The results are in, and they are troubling to say the least. A recent Gallup Poll suggests that over half of all Americans are unsatisfied with their careers. Many think college is the answer since the National Center for Educational Statistics is projecting undergraduate enrollment to increase 14 percent from 17.3 million to 19.8 million students between 2014 and 2025. However, greater job satisfaction is seen with those who work with their hands. It makes sense now that between 2013 and 2015, the economy added 2.3 million middle-wage jobs, blowing past the growth in high-paying and low-income sectors. It seems people are choosing happiness in lieu of high stress jobs.
Nowadays, more and more young people dream of wearing a white collar behind a desk and sipping fancy coffee. Let’s be honest, manual labor jobs need more recognition. People entering the workforce fail to recognize all the benefits blue collar work offers.
Choosing a Blue Collar Job Can:
- Serve as Exercise
- Result in Less Stress
- Provide Job Security
Believe it or not, these three perks can drastically improve your work/life balance, in turn significantly improving your overall happiness. The following post elaborates on why these three advantages go far beyond the promise of that white collared position.
Avoid The Weight Gain!
First and foremost, if you are working with your hands, you are better off than those sitting behind a desk all week. This exercise not only helps build muscle and increase flexibility, but it also goes a long way in helping combat obesity.
Research also shows that sitting behind a desk for prolonged periods of time can have harmful effects on your heart, leading to cardiovascular disease and other adverse health risks.
Furthermore, working with your hands and being active helps you sleep at night. Being active during the day while performing manual labor helps exhaust the body, leading to a healthier sleep cycle.
But physical exercise and a sound night’s sleep aren’t the only advantages afforded to blue collar workers, manual laborers often experience lower levels of stress as well!
Avoid The Stress!
Working in an office environment offers numerous negative side effects, but most disturbing are the adverse consequences associated with stress.
Positions with strict deadlines, like those found in white collar careers, burden employees to perform under considerable pressure. Tight deadlines produce levels of stress for white collar employees that typically follow much longer periods of exposure.
Avoiding the white collar careers that impose strict working deadlines on employees, bypasses the dangerous levels of stress associated with these jobs, prolonging your life in the end.
Moving around and exercising in less stressful environments is reason enough to contact a staffing professional, however, the bonus of job security makes manual labor employment a dream come true!
Choose Security!
Not only are trade school and training programs cheaper than college and university programs, but they also provide jobs with more security.
Technical jobs have flooded the market, putting more and more employees in front of computer screens. But many white collar workers are beginning to realize a very real fact, these jobs are being outsourced overseas.
However, those willing to get their hands dirty for a hard day’s work reap a benefit many do not. Job security. You will never call a plumber or electrician and connect to an overseas office. Warehouses and docks across the country and along the coast provide steady jobs to American citizens.
And whether you realize it or not, job security has a lot to do with employee happiness. People that feel safe in their position invest themselves in their jobs; they take the time to learn more about their colleagues.
When employees don’t have to worry about losing their jobs, they can perform their duties without worrying about reentering the job market at the drop of a hat.
And with so many opportunities for work, the right staffing firm could be all that stands between you and a happy career. With so many Americans unhappy in their jobs and the mountains of student loan debt growing higher and higher, ask yourself if you want to pursue the beaten path.
Be bold and dare to work a career with real benefits!