Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

work snobbery?

92 replies

BackToBasics · 08/02/2010 12:31

Do people really look down upon people who are in jobs that don't reconise you as being "educated"?

I have noticed this a few times on MN and i find really irritating. If everyone when to University and got qualifications and went on to a high paying, top job, who do they think would serve them in the shops, empty their bins, clean their drains, make their sandwich for lunch, clean their place of work etc?

People in these type of jobs are a very valuable part of our society and for people to look down on them is just plain snobbery imo. Not everyone wants to have a perfectional job believe it or not. Some people actually choose to work elsewhere and are perfectly happy with their choice. It seems the attitude of some people is that person who has served them behind the counter must somehow have failed or not tried hard enough and is stuck in this "awful" job serving the public

One quote about shop assistants from a poster last year, which is partly why i rarely come on here now is "It's hardly a career choice for the educated."

OP posts:

sungirltan · 08/02/2010 23:05

ivy - i might start using that response. i dread strangers asking me, especially if they are friends of dh i haven't met before. responses range from shock 'you mean you arn't a hairdresser??' to patronising 'you're a social worker? ahh, thats nice but you know you can't help everyone love..'

chegirlsgotheartburn · 08/02/2010 23:13

I have never understood how people can look down on those doing a job that they would never do themselves.

Hospital cleaning is a prime example. They couldnt bear to clean up vomit etc but think they are better than someone who can manage it.

Doesnt make sense. Surely you should admire someone who can do something you cant?

I work with young children. LOT of snobbery about that. When people think I am a nursery nurse they are all 'thats nice dear', when I explain that I am a portage worker which sounds more professional they suddenly think I doing something worthwhile

coralanne · 09/02/2010 04:06

My DS has a degree in economics. Terribly well presented, very nice looking boy. Plays lots of sport.

Took a year off after Uni and drives a huge truck. Loves it.

He commented that he can really notice the way people react when he turns up at a business in his bright orange safety shirt.

He said he can almost hear people slowing their speech to speak to him.

When he's kept waiting, the reaction is "Oh he's only the truck driver"

ShinyAndNew · 09/02/2010 06:00

I occassionally feel looked down on by uppity customers who can barely stand to look at you, and god forbid they should touch your hand when you are giving them their change. They might catch 'uneducated' or 'common' . I find it amusing for the most part. Especially when it is people who I know I am more qualified than

I chose to work in the service industry because the hours suit better wrt childcare.

I don't really feel looked down upon outside of work though, but then most of the people I socialise with are very down to earth and you get kudos for having a job, no matter what that is. And rightly so.

I do have a friend however, who can't take cleaning/service jobs as they are beneath her. She would rather sit at home and claim benefits. I don't understand that. Surely that's even worse? I'd rather sweep the streets for my own money than have to claim benefits.

nancydrewrocks · 09/02/2010 10:49

On the otherside of the coin I get judged hugely by doing (or more accurately having done!) an "aspirational" (for some) job. To the point where with strangers or people I am unlikely to meet again I lie and say I am a PA or similar. Some of the comments I have received when people do know what I do have included:

You must earn loads (I don't and this makes me v. uncomfortable)

You're quite normal (yep only one head)

I bet you've got no common sense (er right!)

You must be really clever (not really)

But you dress really nicely (didn't realise the two were mutually exclusive)

I am frequently made to feel a bit embarassed/awkward about my achievements and to be honest whilst I don't judge based on job I frequently am.

blacksmith · 09/02/2010 13:12

I went to university, not because I had any high aspirational ideas, but because I wanted to get away from my home town.

Got the degree, went and sat in an office for a number of years and hated it.

Went and re-trained as a blacksmith and love it. I now get to spend all day creating and getting mucky, and run my own business.

But now people assume that because I work from home I don't actually do any work and spend the time watching day time telly!

i tend to just ignore them and don't care what people think or say

4littlelions · 09/02/2010 13:26

What a lot of people fail to see is that tradesmen invest a comparable amount of time, money and scrifice into getting where they are as those go to University.

I can't stand people who look down their noses at what they perceive as those lower than them. My brother works on the Tube and has put up with horrendous treatment from 'city types'

gramercy · 09/02/2010 13:30

It always makes me when some women (especially on MN!) bang on about women should have careers, be breaking glass ceilings, equality, blah de blah, and then you see them talking about their cleaner/nanny. What they are saying really is that they're only interested in women like them . Women in ordinary jobs simply aren't on their radar.

I think job snobbery is pretty vile. One of the (very many) times I've wanted to punch fil is when he heard that the child of someone they knew was marrying a nurse. "I'd be so ashamed if one of my children was a nurse." WTF?

And did anyone else's hackles rise when in Delia Through the Decades she says with a knowing titter, that her former headmistress said that if she'd worked harder she could have been a secretary .

globex · 09/02/2010 13:39

I think there are many seperate issues here and I think there are different definitions of what 'looking down' on someone means.

The kind of 'I couldn't get up before dawn like the sainted bin men' line really irritates me. You COULD get up before dawn if you had no choice - everyone could. I used to get this when I was waitressing - 'I just COULDN'T wait tables - I'd be no good at it' - well I'm no good at it either but I have to earn my rent somehow.

MorrisZapp · 09/02/2010 15:49

I don't get your point gramercy. Why shouldn't women who want equality have a nanny or a cleaner?

FioFio · 09/02/2010 17:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Ozziegirly · 09/02/2010 22:59

You can be perfectly friendly to someone working in a cafe/shop/cleaning job etc, but not want to actually do that job - that's not snobbery, just, well, life.

I went to university because I was clever and got good grades at school. I wanted to earn a good wage and have a nice house and buy nice things, and so I followed a career path that let me do that. To do this job (lawyer) you don't have to be incredibly academic, but you can't be dim - mainly because it's a competative market for jobs, so they only take the people with high grades.

But I would never look down on someone who did a less well paid job - it's just luck and genetics that I find exams easy and also a selection of handy circumstances that allowed me to go down this path to a well paid job - and also want to do it.

Equally, I don't see why I should feel bad at having followed this path, as long as I haven't trampled on people to get here (which I haven't). It's no business of other people why I have chosen this career, just as it isn't my business to pass judgement on other people's career choices.

mattellie · 10/02/2010 12:01

I think FioFio has pretty much killed off this thread with her concise and accurate summation

Used to work for a woman whose first question on meeting anyone new was: ?And what do you do for a living?? Then based her interaction with that person primarily on the answer she received. Bizarre. But then she thought I was weird for not really caring what people do for a job?

GothDetective · 10/02/2010 12:29

People shouldn't assume that binmen, sales assistants, etc aren't uni educated.

I've got 2 degrees and after graduating I spent 5 years cleaning drains. I now work in a "professional, graduate" job and earn about two thirds what I used to.

Unblocking drains paid a lot better than teaching, nursing, police, etc.

threetimemummy · 10/02/2010 13:12

Ok playing a little bit of devils advocate here....

What do you think of unemployment vs job snobbery?? Some people out there moan that they cant get a job..yet there are ads for cleaners, etc the "lowly" jobs that go unanswered. Are you of the opinion that if you want a job and YOU ARE ABLE TO WORK (so by this I do not mean the people that are ill/disabled, have circumstances that need to fit into etc etc) then there are jobs out there, it is just that people dont want those jobs? Cause they are "better than that"? And if thy REALLY wanted to work then they would do whatever job came along, regardless of status etc, cause that is called having a good work ethic and doing whatever it takes to look after yourself/your family?

mummc2 · 10/02/2010 13:31

I worked very hard at school and did extremely well in my gcse's and was doing very well in my A levels too then my parents had a messy split and I dropped out to take care of my brother who was in a wheelchair. I was working part-time in a shop and enjoyed it and so went full time.

I loved my job and met my husband at work. I worked my way upto management and now just work part-time due to DD's. I never regret not going further but do agree that people look down on you. Most people are lovely and thats whats great about my job but there is those people who think you are just there to be crapped on!!

I am going back to learning in a few years when they are older either nursing or fire service.

Not everyone does a job because they're "thick" its sometimes just an outcome of circumstances in their life.

mummc2 · 10/02/2010 13:37

Oh and i do agree with you threetimemummy about jobs there are some young people that work with me that want a full time job not just part time and are constantly moaning that theres no jobs but then if suggest some jobs you have seen they are like " oohh no i couldnt do that!" then again moan that they have no money. If i lost my job i would do anything to earn money if thats what it took.

Flip

1 2 3 4