Historically, employers only recruit full-time workers to work in their companies. These full-timers receive a full month’s salary and, sometimes, compensation and benefits. Nonetheless, as jobs and workplaces are changing due to the advancement of technology and evolving business trends, organisations start hiring freelancers and remote staff who might be entitled to fewer benefits compared to in-house employees. There are also part-timers who handle tons of work from noon to evening who are occasionally registered to payroll. All of these job classifications have been divided neatly into a different colour of collar.
As an office worker, you might be familiar with the terms white and blue-collar who have been classified as manual labour of office employees. Albeit they do the job in the same position, their salary and job description are quite different. Besides the two types, there are more collars you might not know.
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So, which collar are you wearing now? Or which colour of collar you expect to pursue? To shed a light, we have listed these types of collar you might never even heard before.
This collar refers to manual labourers who generally work in mining or oil-drilling, or commonly referred to as “dirty job”. Black collar workers also coined to those who have illegal professions.
Blue-collar staff are those who typically work in hard manual labour areas such as agriculture, manufacturing, or mining. Typically, being in this position require no formal education but some jobs might need vocational degrees. They also either earn an hourly wage or are paid piece rate for the amount of work done.
Brown collar indicates individuals who are a member of the state’s armed forces, a.k.a military personnel. Their roles and obligations are divided by military branches such as army, navy, or air force.
Gold collar workers are those who have high skill or knowledge working in a position that engages in problem-solving or complex technical work fields. The examples of work are lawyers, doctors, scientists, computer programmers, etc.
Those who work in a wide range of professionals relating to the environment or renewable energy. For example energy efficiency, alternative fuels, or public transportation and recycling workers.
Work segmentation that refers to people in the information technology sector, police officers, or technicians are classified as a grey collar worker. This collar also belongs to them who perform an old-aged workforce or be in an underemployed white-collar position.
Same as other collar workers but this is a special collar for you who obtains knowledge and soft skills through non-traditional education paths.
No collar individuals refer to artists or a free spirit who tend to privilege passion and personal growth over financial gain. You can call yourself as having no collar when you work for satisfaction and not for payment.
Pink collar jobs often refer to female-oriented jobs such as secretary, salesperson, or waiters. This is used to distinguish from blue-collar jobs which typically taken by men. But now, the meaning has changed and a pink collar job is related to all service jobs.
If you come from a rich family but take 9-5 jobs for character building, you are among this popped collar workers. The collar also refers to young people who usually work at clubs, in stocks, or other fancy jobs.
Purple collar-ers are skilled individuals who principally belong to white-collar but performs blue-collar tasks with some regularity. The examples are engineers and technicians.
Red collar belongs to government workers of all types that derived from receiving compensation from red ink budget.
White-collar workers refer to office workers who deal with professional, managerial, or administrative work, thus, formal and higher education are required to be among white collar-ers. They are enrolled in monthly salary and, sometimes, huge pay-check of bonuses. You can also refer white-collar employees to as “desk workers”.
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