Working or Middle Class?

[WedTheBed]

What’s the difference between them? As in.. what does one have to be middle class that working class don’t have?

I was talking to my friend, and I made a comment about being working class which she looked at me in shock and said I’m not working class, I’m middle.. but I don’t know how. I feel like we don’t really have anything to show to be middle class?😂

light hearted* I’m just interested to see what people interpret.

Tricky one. I think the modern classification systems are more sophisticated now for the very reason it's not suitable for purpose any longer.

www.ukgeographics.co.uk/blog/social-grade-a-b-c1-c2-d-e

Sorry you wanted light hearted! Couldn't think of how to make this lighthearted. ( obviously lacking in humour this am!)

I'd describe myself as middle class. I think it's because my parents had professional jobs (dad was a civil servant and mum was a health visitor - both retired now) rather than manual jobs.

May I refer you to Jilly Cooper's seminal "work" Class?

Middle class is when you get out of the bath to have a pee.

They’re pretty WC jobs I’d say!

Really? My dad was quite a senior civil servant?

This is basic A level sociology

Working class
Those individuals engaged in manual work, often having low levels of educational achievement. The classic, traditional working class jobs include heavy labouring and factory based work.
Middle class
Those individuals engaged in non-manual work, often having higher levels of educational achievement. Classic middle class jobs include everything from doctors and lawyers to clerical workers.

Yes doctor/lawyer/accountant is middle class. Nurse is a working class job as is civil servant unless you’re the PM!

@YaWeeFurryBastard of course civil service is not wc per se. Would you say Chris Whittaker was working class?

I consider myself working class but I have a masters degree. It's a way of thinking that I'm yet to break free of.

Women stay home to look after the kids, men go out to work. Working more as a community. Being there for your neighbours. Working an honest job.

Whitty

Says who? @YaWeeFurryBastard . That doesn't sound right to me.

Civil service is not a working class job. Or maybe we should go and tell all those Oxbridge fast steamers that and see how they take it. It's white collar and often a professional role so middle class.

In answer to op. Class is fluid and comprised of wealth, the type of people in your social circle and the type of norms and behaviours you develop (watch Corrie or the opera). You can change your class along any of these lines which means you could win the lottery but still hang around the pub with your old working class mates and go for a chippy tea. It's then subjective as to whether you'd still be working class or not.

Of course it is. The vast majority of civil servants have unskilled roles. Obviously there are exceptions but generally I’d say it’s a working class job.

What are you on about 😂 your average oxbridge “fast steamer” does not work in a standard civil service role

Well I hate to break it to you, but they do 😂 the most of the lower grades of the civil service would be WC but I would say mid level and above grades no way.

Civil Service was a solidly middle class role.

I have quite a few friends from oxbridge and none of them work in average civil service roles. You don’t even need a degree to join the civil service! As I said, aside from politicians I don’t know anyone from oxbridge who works in the civil service.

Many manual labourers I know are married to someone in non manual job like nursing (inc my parents) so which job decides whether family is wc or mc? I'd have said my family was mc.
What about farming? It's a pretty intensive manual job but farmers I have met have seemed v mc although the whole thing is subjective.

There is no average civil service role 😂 all fast streamers go into roles that already exist within the civil service to build them to get onto a career path on the scheme they’re on e.g. policy. Plenty end up in job centres etc.

Operational work may be more working class but the minute you introduce a desk then you're moving into middle classes and many many grade 7s and above are Oxbridge. Of course they could be working class Oxbridge students.

It's all so daft now. I personally don't think there is much of a middle class left since 'uneducated' manual jobs such as builders could and do earn more than many 'middle class' roles. Believing in the class system is what keeps it propped up. In the end we're all slaves unless we don't have to work at all. I know ok it's not only about earnings but there's very little that divides anyone in the U.K. once you earn well anyway.

I spend most of my week with so called upper class people and it makes me realise so called wc and mc are basically all the same to them, they have little interest in getting to know you unless you're of some use to them.

The class system is so antiquated now and quite pointless in the modern era, I hope it diminishes to nothing eventually as all this division is meant to make the top look like they are more relevant than they really are.

I often wonder this. I think of myself as working class because my parents worked in manual jobs (shop work/cleaner/warehouses) and we lived in a council flat, however I went to uni, earn decent money, am a home owner & DC is in private school so now I’d say I’m more middle class (except for my accent 😂).

Agreed, 💯