Are nurses blue-collared or white-collared workers?

Question

Is a baker considered a blue-collared worker too?

Clive · Accepted Answer

nurses White-collared, mainly because the job requires a lot of formal, post-secondary education.

bakers Which do you think, based on my comment above?

Ivanhr · Answer

Nurses are certainly not considered white-collar workers. It's probably a moot point whether we could treat nurses as blue-collar or not. The same is probably true of bakers too.

It seems that not all professions can easily be filed under either the white-collar or blue-collar categories.

Citibox · Answer

Both nurses and bakers wear a uniform, the one to denote their station within the hospital or surgery and the other to keep their clothing underneath clean while going through the messy task of making bread, in the same way that a chef wears his whites.

The nurses at my local doctors' surgery are really more like a receptionist than a nurse whereas the nurses in the hospital are clearing up human waste and dressing wounds, changing bed clothes etc. However, the top nurse, called Sister be they male or female, is really an administrator. Then there are nurses trained to take x-rays or MRI scans who are highly skilled. For this reason, I don't think you can say "they are certainly not white collar workers".

If the baker makes his own bread then surely he is blue-collared. However, it he overseas an automated production line in which robots mix the dough, pass it into the ovens and slice and pack it then that would seem to me that he is white-collared.

It is an interesting concept that is probably now outdated as a generalistion. In the military, obviously the lower ranks are blue collared and the uppermost ranks white collared but a colonel still leads his men on the ground so where does this put him?

Ivanhr · Answer

Citiboxbut a colonel still leads his men on the ground so where does this put him?

Red-collar (if he's unfortunate)

Citibox · Answer

With a red collar he would be a staff officer and therefore definitely in a white collar job!

Are nurses blue-collared or white-collared workers?

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