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In the corporate world there are certain aspects of the way things work that it would be best
if you did not bring a working class sensibility to for example working class people generally
say what's on their minds I mean when you have nothing you know that old line when you
got nothin' you got nothin' to lose working class people are used to basically just just
laying it out there well that does not work in shirt and tie America when you're in in
the office and your telling the boss yeah I think that's stupid we spoke earlier about
rage when your tongues tied and you throw a little temper tantrum that won't make it
there are people psychologists I interviewed who actually are psychologists of class and
they they tease out these problems that people might have in the work place they'll they'll
say look it's not really a good idea to curse out your boss well you know I went to my father
once for some work advice and I told him my boss was being a pain one way or another and
my father said well you just gotta grab him by the collar and put him up against the wall
and then he'll listen to you and you're big enough to do it yeah six three two twenty
five yeah I said dad you know you can't do that in an office setting you know and it'
surprising to hear from these psychologists who study this how often things like that
happen if not ending as dramatic as that perhaps but the wrong word at the wrong time similarly
blue collar people find it off putting once they're in the white collar world to network
there's a sense that you know you make friends because you gonna be buddies because you've
got something in common that's from the old neighborhood the notion that you would make
friends with somebody simply because they could help you it's just so foreign to a lot
of people and so they find it off putting they get a little squeamish about it illegitimate
is the word you used right it is an illegitimate relationship and so they might miss out on
moving up on moving ahead so if you've got that loud mouth from the neighborhood and
you're not networking and also you don't you know uh socialize after work with a boss very
important we were taught as kids that once dad was home from the construction site you
know you pull up the draw bridge set the moat out you know that that's it nothing else is
going to happen because the tribe is going to sit down at the table and that's it the
idea that you would invite the boss over for dinner supper supper great gobs of carbohydrates
and brown meat the idea that you would do that is just so foreign to the working class
mentality and I remember watching when I was a kid I watched the TV show Bewitched and
the husband would bring home the boss and you know make a roast seal the deal and that
kind of thing just doesn't happen because you only have family at the table you don't
bring similarly you know with weddings and you know inviting people you did some work
with nobody nobody does that and so when I said earlier about bumping into the furniture
you can find yourself fairly lost if you're a working class kid in that kind of environment
yeah This excerpt is brought to you by the Massachusetts School of Law