Julia,

That is a very thought provoking take on what it is like to be an office employee. I guess I never quite thought of it that way, but you are so right.

When I was in fact, as you would say, a "blue collar" worker I looked up to those "gray collar" workers and wanted to be one of them. But, now that I am a "Gray collar" worker, I long for something more. When I look at how much I do make and the fact that I have to end up paying more for my better dressed wardrobe makes me wonder why I didn't just stay a blue collar worker? When ultimately I am making the same or less when you figure it all out. I mean I have debt from student loans now, I have to pay more for my wardrobe, I have to spend more time researching information (sometimes my own personal time) in order to be a successful employee. So all and all I would be further ahead had I remained a blue collar worker.

However, that is not what I want. I envision the bigger picture. I strive to be the bigger and better fish out there and become my own boss. I think that in order to be a good "gray collar worker" you need to have the ambition to become more, not to just settle. Once you settle on maintaining that level, you will not strive for future success, but rather just go through the motions. It is very very frustrating however, waiting to gain that knowledge to move on to the next level, and patience is not my strong point.

In order to have a good employee I think that they must have aspirations to do more. And as an employer you must be willing to feed there aspirations and wish them well when they move on to the next level.

Just some food for thought!

Tam;-)