Fred Sirieix was saying the other day that the British don’t respect or train front-of-house staff the way the French do. And we don’t respect or train builders the way they seem to in eastern Europe. Why is that? Michael D Warren, Cricklewood
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Readers reply
It’s the class thing again. underseabyrail
Re: front-of-house staff, I suspect because people don’t appreciate their position having never experienced it. My perspective on another manual, badly paid job only became empathic when I had to do it myself. Though builders are a different kettle of fish altogether. Finding ones that are honourable and reliable has become ever harder. LorLala
Traditionally I think the British do not attach as much importance to eating out in restaurants. With regard to front of house in restaurants here in the US, it is the owners, paying below subsistence wages, that show no respect, relying on the compassion of customers make up the deficiency in pay. But I am puzzled by the generalisation that builders are not respected in the UK. Maybe too many memories of Basil Fawlty and Mr O’Reilly. blueleg
Some builders are well respected and in demand. They are let down by the poorly trained bodgers. Busch
It’s all down to our class system. It’s built into us to want to move up the classes, social mobility and all. If we value jobs in building or service, then we’ll worry we have become complacent. But it’s these types of jobs – ones that make sense to kids – that should be valued better and paid more. Not the bullshit jobs that we can’t explain to anyone. Stu Bennett
It is possible to establish a building firm in the UK with no qualifications and no experience in the building trade. If you do some work and get things wrong, there are almost no consequences. This should not be an excuse for not treating people with respect, but then it will sully people’s attitude to the trade in general. Another problem is that the some people don’t want to pay the cost of doing a job to a decent standard. Pubtalk
Apparently, for every bad example of service, you need 10 good ones to compensate for it. In the case of builders, particularly in large cities where anonymity cloaks bad reputations, it’s probably more like 10 times that. CaptainCheapThrill
Simple really. The British are bound by class and the prejudice this breeds, thus front-of-house staff, manual workers etc are seen as lesser beings and by the way the problem is that they no longer know their station. Compare Britain to Switzerland. In one country where one went to school determines which job you will be offered, in the other, one’s ability is the deciding factor. The Swiss recognise that society requires someone collects the rubbish, drives the buses, runs the bank, serves at table, is a doctor. Each contributes and each is essential, and, by the way, all went to the same type of school. No country has a perfect system, but Switzerland has a thriving economy while Britain has a failing one. Keith Pike, St Peterzell, Switzerland
I remember when I was studying economics in the early 70s reading the comment that the Soviet Union and the USA had one thing in common: both respected their working people. Britain, on the other hand, had a legacy from our anti-trade aristocratic past that was quick to disparage working people and place the blame on them for economic problems. Kirk Martin
Probably a bit chicken and egg, but the quality of the staff is not the same. Fewer builders in, say, France or Germany are unskilled chancers. Front-of-house staff in France make a career of it and seem to be able to handle two to three times as many tables as the average student-doing-a-few-shifts-on-minimum-wage in the UK. OldKingCoal
I expect that you know the reason that there is so little training: it is because unskilled staff are paid less! Charles Cramphorn
The class system promotes an assumption that working with your hands is demeaning and those with money can be idle or work with their brains.
Thus many low-achieving children are encouraged to become skilled in “trades” – plumbing, electricians, beauty, hairdressing and care – the assumption being they are not clever enough to go through university, despite many of those who work in these trades also running their own business.
The ruling classes have low expectations of tradespeople and wonder why the work is shoddy and the workers are rude – it’s a reaction to how workers are treated. This is also seen in the rejection of red tape such as regulations to keep tradespeople safe. Keeping workers safe costs business owners money. If Britain were a more equal society, we would see greater respect for front-of-house staff and those who support our infrastructure. GrasmereGardens
The irony is that that forgoing a degree and associated debt and learning a trade that will practically guarantee a good income is actually an intelligent thing for a young person to do. MtEden
British society has a particularly vicious bias against manual labour. Most countries (not limited to, but including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, etc) have strong traditions of craftsmanship that help ameliorate the bias against those who work with their hands, which Britain for whatever reason seems to have lost. The same is true of service professions: in the UK “service” is still closely associated with its feudal roots of being a servant. Assistantref
Builders aren’t as respected in the UK compared with other countries such as Germany because in the latter, you need four years of theoretical and practical training just to work as a tradesman, then an additional two years of training and a final examination to become a so-called master (“Meister”), which allows you to run your own business. As a consequence, you get a much higher and more consistent quality of service. This in turn results in both respect and willingness to pay higher wages.
For example, I came across car mechanics in Germany with an hourly wage of £150. This would be the going rate for a highly experienced contractor in London’s financial services and much more than a NHS GP earns. Thus, becoming a tradesman is a perfectly viable and aspirational career option. 40by25
Those who disrespect anyone, of whatever position in life, are exposing themselves as oiks. The definition of having good manners is someone who treats a dustman and a duchess equally. MrCassandra
I have far more respect for my bin collectors than I have for Sarah Ferguson. reggiepurrin
