White Collar Man In A Blue Collar World

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White Collar Man in a Blue Collar World
Bob Muldoon’s essay “White Collar Man in a Blue Collar World” is a narration of his experiences after being laid off at his white collar job and him having to take on a blue collar job. Muldoon has an Ivy League education including two masters degrees but in today’s rough economic turmoil events such as his are very common. A number of well-educated individuals are facing such issues due to their company downsizing and opt to turn to blue collar jobs. Muldoon states “It’s a common trend, now that unemployment is at 5.8 percent” (210). Additionally, Muldoon is put at a disadvantage because after losing his job the only place he could get work is somewhere his degrees were not of importance. The culture he was accustomed to at his previous workplace was so different from hydroseeding. His new boss was quite perplexed when he learned that Muldoon had no idea on how to drive the forklift. To him, this was a basic necessity while for Muldoon and his cultural background of Ivy League education, it was foreign. Nonetheless, despite his shortcomings, he still was of use to some extent. His educational background came into play when navigating Microsoft Office and editing the punctuation in their company’s fliers. “…ours is a clash of cultures. On days off, the boss changes the oil of his pickup, retiles his kitchen floor or does brickwork; I take my car through the automatic wash, go bird watching or read…” (211).

This is an illustration of some of the cultural differences each workplace has. For Muldoon, this difference on how his boss opted to spend his free time was not what he was used to because of his former work culture.
Works Cited
Green, Stuart P. Lying, cheating, and stealing: A moral theory of white-collar crime. Oxford University Press, 2006.