18 People Share Popular Misconceptions About Their Jobs
Article created by: Ieva Pečiulytė
From lawyer jokes to IRS agents, certain jobs just get all the hate and blame. Now, normally one doesn’t deal with a lawyer or IRS agent on a good day, so some of the emotions make sense. But an internet user wanted to ask people in various maligned fields if their profession actually deserved all the hate it would customarily get.
So employees and professionals answered with their own examples of why certain jobs get a lot of slander but are still pretty important for making the world go ‘round. Others shared why their job was not actually as bad as people would claim. So scroll down and upvote the suggestions you agree with, and be sure to comment on any professions you think should have been included.
I was a cleaner. People used to treat me like furniture and assumed all kinds of things about me. That was the best-paying job I ever held, with the best benefits, and most vacation! I went back to school for a more “dignified” career, and my “dignified” job sitting at a desk ended up being worse in every way.
Janitors. Give them respect, people, unless you want to empty your own trash and clean your own work or school space.
(Seriously, being nice to the janitor saved my tail one time when I was locked out of a room that contained some vital work material. The big boss didn’t have keys to that room, but guess who did?)
Social workers. We are underfunded, understaffed civil servants attempting to help populations of individuals with multiple overlapping problems (poor, mentally ill, criminal records, substance use issues), get their lives back on track. The people others walk by on the sidewalk or avoid eye contact with on the subway; we seek them out, try to help them, and usually no one is happy with what we have to offer. Also red tape….lots of government red tape.
Veterinary medicine. 110%. Extremely low wages, very high suicide rates, everyone thinks we are in it for the money, or don’t know what we’re doing. The burnout and turnover is truly unlike any other profession.
Child care workers. We work our [butts] off all day long, receive horrible pay, work horrible hours, get little to no respect, get little to no PTO, are guilt-tripped for taking sick days, are told to do more and more random things day in day out by management, are expected to follow routines parents don’t even follow at home, and still show up to work. We take care of your children, please be respectful.
Meteorologists. Lotta jokes along the lines of “must be nice to be wrong half the time and still keep your job”. Do you know how difficult it is to predict the weather 2-3 days out, let alone a week out?
Dentists.
We really ARE just trying to help you save your teeth. And it’s really NOT fun to have patients immediately say how much they hate the dentist before they even say hello.
Teachers. There are obviously good and bad ones, but most all of us got into this crappy profession because we love your kids.
Zookeepers.
Most people who have actually encountered them avoid them because they always stink so effing bad, but they’re nice people 🙁
Strippers/exotic dancers. If the person is comfortable enough to do that, then there’s no shame in them doing that. Also they can make good money in just a night
Tattoo artists. Ive been told countless times from others it’s a “ghetto” or “sketchy” job where they all sell drugs, but a lot of the ones I’ve met are really neat or chill. If it actually doesn’t have as much of a bad rap as I thought and I just know too many people who give it one my bad.
Call center workers. Yes, we know that you are not happy with (insert whatever you or the client did here). We know that you don’t like having to do verification or to click through options when you dial in. No amount of verbal abuse, slurs, or sexual harassment will change that this happens.
Also, this doesn’t include scam call centers (“your car warranty is expiring”/fake tech support centers/etc.), but *does* include legitimate outbound centers (ex. collections, sales) and outsourced centers in India/Mexico/the Philippines/other places. Yes, they can be annoying, but that doesn’t change that there is an actual human being on the other side of the phone who is just trying to do their job. They were probably placed on the other side of the phone because of a decision made by some freak in a suit who hasn’t interacted with us peons in decades, not because they’re actively trying to annoy you.
Lawyers, when theyre /your/ lawyer theyre good lol.
But yeah people often like, don’t understand what the job of a lawyer truly is so people are quick to demonize them. Yeah theres some that truly are out there abusing loopholes and being scummy, but most lawyers are just doing what theyre supposed to. Making sure their client is getting charged fairly. Even if they are guilty, they still are there to ensure a just punishment and not overkill.
