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.

[BookFairy]

I have a good degree but don't earn much. My manager speaks to me as though I'm an idiot, but that's because he is insecure and knows that I'm probably more intelligent than he is.

[littlewhitebag]

The admin worker in our office has a first class degree. She may be paid less than the rest of us but she is possibly the most important person in the team and she is fabulous at her job. Everyone in our team treats her like the intelligent and lovely person she is.

[Procrastreation]

I have the admin person at work pegged to be a millionaire within the decade. They have the most fabulous creative sidelines.

[yourlittlesecret]

Most women my age (55) and background did not go to university. So the use of a degree as a measure of intelligence or ability is a huge age discrimination.

[StealthPolarBear]

Grumpyoldbat your post is either sarcastic (I hope) or sad. I very much doubt you're "really thick"

[KickThatDirtOffYourShoulder]

I feel like people think this of me sometimes. I'm not the most junior person in the office but work part time and have a lot of managers (public sector, say no more! ). I have an excellent degree and should be much further in my career than I am but I also have two very young children and a husband who earns more than any of my managers and the job I have now is very convenient for me. My group manager once very sympathetically asked what car I was driving during one conversation and was very confused.

[grumpyoldbat]

Perhaps"really thick" is a bit strong but most people I meet are more intelligent than me. DH for example is always complaining that I use words that don't actually exist. I think I embarrass him.

I must come across as really thick because people act surprised if I get a calculation right or can spell a word. I've even had people seem shocked that I can read and write.

[LEMmingaround]

Grumpy - you write really clearly and are articulate. Do you have issues with self esteem?

I have a friend who is always using the wrong words - its really funny, but she is extremely bright, has a degree in computor programing. I have a PhD and clearly can't string a sentence together

My DP is not academically bright, can't read very well and his spelling is appalling yet he can perform miracles with a bit of wood and a power-drill (his name isn't even Jesus). He has more common sense in his little finger than i have in his whole body. I am academically bright (so they tell me) but I have no common sense, am disorganised and would crumble under the stress of a management level job. People are genuinely when they realise i have high-level qualifications, i hide it well

[Lazysuzanne]

Some people just aren't ambitious for the things that are conventionally considered to be of value.

You could argue that it takes intelligence to not follow the herd and to realise that other things in life besides money will promote long term well being.

Perhaps it also takes intelligence to fill your time (in the absence of a high pressure and demanding career) in a way that feels personally meaningful.

[zeezeek]

I have a PhD and about 200 papers and a massive research grant from a prestigious research council.

Yet some of the elderly Professors in my dept (unsurprisingly they are all male) still think that everything that I've done in the last 20 years is due to the fact that I married my PhD supervisor 22 years ago. He doesn't even work in the same department anymore!!

[ComposHat]

It isn't senior managers I've had a problem with in the minimum wage McJobs, but the next grade up, junior supervisors and the like. The sorts wbo think owning a clipboard makes them some sort of little Caeser.

Quite often they've got the gig on the basis of being there the longest amd are utterly clueless on how to do the job or how to treat people.

[catgirl1976]

No. Not at all.

I think some of the most senior people where I work have the IQ of gnats though

[matildamatilda]

I've found that the people who are the most condescending to those "beneath" them are the wanna-be second-best types who haven't quite made it themselves.

The really successful people have no time for snobbery (too busy being awesome) and are lovely to everyone.

To answer your question, do I think that people in lower pay grades are less intelligent--of course not! That's crazy. There are some people who really want the high-level qualifications and positions and others who want support roles. It has to do with personality, family situation, etc. Nothing to do with work ethic or intelligence.

[BlameItOnTheBogey]

I used to work in superdrug. I remember being on the till when a mum and her rough as a badger's arse daughter came in. Her mum said; 'oh look you could get a job here. Why don't you ask this girl how you could do that?' The daughter looked me up and down and sneered; 'what do you think I am thick or something?' at her mum. Nice. I'm willing to wager that she wasn't the sharpest knife in the draw...

[matildamatilda]

I've made friends with the woman who works in the boots near my job. I go nearly every day to get a lunch and we have a chat, I've really got to know her well. Imagine if I'd been snobby to her because of her job, I'd have lost out!

[Spinkle]

I assume those I manage are at different stages than me or choose not to have the responsibility I have.

I've cleaned toilets and worked in factories. I would never assume anything.

[Theodorous]

No, why would I? My assistant is probably more qualified than me and we work really closely. If is wasn't for the Tsunami he could well have been my boss. I have also got several hundred contractors under me whose roles have been redefined by me from tea boy to admin assistant, labourer to site assistant etc (not in UK). My department is fairly democratic as well, we decide many things between us and the only time I really make autocratic decisions is when they ask me to or if it is a safety or legal issue. I have women working for me who have followed their husband's job abroad and are massively bright and qualified in areas outside of the job they do. I think you ignore that at your peril! I think they like me, I bloody love them and appreciate the bones of them.

[RuinedEverything]

Certainly not. I'm in a pretty senior role now, however I was right at the bottom of my organisation 18 months ago. I'm quite a quiet person and a local girl with an accent, so when I was at the bottom many people spoke to me like I was an idiot. Then, I got two BIG promotions one after the other. It's amazing how the same fools are suddenly nice to me - after they've got over their amazement that I was promoted over their heads.

It's definitely the insecure who do this, usually in middling roles. Our board and the chief executive are perfectly friendly.

Of those people who I know who are still on the bottom rung, some are very intelligent but happy where they are. I certainly don't judge them for it, that would be really rather pathetic and sad.

[Thistledew]

I would never assume that someone is less intelligent just because they are paid less, and even if they were, would not see that as a reason to patronise or talk down to anyone.

It is something that I have to prompt myself about from time to time - I am in a senior role as I am ambitious and want to get as far as I am capable of. I do sometimes find it easy to forget that not everyone feels the same, as it seems so natural to me.

However, in a professional context, it is reasonable in many contexts to engage with someone according to the level of seniority of their role. For example, my job requires a high level of specialist technical knowledge and if someone new joined my organisation in a junior role, I would not assume that they would immediately be aware or pick up on the significance of why a particular task needed to be performed in a particular way, for example.

Also, even if I knew someone to be more intelligent than their role demanded then I may not necessarily deal with them in the same way as I would if they were in a higher role. For example, the office assistant in one of the places I worked was highly intelligent and was working her way through a series of qualifications that would enable her to do the same job as I was doing. From time to time I would delegate a task to her- say responding to a letter. I knew that she was perfectly capable of looking at the letter, working out what response was needed and writing a reply. But I would dictate a quick note of the points that I wanted to be covered in the response and what the tone of the letter should be. I would then approve it before it went in the post. This was because it was not in her job description to work out the points of reply, and it was my reputation and indeed insurance on the line is any mistakes were made. Maybe some people would feel that I was being patronising in explaining things that she could work out by herself, but she was more than happy working in this way and wouldn't have had me do any different. We got on very well and I was at times desperately grateful for the assistance she could give.

[NearTheWindmill]

No. Partly because at 53 and 2nd most senior in my dept I accept that the early careerists might be my boss in 10 years time. Partly because I started a new career 10 years ago as a 40 something who had a big job in her 20s and 30s and had to suck it up. One fully qualified member of the department instructed me to top up the kitchen supplies on my way to work the following day. Just before Xmas she applied for a job on my team (I have moved on since then and so had she). She didn't meet the criteria and hadn't moved on seniority wise from 9 years ago. Might be because of attitude but more likely to be because of competence.

[1974rach]

I would hope to think I wouldn't make an assumption like that because I have been on the receiving end and I was a touch peed off!

I love my current job, and I have done far more stressful and "important" jobs, but this one gives me a far better balance between home and work.

Not everyone can be the chief executive, someone has to clean the loo!!

[bluebeanie]

Straight out of uni, I was a temp receptionist at a business park. One of the companies in my building was a wholesale home furnishings business. They'd get really snobby buyers in who treated me poorly. The CEO in contrast was the nicest and most down to earth guy. He gave me a vase for xmas. I learnt a lot from him.