To think some people are really snobby about tradespeople?

[Loveheart13]

I’ve noticed that a lot of people really look down on tradespeople/jobs with practical skills.

Dh works in a trade and he earns very well. Obviously I don’t talk about it. I’ve noticed that people make a lot of assumptions that it’s poorly paid, that you must be a bit thick.

I’ve got friends ds and work colleagues who think that university is the only way. I know someone whose nearly adult child is not very academic at all but they are determined to push on as they are certain that anything less than a degree is complete failure.

Why are people so snobby about it?

I think people think you should go to uni if you are able enough.

Maybe as they went to a decent school that taught them the only way is uni followed by an office job. Lots of it about. Try being a delivery driver lol

Yes it’s a narrow minded attitude that annoys the pants off me tbh

So many essential (and often old traditional) trades are dying out because of this attitude, and the attitude of many young people who see manual trades as too much like hard work or not Instagrammy enough. I used to live in an old house and examples included...

Chimney sweep - lovely guy who eventually gave up with trying to apprentice youngsters, even though it was a good living.

Thatcher - again, said youngsters just weren't interested.

Good tradespeople are worth their weight in gold and never run out of work. I used to bend over backwards to keep my regular trades happy when they worked at my house. Unlike my stuck-up neighbour who treated them like shit and then wondered why nobody would work for her.

I disagree. People know it's skilled work. If they thought it wasn't, they wouldn't have to hire someone to do it for them.

The problem is the attitudes of (most) tradies. I've yet to encounter one that doesn't mansplain or talk to me like I'm an idiot. I've had workmen make up stories about how using plastic connectors on my washing machine will damage my walls and roof! All because he didn't want to push it back in place. Wtf!

I really enjoy the moment their jaw hits the ground when they discover I'm an engineer, after talking to me like a clueless idiot.

It's also VERY difficult to find one that's not a cowboy and actually completes the job to a high spec.

I dread when a job needs done that I can't complete myself. The initial attempts of trying to weed out the crooks and having to listen to them slagging off the previous workman's job is exhausting.

I don't actually know anybody who is snobby about tradespeople, far less under the impression that it's a poorly paid profession(s). Quite the opposite, if anything.

Perhaps in days of yore, but certainly not now.

Oh 100%. And they're such useful job + highly skilled people, I think people see some manual jobs as "below them" but it's such an old fashioned assumption, lots of tradespeople are highly qualified in the trade they practice and tbh have far more practical skills than the average joe.

I'm always shocked at the snobbery in my office around it! Wild when my colleagues don't realise they're out skilled and out earned by the people they're judging 🤷 I'm always lovely to out tradespeople! Never struggled to get anyone out for any jobs and I do think that is part of it.

If you really want to do a job that requires a degree then obviously that’s the way forward. But I’m sure for some people it’s just a status thing.

Some people are more suited to practical work and it doesn’t mean that they’re stupid or poorly paid. Which seems to be the attitude that I’ve come across.

I don't know anyone snobby about tradespeople... I do however know a LOT of people fed up with how unreliable they are and how it's almost impossible to find someone who will do a good job.

The industry seems to be full of a lot of misogynistic men taking the utter piss...

I'm sure there's good ones and your DH is lovely, but I have to say any negativity I have heard has been about how frustrating and shit most tradies are.

Yes this is what I’ve found. Some people think that they have a higher status because they are in an office.

if only they realised how much some of these tradespeople are earning.

For heaven’s sake, OP — everyone knows tradespeople get paid extremely well. We pay high prices, so it’s hardly surprising we’re aware that at least some such jobs generate a high income.

However, judging by my own family, it’s a young person’s game — lots of my older male relatives simply weren’t able to do their jobs after a certain point (plumber, stonemason, builder, roofer, scales mechanic etc), exacerbated by injuries or just wear and tear, or not being supple enough to get into crawl spaces any more, and had no qualifications to move into a different field in their fifties. For that reason alone, it’s not something I’d recommend my child to do.

Well more fool them because AI isn't going to replace a plasterer joiner or plumber!

I have boys and I'm going to ENCOURAGE them to get a trade I think it's very valuable!

Dh isn’t misogynistic but I wonder if perhaps the lack of good tradespeople is because of young people not wanting to go into these jobs?

I know my dhs company really struggles to find good qualified people.

it also means that people with practical skills can charge a fortune.

Yes, a lot of people are incredibly snobby about it - Mumsnet, in particular, is absolutely teeming with people who seem to think anyone who comes to do a job in their home must be some sort of subhuman brute.

My nephew is a carpenter/joiner. Academically he's very bright - easily bright enough for university. But he has absolutely no interest in graduate type jobs, never has. He has always loved practical stuff, making things, fixing things etc. When my mum and a friend of hers were chatting about their grandkids, and my mum said 'Nephew's just started his apprenticeship to be a carpenter' her friend said 'Oh well, never mind' as if that would somehow be disappointing. My mum gave her short shrift in response.

Yep...agree. Its the awful British class system I'm afraid... whereby if you're sitting behind a desk dressed smartly, you're a success and if you're doing a practical job and are wearing overalls, you're not. Despite the fact that the person behind the desk could be on minimum wage and the person in overalls could be a high earner. It's pure snobbery

I had the snobbery when I was a cleaner. IME many people have more respect for (skilled) tradesmen than they did for me. No consideration of the fact that I ran every part of my business, the marketing, the accounting, the admin, and the cleaning. It takes nouse to properly run a business.

The problem is that tradesmen as a collective have a poor reputation. Don't do a full days work, long lunches, cutting corners, sexism, but always ensuring they charge top dollar.

I have tradie friends who do a good job, and some of them have even said they hate it when customers ask for recommendations for other trades - because the ones they know do all of the above and don't give a shit about doing a good job, just about getting paid.

That said, if I were a trades(wo)man, I'd make a point of doing a great job and being reliable. It would be so easy to get continuous referral work just by doing more than the bare minimum like most of these wasters do.

My DP is an electrician and gets tarnished with the same brush. He’s not stupid and is extremely hard working.

He actually wanted to go to art college but his mum told him he shouldn’t.

If everyone did that they’d be mass unemployment as they’d be too many people on uni courses then relevant jobs and actual trades people require to maintain their homes and lives would die out.

Hilarious, that’s exactly the attitude I mean.

And now AI will soon be taking over, I think having a trade and a practical skill will be far more useful and useable than knowledge based desk jobs. The world is changing.

I have a corporate office job, getting AI pushed on by every angle. Tradeis earn a bloody fortune IME and absolutely nothing wrong with that. University can be a massive waste of money. My BIL did a Masters in Media, now works in a call centre for example.

You’re aware that most trades people are also running businesses too? That they need to quote, invoice etc?

My partner leaves the house at 7am everyday just to go to the wholesaler to pick up materials. He might not be on site at 8am but he’s working. He also doesn’t take long lunch breaks - and most trades who are employed wouldn’t be allowed to either. They tend to work shorter days because they spend the remainder of the day doing all the other stuff that’s needed to run a business.

Yes to the attitude that they don’t do a full days work.

Husbands job for example requires a lot of travelling. They have to go to pick up parts, do all of their paperwork, stock takes, there can be a lot of planning and designing involved too.

Theyre not just clocking off to go home for a nap.

That's exactly my point though, SO many of them don't bother or are impossibly slow because they only care about the stuff that means instant money in their hand. The admin side gets neglected. We had a bunch of workmen (and prospective workmen 'quoting') in last year and most of them wanted to do everything verbally (nope) as they 'don't like' or even 'don't do' paperwork. Bitch please. I'm not sure if it's just my area, but they seem to get regular work just 'coasting' and cherry picking the bits of running a business they want to do, and avoiding the bits that they don't. And then they look at you like you're both weird and difficult for wanting quotes and contracts in writing...

Yes people are quick to moan when they can’t get people to come and quote at a time that suits them but apparently anything less than a 6pm finish is unacceptable too. Maybe if you’re running a large company that becomes do-able but that isn’t how most trades function.