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

Believe me I do - I worked there a good while….and lost my faith in humanity there too. To be fair there is the odd bit of value but there’s a shed load more of useless cowboy dross.

More fool them.

My brother is an electrical engineer (he's never been to uni but got A* in maths and all sciences at school) he went on to get HNC/HND. He owns a house worth an eye watering amount and bought his first home at age 22 (detached). He's one of the most clever yet practical people I know.

Why on earth uni and desky jobs with degrees are so brainwashed into the middle classes - ill never know.

I also don't see how trades are not skilled work ? Can anyone here fit a heating system ? Pave a driveway ? Build a home extension ?

Yet I'm the skilled one because I can write an assignment full of fluff at MSc level. I think it's a disservice to trades people to be honest to class them as less 'skilled' / less 'clever'. I'm academic minded, but I'm useless as shit when it comes to practical skills. I find it absurd that we value academia more than actual practical skills.

when i worked in retail i was looked down on by the vast majority of people I served. I was treated very badly, as though I was barely human.
I’ve also worked in customer service and people have treated me as though I don’t count as much at all.
I look down on chuggers, there are other minimum wage jobs that don’t involve pestering people. I know, I’ve done them.

💯

Spot on about (often large) charities who raise funds just to pay their management and employees high salaries and keep themselves in existence rather than serving their charitable mission. Even worse are those who supposedly help people in developing countries but actually go there to prey on the vulnerable. I don't just look down on them, I reserve my contempt for them.

A VC and a real estate debt banker are totally different jobs done by very different sorts of people. They’re almost opposites. It’s a bit odd that this poster doesn’t realise this, and yet has very strong opinions about the finance sector (and mixes in an irrelevant opinion about PFI which was a government initiative invented by politicians and civil servants, and has broadly worked ok).

My strong view is that people who say they dislike the finance sector mostly just don’t understand it. That’s ok - it’s complex and often abstract. There’s lots of sectors I don’t understand. But if you have a bank account, a credit card, a mortgage, a car on finance, an insurance policy, an ISA, an investment account, or a pension, then you have no right to say the finance sector and the people within it are worthless.

I only 'look down' on people who don't work (unless they are retired, redundant through no fault of their own and job seeking, in voluntary work, too ill or disabled to work, in education or caring for a sick relative - think I have covered everything haha)

I will never look down at anyone that is working hard, doesn’t matter if he or she is the cleaner at work or the receptionist.

But I will look down at people expecting a handout (when they clearly have arms and legs to do a job and assuming they are able to but just can’t be bothered) and people who still moan on about being tired/no time/ too busy despite not having a job (+have housekeepers, cleaners, nanny, always eat out).

Anyone in advertising or PR - basically your job is to corporate shill for capitalism and whatever gloss you put on that you are making the world worse for everyone who lives on it now and in the future, plant, animals or mineral. Somehow these people
convince themselves they are doing something admirable/worthwhile. Mad Men had it right - selfish capitalist debauchery from
the bottom to the top.

see also: ‘charity’ work where the whole purpose of the charity is to pay vast sums
to charity employees who put themselves on the back because they supported a start up in Ghana where the boss was able to pay employees equivalent of £500 a year.

That’s awful. They might raise an economic high- flying type but there is a strong chance they will raise a moral bottom-feeder in the process. Imagine knowing that was your legacy.

Patriarchy/misogyny. Big important mens jobs versus caring drudgery jobs for pin money that women do.

People who own gambling and porn websites are the worst people doing the worst jobs. Exploitation as profit.

Recruitment

So sorry to hear of your struggles.

I don't look down on you in the slightest. I have to utmost admiration for people like yourself that see the value in work/life balance. You've chosen an employment that addresses that balance. And it's obviously been successful, you've been there 12 years !

You've got something right that so many people get wrong: career hasn't trumped your health and needs to stay alive ! Too many people (particular on this site) see their and their children's worth in career and uni. Life is about a balance. And if your career/uni is bad for your mental health/clashes with the desire to start a family etc : you don't have to push ahead with it ! So long as you work and earn : who cares !

Plenty of opportunity for you to progress though and use your degree. You've more than proved yourself with a solid 12years of stable employment on your CV.

Mental health problems and past suicide attempts can leave a real scar on the victim (yourself in this case ) it can be really hard to leave it behind and keep having to have it dragged up and feel judged for it. I really hope you've closed that dark chapter and treat yourself compassionately today.

I am not sure you completely understand how the City works. They facilitate business and do create jobs, maybe just not in a way which makes sense to you.

@Berryslacks Many of the most important jobs in society caring, cleaning, emptying bins and cleaning the streets, working in a sewerage works or a rubbish tip are looked down on by some people.

I don’t understand why jobs like these, that are physically hard to do and not many people want to do, are paid so poorly. Surely if it’s a job that people don’t want to do, they should be paid a lot, not paid NMW.

I used to be a hospital cleaner. One time, I was cleaning a corridor and I overheard someone tell her child that they needed to work hard at school or they would end up like me.

Also, office- based non- customer-facing jobs are the definition of inefficiency. Office rental and maintenance costs are SO high. If you have people routinely working at home they are paying their own heating, accommodation, electricity, fibre/ phone, insurance and often, consumables, costs.

Celebrities and “influencers” which you can’t really say why they are “famous” (no issues with actors, musicians, presenters etc) but I have the utmost respect for those doing tough jobs like bin men, road crews, carers especially. Minimum wage workers more generally my hat goes off to you

Anyone who works in ‘banking’/ ‘the City’ - they make money (often) randomly pushing other people’s money around whilst doing nothing to create anything meaningful (like jobs etc) that filters down. They are gamblers and bottom dwellers who have somehow found themselves at the top (….and I have more Tory political leaning than anything else….).

Cleaners a looked down on . But cleaning is a very important job . See how long a hospital would last without cleaners . I’ve done the job and I loved it .

I think the problem with that is the implication that people who don’t go to university are not hard working. I have managed many young lads, as apprentices in differing trades, from just 16 years old, and they have all worked extremely hard. They deserve to be as highly paid as anyone with a degree. That narrative hopefully, is changing!

• Bailiff / debt collector / payday loan providers (really to do with the how it’s done and the fact it’s necessary)
• solicitors / lawyers either involved in profiting from obvious wrong ‘uns or ludicrous divorce settlements
• influencers who recklessly profit - like I don’t mind influencers per se but promoting harmful products is problematic and doing dangerous challenges etc
• chuggers, especially the new wave of ‘CIC’ which are very poorly regulated and so are very harassing
• clickbait journalists
• MLM

This is daft. Why?

My DP has a WFH job for a council. He does not deal with the public, and he does not have to deal with anyone other than via email. It makes no sense for him to sit at a desk in an office when he can do the exact same job at home.

Debt collectors. Seems predatory in the U.S. as they go after people with health care bills. Get cancer and can’t pay your bills? That’s the kind of people you have to shake down on a daily basis.

I have a career, so I'm hardly looking down on working mothers FFS. You've chosen to interpret it that way.