'I'm associated with health care'

[PestoPasghetti]

If you were at a party and, in making small talk with a randomer, asked them what they did for a living, and they came out with this before instantly changing the subject, what would you think that'd mean?

She's a healthcare assistant and she's right; it should be a profession. It's one of the most important jobs in the world and takes skill and a particular sensibility and it SHOULD involve professional training, professional respect, and a high pay level. The only reason these things aren't the case is because we don't value our elderly population as a society.

Lots of jobs don’t have very clear definitions. Not like saying doctor, nurse, teacher. People understand what they are. If you said manager, that’s more vague. I tend to say the area I work in, and not my job title, because my job title is meaningless to most people, or if they think they know, they generally have it completely wrong. I’m not in health care, though.

Could be one of many jobs

NHS manager
NHS administrator
Facilities manager
Healthcare assistant
Phlebotomy
Pharma industry

or like someone else they could be a doctor or nurse but dont particularly want to discuss their job with you!

😅👏🏻👏🏻

I'd assume they worked in a healthcare setting in a supporting role eg cleaner, admin or worked for a company that provided goods or services to healthcare settings. Or they drove the community transport bus etc.

I was going to say they probably sold healing crystals or some such bollocks but I realised if that was what they did, they'd have banged on about it at you all night.

Absolutely @yesterdaytheycame!

I don't particularly like people asking me what I do for a living and it's not something I ask for small talk. Always think people are trying to suss out where you sit in the social hierarchy, so they can adjust their behaviour accordingly.

In answer to OP's question, I'd think they were a GP who didn't want to have to answer health questions, but there are any number of possibilities.

Posted too soon.
You've already got evidence of it happening here, with healthcare assistants positions reduced to someone that just visits old people to give them a wash and change their bedding.
I've had lowly status jobs and higher ones and you can see people dismissing you as not worth the bother, when you say you work as ( not well paid job).

Ah but I bet a hairdresser would be asked "Should I go blonde/go shorter/wil this suit me/why is balyage so ££ / what can you recommend for my dry split ends^ ?

And expected to give FREE on the spot advice

My NHS job kills a conversation stone dead or has people slipping off their shoes to Can I quickly show you my bunion/in grown toe nail

No . (Is a complete answer )

Best one yet!

Sexual health clinic worker, or sex worker outreach?

Technician who runs the urodynamics machine?

Tests bowel cancer stool samples?

Absolutely. The last few years really should have taught people what the important jobs really are, the 'keyworkers' without whom society would become very difficult.

Usually badly paid, and then have to put up with the sort of bullshit comment from the first pp above.

Of COURSE carers and HCAs should be seen, and respected, as Healthcare professionals.

I'll say either a GP or another profession that's instantly going to get people asking advice or moaning at them. A hospital manager is another possibility. Or of course, a GP's receptionist.

Someone who doesn't want to talk about what they do. I used to say Financial Services and move on quickly. I learned that telling people I dealt with insurance claims always led to a tedious conversation about how terrible insurers were or how Auntie sues brothers son in law was deffo conducting fraud.

Maybe you should go and educate yourself before commenting. I'm a nurse and I cannot praise your friend enough for what she does, she is a healthcare proffesional her job entails much more than you think.

My friend is a dermatologist and made the mistake of answering that question truthfully at a party we were at.
She got shown at least seven weird rashes/skin tags/bumpy thing/ odd coloured body part.
I found it very funny but can see how that would get incredibly annoying everywhere you go
She says vauge things like that now

Might think they were a bit dickish, but asking people what they do is boring and they are possibly just trying to avoid that.

It's one of those vague terms like administrator or project manager so could be anything

Social worker?

She does that because people don’t respect home caters / health care assistant and they should. Technically it’s not a profession, but given that we don’t respect bus drivers / care assistants / bin collectors, you can hardly blame people for inventing job titles.

In fact the person in the op really could be a social worker too

Either they don’t want to get into a conversation about it, don’t want you to whip out the nasty boil on your backside and ask for a diagnosis (which is what people quite often do when you reveal you’re a doctor / nurse / dermatologist) or their actual job title is pretty obscure and not very explanatory.

I just tell people I don’t know that I work in financial services, because mostly when I tell people my actual job it gets a blank look or the misinterpretation that I do something I don’t.

I’m a GP and I now lie when people making small talk ask me what I do (eg taxi drivers, people I won’t see again). People now generally hate GPs and it’s like saying you’re a parking ticket inspector or a tax collector, the public think they can now just rant at me and tell me how shit their surgery is and how lazy we all
are.

I usually say I’m a nurse, because people generally like nurses.

Is it boring to ask someone what they do? I thought it a good way to find out if you're got a connection that you could base a conversation on, if not a possible friendship! I love talking about what I do (nannying) because I love my job. It must be horrible to have a career you dislike to the point of cringing if you have to talk about it.

As for finding out where you are in the financial/societal pecking order, I get asked an absurd amount what my FATHER does for a living!! I don't see what that has to do with anything, but it's clearly a thing a person is judged on!