To find “important” jobs cringeworthy?

[iftheshoeefits]

I’m not judging any particular job and obviously there are important jobs out there.

I’m talking about the people that need you to know their job is important. Met a friend for dinner but we decided to go to IKEA beforehand (it was a quiet Tuesday) and she did nothing but sign and tut loudly whilst saying work needed her and she kept stopping to email them whilst walking through the store.

BIL anytime we have a family weekend away he gets his phone out or makes a comment how he has to answer this work email.

A friend once made a big palaver about having to make a ‘global call’. She also likes the hashtag#winningatlife.
only to be trumped in the self promotion stakes by her DH who announced on FB his checklist for the day, which included ‘paying off the mortgage’.

I do not have an important job at all.

I do regularly have to answer emails on my days off. It's basic manners to say "sorry I've just got to send this email" rather than just getting my phone out and appearing rude.

I don't agree that either of these are examples of "important" jobs (where the person thinks they are important regardless of whether they are running a nuclear facility or a tech startup).

It does sound like both people are bad at drawing boundaries between their work and social lives. I could check email on the go but then I'd die sooner so I keep work stress to between 9am and days end. I will work late as and when or occasionally check in on weekends or my non work day for appropriately important stuff. You can learn to draw boundaries and still do a good job.

incidentally IME people with the proper important jobs make less of a song and dance than people doing jobs they think are important but hey ho.

People who are insecure often wang on about having important jobs.

My SIL is like this. She sits in the back of the car and works on laptop while BIL drives them to holidays etc. I've seen her reply to emails on Xmas day (or at least pretend to!). Always drops it into conversation about how she has "work to do". She has a bog standard office job, the drama is totally unnecessary. She must be shit at time management.

My colleague (who has exactly the same job as me, we are both managers in the same dept) thinks she is much more important than we actually are. She is always answering her emails and teams outside of work. I refuse to, that’s the job of our manager

I know exactly the type of person you mean OP!

It’s not just sending the occasional email it’s the constant sighing and complaining about how they’re just so so busy and so stressed 😩 Even though you know they love it really and work is a core part of their identity.

I went for coffee with someone I met through a toddler group, I thought we might click but it was a disaster. She talked about work non-stop (complaining about how stressful it was and how terrible for working parents, yet also how badly she wanted promotion 🤷‍♀️). She also checked her phone constantly and worst of all she had recently done some consultancy work for my organisation and spent half the time lecturing me about how it worked! I couldn’t get a word in edgeways and she couldn’t care less what I thought about the organisation, despite me being the one who was permanently employed there. The friendship did not blossom!