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?

Ed Psych - that there really is no magic wand…

Nursery work - I don’t play all day. I have trained to facilitate children to play all day in a way that will enhance their development and skills. I help SEN children develop in the way they need to, which may involve different skills and training. I ensure that I know each of my key children well enough that I know which areas they most need to develop by using their interests and nature to do so.
I also write EHCPs, consult with other professionals and parents to help each child that needs support.
On top of this is the basic care of nappies, toileting, feeding, helping regulate emotions and behaviours (ie tantrums), comforting, safeguarding, preventing biters from getting their peers.
Sorting rotas, registers and dealing with emails and making sure everywhere is clean and safe.
Plus a host of others things I’ve not mentioned.
But certainly not playing all day!

I work in the water industry on environmental improvement schemes. The recent rhetoric that water companies are massive polluters and the bad guys is unfair - improvements to our sewerage infrastructure has been held back by regulators wanting to keep customer bills low, not by the water industry trying to maximise profits. Having said that I do disagree with the industry being privatised altogether, and there is a lot of variety in environmental performance amongst companies; I work for one of the better ones.

Oh Boy here we go!

That I am a receptionist in a Mental Health Unit. A receptionist not ward staff.

So many people go up the ward or are seen by a ward staff member and then come down and ask me things only ward staff would know or the staff member tells them it will be half an hour before they can speak to them/ they can come up. They wait until they have gone then say it has been ages and can I phone to ask if they can come up!

If you do not phone beforehand and just rock up to see the staff in the early morning ,,um.... they may not be able to see you cos they are not up their filing their nails waiting for you and do you know what? It doesn't matter if you come from America or Saudi Arabia, they have various things to do like ward rounds!

I work in a private care home. It's mentally and physically exhausting, we could do with double the amount of staff which will never happen.
We get the minimum wage. We do not get a penny extra for bank holidays or even Christmas day. When we had covid outbreaks one residents family member said it must he nice to have 10 days off paid. We got nothing for having covid only statutory pay. I've had to isolate twice and been really out of pocket and both times I've caught it after caring for people with it.

I absolutely love my job through!!! Its so rewarding just very very hard.

@wizzywig I wish it was a typo. That said I had a mandatory redeployment to London when I lived closer to there and caseloads of over 100 are standard there. When I left on my last day there was still nowhere for my cases to go - it’s sadly common practice to fudge the figures by just having them booked in to see a duty officer rather than allocate to anyone properly.

The media aren’t wrong. Probation is failing, to do anything to protect the public, victims, offenders and staff other than buying some token pot plants for staff well-being. Then when it all goes tits up as there aren’t enough hours in the day we all sit and blame the woman (let’s be honest it is generally a woman) trying to supervise too many cases for the horrific actions of a man (and again, it’s generally a man.)

I’ll leave with the fact that the poor woman who supervised a very high profile SFO case in 2011 killed herself. Make of that what you will.

I may need my own thread about probation gripes at this point 😂

That it is just that for the vast majority of us. Just a job.
Not a bloody vocation.
Nurse.

@cptartapp

I dont think the majority of nurses view it as either just a job or a vocation.

It's some where in between

Those who do view it as just a job tend not to be very good though

Any actors on here? What do people get wrong

Also business analysts as I don’t quite get what it entails

I'm a Speech and Language Therapist.

No, I don't teach people how to "talk properly".

I support autistic children and their families with communication.

"That must be so rewarding"

Actually, yes, it is. But it's also gruelling, frustrating, challenging and difficult some days too.

Me too.

The most annoying misconception is the idea that the reason Hollywood doesn't make very many original movies is because there just aren't any original ideas out there, and out of the zillions of professional and aspiring screenwriters, hardly any of them have any ideas, poor things. So if you have a really good idea for a film, that's gold dust and people in the industry will be desperate for it.

Any writer very very regularly gets relatives or random people approaching them saying "I've got an amazing idea for a movie, you should write it, and we can split the money!"

Then when you go "what exactly would your job be in this to deserve money, given that 'person who came up with a one-sentence idea" is not a job'" then either just blink at you, or they blithely say "just tell them to hire me as producer or director", like okay sure if you go away and spend 10 years building up a career as a professional director/producer first.

Ideas are worth nothing. Absolutely nothing. There's no shortage of amazing ideas, the only reason Hollywood doesn't use them is because they're scared they won't sell and would rather invest in proven IP.

Every screenwriter on the planet (including screenwriters working to a high level, with a great CV and connections) has a whole stack of original screenplays which are probably brilliant, but which they can't get produced. The Blacklist exists for this very reason.

And that's screenplays, not just ideas. Coming up with the idea is the easiest bit. Writers come up with 50 ideas before breakfast. Picking just one, translating that idea into an actual outline, figuring out the complexities of plot and the various subplots, creating interesting and multi-dimensional characters to go along with this great idea, then actually writing it. Then writing the 10 or 20 drafts necessary. That's the hard part. That's why hardly anyone with an "amazing idea for a movie" actually does anything with it.

The other example of this is people who have read a book, loved it, think it would make a great movie, and bafflingly think they deserve a movie deal and lots of money just for saying the words "you should turn this book into a movie."

All actors want to be famous. Some do, but they rarely last. Most just want to act. Lots of famous actors hate the fame part but put up with it to be able to do the career they want.

All actors are rich. Only something like 2% of actors can support themselves from acting work alone (and most of those 2% are living normal middle class lives, not wealthy). Almost all actors have day jobs. Plenty of working actors still have day jobs. There are actors appearing in the West End every night who still work day jobs.

Aspiring actors should just write to Eastenders/Corrie and get a job there. It's standard for actors to do "mailouts" maybe once a year, where they contact every casting director on the circuit to kind of say "hi I'm still alive please consider me, I have new headshots/am in a play/am in an episode of Doctors." The people who cast Eastenders or Corrie get a hundred letters from actors every day, and plenty of them will be from RADA grads, actors who have performed at the RSC, etc. Actors pay a shit load of money just to be in the same room with someone who casts for TV, for the chance to stand in front of a TV casting director for 30 seconds in the desperate hope of being noticed. There is no "just write to them and get a job!" since everyone is already doing that.

I’m a medical writer. Clients think we should be able to sit and write 6-7 hours a day. Just churn it out. I can do max 4. MAX. Usually more like 2-3. Now whats the big deal? Well clients want everything in ridiculous timescales. If I say it takes 40 hours to write a manuscript, they literally think I can do it in like 5 days. It drives me crazy.

My DH was a lecturer for 5 years. I loathed it. Obv he could not take holiday in term, in between he was always grading, and then he was told he had to ‘supervise Master’s students in the labs’ all summer. They literally made it nearly impossible for him to take time off. I felt like it was borderline illegal.

I’m a dental hygienist
I have no say at all in the charges - this is always always always decided by management. I cannot change this
similarly I have very little control over your appointment length- often someone else decides this before I’ve even met you (usually it’s the dentist who decides this at the check up stage )
during your allotted time I legally must ask you about your medical history (it goes no further than me and the dentist) and I’m expected to ask you about flossing / your oral hygiene etc- I often will have your dentist breathing down my neck about why your oral hygiene isn’t as good as they want it.
Your appointment might be 20/30/40+ mins but I never spend that long on your mouth - I HAVE to write notes and clear up before the next person’s appointment- time to do that comes from your appointment
I am not rich - your pay x but I get a tiny fraction of that

honestly I don’t care if you floss or not. They’re you’re teeth not mine

I'm a specialist nurse in a hospital. When I ask patients questions about medications, medical history etc, and they reply with a very annoyed "it should all be in my notes/on the system/why are you asking me that you idiot"...
no, it isn't. Don't ask me why, but it isn't. I can't see any of your GP records, so I have to ask you. I would LOVE to not have to ask and have this same conversation 10 times a day!

Also, I have to check your date of birth and if you have any allergies each time before giving you any medication. Yes, it is all in front of me, but I still have to double check with your wristband and yourself, as it is hospital policy. It also ensures that I don't give you Mrs Brown's warfarin by mistake.

I have the uttmost respect for nursery workers. To be responsible for other people’s dc is a huge responsibility. (Plus I expect it’s exhausting!!). Mother’s wouldn’t leave their DCs at your nursery if you weren’t doing a good job. Well done you.

I couldn't do your job. Im too soft I couldn't let them go.

I'm a foster carer and if I had a pound for every time someone said that to me......

I'm not a hard faced cow with no feelings. There are only a select few who will see me sobbing for days when I've handed over a baby we fostered from birth to their forever family. It's because we gave that baby stability and love in their most formative months/ years that they have the ability to form a positive attachment with their new parents.
Only my dh sees me sobbing because we've had to end a placement simply to keep our other children safe because a young person is so badly damaged they can't live in a family. Because as a baby there were not enough good carers available, so nobody taught that baby how to love and thrive.
The UK needs 1000s more foster carers to keep our children safe and loved.
We're not hard, we care.

That you can't take 'microbreaks' of 10 minutes in the fresh air/sunshine as a teacher (Occupational Health suggestion this week). Bonkers. Apparently I need to walk round outside. I told her I can happily do that in the classroom. Could I not get someone to sit with my class while I go outside every 20 minutes or so? Proper hilarious!

That I work 70 hours a week and take no money (own business being fucked over by rising costs etc). It's mainly my staff I wish knew this, they are lazy fuckers and they are the only ones getting paid... not me

Being an SAHM

i am busy all day! Yes our house runs far more smoothly and there is less overall stress because of that but I am not sitting watching Netflix all day

Landscape Architect. No, I will NOT come and plant out or design your garden! (You need a landscape gardener or garden designer for those respective tasks). You're more likely to see us working on multi million pound environmental design projects or strategic reports and landscape design for flood risk schemes, or public realm designs or city master plans. Basically we design the spaces and places between buildings in towns, cities and countryside. I currently run a team of 100 with a £15M budget for just one scheme....

A friend once described my role to a friend of hers I'd just met as like a " veterinary nurse for human eyes "
I'm an orthoptist .
Part of my role is to differentiate between someone who may have an aneurysm or tumour from someone who doesn't .
Not saying vet nurses don't have an important role

There's so much snobbery when people refuse to do factory/warehouse work.
The people I work with are the most interesting, intelligent and creative I've ever met. I love my colleagues, my job and the company who I work for that really look after, pay us a fair wage and appreciate us.

I work in IT. No I don't wear star wars T-shirt, im not into cosplay and I don't have a beard (ok that's a joke, im a woman )
I also can't fix your computer as I'm completely none technical.

I also wfh and have done for years, so I can't look after your dc, I can't nip out for a coffee, you can't pop round for a coffee and im not sat watching 'homes under the hammer' all day