Weird assumptions

[Zippedydoobaah]

I've just moved into a social housing property after life took a very unexpected turn several years ago. I never thought I'd be in this situation, but very grateful for it. None of my friends or colleagues are in SH and nearly all of them have been shocked to learn that I have to pay rent, they all assumed it's "free housing". I explained that some people might get all their housing costs covered by UC but there is always a rent (and it's not very cheap) and they have been so shocked! I've never been in SH before but always knew it isn't just a free house given out.
Over to you.....what weird/strange assumptions have you heard people making?

I work from home in a biopharmaceutical role, and it has very long hours. I start at 730am and finish at 530pm. Before 2020 I always worked in Central London offices so was hardly at home when you factor in travel. The WFH thing is new to me.

We have lived in our current house for about 5 years now so I have w'dfh since we've been here. I was very surprised when my partner came home one day and said that the neighbours across the road told him "your partner is so lucky to have never had to work"! (he put them straight)

I bloody wish! I've worked full time since 1999, and as a single parent back in the day!

I guess they see me home all the time and assumed I just sit around (we don't have kids) but I can assure them that I work very, VERY hard.

I wonder why they never see me walk the dogs at exactly 12pm every day and think "that must be her lunch break". If I didn't work, I'd be out with the dogs at all hours!

Just can't believe anyone would think I was a lady of leisure. I've literally always fended for myself as an adult.

People often assume that I went to private, or possibly boarding, school, and I've been told that they are "surprised that I survived state schooling"... presumably, because of my accent. They are surprised by many things about me!

Oh, and that I am lying when I tell people my job (farm worker) or my age (I usually get mistaken for a work experience student).

That dialysis means that life is back to normal and hunky dory after kidney failure. It’s not. It is painful, exhausting, messy, disruptive and a poor second-best to having even low kidney function.

Not really a weird assumption - it's quite common - but that 'infertility' always means some diagnosed or physical condition in an individual person.

Me and DH have our own business. We usually say we're self employed because people assume that owning a business means you have a lot of money.

It's a lifestyle business that has given us freedom and flexibility to look after SEN DCs.

One dc was ill and needed full time care (24/7) for months until they were in hospital for many months and then needed full time care for over year afterwards.
There's no way we could have done it if we weren't both self employed. But it meant the business just ticked over rather than earning us the millions people assume!

When you work at a stables you spend all day brushing and playing with cute well mannered horses.
The reality is very long hours , out in all weather, dealing quarter ton unpredictable, animals that will find ingenious ways to hurt you and themselves.

Owning a pub , you get to socialise with all your mates , drink alcohol while working and if a fight breaks out all the regulars will chuck the fighters out.
Reality, very long hours , you absolutely can not drink , you have to be good at book keeping , managing staff , you are the one that has to get rid of the fighting idiots, you have to be physically fit and able to lift heavy cases snd kegs / barrels of beer and you will smell of beer no matter what you wash with !

All single mums get free housing/their bills paid/thousands of pounds in benefits.

I’m a single mum, don’t get any benefits, pay a disgusting amount of council tax every month and live in social housing.

Life is tough and not paid for by anyone but me.

What's the issue with people assuming that about you (apart from social housing, which is perhaps an odd thing to assume)?

Yep, that you still have to pay rent for council/SH.... you often get given a shell of a property that you have to spend money on for carpets, paint, wallpaper etc.

I worked from home full time well before it was a common thing. One neighbour just couldn't get her head around it and used to constantly tell me that she'd get bored if she was me, just in the house doing nothing all day. I got sick of explaining that I worked on a computer in the back bedroom all day long doing accounts. Then I started to work in the office some days doing flexi time. It meant I could drop my son off at school then go into work about 10am, pick him up and work from home during the evening when he was in bed. That completely confused her and on the way home from the school run she would shout "oh are you going into work today, that's nice" as if it was some kind of novelty thing not a proper job. The thing that she really couldn't get her head around though was that my lovely, sweet mum who she knew from sometimes seeing at the school gates, owned the company I worked for and we sold electrical components/transformers/switchgear, parts for machinery etc and my mum was the main "technical" expert there. That really threw her, she just couldn't believe that someone who she saw as just a granny type figure could possibly do what she saw as a "man's job".

That people in receipt of PIP do not work and are evading work.

And that being on UC means you are a job seeker that is avoiding work.
There are lots of reasons to be on UC. People just assume it is to do with job seeking.

When people ask DH where he’s from, he says Shrewsbury. [The town]. But in his work circles and because he eventually got to Cambridge, they always assume he means the public school. Not the grotty comp and 6th form college he actually went to. He stopped correcting them years ago because it was just easier not to embarrass them.

Both of these

This really made me laugh! It reminds me of the time during ds' parent/teacher meeting and the parents were all in a queue and just chatting to each other. One mum very innocently asked me where our second home was, as if having a second home was like owning a toothbrush. I was really taken aback and joked that we didn't have a first home, let alone a second (we were privately renting) but she was genuinely confused and just smiled and turned away. How the other half live!

Please consider doing an AMA, I think lots of people don't understand this. My grandparents had dialysis for several years before she died, she passed away five days after taking ho decision to stop dialysis.

Loving all of the WFH Queens living the high life 👑

Not working related, but my young DD is disabled and has a blue badge. I was telling a school mum that was travelling in the car with me on an outing that we could park at the venue because of the blue badge and without dvd thinking she exclaimed "disabled people get all of the perks!"

That because I can move my legs I don't need to use a wheelchair. I had one such absolute arse tell me on the bus that he was going to 'tell the social' all about me because I was clearly faking.

Freeeeeeeeeee luxury cars innit. While some cars on Motability are free (I.e. there is no downpayment) as soon as you need a wheelchair adapted van there is a down-payment. The downpayment for my van was 20k. And thats every 5 years. Oh, as for the 'luxury' thing, my van is a converted Transit.

I'm only in it for the money and CBA to work. Actually, I pay more in tax each month than I get in benefits. And as for the 'help to get back to work', Access to Work are a literal bunch of shitbags. If it wasn't for a manager who couldn't care less about what I do as long as the job gets done and a PA who's equal parts bolshy (in a good way!) and some kind of miracle worker then I wouldnt be working.