Blue Collar Brilliance
Works cited: Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. “They Say, I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing : With Readings. New York: Norton, 2012.
Key words: Blue Collar, Work, Intelligence, Education, Experience, Skills
In the short reading entitled Blue Collar Brilliance Mike Rose starts by talking about growing up in the 1950’s, and sitting in a restaurant with his father waiting for his mother to get off of work. He describes how his mother, a waitress serving tables, moved about the restaurant with such grace and being able to cater to everyone’s need with great ease. Mrs. Rose was able to multi-task and work so efficiently she would even have time to sit down with customers and chat with them while still keeping an eye on all other customers. With such great customer service she made great tips and was very well liked becoming very successful. She even had created her own type of restaurant lingo where she could communicate much more effectively amongst the other staff members. This type of ingenuity is what made her so great at her job. Fascinated with observing and studying the habits of blue collar workers Mike Rose decided he wanted to pursue a career in psychology.
I myself can relate to working in a restaurant because I worked in one for fourteen years. It is a very fast paced job that requires multi-tasking and using different methods of fast communication. I Like Rosie would devise memory strategies to remember who had ordered what and how long each customer had been waiting. These types of technical skills are not acquired overnight and are not something you can just read about and start doing. These skills come with experience of working day in and day out at the same job. The goal of learning these strategies is to make the job easier by taking less steps and movements but in the end still achieving the same results. Work smarter not harder!
Mike Rose eventually goes to college to study psychology and education. Through his studies he incorporates not only his mothers work habits but the working habits of all types of blue collar workers. Mike was taught through school that intelligence is closely related to the amount of education a person receives. Today he realizes this is not always true amongst blue collar workers that they develop a sense of skill and knowledge through everyday experience on the job. Mike’s uncle Joe worked a job on General Motors assembly line and after thirty three years he had worked his way up to foreman of the plant. He eventually learned more and more about the automotive industry through everyday experience and through that experience he began to develop skills to help him and the rest of the workers to become more efficient. He created new ideas and products to help save the company money and made other workers happier.
Mike isn’t saying that education is not important. He is saying that many of the tools to become successful in the work place become routine with observation and trial and error. Education is still a very important tool but learning how to manipulate that tool and use the skills learned in the working environment to make plans and solve problems. This is what hard work is all about!
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