Would you work dead end low paid jobs all your life?

[SouthMan28]

Would you do this in life?

Or do you think it's something people who are stupid do?

No of course I don't look down on people. We live in the ME and have a live 8n maid and earn loads and have a massive free house. In 10 years we will be living in a flat in the UK and my husband is going to find a job as a handyman and I will do care work. High level jobs rob you of a lot, family life, the stress must affect your health and actually, money isn't anything compared to happiness, family time and being able to work without KPIs and your bonus driving you to sacrifice everything. Jobs are jibs, we all have the right to feel valued and have a sense of dignity.

I quit my Super Important Job, and am in a dead end job with a small charity who have no idea that my skills are worth double if not treble what they pay me.

I love it. It's so easy to do the work, I can follow my own interests and side hustles whilst in work, whilst beating the expectations and giving much more than they're paying for to a worthwhile cause.

When the day ends, I can switch off my phone knowing that I'm not responsible anything urgent, and I have plenty of time to care for my body and soul (which both took something of a battering in the Super Important Job).

I do, love the hours, very little stress and plenty of quiet periods during my shift, so I actually feel rested. My managers are very conscious of boundaries and don’t expect people to stay beyond their hours, unpaid. The minute I log off, I don’t think about it until I’m back online. A breath of fresh air compared to my previous job, that was all about ‘progression’, where at times I didn’t even have time to do a food shop for a few weeks, never mind anything else.

I have just been offered a promotion, and turned it down as I don't want to be responsible for anything/anyone more than I am already. I am happy with the hours I work and the fact that everyday at 2pm I leave the building and don't have to worry or think about work until I enter it again. Why on earth would I want to work all day until 5pm and have added responsibilities just for a few extra £s? No thanks.

I took early retirement from a good civil service career and did bar jobs for a few years after to keep me active. I'm far from stupid thanks!

What we should be doing is making sure that people who demonstrate skills and aptitude and ambition are supported. I do this all the time with my contractors, out of 73 housekeepers, I have managed to get 4 promoted to admin jobs which will change their lives. The majority are from Kenya and 2 of them are now working in 5 star hotels as supervisor or receptionist. I know some are happy doing their jib and take a pride in it and that's fine too.

I've been a carer for 14 years, and seriously considering leaving it all to go work in a supermarket or something, I would probably be making the same money per hour with less stress tbh.

You can't put a price on being able to finish a days work, clocking off then not having to think about it until your next shift.

That's really sad. My dream us to run a care home with investment in staff with CPD time and decent pay for retention.

If you are a self employed IT consultant, you’ll have little chance of progression.

But that’s not what you are thinking about is it?

Ah, if we’re talking no progression rather than low paid, then that changes it for me. I probably am doing a DEJ already. I work three days a week as a teacher, and I’ve progressed about as far as I can on part-time hours. I wouldn’t change it though, I won’t return to full-time teaching, and I don’t need to work full time. I’ll probably only do 10 more years, then just tutor a couple of hours a day, for the easier life and to work for myself. I guess that’s another form of DEJ too, as there’ll likely be limited “progression” in that.

I’m not stupid and although I’m well-educated and have 2 x degrees, I can’t currently do a job with real stress or responsibility due to mitigating circumstances.

If I could find a creative, interesting job with decent pay and no stress, of course I’d do it. But I’m not claiming a penny in benefits, am not a nuisance to anyone and this’ll do for the time being.

I Will retrain - next year- if I’m ready and can get on the right course for me.

So do I.

The trouble is, no fucker would give me 'a more intellectual, challenging job' until I was in my mid forties because they assumed that I'd either use it for a stepping stone to something better (the classic 'overqualified') or because I wasn't experienced in it already, that my feeble little Mum brain wouldn't be up to the challenge (the 'insufficient experience/not recently employed in the sector with a graded reference from a current line manager') whilst the dead end employers didn't want me to move on, either, so refused training or secondment opportunities ('We're not releasing you or paying for that - why would we when you'd only leave once you've got the qualification?').

So I took any job that would have me. Also known as DEJs. But eventually, I lucked out with a late middleaged woman as boss who, after a while, realised the deliberate and cynical squashing of opportunities that was still going on in the organisation and offered me a transfer to something in a different area. And now I've actually got access to professional qualifications for the first time.

LaQuern
You can't put a price on being able to finish a days work, clocking off then not having to think about it until your next shift.

I concur.

😱stupid people??? How very rude!

A friend of mine has been a social worker for many years. She likes her job, has turned down promotions which would mean more desk work. Her family continually describe her job as a dead end job.
It’s like the teacher who posted above.
All day to day jobs can be called dead end jobs - retail, teaching, nursing, banking, administrators, hairdressers, IT support if people don’t progress to management. But our society needs people to do the day to day work. Since the pandemic, that has never been so apparent.

This thread makes you look very stupid and rude!

I definitely don't think that working in a job that our society / political class had decided is "dead end" is something that stupid people do.

I know lots of people who work as support workers and carers. They are skilled professionals with amazing social skills, patience and dedication. Some of them want to train in nursing, but some prefer the support work roles because you get much more meaningful client contact. The skills needed to do that job well are hard to define on paper, so it gets classed as "unskilled" work and the pay is crap. But they are real skills and the job can be very rewarding. Absolutely nothing stupid about wanting to do that work well for your whole career.

What's a dead-end job?
Are you referring to the people who care for our elderly, keep our shelves stacked, deliver our goods and keep our spaces clean and litter-free? They don't read like dead-end jobs to me.
However, no, I wouldn't work in one of these jobs out of choice as - for me personally - I want to earn a higher wage than these jobs pay. I'm able to seek out those higher paying roles as I have:

• the kind of formal education that is seen as desirable by many employers and opens up a wider range of roles to me
• no commitments on my time, such as children or other caring responsibilities, which might force me to make compromises
• parents who pushed me to believe that I should expect a certain standard of living

Looking at your past threads, sorry I had to have a nose. It seems your in a low paid dead end job yourself. Plus maybe with your attitude that’s why you haven’t many friends!!! Oh I work in a warehouse and I’m not stupid!

I would rather work and do any job, even minimum wage, rather than being stuck at home on benefits and having to go to those benefit interviews.

I know a young person with a good degree who chooses to work in a bar for minimum wage. He is single so only needs to generate enough for himself. He gets to lie in every day. He meets new people in his job everyday. He has made lots of acquaintances who have developed into friendships. He says no stress.

So people who don't want job progression are stupid? Maybe they have enough on their plate at home without wanting increased responsibility at work. Maybe they have a long term illness that they're concerned may deteriorate with a stressful position. Maybe they're perfectly happy where they are and just don't want to progress. Maybe they go to work to live, not live to work. I tell my kids regularly - the most brilliant surgeon in the world couldn't do their job without the people who make certain their equipment is working correctly, their surgical tools are sterile and all there, their operating theatre is clean and the lights work. We couldn't go out to eat without the kitchen porter making certain the dishes are washed, and without the waiting staff bring the plates to the table. Do not dismiss people who do those 'dead end jobs', because the world would be pretty shit without them.

If nobody did the low paid, unglamorous jobs, society would collapse. Someone has to do them.

I think most people do have a choice actually. Some don't, but most do. You may have to take a DEJ at some point, due to circumstances. But most people eventually manage to sort things, and could then better themselves if they tried. Doesn't always work, but would work for most.

What sort of circumstances do you think makes someone only able to get one DEJ and never ever get a better one?

Trust me, from having worked a lot of retail jobs, I’ve seen a lot of self-important office-job types come in that I’m astonished managed to tie their shoelaces in the morning.

Would I want a better job? Obviously. Maybe I’ll be able to get one, maybe I won’t. I’m not stupid.