To think those who take low paid job are looked down on _or thought to be thick !

[Blossum123]

Said on another thread how I was thinking of taking a supermarket Job rather than use my qualification . Reason being stress and the supermarket job fits round my family .
Have taken the job .saw sister as Father's Day . She said she was shocked i was waisting my education and that I should want more status !
Surely finding something that fits well with our young children is reason enough ?! Since saying I'm taking a supermarket job people are presuming I'm stupid ! Is this just my family or have others in simular jobs had this - ?

I don't know which of them (tut, I'm just a stupid shop girl after all)

I'm a cleaner - I get paid more than minimum wage, I'm very good at it. I take blocks.of time off work. My kids finish school for the summer next week, I'm taking the two months off & picking up some casual shifts if I need to. I usually work part time hours. I've 3 kids, don't need to use paid childcare. Myself & my husband can usually work it out & family are great & can pick up the slack if needs be. I do school drop offs & pick ups, nativity plays, school sports days etc. I get paid leave, bank holidays, maternity leave etc. I do my work, leave, no-one emails, phones me on holidays, days off, outside working hours to ask how to find a bloody file. Leaving office based work was the best thing I ever did.

I think it's important to have done a 'menial' (for want of a better phrase) job at some stage in your life. I don't think you have a very balanced outlook if you haven't.

I think that due to the recession, many people work for less than they used to. I am more qualified than the people I work for but doesn't bother me. More fool them for working their tits off.

I missed Pink's post, Alis. Nice!

Just read Pink's post. I used to work as a barmaid many moons ago. Two of the people I worked with were mature students, one training to be a doctor, the other putting herself through barrister exams. Pink...you are an idiot.

Your sister's daft.

What's the point in having a job with 'status' if you have no job satisfaction, and huge childcare bills?

Besides, the 'status' of jobs in this country is all out of wack, if you go by wages alone, because of market forces. Care workers get minimum wage or barely above it, and Premier League footballers are minted. But 3rd division footballers, who have similar risks for career-ending injury, earn far less.

Almost everyone uses supermarkets; if everyone in supermarkets got high 'status' jobs tomorrow, I expect your sister would be upset when she found the supermarkets were closed!

Personally I'd be embarrassed. I've done those kind of jobs after uni and most of them were awful and did not pay well. I did them because I was desperate and needed the money. I hope to never do it again. I was just so bored and I can't stand to have to deal with ignorant customers which is what I had to do more often than not.

But if it makes you happy or makes your life easier then carry on. It didn't do either for me so in don't do it anymore.

I would never assume anyone was thick unless they demonstrated actual evidence - and then it would be no reason to look down on them.

I do question, though, why women so often sacrifice career and potential opportunities when they might not need to .

Pensions, work after your children leave home etc, will all be enhanced if you do somthing that approaches your potential, skills and training, and will keep you on the right ladder if you want to re-enter your career.

Complete withdrawal from the career ladder makes women very dependent on a partner or the state, and potentially economically vulnerable.

But people make their own choices - just get on with it and don't worry what anyone else thinks.

Pink your be ranking them when you start walking in dog shit, sitting on prissy disgusting toilets or your children are working on sticky table seats... I could go on but hopefully you get the idea.

Cleaning isn't my dream job and yes I get my but some one has to do and I get paid for it so

Fuck you.

I think it's important to have done a 'menial' (for want of a better phrase) job at some stage in your life. I don't think you have a very balanced outlook if you haven't

Very good point.

I must admit when I hire assistants (temp, but postgrad qualified due to nature of the work) I tend to favour people who've worked their way through college. They're just more bearable than the 'bankrolled by mum and dad' brigade to be working at close quarters with

I've worked in retail (fashion) for 14 years. Whilst I do not have a degree I am educated to a 'higher' level than my job requires and have previously been a store manager. I now only work one day at the weekends, as I have a 2 year old and don't wish to work more than that as would rather be with him - I'm considerably lucky I don't HAVE to work.

It does annoy me that I sometimes get looked down on because of my career choice, especially by customers who think I'm some dumb young thing (I don't look my age!)

FWIW, I never meant to stay in retail so long but, shock horror, I enjoy my job. And I was never a hugely career orientated person anyway (all I ever aspired to be was a SAHM lol)

So YANBU. At least you have a job, would they prefer it if you didn't? If it works for you and you enjoy it, what is so wrong with that? :)

I hate the way 'retail' is looked down on. I have worked in retail most of my (working) life - I used to have a highly paid managerial role, company car etc etc for a well known retail company - I was able to pay off my mortgage in my early 40s.

Now I work part time in retail for barely more than the minimum wage but I absolutely love it, I have a lot of autonomy and a lot of responsibility. I am constantly amazed at the people who apply for jobs in retail and haven't got the first idea of what it is about - it is not an 'easy' job - you need loads of skills and some people are never going to be able to learn the appropriate skills. I particularly get irritated with teenagers (or their parents) who look down their nose at retail jobs but wouldn't last 10 minutes in a retail environment .

Why do people sneer at other people's career choices - I don't care if people do think I am working 'beneath my level'.

(Slight aside) I am really interested in how those of you in retail and hospitality manage not to kill customers who won't move their mobile phones from their ears long enough to acknowledge your existence.

I was watching this (again) in the queue in M&S the other day and thinking how much low level rudeness is just a part of some of jobs now.

(Saying that, the last retail job I had was during a january sale and I was very nearly in tears watching 'customers' just drop clothes on the sales floor so maybe I'm just not tough enough )

Why do people sneer at other people's career choices

To make themselves feel better. I have never known a happy person to sneer at anything.

"Am I the only person who doesn't rank cleaners, barmaids etc? I honestly never give a thought to what salary these workers are on, and consider myself better than them. Not that my wage is that great though tbh"

Pink. I think you meant to say that you don't give a thought to what salary people are on , nor do you consider yourself better than them.

Is that right?

I think people are being rude to Pink for no reason.

Anyhoo - OP YANBU. I am highly qualifies but doing a relatively low "status" job which I love, suits my family and my lifestyle, This sort of stuff matters less as you get older, IMO

highly qualified

I would do retail if the customers weren't so much of a headache. One customer wrote all the way up to the top of the corporate chain to complain about DH and his coworker talking behind the counter about gay people (they weren't). The policy at that place is to just give complaining customers free $5 gift cards to get a new drink later to make up for their unpleasant experience. So there are always customers "getting offended" over the slightest infraction they can find.

But it makes it hard to sort "freebie" complaints from genuine ones which makes it hard to discipline a worker and crack down on bad behavior if a clerk really is acting out of line.

High five ragwort

Retail is awesome

I actually love the difficult customers. Give us something to chuckle about

I think retail jobs are looked down on.

I worked in a supermarket whilst studying at college/university. Thankfully I was in the back office but I worked overtime on the checkouts during the holidays. Several customers were rude just because they could be. One shouted that I should get a better education then I would learn to count!

I never felt the need to explain that I was actually a student.

I do not think I could return to any retail job.

I find people in the UK are obsessed with job titles/positions. On meeting people I hate being asked what I do. It is as if they want to identify how they should regard me based on my job status.

My sister (who has a first class honours degree)worked in Coast fur many years.

She routinely encountered aggressive customers returning items they had clearly worn, regularly had to use toe assistants to zip up a dress that too small but which the customer was adamant was 'her size' and would remain stoney face as patronising, rude customer had credit card declined.

I remember buying some shoes on clarks and then inevitably em was sold the weather protector stuff - and the lovely young sales assistant explained the chemical composition of the substance and how it worked. I was like this

I have also met plenty of student minicab drivers studying by day, driving all night.

In defence of poor Pink, I had to read her post a few times myself but what I think she meant was:

I honestly never give a thought to what salary these workers are on, NOR consider myself better than them.

I think pink's post has been misread. To me it reads like 'am I the only person who doesn't think to rank jobs like this and who doesn't consider myself better than them?' When she says she doesn't rate them I think she means that she doesn't put the 'worth' of jobs in order like many of us do.

OP - I wonder if it's just a supermarket thing rather than all lower paid work. It's the classic stereotype isn't it. How many of us, after a stressful day revising for university exams or after another awful work meeting haven't thrown up our hands and uttered the immortal words 'I might as well just go and stack shelves in Tesco!'

It's such a throwaway comment and people mean it lightheartedly but I can see how it could lead to people, perhaps subconsciously, thinking of supermarket work specifically as the thing you do if you can't do anything else.

But YANBU. A job that fits in with your family and pays your bills is perfect in this climate - whatever it is.