To ask what jobs people secretly (or not so secretly) look down on and why?

I know someone who gave up her paramedic job to be an aesthetic practitioner. Now her SM is full of off plump lips and smooth foreheads.

@KaleQueen stupidity, but also the patriarchy and awful teaching of critical thinking skills.
I don’t have loads of sympathy for women who get themselves pumped full of filler and fake Botox, and now even some men are doing it too. I think it’s an educational failure.

Hard working women aren’t being conned out of their money if they’re deciding to go and get it done? They’re the daft ones if they’re letting someone with new or vague qualifications do it to them. It’s not a con. It’s just stupidity.

Ok going to add aesthetic practitioners, but are really beauticians who should be doing nails and waxing. Not pumping god knows what into people at £££ a go. I think it’s about time this industry was regulated? Hard working women are being conned out of their money. The list of treatments go on and on and we didn’t know they existed 5+ years ago, let alone needed it.

I don’t really understand what is wrong with earning well and being a fundraiser. Surely people that are raising huge funds for charities deserve to be earning a decent wage- It’s a job not many people could do or would want to do, I know I couldn’t.

But I agree there are some absolutely vile fundraisers who are coercive and aggressive, which my partner despises too and would report. It’s a shame that they ruin it for others who genuinely care.

I agree, carers are absolute saints. They helped me deal with my elderly and stubborn mum, and kept me from exploding at her. They often came from distant countries, and their homes in the UK were far from mine. During lockdown, chatting with them when they came in, listening to their stories, contributed to my sanity. And they are paid pittance. PITTANCE!

Yes my statement could have come across that way. I probably didn’t word what I wanted to say clearly enough. In my entirely imaginary scenario I probably should have said that I was suggesting that people should experience (instead of saying have to do) certain jobs for six months. They would obviously be under the supervision of the people who know how to do the actual job but would experience the role. If people had experience and some understanding of the roles they wouldn’t look down on such jobs hopefully? As I said on a previous thread a lot of people think they know what teaching involves because they went to school. So I understand where you are coming from but that was definitely not my intention.

It's insidious here on MN. People will often refer to working in retail or hospitality "whilst at uni", lest anyone think they actually worked in those fields as a career.

Influencers and politicians - pretty much for the same reasons!

@yikesnotagain
@TempestTost

I know what you’re getting at, but no company is going to pay someone just to keep them busy, if they weren’t adding any value to the business.
Some jobs do just exist to help a company make money, rather than directly benefitting society the way doctors/teachers etc do. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, we need businesses for a healthy economy. And if a business exists in the first place, then there must be a need for its products/services. Nobody is going to pay for a product or a service they don’t need. And if there’s no need or demand, then they’d go out of business pretty fast.
Some jobs are more strategic and all about making decisions, overseeing other people’s work, advising, and facilitating communication between different people and departments, rather than being on the front line serving customers etc.
(I don’t have this kind of job btw so I’ve no skin in the game, just an observation!)

With the parking wardens I knew (when I worked in a local authority)

• because they needed "a job" and didn't have time or luxury of waiting for their "dream career"
• because a job in a local authority is secure and comes with a decent pension and scope to progress or move into different areas

For all sorts of reasons, not everyone has the luxury of waiting for their dream job to come along. Plus you have bills to pay and you are made redundant, I would say it's far more impressive to go out and get a job where you may face abuse than it is to sit around claiming benefits/living off your spouse while you wait from your perfect job to come along

Yes I took time out from my career to work in a retail type job (for health reasons, I needed to work very part time). It was absolutely eye opening. The exact same people who would have talked to me so respectfully doing my normal job couldn't even treat me as a human. They would carry on talking on their phones, hand money too me that was still mixed with disgusting crumpled up tissue, barely acknowledge my existence. I didn't need us to be besties but just the most basic human politeness would have been nice.

Skill and demand

I’m sure you know this bit everyone - no matter who they are - has the right to a fair trial.

And oh yes, landlords. I don't mind 'accidental' landlords or those with just one or two so much, but the more property you own the more you are stealing from working tenants. As someone who was forced into private rentals - no family support, no state support - I frankly hate those who stole my life's productivity and work.

Influencers. Non jobs that the world managed to live with quite happily without until very recently.
Accountants. Yes I know they're very well qualified. But in the main, with a few exceptions, they exist and are paid according to how well they rip the public purse off by enabling private companies and extremely rich individuals to hide their money and avoid taxes (in full accordance with law, I should add). It really annoys me how popular this career appears to be with middle class women.
Any high level bankers/ traders, for similar reasons. Far too much non-money floating around. We urgently need to start valuing real jobs that do real work more.

How is saying white a descriptive slur? It’s fact. White Nazis killed millions of Jews. White English men killed millions of Irish people. White American men killed millions of black and indigenous people. White South Africans killed millions black people. I could go on.

Thanks for your respectful reply.

I appreciate your feedback and think you still have very valid points in your original post

I'm not getting at you personally. I've just seen that description "bandied" about a lot on this site and it just makes me 'wince' a little, as I think it gets repeated without remembering that "white" as a slur for rich folk doesn't need to be in there as a descriptor. I personally feel it causes more divisions by race. Anyway, as you rightly say, it's a whole other issue. I can see it wasn't your main point and I appreciate you replying respectfully, so thankyou.

So your comment on my post did make me think a bit. But I do respectfully disagree with the accusation that I used race as a "slur" or negative descriptor. Generalisation, perhaps. Maybe I was ageist and sexist too! But the top 14 richest people in the world are in fact white middle-aged to older men (number 15 is actually a rich old white woman, hooray?).

I really don't want to derail the thread further (I don't think OP wanted a debate about white male privilege) when there have been so many interesting and thoughtful perspectives on topic, so going to leave it there I think.

They wont though... because they don't make money. Footballers do.

Yeah, I’m sure it’s the POC are ones that kidnapped white people from their homes and forced them to be slaves.