Coronavirus (OLD)

[Mad Max]

Originally Posted by Pierre

You've got that right!

I'd risk exposing my two to the bubonic plague to get them from under my feet.

---------- Post added at 13:17 ---------- Previous post was at 13:15 ----------



Genuinely odd statement, how does using technology for work equate to the class system?

Totally agree mate, strange statement indeed.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Genuinely odd statement, how does using technology for work equate to the class system?

Originally Posted by jfman

In some genuinely good news though they are advising to work from home this Autumn for all the middle class people who get to enjoy the pandemic on Microsoft Teams.

Originally Posted by Mad Max

Totally agree mate, strange statement indeed.

I don't think it's that odd although I don't have knowledge of how true it is.

Surely the logic behind it is that the jobs which are more able to work from home are more likely to be those who occupants are middle-class or above? We're talking office workers, managers, IT jobs and technical jobs of some sort, marketers, writers and so on.

Whereas the jobs you would typically associate as being working class tends to be in manufacturing or retail. Work where you need to be in a specific location to either work with machinery you cannot bring more or serve people.

[Carth]

Strange how those in 'key' jobs don't need computers to do it for them

Originally Posted by Carth

Strange how those in 'key' jobs don't need computers to do it for them

Makes sense really. Nurses, Doctors, Police, bar staff. They all deal with people directly to address urgent needs.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Damien

I don't think it's that odd although I don't have knowledge of how true it is.

Surely the logic behind it is that the jobs which are more able to work from home are more likely to be those who occupants are middle-class or above? We're talking office workers, managers, IT jobs and technical jobs of some sort, marketers, writers and so on.

Whereas the jobs you would typically associate as being working class tends to be in manufacturing or retail. Work where you need to be in a specific location to either work with machinery you cannot bring more or serve people.

From Reed U.K.

Avg Plumber salary 30K
Avg Office Co-ordinator salary 22K

My next door neighbour is a plumber (one man band) and he earns ( I fully expect) Well more than the average too. Detached farm house, his Van, BMW M3, Nissan Juke, ride on mower for His 1.5 acre garden.

Using IT for work is in no way any prediction of earnings or “class”

The whole Class argument is an old fashioned argument anyway. Blue collar/white collar can still be used as a descriptor, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that a white collar job is better or pays more than a blue collar job.

[Mad Max]

Originally Posted by Pierre

From Reed U.K.

Avg Plumber salary 30K
Avg Office Co-ordinator salary 22K

My next door neighbour is a plumber (one man band) and he earns ( I fully expect) Well more than the average too. Detached farm house, his Van, BMW M3, Nissan Juke, ride on mower for His 1.5 acre garden.

Using IT for work is in no way any prediction of earnings or “class”

The whole Class argument is an old fashioned argument anyway. Blue collar/white collar can still be used as a descriptor, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that a white collar job is better or pays more than a blue collar job.

Well said, and spot on.

Originally Posted by Pierre

From Reed U.K.

Avg Plumber salary 30K
Avg Office Co-ordinator salary 22K

My next door neighbour is a plumber (one man band) and he earns ( I fully expect) Well more than the average too. Detached farm house, his Van, BMW M3, Nissan Juke, ride on mower for His 1.5 acre garden.

Using IT for work is in no way any prediction of earnings or “class”

The whole Class argument is an old fashioned argument anyway. Blue collar/white collar can still be used as a descriptor, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that a white collar job is better or pays more than a blue collar job.

As I said I don't have the stats so it could be misplaced but at the same time taking two examples isn't going to tell us the overall picture either.

There will be office jobs that pay minimum wage and highly technical, well paying, manual jobs. I just wonder what the aggregate is. I don't think it's bizarre that someone would assume that people who can work from home are more likely to have higher income jobs, even if it's wrong.

I agree blue collar/white collar is a better description than class though. I sort of took class to mean income in this context.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Damien

As I said I don't have the stats so it could be misplaced but at the same time taking two examples isn't going to tell us the overall picture either.

There will be office jobs that pay minimum wage and highly technical, well paying, manual jobs. I just wonder what the aggregate is. I don't think it's bizarre that someone would assume that people who can work from home are more likely to have higher income jobs, even if it's wrong.

I agree blue collar/white collar is a better description than class though. I sort of took class to mean income in this context.

It’s too much of a nuanced subject to apply a sweeping generalisation, as was originally/ flippantly applied.

It’s funny but when was young working from home was the direct opposite of that assumption. Working from home was more associated with licking stamps and stuffing envelopes, or niche craft enterprises.

An amazon warehouse worker can earn as much, potentially more, than a Virgin Media telesales advisor.

So, I take your point, but given who said the original statement I don’t think he was applying a more considered view, such as yourself.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Chris

The LEA has standardised all schools onto Google Classroom now, which the high schools were already using for homework and projects.

I suspect that, absent any time for proper evaluation when lockdown occurred, someone at the council just assumed the MS product was the one to choose. Our LEA is however now supplying free chromebooks to all high school pupils so they’re pushing everyone onto Google products as far as possible.

Are they on loan or can they keep them?

Originally Posted by Pierre

It’s funny but when was young working from home was the direct opposite of that assumption. Working from home was more associated with licking stamps and stuffing envelopes, or niche craft enterprises.

An amazon warehouse worker can earn as much, potentially more, than a Virgin Media telesales advisor..

Yeah it makes sense. Lots of not very well paying jobs you do from home too.

It'll be interesting to see what incomes got paid by the furlough scheme. I am starting to get worried we're now just putting off a huge wave of unemployment whilst newspapers chat comfortably about how nice working from is and we should keep doing it.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Are they on loan or can they keep them?

Actually I have no idea ... nobody’s been given one yet, it’s all very new. I suspect the computer will come home with a covering letter of some sort so we may find out more then.

My daughter and her partner were working from home for the last 4 years..and still are.They earn enough to pay a mortgage and bring up two children. It is possible especially if you have internet skills.

[papa smurf]

China the gift that keeps on giving

China bubonic plague: Beijing seals off village as panicked experts confirm black death

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...wn-Suji-Xincun

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Pierre

It’s too much of a nuanced subject to apply a sweeping generalisation, as was originally/ flippantly applied.

It’s funny but when was young working from home was the direct opposite of that assumption. Working from home was more associated with licking stamps and stuffing envelopes, or niche craft enterprises.

An amazon warehouse worker can earn as much, potentially more, than a Virgin Media telesales advisor.

So, I take your point, but given who said the original statement I don’t think he was applying a more considered view, such as yourself.

I didn’t consider the statement particularly controversial.

It, clearly, wasn’t intended to say all middle class people are at home and all working class people are at workplaces. However, as often on the forum, statements get interpreted in absolute terms for the purposes of putting up a straw man to argue back against.

In your own post here you’ve made a generalisation based on observations when you are young. My observations are that the vast, vast majority of my friends, family and colleagues working from home I’d consider middle class.

The vast majority of people I encounter in their workplaces are observably working class. As with my friends and their families that I’m aware of attending workplaces.

It’d be interesting to see the stats.

[Carth]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

China the gift that keeps on giving

China bubonic plague: Beijing seals off village as panicked experts confirm black death

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...wn-Suji-Xincun

I think it's time to raise the drawbridge, lock the gates, and fill the moat with high octane (affordable currently).

oh, and a few blokes with sniper rifles roaming the Kent coast wouldn't go amiss either