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?

How difficult it can be.

People say they get it, but they don't.

There are lots of misconceptions and misunderstanding of what is actually involved.

Most (who criticise) couldn't do it

i would think this is a really interesting job, what parts do you like best
Is there a lot of ganging around for the jury?
do you draw the pictures?

Hanging around sorry

I'm an occupational therapist. I do NOT work for occupational health and it's not the same job!!

@sahayaway Me too!

People look confused when I tell them what I do! 😂

I used to get that when I worked in a children's hospice. Now I get the same kind of comments when I move children to their forever families. I like to think people mean they couldn't find the strength to do it, not that we must be hard hearted to be able to do it.

@Whenisitsummer

Exactly

Funny how no one ever suggests doctors don't need a degree

Or AHP like physios don't

Another social worker.

I work with adults with mental health problems. I wish people understood that we are doing our best, and that we care . That we know the resources available for people are inadequate, but that we can only work with what there is. I wish people understood how sorry we are.
Don't vote tory. I wish people understood that the wider structural and economic instability of the NHS and social care is not of the making of those of us struggling to work there.

I'm.a VAT accountant. I'm pleased people don't understand it because it keeps me in work and nobody tries to engage me in tedious conversations about the finer details outside work.

However like a pp I wish people understood this doesn't mean I can give on the spot and accurate advice about their capital gains tax situation in the pub!

Project manager I get told I just make a timeline

I sometimes wished people realised that financial policy in a big diverse organisation is very interesting.

Another writer here.

People seem to think every day is a holiday for me. I’d like them to know it’s often boring, hard work and lots of 12 hour days.

Also people who are outraged on my behalf when they learn how much of my work is ghostwritten for others. They are not comfortable when someone else takes the credit. I get paid well, and I don’t want my name attached to that work anyway. I write it only so I can afford to write what I want in my own time.

I trained as a careers adviser. We do not 'tell people what job to do'.

Teacher. I don't think the hours are much different to what most people think (I think pretty much everyone realises that we all do some amount of work evenings, weekends and holidays) but i wish people realised just how exhausting the classroom hours are.

And how many decisions we have to make every single minute. If we make "bad decisions" (ie over-react to a rude child, or under-react to a child who's disrupting the learning of others, or give a detention to one child but not to another who'd been doing a fairly similar thing etc etc etc) it's very rarely because we're incompetent, or we don't care, it's just because we have on average less than 2 seconds to make each decision, and we can't get them all right!

I’m in banking. Everyone hates us, we’re all greedy, immoral gamblers.

Make a profit and we’re lending irresponsibly. Decline a mortgage application and the banks “won’t lend to anybody”. Can’t win. People have no idea what goes into assessing a lending application.

That a librarian isn’t someone who reads books for a living. Honestly, I can’t tell you how many times people have told me that’s what we do.

Also, University teachers/lecturers/professors get long holidays over the summer as if all they do is teach

• i would think this is a really interesting job, what parts do you like best Is there a lot of ganging around for the jury? do you draw the pictures?*

I like that every story has a rhythm to it despite every case being different. And I love people marvelling at my shorthand.

Not every trial is a jury trial and not everything gets to trial - some people plead early on.

iIf I do happen to be following a jury trial I can always pop into another court room to kill time and see if anything else is going on.
I don't do drawings as artists are rare these days, I do take all the photos of accused/ convicted people though.

This.

@Redlorryyellowlorryblue
I'm an occupational therapist too and I get it.
I work in an acute hospital and even the nurses and doctors I work with don't really understand what we do,
Or they just think I'm a physiotherapist or a discharge coordinator!

I am a pharmacist too OP. Already feel so overworked and burnt out, the comments online make me wonder why I bother! I think like many others it won’t be long before I leave the profession

Dentistry - how annoying it is when people won’t open wide! And when they tell you they floss and you can see it’s a lie (light hearted)!

but seriously…. Just wish people didn’t think we are all money grabbing scum and tell me they hate me all day (less lighthearted)

GiraffeDoor, yes to decision making fatigue!

School office admin. We generally don't care if you're taking your child on holiday. It's a safeguarding requirement that we know where your child is so just be honest with us. We'll wish you a nice time and that'll be it. We don't issue the fines. In fact if you're honest with us we might give you a nudge as to how to avoid a fine.

Also, we love the kids to bits and will do anything to help them. Just treat us with the respect you expect back and it'll all be grand.

Like a pp, I am a former probation officer and I agree caseloads are ridiculously high.

What I felt the public never understood is that us “supervising” people is not some kind of surveillance! The absolute maximum we would spend with someone is an hour a week. That was in the “good old days” of more manageable caseloads, pre covid etc. Now many cases get a phone call once a month. That’s it.

If someone on probation commits a serious offence, it is highly unlikely that anything could have been done by the probation service to prevent it. Doesn’t stop them getting blamed though!

Not mine but I roll my eyes when people say TV presenting is easy and call mainstream presenters talentless. Is it fuck. You can never get tongue tied, you can never panic, you have to own the room and not get nervous about millions of eyes looking at you. You have to interview people and often put your own points and opinions across without ever doubting a word that comes out of your mouth. You have to be prepared to handle any awkward situations and you can never go "uh" or "um" etc. Just complete confidence and ownership. I couldn't do it for love nor money I'd shit a brick wall.