To want to scream when posters confuse 'hardworking' with successful / well off /professional- because poor people can be hardworking too. And professional people can be under employed.

[BobbingForPeachys]

yes I know i'm averaging one AIBU thread a day ATM, am tired so it is fun. This isn't a paty political rant, it's about usage of phrases by posters and campaigners of all ilks.

Anyway this is a big bugbear of mine

'X do nothing for the hardworking people'

'We will support hardworking famillies' (always picture five year olds cleaning streets with that one!)

'I need my thirty four homes / swan hotel / private jet as a reward for being so hardworking'

blah blah blah

What you mean is you will support the more professionally employed or affluent

Which is fine, society needs all those people to function

But it also needs poorer people to staff nurseries / be HCA's / mop up poo in care homes. The affluent cannot survive without the less well paid, that's a basic fundamental of life under our system.

And that's hard work too, and just as valid. Dh used to manage 60 salaried hours a week when he worked for El Shitty Company years ago, for a fab £18k per annum (normal for area), and moved job when his boss dropped dead at his desk. And I am a hardworking carer in fact. Different existences, no less effort.

Just respect people who comtribute by fulfilling their job or role please.
Regardless of how many GCSE's or ££ it creates for them.
Is all thanks.

I've never looked on the phrase as meaning that I must admit, my internal babelfish always translates 'hardworking' to 'working, not on benefits', because the politicians have all been reading are shit scared of the DM and can't be seen to want everybody to benefit from whatever they're babbelling about.

I have seen some threads though, where the term is used as per the OP's point, and the sense of entitlement does shine through.

I detest the expression which is a euphemism for "poor" in the sense of "the poor are always with us but at least they aren't all benefit cheats"

My Dh was white collar too, but I know mant blue collar workers- from my dad who cleans iout sausage machines to several self employed friends in manual work

I know almost nobody with a ft job who puts in a 7.5 hour day- actually,make that nobody at all.

I also know nobody in a union actually- membership was considered the 'ecret criteria for redundancy' one palce DH worked, in the main i think they're fairly historic (in a few sctors I acknowledhge an exception) and in my civil service (exceptionally poor) days they were no help with a mahor H&S situation

Thing is I am not saying well off people haven't slogged

most have (though yep do know a feew trust fund babies)

Just that ion fact most poeple slog one way or another

Whether youre putting in twelve hour shifts, changing your Mum's bed at 3am or doing the thrird school srop of the day.

All of these things are valid just different. And crucially all these things are neededforsociety to function. My sister's nursrey cannot function without her minimum wage staff. My son's schoolca nnot function without minimum wage TA's (SN unit, there are many)

And we should all realise this

I always think it refers to blue collar workers who no matter how hard or long they work never get ahead.

I thought it was a euphemism for working class, which we can't use these days because we're a classless society.

This weekend DH worked for 5 days solid, some 200 miles away. He is a Senior Manager (but yes, answerable to a Partnership). One of his team was also there the whole time. He was rewarded with the same as my DH, 2 days in lieu (which DH doubtless won't take, doubt the team member will do either).
All part of the job.
DH earns 3x Team Members salary, he has worked very hard to ensure that said Team member is recompensed in terms of overtime payments.
DH won't get that, and yes, I concur as Management DH had the stress of being in charge of the whole project.

BUT, DH and his team member work/worked equally as hard. DH has worked up to his role, no doubt, but has had a lot of luck as well.

Luck has so much to do with these things, as well as upbringing/ disability/education whatever.

I think it should just refer to everyone generally

and then we admit we means
test

don't say 'hardworking famillies'

say 'people earning under' or 'the poorer X %'

'lower income employed famillies'

'all but the scrotes >

don't try and jusge with silly catchphrases

we're not that stupid and it doesn't make you look better than everybody else

Lizzy in Dh'slast job he slogged

His assessments read as all A grades (yep even in an emlpoyed environment they used that scale LOL0- when things got complicated in a fast moving environment they turned to him

theyused him to train

he covered for anyone, only one who knew all roles

but becuase he couldnt work certain shifts (because of the boys SN) and had a recurring illness he never got a promotion

Not complaining about that BTW- fair enough I think- but shows that he was no less ahrd working or capable, just a bit less lucky whole- life wise

I do think there are conscientous middle-management types who can never switch off and, while they may not be doing hard physical work, are constantly trying to improve things for both employees and the company's profits. Just as there are people among the noble working poor doing all the bum-wiping and bin-emptying who are lazy skivers who always manage to dump half their work on their colleagues, have a long list of imaginary ailments coinciding with sporting events, music festivals and sunny days...
But 'hard working' as used by wanky politicians, does always seem to mean only 'wage earners' forgetting that wage earners who are parents need to depend on some nonwage earners for enough childcare to earn those wages.

I've always interpreted the phrase as referring to every day people in every day (probably dead end) jobs.

I've thought the phrase was used with the intention of appealing to the masses, but clearly it doesn't!

Despite having given up a job in corporate communications that was regarded as fairly senior and was basically 24/7 I never regarded myself as in the 'hardworking' category, not that I didn't work hard because I did, ridiculously so, but the phrase (when used by politicians) just sounded patronising and irrelevant.

It is aptronising yes.

I think its meant to make everyone (who dosnt claim ) feel it must apply to them

SGB I do agree, there are hardworkers and shirklers in every area.... but by that very thing we can't therefore classify some jobs as hardworking and others not

BIL makes a fortune and slogs his guts out. Other BIL makes a pittance and slogs his guts out.

Both ahve rqual commitment

As do I at home with the boys

Or Dh at Uni (96% pass in his forste xam today)

Indeed I reckon in one way or another it applies to everyone almost.

That is what I am saying Peachy, it it so down to luck. Right place, right time. When DH joined his current firm it was a small firm, it has done well, and thus so has he.
DH couldn't do his current job unless I was at home, no way.
There is nothing to choose between him and his team member, except for years service/experience. They were BOTH doing 14 hour days whilst away, who was more hardworking? They bloody both were!

Very little is down to luck, beyond being born into a half-decent family (and by that I mean virtually anything about a Shannon Matthew-esqu family, not the silver spoon type).

Work hard at school.

Agree.

Unless you beleive that people always get what they deserve just like the fairy tales

Sometimes shit happens, and it happens to everyone. No-one is really teflon-coated.

Crap wicked, have a good degree and am doing an MA- luck gave me two disabled chidlren to care for

Luck makes peo;pleill, widowed, redundant..... luck

"Work hard at school" is not how most wealthy folk have become wealthy - I think this is naiive

It can be interpreted in so many different ways...

You can be hardworking, but a busy fool who treads water all their lives while slogging like a dog

You can be hardworking, and think about your career path or the direction you want to take in your life, actively make progress towards it and hopefully reap the benefits (financial or otherwise, as long as you're happy and satisfied with your chosen path)

But bad luck can thwart the best efforts of anyone...hardworking or not

No it's not luck, it's life i do not believe their is a pre determined lot of luck for us all.

Everyone deals with the hand they are dealt and makes the best of it.

Compared to the life my Grandfather had nobody can claim to be hardworking these days, but then he died at 54 so it's good that we've progressed to just working IMO

"the busy fool" nice badge, sounds very dismissive of a lot of people and their valuable contributions to society

MMM what did your Grandfather do? (if you don't mind me asking)

What has 'pre-determined' go to do with it milly. The simple fact is that things can go wrong for the most organised and hard-working of people. And good things can happen to those who have hardly done a day's work in their lives. To beleive that you can make your life pan out as you want it all the way is naive and a little arrogant TBH. You do your best and ride with the punches IME.

Well said

He was a farm labourer all his life from 15 to the day he died with a wheel chair bound wife and three children, so he literally did all the dog work around the farm, then cooked, cleaned and washed, with no support at all.

Podrick but if someone is making a valuable contribution to society and enjoys what they do then that's not a busy fool is it?

That's exactly what I said OrmIrian, including a spelling error