The competitive career environment described above can lead to considerable tension and stress among middle managers. This stress is intensified by the desire of many firms to reduce not only the number of levels in the management hierarchy but also the number of middle managers.

Rapid changes in business practices, skills, and knowledge also create a strong demand for continuing education programs for middle and senior managers. Most leading business schools and many consulting firms offer various short refresher courses or short conferences to practicing managers. Many firms spend a significant amount of their training and management development resources on such programs.

In large companies that have plants or offices in many different locations, moving up the managerial hierarchy usually requires a number of geographic moves. While employers normally give a manager the option to accept or reject a geographic transfer and promotion, individuals who want to rise in their organizations tend to be reluctant to reject such offers. Yet the process of selling a house and moving one’s family to another community can be difficult, especially if both spouses have careers or their children have special needs. This tension between work and the responsibilities and priorities of family life is a growing concern in many leading companies, especially as the number of women managers and dual-career couples increases.

The long-run income prospects of a blue-collar worker are heavily dependent on the amount and quality of basic education. Failure to complete high school reduces significantly one’s expected lifetime earnings. Those who obtain post-high-school technical training through vocational schools, community colleges, or apprenticeship programs that involve both formal schooling and on-the-job experience can expect increased long-run earnings. By choosing a job that provides additional training opportunities, either on the job or through part-time outside course work, a worker further increases his or her earnings potential.

The career of blue-collar workers can be divided into four parts: initial education and entry-level training period, trial or job-matching period, stable period, and retirement. Thus, the initial career stage is one in which an individual is investing in education or, as social scientists put it, building human capital. Failure to complete high school or to acquire basic mathematical, verbal, and analytical skills not only limits long-run earnings but also increases the risk of being unemployed for longer periods than for those who invested more time and energy in this period of education and training.

In searching for a job, blue-collar workers tend to rely heavily on informal contacts and information provided by friends, family members, or school advisers. Following the completion of schooling and entry-level training, most workers experience a trial period in which they change jobs a number of times in search of a good match between their abilities and aspirations and the opportunities available to them. The average U.S. worker changes jobs six to eight times before settling into a stable employment relationship, while the average worker in Europe and Japan will hold many fewer jobs over a career. (The relative stability in Japanese and European employment patterns may, however, be disappearing.) Some of this job movement may be involuntary, because many firms follow a seniority rule in laying off workers (that is, the most junior workers are laid off first).

Blue-collar workers generally experience their most stable period of employment between the ages of 30 and 60. As family responsibilities expand and seniority on the job increases, the likelihood of staying with a given firm also becomes greater. The potential costs of a job change or a job loss also tend to mount over time, as it becomes harder to find a job with another company that can match the level of wages and benefits often achieved after years of service and internal promotion.

Workers face new choices as they approach the retirement stage of their careers. A recent trend can be illustrated with an example from the United States: although American firms are no longer allowed to impose a mandatory retirement age, few blue-collar workers choose to stay at the job beyond the customary retirement age of 65. Instead, an increasing number of workers retire and then take part-time jobs. This trend may be caused by the early retirement incentives many firms offer to employees. The practice has also contributed to the growing number of older workers who are employed on a part-time basis.

Along with the stages in workers’ careers go shifting attitudes toward their jobs. When workers remain with the same company, their outlook on the job and the company tends to follow a curvilinear pattern: high at first, then dropping through the middle period, and rising in the later parts of their career. Individuals tend to begin work with such unrealistically high expectations as to the nature of the jobs and the opportunities before them that disillusionment later sets in; but after some years they adjust themselves, lower their expectations, and express more satisfaction with the work situation.

Interest in joining a union or in becoming a leader in the union tends to follow a reverse curvilinear path. Interest is low at the beginning of tenure with a company because of the uncertainty over how long the worker will stay with the firm and because satisfaction with a new job is generally high. Over time job satisfaction may decline, accompanied by an increased interest in changing work-related conditions. Only as retirement approaches and the costs of leaving the firm become untenable does job satisfaction again rise, thereby lowering the worker’s tendency to participate in aggressive efforts—such as union organization—to change the work situation.

A number of studies have shown that few blue-collar workers want to leave their community when a production plant or office shuts down. Ties with friends and family make workers reluctant to leave. They may also find that housing costs are much higher in communities where job opportunities are plentiful. Blue-collar workers and their families are therefore likely to conclude that it is best to stay where they are in the hope that the local job market will pick up.