What's the rudest thing someone has said about your job?

[NoEffingWaytoSurvive]

I am a support worker in mental health (outs self entirely)

Someone said a few weeks ago 'you are a glorified bum-wiper'

I would like to give them a thump and then take them to an adult acute inpatient hospital and support people who are acutely mentally unwell, suicidal, violent, sexually disinhibited, manic and psychotic. I will of course, help with personal care where needed.

She was not a friend, fwiw and never will be

Another one for early years ‘you just wipe bottoms all day’ or you just ‘play all day’. No we teach children to count and recognise numbers, learn letter sounds, social skills and guess what we’ve been working unprotected throughout lockdown. As well as that we have to deal with children who have behaviour problems and/or come from very difficult family situations and sometimes it’s pretty bloody harrowing. The early years is woefully under funded despite being a crucial period in a child’s development. Many nurseries are closing down because of the lack of financial support during lockdown and because many nursery workers were very demoralised by their treatment during the pandemic. This sector is in trouble and no-one cares or respects those battling on.

Haven't rtft so may already have been said.

We're money grabbing bastards who can't wait to ask if you have insurance so we can perform all kinds of unnecessary tests on your pet. We should be able to accurately diagnose any condition just by looking at the animal, and then treat them at the same rates that the owner used to pay for their first pet back in 1987, because that's what anyone who really loves animals would do.

I read some variation of the above on MN fairly regularly as well as hearing it in real life.

I'm a freelance writer and translator and I really get it coming and going.

When I do technical/commercial/marketing work, that's not proper work because it's just so sordid and base. (An academic friend described my technical translation work as "hilarious" because it involved chainsaw manuals. Well, you want to get those right, believe me.)

When I do academic/literary translation/editing/journalism, that's not proper work because it's just pretentious wank. Lots of people are absolutely convinced they could do that if they only had the time, darling. They tend to be amazed I actually get paid for any of it.

I command high-ish rates, so clearly am rolling in it. (Uh, no.) But I can only manage so many hours of demanding work per day, and I don't have a contract or a regular wage, so I'm a feckless waster who's just on an extended gap year. I live abroad, which helps with that.

Thankfully, I am extremely happy and have grown to care a whole lot less about people's opinions!

My first job used to make people speechless

I worked with radioactive sewage.

My mum regularly expresses utter, amused shock of the 'and they pay you for that?' variety.

I get a lot of 'that can't be real work' in general. I'm an academic.

Thick as pig shit.

I worked as management in retail.

I worked in Waitrose during sixth form. Had a customer scream at me that I must be fucking thick to work there. Picked up my 4 x A Grade A Levels a week later. Dickhead.

As a health care 'dear' bil said all we do is wipe bums. Knob.
As a qualified it's 'well I pay your wages'.

At the start of the pandemic it became clear dm has no idea what my job is. She’s never been career minded so switches off if I talk work at all. I work in the nhs as a senior manager involved in emergency planning so I was fairly busy last year. Dm commented that I’m not really a key worker (because I’m not a nurse or dr).