So, I've been a blue collar worker all my life.
I'm starting a new job next week where I'm going to be salaried/exempt. Kinda think that means I'll be considered “white collar”… it's fucking weird.
Job itself wouldn't seem to necessitate that designation. When I went through the interview process, I gave my pay range as I typically would, in hourly wage ranges. The interview felt blue collar and the descriptions fit.
I'm the guy that always tries to work my wage. I'm currently a supervisor (in name only) in charge of a small custodial staff (actively hate the job). I've tried to unionize or at least heavily suggest unionizing. I bitch and grouse about management being insanely stupid. I tell my coworkers to take their sick days if they need to, I don't need to know their business, unlike how my boss seems to want excruciating details. I treat my coworkers like adults and do the bare minimum amount of “supervisor” work. My boss always states his goals and priorities, and I do my best to simply meet the bare minimum on the goals, we aren't paid enough to bust our asses. Hell, I'm on my last 2 days of my 2 week notice (because the place did genuinely help me out when I was in a major bind) and I'm doing the absolute bare minimum that I can.
This new job gets me back into my preferred industry (construction related). The job seems blue collar in nature, and I've hung around enough to get a decent picture of what it entails. I'm not worried about the lack of overtime pay or that kind of stuff, job is pretty clear cut on not needing that level of stupidity (something I mentioned in my interview was my dislike of constant overtime because it usually meant management was failing on their end and shit was rolling downhill).
So yeah, just kind of conflicted about all this.
Any of you have pointers or things I should watch out for?