After a bit of thought though, I realize there's no reason why that should be the case. Ours is a real life experience that, while not physically demanding or adventurous, isn't less worthy of being captured in song. We have our own experiences of drudgery, adversity, camaraderie that have gone mostly unsung. Thank God we at least had Stan Rogers.
I think it was created by an us vs them mentality (where “them” is management).
We would be out in the field under all weather conditions while management would call and give us orders over the phone from a comfy, climate-controlled office, and then go back to Skyping other office workers (or whatever app it was at the time).
With each of my white collar jobs I’ve had a boss but he sits down the hall from me and we both sit at desks and eat at the same places. There’s less separation, but there’s also less camaraderie among my team.
I've never had blue collar jobs, but I've always suspected that was the case. I think there's less of a "class" consciousness among office workers. We feel like we're better, privileged - why, if we apply ourselves maybe one day we'll get to be bosses and billionaires too. We just have to meritocratically outcompete our peers...
Working folk know better...