AIBU to hate mumsnetters calling professional useless?

I don’t know op, it’s a horrible word so I disagree with that, but when you have a child whose got an issue and you see a doctor that does have their finger on the pulse relating to what they have, as opposed to one who fobs you off it is true that not all professionals are created equal!!

Some definitely are useless. I've got legal aid for a solicitor over my son's education and she is utterly useless. Is missed all deadlines does not understand my sons case and last minute let's me down with multiple meeting with the LA so I have to attend alone against their solicitor when I'm not legally trained. I've ended up doing most of the work myself.

The meeting I had with my barrister today however was very different. This woman is very far from useless. If we don't win the case it won't be due to her

Regardless of profession, some really are just useless.

@CantDealwithChristmas we have a queue holder call back which gives priority but people don't use it and would rather queue

Well some people are useless. In every profession there are people who are bad at it.

But I agree it can be misused when someone just hasn't done what the person wanted.

Same same and yes people think it means I'm thick and have no qualifications, I think that's why customers can be so rude.

What I mean is that not everyone can handle having to call and wait in a queue especially older people or people with disabilities. I work in a sector which used to be done by face to face meetings and is now online and by our call centre and I know a lot of older people find that difficult

I work in a call centre
Perfectly capable of good customer service so I'm not sure what call centre culture is

Most people seem to think it's a job that means I don't have any GCSEs and am thick

I may have said this (to my husband) about the pharmacists in our Tesco at the weekend. Four of them (appreciate all four are not going to be qualified pharmacists) engaged in various slow jobs behind a row of shelves while a queue formed. I know they have loads of stuff to do, but four of them, chatting away while they work? No one even attempting to step forward and see if one or two customers might have a really quick, simple request like an OTC medication?

Sometimes professionals are kind of useless!

Well, see now, I'm slightly offended by that because in customer service roles we absolutely do our best but are dealing with such huge backlogs often, made worse by job cuts in many sectors, increasingly hidebound and strict rules about options we offer customers, and also I have to say, customers are notiv=ceably ruder and more aggressive than they used to be.

I think the vast majority of people in public facing roles and services are doing their best! You can't arbitrarily decide that one gorup is unfairly called useless and the other group is fairly called useless based on your own random categorisation!

Most useless recent experience I had was going to A&E with a couple of broken bones, coming over faint and collapsing in A&E (legs began shaking and gave way) and lay on floor in reception whilst two nurses behind the triage desk stared boredly at me! The lovely porter came to save me with a wheelchair.

I believe my friend had an incompetent dentist who messed up her treatment and caused her a lot of problems. He later moved to my practice and treated me briefly. I wasn’t very impressed with him and was horrified when I told my friend his name and she said, “that’s him”. He soon moved on again (or was moved on).

I appreciate it's not nice and my profession often gets called useless. In fact I myself was once described as 'some bird' and 'utterly useless' in a Google review.

However on the other side, as a customer, I do note that customer services, professional services and public services have become markedly worse since the lockdown. Plus the ongoing computerisation/AI-fication/everything defers to a call centre culture, does make service users and customers feel frustrated and ignored. So that's where the 'useless' epithet comes in.

It's the general public too

"I want an appointment for tomorrow"
Sorry we don't have one
"You're useless/customer service is shit/I'll be writing to your head office...."