To wonder if people are really so ignorant about some jobs?

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Or do they just pretend to be ?

It just seems to me like some people just sit there criticising every shop assistant they come across, bus driver, waiter, CM, cleaner, airport staff, and of course....teacher.

And the ignorance about what people in those jobs do or the ignorance about employment law is unbelievable. Are really grown ups there who don't know that bus drivers work with timetable, that restaurants rely on turnover, that all employees are entitled to lunch break and holidays, that CMs, cleaners, builders, plumbers, are S.E. and the the difference between SE and employee or that teachers don't work only the hours they teach? Basic facts about job duties, rights, tax, profit etc.

AIBU to think that some people should try and do these jobs? Or at least try to learn about them.

I manage a voluntary centre. My mother thinks I spend the day going to visit old ladies in charity shops...

I'm a criminal defence solicitor. If I had £1 for every time someone asked me how I can possibly represent guilty people...

Mostly I don't mind talking about it because usually people get it when I explain it. But sometimes I think it's bloody rude, I don't ask friends in finance how they live with themselves making the rich richer unless I have had a lot of wine. I was really disappointed recently as I ran into my favourite teacher from school and told her what I did and she was quite blatantly disapproving.

WRT shop/waiting staff I have done those jobs and I always try to be polite and tip well when appropriate.

DH used to be a bus driver and apparently (according to the drunk passenger that attacked him) he was personally responsible for the fact the pisshead got on the wrong bus and ended up miles from home.

I work for an investment bank. Naturally, I am pure evil, caused the financial crisis and sat around quaffing champagne bought with my MAHOOSIVE bonus that no tax is paid on, while everyone else lost money and jobs

Managed to survive first three rounds of redundancies. Waiting to find out next week if I still have a job. FUN TIMES!

"I'm a criminal defence solicitor. If I had £1 for every time someone asked me how I can possibly represent guilty people..."
ikwym (as I have heard it before) but I don't understand it! Do innocent people not get accused of crimes? If that's the case then why do we bother with trials? Weird people

my dp used to be a bus driver too, and i think very few people have any idea the amount of crap they have to put up with. he has been threatened and abused by drunk people, spat on, and had to call the police because there was a man having a w*nk on his bus in the seat behind some poor young girl, and one of his colleagues had a gun pulled on him.
they work to very strict timetables that dont allow for bad traffic at rush hour, no time allowances for helping wheelchair users get on and off the bus. if they run late they would get an official warning. if the bus got scratched because the bloody daft bus company insisted they take double deckers through double-parked residential streets you couldnt fit a car through they got official warnings.
he had to supply the change for his float when he first started, so it would get a bit irritating when the fourth person in half an hour got on the bus trying to pay a £1 fare with a £20 , and complained because he didnt have change any more.
i know its bloody irritating when you wait forever for a bus, and when it finally comes he drives right past, its happened to me. but considering the way the companies treat their employees for being a few minutes late, maybe he has a good reason.
its a god awful, thankless job and frankly anyone who can stick with it, and the horrendous shift patterns, has my respect.

rant over!!!

YANBU - I used to work on a check-in desk for a low cost airline. I am sure that passengers sometimes thought I was in charge of time/the weather/planes working or not/how busy it was/pricing/setting policies on baggage.

StealthPolarBear the truth is that upwards of 95% of my clients are guilty. They still get representation if they qualify for legal aid/choose to pay privately. A lot of court work is advising on evidence and representing at sentence hearings. Some trials are only about testing evidence. There are innocent defendants whose cases go to trial, but not that many. I will represent anyone who qualifies under the legal aid system, doesn't matter to me if they are guilty or not. If they put me in a position where I am professionally embarrassed that is different and I would of course withdraw.

Willbean exactly, good for you, everyone is entitled to mount a defence whether or not they are guilty.

Also people think all lawyers go to court, or are either prosecution or defence lawyers, or "ambulance chasers". I've not been in a court in 10 years, and that was when I was a commericial litigation paralegal. I've never practised criminal law either.

Yes and that we all earn a fortune.

Yes, I agree, everyone deserves a fair trial.
What interests me thoguh is that if 95% of people who reach court (is that the terminology?) are guilty, are the trials more about degrees of guilt and sentencing than establishing guilt or innocence?

Well over 90% of defendants plead guilty (forget exact stats). They don't have trials, just enter a plea and then are sentenced on the day or at a later date.

Or you might advise someone not to plead guilty as there isn't much evidence against them. You might get more evidence later then they might change their plea before trial.

Or you might advise someone that the evidence is very strong and they don't have a cat in hell's chance of winning at trial but they insist on having one anyway because they are a pain in the arse awkward and never admit anything (I have a lot of repeat customers!) Sometimes it works out for them e.g. if witnesses don't turn up.

Occasionally the odds are stacked against someone who is truly innocent, but in my experience it is not common.

Damn it!

I've just typed a very long post with replies and comments to many of you and it just disapeared

To those who asked about having friends and playing: they have their school friends and Thursdays are kept free so they can sometimes invite a friend over on Thursday (but most of the friends cant make it because they have activities too ).

If you mean friends in the street then no. Only next door. They have never played in a street . Sometimes i get when i read threads about children playing in the street and fields and going to neighbours' houses.

Too many faces in my post

Ah,

wrong thread now!

Sorry. It is not my day.

(i ll come back to read this later)

I love the comment about M15 and M16 being civil servants, It's so true! WHich is why I hated Spooks so much.

It's not possible to know how to do every job but I think people do need to realise that if they haven't done a particular job they might not know how much work is involved.

I've worked both as a waitress and in a call centre and I hated both - simply because I had so many people treat me very rudely. Waitressing, in particular, was much harder work than I'd anticipated. - lesson learnt for me.

Some jobs are seen as 'lower status' and bring out the bully in some people. Just because someone is in a 'service' position doesn't mean you don't have to show basic respect and politeness.

There are so many jobs I don't have a clue about

Which is why people say "something in the city" for example.

How can I possibly know the finer details of every job tittle that exsists? How can anyone? Unless your a careers advisor I would suggest everyone is guilty of being ignorant about others jobs.