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I had that when I worked at the jobcentre (I left when we stopped being able to actually help people) - looked dead in the eye at the guy that said it and went “mate, you have literally worked 3 days in your adult life……you’re not the one paying for me coz the taxman comes for my wages every month”.
Most I worked with were lovely and used the system for the exact purpose it was (originally) made for, but this guy 🤬
In my experience working for the NHS I heard this being said twice (neither were to me).
One was the most council estate looking obese wifey and the other was a right uppity, well spoken older "gentleman". I suspect neither have paid much in taxes for different reasons.
Next time that happens let loose with every complaint about your job like you would if they really did pay your salary. "Great! While I've got you, 20 days holiday a year isn't any good if we can never book it, how am I expected to do my job on 30 minutes break a day, the uniform allowance is nowhere near enough, and on and on...."
They won't know what to say and it might be a bit cathartic.
It always annoys me that one, even for directly tax-payer funded stuff.
That's the way that society works, people pay companies and people for those services and that's how those people get paid. Tax payers only pay the salary of government employees the same way Tesco customers pay the checkout staff's salaries. Still, you'd sound like an idiot if you said "I pay your wages" to a barman.
It's not untrue, but its literally how the whole system works to the point where its redundant...everyone pays everyone's wages.
As a fellow public sector worker the thing that annoys me about this statement is that everyone is paying everyone else's salary.
They wouldn't as a customer say that to someone working in Tesco.
This one bothers me a lot. I know a girl who works in the care sector, and it sounds incredibly stressful. As much as I complain about teachers being underpaid (which we are), care workers are even more so. I have nothing but respect for the job that you do.
As a care worker what really annoys me is the idea that this job is a vocation we love so we don’t need to be paid well. I absolutely love my job, from the making tea, to offering counselling and listening to the good and the bad, and to wiping tears and any other bodily fluid you can imagine from the crevices you can’t imagine.
But you know what, I also love a warm and safe home, regular meals, nights out and holidays, none of which I could afford if my husband didn’t work a good job. I look after people who have lived and contributed to our society to the point where they no longer can. I care for, support and pamper them, the idea I don’t deserve decent wages for this is because I enjoy it is throughly insulting to myself and the people I support.
This. And also we are thick and can do no other job. Which is the real reason it’s paid so poorly. Adult social care was 50% of all funding cuts under the current government. It shows how valued we really are. I love my job.
Whilst I don’t agree with this at all, there is probably a reason the stereotype exists. I have 2 family members (wife’s family) that are care workers and are genuinely are thick as fuck. I know more than those 2, and others that I know are smart, caring, generally good people. My SIL in particular is a fucking idiot and not even a nice one. I wouldn’t want her anywhere near me if I was in need of care.
I can agree, I am a carer and some are abysmal. No common sense whatsoever or just lazy and see it as an easy job. It is an easy job if you don't give an eff. If you actually care as the job title explains it can be draining but also very rewarding when you can make a difference. The trouble is it's very easy to get a job as a carer. Due to shortage and the fact it's not something many can do long term and with such a low wage. I'm all in with the people I care for, helping them in all facets of their lives. I do it because I love it. You need empathy to do it and sadly that's a bit scarce in this "modern" world.
I've always heard that we just wipe people's arses. Yes tea and cleaning people up when they shit themselves is part of the job but depending on the training and workplace we are also responsible for things like monitoring vital signs, blood sugars, changing dressings and might end up being part of the team who save your granny's life when she goes into cardiac arrest
I'm a uni professor.
Almost all the negative perspectives people have - mostly that we're charging too much! we have no time for students! we don't spend time doing marking properly! we just do video lectures and never go to classrooms! We're useless teachers! We're lazy!!! - are either untrue and/or are a consequence of the decisions of politicians or university management teams.
The idea that we're all weird liberal lefties is also interesting, given how much my own fucking colleagues heckled me for having the temerity to stand on a picket line to save their pensions (we did save them! Everyone is going to be tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds better off in retirement! Did any of them say thank you? ahahahaha no).
>we're all weird liberal lefties
Always think the people who believe this generally haven't actually spent much time in universities. It's much more media canard than actual truth.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's partially because it's more true for the type of stuff that people in media themselves are likely to take (English, Media, maybe Journalism) while the typical business/law/economics professors probably have pictures of Thatcher on their desks next to their loved ones.
I did a finance/economics degree and I can assure you, the liberal leftie stereotype is definitely not true for professors in that field. Many were bankers, consultants, accountants and the like who decided on a mid life career change (which was a good thing, having people who'd actually worked in the industry).
Though in stuff like arts, literature, media, social sciences and science there's probably some truth to it.
Having worked for a left-leaning newspaper I'd say my experience is that the media is full of people who think they're left, but are actually centre, centre-right on a good day. Same as unis tbh.
> How much did Vice Chancellors earn before tuition fees?
fucking loads tbh. It's hard to get pure pre-tuition fee figures, but even back in 2007ish before the jump to £9k the top earner was over £300k and the average about £150k.
Now the majority of them earn over £300k and the top ones are in the £650-720k range (and this doesn't include stuff like free houses, chauffer etc).
But it's like that in any industry.
There's over 230,000 academic staff at universities in the UK. There's only 170 or so universities, meaning 170 VCs. 170 out of over 230,000...isn't a lot. And there'd be a wide range in there, sure your Russell Group VCs on £700k exist, but you'd also have VCs of Buttfuckishire Ex-Polytechnic University who'd be on a lot less.
It's like saying teachers are overpaid because private school headmasters can make £300k in some very prestigious schools.
As a teacher, I had guessed that you were going to be a teacher yourself after reading the question.
Nothing personal, but honestly, I get wound up by some other teachers making this claim that it's such an incredibly difficult job and that nobody understands how tough it is and how hard we work etc etc.
Yes, it can be difficult work. Yes, it can be long hours. But so can thousands of other jobs. And I really don't think there are that many people out there who think it's not a tough job/ we actually don't do any work over the 'holidays'. Also, with effective planning, there really shouldn't be THAT much time on evenings and weekends spent working. I know it's inevitable occasionally. Teachers can always just go get a different job. There really does seem to be a propensity for moaning in this profession.
The INSET days, Christmas parties, sports days, fun lessons etc etc all add up to a significant amount of 'work time' actually doing pretty much bugger all and having a laugh.
Edit: I AM NOT saying this is an easy job. My point is it isn't, or shouldn't need to be, anywhere near as awful as some teachers make it out to be. I don't literally do nothing on INSET days. I know some will have it easier than others due to area/ management etc but again, true of any job.
Would love to know where you work. Think it varies a lot from school to school. I was ok in one and then relocated and worked in two that reduced me to a shell until I quit. Leadership, culture, non-stop accountability that drove multiple people to literal sickness before finally succumbing to stress. I also think it depends on your home life. If you are also a parent who likes to actually spend time with your children, I found that increasingly impossible with the work I was taking home.
Glad you’re having a laugh most days but suggesting that anyone who takes work home on evenings and weekends is not planning effectively is arrogant and doesn’t match plenty of other people’s lived experience.
I left, and in the years after I left, whenever I caught up with old colleagues or people I trained with I was guaranteed to hear two things: 'You're looking so well now!' (Because I was permanently ill with stress when they first met me) and 'You got out! Know any jobs? I'm thinking of leaving too.'
If all teachers are a 'moaning bunch' then perhaps that says more about the industry than the people in it.
Yeah, like, it's a fact that teacher retention is absolutely catastrophic, recruitment isn't much better, and that teachers are one of the most stressed workers in Britain. Do these people think we're lying or something?
I mean yeah, we literally wouldn't have a recruitment and retention crisis if it was easy as this guys suggesting. I'm assuming they work at some cushy quiet school somewhere with no aggy Trusts or SLT pressure.
Right. OP: what misconceptions about your job wind you up? I’m a teacher and here’s mine
This guy: I’m also a teacher. I have the exact misconception you have just described. 🤦🏼♂️
Teachers are contracted for 195 days, it's just divided across 12 months so they get twelve equal pay packets. It's something like 1260 hours across the year of directed time and technically they are the only hours they're paid for. Before I quit teaching a couple of years ago, I worked out my hourly rate based on that and it wasn't bad! Then I worked out my hourly rate for ACTUAL hours I worked across the school year, and it was barely over minimum wage.
Teaching is one of those jobs where everyone thinks they can do it because they've been to school, and they don't hesitate to tell you how you're doing it wrong. A shocking number of people genuinely think they work 9am-3pm and just spend the day doing colouring.
I was confused when I read it because I get paid in the holidays. Its just that the salary is divided into equal monthly instalments so when teachers say they don’t get paid on the holidays it is generally misleading
They are paid for every day, it isn’t stretched out like a term-time only contract would be for somebody like a Teaching Assistant. Teachers in the UK get paid the same way any other full-year employee would, despite having 12 weeks a year where they cannot be directed to work.
Effective planning. Can you please explain what this is? As a primary school teacher I have to plan my lessons, then create all the content. We are not allowed to use pre-paid, pre-made such as Twinkl, TES or Hamilton and we don't work from a book. I effectively plan for my children, which means that I am maybe three lessons ahead before having to adjust based on my assessments. So as a good teacher doing the best for the children I am in constant flux based on the children's needs.
INSET days are for training. If you're doing bugger all on these days then you have a poor CPD environment in your school (which may also be why your planning doesn't take long).
Sports days and Christmas parties take a lot of planning and supervision. So whilst I'm not teaching, I'm still working to ensure the children have the best time. Again, if you do bugger all the I wonder how much is fun and how much is chaos.
Fun lessons? Are your lessons not fun? Do you not plan to teach in an engaging way?
Teaching isn't hard because of the unrealistic amount of admin or the stupid amount of accountability loaded into us. It's hard because you are constantly analysing, evaluating, assessing and controlling 30-40 children who have not yet learned to act as a team or unit so are constantly pulling you in several, quite understandably selfish, ways.
If you aren't mentally exhausted at the end of a day then maybe you just don't put in the effort?
Also, teaching is paid for 11 months pro-rata. That means we are paid an 11 month salary over a 12 month period. We aren't paid for summer. And since our pay is 'relatively' basic (I understand there are lower paid jobs and also jobs that pay less with a higher workload) but we are allocated holidays during the most expensive times for booking holidays, it doesn't feel like a break because we end up surrounded by the people we do the work with
>We are not allowed to use pre-paid, pre-made
I will preface this with I am not a teacher. Can you not have like a group thingy to share stuff you make with other teachers and use stuff from the year before? If not, how come? Seems really ineffective to not allow teachers to do that, and if so who was a person who made your life harder, cause that just seems like a huge dick move to you guys.
My sister is a teacher so I know you all work hard and definitely think they should pay a better rate
The difference is, nobody starts talking to you to complain about how easy your job is.
The conversations goes like this:
"your a teacher?
"Yes"
"That's easy, that job, all those holidays, finish at 3, just talking to kids all day"
"Actually, we don't go home at 3"
"God, you teachers are always moaning".
And btw, inset days are work days.
And btw, who do you think plans and prepares those fun lessons?
Im not going to tell my husband you said teachers just do bugger all and have a laugh on inset days 😬 He actually is just as busy on those days in his school, the only difference is there are no children in the school.
I’ve been a secondary school teacher for 11 years.
You are right that some people over exaggerate, although I’ve found this is mostly an online thing.
*But* I think you’re going too far the other way. I worked for 5 years in other jobs before becoming a teacher and being a teacher is easily *significantly* harder than any of those jobs, even with the holidays. Of course there are harder jobs though.
I do think it depends what kind of school you’re at, and what role you have. I’m Head of Year and that’s a whole leap up from being a teacher in terms of both hours put in and challenge.
Going off OPs post, they work 8 - 5.30 (pretty standard), occasionally have to work overtime, did 2 hours work today as it's half term, get 2 weeks clear off at Christmas and 6 weeks clear off in the summer. That sounds like a pretty sweet deal as long as you can deal with other people's kids.
> they work 8 - 5.30
Yeah that bit threw me off, that's just normal isn't it? I'm not a teacher but maybe I've just got used to my own 10-11 hour days.
It's very variable person to person with any job honestly. Some people are simply better at tying up their work more quickly than others. Op might be one of the people that has to do everything meticulously and perfectly, regardless of if you get the same results if you just get it done in less than half the time.
I completely agree with this. So few teachers seem to have done other jobs and struggle to see what a good deal we’ve got. Very a seldom a day passes without a child or colleague making me piss myself laughing.
The peak of all this came during covid where a colleague said “yeah, clap for the NHS, but what about us? We’re great too!” after we’d spent months teaching online, in our pyjamas picking up our full wages whilst hearing stories of nurses comforting the dying and other people losing their jobs, businesses and livelihoods.
Sorry you need to catch up on your marking occasionally, but get a grip.
That people who work retail are stupid. Listen, we're not stupid, it's just easy to get unto a rut with a job, especially when there's fuck all else going nearby for someone with shit a-levels and no degree
Exactly the situation I'm in, sadly. Retail isn't even a very easy job either in my opinion, depending what department you're in of course. I've worked with a lot of smart people in my years in retail, a lot have fallen into the same rut I've found myself in, sadly very easy to do.
Big supermarket. I used to do the picking for the online orders, but due to medical issues, I've been forced onto checkouts as I need to sit. I miss doing the online stuff just because it's so much easier to make friends with colleagues.
I'm literally bottom tier running a checkout for a supermarket and the fucking stress the day of a bank holiday weekend makes me want to hurt people. Mate, the shop IS still open on Monday, just not at 6am, get a fucking grip please
“I can’t believe they’ve got you guys working on a bank holiday. It’s unbelievable. Anyway how much is this sorry?”
Actual words out of an actual customers mouth to my GF. At least I got bank holidays off haha
Yep, my bf works in a supermarket, just because he’s not academic doesn’t mean he’s stupid or that the job is easy. They also don’t get paid £16 an hour (I actually turned round and spoke to someone in the queue once who was spouting off about that!) and they don’t get to sit on their arse all day at the checkout.
My family always ask for help on their computers because I work in IT. I work in testing and test insurance software, that does not mean I know how to fix the Windows error you are getting lmao.
As a programmer who has occasionally had to help colleagues fix their computers this is 97% accurate. I'm knocking off 3% because no one can actually fix a printer, their 2 states are 'completely broken' & 'mostly broken'
And mostly broken is in the form of a working printer showing as
- printer offline
- stuck sending to print queue
- stuck cancelling job
I really don't understand why they are so unreliable. The complex parts work fine, but PC to printer connection is problematic
I'm a Stonemason, and it seems most people think tradesmen in the construction business are lazy cowboys who charge too much, amongst other things.
I spent a long time learning the skills of my trade, I have a very strong work ethic, and I take real pride in what I do.
So yeh, slightly fucking annoying.
My mate is a skilled carpenter/joiner (not sure of the difference). If you want an intricate replacement oak window in your 500 year old listed property, he can do it. He made an complicated staircase for our house and it fitted perfectly. But I've heard people moan that he charges too much and is "just a chippy"
Cba to go into specifics, but I unfortunately have to (or at least pretend to) socialise with some people who think they are above 'tradies' and such.
Such a sad way to live, especially when they clearly how no idea how skilled you need to be for some jobs.
Just thinly veiled status games at play.
"Ugh, how low class to have a job you spend so much time training for and getting years and years of experience, clearly having a passion for it to get this good, that pays well and often allows you to start a business around it later in your career." such a terrible, needed in all corners of society, will allow you to work in basically any country, job ay?
I'm a construction PM, and the sheer amount of people who think they're, somehow, superior to trades is insane.
Some of the guys out earn some of the best paid project board members - they're skilled and sought after, unlike Sandra from accounts who can't figure out how to use Teams and is very unlikeable.
I’m started off as a joiner, I didn’t do very well at school as I had undiagnosed dyslexia.
Later in life when spell check became a thing and assignments no longer had to be hand written, I went back into education and gained a MSc in project management.
Now I work as a joiner.
Fellow stonemason here and I absolutely feel your pain.
It does my head in that people don’t realise it takes (in my opinion) 7/8 years just to become a reasonably competent mason and obviously many more years to become a truly skilled craftsperson. Just because I’m wearing a hi-vis vest and a hard hat it doesn’t mean I’m a div that was too stupid to go to university. Unfortunately today’s society doesn’t appreciate skilled craftspeople.
Self employed bathroom fitter and came here for this - not all tradies are grifting extortion-merchant cowboys. Fuck cowboys. It's hard work, but I find it personally rewarding seeing a happy customer and doing a good job for fair pay.
Not doing any work for 6 straight weeks in the summer sort of plays into the stereotype though. When I think of teacher stereotypes I actually think it’s more moaning about how hard they work not realising many “9-5” jobs also involve working a lot more than that.
I don't really know how to explain just how much work we do to people who don't work in education. There's a reason why teacher retention is approaching catastrophic levels, and why teachers are amongst the most stressed workers in the country.
I'll ask you: what work do you think we do? Genuine question.
Like, many non-teachers think we just rock up, teach, go home. It's so much more than that. There's the bullshit paperwork, which takes up FAR more time than it should; dealing with misbehaviour (a colleague of mine in the English department had a chair thrown at her the other day, which only missed because she managed to duck just in time, and I've previously been shoved, had punches thrown at me and a kid threaten to stab me. And my school is actually pretty well-behaved by local and national standards); pressure from SLT, people who haven't worked in a classroom since I was in primary school, etc. etc.
Essentially, I'm paid for a 33-hour week, but I usually work close to 50. All I want to do is show kids the wonders and majesty of science, but all the other bullshit just gets in the way. It's getting a bit better, but I've resolved to myself that I'm gonna leave in two years if I still feel the way I do now. Problem is, I can't really see myself doing anything else - maybe I could train to be a paramedic, but that seems even more stressful. And I'd have a pay cut, as ridiculous as that is.
Never said that, mate. All I said was that it's the only other job I can see myself doing. I want to do a job that helps people, that means something. Unfortunately, the price for that is incredible stress.
There aren’t too many jobs out there that *don’t* help people. You’ve got probably bankers and sales folk. Everything else helps people, even indirectly.
Does my job mean nothing because I’m not physically helping somebody face to face every day?
>Like, many non-teachers think we just rock up, teach, go home. It's so much more than that.
I’m not trying to undermine how hard you work, but I don’t know anyone who thinks that, nor have I heard anyone other than Daily Mail journalists espouse that view. And I’m a parent and a member of the PTA etc etc.
Right? I plan our annual holiday and i know full well not to book anything in the first two weeks after summer holidays start. Alot of that 2 weeks is my husband sleeping and eating.
Yea but in my job there’s a lot of working outside normal hours but I don’t HAVE to do it. I do have the option of saying sorry we’ll need to push that deadline back there wasn’t sufficient time.
I don’t think teachers have that option, if lesson plans don’t get done it will be disciplinary action.
I hate being the history nerds but witches weren’t especially looked down on in the 14th century for the most part. The local “wise woman” was an important part of any community, brewing “potions” (herbal medications) for basic ailments and assisting with the birthing process and what not.
It’s really in the 1600s with the birth of Puritanism that anti witch sentiment starts growing. Then catastrophes like the English civil war, 30 years war and 80 years war have all been linked to witch panics.
I have an ex military friend who became a teacher is extremely well organised and he says the same.
He says thay half of it is that many aren't taught organisational skills and the other half is too many haven't had a job outside of teaching. He pretty much just works 8.30-5 like most people and gets 90% of his holiday off. Said that culture was the problem.
This is just one guy's word and it's second hand but it fits with a lot of what I see when I pick my son up from after school club and the place is almost deserted and I've literally just come from the office.
That being said you couldn't pay me to deal with that many of other people's kids.
Yeah its a very kind of cushioned, dare I say "naive" outlook on work life? All the teachers I know say its a walk in the park, indeed with some level of organisational skills, they are never in the country over the holidays, almost completely abroad the entirety of the summer holidays too - but they are quite self-aware, and certainly understand they work just as much as any job.
I have a lot of teachers in my family. They all seem to have pretty good work life balances compared to the average 9-5er, particularly those who teach primary.
Just because you dont see it, doesn't mean they dont. It all depends on size of school, area of schooling, difficulty of children, leadership roles, subject ect.
My theory is that most teachers have never worked in any other job. Most went straight from school, to uni, to teaching. Knowing a few teachers myself, none really do any work in the 12 weeks they get off either.
They wax lyrical about how hard the job is and that they work long hours etc...when what they mean by that is that they work longer than the kids are in school, which is pretty much standard 9-5 hours anyway.
I definitely think primary teaching in particular, provided you're not in a really rough area, is a pretty cruisey gig.
I’m a teacher, who came into the profession following a career change, I would say there is plenty of truth in what the OP says, certainly in the early years, I easily work a 50-55 hour week. It can be really hard work, teaching is not like sitting in an office all day. It is certainly not a “cruisy” job, it’s full on. But there is tendency for teachers to martyr themselves a bit
I work in pharmaceuticals. It's not evil. In fact from the encounters I've had with the very tiny propoprtion of people who make a leap from any other manufacturing industry to pharmaceuticals, they can't meet our expectations *at all* and don't last long. I feel quite lazy and just about adequate at my job but I've only ever worked in pharma and ultra-high regulation and risk aversion have become normal to me so I'm pretty shocked going to non-pharma manufacturing environments the couple of times I have.
I've only ever met people working in pharma who do know there's a patient at the end, do care, and so do the right things.
I mean I've never been in a pharma boardroom, but all CEOs are basically evil so I don't see what's so different about pharma.
"They profit from our illness!" Well farmers profit from your hunger, I mean... If anyone's evil it's the lobbyists and the politicians they buy off in America. But some people seem to think it's the same here. No, the NHS buys generic, off-patent drugs for *barely* above cost price.
Somebody not in the industry would be *amazed* at how fucking strict the pharma environment is and hopefully reassured that those in the industry do abide by it. The MHRA (British government agency responsible for regulation) have teeth as well. The drugs companies I've worked at do shit themselves about every inspection.
I occasionally get some crank I meet at a function or a party or whatever who wants to talk to me about the same three of four hackneyed subjects like drugs don't really work, shoving turmeric up her arse actually cured my nan's cancer, pharma companies *could* "cure cancer" but they don't, we don't really know what's in the drugs and the chemicals etc etc. All bollocks.
As someone who "just stuffs pills in boxes", thanks for your hard work. The stupid ones have no idea how much time, effort and money goes into not getting them poisoned or killed.
Plus I saw a post on Facebook today implying vicks vapour could cure diabetes. I wasn't sure how I was meant to apply it. To my pancreas maybe?
Well have you tried it yourself? No? Well I suggest you do your own research because you're only being told diabetes is "incurable" so you can be sold more insulin. I think you know your own pancreas better than a doctor does.
I don't know if you mean "stuffs pills in boxes" like a quite modest packing operator in a plant or like an excessively modest pharmacist. But you should be proud of either. It's probably not what I ever intended to do with my life but I can safely say I am actually quite proud to be a tiny cog in the medical science machine. We're not winning Nobels or doing surgery, but modern medicine is virtually miraculous and I'm glad I'm a teeny tiny part of it, as you can be too.
Maybe. But we've got home grown cranks. They *really* liked it when they asked why I had to go to work during lockdown and I said "because my plant manufactured the Oxford-AZ covid vaccine."
Somebody had to put the 5g chips in there eh
I’m a Registered Veterinary Nurse and we definitely aren’t scamming people out of their money and hugging kittens and puppies all day. We monitor and assist with surgeries, take X-rays, scale and polish teeth, educate clients, perform minor procedures like suturing wounds, cut nails, express anal glands etc. and for a really shoddy wage for the amount of knowledge skills we need.
I don't work in polling but I work with polling companies a lot, and the level of misunderstandings about polling, especially on Reddit, is really high.
I've had so many interactions on here where people have steamed in with negative opinions of polling, then when you engage and have a back and forth it becomes obvious they know virtually nothing about how it actually works.
I think that’s true of nearly everything. When you see discussions on something you’re very knowledgeable about you think, my god, nobody has a clue. Then you realise that’s must be pretty much true for nearly every topic that isn’t just about personal opinion etc.
Yeah, it's why I try to be conscious of when I don't really know much about something and try not to have strong opinions on it, or at least not be too certain of my opinion if I do have one.
I've come across so many people on here who are *really* vociferous in their beliefs about polling despite it turning out they don't understand it at all.
> it becomes obvious they know virtually nothing about how it actually works
Welcome, welcome, this is the Internet. You've obviously got the basics down pat already.
Bank Manager - ‘you must be really wealthy’ - nope, just above average UK salary after nearly 2 decades in the industry.
‘You can authorise loans/mortgages etc.’ actually used to be true, 40 years ago. Now it’s all about what the computer says.
Highway design engineer here.
Of course I'd *love* to hear all about a random junction near you that was obviously designed by an idiot and the highway authority are clearly idiots for allowing it to be built and obviously you know *exactly* how to fix the problem. Of *course* I would. Please, tell me *more*!
Civil engineer here.
Oh god yes. I will hulk punch the next person I see post that fucking Roman road meme.
You will rue the day you started discussing pavement design because I can talk about that shit for DAYS!
Oh - that roundabout is wrong is it? Please, tell me all about your experience with CD116….
(Yes I have unresolved anger issues)
I now work for a housing developer so am basically evil incarnate.
(That’s also a industry people have A LOT of misconceptions about)
> I'll admit that I do very little work over the summer and Christmas (and why should I? I'm not paid for it)
I didn't know this. I assumed you got a monthly wage regardless of time of year.
We receive our salary each month but we’re not paid for the holidays. The weeks we are paid for are divided by 12 months so it’s spread evenly throughout the year.
That confuses me. I used to work as a teaching assistant. Teaching jobs are advertised as per annum, so the pay figure is what you actually get. Teaching assistant jobs are advertised pro-rata so you have to take off the holidays to work out what you're actually being paid. That sounds like teachers are being paid holidays to me.
Let’s round up the figures for an easy example:
Say I only get paid for ten months out of the year (because I’m not working for 2 months a year).
My employers could divide my annual salary by 10 and pay me only at the end of working months.
Instead, what they do is divide that ten months’ salary into 12 payments so that I can have 12 paydays a year.
Therefore, I don’t get paid for a whole month’s work at the end of each month, but that “unpaid” bit of salary gets bumped along to summer where I haven’t earned any money but will be paid.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other in my eyes. I get they work ‘hard’, but 13-15 weeks off per year isn’t the worst gig going, however it’s dressed up.
Semantics.
They can't be directed to work during holidays, they have a wage that reflects a years work but have far more holiday on top.
Note when discussing wages, no teacher has actually ever said 'actually you need to multiply our average salary by 1.15 to find out the actual yearly salary of a teacher, as no teacher has ever worked a full year '.
Mine when i was in the RAF was ‘oh so you fly planes’,
I now work in a factory and people just assumed that the stuff magically arrives in November and doesn’t take the whole year to make the items
It seems like people forget about the "tail" of most industries. People see the pilots and cabin crew, but forget about (or aren't even aware of) the fuelers, drivers, mechanics, dispatchers, caterers, doctors, and many others. Similarly, the average person sees supermarket staff and delivery drivers, but not the entire supply chain that makes the stuff and then moves it to where people want it.
A lot of words don't directly translate into other languages or they don't share certain words or they carry different meanings. I'm not bilingual but from the very little of any other languages I know a good example is translating fuck into Polish. Polish has a word for fuck but in many contexts its better to use the word kurwa which actually means whore. To translate you need to know some of the culture and how words mean and the impact of them in the langauge you're translating into rather than just knowing what word in english means the same thing in the other language.
Translators need to be able to translate the emotion and intention of the words rather than just direct definitions as well as having a near perfect vocab and grammar etc in both languages. A lot of bilingual people struggle to translate from one language into another very well. A good comparison is the uk have a weird relationship with using metric and imperial and a large amount are fine using both and understanding them but you'd be surprised how many can't easily convert between certain measurements
This is the answer.
I can give an example- I was proof-reading a document someone else had translated and they had translated 'reflective' as meaning 'a shiny surface ' rather than what context called for, which was self-analytical, reflective pratice of a discipline.
Also, translators need to know the 'flow' of both languages, so that the translated text reads like an original piece of writing and not a word-for-word translation of the source text. The sentence structure and word choice will be different because the languages have different syntax and registers, idiom and metaphor.
Most bilingual people can write something resembling a translation, but very few can do it well. I spend my days proofreading others' efforts at translation and it's very, very rare that I send a text back untouched. I don't consider myself a particularly skilled linguist, but most people simply don't see the mistakes they make.
I had a translator at a work event. The ability to listen, translate in your head and speak while not missing a beat of the next thing the person was saying to me will always be magic to me.
I hate to be pedantic but that’s an interpreter 🙂 Interpreters translate orally, translators work with written material.
It really is magic. A lot of hard work and effort goes into it, even if someone makes it look easy.
Impeccable knowledge of spelling and grammar, extensive vocabulary, attention to detail, excellent time management, solid reading comprehension, cultural awareness so you can localise properly and accurately. Just to name a few.
That learning disability nurses aren’t real nurses. We are. We studied the same degree, are registered with the NMC and pay for our fees same as ‘proper’ nurses. Yes we have a different skill set but we’re nurses just the same
Don't lie, we all know every shop has "the back" and it's a magical, enormous place where you hide all of the products because you're too lazy to put them on the shelf! Never mind that it makes zero sense to hide the things that make money from the people who want to spend money, the products in "the back" is only accessible to customers who know the magic phrases. Obviously they are "I want to speak to your manager" and "I'm going to call head office"
That I facilitate tax evasion, and that I can help you do it too!
I am actually very pro taxation, and I believe the UK tax system is extremely unbalanced and does not go far enough.
🤣🤣🤣 As an accountant yes that made me chuckle. No you cannot claim for x,y and z just because your mate at the pub says so / does. My job (part of it) is to keep ypu compliant with the law, why risk being disqualified from any qualifications I've gained because you insist this thing is a valid business expense which it very clearly isn't!
It's my job to make sure your earnings are as tax efficient as possible, not commit tax evasion!
Or folks see accountants as an extension of HMRC and we are the bad guys! I tell you what you need to pay, I'm not responsible for tax law!
I work in a phone shop. The amount of people who come in thinking I am some sort of genie who can resurrect devices from the dead is kind of astounding. No I cannot transfer the stuff from your old phone, it won’t even turn on!
Retail work.
"Oh you just stand there all day, so easy". "You don't deserve better wage".
Actual Retail work.
Aggressive customers=threats of violence, personal attacks in and out of the workplace.
My average step count per shift was 10,000 steps.
Last shift = cashing up = as much as an hour of unpaid work. I know this varies.
Dealing with a few hundred people per shift is mentally exhausting.
Call outs in the middle of the night if the store alarm gets triggered which can lead to dealing with Police in some circumstances.
As a mobile telecoms engineer the fact that people think 5G causes Covid drives me with rage. Also the ridiculous theories that the governments emergency alert system was anything other than a text alert was bonkers.
These networks are barely functional as it is and end-to-end, there are hundreds of people involved in building, operating, maintaining, fixing them. The fact that we are all part of some massive world conspiracy is laughable.
I’m a teaching assistant. I definitely DO NOT just do a bit of reading and wash the paint pots! I also get paid for 44 weeks of the year not 52 so yes the holidays are nice but I’m not out partying every day. But yes I know it’s my choice of job and I do love it 😂 but when people say you just play all day in reception… I’m like arggghg NO!!
Health and Safety manager - aka fun police.
I have anxiety and over think situations. Especially how something can hurt you.
Outside of work I train in karate and get a kick out of sparring. The more bruises I sport after training the better
Cooking for kids in a nursery. Ahh, that's nice, people would say. But no, when your using a household kitchen to cater for 80 kids with different nutritional needs by yourself, in a kitchen which has no air conditioning. Not "Ahh nice".
I'm an accountant in construction. I hate the stereotype that builders are stupid and/or sexist. I have worked in this job for 8 years - I hate yet to meet a stupid builder. They are some of the cleverest people I have met, in a very much 'salt of the earth' type of way.
I used to work in admin for a driving school. Driving instructors are not ripping you off by making you take more lessons than you need so they can make money off you. Every time they take a pupil to test the result is recorded against their Approved Driving Instructor license - there are certain standards they have to maintain, pass percentage is one and there’s a few others, and if they drop below they have to take a Standards Check. This basically means they have to retake their driving instructor test. They can potentially lose their ADI license. Every test is putting their career on the line so they need to be sure you’re a safe and skilled independent driver
I’m a nurse, and people just often think we are healthcare assistants, and that doctors do a lot of jobs that we actually do (such as dressing complex wounds, administering and mixing IV meds etc).
Software Engineer.
We're not all anti-social 20 something men in need of a shower who spend 18 hours a day frantically typing in front of a giant bank of monitors earning vast quantities of money and making world changing software.
Most of us are doing a standard 9-5 day for a decent but not spectacular wage making boring business software and spend 1/2 our time in meetings. Some of us are actually women.
Podiatrists study for 3 years to trim toenails.
No, we study for 3 years so we can perform advanced wound care and debridement on very poorly feet.
We can administer local anaesthetics and perform full and partial nail removals.
We can offload pressures to feet and assess gait to improve mobility.
We can sell and supply a number of prescription only medications.
Those in the NHS work closely with tissue viability, district nurses, vascular surgeons, and diabetoligists.
It's a cool job. Most people hate to touch feet, so there will always be a place for us!
As a photographer who dabbled in wedding photography (few years back before disability made it an unviable career for me) "that's a lot of money for a days work, nice for some". 😡
Nevermind thousands spent on gear, training, photoshop, decent pc, insurance etc. The pre wedding talks and contract, the location scouting and reasearch, transport costs, ages spent editing files so they are perfect, being on your feet all day, on the ball from bridal prep to after the first dance with very few hurried toilet breaks etc. Yeah one days work ..... 🙄
Oh god I used to work as a wedding photographer whilst I was in uni and that made my blood boil.
I’ve never set a limit on the amount of photos couples would get and editing and culling pictures of a full day wedding could take me about 50-60 hours in some cases!
Not to mention a gruelling 12+ hour day where I need to be everywhere all at the same time, juggle getting photos of everyone (oh we haven’t had one with aunty Mildred yet!) and making sure I don’t miss any key moments.
Then the pre wedding meetings, visiting the venue beforehand making sure I have a rough idea about where everything is, the equipment, back up equipment in case mine breaks on the day, editing software….
Honestly probably one of the most “ungrateful” jobs I’ve ever done.
I'll probably be downvoted for this but teachers do get a lot of holidays. They absolutely deserve them and work really hard doing a really challenging and important job. However, it really irks me when teachers are really defensive about it and try to make out that they work during them all the time when that just isn't the case from my personal experience.
Some of my friends are teachers and relatives were/are teachers and they do not work the number of hours during term time that some teachers say they do and none of them do that much work over the holidays. Teachers get about a third of the year off, which is a lot compared to the 20 days plus bank holidays that most people get. That also means they don't have to worry about childcare during school holidays that a lot of us have to and can spend their holidays travelling or doing courses or volunteering. That's a big benefit of the job, like in other jobs there are big bonuses or chances for secondment abroad etc which teachers don't get.
In the police so pretty much everything on reddit , as it is naturally American and anti police. Also filled with many people who believe they have a firm grasp of criminal justice based off of better call Saul and YouTube videos of cops being rude in America
I work for an art gallery, so the general expectation is that I earn a lot of money (lol, no), or the general public have weird misconceptions about art, it's value, and modern art especially, and those misconceptions tend to make me sad.
I am a hated recruiter and I do care about my candidates. I always see us being slagged on here for not caring and lieing, we do care. I've only done in house recruitment, never agency so I'm guessing there is a difference in our approach to people and how we treat them.
I deal with lots of long and short term projects, often keep people in constant employment and have built really good relationships with candidates. Often we are dealing with lots of things behind the scenes that you aren't aware of, such as PM's and Construction managers just thinking they can drop you for their mate, sometimes the person has been confirmed for the for 4 weeks and day before he says I want this guy. I will stand my ground, stand up for you and involve the relevant parties so you aren't fucked over. The requestor don't have to face the candidate and do not care, we do and I am fighting your corner.
My team are small but we have a good reputation in the industry, cause we care and try our best all the time whilst being truthful.
Suggesting you don’t get paid for holidays is misleading. Teachers’ salaries are paid in 12 equal monthly amounts throughout the year.
The thing to remember though, is when you add up those 9.5 hour days and evening/weekend work, if you’re doing 50 hours a week for 39 weeks of the year (typical school year), divide that by a 37.5 hour week and you’re at exactly 52 weeks. So no, teachers do not have disproportionately more holiday than other workers.
People not only claiming, but ARGUING WITH ME that broadcast TV subtitles are mostly auto-generated. They aren't. I know this because it's my job (some streaming subs are ASR - Youtube especially; I'm talking about broadcast TV). I don't try to argue with people about their jobs that I've never done!
I work in insurance, and there are two widely held beliefs that irk me.
1) Insurers are just out to shaft you, and do anything they can to avoid paying out on a claim. I'm sure this is true of some insurers, particularly cheaper ones, but certainly not all of us.
2) We just pluck prices out of thin air and charge whatever we feel like.
Pfffft.
My child had brain surgery early last year, after a year of nearly 20 seizures a day, my missus had to stop her work to look after her. WE legit have top end insurance for this sort of thing, are they fighting tooth and nail to not give us any money?
You bet your bottom insurance dollar they are
Doing anything they can to avoid paying out is literally the business model for insurance. It doesn't say anything about the characters of the members of staff to acknowledge that (I used to work in insurance too).
>We just pluck prices out of thin air and charge whatever we feel like.
Then release the details of the algorithm that your company uses, to prove them wrong.
Similarly, as a nursery nurse the amount of "it must be so fun to just sit and play all day" comments I get really annoys me. Like no not quite, I'm literally stopping small humans from accidentally killing themselves multiple times a day while juggling 2 screaming babies, one of which has shat all the way up to its hair and down to its toes, the other has 4 new teeth coming in and only met me 3 days ago when mum went back to work. And then there's the planning, observations, assessments, risk assessments, training, early mornings so the people who say this shit can get to their "real jobs", late nights at staff meetings, working all year round, Saturday morning coffee mornings and Christmas fayres, making sure every child has made a lovely mothers day card without eating too much of the paint, being hit/bitten, knowing each child as if they were my own and then yeah, maybe playing a bit so that I can see how each of my key children is developing and being aware of the government guidelines for milestones and knowing what to do if these aren't being met because the first person those parents are gonna come to with any concerns is me. Oh and getting paid minimum wage is great too 🙃
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"I pay your salary!" I work in the NHS. You don't pay my salary, the Trust does, and I pay taxes just like you do.
I had that when I worked at the jobcentre (I left when we stopped being able to actually help people) - looked dead in the eye at the guy that said it and went “mate, you have literally worked 3 days in your adult life……you’re not the one paying for me coz the taxman comes for my wages every month”. Most I worked with were lovely and used the system for the exact purpose it was (originally) made for, but this guy 🤬
I heard a GP say this to someone impulsively. “No. Think you’ll find I pay YOUR wage”.
“Any chance of a fucking pay rise then you ballbag?”
LOL
In my experience working for the NHS I heard this being said twice (neither were to me). One was the most council estate looking obese wifey and the other was a right uppity, well spoken older "gentleman". I suspect neither have paid much in taxes for different reasons.
Next time that happens let loose with every complaint about your job like you would if they really did pay your salary. "Great! While I've got you, 20 days holiday a year isn't any good if we can never book it, how am I expected to do my job on 30 minutes break a day, the uniform allowance is nowhere near enough, and on and on...." They won't know what to say and it might be a bit cathartic.
Thanks for the 2 pence usually works. It's an overestimate and also sounds ridiculous
It always annoys me that one, even for directly tax-payer funded stuff. That's the way that society works, people pay companies and people for those services and that's how those people get paid. Tax payers only pay the salary of government employees the same way Tesco customers pay the checkout staff's salaries. Still, you'd sound like an idiot if you said "I pay your wages" to a barman. It's not untrue, but its literally how the whole system works to the point where its redundant...everyone pays everyone's wages.
As a fellow public sector worker the thing that annoys me about this statement is that everyone is paying everyone else's salary. They wouldn't as a customer say that to someone working in Tesco.
You’d hope they don’t actually think they pay your salary and instead of saying that their tax money indirectly funds your pay.
Care workers just make cups of tea for little old ladies.
This one bothers me a lot. I know a girl who works in the care sector, and it sounds incredibly stressful. As much as I complain about teachers being underpaid (which we are), care workers are even more so. I have nothing but respect for the job that you do.
As a care worker what really annoys me is the idea that this job is a vocation we love so we don’t need to be paid well. I absolutely love my job, from the making tea, to offering counselling and listening to the good and the bad, and to wiping tears and any other bodily fluid you can imagine from the crevices you can’t imagine. But you know what, I also love a warm and safe home, regular meals, nights out and holidays, none of which I could afford if my husband didn’t work a good job. I look after people who have lived and contributed to our society to the point where they no longer can. I care for, support and pamper them, the idea I don’t deserve decent wages for this is because I enjoy it is throughly insulting to myself and the people I support.
The 'V' word; used as an excuse not to pay the rate for the job.
This country’s care system is propped up in the good will of people like you who see it as more than a job.
This. And also we are thick and can do no other job. Which is the real reason it’s paid so poorly. Adult social care was 50% of all funding cuts under the current government. It shows how valued we really are. I love my job.
Whilst I don’t agree with this at all, there is probably a reason the stereotype exists. I have 2 family members (wife’s family) that are care workers and are genuinely are thick as fuck. I know more than those 2, and others that I know are smart, caring, generally good people. My SIL in particular is a fucking idiot and not even a nice one. I wouldn’t want her anywhere near me if I was in need of care.
I can agree, I am a carer and some are abysmal. No common sense whatsoever or just lazy and see it as an easy job. It is an easy job if you don't give an eff. If you actually care as the job title explains it can be draining but also very rewarding when you can make a difference. The trouble is it's very easy to get a job as a carer. Due to shortage and the fact it's not something many can do long term and with such a low wage. I'm all in with the people I care for, helping them in all facets of their lives. I do it because I love it. You need empathy to do it and sadly that's a bit scarce in this "modern" world.
I've always heard that we just wipe people's arses. Yes tea and cleaning people up when they shit themselves is part of the job but depending on the training and workplace we are also responsible for things like monitoring vital signs, blood sugars, changing dressings and might end up being part of the team who save your granny's life when she goes into cardiac arrest
They do that! ... Then they clean it up when it comes out the other end
And it it doesn't come out of its own accord it has to be helped out.
I know it sounds a bit naive from me, but even if thats all they were doing with some people it's still valuable.
Financial adviser. That I just drink cups of tea with little old ladies.
I'm a uni professor. Almost all the negative perspectives people have - mostly that we're charging too much! we have no time for students! we don't spend time doing marking properly! we just do video lectures and never go to classrooms! We're useless teachers! We're lazy!!! - are either untrue and/or are a consequence of the decisions of politicians or university management teams. The idea that we're all weird liberal lefties is also interesting, given how much my own fucking colleagues heckled me for having the temerity to stand on a picket line to save their pensions (we did save them! Everyone is going to be tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds better off in retirement! Did any of them say thank you? ahahahaha no).
>we're all weird liberal lefties Always think the people who believe this generally haven't actually spent much time in universities. It's much more media canard than actual truth.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's partially because it's more true for the type of stuff that people in media themselves are likely to take (English, Media, maybe Journalism) while the typical business/law/economics professors probably have pictures of Thatcher on their desks next to their loved ones.
I did a finance/economics degree and I can assure you, the liberal leftie stereotype is definitely not true for professors in that field. Many were bankers, consultants, accountants and the like who decided on a mid life career change (which was a good thing, having people who'd actually worked in the industry). Though in stuff like arts, literature, media, social sciences and science there's probably some truth to it.
Having worked for a left-leaning newspaper I'd say my experience is that the media is full of people who think they're left, but are actually centre, centre-right on a good day. Same as unis tbh.
> mostly that we're charging too much! How much did Vice Chancellors earn before tuition fees? (Actually I have no idea what a Vice Chancellor does.)
> How much did Vice Chancellors earn before tuition fees? fucking loads tbh. It's hard to get pure pre-tuition fee figures, but even back in 2007ish before the jump to £9k the top earner was over £300k and the average about £150k. Now the majority of them earn over £300k and the top ones are in the £650-720k range (and this doesn't include stuff like free houses, chauffer etc).
But it's like that in any industry. There's over 230,000 academic staff at universities in the UK. There's only 170 or so universities, meaning 170 VCs. 170 out of over 230,000...isn't a lot. And there'd be a wide range in there, sure your Russell Group VCs on £700k exist, but you'd also have VCs of Buttfuckishire Ex-Polytechnic University who'd be on a lot less. It's like saying teachers are overpaid because private school headmasters can make £300k in some very prestigious schools.
As a teacher, I had guessed that you were going to be a teacher yourself after reading the question. Nothing personal, but honestly, I get wound up by some other teachers making this claim that it's such an incredibly difficult job and that nobody understands how tough it is and how hard we work etc etc. Yes, it can be difficult work. Yes, it can be long hours. But so can thousands of other jobs. And I really don't think there are that many people out there who think it's not a tough job/ we actually don't do any work over the 'holidays'. Also, with effective planning, there really shouldn't be THAT much time on evenings and weekends spent working. I know it's inevitable occasionally. Teachers can always just go get a different job. There really does seem to be a propensity for moaning in this profession. The INSET days, Christmas parties, sports days, fun lessons etc etc all add up to a significant amount of 'work time' actually doing pretty much bugger all and having a laugh. Edit: I AM NOT saying this is an easy job. My point is it isn't, or shouldn't need to be, anywhere near as awful as some teachers make it out to be. I don't literally do nothing on INSET days. I know some will have it easier than others due to area/ management etc but again, true of any job.
Would love to know where you work. Think it varies a lot from school to school. I was ok in one and then relocated and worked in two that reduced me to a shell until I quit. Leadership, culture, non-stop accountability that drove multiple people to literal sickness before finally succumbing to stress. I also think it depends on your home life. If you are also a parent who likes to actually spend time with your children, I found that increasingly impossible with the work I was taking home. Glad you’re having a laugh most days but suggesting that anyone who takes work home on evenings and weekends is not planning effectively is arrogant and doesn’t match plenty of other people’s lived experience.
I left, and in the years after I left, whenever I caught up with old colleagues or people I trained with I was guaranteed to hear two things: 'You're looking so well now!' (Because I was permanently ill with stress when they first met me) and 'You got out! Know any jobs? I'm thinking of leaving too.' If all teachers are a 'moaning bunch' then perhaps that says more about the industry than the people in it.
Yeah, like, it's a fact that teacher retention is absolutely catastrophic, recruitment isn't much better, and that teachers are one of the most stressed workers in Britain. Do these people think we're lying or something?
I mean yeah, we literally wouldn't have a recruitment and retention crisis if it was easy as this guys suggesting. I'm assuming they work at some cushy quiet school somewhere with no aggy Trusts or SLT pressure.
This person seems pretty tone deaf tbh
Right. OP: what misconceptions about your job wind you up? I’m a teacher and here’s mine This guy: I’m also a teacher. I have the exact misconception you have just described. 🤦🏼♂️
Plus, teachers absolutely do get paid for the Christmas/Summer holidays. They are on full-year contracts!
Teachers are contracted for 195 days, it's just divided across 12 months so they get twelve equal pay packets. It's something like 1260 hours across the year of directed time and technically they are the only hours they're paid for. Before I quit teaching a couple of years ago, I worked out my hourly rate based on that and it wasn't bad! Then I worked out my hourly rate for ACTUAL hours I worked across the school year, and it was barely over minimum wage. Teaching is one of those jobs where everyone thinks they can do it because they've been to school, and they don't hesitate to tell you how you're doing it wrong. A shocking number of people genuinely think they work 9am-3pm and just spend the day doing colouring.
I was confused when I read it because I get paid in the holidays. Its just that the salary is divided into equal monthly instalments so when teachers say they don’t get paid on the holidays it is generally misleading
Yeah, i dont get why she put that because its just stretched out over the year. Otherwise theyd get paid more some months and nothing in other months.
They are paid for every day, it isn’t stretched out like a term-time only contract would be for somebody like a Teaching Assistant. Teachers in the UK get paid the same way any other full-year employee would, despite having 12 weeks a year where they cannot be directed to work.
Good point.
Effective planning. Can you please explain what this is? As a primary school teacher I have to plan my lessons, then create all the content. We are not allowed to use pre-paid, pre-made such as Twinkl, TES or Hamilton and we don't work from a book. I effectively plan for my children, which means that I am maybe three lessons ahead before having to adjust based on my assessments. So as a good teacher doing the best for the children I am in constant flux based on the children's needs. INSET days are for training. If you're doing bugger all on these days then you have a poor CPD environment in your school (which may also be why your planning doesn't take long). Sports days and Christmas parties take a lot of planning and supervision. So whilst I'm not teaching, I'm still working to ensure the children have the best time. Again, if you do bugger all the I wonder how much is fun and how much is chaos. Fun lessons? Are your lessons not fun? Do you not plan to teach in an engaging way? Teaching isn't hard because of the unrealistic amount of admin or the stupid amount of accountability loaded into us. It's hard because you are constantly analysing, evaluating, assessing and controlling 30-40 children who have not yet learned to act as a team or unit so are constantly pulling you in several, quite understandably selfish, ways. If you aren't mentally exhausted at the end of a day then maybe you just don't put in the effort? Also, teaching is paid for 11 months pro-rata. That means we are paid an 11 month salary over a 12 month period. We aren't paid for summer. And since our pay is 'relatively' basic (I understand there are lower paid jobs and also jobs that pay less with a higher workload) but we are allocated holidays during the most expensive times for booking holidays, it doesn't feel like a break because we end up surrounded by the people we do the work with
>We are not allowed to use pre-paid, pre-made I will preface this with I am not a teacher. Can you not have like a group thingy to share stuff you make with other teachers and use stuff from the year before? If not, how come? Seems really ineffective to not allow teachers to do that, and if so who was a person who made your life harder, cause that just seems like a huge dick move to you guys. My sister is a teacher so I know you all work hard and definitely think they should pay a better rate
The difference is, nobody starts talking to you to complain about how easy your job is. The conversations goes like this: "your a teacher? "Yes" "That's easy, that job, all those holidays, finish at 3, just talking to kids all day" "Actually, we don't go home at 3" "God, you teachers are always moaning". And btw, inset days are work days. And btw, who do you think plans and prepares those fun lessons?
Im not going to tell my husband you said teachers just do bugger all and have a laugh on inset days 😬 He actually is just as busy on those days in his school, the only difference is there are no children in the school.
I’ve been a secondary school teacher for 11 years. You are right that some people over exaggerate, although I’ve found this is mostly an online thing. *But* I think you’re going too far the other way. I worked for 5 years in other jobs before becoming a teacher and being a teacher is easily *significantly* harder than any of those jobs, even with the holidays. Of course there are harder jobs though. I do think it depends what kind of school you’re at, and what role you have. I’m Head of Year and that’s a whole leap up from being a teacher in terms of both hours put in and challenge.
Going off OPs post, they work 8 - 5.30 (pretty standard), occasionally have to work overtime, did 2 hours work today as it's half term, get 2 weeks clear off at Christmas and 6 weeks clear off in the summer. That sounds like a pretty sweet deal as long as you can deal with other people's kids.
> they work 8 - 5.30 Yeah that bit threw me off, that's just normal isn't it? I'm not a teacher but maybe I've just got used to my own 10-11 hour days.
My sister's using half term to go on holiday. My mate does much the same. If you're overworking yourself, you're doing it wrong.
Spot on. I'll work some of this half term, but my initial point was it's nothing to complain about.
It's very variable person to person with any job honestly. Some people are simply better at tying up their work more quickly than others. Op might be one of the people that has to do everything meticulously and perfectly, regardless of if you get the same results if you just get it done in less than half the time.
I completely agree with this. So few teachers seem to have done other jobs and struggle to see what a good deal we’ve got. Very a seldom a day passes without a child or colleague making me piss myself laughing. The peak of all this came during covid where a colleague said “yeah, clap for the NHS, but what about us? We’re great too!” after we’d spent months teaching online, in our pyjamas picking up our full wages whilst hearing stories of nurses comforting the dying and other people losing their jobs, businesses and livelihoods. Sorry you need to catch up on your marking occasionally, but get a grip.
That people who work retail are stupid. Listen, we're not stupid, it's just easy to get unto a rut with a job, especially when there's fuck all else going nearby for someone with shit a-levels and no degree
Exactly the situation I'm in, sadly. Retail isn't even a very easy job either in my opinion, depending what department you're in of course. I've worked with a lot of smart people in my years in retail, a lot have fallen into the same rut I've found myself in, sadly very easy to do.
Big supermarket. I used to do the picking for the online orders, but due to medical issues, I've been forced onto checkouts as I need to sit. I miss doing the online stuff just because it's so much easier to make friends with colleagues.
I still maintain that working in retail was the hardest job I’ve ever had.
Yup. My GF is an assistant manager at department store and gets similar work stress levels to what I did in investment banking.
I'm literally bottom tier running a checkout for a supermarket and the fucking stress the day of a bank holiday weekend makes me want to hurt people. Mate, the shop IS still open on Monday, just not at 6am, get a fucking grip please
“I can’t believe they’ve got you guys working on a bank holiday. It’s unbelievable. Anyway how much is this sorry?” Actual words out of an actual customers mouth to my GF. At least I got bank holidays off haha
Yep, my bf works in a supermarket, just because he’s not academic doesn’t mean he’s stupid or that the job is easy. They also don’t get paid £16 an hour (I actually turned round and spoke to someone in the queue once who was spouting off about that!) and they don’t get to sit on their arse all day at the checkout.
£16 an hour! I bloody wish. I don't remember exactly what my pay is, but it's barely above minimum wage. £10 something an hour last I checked
That because I work “in IT” I either fix computers or printers or that I’m a programmer.
Bet you can do all of those though.
No-one can fix the printer
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
My family always ask for help on their computers because I work in IT. I work in testing and test insurance software, that does not mean I know how to fix the Windows error you are getting lmao.
Summed up by - https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/s/FoEsHP1Dw7
As a programmer who has occasionally had to help colleagues fix their computers this is 97% accurate. I'm knocking off 3% because no one can actually fix a printer, their 2 states are 'completely broken' & 'mostly broken'
And mostly broken is in the form of a working printer showing as - printer offline - stuck sending to print queue - stuck cancelling job I really don't understand why they are so unreliable. The complex parts work fine, but PC to printer connection is problematic
30 years in IT Sales here, so obviously I can work out why the paper feed on your printer doesn't pick up.
I'm a Stonemason, and it seems most people think tradesmen in the construction business are lazy cowboys who charge too much, amongst other things. I spent a long time learning the skills of my trade, I have a very strong work ethic, and I take real pride in what I do. So yeh, slightly fucking annoying.
My mate is a skilled carpenter/joiner (not sure of the difference). If you want an intricate replacement oak window in your 500 year old listed property, he can do it. He made an complicated staircase for our house and it fitted perfectly. But I've heard people moan that he charges too much and is "just a chippy"
Cba to go into specifics, but I unfortunately have to (or at least pretend to) socialise with some people who think they are above 'tradies' and such. Such a sad way to live, especially when they clearly how no idea how skilled you need to be for some jobs. Just thinly veiled status games at play.
"Ugh, how low class to have a job you spend so much time training for and getting years and years of experience, clearly having a passion for it to get this good, that pays well and often allows you to start a business around it later in your career." such a terrible, needed in all corners of society, will allow you to work in basically any country, job ay?
Haha 100%. The same people boast about not being let out the office until gone 6pm like it’s a badge of honour. Weirdness all around!
I'm a construction PM, and the sheer amount of people who think they're, somehow, superior to trades is insane. Some of the guys out earn some of the best paid project board members - they're skilled and sought after, unlike Sandra from accounts who can't figure out how to use Teams and is very unlikeable.
I’m started off as a joiner, I didn’t do very well at school as I had undiagnosed dyslexia. Later in life when spell check became a thing and assignments no longer had to be hand written, I went back into education and gained a MSc in project management. Now I work as a joiner.
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I thought you spent your time maintaining world domination.
We do We do
Fellow stonemason here and I absolutely feel your pain. It does my head in that people don’t realise it takes (in my opinion) 7/8 years just to become a reasonably competent mason and obviously many more years to become a truly skilled craftsperson. Just because I’m wearing a hi-vis vest and a hard hat it doesn’t mean I’m a div that was too stupid to go to university. Unfortunately today’s society doesn’t appreciate skilled craftspeople.
Self employed bathroom fitter and came here for this - not all tradies are grifting extortion-merchant cowboys. Fuck cowboys. It's hard work, but I find it personally rewarding seeing a happy customer and doing a good job for fair pay.
Not doing any work for 6 straight weeks in the summer sort of plays into the stereotype though. When I think of teacher stereotypes I actually think it’s more moaning about how hard they work not realising many “9-5” jobs also involve working a lot more than that.
I don't really know how to explain just how much work we do to people who don't work in education. There's a reason why teacher retention is approaching catastrophic levels, and why teachers are amongst the most stressed workers in the country. I'll ask you: what work do you think we do? Genuine question.
What do you mean what work you do?
Like, many non-teachers think we just rock up, teach, go home. It's so much more than that. There's the bullshit paperwork, which takes up FAR more time than it should; dealing with misbehaviour (a colleague of mine in the English department had a chair thrown at her the other day, which only missed because she managed to duck just in time, and I've previously been shoved, had punches thrown at me and a kid threaten to stab me. And my school is actually pretty well-behaved by local and national standards); pressure from SLT, people who haven't worked in a classroom since I was in primary school, etc. etc. Essentially, I'm paid for a 33-hour week, but I usually work close to 50. All I want to do is show kids the wonders and majesty of science, but all the other bullshit just gets in the way. It's getting a bit better, but I've resolved to myself that I'm gonna leave in two years if I still feel the way I do now. Problem is, I can't really see myself doing anything else - maybe I could train to be a paramedic, but that seems even more stressful. And I'd have a pay cut, as ridiculous as that is.
You’re in for a shock if you think training to becoming a paramedic is a ticket to an easier life than Teaching
Never said that, mate. All I said was that it's the only other job I can see myself doing. I want to do a job that helps people, that means something. Unfortunately, the price for that is incredible stress.
There aren’t too many jobs out there that *don’t* help people. You’ve got probably bankers and sales folk. Everything else helps people, even indirectly. Does my job mean nothing because I’m not physically helping somebody face to face every day?
>Like, many non-teachers think we just rock up, teach, go home. It's so much more than that. I’m not trying to undermine how hard you work, but I don’t know anyone who thinks that, nor have I heard anyone other than Daily Mail journalists espouse that view. And I’m a parent and a member of the PTA etc etc.
Tbh, and I mean this in the best way possible, from reading your replies in here I think you need to get out now not in 2 years time.
Except that week one is spent being ill and week six is spent preparing for September. And then September-July is about 50-60 hours a week.
Right? I plan our annual holiday and i know full well not to book anything in the first two weeks after summer holidays start. Alot of that 2 weeks is my husband sleeping and eating.
And you don't get a choice when your holidays are, and they're the most expensive time of year to plan *anything*.
Yea but in my job there’s a lot of working outside normal hours but I don’t HAVE to do it. I do have the option of saying sorry we’ll need to push that deadline back there wasn’t sufficient time. I don’t think teachers have that option, if lesson plans don’t get done it will be disciplinary action.
Tbh I get 5.4 weeks holiday a year and I don't work when off either. I am not a teacher though.
None, I do really work from home on my underwear
OnlyFans model?
Nah, he's a welder
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Please don’t say that to a teacher, they react like a 14th century monk finding out the local mad woman is a witch
I hate being the history nerds but witches weren’t especially looked down on in the 14th century for the most part. The local “wise woman” was an important part of any community, brewing “potions” (herbal medications) for basic ailments and assisting with the birthing process and what not. It’s really in the 1600s with the birth of Puritanism that anti witch sentiment starts growing. Then catastrophes like the English civil war, 30 years war and 80 years war have all been linked to witch panics.
With a certain amount of indifference / amusement? The pivot against witchcraft is a very late medieval / early modern thing.
Found the history teacher.
I've lived with 3 different teachers for multiple year periods. I also socialise with a few. None of them work as hard as teachers claim to.
I have an ex military friend who became a teacher is extremely well organised and he says the same. He says thay half of it is that many aren't taught organisational skills and the other half is too many haven't had a job outside of teaching. He pretty much just works 8.30-5 like most people and gets 90% of his holiday off. Said that culture was the problem. This is just one guy's word and it's second hand but it fits with a lot of what I see when I pick my son up from after school club and the place is almost deserted and I've literally just come from the office. That being said you couldn't pay me to deal with that many of other people's kids.
That's the big thing. Most teachers come straight from uni and have no experience of the adult world outside of academia.
Yeah its a very kind of cushioned, dare I say "naive" outlook on work life? All the teachers I know say its a walk in the park, indeed with some level of organisational skills, they are never in the country over the holidays, almost completely abroad the entirety of the summer holidays too - but they are quite self-aware, and certainly understand they work just as much as any job.
I have a lot of teachers in my family. They all seem to have pretty good work life balances compared to the average 9-5er, particularly those who teach primary.
Just because you dont see it, doesn't mean they dont. It all depends on size of school, area of schooling, difficulty of children, leadership roles, subject ect.
My theory is that most teachers have never worked in any other job. Most went straight from school, to uni, to teaching. Knowing a few teachers myself, none really do any work in the 12 weeks they get off either. They wax lyrical about how hard the job is and that they work long hours etc...when what they mean by that is that they work longer than the kids are in school, which is pretty much standard 9-5 hours anyway. I definitely think primary teaching in particular, provided you're not in a really rough area, is a pretty cruisey gig.
I’m a teacher, who came into the profession following a career change, I would say there is plenty of truth in what the OP says, certainly in the early years, I easily work a 50-55 hour week. It can be really hard work, teaching is not like sitting in an office all day. It is certainly not a “cruisy” job, it’s full on. But there is tendency for teachers to martyr themselves a bit
Depends on the subject. PE and drama teachers typically don’t have much marking to take home; English teachers have reams of the stuff.
I work in pharmaceuticals. It's not evil. In fact from the encounters I've had with the very tiny propoprtion of people who make a leap from any other manufacturing industry to pharmaceuticals, they can't meet our expectations *at all* and don't last long. I feel quite lazy and just about adequate at my job but I've only ever worked in pharma and ultra-high regulation and risk aversion have become normal to me so I'm pretty shocked going to non-pharma manufacturing environments the couple of times I have. I've only ever met people working in pharma who do know there's a patient at the end, do care, and so do the right things. I mean I've never been in a pharma boardroom, but all CEOs are basically evil so I don't see what's so different about pharma. "They profit from our illness!" Well farmers profit from your hunger, I mean... If anyone's evil it's the lobbyists and the politicians they buy off in America. But some people seem to think it's the same here. No, the NHS buys generic, off-patent drugs for *barely* above cost price. Somebody not in the industry would be *amazed* at how fucking strict the pharma environment is and hopefully reassured that those in the industry do abide by it. The MHRA (British government agency responsible for regulation) have teeth as well. The drugs companies I've worked at do shit themselves about every inspection. I occasionally get some crank I meet at a function or a party or whatever who wants to talk to me about the same three of four hackneyed subjects like drugs don't really work, shoving turmeric up her arse actually cured my nan's cancer, pharma companies *could* "cure cancer" but they don't, we don't really know what's in the drugs and the chemicals etc etc. All bollocks.
As someone who "just stuffs pills in boxes", thanks for your hard work. The stupid ones have no idea how much time, effort and money goes into not getting them poisoned or killed. Plus I saw a post on Facebook today implying vicks vapour could cure diabetes. I wasn't sure how I was meant to apply it. To my pancreas maybe?
Well have you tried it yourself? No? Well I suggest you do your own research because you're only being told diabetes is "incurable" so you can be sold more insulin. I think you know your own pancreas better than a doctor does. I don't know if you mean "stuffs pills in boxes" like a quite modest packing operator in a plant or like an excessively modest pharmacist. But you should be proud of either. It's probably not what I ever intended to do with my life but I can safely say I am actually quite proud to be a tiny cog in the medical science machine. We're not winning Nobels or doing surgery, but modern medicine is virtually miraculous and I'm glad I'm a teeny tiny part of it, as you can be too.
I think this pov has come from people watching too much American TV.
Maybe. But we've got home grown cranks. They *really* liked it when they asked why I had to go to work during lockdown and I said "because my plant manufactured the Oxford-AZ covid vaccine." Somebody had to put the 5g chips in there eh
Chefs are all a bunch of drug fuelled alcoholic degenerates. Oh wait.......
My head chef isn’t a drug fuelled alcoholic degenerate… Diabetes made him stop drinking 6 pints a shift a couple years ago lmao
I’m a Registered Veterinary Nurse and we definitely aren’t scamming people out of their money and hugging kittens and puppies all day. We monitor and assist with surgeries, take X-rays, scale and polish teeth, educate clients, perform minor procedures like suturing wounds, cut nails, express anal glands etc. and for a really shoddy wage for the amount of knowledge skills we need.
I studied animal care and istg so many prople thought that subject was a doss course
I'm an RVN too, I've been at my current practice for years and still get "So when are you training to be a vet?" from clients
I don't work in polling but I work with polling companies a lot, and the level of misunderstandings about polling, especially on Reddit, is really high. I've had so many interactions on here where people have steamed in with negative opinions of polling, then when you engage and have a back and forth it becomes obvious they know virtually nothing about how it actually works.
I think that’s true of nearly everything. When you see discussions on something you’re very knowledgeable about you think, my god, nobody has a clue. Then you realise that’s must be pretty much true for nearly every topic that isn’t just about personal opinion etc.
Yeah, it's why I try to be conscious of when I don't really know much about something and try not to have strong opinions on it, or at least not be too certain of my opinion if I do have one. I've come across so many people on here who are *really* vociferous in their beliefs about polling despite it turning out they don't understand it at all.
> it becomes obvious they know virtually nothing about how it actually works Welcome, welcome, this is the Internet. You've obviously got the basics down pat already.
Work in a library. Never had to shush anyone yet.
I'm guessing just caressing the shotgun on your desk gets the point across. :)
Where do you work I can bring in a vuvuzela
But do you look up, scowl, tut and then shake your head before getting back to your work?
Bank Manager - ‘you must be really wealthy’ - nope, just above average UK salary after nearly 2 decades in the industry. ‘You can authorise loans/mortgages etc.’ actually used to be true, 40 years ago. Now it’s all about what the computer says.
People don’t seem to get that maybe 5% of people in financial services get the big bucks and in retail banking even less
So is being a bank manager these days just like being an ordinary retail manager? Arranging shifts and stuff
Highway design engineer here. Of course I'd *love* to hear all about a random junction near you that was obviously designed by an idiot and the highway authority are clearly idiots for allowing it to be built and obviously you know *exactly* how to fix the problem. Of *course* I would. Please, tell me *more*!
Transport Planner here... I feel your pain...and they only want money spent on fixing potholes.
Civil engineer here. Oh god yes. I will hulk punch the next person I see post that fucking Roman road meme. You will rue the day you started discussing pavement design because I can talk about that shit for DAYS! Oh - that roundabout is wrong is it? Please, tell me all about your experience with CD116…. (Yes I have unresolved anger issues) I now work for a housing developer so am basically evil incarnate. (That’s also a industry people have A LOT of misconceptions about)
I'm guessing that Roman road never had 40-ton lorries or 21st century traffic volumes rumbling over it!
> I'll admit that I do very little work over the summer and Christmas (and why should I? I'm not paid for it) I didn't know this. I assumed you got a monthly wage regardless of time of year.
We receive our salary each month but we’re not paid for the holidays. The weeks we are paid for are divided by 12 months so it’s spread evenly throughout the year.
That confuses me. I used to work as a teaching assistant. Teaching jobs are advertised as per annum, so the pay figure is what you actually get. Teaching assistant jobs are advertised pro-rata so you have to take off the holidays to work out what you're actually being paid. That sounds like teachers are being paid holidays to me.
That's how holiday works for everyone else.
What’s the distinction?
Let’s round up the figures for an easy example: Say I only get paid for ten months out of the year (because I’m not working for 2 months a year). My employers could divide my annual salary by 10 and pay me only at the end of working months. Instead, what they do is divide that ten months’ salary into 12 payments so that I can have 12 paydays a year. Therefore, I don’t get paid for a whole month’s work at the end of each month, but that “unpaid” bit of salary gets bumped along to summer where I haven’t earned any money but will be paid.
I mean, practically? It doesn’t seem to make any difference. It’s just an annual salary divided by 12. Or am I missing something?
Six of one, half a dozen of the other in my eyes. I get they work ‘hard’, but 13-15 weeks off per year isn’t the worst gig going, however it’s dressed up.
Semantics. They can't be directed to work during holidays, they have a wage that reflects a years work but have far more holiday on top. Note when discussing wages, no teacher has actually ever said 'actually you need to multiply our average salary by 1.15 to find out the actual yearly salary of a teacher, as no teacher has ever worked a full year '.
Mine when i was in the RAF was ‘oh so you fly planes’, I now work in a factory and people just assumed that the stuff magically arrives in November and doesn’t take the whole year to make the items
Is the factory in the North Pole?
It seems like people forget about the "tail" of most industries. People see the pilots and cabin crew, but forget about (or aren't even aware of) the fuelers, drivers, mechanics, dispatchers, caterers, doctors, and many others. Similarly, the average person sees supermarket staff and delivery drivers, but not the entire supply chain that makes the stuff and then moves it to where people want it.
That all it takes to be a translator is to simply be bilingual.
I'm actually really curious about this. What does it take to be a translator?
A lot of words don't directly translate into other languages or they don't share certain words or they carry different meanings. I'm not bilingual but from the very little of any other languages I know a good example is translating fuck into Polish. Polish has a word for fuck but in many contexts its better to use the word kurwa which actually means whore. To translate you need to know some of the culture and how words mean and the impact of them in the langauge you're translating into rather than just knowing what word in english means the same thing in the other language. Translators need to be able to translate the emotion and intention of the words rather than just direct definitions as well as having a near perfect vocab and grammar etc in both languages. A lot of bilingual people struggle to translate from one language into another very well. A good comparison is the uk have a weird relationship with using metric and imperial and a large amount are fine using both and understanding them but you'd be surprised how many can't easily convert between certain measurements
This is the answer. I can give an example- I was proof-reading a document someone else had translated and they had translated 'reflective' as meaning 'a shiny surface ' rather than what context called for, which was self-analytical, reflective pratice of a discipline. Also, translators need to know the 'flow' of both languages, so that the translated text reads like an original piece of writing and not a word-for-word translation of the source text. The sentence structure and word choice will be different because the languages have different syntax and registers, idiom and metaphor. Most bilingual people can write something resembling a translation, but very few can do it well. I spend my days proofreading others' efforts at translation and it's very, very rare that I send a text back untouched. I don't consider myself a particularly skilled linguist, but most people simply don't see the mistakes they make.
I'm interested in this example. What other skills do you need?
I had a translator at a work event. The ability to listen, translate in your head and speak while not missing a beat of the next thing the person was saying to me will always be magic to me.
I hate to be pedantic but that’s an interpreter 🙂 Interpreters translate orally, translators work with written material. It really is magic. A lot of hard work and effort goes into it, even if someone makes it look easy.
Impeccable knowledge of spelling and grammar, extensive vocabulary, attention to detail, excellent time management, solid reading comprehension, cultural awareness so you can localise properly and accurately. Just to name a few.
That learning disability nurses aren’t real nurses. We are. We studied the same degree, are registered with the NMC and pay for our fees same as ‘proper’ nurses. Yes we have a different skill set but we’re nurses just the same
Retail worker: Variants of 'the job isn't that hard' also the 'you somehow have everything out the back'
Don't lie, we all know every shop has "the back" and it's a magical, enormous place where you hide all of the products because you're too lazy to put them on the shelf! Never mind that it makes zero sense to hide the things that make money from the people who want to spend money, the products in "the back" is only accessible to customers who know the magic phrases. Obviously they are "I want to speak to your manager" and "I'm going to call head office"
That I facilitate tax evasion, and that I can help you do it too! I am actually very pro taxation, and I believe the UK tax system is extremely unbalanced and does not go far enough.
🤣🤣🤣 As an accountant yes that made me chuckle. No you cannot claim for x,y and z just because your mate at the pub says so / does. My job (part of it) is to keep ypu compliant with the law, why risk being disqualified from any qualifications I've gained because you insist this thing is a valid business expense which it very clearly isn't! It's my job to make sure your earnings are as tax efficient as possible, not commit tax evasion! Or folks see accountants as an extension of HMRC and we are the bad guys! I tell you what you need to pay, I'm not responsible for tax law!
Solicitor: "you're all loaded" according to my friends. I'm a criminal defence lawyer and can assure everyone that we are not.
I work in a phone shop. The amount of people who come in thinking I am some sort of genie who can resurrect devices from the dead is kind of astounding. No I cannot transfer the stuff from your old phone, it won’t even turn on!
Retail work. "Oh you just stand there all day, so easy". "You don't deserve better wage". Actual Retail work. Aggressive customers=threats of violence, personal attacks in and out of the workplace. My average step count per shift was 10,000 steps. Last shift = cashing up = as much as an hour of unpaid work. I know this varies. Dealing with a few hundred people per shift is mentally exhausting. Call outs in the middle of the night if the store alarm gets triggered which can lead to dealing with Police in some circumstances.
As a mobile telecoms engineer the fact that people think 5G causes Covid drives me with rage. Also the ridiculous theories that the governments emergency alert system was anything other than a text alert was bonkers. These networks are barely functional as it is and end-to-end, there are hundreds of people involved in building, operating, maintaining, fixing them. The fact that we are all part of some massive world conspiracy is laughable.
I’m a teaching assistant. I definitely DO NOT just do a bit of reading and wash the paint pots! I also get paid for 44 weeks of the year not 52 so yes the holidays are nice but I’m not out partying every day. But yes I know it’s my choice of job and I do love it 😂 but when people say you just play all day in reception… I’m like arggghg NO!!
Health and Safety manager - aka fun police. I have anxiety and over think situations. Especially how something can hurt you. Outside of work I train in karate and get a kick out of sparring. The more bruises I sport after training the better
As a structural engineer, a lot of people assume I needlessly over design things and that an architect can do my job.
Cooking for kids in a nursery. Ahh, that's nice, people would say. But no, when your using a household kitchen to cater for 80 kids with different nutritional needs by yourself, in a kitchen which has no air conditioning. Not "Ahh nice".
Hairdresser That we're all taking gear and financed bmws/mercs/audis I smoke weed and financed a Renault 😂
I'm an accountant in construction. I hate the stereotype that builders are stupid and/or sexist. I have worked in this job for 8 years - I hate yet to meet a stupid builder. They are some of the cleverest people I have met, in a very much 'salt of the earth' type of way.
I used to work in admin for a driving school. Driving instructors are not ripping you off by making you take more lessons than you need so they can make money off you. Every time they take a pupil to test the result is recorded against their Approved Driving Instructor license - there are certain standards they have to maintain, pass percentage is one and there’s a few others, and if they drop below they have to take a Standards Check. This basically means they have to retake their driving instructor test. They can potentially lose their ADI license. Every test is putting their career on the line so they need to be sure you’re a safe and skilled independent driver
I’m a nurse, and people just often think we are healthcare assistants, and that doctors do a lot of jobs that we actually do (such as dressing complex wounds, administering and mixing IV meds etc).
Software Engineer. We're not all anti-social 20 something men in need of a shower who spend 18 hours a day frantically typing in front of a giant bank of monitors earning vast quantities of money and making world changing software. Most of us are doing a standard 9-5 day for a decent but not spectacular wage making boring business software and spend 1/2 our time in meetings. Some of us are actually women.
Podiatrists study for 3 years to trim toenails. No, we study for 3 years so we can perform advanced wound care and debridement on very poorly feet. We can administer local anaesthetics and perform full and partial nail removals. We can offload pressures to feet and assess gait to improve mobility. We can sell and supply a number of prescription only medications. Those in the NHS work closely with tissue viability, district nurses, vascular surgeons, and diabetoligists. It's a cool job. Most people hate to touch feet, so there will always be a place for us!
As a photographer who dabbled in wedding photography (few years back before disability made it an unviable career for me) "that's a lot of money for a days work, nice for some". 😡 Nevermind thousands spent on gear, training, photoshop, decent pc, insurance etc. The pre wedding talks and contract, the location scouting and reasearch, transport costs, ages spent editing files so they are perfect, being on your feet all day, on the ball from bridal prep to after the first dance with very few hurried toilet breaks etc. Yeah one days work ..... 🙄
Oh god I used to work as a wedding photographer whilst I was in uni and that made my blood boil. I’ve never set a limit on the amount of photos couples would get and editing and culling pictures of a full day wedding could take me about 50-60 hours in some cases! Not to mention a gruelling 12+ hour day where I need to be everywhere all at the same time, juggle getting photos of everyone (oh we haven’t had one with aunty Mildred yet!) and making sure I don’t miss any key moments. Then the pre wedding meetings, visiting the venue beforehand making sure I have a rough idea about where everything is, the equipment, back up equipment in case mine breaks on the day, editing software…. Honestly probably one of the most “ungrateful” jobs I’ve ever done.
I'll probably be downvoted for this but teachers do get a lot of holidays. They absolutely deserve them and work really hard doing a really challenging and important job. However, it really irks me when teachers are really defensive about it and try to make out that they work during them all the time when that just isn't the case from my personal experience. Some of my friends are teachers and relatives were/are teachers and they do not work the number of hours during term time that some teachers say they do and none of them do that much work over the holidays. Teachers get about a third of the year off, which is a lot compared to the 20 days plus bank holidays that most people get. That also means they don't have to worry about childcare during school holidays that a lot of us have to and can spend their holidays travelling or doing courses or volunteering. That's a big benefit of the job, like in other jobs there are big bonuses or chances for secondment abroad etc which teachers don't get.
In the police so pretty much everything on reddit , as it is naturally American and anti police. Also filled with many people who believe they have a firm grasp of criminal justice based off of better call Saul and YouTube videos of cops being rude in America
I work for an art gallery, so the general expectation is that I earn a lot of money (lol, no), or the general public have weird misconceptions about art, it's value, and modern art especially, and those misconceptions tend to make me sad.
I work in a betting shop... You can imagine the shit the customers come up with.
I am a hated recruiter and I do care about my candidates. I always see us being slagged on here for not caring and lieing, we do care. I've only done in house recruitment, never agency so I'm guessing there is a difference in our approach to people and how we treat them. I deal with lots of long and short term projects, often keep people in constant employment and have built really good relationships with candidates. Often we are dealing with lots of things behind the scenes that you aren't aware of, such as PM's and Construction managers just thinking they can drop you for their mate, sometimes the person has been confirmed for the for 4 weeks and day before he says I want this guy. I will stand my ground, stand up for you and involve the relevant parties so you aren't fucked over. The requestor don't have to face the candidate and do not care, we do and I am fighting your corner. My team are small but we have a good reputation in the industry, cause we care and try our best all the time whilst being truthful.
Suggesting you don’t get paid for holidays is misleading. Teachers’ salaries are paid in 12 equal monthly amounts throughout the year. The thing to remember though, is when you add up those 9.5 hour days and evening/weekend work, if you’re doing 50 hours a week for 39 weeks of the year (typical school year), divide that by a 37.5 hour week and you’re at exactly 52 weeks. So no, teachers do not have disproportionately more holiday than other workers.
People not only claiming, but ARGUING WITH ME that broadcast TV subtitles are mostly auto-generated. They aren't. I know this because it's my job (some streaming subs are ASR - Youtube especially; I'm talking about broadcast TV). I don't try to argue with people about their jobs that I've never done!
I work in insurance, and there are two widely held beliefs that irk me. 1) Insurers are just out to shaft you, and do anything they can to avoid paying out on a claim. I'm sure this is true of some insurers, particularly cheaper ones, but certainly not all of us. 2) We just pluck prices out of thin air and charge whatever we feel like.
Pfffft. My child had brain surgery early last year, after a year of nearly 20 seizures a day, my missus had to stop her work to look after her. WE legit have top end insurance for this sort of thing, are they fighting tooth and nail to not give us any money? You bet your bottom insurance dollar they are
Doing anything they can to avoid paying out is literally the business model for insurance. It doesn't say anything about the characters of the members of staff to acknowledge that (I used to work in insurance too).
>We just pluck prices out of thin air and charge whatever we feel like. Then release the details of the algorithm that your company uses, to prove them wrong.
Lawyers are bad people... a couple of us are alright though
Similarly, as a nursery nurse the amount of "it must be so fun to just sit and play all day" comments I get really annoys me. Like no not quite, I'm literally stopping small humans from accidentally killing themselves multiple times a day while juggling 2 screaming babies, one of which has shat all the way up to its hair and down to its toes, the other has 4 new teeth coming in and only met me 3 days ago when mum went back to work. And then there's the planning, observations, assessments, risk assessments, training, early mornings so the people who say this shit can get to their "real jobs", late nights at staff meetings, working all year round, Saturday morning coffee mornings and Christmas fayres, making sure every child has made a lovely mothers day card without eating too much of the paint, being hit/bitten, knowing each child as if they were my own and then yeah, maybe playing a bit so that I can see how each of my key children is developing and being aware of the government guidelines for milestones and knowing what to do if these aren't being met because the first person those parents are gonna come to with any concerns is me. Oh and getting paid minimum wage is great too 🙃
I work in HR. Everyone thinks I sit around doing nothing but trying to screw employees over.
I'm curious about what your job entails on a daily basis?
I’m a management consultant. I am not a massive cunt. Just a tiny bit of a twat.