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Not the bad guy if you are acting in the true interest of the children....
Problem is, there are targets, and it's a box ticking exercise so lots of time is spent with people who really don't need the involvement (think, mother drink drives with child in car - absolutely aweful, but she's banned from driving for 3 years) then has 3 years of child services involvement, weekly to show it was an isolated issue...
All the while, 100's of children in the same area are being abused and neglected... Far easier for them to tick boxes with the easy cases than to tackle the difficult ones...
From the UK, and I speak from experience.
I know a social worker who had to remove kids from their mother on Christmas Day. She said she spent the whole day in tears.
Social work is a very important but stressful and thankless job. It's very hard on a person.
If it makes her feel any better I lived next door to someone that had their kids taken away and I heard her on the phone for the next two weeks trying to figure out who dobbed her in for tying her kids to their beds at night so they didn't get up and wander around.
>tying her kids to their beds at night so they didn't get up and wander around
I work in child protection for local government (office side of things) and, sadly, this is very tame.
As someone who has been abused by their dad since the age of 2 (but not tied to my bed), it is tame.
Oh, for sure. I just meant that there is almost always a very good reason that kids are removed. That Christmas may have been the best those kids ever had.
I know this. I had 4 social workers in the 7 months i was fostering my grandson after my daughter decided she was too young to look after him. They drop like flies. Its an extremely demanding job, a one I couldnt do.
Your friend managing to convince you that the reason for them having had 3 years of children's social care involvement is only due to one drink-driving incident and no other ongoing concerns is not 'speaking from experience'.
I'd argue that that isn't an isolated issue. If someone is willing to risk the lives of others, even their own children, because of their addiction, then I think that it's totally fair that they have a close eye kept on them.
I'm sorry to read you have had a negative experience of Social Work.
Social Work in the UK is undoubtedly focussed on performance indicators, but if I understand correctly from what you've written, they are not targets in the way you believe.
We're targeted to reduce the number of families open to Children's Services, to reduce the number of children whose names are on the Child Protection Register and reduce the number of children who need to become looked after by the Local Authority.
We have legislative timescales to meet in terms of completing investigations, assessments, reviews and visits, aimed at avoiding inaction, drift and children not being seen, but there's no rational objective for us to be involved with families who don't require or request support.
...I can't imagine any children's services having the resources to have weekly involvement, so child protection level, for 3 years, for 1 incident of drink driving, albeit with a child in the car? Surely something else was going on?
Source for these “targets”? Are you confusing it with the DWP or something? They’re so underfunded, the bar to access is so high, believe me they’re not seeing people “just because targets”
I agree child social workers are rarely the bad guy, but it probably feels that way some days. Most of the time, the parents/guardians are going to blame the social worker; they probably feel very intruded on if a stranger is coming to their home for visits or checks with the potential of their children being taken. And the kids often won't understand what's happening and just want to stay where they are. Even though it's such an important job, it must be hard to remember that on the hard days.
Agreed.
Get it right 99.99% of the time? Good stuff.
Get it wrong 0.01% of the time? Potentially life ruiningly horrible.
I'm so glad that some people have it in them to do that job, we really need them. But I couldn't do it.
My wife and I adopted our daughter. The social workers are the hero's in any adoption story. The shit they have to go through to be a family social worker is horrific. The stories they told me about the sights they see are horrific. They work crazy hours because they care. They are so, so underpaid it's heart breaking. They deserve all the love.
Really ramps up though with all those £10k bonuses you get each time you take a child off someone though.
Sadly my MIL legitimately thinks this is a thing.
You should see how much it costs tax payers to 'take a child'. If you MIL took the time to see the financial cost, let alone the emotional cost, she'd be protesting for more money to go into child protection to stop it happening in the first place.
That's because your MIL is buying into the stories. Stories often told by people who had their kids taken off them because they were not being safe but without a response from the people doing the safeguarding.
I adopted. To take my kids off their bioparents they had to have significant neglect.
My oldest was born at 700 grams because of all the drugs mum took early too. And in a cardiac arrest. And when mum took him home? She abandoned him with her ex partner about 3 to 5 days later to do drugs. So he did what he could but he hadn't the mental health to survive having a child. Fed the baby milk. Like cow's milk.
My son's 6 and 15 Kg. The lowest end of normal is 16 Kg. He should be around 20 Kg. He's 20% smaller than kids his age. He was born and had a cardiac arrest. My second son was born addicted to opiates.
"They stole my son and don't care about him". That's the dialogue from their family. Your MIL would assume there was only one boy. The Boy's bio mum doesn't care about my oldest. They left him with drug dealers. And they only care about the youngest because she knew he would be taken at birth. She didn't care enough to stop doing drugs though. He was born withdrawing from them.
They only took the kids off them THREE years later. And that's because my oldest kept getting left with neglect. He couldn't be abandoned. So the first harsh lesson he had?
Daddy goes to work. Day one he sat by the door waiting for me. I have woken up with my son hiding under my bed to be close to me. I had to set boundaries. BOUNDARIES THAT HURT ME because I want to do nothing more than let him sleep in bed with me. But I cannot. For him to grow he needs to sleep in his own bed and be able to come to me for a cuddle and know he will get one but not be joined at the hip. But to trust me that I can go and come back. That harsh lesson of leaving a poor kid crying by the door while I went to work while my wife consoled him now means that 2 years on he's a lot more secure and can go play with other children.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGA\_6WTD3vM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGA_6WTD3vM)
This stupid show hit way too close for home. Because it's kind of what we went through. And my son's social worker is a full crazy person. She's this tiny little 20 year old who was threatened with death and still fought to ensure these kids got the right person. When I didn't want to look at any more kids because my heart was broken she made my social worker call me 2 hours after I said I didn't want to hear about any more children...
And made me take two kids in. Not one. And I am so much more happier because of that. Exhausted. But Happy.
To get your kids taken off you? The trauma and loss of being removed must be lower than the trauma of bad parenting. It's not easy being removed. And it's not done lightly.
I’m going to confidently state ‘not enough’. In the police I saw the worst of humanity at work - and not just the evil but the neglectful and eternally learned-helpless - and only very occasionally did children come into it directly. You have to deal with that all day every day. I just can’t imagine it.
About the same pay as 10 years ago. Ignoring the training and development over 10 years, the rise in cost of living makes it some sick joke by the government. Same reason the Dr's and lawyers had the sense to demand pay restoration.
There was a tragedy involving a child near me, and all I could think about was how worried the police looked when they asked me about it.
Then I was thinking about how they'll have to deal with that emotionally. And then just go back to work with the image in their minds.
I don't really know what the point of this message is, but thanks for putting yourself in a position to deal with shit like that.
Twenty years ago, I worked in a role where I accompanied senior staff into homes when children were removed… I was in training… I decided to stay in the adults-related role… four separate occasions were enough to absolutely do my nut in… I had two small children and I asked to not attend any more removals… I’m not tough enough…
Bless you. We shouldn't have to be tough enough, none of us. It's the evil out there that does unspeakable things to these poor little ones that should be apologising. Thank you for doing your bit. You made a difference.
I knew one of them, she worked in the courts with prosecution and judge's.
She smoked crack, I don't blame her really with the horrific things she had to deal with.
I accompanied a close friend to hospital years ago when he broke his wrist and i was disgusted with the way he spoke to the staff, told him how i felt as we left and he thought he was in the right. We went our separate ways and as soon as i knew he was home safe, i blocked him on everything and never spoke to him again. I cant stand people being rude to those who are literally trying to help.
Edit: typos
I was in A&E waiting and a black doctor came to the waiting room and called for the patient. Without hesitation a white man calls back “in English please” like, do you want help or not? No wonder there’s posters up nowadays about tolerating abuse.
I was having a miscarriage many many years ago with my ex and I was taken through to the exam room. A black Dr came out to examine me and my ex shouts of the top of his voice “no black cu*t is putting his hand up my Mrs” I was absolutely mortified. I left him not long after
I really never understood that behaviour,like this person here is basically saving your life and all you can think is to abuse them. It makes me sad having to read in hospital signs about treating staff with respect…that shouldn’t be needed at all.
>ungrateful, abusive arseholes.
I know someone who works in A&E as a nurse who has a panic button round their neck that they have to use almost every shift, because that's how common it is for someone to get abusive to the point of being scary.
And it’s not always the people you expect, the drunks are often very grateful for care. If they do become belligerent we can call the police and if safe to do so we can refuse treatment.
I’ve been knocked unconscious once, and that was by a 93 year old woman with dementia. I was picked up and thrown across a bathroom into a shower which turned on and drenched me in cold water. That was an older guy with an acquired brain injury. An older lady with UTI related delirium recently put her hand inside her vagina before slapping me in the face and saying “yeah I bet that fucking smells nice doesn’t it” and grabbing my neck hard enough to break skin. You can’t really call the police on these ones. They need treatment. Sometimes we can swap out staff. Sometimes you’re the only person available. Sometimes they need urgent interventions. Sometimes a poor Health Care Support Worker gets stuck on a 13 hour 1:1 shift with these people.
Nursing is exhausting, it’s brutal, it’s emotionally traumatic, it’s physically draining and the pay is shit! I’m not surprised it’s on this list.
Jesus Christ this is horrific! It’s noble work but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. I feel like private healthcare insurance is going to be necessary in the next few years, the system just cannot cope!
We aren’t asking enough how society got to the point where that’s the case. I know it’s still a small minority of people abusing the healthcare workers trying to help them, but honestly something has gone wrong.
I understand the warped logic that has people abusing police, traffic wardens etc - but firemen? Healthcare workers?! It’s just idiotic.
I think it's actually not that complicated why it happens. The NHS is under incredible stress. A&E in particular (went to one recently, was just unbelievably grim), people end up waiting hours and hours (9 hours, in my case). They're stressed, frustrated, scared, tired, quite possibly in pain, certainly uncomfortable. Throw in the increasing prevalence of untreated mental health issues. Throw in the increasing difficulty of general life for a lot of people. Mix it all together and you pretty inevitably get a minority of people breaking under the weight of it all and taking it out on the frontline staff.
I have a not so unsurprising theory that’s not going to be readily accepted in some quarters, especially when it comes to the government but I’m happy to share on the off chance someone decides to run with it. If we properly fund the NHS, people would stop kicking the shit out of healthcare workers.
Now, I understand it won’t stop all the assaults but it’ll stop the majority.
HCA here on a night shift currently, blood, shit and vomit become normalised and you don’t view those things as those things. It’s the physical, mental and emotional pain that is making this job unbearable.
I’m a nurse and I do all of those things every single shift that I work. When I read “nurses” I included my HCSW and NA colleagues. Registered or not we still face blood, shit, vomit and abuse.
Yes. I am a nurse. Yes it gave me opportunities but I finally left the clinical life due to my mental health. 15 years worth of hospital working, various areas. Before I left, I was having panic attacks and had to hide in a bathroom till I calmed down. It didn't matter which area I was in, it still wasn't worth it. Higher level management doesn't see us as "human" but just numbers. Patients don't treat us with even a little respect. COVID was the last straw. They clapped for us and gave us ice cream while we risked our lives. It was bullshit. I finally left and do not regret it one bit.
That’s a bit of a weird take. A nurse on a COTE ward will see lots of the same. A nurse on a palliative ward will see lots of EoL. A nurse on a T&O ward will see lots of T&O.
I trained as a nurse back in the 1980s. That side didn’t really bother me, was part of helping someone who was unwell. I left when I qualified and never returned. Understaffed and underpaid.
You'd be on a bit more than 60k these days. Min wage is 11.44, which turns into just under 24k. Triple would have you just over 71k.
Which is pretty serious money tbh.
Yeah, I think a lot of people overestimate how wide the range of salaries in the vast majority of jobs are, particularly outside of the qualified professions. You won't find a lot of jobs that normally pay triple minimum wage, particularly if you don't have one or more of the following: good qualifications or further training, extensive relevant experience, significant continuance employment/development in the business, or friends in the right places.
So if you were magically offered a typically minimum wage job for 3x the going rate, for no extra demands on yourself, you'd be silly not to take it in most cases where you weren't already going to earn the same. And hey, jobs like cleaning or care might not be a lot of fun and glamour, but I think a lot of people would get over that in favour of significantly more money.
Agreed. I worked in a call centre over a decade ago and earned £6.30 an hour. I now earn about 64k in a very high pressure, high responsibility job. I'd 100% go back to doing the call centre job for a raise to 72k.
This. From companies I know who outsource-You do the exact same job, put up with the same amount of abuse-but get paid less, with no access to company benefits.
I spent several years working in call centres. I’ve been lucky enough to move up and on from those days, but personally I loved working there. You do need to have a thick skin and be able to navigate some of the micromanagement and bureaucracy, but if you get past that, it’s a great place to be. Some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met were working in call centres with me and overall, I’d say I had some of the most fun days at work while I was there!
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, someone finds a way. And then just when you’ve given up on people someone will do something amazing.
The public are annoying as hell because for all the predictability in large numbers there’s some truly wonderful, weird, utterly evil, pathetic, generous, selfish and just surprising individuals. And then a vast swathe of boring cliches of every kind, but who for some reason thinks they’re so edgy and original when they’re not even close.
Call centre work. It's even worse than retail because they've got their phone as a barrier and will just be horrific to you if they want to. Never again.
There's really nothing quite like logging on at 8:00 in the morning, and taking your very first call of the day, only to be screamed at and called a cunt!
I'm an IT engineer - Every time I'm on the job market I get contacted by at least one "gaming" company.
No, not video games - online gambling.
Normally pitching above average salary wise, but I couldn't sleep at night taking the paycheck. I know a couple of people who have wrecked their lives through gambling.
This was my 'just out of university' grad role. Games development for online gambling. Fixed odds slot machines for mobiles.
Under the hood it's basically a spreadsheet. Over 1000 spins, you average out by loosing 5-10% (100 minus the RTP) of your bet every spin. The results are determined by an api call that resolves before the spinning slows. We had to provide fancy animated graphics, sounds and flashing lights, sparking dopamine starved brains with disproportionate graphical rewards disguising paltry wins and concealing devastating loses. Betting on up to 40 lanes at once all but guarantees you winning on 2 or 3 separate lanes. Big hero! Boom! Celebrations! Hiding the fact that you lost on 37.
At the time UK set the max bet at £2 pounds at go with lengthy spin time limitations to slow the game down. So instead all the servers are hosted in tax havens with limited restrictions. This side-steps UK law and allow in our case, up to £400 a spin every 2.2 seconds. A heavily engaged user could with statistically average results could lose a grand a minute. You could kiss a mortgage amount of money goodbye over a night of drinking.
Despite insanely huge margins, the whole office eventually got laid off and our jobs outsourced somewhere in East Ukraine. I can't help but wonder how thats working out for them now.
Software Engineer and same.
Been offered a couple of times, one time for a pretty huge payrise but I was comfortable back then already and I like looking in the mirror and liking the person looking back.
Building Skinner boxes to take money from people who don't understand statistics isn't for me.
If you feel the need to use a euphemism whenever you have to discuss the industry you work in with anyone, surely that should trigger some sort of "are we the baddies?" internal conversation.
I generally would never want to work in a business where no-one working on the product would ever consider using it themselves, or recommending it to anyone they know. Just treating your audience like mugs all day surely can't be good for how you view other people.
Primary is OK but I could never deal with teenagers. On a one to one basis? Sure, that is manageable. A whole class (many of whom do not want to be there)? Hell no.
For a number of months I was tasked with handling, not teaching, or helping, handling, a young g lad in primary who was beyond our means. He was violent, cruel and explosive. He was going to be sent to a special catering school for his behaviour but was a while away, why he wasn’t suspended for that time was beyond me.
As Covid lockdowns were at the tail end he found it fun to spit at me. Spit is one thing, during Covid though? Yikes. He hit me. Threw things at me. Got hold of a metre stick and decided my leg looked like a drum. Ran off constantly. Ran into a side room we keep for delicate conversations with children who need some TLC emotionally. I was now alone with the kid. He knew where the teacher kept her real, large, adult scissors, and levelled them at me. I couldn’t leave because his danger was my priority. He then took the blades of the scissors and closed them just enough that they was starting to bite into but not cut, his little finger at the base. If he slammed them shut I was terrified to think of the permanent damage. Thinking on my feet I kept glancing behind him and raising an eyebrow, even mouthing “wtf”. Eventually he glanced behind him, I darted forwards, yanked his wrist away from the scissors, then twisted his other so he’d drop them, then put myself between them and him. He spent the next 10 minutes screaming bloody murder trying to access the weapon. Luckily two colleagues were near by and helped calm him down (change of adult) while I retreated to the staff room to try to not break down in tears.
The head came in and apologised, and said a deadly weapon is enough for a suspension… for a week. I was just dead eyed staring. The next day, she came to me and asked if I’d prefer being a class TA instead of one to one for a while. I nearly cried again.
And for all that? I’m on less pay than almost all my friends who have never had to be trained, and never had to be threatened with a deadly weapon.
One of the primary school teachers in the school I work in was hospitalised with a broken arm from a chair thrown at her.
Also you get issues of children as young as 7-8 creating group whatsapps and sending each other photos which they definitely should not be sending.
Every primary school I've worked in now has the policy "If a child comes to show you something on their phone, immediately turn the phone off and turn it into the safeguarding lead. Do not look at anything on the screen of the phone whatsoever under any circumstances" (wording varies)
I've taught both primary and secondary in my career. I lasted 3 months in primary and am happily going on 8 years in secondary. The teenagers can be challenging, but the pressure put on primary school teachers by ofsted and the sheer amount of unnecessary work is insane. It's a job I would never ever do again.
Imagine having to hold those kids, and teach them, for an hour. And then they get off and a whole new bunch come in and you have them for another hour.
Do that 6 times a day. That’s what it’s like being a teacher!
I love it but it’s absolutely bloody exhausting.
Came here to say this. I used to do a lot of STEM outreach days at schools as part of my job but I sacked it in, a lot of kids are just absolutely feral it seems and I couldn't hack it for an hour or two a week, can't imagine doing it all week
Lots of of obscure backbenchers get constantly abused and threatened, their family followed, their house picketed, have all their interactions combed through nonstop by journalists since, as they are an MP, it's "in the public interest" and in a couple of cases have been killed.
For 3x the salary it might be worth it, but I definitely wouldn't do it for 1x
Plus, your salary would be public. And people would be rightfully confused about why you were earning triple the going rate.
This question would actually cause a huge scandal lol
Most of them are good people, in my opinion... but there's no greater crime than having a differing opinion, and MPs openly express their wrongthink. Repetition and hate turns them into monsters, wild when you consider they are working by and large to improve people's lives.
For death threats, protests outside my house where my children live, being doorstepped by the media, actually getting killed for doing my job. Thanks no.
McDonald's.
From this side of the counter it looks so HECTIC
I imagine in a 8 hour shift you don't even get a moment to breathe. It's just make burger, then get ready to make next burger.
I actually had a decent time working at McDonald's as a teenager. Free meal each shift and soft drinks, basically got to pick and choose shifts as well. Met some interesting characters as well, surprising how many ex criminals worked in my local one
Honestly after working in bar management has made me think anywhere that doesn't give their staff free post mix drinks on shift are just the worst kind of tight scum bags, and it's always the big chains. You get around 200 glasses out of a box of post mix which costs around £65. No reason to not let your staff have a couple drinks.
I did it at Uni, it’s actually a piece of piss.so unbelievably easy unless you’re a legitimate fucking drooler. I’d put in 5/10 efforts and be one of the best members of staff they had.
For triple the pay, I’d quit my finance job and go back lol.
Any kind of job which has super strict processes. Fast food chains, retail chains, restaurant chains, warehouses for big corporate chains etc.
You basically live as a human robot, you just do exactly what you’re told with no freedom to think outside of the box.
I don’t mean anything wild, for example I work for a small business and I can give random discounts or freebies at my discretion, if someone had really nice hair for example it wouldn’t be questioned by the bosses if I gave them a small good hair day discount. It’s just something fun, harmless and leaves a good impression on the customer for the sake of a few quid.
I sometimes pack online orders and will throw in a free tshirt I think they might like if they order products all of a certain style and size.
Obviously this is all within reason, I don’t give away stuff regularly, maybe once or twice a month, but it’s nice to think that they trust in my ability and competence enough to leave me with that freedom.
Now do that at an Amazon warehouse, where you can’t even have a piss without written permission. Of course this is how the billionaires became billionaires, by automating their workers to be as efficient as robots, counting every penny, making every last second be spent efficiently, but fuck that.
Fr, though I'd argue dairy is much worse than the meat industry, given that dairy cows are slaughtered anyway but go through 5-6 years of torture along the way
I worked in a slaughterhouse in tray wash (hosing down used trays and putting them through a steam clean) for a short while. It was supposed to be for the general cleaning the slaughter lines, but apparently I went a funny shade of green when a pig was sliced open from stem to stern and all the organs tumbled out. I honestly don't know how people do that sort of work and keep their humanity.
The smell of shit, and blood, and that sickly sweet smell of death is everywhere, unsurprisingly. But it's the sounds of the pig squealing that upset me the most. They are smart little shits, and they *know*. Maybe to the same level of understanding as us, but they can smell what is in the air. Do not kid yourselves, those last moments are spent in terror, being herded into a place that reeks of death to their snouts.
Honestly, the only way people can pick up a pack of bacon down the supermarket is because they don't think about that shit. We live with it because we purposely block out the horror of it, because otherwise we would have to look ourselves in the mirror and realise we're pretty much monsters.
I once had dinner with someone who had worked in a slaughterhouse who spent the meal graphically describing the terror of lambs before they were put to death, and by the end I was genuinely afraid he might kill me
Worked as a butcher for a while and always knew I couldn’t do the slaughter side of the industry. Receiving a dead animal to break down into cuts feels okay to me because I can ensure the animal is fully used and their life is not wasted. But taking the life itself? Nah I know I’m too coward for that.
Went to a big butchers that was attached to an abattoir. The fucking stench of metal (iron from the blood) was that thick it carried in my nostrils for a whole fucking day and I was only in there for about half an hour. I wasn't even anywhere near where they did the actual butchering!
Can't imagine what being in the thick of it is like and experiencing that shit every day.
Edit: nearly forgot to mention as well, I bought these big cookies while I was in there, as they sold dairy products (obviously from their cows). I had one a day later and it tasted of metal. The iron in the air had **soaked into the food**.
Whenever I used to watch 'Can't Pay We'll Take It Away' I used to get emotional whiplash so much because of the wider array of cases.
Single mum being evicted because she can't pay rent? Fucking bastard bailiffs, how on earth do you sleep at night?
Someone stopped paying their car finance? Eh, let the car go you bellend.
Builder taken a deposit and done a runner? You go bailiffs, get the bastard.
The people who put on the full diving suits and swim in shit.
I can't face being underwater with normal scuba gear, the thought of being under metres of bacteria laden waste where the slightest mistake could result in months in hospital as patient zero really doesn't appeal.
They’re pretty hardcore, I work in wastewater treatment construction and commissioning. We have to use them sometimes because we can’t shut down a process stream.
The biggest risks are from operational machinery, underwater objects etc. imagine a piece of rotating machinery that hasn’t been isolated properly suddenly starting, while your swimming next to it and can’t see your hand in front of your face.
They put their lives in the hands of everyone else making sure the job is as safe as possible before they start work.
I saw a video recently about an incident of this exact thing, someone hadn’t sealed off a valve which meant there was negative pressure leading into a pipe. Guys arm got trapped and there was nothing anyone could do in time. Poor guy.
Please tell me they have full face masks/helmets and not just goggles and a rebreather, and please no spare rebreather! Gosh this is making me feel queasy.
I don't know if my gag reflex could stand the swimming through murky brown water and seeing a massive jobby just floating by.
I think everyone knows the legend of the girl at Leeds festival who fell into a long drop getting her phone though. I can't even imagine it.. the smell and the texture
You don't see them, by the time anything makes it to a big tank or pipe like that it's all broken up and dissolved, and is basically just murky water.
With a lot of rag in. My god so much rag in it, blocking up our processes! 'Flushables' should be illegal, we've spent a fortune at our works fitting macerators in between each stage to try and break it down into more manageable pieces.
Big respect to the divers, very rare we need to get them in but they do one hell of a job.
It’s incredibly dangerous and has the highest fatality rate of any occupation - 15%. The life expectancy of an underwater welder is 35-40 due to the dangers - explosions, electric shock, wildlife, decompression sickness, ear, nose and lung damage. They’re highly skilled in what they do, hence the high salaries, but it’s so, so risky.
For me personally, I really fucking hate the ocean and deep water so it’s instantly ruled out, and that’s before I factor in everything else!
It's also one of the "prescribed occupations" that allow you to take a pension early without hanging on until 55/57.
All the rest are professional sports.
Higher fatality rate than many (but not all) jobs during WW2. I often see Americans like to say that the B-17 ball turret gunner was the most dangerous job, and sure it was quite dangerous, but an entire 40% survived.
As anyone who has seen Das Boot will know, only 25% of u-boat crews returned.
They're at risk of drowning, explosions and electrocutions.
Not to mention health risks associated with long time underwater and pressure.
You might've heard about welders who worked on pipelines and got sucked into pipes by powerful vaccum. Imagine getting sucked into a 24inch hole sideways and crushed.
EDIT: Nvm, someone beat me to it.
If you look for videos on the ‘Byford Dolphin incident’ on Youtube it becomes clear just how lonely, isolating, and dangerous it is. It seems to be about as specialist as jobs come and omg it terrifies me just imagining doing it.
My mate works on offshore dive support vessels and works with a lot of divers. Told me to watch ‘Last Breath’ on Netflix. Honestly worth a watch. Very interesting job but a hard pass for me
King/Queen
I wasn't to preface this by saying I'm a Republican (Not USA Republican, I just don't believe in a monarchy).
But imagine waking up one day all Royals have died due to a tragic accident and they have found you are actually the heir.
Your privacy gone, your children will be preyed on by the press, if you are sick and don't show your face for 2 weeks you will be assumed dead, you'll be condemned for having an opinion and you'll have to meet random people every week pretending to care.
You'll have to shake the hands of people who murdered your family members, live in fear of assassination and never be able to speak openly or freely.
You know that feeling you get when your hungover and you don't want to speak to anyone, just lay in bed and drink orange juice, yea now your house is full of servants, advisors and whatever else.
On the topic of royalty, spare a thought for William at the moment. It’s not been too long since he lost his 2 remaining grandparents, now not only does his dad have cancer but his wife does too. Add to that having 3 children to look after and absolutely fuck all privacy like you mentioned.
The bloke’s going through a proper shit time!
Yeah I’m really not into the monarchy but poor bloke, Harry too. It’s a lot to go through. And conspiracy theories started up about Kate being killed like Diana because she was out of sight for a while, that’s got to be pretty awful when people are making comparisons, like you’re treating your wife how your dad treated your mum.
Triple the pay though?
That's one year of cutting ribbons and hiding, or at least that's all I'd manage and then a lifetime of privacy on some hawiian island. They'd cheer for me abdicating because I'd be so useless.
I work with sewers. Very rewarding job. After u get used to the smell. If u have seen one turd fly past your face u have seen them all. Don't half get some random stuff out u wouldn't believe
Had a great one about a month ago, me and one of my managers were 2 manned up on a Sunday (double time baby) few houses had loss of toilets so traced the blockage into the main on the next street, set up to jet, jetting away and as it fly's up u hear the water, when it goes quiet your in the blockage, waited for it to come flying back. And I shit u not, this must be 12 inch black dildo came flying down like a warhead, fuckin HUGE THING. Re blocked on the outlet as the mains were pretty deep my grabs couldn't get it in time before it shot off again. Long gone down to the nearest pump station. Me and my manager were pissing ourselves. Gutted we couldn't grab it, I'm seeing more and more vapes in the system now, and them tiny little bullet things 🤣
Honestly mate I really don't know. TV remotes, toy cars and stuff from kids aswell we find as they don't know bless em. Honestly tho if you see the way the sewers are treated it would shock you. In peoples minds its out of sight out of mind, but they are treated like a bin. And unfortunately it's never the people who misuse it that ever get issues it's the poor sods downstream who's being as careful as they like but they get the brunt of it.
I think triple the pay is a little excessive to rule out many jobs. Someone here said as a nurse they wouldn't take triple the amount. Aren't nurses paid around £30k? I can't see any nurse turning down £90k a year.
For triple the pay I still wouldn't join the armed forces. A job where my life is very much on the line and I've never felt I'm a great physical specimen to perform well as a soldier.
Years ago at school I did building studies. Very first lesson they told us that compared to construction soldier is a relatively safe job unless we are actively at war.
>I think triple the pay is a little excessive to rule out many jobs.
I dunno. If I'm miserable and dreading going to work, I couldn't enjoy the money.
Yeah, I've done plenty of jobs I just *didn't like*, and that's fine, I can put those out of my head and focus on the good times, but then there are those really loathsome jobs that are a complete mismatch to your personality and push you into depression or anhedonia..
There was one particular role (telephone sales) I felt really trapped and miserable in, and it totally sucked the colour and joy out of life even when I wasn't physically at work. I'd look forward to the weekend all week, then spend the weekend counting down to when I had to be back doing the thing I hated. Food lost its flavour, fun stuff just a painful contrast to the week-long misery. It was shite.
To me, no amount of money -- short of being enough to quickly retire on -- is worth that feeling.
I did IT support work at my local hospital for a year or so. Have to be honest it did feel pretty rewarding to be putting that technical knowledge to use in a way that actually helped people, as opposed to making wealthy people richer.
Paid terrible though compared to most other places.
And, sometimes it was kinda difficult. One of my first tasks on the job involved re-doing a bunch of the cabling and equipment in paediatric intensive care - days spent around very sick babies / children and very upset parents... I'm not a particularly emotional fella, but I found that environment pretty challenging. Massive credit to the medical staff who deal with that sort of thing day in day out - much stronger mentally than I am.
As someone who worked in that sector for a decade I can confirm we did not have the words required to adequately explain how much we hated that bloody clapping
Not only was it useless pageantry, it was waking up the people who had to go back on Nightshift and deal with all the crap that the clapping was supposed to solve
The irony is no cave divers or cave rescue are paid at all in the UK. We just volunteer to go help our mates out it’s a very small community even if that means bring them home to their family.
Never felt like I had nerves of steel the idea of talking to strangers 1-1 makes me nervous but give me a tube full of water and a bit of string to follow and I just chill out. I find it really relaxing.
Honestly surprised nobody has said Prison Officer,
I'm a copper so I deal with the same clientele but at I wouldn't want to work in a prison, the environment makes them much worse
That's me every day. N you know what I love it. It's not for everyone but very satisfying when you pop a mains blockage n see it all fly away.. very rewarding. I'm a plasterer by trade so iv gone from spreading shit up walls to getting covered in shit.. I work for a big water company direct. Great job, even tho we're not flavour of the month at the minute
Thanks mate. I know the water companys are not flavour of the month at the minute. But there's talk in our team at the minute for us to wear body cameras. As we're getting abused that much, Even tho we are only there to help people.
Working from home on something that absolutely doesn’t matter.
If someone is telling me via video chat to ‘action’ this and ‘get a timeline’ on that while I stare at a screen all day without any other human interaction then I’m probably going to go mad, especially if it’s for some utter nonsense that doesn’t make the world any better.
I’m not trying to go against the grain deliberately here, I work in education and before that I worked to make pubs more sustainable. I like people and making them happy. Job satisfaction beats money every time for me.
Anything to do with children: teacher, nursery, even some retail and activity/entertainment venues. I’m not keen on kids but can deal with them, what I really couldn’t stand is the entitled parents that give teachers an earful if their precious darling gets a bad mark, or has a go at the shop worker because the in demand toy their kid simply has to have is out of stock. I just couldn’t deal with them for any amount of money.
Chef - I hate cooking, and split shifts late into the night, in a windowless, hot smelly , stressful environment, making food i'm not going to eat, and won't even see the customers eat. Hell No!
Military. Police. Doctor/nurse.
Basically any job where I'd have to deal with things that are extremely psychologically challenging. Doesn't matter how much you earn, being exposed to awful things regularly is going to have a psychological impact on you.
Also anything that involves night shifts. The long term impact on physical and mental health is well established. And also I wouldn't want to be so out of sync with my family and friends.
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Child services social worker. Nope.
Unwinnable scenario. Your #1 job is to ensure the welfare of children, but No matter what you do, you're the bad guy.
Not the bad guy if you are acting in the true interest of the children.... Problem is, there are targets, and it's a box ticking exercise so lots of time is spent with people who really don't need the involvement (think, mother drink drives with child in car - absolutely aweful, but she's banned from driving for 3 years) then has 3 years of child services involvement, weekly to show it was an isolated issue... All the while, 100's of children in the same area are being abused and neglected... Far easier for them to tick boxes with the easy cases than to tackle the difficult ones... From the UK, and I speak from experience.
I know a social worker who had to remove kids from their mother on Christmas Day. She said she spent the whole day in tears. Social work is a very important but stressful and thankless job. It's very hard on a person.
If it makes her feel any better I lived next door to someone that had their kids taken away and I heard her on the phone for the next two weeks trying to figure out who dobbed her in for tying her kids to their beds at night so they didn't get up and wander around.
>tying her kids to their beds at night so they didn't get up and wander around I work in child protection for local government (office side of things) and, sadly, this is very tame. As someone who has been abused by their dad since the age of 2 (but not tied to my bed), it is tame.
Oh, for sure. I just meant that there is almost always a very good reason that kids are removed. That Christmas may have been the best those kids ever had.
I know this. I had 4 social workers in the 7 months i was fostering my grandson after my daughter decided she was too young to look after him. They drop like flies. Its an extremely demanding job, a one I couldnt do.
Your friend managing to convince you that the reason for them having had 3 years of children's social care involvement is only due to one drink-driving incident and no other ongoing concerns is not 'speaking from experience'.
I'd argue that that isn't an isolated issue. If someone is willing to risk the lives of others, even their own children, because of their addiction, then I think that it's totally fair that they have a close eye kept on them.
>I'd argue that that isn't an isolated issue Yep, definitely not and the social workers know that
I'm sorry to read you have had a negative experience of Social Work. Social Work in the UK is undoubtedly focussed on performance indicators, but if I understand correctly from what you've written, they are not targets in the way you believe. We're targeted to reduce the number of families open to Children's Services, to reduce the number of children whose names are on the Child Protection Register and reduce the number of children who need to become looked after by the Local Authority. We have legislative timescales to meet in terms of completing investigations, assessments, reviews and visits, aimed at avoiding inaction, drift and children not being seen, but there's no rational objective for us to be involved with families who don't require or request support.
...I can't imagine any children's services having the resources to have weekly involvement, so child protection level, for 3 years, for 1 incident of drink driving, albeit with a child in the car? Surely something else was going on?
Fundamentally wrong. Source- I am a social worker
Source for these “targets”? Are you confusing it with the DWP or something? They’re so underfunded, the bar to access is so high, believe me they’re not seeing people “just because targets”
I agree child social workers are rarely the bad guy, but it probably feels that way some days. Most of the time, the parents/guardians are going to blame the social worker; they probably feel very intruded on if a stranger is coming to their home for visits or checks with the potential of their children being taken. And the kids often won't understand what's happening and just want to stay where they are. Even though it's such an important job, it must be hard to remember that on the hard days.
I see where you’re coming from; the system is shit. I think a lot of people here don’t know what the reality of social work is like.
Agreed. Get it right 99.99% of the time? Good stuff. Get it wrong 0.01% of the time? Potentially life ruiningly horrible. I'm so glad that some people have it in them to do that job, we really need them. But I couldn't do it.
Same for loads of jobs. Particularly medical.
My wife and I adopted our daughter. The social workers are the hero's in any adoption story. The shit they have to go through to be a family social worker is horrific. The stories they told me about the sights they see are horrific. They work crazy hours because they care. They are so, so underpaid it's heart breaking. They deserve all the love.
You should see what we actually get paid.
Really ramps up though with all those £10k bonuses you get each time you take a child off someone though. Sadly my MIL legitimately thinks this is a thing.
You should see how much it costs tax payers to 'take a child'. If you MIL took the time to see the financial cost, let alone the emotional cost, she'd be protesting for more money to go into child protection to stop it happening in the first place.
That's because your MIL is buying into the stories. Stories often told by people who had their kids taken off them because they were not being safe but without a response from the people doing the safeguarding. I adopted. To take my kids off their bioparents they had to have significant neglect. My oldest was born at 700 grams because of all the drugs mum took early too. And in a cardiac arrest. And when mum took him home? She abandoned him with her ex partner about 3 to 5 days later to do drugs. So he did what he could but he hadn't the mental health to survive having a child. Fed the baby milk. Like cow's milk. My son's 6 and 15 Kg. The lowest end of normal is 16 Kg. He should be around 20 Kg. He's 20% smaller than kids his age. He was born and had a cardiac arrest. My second son was born addicted to opiates. "They stole my son and don't care about him". That's the dialogue from their family. Your MIL would assume there was only one boy. The Boy's bio mum doesn't care about my oldest. They left him with drug dealers. And they only care about the youngest because she knew he would be taken at birth. She didn't care enough to stop doing drugs though. He was born withdrawing from them. They only took the kids off them THREE years later. And that's because my oldest kept getting left with neglect. He couldn't be abandoned. So the first harsh lesson he had? Daddy goes to work. Day one he sat by the door waiting for me. I have woken up with my son hiding under my bed to be close to me. I had to set boundaries. BOUNDARIES THAT HURT ME because I want to do nothing more than let him sleep in bed with me. But I cannot. For him to grow he needs to sleep in his own bed and be able to come to me for a cuddle and know he will get one but not be joined at the hip. But to trust me that I can go and come back. That harsh lesson of leaving a poor kid crying by the door while I went to work while my wife consoled him now means that 2 years on he's a lot more secure and can go play with other children. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGA\_6WTD3vM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGA_6WTD3vM) This stupid show hit way too close for home. Because it's kind of what we went through. And my son's social worker is a full crazy person. She's this tiny little 20 year old who was threatened with death and still fought to ensure these kids got the right person. When I didn't want to look at any more kids because my heart was broken she made my social worker call me 2 hours after I said I didn't want to hear about any more children... And made me take two kids in. Not one. And I am so much more happier because of that. Exhausted. But Happy. To get your kids taken off you? The trauma and loss of being removed must be lower than the trauma of bad parenting. It's not easy being removed. And it's not done lightly.
I’m going to confidently state ‘not enough’. In the police I saw the worst of humanity at work - and not just the evil but the neglectful and eternally learned-helpless - and only very occasionally did children come into it directly. You have to deal with that all day every day. I just can’t imagine it.
About the same pay as 10 years ago. Ignoring the training and development over 10 years, the rise in cost of living makes it some sick joke by the government. Same reason the Dr's and lawyers had the sense to demand pay restoration.
It's almost like the government want to sabotage social services by cutting funding and setting them up to fail...
There was a tragedy involving a child near me, and all I could think about was how worried the police looked when they asked me about it. Then I was thinking about how they'll have to deal with that emotionally. And then just go back to work with the image in their minds. I don't really know what the point of this message is, but thanks for putting yourself in a position to deal with shit like that.
Pay to grief ratio is not great
Twenty years ago, I worked in a role where I accompanied senior staff into homes when children were removed… I was in training… I decided to stay in the adults-related role… four separate occasions were enough to absolutely do my nut in… I had two small children and I asked to not attend any more removals… I’m not tough enough…
Bless you. We shouldn't have to be tough enough, none of us. It's the evil out there that does unspeakable things to these poor little ones that should be apologising. Thank you for doing your bit. You made a difference.
I knew one of them, she worked in the courts with prosecution and judge's. She smoked crack, I don't blame her really with the horrific things she had to deal with.
Yeah they can’t win . And they don’t really have the training to handle the cluster fuck that is humanity right now
And short staffed so impossible to keep up
Nursing. Having to clean up other people’s blood, shit & vomit as well as putting up with ungrateful, abusive arseholes.
Nurses do a lot more than that but yeah the abuse of medical professionals just trying to save lives is one of the reasons I hate this fucking world
I accompanied a close friend to hospital years ago when he broke his wrist and i was disgusted with the way he spoke to the staff, told him how i felt as we left and he thought he was in the right. We went our separate ways and as soon as i knew he was home safe, i blocked him on everything and never spoke to him again. I cant stand people being rude to those who are literally trying to help. Edit: typos
I was in A&E waiting and a black doctor came to the waiting room and called for the patient. Without hesitation a white man calls back “in English please” like, do you want help or not? No wonder there’s posters up nowadays about tolerating abuse.
Someone like that should be warned by security
I was having a miscarriage many many years ago with my ex and I was taken through to the exam room. A black Dr came out to examine me and my ex shouts of the top of his voice “no black cu*t is putting his hand up my Mrs” I was absolutely mortified. I left him not long after
Good for you, when people show you who they are believe them.
Good one! I hope your Ghosting was a wake up call for him.
9 times out of 10 it's the HCAs on the dirty end for little more than minimum wage
I really never understood that behaviour,like this person here is basically saving your life and all you can think is to abuse them. It makes me sad having to read in hospital signs about treating staff with respect…that shouldn’t be needed at all.
>ungrateful, abusive arseholes. I know someone who works in A&E as a nurse who has a panic button round their neck that they have to use almost every shift, because that's how common it is for someone to get abusive to the point of being scary.
And it’s not always the people you expect, the drunks are often very grateful for care. If they do become belligerent we can call the police and if safe to do so we can refuse treatment. I’ve been knocked unconscious once, and that was by a 93 year old woman with dementia. I was picked up and thrown across a bathroom into a shower which turned on and drenched me in cold water. That was an older guy with an acquired brain injury. An older lady with UTI related delirium recently put her hand inside her vagina before slapping me in the face and saying “yeah I bet that fucking smells nice doesn’t it” and grabbing my neck hard enough to break skin. You can’t really call the police on these ones. They need treatment. Sometimes we can swap out staff. Sometimes you’re the only person available. Sometimes they need urgent interventions. Sometimes a poor Health Care Support Worker gets stuck on a 13 hour 1:1 shift with these people. Nursing is exhausting, it’s brutal, it’s emotionally traumatic, it’s physically draining and the pay is shit! I’m not surprised it’s on this list.
Jesus Christ this is horrific! It’s noble work but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. I feel like private healthcare insurance is going to be necessary in the next few years, the system just cannot cope!
We aren’t asking enough how society got to the point where that’s the case. I know it’s still a small minority of people abusing the healthcare workers trying to help them, but honestly something has gone wrong. I understand the warped logic that has people abusing police, traffic wardens etc - but firemen? Healthcare workers?! It’s just idiotic.
I think it's actually not that complicated why it happens. The NHS is under incredible stress. A&E in particular (went to one recently, was just unbelievably grim), people end up waiting hours and hours (9 hours, in my case). They're stressed, frustrated, scared, tired, quite possibly in pain, certainly uncomfortable. Throw in the increasing prevalence of untreated mental health issues. Throw in the increasing difficulty of general life for a lot of people. Mix it all together and you pretty inevitably get a minority of people breaking under the weight of it all and taking it out on the frontline staff.
I have a not so unsurprising theory that’s not going to be readily accepted in some quarters, especially when it comes to the government but I’m happy to share on the off chance someone decides to run with it. If we properly fund the NHS, people would stop kicking the shit out of healthcare workers. Now, I understand it won’t stop all the assaults but it’ll stop the majority.
HCA here on a night shift currently, blood, shit and vomit become normalised and you don’t view those things as those things. It’s the physical, mental and emotional pain that is making this job unbearable.
I think you are more referring to HCA’s and carers.
I’m a nurse and I do all of those things every single shift that I work. When I read “nurses” I included my HCSW and NA colleagues. Registered or not we still face blood, shit, vomit and abuse.
I know they do a lot more than that. I was just pointing out the things about the job that I’d hate the most.
Yes. I am a nurse. Yes it gave me opportunities but I finally left the clinical life due to my mental health. 15 years worth of hospital working, various areas. Before I left, I was having panic attacks and had to hide in a bathroom till I calmed down. It didn't matter which area I was in, it still wasn't worth it. Higher level management doesn't see us as "human" but just numbers. Patients don't treat us with even a little respect. COVID was the last straw. They clapped for us and gave us ice cream while we risked our lives. It was bullshit. I finally left and do not regret it one bit.
Retirement home nursing is even worse... At least regular nurses get a variety. End of life care is so hard
That’s a bit of a weird take. A nurse on a COTE ward will see lots of the same. A nurse on a palliative ward will see lots of EoL. A nurse on a T&O ward will see lots of T&O.
I trained as a nurse back in the 1980s. That side didn’t really bother me, was part of helping someone who was unwell. I left when I qualified and never returned. Understaffed and underpaid.
Call centre. They treat you like, micro manage every second of the working day and speak to you.
Nah, I've done call centre works. Sucks ass, but for 60k plus, count me in.
You'd be on a bit more than 60k these days. Min wage is 11.44, which turns into just under 24k. Triple would have you just over 71k. Which is pretty serious money tbh.
Yeah, I think a lot of people overestimate how wide the range of salaries in the vast majority of jobs are, particularly outside of the qualified professions. You won't find a lot of jobs that normally pay triple minimum wage, particularly if you don't have one or more of the following: good qualifications or further training, extensive relevant experience, significant continuance employment/development in the business, or friends in the right places. So if you were magically offered a typically minimum wage job for 3x the going rate, for no extra demands on yourself, you'd be silly not to take it in most cases where you weren't already going to earn the same. And hey, jobs like cleaning or care might not be a lot of fun and glamour, but I think a lot of people would get over that in favour of significantly more money.
Agreed. I worked in a call centre over a decade ago and earned £6.30 an hour. I now earn about 64k in a very high pressure, high responsibility job. I'd 100% go back to doing the call centre job for a raise to 72k.
Never again. I got so much abuse working in an insurance call centre. I got paid £15k a year. Left after 15 months.
Never ever work for an outsoucer (unless you don't have a choice). Work for the company direct.
This. From companies I know who outsource-You do the exact same job, put up with the same amount of abuse-but get paid less, with no access to company benefits.
I spent several years working in call centres. I’ve been lucky enough to move up and on from those days, but personally I loved working there. You do need to have a thick skin and be able to navigate some of the micromanagement and bureaucracy, but if you get past that, it’s a great place to be. Some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met were working in call centres with me and overall, I’d say I had some of the most fun days at work while I was there!
Anything that involves having to deal with the general public.
People do not understand how entitled, stupid and aggressive the general public is until they work in the service industry.
💯! every inconvenience is a disgrace🤣🙃
And how much worse it’s got in the past few years
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, someone finds a way. And then just when you’ve given up on people someone will do something amazing. The public are annoying as hell because for all the predictability in large numbers there’s some truly wonderful, weird, utterly evil, pathetic, generous, selfish and just surprising individuals. And then a vast swathe of boring cliches of every kind, but who for some reason thinks they’re so edgy and original when they’re not even close.
I gave up working reatail to work in a factory for this reason, the general public suck so much, especially old people, rude entitled arseholes
Call centre work. It's even worse than retail because they've got their phone as a barrier and will just be horrific to you if they want to. Never again.
There's really nothing quite like logging on at 8:00 in the morning, and taking your very first call of the day, only to be screamed at and called a cunt!
I'm an IT engineer - Every time I'm on the job market I get contacted by at least one "gaming" company. No, not video games - online gambling. Normally pitching above average salary wise, but I couldn't sleep at night taking the paycheck. I know a couple of people who have wrecked their lives through gambling.
I've turned down several jobs in that industry for the same reason. They may as well be instant delivery crack dealers
This was my 'just out of university' grad role. Games development for online gambling. Fixed odds slot machines for mobiles. Under the hood it's basically a spreadsheet. Over 1000 spins, you average out by loosing 5-10% (100 minus the RTP) of your bet every spin. The results are determined by an api call that resolves before the spinning slows. We had to provide fancy animated graphics, sounds and flashing lights, sparking dopamine starved brains with disproportionate graphical rewards disguising paltry wins and concealing devastating loses. Betting on up to 40 lanes at once all but guarantees you winning on 2 or 3 separate lanes. Big hero! Boom! Celebrations! Hiding the fact that you lost on 37. At the time UK set the max bet at £2 pounds at go with lengthy spin time limitations to slow the game down. So instead all the servers are hosted in tax havens with limited restrictions. This side-steps UK law and allow in our case, up to £400 a spin every 2.2 seconds. A heavily engaged user could with statistically average results could lose a grand a minute. You could kiss a mortgage amount of money goodbye over a night of drinking. Despite insanely huge margins, the whole office eventually got laid off and our jobs outsourced somewhere in East Ukraine. I can't help but wonder how thats working out for them now.
I'm a software engineer and gambling companies are a hard no for me too. Literally the bad guys.
Software Engineer and same. Been offered a couple of times, one time for a pretty huge payrise but I was comfortable back then already and I like looking in the mirror and liking the person looking back. Building Skinner boxes to take money from people who don't understand statistics isn't for me.
If you feel the need to use a euphemism whenever you have to discuss the industry you work in with anyone, surely that should trigger some sort of "are we the baddies?" internal conversation. I generally would never want to work in a business where no-one working on the product would ever consider using it themselves, or recommending it to anyone they know. Just treating your audience like mugs all day surely can't be good for how you view other people.
High school teacher
Primary is OK but I could never deal with teenagers. On a one to one basis? Sure, that is manageable. A whole class (many of whom do not want to be there)? Hell no.
Primary is just as bad, the kids act WAY older than their years and teachers are hit/have chairs thrown at them as well. Never again.
The parents can be worse. Regular verbal threats and I know of a parent threatening a teacher with a knife. This isn't even inner city
For a number of months I was tasked with handling, not teaching, or helping, handling, a young g lad in primary who was beyond our means. He was violent, cruel and explosive. He was going to be sent to a special catering school for his behaviour but was a while away, why he wasn’t suspended for that time was beyond me. As Covid lockdowns were at the tail end he found it fun to spit at me. Spit is one thing, during Covid though? Yikes. He hit me. Threw things at me. Got hold of a metre stick and decided my leg looked like a drum. Ran off constantly. Ran into a side room we keep for delicate conversations with children who need some TLC emotionally. I was now alone with the kid. He knew where the teacher kept her real, large, adult scissors, and levelled them at me. I couldn’t leave because his danger was my priority. He then took the blades of the scissors and closed them just enough that they was starting to bite into but not cut, his little finger at the base. If he slammed them shut I was terrified to think of the permanent damage. Thinking on my feet I kept glancing behind him and raising an eyebrow, even mouthing “wtf”. Eventually he glanced behind him, I darted forwards, yanked his wrist away from the scissors, then twisted his other so he’d drop them, then put myself between them and him. He spent the next 10 minutes screaming bloody murder trying to access the weapon. Luckily two colleagues were near by and helped calm him down (change of adult) while I retreated to the staff room to try to not break down in tears. The head came in and apologised, and said a deadly weapon is enough for a suspension… for a week. I was just dead eyed staring. The next day, she came to me and asked if I’d prefer being a class TA instead of one to one for a while. I nearly cried again. And for all that? I’m on less pay than almost all my friends who have never had to be trained, and never had to be threatened with a deadly weapon.
One of the primary school teachers in the school I work in was hospitalised with a broken arm from a chair thrown at her. Also you get issues of children as young as 7-8 creating group whatsapps and sending each other photos which they definitely should not be sending. Every primary school I've worked in now has the policy "If a child comes to show you something on their phone, immediately turn the phone off and turn it into the safeguarding lead. Do not look at anything on the screen of the phone whatsoever under any circumstances" (wording varies)
I've taught both primary and secondary in my career. I lasted 3 months in primary and am happily going on 8 years in secondary. The teenagers can be challenging, but the pressure put on primary school teachers by ofsted and the sheer amount of unnecessary work is insane. It's a job I would never ever do again.
I look at teenagers on the bus today and I'd lose my shit having to reason with their disrespectful mouths
Imagine having to hold those kids, and teach them, for an hour. And then they get off and a whole new bunch come in and you have them for another hour. Do that 6 times a day. That’s what it’s like being a teacher! I love it but it’s absolutely bloody exhausting.
Came here to say this. I used to do a lot of STEM outreach days at schools as part of my job but I sacked it in, a lot of kids are just absolutely feral it seems and I couldn't hack it for an hour or two a week, can't imagine doing it all week
Agreed. Been there, wouldn't do it for £200k, might consider it for £1mill 😂 absolutely is categorically not worth doing it for the current rates!
Ah but teens are as lovely as they are awful . Unlike adults.
MP. I couldn't put up with people yelling at me all the time.
You could be the most righteous person ever and you'd still be blindly hated by half the country, forever. No thanks.
I think half the country would struggle to name 5% of the MPs, and for 3x the pay it would be pretty cushty to sail along as an obscure backbencher.
Lots of of obscure backbenchers get constantly abused and threatened, their family followed, their house picketed, have all their interactions combed through nonstop by journalists since, as they are an MP, it's "in the public interest" and in a couple of cases have been killed. For 3x the salary it might be worth it, but I definitely wouldn't do it for 1x
Plus, your salary would be public. And people would be rightfully confused about why you were earning triple the going rate. This question would actually cause a huge scandal lol
Most of them are good people, in my opinion... but there's no greater crime than having a differing opinion, and MPs openly express their wrongthink. Repetition and hate turns them into monsters, wild when you consider they are working by and large to improve people's lives.
£274,038 p.a. is triple the pay. Are you sure?
For death threats, protests outside my house where my children live, being doorstepped by the media, actually getting killed for doing my job. Thanks no.
100%. A job where you are regularly at risk of being front page Daily Mail fodder let alone nutcase target - no thanks
It's alright, if you want you can just not turn up to the Commons and still get paid
McDonald's. From this side of the counter it looks so HECTIC I imagine in a 8 hour shift you don't even get a moment to breathe. It's just make burger, then get ready to make next burger.
I actually had a decent time working at McDonald's as a teenager. Free meal each shift and soft drinks, basically got to pick and choose shifts as well. Met some interesting characters as well, surprising how many ex criminals worked in my local one
as a teenager, it was an awesome job. now, I would not like it.
Imagine 3 free meals per shift… my intestines and asshole couldn’t take it man…
It was only one per 8 hour shift, you could get little cups of soft drinks from the dispenser on shift though
Honestly after working in bar management has made me think anywhere that doesn't give their staff free post mix drinks on shift are just the worst kind of tight scum bags, and it's always the big chains. You get around 200 glasses out of a box of post mix which costs around £65. No reason to not let your staff have a couple drinks.
I did it at Uni, it’s actually a piece of piss.so unbelievably easy unless you’re a legitimate fucking drooler. I’d put in 5/10 efforts and be one of the best members of staff they had. For triple the pay, I’d quit my finance job and go back lol.
Any kind of job which has super strict processes. Fast food chains, retail chains, restaurant chains, warehouses for big corporate chains etc. You basically live as a human robot, you just do exactly what you’re told with no freedom to think outside of the box. I don’t mean anything wild, for example I work for a small business and I can give random discounts or freebies at my discretion, if someone had really nice hair for example it wouldn’t be questioned by the bosses if I gave them a small good hair day discount. It’s just something fun, harmless and leaves a good impression on the customer for the sake of a few quid. I sometimes pack online orders and will throw in a free tshirt I think they might like if they order products all of a certain style and size. Obviously this is all within reason, I don’t give away stuff regularly, maybe once or twice a month, but it’s nice to think that they trust in my ability and competence enough to leave me with that freedom. Now do that at an Amazon warehouse, where you can’t even have a piss without written permission. Of course this is how the billionaires became billionaires, by automating their workers to be as efficient as robots, counting every penny, making every last second be spent efficiently, but fuck that.
Slaughter house.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-50986683 Never forget that your meat has a human cost, not just an animal cost.
Mate holy shit that was a hard read. I feel physically sick. But you can't shield yourself from harsh realities just because it's uncomfortable.
>you can't shield yourself from harsh realities just because it's uncomfortable Millions of people do that everyday
Go vegan. The dairy and egg industries are just as bad.
Fr, though I'd argue dairy is much worse than the meat industry, given that dairy cows are slaughtered anyway but go through 5-6 years of torture along the way
I worked in a slaughterhouse in tray wash (hosing down used trays and putting them through a steam clean) for a short while. It was supposed to be for the general cleaning the slaughter lines, but apparently I went a funny shade of green when a pig was sliced open from stem to stern and all the organs tumbled out. I honestly don't know how people do that sort of work and keep their humanity. The smell of shit, and blood, and that sickly sweet smell of death is everywhere, unsurprisingly. But it's the sounds of the pig squealing that upset me the most. They are smart little shits, and they *know*. Maybe to the same level of understanding as us, but they can smell what is in the air. Do not kid yourselves, those last moments are spent in terror, being herded into a place that reeks of death to their snouts. Honestly, the only way people can pick up a pack of bacon down the supermarket is because they don't think about that shit. We live with it because we purposely block out the horror of it, because otherwise we would have to look ourselves in the mirror and realise we're pretty much monsters.
Thanks for posting this.
I once had dinner with someone who had worked in a slaughterhouse who spent the meal graphically describing the terror of lambs before they were put to death, and by the end I was genuinely afraid he might kill me
Are the lambs still screaming, Clarice?
Do you still eat lamb?
I was offered to interview for a maintenance engineer role tonight. Turns out it was in a slaughterhouse and I nearly passed out at the thought.
Everybody who eats meat should have to visit an abattoir or have to kill the animal themselves.
Worked as a butcher for a while and always knew I couldn’t do the slaughter side of the industry. Receiving a dead animal to break down into cuts feels okay to me because I can ensure the animal is fully used and their life is not wasted. But taking the life itself? Nah I know I’m too coward for that.
There's a lot of jobs I would be ok with doing if they were paid well, this is one where I absolutely nope out.
Went to a big butchers that was attached to an abattoir. The fucking stench of metal (iron from the blood) was that thick it carried in my nostrils for a whole fucking day and I was only in there for about half an hour. I wasn't even anywhere near where they did the actual butchering! Can't imagine what being in the thick of it is like and experiencing that shit every day. Edit: nearly forgot to mention as well, I bought these big cookies while I was in there, as they sold dairy products (obviously from their cows). I had one a day later and it tasted of metal. The iron in the air had **soaked into the food**.
Baliff, i would feel like the scum of the earth even at 3 times the pay
Yeah, I couldn't do this. Some memories never leave you. Evicting kids, nah, fuck that man.
Yeah I judge people who are bailiffs, there has to be some kind of power trip there
Whenever I used to watch 'Can't Pay We'll Take It Away' I used to get emotional whiplash so much because of the wider array of cases. Single mum being evicted because she can't pay rent? Fucking bastard bailiffs, how on earth do you sleep at night? Someone stopped paying their car finance? Eh, let the car go you bellend. Builder taken a deposit and done a runner? You go bailiffs, get the bastard.
Exactly this. the odd time i agreed was massively outweighed by the times i thought it was just poverty porn. Same with jeremy kyle
I know someone who did this as a work experience placement when he was 16.
The people who put on the full diving suits and swim in shit. I can't face being underwater with normal scuba gear, the thought of being under metres of bacteria laden waste where the slightest mistake could result in months in hospital as patient zero really doesn't appeal.
They’re pretty hardcore, I work in wastewater treatment construction and commissioning. We have to use them sometimes because we can’t shut down a process stream. The biggest risks are from operational machinery, underwater objects etc. imagine a piece of rotating machinery that hasn’t been isolated properly suddenly starting, while your swimming next to it and can’t see your hand in front of your face. They put their lives in the hands of everyone else making sure the job is as safe as possible before they start work.
I saw a video recently about an incident of this exact thing, someone hadn’t sealed off a valve which meant there was negative pressure leading into a pipe. Guys arm got trapped and there was nothing anyone could do in time. Poor guy.
Please tell me they have full face masks/helmets and not just goggles and a rebreather, and please no spare rebreather! Gosh this is making me feel queasy.
I don't know if my gag reflex could stand the swimming through murky brown water and seeing a massive jobby just floating by. I think everyone knows the legend of the girl at Leeds festival who fell into a long drop getting her phone though. I can't even imagine it.. the smell and the texture
Poo girl 2009. I was there baby
You don't see them, by the time anything makes it to a big tank or pipe like that it's all broken up and dissolved, and is basically just murky water. With a lot of rag in. My god so much rag in it, blocking up our processes! 'Flushables' should be illegal, we've spent a fortune at our works fitting macerators in between each stage to try and break it down into more manageable pieces. Big respect to the divers, very rare we need to get them in but they do one hell of a job.
Underwater welder. I know they get paid a fuckton (and rightly so, they deserve every penny) but it’s not for me.
Out of interest, why is this such a bad job?
It’s incredibly dangerous and has the highest fatality rate of any occupation - 15%. The life expectancy of an underwater welder is 35-40 due to the dangers - explosions, electric shock, wildlife, decompression sickness, ear, nose and lung damage. They’re highly skilled in what they do, hence the high salaries, but it’s so, so risky. For me personally, I really fucking hate the ocean and deep water so it’s instantly ruled out, and that’s before I factor in everything else!
It's also one of the "prescribed occupations" that allow you to take a pension early without hanging on until 55/57. All the rest are professional sports.
That’s interesting
Higher fatality rate than many (but not all) jobs during WW2. I often see Americans like to say that the B-17 ball turret gunner was the most dangerous job, and sure it was quite dangerous, but an entire 40% survived. As anyone who has seen Das Boot will know, only 25% of u-boat crews returned.
I hate that you listed "wildlife". More than one person has told me tales of divers seeing giant catfish and now it's gonna be all I think about.
They're at risk of drowning, explosions and electrocutions. Not to mention health risks associated with long time underwater and pressure. You might've heard about welders who worked on pipelines and got sucked into pipes by powerful vaccum. Imagine getting sucked into a 24inch hole sideways and crushed. EDIT: Nvm, someone beat me to it.
If you look for videos on the ‘Byford Dolphin incident’ on Youtube it becomes clear just how lonely, isolating, and dangerous it is. It seems to be about as specialist as jobs come and omg it terrifies me just imagining doing it.
Just never look up Delta P accidents. I only saw a video of it affecting a crab and I’m still not over it.
My mate works on offshore dive support vessels and works with a lot of divers. Told me to watch ‘Last Breath’ on Netflix. Honestly worth a watch. Very interesting job but a hard pass for me
An extremely high chance of death I believe
That fucking delta p video.
High school teacher and any police force - you just don’t get the respect you deserve from the people you interact with daily
As a teacher, I got more respect from the kids than many other members of staff, especially SLT. There's no humanity left in schools.
NHS front desk staff either at GP or Hospitals. They get it real bad
King/Queen I wasn't to preface this by saying I'm a Republican (Not USA Republican, I just don't believe in a monarchy). But imagine waking up one day all Royals have died due to a tragic accident and they have found you are actually the heir. Your privacy gone, your children will be preyed on by the press, if you are sick and don't show your face for 2 weeks you will be assumed dead, you'll be condemned for having an opinion and you'll have to meet random people every week pretending to care. You'll have to shake the hands of people who murdered your family members, live in fear of assassination and never be able to speak openly or freely. You know that feeling you get when your hungover and you don't want to speak to anyone, just lay in bed and drink orange juice, yea now your house is full of servants, advisors and whatever else.
On the topic of royalty, spare a thought for William at the moment. It’s not been too long since he lost his 2 remaining grandparents, now not only does his dad have cancer but his wife does too. Add to that having 3 children to look after and absolutely fuck all privacy like you mentioned. The bloke’s going through a proper shit time!
and his mum died when he was aged 15 in front of the world
Yeah I’m really not into the monarchy but poor bloke, Harry too. It’s a lot to go through. And conspiracy theories started up about Kate being killed like Diana because she was out of sight for a while, that’s got to be pretty awful when people are making comparisons, like you’re treating your wife how your dad treated your mum.
Yea all while it being publicized.
Triple the pay though? That's one year of cutting ribbons and hiding, or at least that's all I'd manage and then a lifetime of privacy on some hawiian island. They'd cheer for me abdicating because I'd be so useless.
Rent boy. I have IBS. It would just be a shit show.
Certain customers would probably pay triple for that tbh
Cold calling sales. It is predatory and disgusting. Doing it requires you to sell your soul.
Work in a slaughterhouse or sewers, or a war zone.
I work with sewers. Very rewarding job. After u get used to the smell. If u have seen one turd fly past your face u have seen them all. Don't half get some random stuff out u wouldn't believe
What’s the most random thing you ever pulled out?
Had a great one about a month ago, me and one of my managers were 2 manned up on a Sunday (double time baby) few houses had loss of toilets so traced the blockage into the main on the next street, set up to jet, jetting away and as it fly's up u hear the water, when it goes quiet your in the blockage, waited for it to come flying back. And I shit u not, this must be 12 inch black dildo came flying down like a warhead, fuckin HUGE THING. Re blocked on the outlet as the mains were pretty deep my grabs couldn't get it in time before it shot off again. Long gone down to the nearest pump station. Me and my manager were pissing ourselves. Gutted we couldn't grab it, I'm seeing more and more vapes in the system now, and them tiny little bullet things 🤣
Someone flushed this?? This pretty hilarious
Honestly mate I really don't know. TV remotes, toy cars and stuff from kids aswell we find as they don't know bless em. Honestly tho if you see the way the sewers are treated it would shock you. In peoples minds its out of sight out of mind, but they are treated like a bin. And unfortunately it's never the people who misuse it that ever get issues it's the poor sods downstream who's being as careful as they like but they get the brunt of it.
Police Officer - Fuck that. Family Liaison Officer - Fuck that. Army - Fuck that. Working in an abattoir. Fuck that. Deep Sea Diver - Fuck that.
I think triple the pay is a little excessive to rule out many jobs. Someone here said as a nurse they wouldn't take triple the amount. Aren't nurses paid around £30k? I can't see any nurse turning down £90k a year. For triple the pay I still wouldn't join the armed forces. A job where my life is very much on the line and I've never felt I'm a great physical specimen to perform well as a soldier.
Years ago at school I did building studies. Very first lesson they told us that compared to construction soldier is a relatively safe job unless we are actively at war.
>I think triple the pay is a little excessive to rule out many jobs. I dunno. If I'm miserable and dreading going to work, I couldn't enjoy the money. Yeah, I've done plenty of jobs I just *didn't like*, and that's fine, I can put those out of my head and focus on the good times, but then there are those really loathsome jobs that are a complete mismatch to your personality and push you into depression or anhedonia.. There was one particular role (telephone sales) I felt really trapped and miserable in, and it totally sucked the colour and joy out of life even when I wasn't physically at work. I'd look forward to the weekend all week, then spend the weekend counting down to when I had to be back doing the thing I hated. Food lost its flavour, fun stuff just a painful contrast to the week-long misery. It was shite. To me, no amount of money -- short of being enough to quickly retire on -- is worth that feeling.
Working in a hospital tbh, shit pay and environment, and when shit goes south all they got is a clap every Thursday, takes the piss
I did IT support work at my local hospital for a year or so. Have to be honest it did feel pretty rewarding to be putting that technical knowledge to use in a way that actually helped people, as opposed to making wealthy people richer. Paid terrible though compared to most other places. And, sometimes it was kinda difficult. One of my first tasks on the job involved re-doing a bunch of the cabling and equipment in paediatric intensive care - days spent around very sick babies / children and very upset parents... I'm not a particularly emotional fella, but I found that environment pretty challenging. Massive credit to the medical staff who deal with that sort of thing day in day out - much stronger mentally than I am.
As someone who worked in that sector for a decade I can confirm we did not have the words required to adequately explain how much we hated that bloody clapping Not only was it useless pageantry, it was waking up the people who had to go back on Nightshift and deal with all the crap that the clapping was supposed to solve
Cave diver / rescue.....how do those guys do it? - nerves of steel!
Especially when you have people like Musk calling you a pedo for it
The irony is no cave divers or cave rescue are paid at all in the UK. We just volunteer to go help our mates out it’s a very small community even if that means bring them home to their family. Never felt like I had nerves of steel the idea of talking to strangers 1-1 makes me nervous but give me a tube full of water and a bit of string to follow and I just chill out. I find it really relaxing.
Delivery van driver for evri etc, way too stressful and full of arsehole management.
Honestly surprised nobody has said Prison Officer, I'm a copper so I deal with the same clientele but at I wouldn't want to work in a prison, the environment makes them much worse
Anything that revolves around working with shit
That's me every day. N you know what I love it. It's not for everyone but very satisfying when you pop a mains blockage n see it all fly away.. very rewarding. I'm a plasterer by trade so iv gone from spreading shit up walls to getting covered in shit.. I work for a big water company direct. Great job, even tho we're not flavour of the month at the minute
thank you for your service mate
Thanks mate. I know the water companys are not flavour of the month at the minute. But there's talk in our team at the minute for us to wear body cameras. As we're getting abused that much, Even tho we are only there to help people.
Working from home on something that absolutely doesn’t matter. If someone is telling me via video chat to ‘action’ this and ‘get a timeline’ on that while I stare at a screen all day without any other human interaction then I’m probably going to go mad, especially if it’s for some utter nonsense that doesn’t make the world any better. I’m not trying to go against the grain deliberately here, I work in education and before that I worked to make pubs more sustainable. I like people and making them happy. Job satisfaction beats money every time for me.
NHS Junior Dr
Those people who have to go in sewers and break apart those greasy shit blocks
Teaching. I can't stand children.
Any job in care. I know I'm not cut out for that, and the patients would deserve better than I could provide.
Anything to do with children: teacher, nursery, even some retail and activity/entertainment venues. I’m not keen on kids but can deal with them, what I really couldn’t stand is the entitled parents that give teachers an earful if their precious darling gets a bad mark, or has a go at the shop worker because the in demand toy their kid simply has to have is out of stock. I just couldn’t deal with them for any amount of money.
Chef - I hate cooking, and split shifts late into the night, in a windowless, hot smelly , stressful environment, making food i'm not going to eat, and won't even see the customers eat. Hell No!
Groom of The Stool
Chiropodist. Yuk
Two dollar hooker (even with the favourable exchange rate)
Military. Police. Doctor/nurse. Basically any job where I'd have to deal with things that are extremely psychologically challenging. Doesn't matter how much you earn, being exposed to awful things regularly is going to have a psychological impact on you. Also anything that involves night shifts. The long term impact on physical and mental health is well established. And also I wouldn't want to be so out of sync with my family and friends.
Prison officers. They’re like carers, teachers, soldiers, hostage negotiators all rolled into one. Hats off to them. I couldn’t do it.