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?

Absolutely. I have two examples. I am a criminal defence solicitor turned dog groomer (own business).
I’ve seen a huge difference in the way people treat me now. It doesn’t bother me but I do notice.

Also DH used to be a sales manager earning £40k+. He was made redundant during covid and being quite handy he started his own Handyman business. I helped him out with one particular job at a gymnasium and the assistant manager was so rude to him. No respect at all. He says he puts up with it because it’s regular work but she is awful to him.

People are very odd about this, I agree.

I'm a tradie; I'm also a part-time academic. I have a PhD and I've worked at Oxford and Cambridge. I have colleagues who have degrees and advanced degrees; I also have colleagues who left school with nothing at all.

I find it really telling how rude some people are. I've had a woman point at me in front of her child and say 'now: if you don't work at school, this is where you'll end up'!

In my social circle people aren’t. A lot of the wealthier ones/wealthier family members are tradespeople. The job I wanted required a degree but isn’t well paying at all. My parents pushed the university only option but they were a bit out of touch with reality and I certainly wouldn’t pressure my children to go to university.

I’m a woman, I run a business (skilled trade) and have a university degree (1st class).
I start work at 8am finish at 5pm then do an hour of admin. People who think trades don’t work very hard don’t know what they’re talking about!
Rain or shine I’m working or else I don’t get paid, no sick days for me I’m afraid.

Wow, you have to feel a bit sorry for these people

Dh works in a ‘trade’ (though he is the company director and has a university degree, he still literally does the dirty work along with his employees too). He makes probably 5x what I make with a PhD and an otherwise ‘naice’ sort of big London job. 😂

I wish my husband had a trade 😜 he has soft hands as he works in IT

the problem I see is that it is tricky for young people to get decent work experience. Some people can’t get the work experience they need alongside their courses in plumbing, electrical etc
they need to reduce the red tape as how are they supposed to learn.

With the Net Zero drive in fifth gear politically, we need (literally) millions more clever tradespeople, who will ideally understand the physics and maths, and the plumbing and wiring, that underpin the workings of heat pump systems, which are much more complicated and delicate than a standard domestic boiler.

This times 100. DH and I look at YouTube videos and try and do as much as we can ourselves, as it is just about impossible to get decent, reliable, affordable tradespeople these days.

Less for the original installations, and far more to maintain and repair them when they go wrong. Plenty of people and companies are jumping aboard the Green wagon, but it's already tough to find anyone who will bother to turn up to fix them. Most IME just suck their teeth and recommend buying a newer model, if they even turn up for a look see.

It’s laughable isn’t it?!

My own mum trained as hairdresser in the late 70’s/early 80’s, then went to work in her sister’s salon…..where she still works to this day.
I remember going work with her during the school holidays when I was little - back in the day when she still had a different colour stiletto for every day of the week that she’d wear to work - and thinking it was the most glamorous place I’d ever been!
I distinctly remember a really posh, older lady, with most fabulous, silvery hair that reached her mid-back. She’d come in every week to have her hair washed, blow dried and put up in a 60’s style beehive, set with enough hairspray to form its own crater in the ozone layer 😂

I totally agree with that. The German system of apprenticeships is amazing. It’s what we tried to do in the uk but there is such a poor opinion of apprenticeships that it could never succeed. But that’s what the country really needs. Too many universities here and people in them that would be better served by vocational training programmes. We don’t need 50% of the economy to be university educated - was a stupid labour policy that made no sense as soon as Blair announced it. We don’t have enough trades people and have to import them. We need a regulatory regime for tradespeople and a certification scheme that governs them. It would do wonders for public opinion of the trades and would drive up standards and public confidence.

You must be the only “tradie” in existence who is has been an academic at Oxford and Cambridge!

Doubt it!

Oh I totally agree with you. University shouldn’t be for 50% of our population. Was such a ridiculous policy laid out by Blair and I thought that at the time and it’s proven itself to be a stupid policy now. More people should absolutely go into vocational employment and it very much ought to be a better recognised route. I certainly don’t think it should be that everyone feels they need to go to university. I would be delighted to see the uk shred the number of universities (a tiny country doesn’t need 80 unis) and revert the polytechnics back to being vocational centres of learning and keep the degree status for academic programmes of study. They’re totally different things. Blair was trying to engineer a way to break down class barriers by making university more accessible for people in the working and lower middle classes. All he succeeded in doing however is force people into universities who should never have been there, devalue degrees, push poorer people into mountains of debt for a very low return on investment and create a vastly overqualified workforce whilst reducing the amount of people who are trained for vocational work and create a skills gap such that we need to import tradespersons. It’s a mess

There's no such thing as a pointless job. Now you're the one being snobby and looking down on people.

Most likely because a lot of the more ambitious tradies aren't interested in coming round and fitting your new bathroom while you watch like a hawk and try and haggle them down on price. They'd rather pick up a couple years work on a new Taylor Wimpey/Persimmon estate and not have to deal with the general public.

That's why some quote so high. They don't really want the work so it's "you pay what I want or I can't be bothered".

I couldn't agree more. The prices they charge are rather steep so I wouldn't think they were poorly off! I think to be successful as a tradesperson it takes more than the skill though. You need to be good at people skills and running the business. Many seem to have a wife doing the admin

Even bricklayers make £45k nowadays as they're rare as rocking horse shit. In some areas they're making £100k.

It's been this way for over a decade.

https://www.echo-news.co.uk/jobs/jobs_news/11630489.want-to-earn-100k-look-at-bricklaying/

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=www.thesun.co.uk/news/21836865/builders-earning-over-100000-cant-fill-positions/amp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/21836865/builders-earning-over-100000-cant-fill-positions/amp/

Yes it’s supply and demand. This is an economic situation that has been created by Blair’s stupid degree policy. We have too few trades people and with the added issue that thr EU nationals that we had here plugging that gap have now returned home, it’s created a situation where many trades people have taken contract work and leaving a gap for ordinary homes work

Why are people so snobby about it?

I think it’s the way people are brought up. People tend to be snobby if they’ve been brought up by snobs. Obviously not always, but it’s more likely.

There was a thread on here a while ago about a woman in hysterics because a tradesman had used her toilet whilst he was working in her house. Lots of posters were agreeing with her saying they would never let a tradesman use their toilet and the thought of it was “disgusting”. It was a really depressing read.

Also, there’s a lot of parents who are really pushy for their children to achieve top grades and go to university, totally looking down on vocational qualifications and careers. Some see it as “low class” and not “achieving for more”. (There’s a current live thread about a parent only wanting grade 9 (A**) for her child and nothing less).

I remember another thread on here where the poster was a teacher and she was outraged that a tradesman she had hired earned more money than her even though he didn’t go to university but she did. Another depressing and batshit thread.

I completely agree. I worked in a professional role for years and now work in a trade role in management, and there is a huge difference between the way you're spoken to and how people value you and your skills. Lots of snobbery!

I recall a conversation with a client back in the early 2000s, who was a principal in a construction company, who said if I want a bank, or a lawyer, or a financial PR adviser, my PA can make a few phone calls between 2:00 and 3:00 and there will be a beauty parade through our boardroom tomorrow afternoon; if I want a brickie or electrician, they will TELL me that they could attend site in eight weeks.

It just reflects the old class model of people who work with their hands (bottom) and the educated, professional class (top). With the ability to be self employed now, that old economic model doesn’t work in financial terms any more but the social model remains.