What are typical middle class jobs characterized by?

[TopHatFox]

Take it for what you will, the question is deliberately broad. My intent is to gain more insight into what to expect coming out of college into the "middle class" work world.

So, for example, from attending 40k/yr+ job informational sessions, one common theme I've noticed is that middle class careers seem to encourage trade-offs in general happiness, stress levels, time with friends/family, nutrition/fitness, and even frugal living.

[7Wannabe5]

True. Worse on all counts than attending college full time, but better than, for instance, caring for 3 children under the age of 6 24/7. The walking zombies are the people who are trying to do both the middle-class job and the kid thing simultaneously without enough help or money.

[jacob]

It's like college, except you stay at work to do your homework. In most professions, there's also a lot less reading or learning and a lot more repetition. So think of it as repeating the 3rd grade all over again except you do slightly higher level stuff---probably nothing an intelligent 10 year old couldn't be trained to do as well, ... Similarly to school, you got your A-workers, your B-workers, your C-workers, ... You know that guy who barely passed his medical exams? Well, he works somewhere. The F-worker doesn't work a middle class job. It's possible that he makes more money though.

The other difference is that you suddenly make a lot more money and you no longer hang out with your co-workers.

The stress comes once you start to pile on "extracurricular activities" like raising children (likely you didn't do that in college), maintaining a home (likely you didn't do that either), and dealing with all the stuff/services you add on (paying bills, stressing about money) now that you have more money.

Since college is the defacto training ground for middle class life you shouldn't expect work to much difference. You could have a seriously low stress work life if you find a routine job, keep your college consumer habits, and don't start a family.

[JL13]

You could have a seriously low stress work life if you find a routine job, keep your college consumer habits, and don't start a family.

Yes, but you also lose the motivation/need to show up M-F.

[tonyedgecombe]

Politics becomes a much bigger issue, at college it's easy to grade your work because the work was created for grading. It's much harder to recognise how good a programmer is at writing code or a doctor at diagnosing illness. This means people start to substitute other activities like working long hours or denigrating their colleagues in an attempt to get ahead.

[jacob]

You could have a seriously low stress work life if you find a routine job, keep your college consumer habits, and don't start a family.

Yes, but you also lose the motivation/need to show up M-F.

I've heard rumours that some of the 'smarter' companies, especially in sales, hook new employers up with a RE agent and good mortgage car loan rates so as to get the employees locked-in ... for extra motivation. Normally people do it to themselves well enough.

There's also this:

[cmonkey]

That is a nice chart. I would guess the typical progression starting either in 'worry' or 'anxiety' depending on your level of challenge and ability to learn, then working clockwise around until you get to 'apathy' and 'boredom'. How quickly you get there depends on many things, but mostly on how much routine is built in and how quickly you can pick things up.

Its fun to guess where your co-workers might be. Depending on my day and other external factors I range from 'apathy' to 'control'. Usually tending toward the green of 'relaxation'.

[Lucky C]

To achieve Flow states, you not only need to have the challenge level of your job match your skill level (or be a little harder so your skills can grow), you also need to be in an environment where you can concentrate on the task at hand for long periods without interruption, and you need clear feedback at a fairly regular interval to help give you confidence that you're successfully achieving whatever you set out to do.

The trouble with boring repetitive jobs is that you never have a chance to enter a flow state in the first place, unless you're so bored you make up some game to challenge yourself.

The tragedy of most middle class jobs with higher skill levels is that most flow opportunities are wasted. Either you are in an environment where you can't get a few uninterrupted hours per day - most office jobs are plagued with a culture of email and meeting addiction - or you don't get timely or clear feedback and that kills motivation. Either you have too much management interference which kills your autonomy (my experience in the for-profit world), or management is slow to review your work and provide feedback (my experience in the non-profit world).

This sums up my experience in a high-challenge high-skill working environment, which has so much flow potential but very few flow states. For the employees to improve this situation, assuming they want to achieve flow and do more satisfying work, they need more control in what they are able to work on at what time, when they talk to management and get feedback, and the ability to prevent distractions (put off the occasional email or meeting without fear of disciplinary action).

The careerist solution to this is to be "so good they can't ignore you", always striving to improve skills and work up the corporate ladder - not for the superficial purpose of status and money, but for the psychological benefit of control over one's career. As you move up the org chart, you get to be more and more in control of your time and what you work on. Of course the tragedy there is that most continue to opt for days full of even more meetings and emails.