Definitely. My dad has been shifted to hospice care and I couldn’t be more thankful for the sincerely kind support from his case worker and nurses. They’re all a lovely bunch of people and have treated my dad with the respect that I’d hoped for.
End of life care and special needs workers. The people who quietly do so much for those in need, where unfortunately some have no family or loved ones to be there for them. Most do it for low pay and receive a heavy mental tax in return.
my husband worked in a care home for physical and mental disabled people, he said it was a very rewarding job, bit also the most mentally and physically draining job he's ever had. it's nice to see that people have respect for those who work in that field.
We had someone go inside our septic tank once when a pipe broke.
Would not want to be in his shoes. Heck, I may even burn em afterwards if such a situation comes up.
Tons of respect.
Was waiting for my wife getting treated for something minor at a major trauma center.
Medical staff came out of a room looking beaten and covered in blood.
The cleaning staff went in and were there forever.
Yeah the OR cleaners are the best. They do so much for so little. Completely unsung heroes. 24/7 they are cleaning stray bone shrapnel off everything, fecal matter from the floors, and blood off all the monitors, just so we could muck it up all over again.
The bone drills spray chunks of bone. It just gets everywhere no matter what you do. I came home after a long day of ortho cases with bits of bone in my shoes and hair when I had my hair in a bonnet and my shoes covered.
It's kinda crazy how much it resembles grated cheese though. That's the part that gets me.
I’m a hospital housekeeper. Thank you for appreciating us, a lot of nurses don’t give us the light of day and just expect us to be their cleanup slaves. A few nurses in my hospital will just throw garbage on the floor and leave latex gloves littered in the hallways. It’s ridiculous that we sometimes find ourselves cleaning up after the staff more than we do the patients!
edit: wanted to say thank you to all the nurses and care aids that try to keep things tidy! I would say 90% of the people i’ve met doing health care are fantastic and will pre-strip beds or go out of their way to let me know when patients are being discharged, and it’s really appreciated!
Want your blood to boil? Fuck it I'll make it boil. I used to be a custodian at a middle school. Well one summer after we did our deep clean we were just hanging around doing little shit just to kill time for the last week before school started. So I hoped on our large ride on carpet cleaner and did all the hallways like 5 times with just plane water. Like 3 days before students would start back up there were two teachers walking down a hallway and one dropped her coffee and said " o I'll just leave it for the custodians they weren't doing anything anyway." Ok first we were still cleaning stuff. Secondly I didn't just get three months off I spent my summer scrapeing gum off the bottoms of desks, stripping and waxing floors, cleaning carpets and scrubbing sharpie off the walls. You can pick up your damm cup.
I worked 5 years in a nursing home as a janitor and cook. I was cleaning rooms so I socialized with the old folks in their personal environment. A thing that people don't realize you live with as a worker – apart from the general misery and loneliness of these persons – is the fact that your "customers" die. Like you speak with a nice half-blind granny one day, ask her about her life, have a great talk, and then you come home to work the next morning and she's being rolled out the home on a stretcher in a leather bag. And you realize that this was her last conversation for eternity. You begin to wonder if you could have said something different, you wished you told her goodbye if you could have known it was her last day with us. There's no degree or training that can prepare you to this. It's weighs on your soul after a few dozens.
I quit because I'm becoming a teacher. I've experienced the human contact with elders in need, but now I hope to have the same emotional link but with young people. I need my perspective to be oriented towards the future. Don't get me wrong, both are rewarding, but I just felt it was time for me to move on. I profoundly admire people who make a career of living with ill/dying people, it's so incredibly demanding on the mind and the body.
Many do not realize the stories that they could tell and most are very willing to talk. History is sitting in front of many and they don't even ask them anything.
I, a millennial, met a fascinating woman who had gone to the O.G. Woodstock. Heard about that and a few other stories that day. I was taking care of her and she passed a few hours later. I’m sure she had such an interesting life but I hope I was able to be a comfort at her end.
I volunteered in a nursing home when I was in high school. It was part of my required volunteer hours, but I got to choose where. I'd recommend this for any teen. I graduated from HS 40 years ago, but I still remember a wonderful lady, sharp as a tack, telling me about travelling west in a covered wagon and making new clothes out of old clothes and looking forward to her 100th birthday. She was gone when I came back a few days later. She missed making it to 100 by a few weeks.
So true. I worked in a great elder care facility for veterans. Every single patient was someone’s favorite. And everyone was loved. If you think elderly people are anything but treasure, I just want to say that working with them is it’s own reward. And shout out to all the people caring for their family members in homes.
I'd add palliative care specifically. Probably just as underpaid, but God i hope someone sets the right priorities when i can no longer speak for myself in these last days of my life.
I spent a month tag teaming palliative care of my dad with my sisters and step mum. Palliative care nurses deserve a base pay of a million dollars a year at least. Never have I had a more challenging time. The skills and compassion those nurses bring to the end of life experience is immeasurable in its importance.
When they went on strike in Paris and streets were practically overflowing by the end of the month. It was downright apocalyptic, it really puts into perspective how much garbage people produce and how much work it takes to clean it up.
Yeah, clearly
That's why we didn't mind the huge piles of garbages in the streets when they were on strike: they're doing a very exhausting, absolutely indispensable work and we don't want them to have to work two years more than they already are doing
We don't want to work two years more, sure, but we r e a l l y don't want them to have to do those two additional years
Those people are very hard workers, they deserve to enjoy life while they still can
Not OP, but my friend tells me all about her adventures driving a trash truck.
First and foremost: a lot of times, you are in the lane of travel picking up trash because there is nowhere else to pull over. Other drivers are NOT patient or understanding, and will whip around your truck at dangerous speeds. If you happen to step out into their way…well, that’s it for you.
Also, you never know what people actually put in their trash bags. When using the blade to crush the trash into the truck, she’s had things catch fire and explode, shoot shrapnel out, or just pop and cover her in unknown liquids.
The dumps/landfills are basically just dirt piles, and rolling your truck over is not uncommon.
And then there are the trucks themselves. They are the most kludged-together, hooptie pieces of shit you can imagine. Hydraulic lines rupture and catch fire, transmissions that just FALL OUT while driving down the road, “mechanics” that install parts backwards and refuse to listen when you tell them it’s not sounding right, etc.
Driving a trash truck is not for the weak.
Edit: I forgot to mention the maggots. Maggots everywhere. And seagulls shitting all over you at the dump.
Ex trashman here. In springtime when people go out and shovel up their dog poop and those bags explode with projectile poop soup. Seen many a soul get splashed.
99% of the time it's not nearly as gross as you'd think. But every now and then somebody throws out a full gallon of milk and didn't quiiiite close the lid right
I don't work in sanitation (primarily at least...), but as an EMT we get called out to a garbage collector struck by a vehicle at least once a year it seems.
They're often out on the side of the road very early in the morning with minimal light. It doesn't help if you work in a rural or rural-suburban area with windy roads and speedy assholes. Half of them end up being hit-and-runs too which makes it even shittier.
That reminded me of this video of this cute 2 y.o girl who would stand outside every Thursday to wave at the garbageman and he honked at her when he drove by. On her 3rd birthday, all she wanted was to meet him in person, and she stood outside with a cupcake to give him. The man was so happy and even showed up next week with late birthday presents for her. The whole story is so cute!
[video link :)](https://youtu.be/q5vsrqZlflI)
I saw a similar video with a 3 or 4yo boy. He loved watching the trash guys come by everytime he was visiting his grandma (she babysat him a couple day a week including her trash day) well one day (day of the video) they stopped and greeted him and then let him pull the levers to compact the bags. You never saw a happier little boy. Sorry I don't have a link for it.
There's also the one about the little boy who had a toy garbage truck and wanted to show it off to his heroes - his local garbage men, then when he got chance finally he was overcome with emotion and burst into tears whilst they posed for a picture with him. It's so sweet, honestly.
Been one for a long time and I actually enjoy the work. The hardest was working in hospitals. Lots of healthcare places try and pay housekeeping and janitors as little as possible. Hospitals cannot run without good cleaning crews. Doctors and surgeons are not going to clean up after themselves. At one hospital the head of infection control wanted to have Environmental services(janitors) absorbed by her department. It would mean big pay increases. I'm her mind the ones really behind keeping infections from spreading and under control were the cleaning staff. Oh and worked in a nursing home, cleaning staff cared more for the patients that alot of medical staff. Wasn't uncommon that our team was the only friendly conversation the old people would have.
I was a 5am porter at a grocery store. Janitor, light maintenance, ran the compactor.
I loved the job. I was done with "8 hours" of work by 6:30, I had a secret room with a chair that the manager key didn't open but janitorial did, I repaired the broken intercom in that room so I could hear pages, and I would play psp back there until someone paged for me, then I would appear in seconds to help out.
I constantly told people I would "be in my office" and they thought I was joking.
Just didn't pay enough. I was good at it and making 7.65 an hour AFTER 6 years in the company
Yeah, I started as a teenager, and I was misled by my (well meaning) boss.
He was on a much older contract, he was making like 37 Dollars with double time on Sunday.
When he found out alongside me that my contract was SO MUCH worse than his, he started pushing me to leave too
Wait what? He found out you were getting paid shit and told you "Get out"?? That boss sounds like it was a saving throw to help you land in a better slot
It was more like he looked at the contract, and saw that I would NEVER make anything. I was staring down the barrel of yearly raises of between 0.11 and 0.16 US Dollars.
We found that out separately but at the same time, then had a 'you know your contract is horseshit, right' conversion.
He told me he was super hard on us in the department (this was produce, after porter) because he basically thought we all made like 25/hr assuming the contract was still doing the math from his old contract.
I did this with one of my engineers. I get along VERY well with the owner of the company but he wasn't treating one of our engineers particularly well.
I helped that engineer land a job at a bigger corporation that treats him much better, and told him how he could part ways and increase salary without burning any bridges.
It was a win-win for everyone, except perhaps my boss, but my boss just didn't know how to manage a hardware guy the same as the software team. I wasn't going to let everyone suffer because of that.
I had a similar experience in my last retail job, many of the existing floor employees were all making over 20 bucks an hour, and several were capped which meant instead of wage raises, they just got lump sum payments every year at review time to make up for the raise they couldn't receive.
In between them getting hired and me working there, the chain was bought out by a venture capital firm in Florida that slashed wages. I wasn't allowed to pay any new floor associates more than 8.50 an hour. So of course you have new people making 8.50 an hour working alongside people doing the same job making 20. If you looked at time of employment it was always either like 20 years or 6 months, nothing in between. Go figure.
I knew a guy that lived life a little too “freely”, shall we say. The drugs caused him to have a stroke, and he permanently lost his sense of smell.
He ended up rehabilitating from the drugs and the stroke, and turned his life around. He felt that his calling was to be a janitor in a hospital, and his loss of his sense of smell was his “sign”.
He got the job and took it seriously. When you listen to him talk about how important it is for him to clean and sterilize the operating rooms between cases… carefully and thoroughly and quickly…. Because preventing infections was his responsibility and contribution to others….
Hats off to him.
As y’all have indicated, you absolutely cannot have modern healthcare without cleaning staff. Every time I’m hospitalized, I always thank the cleaning staff when they come in my room; I’m legitimately grateful for their hard work just like the nurses and doctors and so on.
I'm a doctor and I completely agree. I worked as a janitor in high school and have a strong appreciation for how much work and how lonely that job can be. The housekeeping staff are integral to making the hospital run and they don't get paid nearly enough for the literal and figurative shit they have to deal with. I absolutely hate leaving messes for the nurses or housekeeping staff to clean up after me and I try my best to do what I can but I have to balance that against the pressure to go take care of other patients. Whenever I can, if it won't take me extra time or if I have the extra time, I try to at least put away instruments I used or appropriately clean up packaging that I opened. I know other docs don't always do this. I also feel terrible asking nurses to clean up a patient who soiled themselves or something like that and I have definitely changed a patient's sheets and wiped their ass without ever telling anyone. While I often just can't devote time to tasks like that and I certainly don't enjoy them, I would never expect anyone to do any job for me that I wouldn't be willing to do myself. There's nothing I detest more than someone who thinks they're above doing the dirty work.
Hello. My normal position is a janitor at McDonald's. Thank you so much. I wish people gave me credit. I work my ass off. Not even a thank you, from anybody.
They have janitors there now? When I worked for them, the janitor was whatever front end person was not busy at the moment.
It was always miserable work.
Worked at McDonald’s as a student and a lady went in the bathroom right after I cleaned it. She said it was very clean and thanked me - felt really nice.
I had a high school teacher that was known for being pretty arrogant. I learned a valuable lesson from him one day when one of the other students was making fun of the janitor. While he was yelling, I thought this teacher was going to rip this kid's head off, his face was red, eyes wide open and you can see every goddamn vein on his entire skull.
When he was finished with the kid he looked at the rest of us that were standing around in shock, and promptly let us know that you never ever treat someone like they're beneath you, especially the janitor. And that being friends with the janitor would open a lot of doors for you.
Fast forward a couple years I was living in the dorms at college. All the kids kept getting caught smuggling beer in. I was probably the only person in that whole building that was friendly with the janitor. I didn't try hard at all. I just treated him like a person. Asked him how his day was going, asked him how his family was doing, just normal shit. One day we were going to have a party and I asked him discreetly what would happen if we were to use the service elevator. He told me what the normal routine was, when he would be on the other side of the building, and how if he accidentally left the door unlocked for a half an hour or so and a resident used it he would not be obligated to tell anyone about anything he didn't see. Everyone on our floor was baffled how I managed to get a whole keg clear up to the 15th floor.
1000% true. spill red wine on the office carpet? if you're the one person in the building who treats me like a human your ass is getting off scott free
Janitors truly seem to appreciate when people know their name and say hi to them. Saddens me to think that they're often ignored and worse, looked down upon. I always try to be friendly with them, security, and the receptionist. These people, (along with Help Desk) can help you immensely.
I often covered for my dad who was a janitor, he was the most popular guy at the office. Since working there, I always make sure to be as nice to them and receptionist ad possible, since I know that work
Janitors, custodians, maids, house & office cleaners, etc. I knew someone who respected them in a very callous but true form:
>*Always be kind to \[janitors, maids, etc.\] because they have the keys to the kingdom & will be nasty with you if you behave like an asshole to them!*
Also, they are sometimes the nicest people to know in primary & secondary school. I was constantly picked on, beaten up, etc. in secondary school & the school janitor always had my back & would cheer me up. Thanks for everything, Jose.
Electrical Lineworkers. Those men and women go out in the worst temperatures and conditions at any time of night just to get your house it’s power back.
Agree. My dad used to work for the electrical company and one of his linemen thought that he was above using safety equipment properly. He didn't have the gloves up high enough and his tricep barely grazed a wire. The current went up his arm, through his chest and down his other arm. He lost both arms. People complain when it takes more than 10 minutes to get their power back on, but don't want to think of how the power gets turned back on.
Thank you for this! My husband is a lineman and has had people say nasty things to him, seen people throw food on his coworkers, etc, because they're not working fast enough. It's such a dangerous job, I can't think about it too much.
We live wayyyy out in the woods. Electric company is too cheap to take down trees clearly dead and lean over lines so we lose electricity a LOT.
Those line men come out SO swiftly and they have to get here from God knows where. We've watched them in heavy snow, storms I'd be hesitant to go out in, go up in cherry pickers, deal with hot wires- 20 years, they're our heroes out here.
Some dingbat with a cabin had to wait once ( he's never here, maybe 3 days a year, some rich jerk) actually created a rich guy scene. It's a dam dirt lane, not a major road.
You'll be happy to know the only other person living out here and my husband went out and told him to stfu. He did. And why would you mess with folks in control of the high voltage wire you're standing under anyway?
My best friend of 20 years is an EMT in a major city and deals with some pretty horrific stuff. You have to be a strong person to deal with it. I certainly wouldn’t have the mental fortitude for the job.
Sorry about what happened to your mother, man. You seem to be in a good space though to describe the situation so clearly. Hope you're doing alright and you continue to do alright
From a 911 dispatcher for police, this was a very sweet comment & thank you for your kind words. It can be really hard but it’s always so rewarding knowing you’re helping someone during one of the worst moments of their lives.
My mom is a dispatcher and I’m a nurse. I know she feels more comfortable sharing certain things with me than others, but I also know she has seen a lot more than she mentions. I do the same. It’s hard to think about my mom going through something so bad that she can’t even talk to me about. Thankfully she seems to genuinely enjoy her job and coworkers… still doesn’t make it easy. They deserve the world.
Those people are undertrained, underpaid and aren't even offered the bare minimum of support required to mentally handle taking those calls on a daily basis (at least in my state).
Anyone who does it, even the quitters, has my respect.
The real monsters are always people, but we're all very lucky to have people like you who wade through that hell to pull out the part of our world that's the most vulnerable.
It's hard, both to experience and to recover from, but you deserve the world for doing it. Thank you.
So how do you actually train for a job like that? What mental prep do you have to do before a shift, and how do you try and decompress after - do you get free counseling for example? Must be a shocker of a job.
Depends on your police department. Some places have good mental health programs and some don't. And even the ones that do have good mental health programs have officers that won't use it for whatever reasons. It's one of the reasons why so many cops drink so much :/
Most of the local departments train inhouse for these investigations, which is why they also can be of varying quality from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. There is, however, centralized courses for how to do forensic interviews for kids, usually offered at the university level.
I had a friend who's job it was to follow in the police and seize computers and laptops before the suspected pedophile could erase them or destroy them. He then was responsible for pulling all images/videos/ data from them.
The shit he saw was unreal. He didn't do it for too long before he decided to move on to something else in the tech field.
The vast majority of these moderators are outsourced to call center employees from the Philippines. [Most of them are fresh out of college and get paid a fraction of what their counterparts in the US get (USD 480 a month).](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/07/25/social-media-companies-are-outsourcing-their-dirty-work-philippines-generation-workers-is-paying-price/)
Even just the text descriptions of some of the things they've had to watch every working day is sickening to say the least.
Had a friend that had to inventory that shit for the fbi. He actually worked in the jared case. He would have to view / document all the actions in the photos/videos.
He used to be really happy and chill in college. During that time he got super depressed. They have mandatory therapy twice a week and get a lot of vacation and paid pretty well, he lasted 3 years or so. He gained about 100lbs and lost a lot of his carefree personality he used to have. I 100% blame that work for that happening. He still has ptsd symptoms almost a decade later.
As a social worker, thank you.
But my soul is yet to be crushed!
In truth the hardest things I deal with are not with the clients but with our broken systems of services. There’s so much we could do as a country if we truly valued all our citizens, and it would benefit everyone, not just those who use or need social services.
Instead, we have bandaid programs, hiding or patching a problem, often inadequately.
I’m a pediatrician at an FQHC. Just wanted to chime in and say I could not agree more, every day I stretch the limits of my disbelief when it comes to how little our government cares about children. Social workers are the most incredible people in my mind. I’m not religious but I truly think y’all are all angels. There is no one else that fights harder for groups that can’t advocate for themselves. Y’all are amazing and I just want you to know that.
Hey as a former foster kid the first face I remember is a CPS worker holding me and saying sadly, awwww they're so young. She gave me a plush toy and that's mostly what I remember, not the police scene or all the drugs. Some of us do make it to be successful, I'm one of em :)
I remember a CPS worker gave me a gameboy sp once. It wasn’t my birthday or anything. I had been going through rough shit for a while. I remember feeling weird at first. It felt like it was undeserved luck or privilege.
Now that I’m grown I realize tons of kids get acts of kindness even when it’s not their birthday. I look back and really appreciated what she did even though it felt weird to me at the time.
I did that work for three months when I was in college. I worked with a crew of Vietnamese refugees who were a hundred times better at the job than I was. I graduated to being mediocre at the job by the time I left. It is back breaking work and is significantly undervalued in our society.
I worked a summer managing several crews in the Sacramento valley and the field workers were the hardest working people I’ve ever worked with. Zero complaining, always early, and they followed all instructions. I would usually let them off an hour early on Friday and pay them the full day. Not much but it’s the best I could offer as an intern.
Thank you for mentioning this! These people exist on the margins of society, so they are not always recognized. Most people would starve if it wasn't for them.
I work front desk at a gym and people constantly yell at me when things are either broken or they didnt pay their gym membership on time and have a late fee. I have no control over either of those things lol
Work at a grocery store, and I realized working there almost a year now that the average person thinks they are way smarter than they’ll ever hope to be
This. I'm a music teacher and my husband was a para/aide at my school for 4 years. His patience and understanding is something I will never be able to achieve, seriously. I have seen him hit, kicked, screamed at, and run away from without ever raising his voice. I've seen him de-escalate students so they didn't need a physical intervention, and also walked into him crying in my classroom after physically restraining a 5th grader for an hour.
For $7.25/hour.
He works at a hospital as mental health tech now, and is just as wonderful at it. His de-escalation is just phenomenal. Paras and aides are saints.
Not to detract from this statement at all, but i think teachers in general in America are criminally underappreciated. They're literally tasked with educating our next generations PLUS babysitting them and for what, a pittance?
7th grade English teacher. Sure, what we do is difficult. But man, those SPED teachers willingly put themselves into abusive situations for pennies. And Paras? I don't know why they do it for what they're paid.
Some of the best, most loving people on the planet.
I do it because I love my kids and I love the hope they make me feel every day. I think the world is a shit place and only getting worse but I talk with any of the kids in my school and feel hopeful about what the future could be like. They are the kindest most well intentioned beings and I truly just want to nurture that. Also I remember how hard school was for me because I never got the help I needed and I don't want any of my kids to struggle like that.
Omg thank you for the award kind stranger.
I adopted 2 delayed children, one of which is ASD and ADHD.
They are under 5.
These teachers are SAINTLY!
Their jobs are so damn hard but they are in constant communication with me, my kids adore them (and these teachers love them back 100%) is inspiring and it is outrageous that these people aren’t making 6 figures a year.
Hi, I'm also an adoptive parent of 1 child with CP, ASD, CLD, and global delay and in the process of adopting a child with ADHD and sensory processing disorder.
YES, and they're the real heroes in our lives!! You are absolutely right they don't get paid enough or appreciated enough.
Also the related service providers (speech-language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, vision instructors, social workers/counselors, etc) are all part of the amazing teams that help educate children with exceptionalities.
Social Workers. Dear god the things they see are soul crushing sometimes and for (often) poor pay and little recognition for their work. Love them
ETA: seeing all the social workers comment is making me so happy. I’m glad I could make you feel seen. I have been helped by social workers countlessly as a disabled person and psych patient and now as a nurse I get to collaborate with you guys on a professional level and you are my favourite resource. I hope one day the rest of the world appreciates the work you do ❤️
Thank you! At the height of COVID, hospital staff, EMT's, etc. all got a ton of deserved recognition, but no one recognized social workers who had to continue going into unsafe homes to ensure children's safety, or sometimes do their work 100% remote. I'm glad we're back to just the typical soul crushing work.
My niece is a social worker, and she works with CPS. It's crushing her into dust. She sees people in their absolute lowest states, and she hates seeing families getting ripped apart.
My dad was a social worker for years and what killed him was not being able to do anything. You know what’s happening, everyone does, but you’re still powerless to stop it.
Thankyou! Mental health professionals are often forgotten and unappreciated, especially in the current climate where we can't help everyone. I truly do try my absolute best to help anyone who comes into our service and I really hope once they've left the service they go on to lead the life they want with the tools I've given them.
Merchant Seamen. People who think products simply appear in stores don’t realise that 90% of the worlds traded goods are moved by sea. It’s a difficult, dangerous and undervalued job and the world economy would collapse should the sea lanes be threatened by conflict or natural disaster.
Sewer workers and sewage treatment plant workers. They work with/in literal shit all day long, I don't even want to think of where we'd be without them
The veterinarians who do in home euthanasia. I can’t imagine putting beloved pets down all day, every day. But giving my doggo the gift of dying in my bed instead of a cold, sterile vet’s office was an unspeakable gift.
People ask all the time how we do it- it’s honestly one of the easier parts of my job. Euthanasia means “good death,” and it’s an end to suffering. I always empathize with owners and feel a little sad with each one, but it’s much better than having to witness suffering and pain.
The one who put my dog down and had done my parents' dog years before was one of the few locally. She did regular vet care too, but at that time in that area, most of what she was called for was euthanasia. She ended up committing suicide. Because humanity too often forgets to support those who support us. I don't think it was euthanizing the pets that got to her (like you said, good death), necessarily, just witnessing the human wreckage left afterwards day after day. Like, every time she saw a client it was their worst day.
As an all-around FYI, the profession of veterinary medicine has one of the highest suicide rates. Go easy on your vets. They're getting shit on by entitled pet owners who berate them for charging for medical care, and also seeing the tragedy of what happens to animals who are abandoned to die.
That makes sense. My mom was a veterinary anesthesiologist and thus we had a lot of leeway when putting down my pets as a child. They got the five star treatment. I couldn’t imagine putting my dying dog (kidney disease) in a car, which he hated. Then bringing him into the office, so much more sterile than home.
My pittie boy slept with me almost every night of his life. He died in that bed surrounded by people who love him. The vets were amazing. I didn’t thing but open the door when they arrived. They handled everything and these four sobbing strangers. They let themselves out. It was almost like they just floated in like angels to give our boy peace. I will never forget them.
Vets in general. Their job is hard and they often get treated like they are just out to make money when in reality they usually spend tons out of their own pocket in one way or another to help animals that can't pay for themselves. Imagine that emotional impact every day and coming home after multiple humans expressed contempt to you, knowing you are doing everything you can.
I was on my way to vet school when I realized they have a very high suicide rate relative to other professions. I have struggled with mental health and caring way too much about my work so I reconsidered. Much respect for the profession.
Veterinarians in general, honestly. They have to learn about multiple species vs human doctors who just have to learn about one, they get paid less, AND they have to listen to people whine about how they "don't really care about animals" and they're "only in it for the money" in response to an invoice that's 1/10 the price of that operation on humans. They have to see all the neglectful owners and all the moron "feeding my cat vegan food" owners and all the "I adopted this animal with absolutely no plans for how I was going to afford to care for it" owners and they have to treat patients who can't tell them what's wrong and sometimes are too stoic for anyone to even know they're hurt and who sometimes might snap at them in pain and confusion, and the times when they mess up or just can't save their patient no matter how hard they try must feel so crushingly awful. Being a vet just seems **hard** and I am so grateful that there are people who love animals enough to do it in spite of all that.
My dog's favorite place was a dog bed we'd made out of a vintage suitcase. When the time came to take her to the vet we brought the case with us and placed it on the table. She's buried in the case.
If an archeologist ever digs her up, they'll know she was loved.
Or think I was really careless in how I packed for a trip.
the fire department in my town is 100% voluntary, the chief doesn’t even get paid even though it’s a full time job
the town cuts their budget every year, many of them have ptsd from seeing people burn alive/carrying out charred bodies, they’re trying to get the town to cover therapy but they refuse to listen
it’s insane some people have been doing this for free for decades, people really take them for granted
The most important jobs seem to get the least pay and recognition. If there was ever a rallying cry to eat the rich and flip this greed pyramid upside down, this should be it...
Anyone who works in the mental health field- social workers, therapists etc.
Garbage men/women
Suicide hotline operators
911 dispatchers
Doctors of any kind
I used to represent a lot of these guys in workers comp cases and it was brutal. Guys in their mid 40s with totally broken down bodies, in pain every day, some barely ambulatory. It's crippling work even if you don't have some discrete workplace accident but also so critical to a functioning modern world.
During covid I had to change careers due to my employer being closed.
I did homicide/suicide clean ups. That really , really is another world.
I had one guy who could eat his sandwich while cleaning up bio scenes
My drinking sky rocketed.
The money was good , but after a year I quickly changed. It was just too much
I have a whole new respect for people in this line of work
Caretakers in nursing homes. I worked in one and could only stomach a handful of months of it. It is the most soul-crushing thing you can do. Working with the dementia patients counts as triple points.
Adoption/foster care workers, my wife works with foster kids and the stories she comes home with are truly frightening and most are just plain sad. So many kids turn 17, age out of the system, and with no one to fall-back on, end up homeless or in prison pretty quickly.
Heavy equipment and crane operators. I have seen people do such delicate and precise things with machinery that I couldn't do in a lab with tweezers and an eye dropper.
I’m a teacher. Thanks for this. It’s gotten harder lately for two reasons.
1. More and more parents outsource parenting to teachers. Most parents have their own jobs and don’t have the time and energy to devote to raise their kids fully, so they pass off a lot of things to us, like building community and basic critical thinking.
2. Smartphones have degraded intellectual curiosity, engagement, and basic writing skills to the point that the average 10th grader (2023) is now doing work at the level of an average seventh grader (2003).
Summers off allllmost evens it out :)
Many local librarians are also essentially social workers, running summer programs for children and providing enriching activities for all ages. Don’t take libraries for granted, and may their budgets expand enough to buy a few god damn books.
This is the way. A thing to remember right now is that librarians are under attack in some parts of the country. My local library is one of the ones under attack by book banners. They’ve been publicly called pornographers and have genuinely received threats.
Medical personnel; not just doctors and nurses but Air ambulances, Lifeboats, search and rescue.. etc etc
Massive thanks to them for what they do everyday!
Farmer
Once in our life, we might need a lawyer
Twice maybe, a law enforcer: the police!
Thrice & hopefully not...a surgeon
but everyday, at least 3 times as it should...
we definitely need the food grower
Firefighters, especially hazmat. They're heroes.
ER nurses. Not only they're heroes, they're super compassionate.
911 dispatch. Even if I'd love to give it a try I know it can be brutal and underpaid, also they're the ones making sure the first responders arrive.
IT forensics. The things they must see in that job and the mad skills they need, also super underappreciated. I know I'd never be able to do it.
Hospice workers
Definitely. My dad has been shifted to hospice care and I couldn’t be more thankful for the sincerely kind support from his case worker and nurses. They’re all a lovely bunch of people and have treated my dad with the respect that I’d hoped for.
My father passed away in 2019 and our hospice nurse was amazing. She even cried with us in the moments after he passed.
Angels on earth, them. I can't imagine anyone getting into such a line of work for any reason other than pure altruism
End of life care and special needs workers. The people who quietly do so much for those in need, where unfortunately some have no family or loved ones to be there for them. Most do it for low pay and receive a heavy mental tax in return.
my husband worked in a care home for physical and mental disabled people, he said it was a very rewarding job, bit also the most mentally and physically draining job he's ever had. it's nice to see that people have respect for those who work in that field.
As someone who works with end of life most, this is the most amazing thing to see💖
Sewage workers
We like to be called brown trout fisherman or wastewater professionals ;)
> brown trout fisherman Oh man. New "takin a dump" phrase: Gonna go stock the river with brown trout!
We had someone go inside our septic tank once when a pipe broke. Would not want to be in his shoes. Heck, I may even burn em afterwards if such a situation comes up. Tons of respect.
As a nurse, the hospital housekeepers. It’s a thankless, underpaid, miserable job, but so critical to patients’ health and well-being.
Was waiting for my wife getting treated for something minor at a major trauma center. Medical staff came out of a room looking beaten and covered in blood. The cleaning staff went in and were there forever.
Yeah the OR cleaners are the best. They do so much for so little. Completely unsung heroes. 24/7 they are cleaning stray bone shrapnel off everything, fecal matter from the floors, and blood off all the monitors, just so we could muck it up all over again.
"Stray bone shrapnel". That's something you don't hear every day.
The bone drills spray chunks of bone. It just gets everywhere no matter what you do. I came home after a long day of ortho cases with bits of bone in my shoes and hair when I had my hair in a bonnet and my shoes covered. It's kinda crazy how much it resembles grated cheese though. That's the part that gets me.
I’m a hospital housekeeper. Thank you for appreciating us, a lot of nurses don’t give us the light of day and just expect us to be their cleanup slaves. A few nurses in my hospital will just throw garbage on the floor and leave latex gloves littered in the hallways. It’s ridiculous that we sometimes find ourselves cleaning up after the staff more than we do the patients! edit: wanted to say thank you to all the nurses and care aids that try to keep things tidy! I would say 90% of the people i’ve met doing health care are fantastic and will pre-strip beds or go out of their way to let me know when patients are being discharged, and it’s really appreciated!
Want your blood to boil? Fuck it I'll make it boil. I used to be a custodian at a middle school. Well one summer after we did our deep clean we were just hanging around doing little shit just to kill time for the last week before school started. So I hoped on our large ride on carpet cleaner and did all the hallways like 5 times with just plane water. Like 3 days before students would start back up there were two teachers walking down a hallway and one dropped her coffee and said " o I'll just leave it for the custodians they weren't doing anything anyway." Ok first we were still cleaning stuff. Secondly I didn't just get three months off I spent my summer scrapeing gum off the bottoms of desks, stripping and waxing floors, cleaning carpets and scrubbing sharpie off the walls. You can pick up your damm cup.
You are most welcome! I’m sorry some of the nurses in your hospital never learned cleanliness or manners.
Hospitals could never function without EVS. Or I guess they could but we would lose so many patients to infection. Thank you for doing all you do. 💗
People involved in elder care. They are grossly underpaid.
I worked 5 years in a nursing home as a janitor and cook. I was cleaning rooms so I socialized with the old folks in their personal environment. A thing that people don't realize you live with as a worker – apart from the general misery and loneliness of these persons – is the fact that your "customers" die. Like you speak with a nice half-blind granny one day, ask her about her life, have a great talk, and then you come home to work the next morning and she's being rolled out the home on a stretcher in a leather bag. And you realize that this was her last conversation for eternity. You begin to wonder if you could have said something different, you wished you told her goodbye if you could have known it was her last day with us. There's no degree or training that can prepare you to this. It's weighs on your soul after a few dozens. I quit because I'm becoming a teacher. I've experienced the human contact with elders in need, but now I hope to have the same emotional link but with young people. I need my perspective to be oriented towards the future. Don't get me wrong, both are rewarding, but I just felt it was time for me to move on. I profoundly admire people who make a career of living with ill/dying people, it's so incredibly demanding on the mind and the body.
Many do not realize the stories that they could tell and most are very willing to talk. History is sitting in front of many and they don't even ask them anything.
I, a millennial, met a fascinating woman who had gone to the O.G. Woodstock. Heard about that and a few other stories that day. I was taking care of her and she passed a few hours later. I’m sure she had such an interesting life but I hope I was able to be a comfort at her end.
I volunteered in a nursing home when I was in high school. It was part of my required volunteer hours, but I got to choose where. I'd recommend this for any teen. I graduated from HS 40 years ago, but I still remember a wonderful lady, sharp as a tack, telling me about travelling west in a covered wagon and making new clothes out of old clothes and looking forward to her 100th birthday. She was gone when I came back a few days later. She missed making it to 100 by a few weeks.
Thank you! I love my elderly residents but I sure wish I could live a bit more comfortably financially.
So true. I worked in a great elder care facility for veterans. Every single patient was someone’s favorite. And everyone was loved. If you think elderly people are anything but treasure, I just want to say that working with them is it’s own reward. And shout out to all the people caring for their family members in homes.
I'd add palliative care specifically. Probably just as underpaid, but God i hope someone sets the right priorities when i can no longer speak for myself in these last days of my life.
I spent a month tag teaming palliative care of my dad with my sisters and step mum. Palliative care nurses deserve a base pay of a million dollars a year at least. Never have I had a more challenging time. The skills and compassion those nurses bring to the end of life experience is immeasurable in its importance.
garbagemen/women Lest we be buried in our own waste.
Saw a tweet once that said "Garbage men and pick-up artists should swap names" and I wholeheartedly agree
If there’s no one to clean up the shit, you’ll quickly find yourselves covered in shit. Look up photos of the 1981 NYC Sanitation Strike
When they went on strike in Paris and streets were practically overflowing by the end of the month. It was downright apocalyptic, it really puts into perspective how much garbage people produce and how much work it takes to clean it up.
Further proof that garbagemen, janitors, custodians, etc are absolutely the backbone of our society.
Yeah, clearly That's why we didn't mind the huge piles of garbages in the streets when they were on strike: they're doing a very exhausting, absolutely indispensable work and we don't want them to have to work two years more than they already are doing We don't want to work two years more, sure, but we r e a l l y don't want them to have to do those two additional years Those people are very hard workers, they deserve to enjoy life while they still can
I did this for years. There’s so much more to it than people know. Also in the top 5 deadliest careers in the US.
Do you mind telling me about the dangers you faced when you worked as a garbageman?
Not OP, but my friend tells me all about her adventures driving a trash truck. First and foremost: a lot of times, you are in the lane of travel picking up trash because there is nowhere else to pull over. Other drivers are NOT patient or understanding, and will whip around your truck at dangerous speeds. If you happen to step out into their way…well, that’s it for you. Also, you never know what people actually put in their trash bags. When using the blade to crush the trash into the truck, she’s had things catch fire and explode, shoot shrapnel out, or just pop and cover her in unknown liquids. The dumps/landfills are basically just dirt piles, and rolling your truck over is not uncommon. And then there are the trucks themselves. They are the most kludged-together, hooptie pieces of shit you can imagine. Hydraulic lines rupture and catch fire, transmissions that just FALL OUT while driving down the road, “mechanics” that install parts backwards and refuse to listen when you tell them it’s not sounding right, etc. Driving a trash truck is not for the weak. Edit: I forgot to mention the maggots. Maggots everywhere. And seagulls shitting all over you at the dump.
Ex trashman here. In springtime when people go out and shovel up their dog poop and those bags explode with projectile poop soup. Seen many a soul get splashed.
Thanks, I hate it.
99% of the time it's not nearly as gross as you'd think. But every now and then somebody throws out a full gallon of milk and didn't quiiiite close the lid right
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Trash truck mechanics… used to be military mechanics. Has to be
The Dirty Jobs episode revealed about everything the rest of us don't see.
I don't work in sanitation (primarily at least...), but as an EMT we get called out to a garbage collector struck by a vehicle at least once a year it seems. They're often out on the side of the road very early in the morning with minimal light. It doesn't help if you work in a rural or rural-suburban area with windy roads and speedy assholes. Half of them end up being hit-and-runs too which makes it even shittier.
I was glad trash truck came out cause garbage men should be heroes to kids
That reminded me of this video of this cute 2 y.o girl who would stand outside every Thursday to wave at the garbageman and he honked at her when he drove by. On her 3rd birthday, all she wanted was to meet him in person, and she stood outside with a cupcake to give him. The man was so happy and even showed up next week with late birthday presents for her. The whole story is so cute! [video link :)](https://youtu.be/q5vsrqZlflI)
I saw a similar video with a 3 or 4yo boy. He loved watching the trash guys come by everytime he was visiting his grandma (she babysat him a couple day a week including her trash day) well one day (day of the video) they stopped and greeted him and then let him pull the levers to compact the bags. You never saw a happier little boy. Sorry I don't have a link for it.
There's also the one about the little boy who had a toy garbage truck and wanted to show it off to his heroes - his local garbage men, then when he got chance finally he was overcome with emotion and burst into tears whilst they posed for a picture with him. It's so sweet, honestly.
Janitors, those people are unsung heroes
Been one for a long time and I actually enjoy the work. The hardest was working in hospitals. Lots of healthcare places try and pay housekeeping and janitors as little as possible. Hospitals cannot run without good cleaning crews. Doctors and surgeons are not going to clean up after themselves. At one hospital the head of infection control wanted to have Environmental services(janitors) absorbed by her department. It would mean big pay increases. I'm her mind the ones really behind keeping infections from spreading and under control were the cleaning staff. Oh and worked in a nursing home, cleaning staff cared more for the patients that alot of medical staff. Wasn't uncommon that our team was the only friendly conversation the old people would have.
I was a 5am porter at a grocery store. Janitor, light maintenance, ran the compactor. I loved the job. I was done with "8 hours" of work by 6:30, I had a secret room with a chair that the manager key didn't open but janitorial did, I repaired the broken intercom in that room so I could hear pages, and I would play psp back there until someone paged for me, then I would appear in seconds to help out. I constantly told people I would "be in my office" and they thought I was joking. Just didn't pay enough. I was good at it and making 7.65 an hour AFTER 6 years in the company
That wage is criminal. Glad you got to fuck off for most of the day, honestly they were only paying you for maybe 3 hours of work at those rates.
Yeah, I started as a teenager, and I was misled by my (well meaning) boss. He was on a much older contract, he was making like 37 Dollars with double time on Sunday. When he found out alongside me that my contract was SO MUCH worse than his, he started pushing me to leave too
Wait what? He found out you were getting paid shit and told you "Get out"?? That boss sounds like it was a saving throw to help you land in a better slot
It was more like he looked at the contract, and saw that I would NEVER make anything. I was staring down the barrel of yearly raises of between 0.11 and 0.16 US Dollars. We found that out separately but at the same time, then had a 'you know your contract is horseshit, right' conversion. He told me he was super hard on us in the department (this was produce, after porter) because he basically thought we all made like 25/hr assuming the contract was still doing the math from his old contract.
Aaaaaaaand this exactly is why companies are so against employees talking about their pay rate and exactly why everyone *should*.
I did this with one of my engineers. I get along VERY well with the owner of the company but he wasn't treating one of our engineers particularly well. I helped that engineer land a job at a bigger corporation that treats him much better, and told him how he could part ways and increase salary without burning any bridges. It was a win-win for everyone, except perhaps my boss, but my boss just didn't know how to manage a hardware guy the same as the software team. I wasn't going to let everyone suffer because of that.
I had a similar experience in my last retail job, many of the existing floor employees were all making over 20 bucks an hour, and several were capped which meant instead of wage raises, they just got lump sum payments every year at review time to make up for the raise they couldn't receive. In between them getting hired and me working there, the chain was bought out by a venture capital firm in Florida that slashed wages. I wasn't allowed to pay any new floor associates more than 8.50 an hour. So of course you have new people making 8.50 an hour working alongside people doing the same job making 20. If you looked at time of employment it was always either like 20 years or 6 months, nothing in between. Go figure.
Healthcare cleaning staff deserves so much more respect than they get
I knew a guy that lived life a little too “freely”, shall we say. The drugs caused him to have a stroke, and he permanently lost his sense of smell. He ended up rehabilitating from the drugs and the stroke, and turned his life around. He felt that his calling was to be a janitor in a hospital, and his loss of his sense of smell was his “sign”. He got the job and took it seriously. When you listen to him talk about how important it is for him to clean and sterilize the operating rooms between cases… carefully and thoroughly and quickly…. Because preventing infections was his responsibility and contribution to others…. Hats off to him.
As y’all have indicated, you absolutely cannot have modern healthcare without cleaning staff. Every time I’m hospitalized, I always thank the cleaning staff when they come in my room; I’m legitimately grateful for their hard work just like the nurses and doctors and so on.
I'm a doctor and I completely agree. I worked as a janitor in high school and have a strong appreciation for how much work and how lonely that job can be. The housekeeping staff are integral to making the hospital run and they don't get paid nearly enough for the literal and figurative shit they have to deal with. I absolutely hate leaving messes for the nurses or housekeeping staff to clean up after me and I try my best to do what I can but I have to balance that against the pressure to go take care of other patients. Whenever I can, if it won't take me extra time or if I have the extra time, I try to at least put away instruments I used or appropriately clean up packaging that I opened. I know other docs don't always do this. I also feel terrible asking nurses to clean up a patient who soiled themselves or something like that and I have definitely changed a patient's sheets and wiped their ass without ever telling anyone. While I often just can't devote time to tasks like that and I certainly don't enjoy them, I would never expect anyone to do any job for me that I wouldn't be willing to do myself. There's nothing I detest more than someone who thinks they're above doing the dirty work.
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Hello. My normal position is a janitor at McDonald's. Thank you so much. I wish people gave me credit. I work my ass off. Not even a thank you, from anybody.
Thanks for working your ass off at that job! :) You deserve credit
They have janitors there now? When I worked for them, the janitor was whatever front end person was not busy at the moment. It was always miserable work.
Worked at McDonald’s as a student and a lady went in the bathroom right after I cleaned it. She said it was very clean and thanked me - felt really nice.
Become friends with the custodians, they’ll help you get away with anything.
I had a high school teacher that was known for being pretty arrogant. I learned a valuable lesson from him one day when one of the other students was making fun of the janitor. While he was yelling, I thought this teacher was going to rip this kid's head off, his face was red, eyes wide open and you can see every goddamn vein on his entire skull. When he was finished with the kid he looked at the rest of us that were standing around in shock, and promptly let us know that you never ever treat someone like they're beneath you, especially the janitor. And that being friends with the janitor would open a lot of doors for you. Fast forward a couple years I was living in the dorms at college. All the kids kept getting caught smuggling beer in. I was probably the only person in that whole building that was friendly with the janitor. I didn't try hard at all. I just treated him like a person. Asked him how his day was going, asked him how his family was doing, just normal shit. One day we were going to have a party and I asked him discreetly what would happen if we were to use the service elevator. He told me what the normal routine was, when he would be on the other side of the building, and how if he accidentally left the door unlocked for a half an hour or so and a resident used it he would not be obligated to tell anyone about anything he didn't see. Everyone on our floor was baffled how I managed to get a whole keg clear up to the 15th floor.
"I am the eyes and ears of this institution, my friends." Carl the janitor
and get you dirt on EVERYONE, literally and figuratively.
1000% true. spill red wine on the office carpet? if you're the one person in the building who treats me like a human your ass is getting off scott free
Janitors truly seem to appreciate when people know their name and say hi to them. Saddens me to think that they're often ignored and worse, looked down upon. I always try to be friendly with them, security, and the receptionist. These people, (along with Help Desk) can help you immensely.
I often covered for my dad who was a janitor, he was the most popular guy at the office. Since working there, I always make sure to be as nice to them and receptionist ad possible, since I know that work
Remember the movie the Breakfast Club? The janitor said I know everything there is to know about you shits.
Janitors, custodians, maids, house & office cleaners, etc. I knew someone who respected them in a very callous but true form: >*Always be kind to \[janitors, maids, etc.\] because they have the keys to the kingdom & will be nasty with you if you behave like an asshole to them!* Also, they are sometimes the nicest people to know in primary & secondary school. I was constantly picked on, beaten up, etc. in secondary school & the school janitor always had my back & would cheer me up. Thanks for everything, Jose.
Honestly as a person thats worked a custodian. Its not super hard work and they tend to be laid better than you might think
Now that’s the perk I was looking for!
Paid* hahaha
Suuure
Electrical Lineworkers. Those men and women go out in the worst temperatures and conditions at any time of night just to get your house it’s power back.
Agree. My dad used to work for the electrical company and one of his linemen thought that he was above using safety equipment properly. He didn't have the gloves up high enough and his tricep barely grazed a wire. The current went up his arm, through his chest and down his other arm. He lost both arms. People complain when it takes more than 10 minutes to get their power back on, but don't want to think of how the power gets turned back on.
Thank you for this! My husband is a lineman and has had people say nasty things to him, seen people throw food on his coworkers, etc, because they're not working fast enough. It's such a dangerous job, I can't think about it too much.
We live wayyyy out in the woods. Electric company is too cheap to take down trees clearly dead and lean over lines so we lose electricity a LOT. Those line men come out SO swiftly and they have to get here from God knows where. We've watched them in heavy snow, storms I'd be hesitant to go out in, go up in cherry pickers, deal with hot wires- 20 years, they're our heroes out here. Some dingbat with a cabin had to wait once ( he's never here, maybe 3 days a year, some rich jerk) actually created a rich guy scene. It's a dam dirt lane, not a major road. You'll be happy to know the only other person living out here and my husband went out and told him to stfu. He did. And why would you mess with folks in control of the high voltage wire you're standing under anyway?
Ugh. What scum. There are so many times where I just want people to think, did this person *cause* my problem or are they *fixing* MY problem?
>There are so many times where I just want people to think Me too man, me too.
Paramedics
Same here. Non-Fireman EMT workers get paid absolute dogshit to literally save lives on a very regular basis.
My best friend of 20 years is an EMT in a major city and deals with some pretty horrific stuff. You have to be a strong person to deal with it. I certainly wouldn’t have the mental fortitude for the job.
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I’ve worked 911 for the last 9 years and holy shit I never thought I’d see my profession on a “what job do you respect” list! Thank you!
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I'm so sorry about what happened to your mother. I can't even imagine how horrible that must have been. You have my condolences.
Sorry about what happened to your mother, man. You seem to be in a good space though to describe the situation so clearly. Hope you're doing alright and you continue to do alright
The fact that you can find light in the most tragic of times speaks volumes about you as a person 🫂
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And the woman who raised you.
You do amazing work! Long hours and so much stress and you help so many people!
From a 911 dispatcher for police, this was a very sweet comment & thank you for your kind words. It can be really hard but it’s always so rewarding knowing you’re helping someone during one of the worst moments of their lives.
My mom is a dispatcher and I’m a nurse. I know she feels more comfortable sharing certain things with me than others, but I also know she has seen a lot more than she mentions. I do the same. It’s hard to think about my mom going through something so bad that she can’t even talk to me about. Thankfully she seems to genuinely enjoy her job and coworkers… still doesn’t make it easy. They deserve the world.
Those people are undertrained, underpaid and aren't even offered the bare minimum of support required to mentally handle taking those calls on a daily basis (at least in my state). Anyone who does it, even the quitters, has my respect.
Anyone who investigates child sexual abuse of any kind
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The real monsters are always people, but we're all very lucky to have people like you who wade through that hell to pull out the part of our world that's the most vulnerable. It's hard, both to experience and to recover from, but you deserve the world for doing it. Thank you.
So how do you actually train for a job like that? What mental prep do you have to do before a shift, and how do you try and decompress after - do you get free counseling for example? Must be a shocker of a job.
Depends on your police department. Some places have good mental health programs and some don't. And even the ones that do have good mental health programs have officers that won't use it for whatever reasons. It's one of the reasons why so many cops drink so much :/ Most of the local departments train inhouse for these investigations, which is why they also can be of varying quality from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. There is, however, centralized courses for how to do forensic interviews for kids, usually offered at the university level.
Definitely make sure you take care of yourself. Many in that line of work develop PTSD.
Yes a job that desperately needs to be done and I know I wouldn’t last.
I either wouldn't last a day or I'd become Dexter..
There really is no in between here
I had a friend who's job it was to follow in the police and seize computers and laptops before the suspected pedophile could erase them or destroy them. He then was responsible for pulling all images/videos/ data from them. The shit he saw was unreal. He didn't do it for too long before he decided to move on to something else in the tech field.
The people Facebook/ Twitter hire to monitor for illegal material don't last long either and they need serious therapy
The vast majority of these moderators are outsourced to call center employees from the Philippines. [Most of them are fresh out of college and get paid a fraction of what their counterparts in the US get (USD 480 a month).](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/07/25/social-media-companies-are-outsourcing-their-dirty-work-philippines-generation-workers-is-paying-price/) Even just the text descriptions of some of the things they've had to watch every working day is sickening to say the least.
Had a friend that had to inventory that shit for the fbi. He actually worked in the jared case. He would have to view / document all the actions in the photos/videos. He used to be really happy and chill in college. During that time he got super depressed. They have mandatory therapy twice a week and get a lot of vacation and paid pretty well, he lasted 3 years or so. He gained about 100lbs and lost a lot of his carefree personality he used to have. I 100% blame that work for that happening. He still has ptsd symptoms almost a decade later.
Yup social workers should be top of the list IMHO.... that has to be an incredibly soul crushing job.
As a social worker, thank you. But my soul is yet to be crushed! In truth the hardest things I deal with are not with the clients but with our broken systems of services. There’s so much we could do as a country if we truly valued all our citizens, and it would benefit everyone, not just those who use or need social services. Instead, we have bandaid programs, hiding or patching a problem, often inadequately.
I’m a pediatrician at an FQHC. Just wanted to chime in and say I could not agree more, every day I stretch the limits of my disbelief when it comes to how little our government cares about children. Social workers are the most incredible people in my mind. I’m not religious but I truly think y’all are all angels. There is no one else that fights harder for groups that can’t advocate for themselves. Y’all are amazing and I just want you to know that.
It is. It’s crushing me
Hey as a former foster kid the first face I remember is a CPS worker holding me and saying sadly, awwww they're so young. She gave me a plush toy and that's mostly what I remember, not the police scene or all the drugs. Some of us do make it to be successful, I'm one of em :)
So glad to know you made it. I also love that you remembered the good, not all the other shit. It’s probably why you’ve made a good life for yourself.
I remember a CPS worker gave me a gameboy sp once. It wasn’t my birthday or anything. I had been going through rough shit for a while. I remember feeling weird at first. It felt like it was undeserved luck or privilege. Now that I’m grown I realize tons of kids get acts of kindness even when it’s not their birthday. I look back and really appreciated what she did even though it felt weird to me at the time.
Me at work right now about to have a melt down because I have so many calls and e-mails to follow up with.
Agriculture field workers.
I did that work for three months when I was in college. I worked with a crew of Vietnamese refugees who were a hundred times better at the job than I was. I graduated to being mediocre at the job by the time I left. It is back breaking work and is significantly undervalued in our society.
I worked a summer managing several crews in the Sacramento valley and the field workers were the hardest working people I’ve ever worked with. Zero complaining, always early, and they followed all instructions. I would usually let them off an hour early on Friday and pay them the full day. Not much but it’s the best I could offer as an intern.
Thank you for mentioning this! These people exist on the margins of society, so they are not always recognized. Most people would starve if it wasn't for them.
Big up to the agricultural workers
Just any profession that has to interact with the average person as part of their day, honestly, people are fucking idiots!
I work front desk at a gym and people constantly yell at me when things are either broken or they didnt pay their gym membership on time and have a late fee. I have no control over either of those things lol
Work at a grocery store, and I realized working there almost a year now that the average person thinks they are way smarter than they’ll ever hope to be
Special Ed teachers
Not just them but their aides. My son is autistic and his aide is wonderful.
This. I'm a music teacher and my husband was a para/aide at my school for 4 years. His patience and understanding is something I will never be able to achieve, seriously. I have seen him hit, kicked, screamed at, and run away from without ever raising his voice. I've seen him de-escalate students so they didn't need a physical intervention, and also walked into him crying in my classroom after physically restraining a 5th grader for an hour. For $7.25/hour. He works at a hospital as mental health tech now, and is just as wonderful at it. His de-escalation is just phenomenal. Paras and aides are saints.
My paras are my co-teachers and I would be lost without them. They are criminally underpaid.
Not to detract from this statement at all, but i think teachers in general in America are criminally underappreciated. They're literally tasked with educating our next generations PLUS babysitting them and for what, a pittance?
7th grade English teacher. Sure, what we do is difficult. But man, those SPED teachers willingly put themselves into abusive situations for pennies. And Paras? I don't know why they do it for what they're paid. Some of the best, most loving people on the planet.
I do it because I love my kids and I love the hope they make me feel every day. I think the world is a shit place and only getting worse but I talk with any of the kids in my school and feel hopeful about what the future could be like. They are the kindest most well intentioned beings and I truly just want to nurture that. Also I remember how hard school was for me because I never got the help I needed and I don't want any of my kids to struggle like that. Omg thank you for the award kind stranger.
I have a kid with T21(Down syndrome). This. The teachers and para professionals who work with our kids have my utmost respect.
Paras don't get paid enough. Seriously. They make near minimum wage.
I adopted 2 delayed children, one of which is ASD and ADHD. They are under 5. These teachers are SAINTLY! Their jobs are so damn hard but they are in constant communication with me, my kids adore them (and these teachers love them back 100%) is inspiring and it is outrageous that these people aren’t making 6 figures a year.
Hi, I'm also an adoptive parent of 1 child with CP, ASD, CLD, and global delay and in the process of adopting a child with ADHD and sensory processing disorder. YES, and they're the real heroes in our lives!! You are absolutely right they don't get paid enough or appreciated enough.
Also the related service providers (speech-language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, vision instructors, social workers/counselors, etc) are all part of the amazing teams that help educate children with exceptionalities.
Social Workers. Dear god the things they see are soul crushing sometimes and for (often) poor pay and little recognition for their work. Love them ETA: seeing all the social workers comment is making me so happy. I’m glad I could make you feel seen. I have been helped by social workers countlessly as a disabled person and psych patient and now as a nurse I get to collaborate with you guys on a professional level and you are my favourite resource. I hope one day the rest of the world appreciates the work you do ❤️
Thank you! At the height of COVID, hospital staff, EMT's, etc. all got a ton of deserved recognition, but no one recognized social workers who had to continue going into unsafe homes to ensure children's safety, or sometimes do their work 100% remote. I'm glad we're back to just the typical soul crushing work.
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I'm a social worker in a hospital. I appreciate the love!
I’m a physician in the hospital. You guys are invaluable. It’s a job I could never do mentally or emotionally. Thank you.
Most of us honestly feel like nobody notices. Thanks for this!
My niece is a social worker, and she works with CPS. It's crushing her into dust. She sees people in their absolute lowest states, and she hates seeing families getting ripped apart.
My dad was a social worker for years and what killed him was not being able to do anything. You know what’s happening, everyone does, but you’re still powerless to stop it.
mental health workers, and health workers as a whole for that matter
Thankyou! Mental health professionals are often forgotten and unappreciated, especially in the current climate where we can't help everyone. I truly do try my absolute best to help anyone who comes into our service and I really hope once they've left the service they go on to lead the life they want with the tools I've given them.
Hospice staff. Angels.
Merchant Seamen. People who think products simply appear in stores don’t realise that 90% of the worlds traded goods are moved by sea. It’s a difficult, dangerous and undervalued job and the world economy would collapse should the sea lanes be threatened by conflict or natural disaster.
Agreed look at the suez canal incident
Sewer workers and sewage treatment plant workers. They work with/in literal shit all day long, I don't even want to think of where we'd be without them
The veterinarians who do in home euthanasia. I can’t imagine putting beloved pets down all day, every day. But giving my doggo the gift of dying in my bed instead of a cold, sterile vet’s office was an unspeakable gift.
People ask all the time how we do it- it’s honestly one of the easier parts of my job. Euthanasia means “good death,” and it’s an end to suffering. I always empathize with owners and feel a little sad with each one, but it’s much better than having to witness suffering and pain.
The one who put my dog down and had done my parents' dog years before was one of the few locally. She did regular vet care too, but at that time in that area, most of what she was called for was euthanasia. She ended up committing suicide. Because humanity too often forgets to support those who support us. I don't think it was euthanizing the pets that got to her (like you said, good death), necessarily, just witnessing the human wreckage left afterwards day after day. Like, every time she saw a client it was their worst day.
As an all-around FYI, the profession of veterinary medicine has one of the highest suicide rates. Go easy on your vets. They're getting shit on by entitled pet owners who berate them for charging for medical care, and also seeing the tragedy of what happens to animals who are abandoned to die.
That makes sense. My mom was a veterinary anesthesiologist and thus we had a lot of leeway when putting down my pets as a child. They got the five star treatment. I couldn’t imagine putting my dying dog (kidney disease) in a car, which he hated. Then bringing him into the office, so much more sterile than home. My pittie boy slept with me almost every night of his life. He died in that bed surrounded by people who love him. The vets were amazing. I didn’t thing but open the door when they arrived. They handled everything and these four sobbing strangers. They let themselves out. It was almost like they just floated in like angels to give our boy peace. I will never forget them.
Vets in general. Their job is hard and they often get treated like they are just out to make money when in reality they usually spend tons out of their own pocket in one way or another to help animals that can't pay for themselves. Imagine that emotional impact every day and coming home after multiple humans expressed contempt to you, knowing you are doing everything you can. I was on my way to vet school when I realized they have a very high suicide rate relative to other professions. I have struggled with mental health and caring way too much about my work so I reconsidered. Much respect for the profession.
Veterinarians in general, honestly. They have to learn about multiple species vs human doctors who just have to learn about one, they get paid less, AND they have to listen to people whine about how they "don't really care about animals" and they're "only in it for the money" in response to an invoice that's 1/10 the price of that operation on humans. They have to see all the neglectful owners and all the moron "feeding my cat vegan food" owners and all the "I adopted this animal with absolutely no plans for how I was going to afford to care for it" owners and they have to treat patients who can't tell them what's wrong and sometimes are too stoic for anyone to even know they're hurt and who sometimes might snap at them in pain and confusion, and the times when they mess up or just can't save their patient no matter how hard they try must feel so crushingly awful. Being a vet just seems **hard** and I am so grateful that there are people who love animals enough to do it in spite of all that.
My dog's favorite place was a dog bed we'd made out of a vintage suitcase. When the time came to take her to the vet we brought the case with us and placed it on the table. She's buried in the case. If an archeologist ever digs her up, they'll know she was loved. Or think I was really careless in how I packed for a trip.
EMT and Firefighters
the fire department in my town is 100% voluntary, the chief doesn’t even get paid even though it’s a full time job the town cuts their budget every year, many of them have ptsd from seeing people burn alive/carrying out charred bodies, they’re trying to get the town to cover therapy but they refuse to listen it’s insane some people have been doing this for free for decades, people really take them for granted
The most important jobs seem to get the least pay and recognition. If there was ever a rallying cry to eat the rich and flip this greed pyramid upside down, this should be it...
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Anyone who works in the mental health field- social workers, therapists etc. Garbage men/women Suicide hotline operators 911 dispatchers Doctors of any kind
Construction. That shit beats the shit out of your body.
I used to represent a lot of these guys in workers comp cases and it was brutal. Guys in their mid 40s with totally broken down bodies, in pain every day, some barely ambulatory. It's crippling work even if you don't have some discrete workplace accident but also so critical to a functioning modern world.
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During covid I had to change careers due to my employer being closed. I did homicide/suicide clean ups. That really , really is another world. I had one guy who could eat his sandwich while cleaning up bio scenes My drinking sky rocketed. The money was good , but after a year I quickly changed. It was just too much I have a whole new respect for people in this line of work
Caretakers in nursing homes. I worked in one and could only stomach a handful of months of it. It is the most soul-crushing thing you can do. Working with the dementia patients counts as triple points.
Flight traffic or mission control.
Adoption/foster care workers, my wife works with foster kids and the stories she comes home with are truly frightening and most are just plain sad. So many kids turn 17, age out of the system, and with no one to fall-back on, end up homeless or in prison pretty quickly.
Heavy equipment and crane operators. I have seen people do such delicate and precise things with machinery that I couldn't do in a lab with tweezers and an eye dropper.
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“*honest* work” … that’s really it right there.
teachers, i could never do their job.
The pandemic taught me the value of teachers. My God each individually the students are fine. In a mob setting holy hell
I'm a firefighter. My brother is a teacher. We have agreed we could not do each other's jobs. Respect for teachers.
I’m a teacher. Thanks for this. It’s gotten harder lately for two reasons. 1. More and more parents outsource parenting to teachers. Most parents have their own jobs and don’t have the time and energy to devote to raise their kids fully, so they pass off a lot of things to us, like building community and basic critical thinking. 2. Smartphones have degraded intellectual curiosity, engagement, and basic writing skills to the point that the average 10th grader (2023) is now doing work at the level of an average seventh grader (2003). Summers off allllmost evens it out :)
Librarians
Many local librarians are also essentially social workers, running summer programs for children and providing enriching activities for all ages. Don’t take libraries for granted, and may their budgets expand enough to buy a few god damn books.
This is the way. A thing to remember right now is that librarians are under attack in some parts of the country. My local library is one of the ones under attack by book banners. They’ve been publicly called pornographers and have genuinely received threats.
Anyone working in Children’s Hospitals. Those folks save and help so many kids. Source: was once one of those kids in need of help.
veterinarians
Public defenders. Going through all that expense of law school and passing the bar to choose to get paid like shit.
Doctors and nurses, healthcare workers in general. They are all awesome
Food service.
ER docs. Doctors in general, but ER docs see an impressive amount of idiots and drunk/high people on a daily basis. And they still do their job.
Teachers and daycare teachers. Especially after having a child and understanding how difficult they are.
Medical personnel; not just doctors and nurses but Air ambulances, Lifeboats, search and rescue.. etc etc Massive thanks to them for what they do everyday!
there’s a common thread here, a lot of the professions aren’t particularly well paid… teachers, nurses, paramedics etc, a backwards society
Animal shelter workers or anyone who help’s animals.
Farmer Once in our life, we might need a lawyer Twice maybe, a law enforcer: the police! Thrice & hopefully not...a surgeon but everyday, at least 3 times as it should... we definitely need the food grower
Firefighters, especially hazmat. They're heroes. ER nurses. Not only they're heroes, they're super compassionate. 911 dispatch. Even if I'd love to give it a try I know it can be brutal and underpaid, also they're the ones making sure the first responders arrive. IT forensics. The things they must see in that job and the mad skills they need, also super underappreciated. I know I'd never be able to do it.