What do you wish people understood about your job?

[CostOfSieving]

I regularly see my profession being ripped to shreds on Mumsnet.

I find the comments are often rather ignorant, but I wonder what I don’t appreciate about other job roles.

What is something you wish people “got” about your job/industry?

For dentistry- that much of the fee paid by the patient is to cover the cost of running a practice; keeping the lights on; receptionist and nurse wages; professional indeminity; maintaining expensive equipment; materials; insurance. It's not going on a Porsche!

Are you going to share your profession?

I work as a buyer. I buy things, contract, negotiate. Still people don’t seem to know what I actually do.

@CostOfSieving are you a HV?

What comments don't you agree with?

I’m a pharmacist. I’m going to (hypocritically?) not defend it on here right now. Don’t have the energy! More interested in other jobs tbh - I’m sure I’ll come to realise I’m just as clueless about other professions!

As a litigation lawyer working from home, I have to account for every six minutes of my working day. Every single day. With narrative and evidence of what has been done.. All the WFH = not really working comments are tiresome.

My job isn't one that I see routinely criticised but there aren't many of us so that might be why.

Ones that get whole threads about them are teachers, GP,s, health visitors.

I am a midwife. My days are long, mentally and physically exhausting and sometimes absolutely heart breaking.
it is the best job in the world but it takes everything out of me to provide the level of care that I do.

Mine is probably one of the most hated. GP receptionist 🙈 I would love to list the amount of things I've done that go above my pay grade & how I've gone above and beyond for most of the patients. Most of the patients are lovely.

That machine learning is not the same as artificial intelligence, and lots of things that get called AI are actually ML

I wish people saw how much I genuinely care about their children. I also wish people knew how many hours I work at home. It’s half term and today is the first day I haven’t worked since school closed. Teaching used to be a respected profession, sadly not anymore.

Occupational Therapy. It’s usually confused with Occupational Health. My friend looked at me funny when I said I was baking with someone that day at work!

That I really, genuinely, have no idea how to fix your printer. Even if I wanted to. I can't even fix my own printer.

I work in a very technical IT role, this does not mean I know how to fix your phone, tv, laptop, printer, car computer, Wi-Fi, Ring doorbell, Alexa or Google hub devices.

Google it like I have to

I'm a social worker. I wish people understood that it is only the courts and the Police that can removed children. A social worker has to make recommendations to the Court and quite often these are not accepted by them and so we can't remove children in those circumstances.

Marketing. No, I don't just fanny about on social media all day.

My job doesn't get vilified on here very often but certainly does in the press. Like all public services we get blamed when things go wrong and yet we are chronically underfunded, understaffed and working within a system that has no cohesiveness, is utterly inefficient and constantly changing on the whim of whoever is in Government or appointed minister.

For every one thing that goes wrong there are thousands that walk away absolutely fine and with no issues but we never get to hear about that.

Me too, but one of my colleagues was in tears last week after being told to fuck off by one patient and having the misfortune to answer the phone to a PITA who rings 5/6 times rudely demanding to speak to a Dr but refusing to tell us mere receptionists why.
Many years ago I was a journalist on a regional newspaper and wish people would understand not all reporters are scum who would sell their own granny for a story.

I'm a civil servant and I wish people understood that most things that make the headlines are cock up rather than conspiracy! Lots of times I see on here that the Gov planned this or that to coincide with something else and I think no way would we be able to get all those departments signed up to do that

Just because I work in tax doesnt mean I can find a way for you to pay less tax. It also doesn't mean I'm good at mental arithmetic so please stop asking me maths questions.

PITA rings 5/6 times a day, that should say

Doctors receptionist - how stressful and busy it is when you are being paid minimum wage, or just above, and most receptionists are there to help, not hinder patients.

Corporate Governance is there for a reason! We don’t put processes in place just to be difficult. And meeting Chairs - keep to the agenda, watch your timings, and make sure people stay on topic.

Surely at that level of detail you’re spending twice as long documenting the work as you are actually doing it? So who do you bill that to? Or is that why you all have to work such insanely long hours, because 2/3 of your time is admin that can’t be charged back?

I'm an accountant. Like most other "personal service" businesses, clients think what we charge them is "our wage" and compare it to their hourly rate. Well for a start, my hourly rate has to cover my unpaid holidays, unpaid sick days, unpaid hospital appointments, unpaid administration/management time, unpaid training days, unpaid marketing & new client meetings, etc. Then it also has to cover insurance, training costs, office overheads, telephone/broadband, utilities, office repairs, stationery, laser cartridges, printer/computer replacements, stationery, professional subscriptions, travelling costs, etc etc. I've calculated that my actual "wage" is less than a quarter of my charge out rate when all the non-chargeable time and overheads are factored in!

What really bugs me are potential clients, who are nothing more than tyre-kickers, wanting freebie advice or expecting to pay a tenner or so on the grounds that "all my other clients" should be paying the proper fee and it costs me nothing to spend an hour or two on them as I should just put it on someone else's bill! They argue that all my overheads and non chargeable time is fixed, so it costs me nothing to spend a bit of time on them! Completely bonkers!

I’m a commercial chartered surveyor specifically dealing with landlord and tenant matters. It grinds my gears when people think I’m an estate agent