Is it just me, or is the blue-collar mentality getting really old? And what I mean by that is in any male dominated, blue-collar field, the new person gets absolutely crapped on just for breathing. Or if you make a mistake you are worthless. Or if you are not a full on red-blooded republican and have a different opinion than everyone then you are a fruit loop. If an apprentice asks too many questions then they are annoying. If you're not 15 min early then you're late. Men making an insane amount of uncomfortable sexual jokes, and being racist and sexist as f***. Males in leadership positions can somehow get away with being creepy towards women in lower positions than them. Live to work and work to live. “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps”. And older men complaining about “none of these kids want to work nowadays” when people like them are the reason why.
While working for a large aircraft maintenance company, the old guys got mad at me for asking too many questions. I was an apprentice and had no idea what I was doing, and they were the ones who were tasked with teaching me. Things were getting so bad that I ended up leaving because people were starting to dislike me just for asking questions, and I just felt that if these are the type of people that I would work with on these jets my whole life, I want no part in that. How is an apprentice supposed to learn in that type of industry? Did they just expect me to hope for the best and just guess how to work on the multi-million dollar jet??
At other blue collar jobs, I have gotten lots of bottle rockets shot at me from under bathroom doors, and people just picking on me all day to no end. I understand if we are both giving each other crap, or a couple jokes, but a lot of those guys just won't stop even if you ask them to. Actually, if you ask them to stop it will probably make things worse. They like to call it “sensitivity training”. Also, as a young female working in this industry, there is an insane amount of creepy men you have to deal with. When I was 14 I had 2, 50+ year old men hit on me at work (I hadn't realized until later on, I was too innocent at that age). And I have had to tell a couple other guys off a few years after that.
I thought all this stuff was normal to deal with at a workplace, but turns out I was trying to live my life on hard mode. I thought there was something wrong with me not being able to handle it, but then I realized I didn't have to subject myself to any of that. Off to the next thing.
Have any of you dealt with this while working at a blue-collar job? Have I just picked bad workplaces?