From lawyer jokes to IRS agents, certain jobs just get all the hate and blame. Now, normally one doesn’t deal with a lawyer or IRS agent on a good day, so some of the emotions make sense. But an internet user wanted to ask people in various maligned fields if their profession actually deserved all the hate it would customarily get.
So employees and professionals answered with their own examples of why certain jobs get a lot of slander but are still pretty important for making the world go ‘round. Others shared why their job was not actually as bad as people would claim. So scroll down and upvote the suggestions you agree with, and be sure to comment on any professions you think should have been included.
#1
Working at McDonald’s/fast food. People always say c**p like “you better work/study hard or you’ll end up working at McDonald’s”. Work is work, and I honestly have far more respect for fast food workers than the CEO of pretty much any major corporation.
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244points
#2
I was a cleaner. People used to treat me like furniture and assumed all kinds of things about me. That was the best-paying job I ever held, with the best benefits, and most vacation! I went back to school for a more “dignified” career, and my “dignified” job sitting at a desk ended up being worse in every way.
230points
#3
Janitors. Give them respect, people, unless you want to empty your own trash and clean your own work or school space.
(Seriously, being nice to the janitor saved my tail one time when I was locked out of a room that contained some vital work material. The big boss didn't have keys to that room, but guess who did?)
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193points
We reached out to people who work in some of these fields, including plastic surgeon and TikToker Anthony Youn, MD, FACS, to learn more about his profession and what most people get wrong about these procedures. “Some common misconceptions are that if they have injectable filler they will look plump like a Cabbage Patch doll. It's the amount of filler that is injected that determines how a person looks, and a little filler can look very natural! Another one is that breast implants can prevent a breast from drooping. It's actually the opposite! Implants act like weights in the breasts and can make a breast feel heavier and droop faster.”
We also wanted to hear his perspective on the bad rap plastic surgeons sometimes get and why this has happened in the first place. “There are definitely some bad apples out there, and unfortunately my specialty can attract doctors who are arrogant prima donnas. Even worse are the doctors who aren't real plastic surgeons but masquerade as real plastic surgeons in order to get fame and make more money than they otherwise would.”
#4
Social workers. We are underfunded, understaffed civil servants attempting to help populations of individuals with multiple overlapping problems (poor, mentally ill, criminal records, substance use issues), get their lives back on track. The people others walk by on the sidewalk or avoid eye contact with on the subway; we seek them out, try to help them, and usually no one is happy with what we have to offer. Also red tape....lots of government red tape.
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169points
#5
Nursing.... Especially now.
Sweet jesus so many staff are burnt out, understaffed, its just horrendous. its even a giant s**t show at uni learning nursing.
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162points
#6
Plastic surgery, they don’t just do cosmetics, they do some live saving procedures for people in accidents, car wrecks, etc.
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161points
“That being said, to become a real board-certified plastic surgeon you have to undergo a lot of training in general surgery, where we take care of trauma patients and sick patients. It's a long road, and cosmetic surgery is only one part of the field of plastic surgery. The vast, vast majority of my colleagues are decent, hardworking people who are in this field to help people, not for the other things,” he added.
#7
Plumbers. People always assume they’re gross greasy old dudes but really they’re extremely skilled professionals.
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158points
#8
Veterinary medicine. 110%. Extremely low wages, very high suicide rates, everyone thinks we are in it for the money, or don’t know what we’re doing. The burnout and turnover is truly unlike any other profession.
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158points
#9
Garbage disposal workers.
I've heard many times from many people that if you don't go to college, that's the type of job you get. But my dad f*****g loved that job more than building fridges for amana. Not only was he paid more, but if he found something cool there, he got to take it home with him. My mom eventually had to tell him to stop bringing things home though, because it was a lot hahaha.
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152points
Some of the options here are at least partially tongue-in-cheek. Yes, meteorologists are at times, incorrect, but modern technology and forecast models have gotten so advanced that the need for a human might diminish pretty soon. It will be a lot less fun to blame a robot for those unexpected rainstorms or flash freezes. The same could happen for other positions as well, so we shouldn’t perhaps be so harsh.
#10
Child care workers. We work our [butts] off all day long, receive horrible pay, work horrible hours, get little to no respect, get little to no PTO, are guilt-tripped for taking sick days, are told to do more and more random things day in day out by management, are expected to follow routines parents don’t even follow at home, and still show up to work. We take care of your children, please be respectful.
127points
#11
Bartender.
Everyone thinks they can do our job because of that one time they opened Bud Lights at a company picnic a few years ago and that there's no skill involved.
My idea for a reality show is to take those types and put them behind a bar that's three deep in the weeds while Karen screams at them about slow service because she think's it's the ideal time to order craft cocktails and closes out after every round.
Not to mention the c**p us "lifers" have to deal with. Even people in our own families thinking we're losers, alcoholics, and drug addicts because we chose this over a more "respectable" career. Nevermind that plenty of us are college educated only to realize we actually make more doing this than the more respectable career we intended to go into.
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119points
#12
Meteorologists. Lotta jokes along the lines of "must be nice to be wrong half the time and still keep your job". Do you know how difficult it is to predict the weather 2-3 days out, let alone a week out?
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109points
#13
Nobody thinks to credit the dishwasher in having a well ran restaurant, but when we're missing ours things start to slow down, a lot.
Our dishwasher gets paid $22 an hour but he works pretty dang hard, he helps us clean the tables when we're short at the front and he's constantly helping sort/unpack inventory when it comes in. It's almost unfair to just call him a dishwasher.
Days where he's gone, we have to lend a FoH to the back which reduces service capacity and then tired staff has to do the wash duty which can take an extra hour which sucks and leaves us grumpy.
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109points
#14
CPS Investigators. Allow me to lay the rumors to bed. First, CPS does not *steal* or *kidnap* children. If you were unfortunate enough to have your child removed from your care, take responsibility for your own f**k ups and self reflect. Rest assured, the CPS worker did not *want* to remove your child, so if yours got removed, you gave them no other option.
second, CPS does not get a bonus for every child they bring in to custody (and they don't get extra for removing children of color). Believe me, they do not get paid enough to do their job as it is, let alone any bonuses. And where would this money come from? The government barely has the funding to pay/reimburse foster parents for taking in kids. Hell, the whole child welfare system as a whole barely has the funding across the board to care for these kids. Where are bonuses supposed to come from?
Third, there are no "quotas" on how many kids are removed. No nationwide adoption conspiracy to take children from their homes. Seriously, no social worker/CPS investigator goes into their work each day wanting to take kids from their homes. None. No power trips (cause that power isn't even in their hands, it's up to a dam judge). Nothing. It's a sad day for everybody when this happens. Sad for the families, sad for the kids, and sad for social worker too.
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108points
#15
Dentists.
We really ARE just trying to help you save your teeth. And it’s really NOT fun to have patients immediately say how much they hate the dentist before they even say hello.
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92points
#16
Teachers. There are obviously good and bad ones, but most all of us got into this crappy profession because we love your kids.
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89points
#17
Zookeepers.
Most people who have actually encountered them avoid them because they always stink so effing bad, but they're nice people :(
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85points
#18
Embalmers. Thankless job people think they are creepy but who else would do that
82points
#19
Strippers/exotic dancers. If the person is comfortable enough to do that, then there's no shame in them doing that. Also they can make good money in just a night
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81points
#20
Here’s one that I think isn’t commonly mentioned in these discussions: Artists. Of all mediums. From live-performance to in-studio creations. As far as profession, the fields are saturated full of talented and knowledgable artists, but also full of people who are not intelligent and behave in poor ways to give artists a bad rep (people love to generalize!) Yes, creative fields such as the arts are unorthodox and can be heavily subjective in values and certifications, but that doesn’t make employment in the arts any less than a job in any other field. It’s f*****g difficult. Artists get a bad rep and it doesn’t help when people who know nothing about what they do ignorantly claim that they themselves can do it because “it’s so easy.”
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78points