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?

Depends on how they deal with their finances. If they are earning what some around there are earning they’ll be able to retire with ease by the time they hit their mid 50s

I don’t presume they earn badly but given my experiences with them I don’t respect them. Every experience I have had has been either disappointing in some way and I don’t think they would last in an employed job.

You don’t need a contract for all work though, do you? I agree that you might want a written quote but not everyone does - especially for smaller jobs.

They’re probably impossibly slow because they’re massively busy.

I can understand not wanting your kids to become tradies. As in if you spend your whole life on the tools, it does wear out your body.

However, there are trade professionals, and should be treated as such. Imagine thinking a mechanic is stupid. Hundreds of different cars, thousands of components, responsible for machinery that could kill. The amount of people who can’t even change a bike tire.

What needs to change is the culture of pushing all ‘non academic’ kids into trade courses/trade routes. Tradies are smart, they have good logic/problem solving/attention to detail/common sense etc. The amount of kids who honestly cannot fathom how a ruler works are put onto a carpentry’s course.

I used to work in the construction department in the local college. Apparently the tutors used to do ‘interview’ the students by having them in the workshop for the afternoon. Any kids who messed about/didn’t want to be there were let go. The two weeks of the course any kid who couldn’t keep up with the general pace was let go/about 20% would be removed. When I was there we had kids who literally could not understand the terms like ‘double it’ or how to find the centre of a circle. The amount of kids who would say ‘I don’t/can’t do maths’ and have no drive/ability to even learn that 10mm makes up one 1cm… Getting as far as ratios or percentages were lost on many. But those kids are labourer material, carry those bricks over there, use the dustpan and brush to sweep that up… unfortunately British mentality is that trade jobs are as basic as digging holes or mowing lawns.

Who are ‘them’? You think you’re in a position to judge hundreds of thousands of people because you’ve met a handful of trades you have no respect for.

Lots of snobbery and sneering on MN, outraged a tradie out earns a teacher for example, one thread she was raging 🤣
It takes the same length of time to learn a trade as getting a degree does.
Far too much arrogance about going to uni, half the ppl I know do not use their degree.

I doubt that’s true.

This is so rude. You sound awful.

@Loveheart13

Why are people so snobby about it?

I don't think it's snobbiness. I think most of it is down to the far too often poor attitude of some tradesmen themselves.

Good ones are like gold dust, and by that I mean actually turning up on time (if at all), communicating, not ripping you off, not wanting "cash to knock off the vat" for tax evasion, quality workmanship, and respecting you and your home.

Unfortunately there are a lot of rogues, either deliberately out to rip you off and defraud you or simply incompetent (i.e. did badly at school so become glorified odd job men doing things far beyond their competence often without any proper training and experience), or people who simply don't respect you or your home.

It's a shame there isn't better regulation of the entire industry as the "bad'uns" damage the reputation of the entire industry and customers are immediately "On alert" and suspect the worse before a tradesmen earns trust.

I can understand not wanting your kids to become tradies. As in if you spend your whole life on the tools, it does wear out your body

I don't think this is generally the reason some parents don't want their kids to do these kind of jobs. I think it's just snobbery and old fashioned thinking that equates academic success with financial success.

They can’t win. For every person like you saying what you saying you have 10 people saying ‘they clock off at 4pm. Why can’t they do a full days work”. They can’t do both unless you expect them to be working 16 hour days.

Those with actual intelligence and educationalists are the ones who recognise the value of practical skills and trades. My skill is being able to analyse policies and put them into practice. I am hopeless at practical skills, I live in my head. I however appreciate my amazing hairdresser, the man who tiled my kitchen, the man who laid the kitchen floor using wood from my previous home. Builders, beauticians, carpenters, hairdressers mechanics etc… are valuable skills. University is not the best choice for everyone, I like the European model of education where practical and theoretical skills are equally valued. Essentially both sides need each other this is how research and design work thus progress is made. Unfortunately it tends to be those without critical thinking skills who do not recognise this.

That works if you measure your worth by how much you earn.

I am grateful for people who are able to do the jobs I’m not, but I want them to be reliable, efficient, careful, considerate and conscientious. I’m happy to pay if the job has been done well, but less so when it’s not.

I think, particularly in recent times, people get fed up when trades are unreliable, turn up late or not at all, leave the job for ages, leave a mess behind.

A good tradesperson is worth their weight in gold.

God I'm hoping my son has some practical skills. Looking round my house I'm thinking 'please be a plasterer ' 🤣

If you think trades are bad for looking down your nose try a manual job that isn't a trade. My husband had people shouting through the gates 'they told you to stay at home ' during covid. Not seen as essential because they make crane ropes. But try unloading all that essential PPE without one!

I'm well educated and work in higher education. I wouldn't encourage my kids this way unless they really have a passion for learning.

I think a lot of people put a lot of importance on the "uni experience" and I admit that I'm guilty of this. That said it sounds like the "uni experience" isn't what it used to be with more people studying locally so maybe there will be a shift here.

I’ve never had someone ask me to pay them in cash. And not every trades person will need to charge VAT. Only businesses with a turnover of £90k have to be VAT registered and they can recover VAT from HMRC in any event.

Yeah 100% when in reality an electrician (for eg) can earn an immense sum of money, especially if they choose to work abroad.

It makes me laugh when people get uppity about the cost of a quote to complete a task, that they themselves don’t have the skills to do.

Wow the snobbery is really coming through on this thread.

Cowboys, did badly at school, odd job men, misogynistic.

If I was to say that I don’t respect teachers, nurses, doctors. I’d be absolutely slated.

DH is very clever and could have easily went to uni but it wasn't for him. He went into an apprenticeship and trade and he bought his first house at 24 with a pretty big deposit. They definitely aren't thick... I have no idea how to do any of the stuff they do 🤣

If you have always had bad tradies I suspect you are the cause of your troubles. I highly suspect you seek out the cheapest person around and then are amazed that they are shysters. I also suspect when highly qualified and experienced tradies quote you scoff at their prices and think they are trying to overcharge for what you obviously think of as an unskilled easy job.

Yes quite.

If you don’t like it then do it yourself.

oh wait sorry, you can’t 🤷‍♀️

Agree with this! DP constantly gets told his fees are too high but then spends a lot of his time fixing jobs that have been done on the cheap. If you know how to rewire a house and are regulated to sign off the works do it. Otherwise pay the costs of someone who actually does know how to do it.

I'm a graduate, I work with graduates, I know there's nothing about having a degree, in itself that makes you special, in fact I wonder how they managed to pass quite often!

I had a couple of men round to do some garden work yesterday. I am very impressed at what. They managed to get done in the time. I have huge respect for good honest work.

It’s obvious why some clueless people look down upon tradespeople. Many trades make you a little dirty and people associate dirty with low class.

funnily middle class and upper class gentleman farmers or artisans that some posh person has taken up after a miserable year in the city is considered ok by them.
and someone like Monty Don although covered in dirt or some ex banker turned carpenter/furniture maker is considered middle class ahd not looked down upon

It's not a "handful" though. In our 30+ years of owning our house, I'd say the vast majority of tradesmen we've had either for quotes or given work to have been disrespectful or incompetent.

And no, that's not by choosing the cheapest. A few of the worst were actually more expensive and were local "reputable" firms with showrooms, etc., one being a very expensive highly respected independent kitchen showroom and the other being a GasSafe registered gas fire showroom - both of whom did an incredibly shoddy and dangerous job! The gas fire guy actually installed it wrongly meaning dangerous fumes/gases were being released - he came back several times but kept saying there wasn't a problem - it was only when we got the manufacturer's engineer to come and check it over that he immediately condemned the installation and disconnected it!

Another so-called respectable local landscape gardening firm sent a couple of guys who botched up the replacement of our decking and if that wasn't enough, one of the neanderthals went to our loo and wiped his arse on our towel!

Another time, another respected local double glazing firm with a showroom managed to screw up what we asked for which was an identical "like for like" replacement of our glazed back porch. Wrong colour, glass panels instead of plastic, and then refused to change any of it!

As I say, good ones are like gold dust. We've a brilliant electrician (semi retired but he still does odd jobs), a wonderful joiner who can make a cupboard into a perfect work of art (again semi retired) and an excellent plumber (another older guy). As for decorators and gardeners and "odd job men", to be honest, we do it ourselves these days as we've never had anyone we'd be happy to have back. Decorators in particular tend to be very shoddy so we've learned to do our own and can produce a much better quality job. Same with the garden, for bigger jobs, we now hire in power tools and do it ourselves instead of getting people in to do things like replacing fencing posts/panels etc, laying slabs, and we even replaced the botched decking ourselves and did a far better job than the knuckle draggers that the respected local firm sent us.