If you have a senior job, do you assume that someone in a poorly paid job is less intelligent than you?

[angelos02]

I used to have a very well paid role but it made me anxious and I could never switch off. As DH earns good money we can afford for me to do a basic office job and I earn a little over the minimum wage but it suits me as I am emotionally much happier.

I just find that some people at work often speak to me as though I am less bright than them and I find it frustrating.

[bibliomania]

I certainly wouldn't assume that, but I have encountered it. After being made redundant, I moved to another role at the same organisation a couple of grades lower. It was fairly short-term while I was looking for another role. I was working with - well, under - two older women. They honestly meant well and to be supportive, but I used to gnash my teeth when they would draft emails for me to send out - banal things, like an invitation to an event.

I think it was probably even more uncomfortable for them than me. I did my best not to be bolshy and know-it-all, because I know (from experience!) that's horrible for a manager, but there was a slightly uneasy edge to the relationship.

[scottishmummy]

No,I work with various grades of staff

[morethanpotatoprints]

Hello OP.

I am not in a senior role, but could have easily have been by now.
As a sahm and low family income I get this quite often. Both me and dh have PG quals, but that doesn't stop people thinking we are beneath them.
Some people aren't driven to earn high wages but prefer to work or do the things that make them happy.
More so these days, society seems to judge success with high earnings and really senior positions and/or professions.
I would ignore them OP, although agree it must be difficult if you see them everyday. I suppose you can be safe in the knowledge that they will be really stressed out and have to jump through hoops to retain those high positions and they will be giving a few pounds of flesh.
It sounds to me like you're the more intelligent tbh.

[DaffodilShoots]

I used to think of this as a strong US trait. Many Americans feel everyone has a chance and those with college degrees are brighter and better. (After 9/11 i saw a high level financial whizz comment on being amazed at how capable the "blue collar guys" were - talking of Head of Security and his team coordinating people in the chaos.)

The people "at the top" in my youth were often either from a very privileged background and had a "noblesse oblige" style or had worked there way up and had wider understanding of society. I think this has been replaced by the graduate mentality where people think they have succeeded by solo efforts in a meritocracy and fails to account for or even see their own privilege.

[Trills]

Are you sure they are explaining things as if you are not clever as opposed to as if you don't have the specific knowledge because you don't do their job?

When talking to people at work I often phrase things differently depending on who I'm talking to because what is "obvious" to me and to people on my team won't be so obvious to people who don't spend all day thinking about the things that we think about - I explain more not because they are stupid but because the same issues and topics will not be at the top of their minds.

[ShatnersBassoon]

I do only voluntary work. I hope people realise I do so because I want to, and not think that I'm unable to get a paid job.

[Pigsmummy]

You only have look at science and medical salaries to realise that intelligence isn't measured by a pay check.

However I have been told that "I am lucky" to earn such a high salary and that fecks me right off, luck doesn't come into it for me,

[Dawndonnaagain]

I didn't take me long to realise that the most intelligent person in the whole damn university was the head barman. One of the most well read people I've every met.

[wonkylegs]

Nope.
In a previous job I used to completely forget that a colleague in admin didn't have a degree in the subject I work in, so I was completely floored when one day she asked me to give her a crash course in technical terms and to actually tell her a bit more in depth about the job. She'd been working there for 15yrs but everyone just assumed she knew the profession inside out, she didn't but had always been afraid to ask.
I know some complete arseholes that have got to senior levels due to longevity, connections or money rather than talent.
I know many timeserved tradesmen who've worked onsite their whole lives and know way more than I can ever learn as a professional about the nuts and bolts of construction - technically I'm the one that's more qualified but I know when to bow down to their greater experience. Mind you I've met other highly qualified professionals too stupid to recognise this... They usually end up making cocky stupid mistakes and then wonder why it all gies wrong.

[TheNightIsDark]

My deputy manager does this. She's gutted that she's struggling with her degree and I did two modules last year alongside full time work and 2 pre schoolers. I'll admit it. I feel smug after all the crap she's given me.

I don't assume it about people in low paid/low ranking jobs at all.

[CaptainGrinch]

Not at all - different jobs are different jobs, the pay is irrelevant.

I work with some very intelligent people, who do a very technical role but the market has decided that it's not paid as much as other jobs.

I judge people on people & I'd be a crap manager if I didn't!

[WarmFuzzyFuture]

I think many people do this when online dating too.

[TheDoctorsNewKidneys]

I have a good degree and I'm working part-time in retail. I'm not interested in a high-paying career and my mental health actually couldn't cope with much more than what I'm doing at the moment.

Lots of high-paid jobs mean you need to be career-focused and good with stress. I'm not that person. I have depression and anxiety and my mental health is fragile. I would rather earn less and be happy and stable than rich with no hope of getting through the day without breaking down.

There's no right or wrong so long as you're happy.

[EmmelineGoulden]

I don't assume people working in lower paid jobs within an organization are less intelligent, but I'd probably assume someone I didn't know in a lower level position wouldn't have as good a sense of the company's priorities and obligations, and quite possibly that they wouldn't know what other parts of the company do. Sadly it is sometimes true that quite senior staff don't know these things either, but I do expect them to!

[pinkdelight]

Worth saying it works both ways. I have a 'clever' job and people often (erroneously!) assume it makes me some all-round boffin - I dread xmas parties with wider family who think I'll ace every trivia quiz question. Truth is I'm only good at one thing whereas many people have much better wider knowledge or skills. There are many lower paid jobs I would be shit at and I definitely don't look down on those doing them. Plus there's also the factor the OP identified - two of my closest mates are off the scale academically but couldn't cope with the pressure of high-flying jobs and had breakdowns. They're much happier now working in a shop and a gym respectively. Getting on in a 'top' career isn't down to intelligence so much as stamina and (sometimes quite unhealthy) drive.

[mysteryfairy]

I work in a project environment where there are people on all sorts of salaries. In the work place I make my assessment based purely on their performance. We definitely have people who have been over-promoted and it shows, plus equally people who could fill a much more senior role if the opportunity and inclination was there. I'd be a fool to rely on anything other than the evidence of how they actually deliver to assess their ability/intelligence.

[JackNoneReacher]

Anyone who does make such assumptions, (about people in poorly paid jobs) probably isn't as clever as they think they are.

[ProfondoRosso]

Some people definitely do think like this.

I've worked for good people for the past few years, thankfully, but when I was younger I was employed/supervised by some of the most disrespectful stupid people I've ever encountered.

[ByTheSea]

I am in a reasonably well-paid role, but substantially less well paid and less senior than I was 10-15 years ago. I took a career break and have had some personal issues with regard to raising DS2 which have thrown me for a loop. I don't want the stress and hassle of a position with more seniority and neither dos DH, who is also reasonably well-paid in a technical role but not senior, albeit very intelligent. Anyway, I look beyond a role and treat everone the same; only when I actually know someone can I actually judge their intelligence. In any case, there are lots of different types of intelligence.

[cwtchontoast]

Unfortunately having had many low level jobs, working for bosses who are particularly dim (one seriously didn't understand the word 'counter-productive', really?! ) and surprising patronising despite, I tend to assisted the opposite, that most of them knew somebody, or lucked into a job they don't deserve. I live in a really small town mind, things might be different in 'the city' haha.

[Ev1lEdna]

No, not at all. I'll always remember when I was younger working as a researcher and the cleaner in our department had a very impressive PhD equivalent which was not recognised in this country. Without a shadow of a doubt that cleaner was far more intelligent than me. I haven't forgotten that. I also know that when it has been necessary (at university, while my kids were very young and I wanted to be home for them) I have cleaned, done data entry, stuffed envelopes for marketing and worked in shops - I am capable of more but when you need money and a job which fits into your lifestyle you take what you can.

I believe (especially these days when jobs can be difficult to come by) that the job you do is not necessarily an indicator of intelligence or what you are capable of.

(A little post script to this is that I have also met people in some roles and I wonder how the hell they ever got there because they clearly aren't capable of the work!)

[CuntyBunty]

Yes, it is always the arse kissing gobshite lower level mangers. I realised quite early on in my "career" that kissing arse and stating the obvious loudly is not my forte.

DH is a prof and I don't think he talks down to me though. He comes home pissing himself laughing at all the academic willy wagging and the excellent gender studies women putting the dictatorial head of department (male) in his place. DH likes to sit back with the popcorn a bit like AIBU in here.

[YellowTulips]

Not at all. I take people who work for me on their own merits.

Certainly some of them I would rate as considerably more intelligent as me, others have specialist skill/experience that I can't match.

Technically some team members may be less "academically" qualified than me, but I just don't think that's an issue. A good team needs a mix of people to be successful.

I really only care about the following:

_ Is the team member doing a good job?
_ If yes, how can I motivate them to keep doing that?
_ If no, then have I put them in the right role? Have they had the right training/support?

Honestly I can say I have never had to ask myself "is this person less intelligent than me - is that why there is an issue"

Though to be fair maybe I just set a very low bar

[Struggling90]

I work in a senior role and have a degree. I notice that people are often treated according to their position. Some senior managers have this weird idea that they are the only ones able to go on nice holidays/live in nice parts of London/go to theatre etc. The boasting conversations I have heard!

I have come across colleagues on lower grades who are equally/far more intelligent than me. Most did not have degrees and lacked confidence due to staying in the same role for too long. Some did not want the added pressure.

I have also come across middle managers who are not up to their role and ride on the coat tail of others and throw their weight around.

Since having my dcs I care less about my career. I admit to previously basing my worth on the job I had. I wanted to be successful and proud of myself.

[DuckworthLewis]

It is over-simplifying the issue to distill it down to "some people o this and some people don't"

As several PPs (inc myself) have demonstrated, it is entirely possible to behave in this fashion in the past, learn from your mistake and then hold a better, more enlightened opinion going forward.

Opinions like this are seldom static, and are very likely to change over time as people grow up .