What’s your views on people doing Low Skilled jobs all their life? Are they stupid?

[Benny91]

People that are bin men, cleaners, bus drivers and work in retail? Do you think they’re only doing it because they’re not very smart?

As I heard this guy talking to his friend in the Gym today and that he’s a manager at a supermarket and all I overheard was that the longest ones who have worked at the place are ‘thick as shit’, and I was actually quite shocked about what he said! 😳

Also saying about those doing this long term. People often assume that people that do this way of living are failures in life?!

Whats your thoughts?

Who would empty his bins or clean his office or stock the supermarket shelves if "thick" people didn't do it ? The guy doesn't sound particularly bright himself if he is having conversations like that.

No definitely not my opinion. Many people I know choose low paid jobs as they are local and fits around other commitments. Many people choose supermarkets etc as less stress than previous careers. When my children were small I choose a low paid job as it suited for a few years. A friend with a degree but not much money definitely thought it was below her. What would we do if no one did these jobs.

A very close friend of mine has a “low skilled job”. She has 2 batchelors degrees, one masters degree and for many years had a very good career in a profession. After suffering from burnout and having a toxic workplace and also having children she decided that she wanted to leave her profession, but just to tie them over, and to give her time out the house, she took on a “low skilled job”. She’s never looked back and loves her job.

I don’t think people in “low skilled jobs” are anything but hard working people with jobs, and I try to always keep in mind that we don’t know peoples stories.

I've worked in retail for over a decade. Most of the department managers are former shelf stackers/till staff who wanted an extra few quid. Their ability to do their job varies massively. Currently working under a general manager who doesn't understand percentages (super handy given sales and waste are in her remit) and keeps telling us that sales are up/down by ridiculous amounts with no recognition that we might've noticed had we sold 300% more milk than last week. Of course, there are intelligent retail managers but ime, the main requirement of the job is that your face fits.

EXACTLY

We all have different skills. Stacking shelves or emptying bins are essential jobs (think back to covid) and we'd be lost without these people.

It's likely that people who do these jobs don't have a Masters or a PhD, but so what? That doesn't make them stupid. It makes them potentially less academic. And who gives a fuck about that?

I used to have an "important" responsible job which involved using my qualifications and my brain

Now I do minimum wage basic admin and reception work. A choice I've made to wind down to retirement and I love it. I also work with a Charity and give back to my community

Well done to your Mum, @BrassOlive🥰

I cannot believe that some of you are talking about people being "thick" - even if it is to defend those in low paid jobs.

One of my daughters has a learning disability, a low IQ which means she will never work as a shelf stacker or in a cafe. The other has learning difficulties like dyslexia which she struggles with every day - she works but can't get the qualifications she needs to progress, even though she is excellent at her job.

And they are both gifted in other ways.

A lot of low skilled/low paid workers work a lot harder than those better paid.
If we didn’t have these people, society would grind to a halt.

I think secretly a lot of people do think this (and a few talk to houtlike they think this!). I work on a checkout, I have 4 kids and hours wise it works for me (plus I love it) but everyone is asking at what stage I’ll go back to office work and when I say I don’t know I will there’s an inevitable’ah you want to be manager one day’. No, what if I enjoy my job and don’t mind living in less money as opposed to stress stress, job coming home with you etc etc. You do regularly get treated like a simpleton and then people make a face if it comes up in conversation where you worked/ that you went to university (eg talking about kids and I might say ‘oh I went there!’ and I get some form of a confused/ horrified look)

Gosh, no, not at all!
I've so far mostly done minimum wage or just above jobs, when I haven't been self-employed (when self-employed I've worked for far less than minimum wage!)
Several reasons - I've struggled with my mental health since I was 11. That really held me back and I didn't end up finishing studies, so, no degree. I often find work very challenging due to various struggles, but really want to contribute to society, so do my best. I have little confidence, and don't like competing, so have often taken work that many people wouldn't want, such as fruit picking.
I'm very sensitive, and high pressured jobs don't suit me.
I'm honestly just not ambitious, in the worldly material sense. We can't take anything material with us when we go.
I've figured out how to live on a low income. I'm used to not having cars or fancy holidays or whatever.
I like to not have work I take home with me, so I can devote free time to hobbies and creative pursuits etc.
But, at primary school I was top of the class, and considered highly intelligent. If it hadn't been for trauma and mental illness (as a result of trauma) I'm sure I'd have had a very different kind of life. But, I'm philosophical these days, as I don't think 'achievement' in the classic sense, is the meaning of life. We're here to learn to love, forgive, and to be kind & compassionate. What we do for a living isn't the thing that defines us at all - in my humble view 😊

I think we need to be careful about calling these jobs ‘low skilled’ . All jobs require skills . I wouldn’t, for example, be able to skilfully work with difficult customers the way retail workers do. There’s such a snobbery around this that devalues incredibly valuable roles in our society. Surely what is important is that we contribute to our communities through our work (and many of these jobs do so in a much more meaningful way than jobs viewed as higher skilled).

Ps on the term low skilled, I’ve worked in offices and labs where your job is inputting figures all day/ transferring samples from one tube to another/ checking results (colour equals positive, none negative). These needed degrees but what skills did they use really? So I hate that term because when I told people where I worked they practically bowed to me but now in a supermarket I mostly get an ‘oh’.

People do different jobs for different reasons.

A cleaner for example - if they are self employed cleaning people’s houses, they may do it for the flexibility. If they clean offices in the evening, that might be when their partner is home looking after children.

Having said that, I don’t think someone would be a bin man for years unless a lack of qualifications stopped them doing something else. But to be clear, a lack of qualifications doesn’t mean I think they’re stupid. I used to work with bin men (I was in the depot office), I didn’t think they were stupid. Well, some of them were. But now I’m an accountant, and some of my qualified and very well paid colleagues are also a bit stupid in many ways (just not when it comes to taking accountancy exams).

It comes down to living to work or working to live. Some people just do not want a stressful life, they want to go to work do their job and go home, have enough money to put a roof over their heads and food on the table.
Often people who go through life changing events give up the "career" and do a less stressful part time job because they realise life is priceless and can be cut short in the blink of an eye, they realise being at work a single second longer than you have to takes precious time from the days you have left.
Being educated doesn't mean you are smart, and emptying the bin does not mean you are thick. We have all met "professionals" and wondered how on earth they get through the day and we have all met those in minimum wage jobs that are way smarter than we will ever be.
Smartest person i ever knew was a housewife whose only ever job was working on the NAAFI tea wagon during WW2, my that woman could have ran the world, she was fascinated by everything and everyone.
Your job title means nothing,

He's a manager in a shop, I hardly think he has the right to look down on people, he's not exactly in some kind of high flying career himself...

Maybe people in low skilled jobs are the sensible ones! I have friends who are in careers which carry a great deal of responsibility, that they needed degrees for etc ie doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers etc. They have all at some point had to stay late, deal with stress, carry their work home with them whether that be paperwork, training or just not being able to switch off from work worrying about had the done X, Y or Z. None of that if you work on the tills in Asda!

Some people are academically brilliant and others are not. The world needs different people. There’s more common sense amongst those with their feet on the ground I find.

The ability to do almost any job well and quickly isnt to be underestimated, neither is the ability to plug away at a manual job in all weathers.

To be honest sometimes I think the complete opposite.

Because of the welfare state and various top ups it can sometimes be a very wise decision to work in a low stress, low paid job which often involves far fewer hours and rely on the government to make up the shortfall. The current government in particular seems to be after anyone that has more than the average person so for example there is no point in owning a house if you can get a lifetime tenancy for a similar house and can be relaxed in the knowledge that you will pay a low level of rent for the rest of your life, never worry about interest fluctuations or negative equity and won't be forced to sell your house when you reach the age you need to potentially go into a care home.

Realistically most better paid jobs may be physically easier but they are a hell of a lot more stressful and often require a significant amount more hours and commitment. I have worked both types of jobs in my life and found it infinitely easier working in a shop or restaurant than working a high powered corporate job and owning my own business. Lots of people are putting a lot more in to their work and career and ultimately won't see a lot more out of it. This is why I often think those that work low paid jobs have often sussed out the system and are actually smarter than those that aspire for more and get trapped in a situation where they are never truly that comfortably off and have a terrible work:life balance to show for it.

I'm a graduate who studied at post grad level too. But I've never been ambitious or saught responsibility and career prestige. I spent over 10 years quietly working away in a university library only earning a modest salary, but I adored my job. Librarians work for love not money!

After having our DDs I was then content to do local, admin jobs that fitted around school etc. I was usually far more educated than everyone around me, even senior managers, but that didn't bother me in the slightest.

I’ve got an English literature degree and I’ve worked as a cleaner for years (also done stints in factories, one of those jobs included working from engineer drawings but classed as low skilled)

for me a combination of personal circumstances (single parent of SEN children, my own mental health and bereavement) has been a barrier to going any further.

i also feel like I did the wrong degree, my mum was very controlling and chose my options, my A levels and I ended doing a degree I wasn’t very good at and that knocked my confidence.

jf I had my time again I would do something with conservation or forestry.

Im happy doing the job I love, I clean in a school and I do get a lot out of it, I chat to the teachers, one of them is helping me with maths as I’m taking a college course to finally get the GCSE I never got.

There are many of us also who didn’t get degrees or qualifications who love learning,

we aren’t thick.

the most intelligent person I know is a street cleaner.

the thickest one held a top managerial job in one of the factories I worked at.

🤷‍♀️

Maybe just point out to him the highly educated MPs, ministers and PMs we have had in the past 15 years who have turned out to be utterlly incompetent, useless and hellbent on destroying the country as a good illustration of how high powered jobs don' t equal to being smart...

One of the big name supermarkets in my town make it their policy to employ check out staff with learning difficulties.
I find it admirable, not only by the employer, but that the employees actually do a days work. Proof that almost everyone can do some type of work.
Anyone who can use a smart phone and understands the benefit system is capable of work.
I save my disdain for those who collect handouts plus working cash in hand.

The last shop l worked it was an old fashioned butchers and we had to add everything up on our heads - can't tell you the amount of customers who said they couldn't do my job. My general arithmetic is brilliant because of that job!
Where would we be without shop workers etc? He sounds like a twat.

I originally trained as a secretary, pitman and audio,then nursing in 1972. I needed a job to fit in with the kids, went for an interview at Sainsbury's, stacking shelves at night, better money than night nursing, and guess what....I didn't get it!

The supermarket manager is trying to equate success with high salary and has not thought of the reasons, many of which have been mentioned, why people choose the jobs or careers they do.

If you value balance, peace of mind, contentment, mental well being and relationships, you may well not be striving for the next promotion, or salary increase, but happy with your life being as stress free as you can make it. That’s not being thick. That’s being pragmatic and reasoned and recognising what’s important to you.

Even on this thread while defending people working in low skilled jobs, there's an air of "I have done/do this type of job but I'm capable of/have done better" talk about degrees and retiring from 'big jobs' for a simpler life, it fitting in with family life etc. But people are being very sure to point out they can do better, if they chose to.
They feel the need to defend doing them. That's not a criticism of those saying it, but it makes me wonder why there seems to be a need to.

What does it matter if the person who serves you in Aldi has a string of degrees but this job means they can do the school run, or they don't have the ability or the want to get a string of degrees? It would really make no difference to the actual service they're delivering to you. They should be equally valued for what they're doing, regardless of anything else.

But that's the thing, they're not valued, despite so many of these roles being what society relies on to function. Cynically you could say that keeping these roles as low value keeps them cheap and the people doing them compliant, which of course improves conditions further up the ladder. There's less guilt attached if you can write off the people doing the actual work as thick and unable to do better while paying them little and in some cases, exploiting them. It then becomes a flip where the people further up the ladder start to take the attitude that they're doing the lower end a favour by employing them at all, rather than it being a mutually beneficial arrangement, weighted in favour of those running the show.