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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be annoyed at the use of the word professional on mumsnet

3 replies

RedHelenB · 10/02/2019 08:15

Shop work isn't a professional so don't expect them to be professional .You can expect them to be polite and provide good customer service.

You can expect a doctor, teacher, lawyer to be professional as regards their work as they are professions.

OP posts:
Auntiepatricia · 10/02/2019 08:22

A professional is the doctor etc. Acting/being professional is verb not relating to or limited to a professional. So you are wrong.

Oysterbabe · 10/02/2019 08:24

I think you're wrong. There are different uses of the word and you're confusing them.

Word forms: professionals

  1. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
Professional means relating to a person's work, especially work that requires special training. His professional career started at Liverpool University. professionally adverb [ADVERB -ed/adjective] ...a professionally-qualified architect. The opening months of 1987 were difficult, personally and professionally.
  1. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
Professional people have jobs that require advanced education or training. ...highly qualified professional people like doctors and engineers. Synonyms: qualified, trained, skilled, white-collar More Synonyms of professional Professional is also a noun. My father wanted me to become a professional and have more stability.
  1. adjective
You use professional to describe people who do a particular thing to earn money rather than as a hobby. This has been my worst time for injuries since I started as a professional footballer. The veteran golfer has played in every Major Championship since he turned professional. Professional is also a noun. He had been a professional since March 1985. professionally adverb [ADVERB after verb] By age 16 he was playing professionally with bands in Greenwich Village.
  1. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
Professional sports are played for money rather than as a hobby. ...an art student who had played professional football for a short time.
  1. adjective
If you say that something that someone does or produces is professional, you approve of it because you think that it is of a very high standard. [approval] They run it with a truly professional but personal touch.

We're looking at the 5th use here. Someone's behaviour or quality of work can be professional even if they are not themselves a professional.
This post is pure snobbery.

thecatsthecats · 10/02/2019 11:53

Agreed. The standards have also been raised across the board in many areas of life so that old "occupations" are as or more demanding than many "professions".

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