Does anyone else have an unpopular job?

[Wednesdayafternoon]

And is just sick of the negativity towards it?
I've worked my way up to a decent position in a call Center dealing with home insurance (for a global company) and worked there for 15 plus years.
It's obviously not the most exciting job in the world and certainly isn't where I saw myself working when I was little, but hey ho, it suits my life!
We actually work extremely hard at our place. Dealing with all sorts of situations which can be triggering and unpleasant, dealing with all types of customers who can be verbally abusive.... more often then not!
Home insurance usually peaks in the winter, I've had my Christmas holidays cancelled and been under the most pressure around the holidays pretty much every year. It's hard, really really hard.
But when do you actually hear anyone say anything nice about us poor buggers answering the phones? Dealing with 20+ claims/customers every. Single. Day.
Heaven forbid you say something negative towards the NHS or a teacher on here (not that I do I will point out, but seen it time and time over) and the Mumsnet brigade comes out on full force. Why do people in these jobs only seem to get recognition for working hard?
I worked through the entire pandemic. Until all of our WFH equipment was set up (which took a while) we were going into office every single day with 200+ people... didn't matter whether you were vulnerable or not! Not a single hour was lost.

Anyway I am rambling. I just find the "free pass" for certain jobs tiring. Anyone else feel the same?

Name changed to protect myself..
I work in an animal testing facility. Enough said really.

I just wish people would educate themselves on the regulations that pharmaceuticals used in the UK require. You may judge, but without facilities like us there would be far less life saving treatment produced (cancer treatments, vaccinations etc.). Facilities like ours also are the leading researchers in finding alternative methods for testing pharmaceuticals, we want to change the requirement of animals for this process just as much, if not more, than the activists who harass us.

FYI - cosmetics are NOT tested on animals in the UK. That is illegal.

I hear you OP. Half of my close family and two best friends are teachers, and they will not entertain any argument about other jobs being anything like as stressful as theirs.

My job isn't stressful, but in the course of it, I've interviewed people whose jobs were more stressful than I could imagine. Real, tough, sweaty, heartbreakingly hard levels of stress. I've seen tough people crying when talking about their stress levels. And they're not even teachers

Say that to a teacher, and they're on you like a ton of bricks. The mere suggestion that ANOTHER job might be more stressful means that you're saying teaching ISN"T stressful.

I think there are millions of people doing really, really tough jobs in the most unlikely places, and they deserve whatever recognition they get. And yes, social workers have a truly stressful time of it.

I worked in a abortion clinic in a professional capacity, according to the anti-abortionists and protesters I'm going to hell. Its a real conversation stopper too sadly.

I would imagine the reason for people being defensive around NHS and teachers is due to the level/volume of attacks on them. I don’t think that other jobs aren’t as hard working but they rarely get the same level of vitriol if standards aren’t perfect. Also most other jobs especially in the private sector have sufficient if stretched staffing levels whereas what’s going on in the public sector is just astonishing. My job just gets confused looks so I try and avoid it in discussion.

This is one of the most stupid things I have read on here in a long time.

I work in local government. And I wfh. The DM brigade love to label people like me as lazy which I find extremely insulting because it could not be further from the truth.

Under the Tory Government, local government funding has been cut year on year - this means that back office teams like mine get stripped down to the bear minimum of staff.

I get paid to work 37 hours a week. It is impossible to do my job over 37 hours a week and the reality is that I work many additional hours over and above what I get actually get paid. My role used to be done by at least four people. I am not paid overtime. I and my colleagues regularly work into the evening and over weekends to ensure that key deadlines are met. We worked throughout the Covid pandemic.

I don’t expect any special recognition for what I do. I just find it so frustrating when I hear people talk negatively about people who work in local government. Yes there will be people who are lazy - like there are in all organisations. But the vast majority of people I work with work incredibly hard.

I thought you were going to say you were a banker or politician! All of these jobs are completely fine and respectable!

Oh dear. Better do the research before spouting trendy lefty rubbish. The vast majority of shares in insurance companies are owned by institutional investors like pension funds. Which pay, y, know pensions.

NHS manager - apparently I do nothing but waste money and only nurses and doctors actually do anything and should run it all. I love my colleagues but the thought of most doctors planning services with no input is terrifying.

I'm a child protection social worker in a court team. One up from a traffic warden in terms of popularity

Social worker, not only unpopular a most of the time, but a lot of the other professionals I work with think they "Do Social Work" and know how to do it better. Thing is, I know how to do it better as well, but sadly this is often not possilbe without a large injection of cash, double the workforce and a magic wand.

Sorry OP - you caught me at a bad moment having just received a massive increase on our premium for our insurance (up £600 a year). It's gone up because we were burgled and it's left me very bitter. Apologies for taking it out on you. I realise my comment was a bit daft!

I initially thought you meant like a traffic warden or Ofsted inspector - I’ve never really thought insurance handlers were generally disliked. However, reading this thread made me think and I wonder if there are actually any respected jobs/careers left - the divisive nature of politics/media in the last few years have resulted in nearly all jobs being called out, disliked by one sector of society or another from minimum wage roles to ‘maximum’ and across every line of work. This is a real shame as really people are just trying to make their own living and as they do they also support society at a minimum through tax and mostly also through work that impacts on daily lives.

I work for the NHS and I think that there is a lot of negativity towards the NHS. Other than during the first lockdown.
Teachers are also always getting a good old slating in my opinion.

Today I got called a stupid fucking c**t by a patients relative. Really felt the love at that moment. 🤨

I work at a jobcenter. According to the public (not in Britain) I hound people until theyre ill, I am incompetant, I know nothing about the world of work, the insurance companies do it better (they dont), we sanction people who dont stick to the rules (we dont, the insurance companies do and they make some of the rules, some are law).

I feel bad for folks in call centres, can only imagination the level of abuse. Didn’t think it’s an unpopular job, thought you were going to say parking warden or something (sorry parking wardens!).

Ultimately we need all these jobs doing in society and everyone has to earn a living so I try to deal with people as individuals.

Police officer.
Can’t do wrong for right most of the time but hey ho, is what it is and I try to remember why I joined.

I'm a Lying Cunt Lady Probation Officer.

Yep; welcome to my life too

Insurance is really important: giving each of your customers financial security they wouldn't otherwise have, and supporting them when shit things happen. It is absolutely a public good.

And decent companies actually don't want to get out of paying legitimate claims. They see claims as the whole point of the business. Sure, they want to prevent fraud - but that's fair enough! Fraud is just stealing from everyone else who takes out insurance, in the end.

I was a defence lawyer.

Insolvency Practitioner......

I was a tax inspector specialising in the Hidden Economy. No one was ever happy to have dealings with us! And the general consensus from the public tends to be - why go after the hard working small people, you should concentrate on Starbucks, Amazon etc

Housekeeper here. Or just there to scrub toilets at our own leisurely time some folk think!

Yet what they don't realise when they've came to stay in accommodation that looks like no one has stayed in it before, that some poor bugger has had to: (depending on the accommodation and how clean the last people have left it)

~strip loads of sweaty beds down,
~make loads of beds back up (and believe me, ~half the bedding never fits right so that's a joy in itself 🙄)
~been on all fours hoovering under the beds,
~pulled the beds out to hoover the sides by the wall,
~cleaned the oven and trays etc,
~shook all the crumbs from the toaster,
~picked old soggy food from the kitchen plug,
~checked every single plate/bowl to make sure they're clean,
~buffed up every pint/wine glass,
~individually checked every plate/bowl and wash any that aren't perfect,
~picked long hair out from the shower drain,
~scrubbed someone's spat out toothpaste from the bathroom sink,
~scrubbed the exploded spag bol from the microwave...
~find your dirty socks/underwear/sanitary wear/used condoms/sex toys within the bed/under the bed,
~And scrubbed shit and piss off the toilet and had our faces right next to the bowl to clean under and round it...

Amongst so much more...

All on a tight schedule where you're ready to drop after being literally on the go from anything like 6-8 hours.

It's physically and mentally draining. We're invisible to the people arriving as soon as we lock up after making sure everything is perfect.

We're so grateful and genuinely appreciate walking into the room and seeing the beds have been stripped for us, or plates washed, the rubbish has been took to the bins or is actually in the bin and not strewn all over the place or just not trashing the place before you leave...

To the rare ones who give a shit about the person who has to clean up after you, all housekeepers everywhere are hugely grateful for making our day that bit better. Sorry for the rant.

I was an IFA - universally hated. I used to introduce myself as an accountant...