, actions, and facial expressions. We call
it emotional labor. This type of emotional labor is a blue-collar wrapped in
white-collar. So, they work very hard physically and mentally, not physically
or dynamically.
As for emotional labor, I classify it
as a white-collar worker since it is the work that intellectual work and job
knowledge are combined together. But, in fact, job actions are more
strengthened and cause emotional laborers more stress from making repetitive
expressions in speeches, actions, and facial expressions. The stress that
emotional laborers get is not only the stress of the intellectual work of
white-collar workers have, but also physical tiredness caused by the dynamic
work of the blue-collar workers who constantly make expressions in speeches and
actions have. Therefore, emotional labor is very dangerous job psychologically.
We
can easily find emotional laborers around us such as operators of call centers,
salespeople of markets, counselors or customer service, bank tellers, flight
attendants, nurses, social workers, lecturers, teachers, etc. All of them do
both intellectual and physical work simultaneously. Like this, we call those
who have both intellectual and physical works, emotional laborers. They are
perceived as white-collar workers but do work that mostly require physical
labor.
We have many counselors and social
workers around us. They meet various people, and their job is related to making
expressions in speeches, actions, and facial expressions. Also, even though
they have more than enough job knowledge, their jobs, in reality, must be done
using expressions in forms speeches, actions, and facial expressions. They must
perceive others' speeches, actions, and facial expressions; due to this, they
feel intellectual and physical tiredness at the same time. In the end,
psychological stress and physical tiredness are more added. The mind and
psychology of these people are more likely in very serious circumstances in
most cases.
The
sales department of a company is divided into two groups by whether their work
is based more on job knowledge or on physical activities. Those who need job
knowledge more in their work can be considered as white-collar workers, but
those who always meet and deal with customers can be considered as blue-collar
workers since their jobs require physical activities. However, the sales
department jobs require both in most cases. Salespeople of a company, dealers
of vehicles or other products, insurance sellers are the example of the
emotional laborer.
As
explained above, emotional laborers suffer from stress and physical tiredness
due to that both job knowledge and physical activities are required. As they
suffer psychological difficulties, the turnover rate is high. They also easily
get worn out both psychologically and physically, but the studies of emotional
labor are not much being done. It is the field that cannot be dealt with easily
without understanding the psychological points of view. Considering jobs
being done on desks as white-collar labor and jobs being done by physical
activities in factories as blue-collar labor are the old fashion. The
emotional labor is being expanded as the service industry develops.
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