What job is way more difficult than most people appreciate and why?
Posted by CarelessCredit3466@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 352 comments
I think in the UK being a Prison Officer is one that stands out for me because it's kind of a forgotten service and relatively poorly paid due to the environment but I'm sure there's lots.
iffyClyro@reddit
Emergency service workers and others like A&E nurses, doctors and as you say prison officers all face such challenging working conditions.
As a police officer I’ve been the victim of two attempt murders, when the shit is hitting the fan it’s an incredibly stressful place to work. You’re constantly worried about everything you’re trying to progress and so on.
HOWEVER
One of my best mates works as a senior manager in financial services company and as much as he never faces the risks and so on that I do, he also seems to be in a constant state of stress, there appears to be no upside or downtime in his job.
quaranteenagedirtbag@reddit
The upside is the money. People who work in high stress roles in finance, corporate law, consulting etc are making between 4-6x for it to be 'worth' the stress and long hours. But I think too much is made of the stress of corporate and executive roles in order to justify the extremely high pay. An investment banker wouldn't trade places with a teacher, cleaner or a nurse even if there was no difference in pay in pay at all. They know full well their jobs are not nearly as hard as those even if they claim otherwise.
Current_Fly9337@reddit
I can absolutely hands down say I could do none of those jobs, for a long period of time anyway. I take my hat off to each and every person working those types of jobs. I remind myself of this often. They’re the backbone of this country. My role is absolutely nothing in comparison.
iffyClyro@reddit
He earns about £110k however lives in London with all the associated cost of living issues.
I genuinely feel like I live a better life in my middle of nowhere cottage in Perthshire.
He would hate to live my life though, he’s a city boy.
We grew up in Glasgow together and he’s moved from one city to another whilst I’ve become more and more rural as time goes on.
Current_Fly9337@reddit
I am 44 now and a cottage in Perthshire sounds dreamy.
I reckon (seriously hope) 10 more years of the grind and I can actually start to live a more stress free life 🤞🏽
quaranteenagedirtbag@reddit
Yeah I agree with you that that lifestyle is stressful, it's certainly not what I would choose. But as you say some seem to prefer it.
Dazzling_Shallot_363@reddit
Also job. We have the same debate in the writing room and come to the conclusion that your stressful day will be infinitely more stressful than a civvies stressful day.
Dont know about you but id find it so hard starting from the bottom of a normal job now. I couldn't imagine being told by a manager about how important some random task or deadline is when we make life changing decisions for people 6 days a week.
Current_Fly9337@reddit
As an exec in a similar position to your friend, who is about to log on on a Sunday to mitigate the Monday madness, the money usually makes up for it but the stress is horrible.
I absolutely applaud the job you do though, yeah we might lose a big contract, but you could lose your life. Usually for a lot less money than people sitting behind a desk. I couldn’t do what you do, thank you.
cbrownmufc@reddit
Bring a bin man. You spend all day on your feet doing physically demanding work but it’s still a job which many people look down on, even though it is an important job to be done.
Imagine what state we would be in if all bin men went on strike for 2 weeks
oktimeforplanz@reddit
Call centres - basically all of them.
Many are difficult because of the people - it is a minority of people, but it's a significant enough minority that you rarely get through a shift without speaking to someone who clearly don't view you as a person. I've had some horrible abuse from customers.
Virtually all of them are difficult because of the pressure from targets. Average handling time targets that you can easily miss if you do something so stupid as to spend time trying to help someone. You have to hit 5 minutes and 36 seconds on average and if that means shuffling someone off of the phone before you've fully resolved their problem, so be it. That time included the after call time time too - it was call time + after call work until you went back into Ready. In my last call centre job, you'd get in trouble if your 'after call work' time averaged above 60 seconds too. If you ever feel like nobody took good notes about your issue when you phone back about it - that's why. I had 60 seconds on top of whatever time I could take on the phone with you to write things down and try to do it in a way someone else might understand. It was hard. It also meant I didn't really have the time to properly fix many of the problems people phoned with, so some people's problems were temporary fixes, or resolution of the immediate issue but nothing done to actually stop it from happening again.
It is EXHAUSTING. Even for people who are very extroverted, it's exhausting having to perform for every customer.
I went from call centres into being an auditor in a big 4 accounting firm, and for all the shit that a B4 accounting firm threw at me, I still don't actually feel like it was as stressful as the call centres I left. I really thought that going to a job that ultimately paid 3 times as much and involved a lot more responsibility would be at risk of being more stressful, but somehow no...
samsonscomputer@reddit
Im looking at something like that to do, go from callcenter to audit/accounting. But im mid 30s. When did u make that transition? And was it easy to get into it
oktimeforplanz@reddit
I was 24 when I started my audit job. I'd initially thought about going to uni so I did an HND to be able to get in but I found an apprenticeship before I committed to uni. It was only as difficult as making the application - couldn't tell you what the application process is like now though, nor how competitive it is. It was over 8 years ago for me. Best thing I ever did though.
samsonscomputer@reddit
Might be a bit more difficult for me as im older. Was thinking too to go through the apprenticeship route. Callcentre is so dead end job
oktimeforplanz@reddit
I'd say audit, especially in bigger firms, is definitely a bit shit if you're not 22 and fresh out of uni with no responsibilities. The time demands can be a bit mental, once you add in studying for your professional qualifications. So not great if you have kids or anything along those lines. Smaller firms might be a shout from that perspective. But age by itself shouldn't be an actual problem - I started with someone in her 30s so it's definitely done. That's why they stopped calling them "school leaver" programs!
Call centres are the worst. Getting out was such a relief.
samsonscomputer@reddit
Thanks for the advice! Will keep that in mind!
DonkyFondler@reddit
It sounds like the best way to succeed at a job like that and not end up having a breakdown is to not give a shit about the customers, rush through all your calls, and never make any notes. I mean, if you do that, the customers will suffer, but you will look amazing to your boss because you will always beat your targets.
oktimeforplanz@reddit
Nah unfortunately not, because then you get poor customer review scores and then they hammer you for that too. They're just burn out jobs, fundamentally. There's never a way of winning, so the turnover would be high and management seemed to not really understand why. When someone did poke their head above the parapet and say it's the targets, at best, they'd be ignored.
The best bit about customer review scores is that they wouldn't disregard the ones that were about you, but the content made it very clear the actual scores were for the bank, not you, unless they were very low. In the text they'd be like "oktimeforplanz was great and very helpful, but (explanation of why they were pissed off at the bank explaining why they put a 4 out of 7 rating on this survey)". If they'd put a 1 or a 2, I could get it disregarded, but a 4 still went against me.
tsdesigns@reddit
I find that most lower paid jobs are actually fundamentally harder. It seems (at least for me) the more I earn, the less I'm having to actually do, it more ends up making sure someone else is doing x or y instead.
yoloswaggins92@reddit
Absolutely spot on. I've worked in an office for 11 years, started in the call centre and worked a variety of roles up to my current analytics-based job. Every time I've moved to a higher paid position it has been less work than the previous one. Whole system is a lie.
Fusilero@reddit
Wages are mostly linked to scarcity, not effort.
Diligent_Explorer717@reddit
Reddit comment of the year, how is this even upvoted?
In what universe is being a line cook comparable to being a doctor, this false humility is just sad.
Fusilero@reddit
Note I didn't say I didn't deserve more pay or had less responsibility as a doctor than a line cook lol.
But fine dining kitchens are really physically unpleasant and weirdly high pressured environments - my kitchen wasn't quite like the Bear but it was a weirdly aggressive place considering its just above minimum wage and a very low level of responsibility.
Also being 18 Vs 34 makes a big difference to how you tolerate abuse.
Single-Position-4194@reddit
Hi there,
I think you're being too modest here. As you probably know, what you get paid for is knowledge (you need a LOT of it to be a doctor), but most of all, responsibility.
If a line cook messes up someone gets a crap meal (burnt offerings (as my gran would say), but if a doctor does so people can die.
CaptainVXR@reddit
If a line cook messes up, someone with severe allergies could die, or a regular person get a fatal case of food poisoning.
Diligent_Explorer717@reddit
But the chances of that happening are extremely slim, it’s not a common occurrence and messing up is much harder as a line cook.
CaptainVXR@reddit
Also true, but not impossible
Single-Position-4194@reddit
Fair point.
Astonednerd@reddit
This. Retail work doesnt pay shit wages because its easy, it pays shit wages because, bar the disabled, almost everyone could do it if it was that or financial ruin. That doesnt apply to most high paying jobs in e.g healthcare, law or finance.
runningraider13@reddit
Wages are based on value add and scarcity, effort is only tangentially related
Expensive-Draw-6897@reddit
I agree, I've worked up to a management position and it's more admin than hands on work. I like to 'keep my hand in' technical work as it's a small site.
A downside of management is that we deal with assholes out with and within the team.
andycoates@reddit
I've been lucky enough to have never worked retail, but if shit hit the fan, i think i'd rather go work in the Aldi mines than touch a call center ever again.
Expensive-Draw-6897@reddit
Aldi mines : I'm using that.
Shinyandsmooth8@reddit
Same for me. Started off on calls. Ended up on x2 the wage and in a smaller office where at least half my day was doing nothing.
The funny thing is I found myself amongst the clique. I was working alongside bosses sons and daughters who were only in the job a few years. It’s like I only got in because of time served.
But used that experience to get a new job lol
W51976@reddit
Nepotism exists everywhere. I only got my security job because I knew a couple of people who worked in the industry.
iMac_Hunt@reddit
The word ‘harder’ is subjective. Lower paid jobs generally (with some exceptions) won’t keep you up at night or have your phone buzzing at 11 pm. on a Friday. The work might be physically taxing, but you don’t take it home with you.
The higher you’re paid, the more accountability you carry: if things go seriously wrong, your job is on the line. At the lower end of the spectrum, you usually have to break a rule to lose your job - at the higher end, you can lose it simply by making the wrong judgment call.
tsdesigns@reddit
Well, this isn't my experience.
Maybe just the management + software engineering role I'm in, but I still have very little accountability, and my working hours are very strict because I set that precedent early on with my boss and team.
If I'm phoned outside of my working hours, it's because something has went very very wrong and the fix cannot wait until the next working day - i.e. Multiple production systems are completly fucked. I get that time back the next morning if its a late night call (to make sure I've slept), and get paid significant overtime rates for fixing it (even if it's a 5 min fix, I would get a minimum of 2 hours overtime callout). Maybe my job is good on that front, but I wouldn't accept less than that if I did move companies / jobs. People should value their own time appropriately.
TheGardiner@reddit
Maybe it’s just the way this is written, and I’m sorry to say it, but you sound incredibly high on yourself. There’s a difference between valuing your time and setting strict boundaries, and bending your employer over a barrel over every inconvenience. I don’t think a rigid ‘don’t care, got mine’ mentality fosters any kind of good work culture or camaraderie, but I am admittedly reading a lot into your comment. I hope you work for a pretty large corp.
Mysterious_Use4478@reddit
If OP has a boundary about availability, but doesn't afford others that boundary - that is 'don't care, got mine'. If they give others as they expect to be treated, that's the very definition of good work culture.
Also, we don't live to work, and we shouldn't be sacrificing our personal lives for it. Sure, if someone wants to, that's their perogative, but a company expecting that sacrifice doesn't show good work culture or camaraderie.
tsdesigns@reddit
It's not about bending them over a barrel. It's about setting a precedent that calling me (or any of my team) outside of working hours will cost the company money, so to deter the rest of the company from doing that unless it is really urgent.
Before the minimum 2 hours was implemented, we would get phone calls for every little problem that comes up as people just saw it as we worked 24/7.
Read into it all you like, but yes, I do value my personal/family time very highly, and work disturbing that should cost them significantly.
Jazzlike-Compote4463@reddit
Disagree, my first hospitality job would often give me a call at all hours trying to get come in to cover shifts, I would also get a lot of shit and very little respect from management, even after putting in all hours.
As a senior software dev I now often get to decide when we release stuff and to ensure that things are fully tested and working before they hit production, yea if we release something that is fundamentally broken then I'll have to do The Work to get it fixed regardless of what is going on at home but I usually get to say no to putting myself in that position.
Glittering_Seat9677@reddit
shitass middle management who constantly fail upward have never even heard of accountability
oktimeforplanz@reddit
That's true, but that said - a higher end job that involves lots of judgement will not have you losing your job over any old wrong judgement call unless that call was made very poorly. Judgement calls go wrong all the time - but what typically matters in any half decent organisation is whether the judgement itself was soundly made in the face of what information was available. It why any judgement call I've ever made, I've documented my thought process extensively and I've consulted with others about it so it's never fundamentally just me making it, even if I'm ultimately the one who decides.
PowerfulInsights69@reddit
Very very true. Some guy sitting on his desk makes more than another guy who runs around and works their arse off with their hands.
snot_in_a_jar@reddit
Yeah I've found this too. It seems now I do less work, but hold the bag when things go wrong. Which is stressful, but just a different kind of stressful.
Stoned_urf@reddit
They are also way way more physical. For example, nobody would provide a chair for wait staff to sit down because they're expected to be on their feet for the entire shift.
PudWud-92_@reddit
True, but surely the mental strain should be greater.
When I was a junior employee it was very busy; but largely performing task as my boss asked.
Now I’m involved in a much deeper more strategic level the ideas I have and decisions I take are much more important, including the ownership I have to take over those decisions. So whilst I may not be physically sat ‘doing’ the operational tasks, my brain is much more fried and I’m much more stressed and tired at the end of the week.
hephos90@reddit
I worked in food service for over a decade as a supervisor. I had a lot of responsibility but was barely getting above minimum wage, and if hell was personalised I'd be doing that for all eternity.
Now I'm a junior software engineer, earning double what I was a few years ago, and it is bliss. I don't think about work when I leave, I don't have to deal with customers, absences, trying to corral the students I worked with, management who have never worked on the floor once in their life, etc.
I do think I've lucked out working where I am and may I never have to take time off for stress again.
Iforgotmypassword126@reddit
Yes but I find the stress weighs differently in the higher paid jobs.
In my experience, I find lower paid jobs hurt your body and self esteem and higher paid jobs hurt your brain and mental health.
EnjoysAGoodRead@reddit
I disagree. I worked lots of low paid jobs throughout school and university - retail, admin, waitressing etc and they were fun, low stress, and low mental load. In my career since university however, the higher I've been paid, the more pressure I've been under, the more thought I have to put into every decision, and the quicker I'm expected to be able to understand nuances of every situation and do the complex financial mathematics in my head during conversations.
Witty_Entry9120@reddit
Is it easy to manage people?
oktimeforplanz@reddit
In a call centre, or some other kinda crap job, managing people would be difficult - everyone hates the job, nobody really wants to be good at it, and the management relationship was always fundamentally antagonistic in those types of places. Management never really spoke to me in a call centre unless they were coming to my desk to say I had been in after call work for 20 seconds too long, or because they'd listened to a call and had negative feedback about it.
I'm an accountant now and manage a small team, and it's quite easy. Primarily because we all get along, they respect me and I respect them, and my team want to be good at their jobs and care about getting stuff done. So they take feedback on really well. I'd imagine I'd have a harder time if any of them were shitehawks though. I've just been lucky that I haven't had anyone who was fundamentally difficult to work with.
No_Top6466@reddit
I found it can vary, I had one team who was super easy to manage, they just got on with their jobs and did a good job. I moved and had another team that were more difficult, there was drama between staff and people not pulling their weight. I found dealing with the dramas between staff the most difficult and it’s the main reason I am not interested in being a manager again.
dodgrile@reddit
It’s honestly just a different skill. I’ve done it at various places and the big differentiator between the hardest and easiest of those jobs was down to how the staff were treated. At the place where the bosses were driving brand new, expensive cars while telling everybody that the company had no money it sucked, because people eventually got jaded about the work. The place where everybody was paid well and looked after - stupidly easy, because people were happy and felt noticed.
fugelwoman@reddit
It is not easy to manage people
tsdesigns@reddit
Generally speaking (from my experience), yes. The only time I found it hard was when I had to manage someone who basically refused to do the work. But they were fired soon after, for not doing the work. Most people are great, just want to get on with their job/finish their tasks, and get home.
Weird_Fall2028@reddit
No. Especially in this economy where you do the role of building the structure, plan, strategy, training and direction. All whilst making sure everyone stays motivated and helping out with day to day questions issues. You’re part therapist, part fixer, part strategist.
St2Crank@reddit
If you get the right people it’s a piece of piss. You just need to be good at selecting them and ruthless with cutting the chaff.
badgerkingtattoo@reddit
Absolutely, I worked at Cineworld as a “team member” who got given manager duties regularly, which was not supposed to happen. Constantly on my feet, breaking down at the end of the day was hell because no one else gave a shit. Dealing with absolute cunts. I was once told by my manager to re-enter a burning building and get the people who’d refused to leave screen 4 out. They still refused to leave. There was a fire between floors which could have spread to anywhere but had filled the foyer and corridor with smoke.
Moved to an office job and used to play sonic the hedgehog in the office and fall asleep at my desk for twice the pay check. I used to arrive at 7.30am and all my work was done by 8.30am, I was so bored. I used to write poetry and draw on company time.
I tattoo now so concentrating all day and in weird positions etc. This is the hardest I’ve worked and the best pay day so far. Which feels good.
Dunnohye@reddit
How do you define harder?
Few-Proposal-4681@reddit
Pay generally equates to how sought after your skills are. If you’re paid well, it’s because you can do a job not many others can do.
But it’s acquiring those skills that’s the hard part. Once you have those skills, the day-to-day might be actually quite easy.
PipBin@reddit
Yep. People who work standing up are often paid less than people who work sitting down. Doesn’t make sense to me.
oktimeforplanz@reddit
Yeah I'm paid 4 times as much now as I was in call centres, and my job is WILDLY less difficult. It's "more difficult" only in the sense that to my current job, I need to have qualifications and a lot of specialised knowledge. But in terms of actual stress levels, of how tired I feel at the end of the day (both are office jobs, so neither are physically hard work), how much I dread the end of the weekend... night and day.
Scared-Room-9962@reddit
Same mate.
As I've gone up the short ladder in my job I have to do less and less work and the work I do is easier than ever.
Disastrous_Yak_1990@reddit
I think it’s fair enough though. Lifting something up is tough but working out where to put it down is the difficult part.
RoutineCloud5993@reddit
They often need less academic skills and book smarts to get started, but they take their fee in the end
bonjajr@reddit
Customer facing retail roles
Electrical_Business2@reddit
B&Q in particular, all the mither of a supermarket with the expectation of knowing everything about every product. "Listen mate, would i be working minimum wage at B&Q if i was a fully qualified electrician?"
EfficiencyWeird2567@reddit
Yesterday a guy got mad at me because he couldn’t fit some large plastic sheeting into his car and I wouldn’t GIVE him a saw to cut it with. He was genuinely mad that he had to buy one to cut it as if health and safety doesn’t exist. This isn’t even the first time!!! They genuinely think we’d just randomly give them a saw as if we wouldn’t be liable if someone cut their finger or thumb off with it. Madness.
j_the_inpaler@reddit
A nurse yet most go to an agency and triple their wage. Prison officer is hard but yet again most are short term employees as they work for serco or G4S . I would say police officer how poor is their pay and every little thing they do they get the sack for. One the other day sent her bf a photo of her in her in and outfit (only showed her stomach) the force said it was unprofessional and sacked her !!
HanAVFC@reddit
Early years staff especially those in private Nurseries. They are paid minimum wage, long hours, barely any breaks with poor holiday entitlement, worked all during COVID, with limited to none ppe or social distancing and yet during that time they were completely ignored, no one stood on the doorstep clapping for us.
Whilst the owners are making money, cutting costs wherever they can usually adding extra work and stress to the already poorly paid workforce and parents are complaining about the bills going up.
edgecumbe@reddit
Working in a nursery felt like working in a puppy mill
HanAVFC@reddit
I teach early years now in a college and it's amazing leaving private sector for public and seeing the difference in treatment..
I just see a lot of people complaining about nursery prices and I don't think they realize a lot of the money is going to take owners, nurseries are owned by business people (mostly) with little to no interest in actual early years. Government funding is not going to change that either, the owners just find extra things to charge parents for. They need to be publicly owned.
TomorrowOtherwise422@reddit
Call centre. I just left after a year and a bit of utter hell for shit wages. I was really on the edge towards the end but felt I had no option and needed to pay the bills. I once saw the stats for new joiners and my manager admitted to me that over 90% of new joiners left in the first three months. People who've never worked in these roles always scoff at it. As if answering emails with a 9-5 consistent rota is just as hard.
ValuableAngle7731@reddit
Cleaning. Hard on the body, stigmatised, unappreciated and often thankless. Can be like fighting a losing battle as well. If you're having a day where you're under the weather or extra tired, you can't just "take it easy". People are also just scum in general and seem to get a kick out of leaving/making things filthy. Other staff also will leave their mess even when cleaning it up ia part of their job, and it's alright because "the cleaner will do it".
Jtd47@reddit
It's weird seeing this post just as a lot more prison officer recruiting ads have started popping up everywhere
Ok-Bookkeeper8642@reddit
Being a landlord
Responsible_Drive380@reddit
I've worked in a prison as a drug and alcohol worker... Plenty of prison guards treated staff and offenders appallingly
susolover@reddit
People who should be respected, but aren't
Healthcare professionals (not the dragons on the reception when you are trying to get an appointment.) The abuse they put up with is unbelievable.
After spending 3 weeks in hospital recently, the grief that some people give nurses / doctors was eye opening, these people are trying to improve your health, don't be a dick to them, thankfully on the ward I was on, there was a sister who was a younger slimmer version of Hattie Jacques, she took no prisoners from them.
Flight Attendants, yes it can seem like a glamourous job, but in the eyes of the public, you are just there to bring me a gin and tonic and be eye candy. The training and safety they have to learn puts them well above just being trolly dollies. Their professionalism whilst dealing with difficult people is far better than anything I could ever do.
Helpline assistants, eg incoming call centre assistants. You phoned them because you need help with something, it's not their fault that the company believes it's acceptable for people to wait an hour before being answered, so don't take it out on them. I've worked for a government depart for over 17 years, the first 3 years were on the phones, then I moved up. The abuse from the public was staggering, the guidance on very many different circumstances was constantly changing. The knowledge base was immense, and people were genuinely trying to help people who contacted us, but still people insulted us from us picking up the phone.
hawkeye2604@reddit
Teaching
Foshiznik23@reddit
Farmer
cooky561@reddit
Anything in call centre or retail, they work long, unsociable hours, usually have to work bank holidays and the pay off? Getting paid minimum wage to be abused by people who don't have to work those hours, yet earn more.
TheLoneEcho@reddit
Can I say my own job?
Driving instructor. People assume it is sitting in a car and telling someone how to drive.
In reality there is a lot of planning, lots of structure and trying to find ways tk get someone to understand what they are doing and more importantly why they are doing it.
Using questions and practice to try and draw information out of people rather than push it into them.
Oh, and the classroom is moving at up to 70mph while you're doing this and you're trying to manage the risk to you and everyone else!
Zestyclosereality@reddit
Not to mention that some people will look at the cost of their lessons and jump to the conclusion that their driving instructor is making £40 of pure profit per hour.
I get the impression that most driving instructors are doing well above normal full time hours per week
TheLoneEcho@reddit
I do 15 lessons a week, each are 2 hours but with travel time between them I'm probably doing about 40 hours a week.
On the face of it I'm raking it in at £35 and hour but there are a lit of costs involved. About 40% of that fee goes right back into running my business, including tax etc.
That puts me on about £20 an hour, which in my opinion is still quite low paid for someone that is highly trained in practical and theory, and in teaching and learning strategies, while also taking a risk on allowing someone unqualified to take them for a drive!
Greatgrowler@reddit
Do you mean your income tax? I don’t think the final wage of £20 is so bad but I suppose being self-employed you lose out regarding holiday pay. Also I appreciate that it can be unsociable hours.
TheLoneEcho@reddit
Yes. My income tax etc, and you're right, no holiday pay, no sick pay so I need to build that into my business plan.
£20 an hour is cheap in my opinion. I know it may be biased but I trained hard to do this job. I continue to train and develop to keep up with new laws, methods of teaching or changes from the DVSA.
The job can be stressful, unsociable & dangerous. All that for roughly a fiver more than someone is paid in an entry level job isn't the amazing wage everyone thinks it is.
Great job though. Love it!
Greatgrowler@reddit
That’s pretty good money then isn’t it? £20ph take home pay, -10% to account for the lack of holiday pay is £18 per hour. Multiply by 40 hours per week and 52 weeks per year then that’s about £37k take home per year. You would need the equivalent gross pay of around £48k per year to match that. I’m not saying that you’re rolling in it but I do think that’s quite a reasonable wage, certainly well above the median.
mandyhtarget1985@reddit
And early mornings and evenings and weekends as they try to fit lessons around their pupils school/work/commitments.
TheLoneEcho@reddit
Yep. I try to be as flexible as possible but do draw the line eventually!
Sweet_Confusion9180@reddit
Nursing. Or any sort of care work.
I could never. They're terribly treated most the time, underpaid, understaffed. Yet extremely important.
St2Crank@reddit
Who thinks that’s easy though? Everyone knows that’s a hard job.
Necessary-Crazy-7103@reddit
I think most still don't understand quite how hard it really is
Stoned_urf@reddit
Our society... when nurse and teachers are always the really really underpaid roles
St2Crank@reddit
I’d say your statement itself is a contradiction. It’s widely accepted that these roles are underpaid, therefore accepted that the job is harder than the compensation suggests.
07hogada@reddit
The thing is, a lot of society will say it's underpaid, then when medical workers have the absolute gall to ask for some more and going on strike to actually get some leverage, complain about the medical workers.
The number of people who clapped during Covid only to complain about nurses or doctors striking is far too high. If you want to appreciate the NHS, pay it better, and run it better.
St2Crank@reddit
I’ve never met anyone complaining about NHS staff striking personally. Although that may be my bubble.
RedRamblerUK@reddit
Management...
Inner-Floor-5827@reddit
Yes to management...
Elegant-Mission-4470@reddit
Vet nurse. People think it's cuddling puppies and kittens all day but it isn't. The role is very demanding and can be dangerous, particularly in larger practices and hospitals. The nurses do a lot of the work people assume the vets do, so there is the background stress that comes with a lot of responsibility. And it isn't paid very well.
BertieBus@reddit
But you do get to cuddle the puppies
BornTooSlow@reddit
My wife did it many years ago, I couldn't imagine her doing it now.
Utmost respect for what they deal with, especially considering how cantankerous the elderly can be and they keep smiling.
jodorthedwarf@reddit
I do it and I suppose I've been fortunate that the vast majority of my clients have all been really lovely people. I even managed to win over many of the grumpier ones.
I really love the job and it suits me down to the ground for job satisfaction and flexibility and my management are great. It is horrifically underpaid for the amount of hours and effort we go to because the job really is a labour of love.
Mind you, I do domiciliary care where I visit people in their homes as opposed to residential care. I don't think I'd like to work in a care home all that much.
Single-Position-4194@reddit
Absolutely. I was in hospital just before Christmas (recovering from a bad accident), and one night I heard the screams of a nurse being attacked (it was un a different ward so I couldn't see it happening).
I was told the next day that they just had to let it go because a lot of patients are confused and don't really know what they're doing and will have forgotten about it the next day.
Nirses and care assistants deserve double the pay they get IMO, if only the country could afford it.
OkCaregiver517@reddit
It can. We can totally pay our people a decent wage.
Tricky-Reporter-5246@reddit
It can. The profits private care homes make is astounding.
Single-Position-4194@reddit
I know. I once worked in the laundry of one that's a job you definitely don't want) in Sussex, earning £3 an hour in the early 1990s whilst the owner drove a Jaguar.
I didn't last very long at that job but I think it's even worse now.
off_of_is_incorrect@reddit
Care work, definitely. Underpaid for all the shit you do and the shit you wade through tbh.
ConsciousProfile1000@reddit
This. It´s literally taking over other people´s burden so those people can pursue their own careers and sleep well at night at the expense of your physical and psychological health.
KimbaTheLion@reddit
In October they're going to more than double our patient capacity while they simultaneously keep reducing our minimum safe staffing level. I love being a nurse so much but I'm terrified I'll make a mistake and harm someone.
Dark_Akarin@reddit
Na, we all know that one is difficult.
MelonCollie92@reddit
A million percent!
Bambi_H@reddit
Social worker. Overworked, underpaid (imo) and with such potential impact on the lives of children.
Very much damned if you do, damned if you don't. Used to attend quite a few case review meetings in a previous life, and a lot of it is harrowing and heartbreaking.
Greatgrowler@reddit
Also overlooked are foster carers, under appreciated by most social workers. You get great times and times where you need respite because you just can’t take any more. People think it’s just having a spare room and putting a couple of kids in there, then feeding and clothing them.
misspixal4688@reddit
Carer most work 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 84 quid a week.
buy_me_a_pint@reddit
work in a funeral directors
I did my placement in one years ago whilst doing my NVQ in IT, even though I did not deal with the bodies, it was tough for my colleagues small team, as the owner was a part time university lecturer with IT, a doctor in IT.
massie_le@reddit
Teaching, slight appreciation during covid but back to being hated because of the holidays and finishing at 3 every day.
Dull_Life_4217@reddit
Anything in construction. It's so hard on the body. I'm a 46 Yr old carpenter an my body aches constantly
OldGodsAndNew@reddit
Most people realise this tbf - there's good reason people want office jobs
Plugpin@reddit
My dad was a carpenter. He had to take early retirement, he has no cartilage in his knees now, his shoulders froze up and he's just generally much older than you'd expect for his age these days. The profession is brutal on the body.
Dull_Life_4217@reddit
Yes my knees creak now when I walk
EviWool@reddit
Teaching. It once was a great job but like many other jobs, the stress has increased while the bemefits decreased. Postman - now that it is privatised, postmen are set stupidly difficult targets to meet. Home Care workers - my niece did this for a while. The hourly rate looked great but you were not paid for the time it took to drive from one job to the next. Their argument was that no one expected to be paid for the time it took you to drive to work (although you only drive to and f4om work once in a day). You were also allowed very little time for each home so you always felt bad about how little you were doing. Some of the time you spent was filling in boxes on forms. The only one who really benefited was the CEO of the privatised care system
Dark_Akarin@reddit
Also another one everyone knows is rough already.
GrabbedByTheGhost@reddit
Which?
Dark_Akarin@reddit
What do you mean “which” I’m not referring to two things??
lewisw1992@reddit
"Which" can be used when there are more than 2 things, you know.
Like if you walked into a jewellery shop and they asked you which item you'd like to take a closer look at.
GrabbedByTheGhost@reddit
The poster covered numerous jobs in their reply... which one are you referring to?
Dark_Akarin@reddit
Oh I see, I just read the first word “teaching” couldn’t be bothered to read the wall of text. My bad.
WildWinterberry@reddit
So many people think teaching is easy because they assume it’s 9-3 and you get the school holidays to chill. They also have no idea how regulated it is
1whoisconcerned@reddit
Busy call centre. Call after call with the same question and each person has no idea they’re the 1000th person to ask me that. 8 hours a day, six days a week.
WildWinterberry@reddit
I did this working from home. I thought it would make it easier. They tracked our mouse movements and if we didn’t answer a call within 20 seconds after the next we would be asked why. I need to decompress after being screamed at, is that ok? 20 seconds isn’t even a breath when you’re overwhelmed
RoyofBungay@reddit
Oh yes where I do start…
Despite being told to have their physical debit card details ready at the time of the call customers just choose to ignore said message. They then think I can pull up their details by their last four numbers of the card.
Mmm let me think, no that doesnt quite work.
Spanners.
donalmacc@reddit
In fairness - you get told “please have X info ready to ensure we can complete your call as quickly as possible”. Then you get left on hold for 45 minutes due to “unexpected elevated call volumes”
RoyofBungay@reddit
In fairness, I can only rephrase the following sentence so many times.
Scared-Room-9962@reddit
It's soul crushing.
I used to work in call centres. At Apple it was 10 days on, 4 days off.
Just the same calls over and over and over.
The same screaming and shouting. The same wankers at work. It's torture honestly.
"I can't help you, you have no Applecare. I can send you the same script to fix the issue that I'd read from though. Or you can £60 and I'll read it to you"
Incomprehensible rage ensues.
andycoates@reddit
Any chance it was next to the metro center?
Scared-Room-9962@reddit
Yeah mate that's the one
andycoates@reddit
Glad i worked there when the shift pattern wasn't like that, it was every other week a guaranteed weekend off, but it's been 8 years now and i don't care enough to remember fully
Had to work Christmas though and that immediately had me filling out applications which started a proper career though
Scared-Room-9962@reddit
I worked there in 2009 and 2010.
WildWinterberry@reddit
Wait staff. The customers make it way harder than it should be. Then when you’re done with them you have an infinite amount of napkins to fold and cutlery and glasses to polish but it’s never enough for management to be satisfied
Thats-right999@reddit
Dentist. Looking in smelly peoples mouth yuk.
Adhyskonydh@reddit
Thats not difficult though, its a well paid career choice. Well it is difficult in that its a specialised medical job, but its no way the same level as, say, a call centre where you get abuse multiple times a day to being home pennies.
Zeo100@reddit
Just scrolling through as a dentist of 14 years, 10 in the NHS before I left to go private. I think unless you’re in the profession, you don’t see the level of abuse dentists face on a regular basis.
Just to make it plain, imagine you’re having to deal with patients 20-30 times a day coming in and a lot of them tell you how much they hate dentists, having so much anxiety at the sight of you. The threat of a single complaint can wreck your entire career because the regulator is so heavy handed. One complaint could make your insurance premiums rise exponentially until it’s no longer a viable career. The NHS pay uplift per year is less than the increase in costs of running the practice where all the bills are rising constantly. If you go over your contract, you don’t get paid any more and if you go under they can strip you off it and hit you with immense fines. Treating high needs patients isn’t worth it on the NHS as you don’t get paid for it. A lot of the guidelines contradict each other, for example the GDC says you must give a recommendation but the NHS says you can’t promote one treatment over another and must give all the options. Even 20 years after the current system came in, dentists still ask daily on Facebook if they’re following the system right for fear of retribution.
The way dentists practice now is mainly how to protect themselves from being sued and it’s a real shame. Defensive dentistry is the way of life on the NHS and it’s why I left. I became a dentist to help people, but I couldn’t do that in a system that actively punishes you.
Adhyskonydh@reddit
I have every sympathy with your situation. No professional should be subject to abuse and the I understand the NHS system does not make treatment of vulnerable people feasible. It is terrible that the NHS leaves dentists with little choice but to leave needy patients high and dry. I absolutely understand that dentists are in a terrible position, and I apportion no blame to people who want to address people’s dental needs. Any medical professional generally speaking want to help people.
However, and i quote… ‘looking in smelly peoples mouth yuk’ does not reflect your eloquent description of your profession, and that is what i responded to. It does not in any way reflect your commitment to peoples health and wellbeing, and sincerely hope that you agree.
Zeo100@reddit
Thank you for saying that, I appreciate every word you’ve said and thank you for clarifying what you were responding to. It breaks my heart that the state of the nation’s dental service has been gutted to the point that those in desperate need of it will never be able to find it.
IronSkywalker@reddit
Tbf, I do know one pulling 300k though
Distinct-Lion4658@reddit
Relative to its pay I think being a bus driver is very under appreciated. You have to be focused 100% of the time while driving a large vehicle, often through dodgy roads, while dealing with customers
ScarlyLamorna@reddit
Buses in some cities now have screens between the drivers cab and passengers, to literally protect drivers from being assaulted and spat at. Utterly disgusting that it's even needed.
exhausted-pangolin@reddit
"now have"
Are you from the 90s?? They've had the protected screens for decades
ScarlyLamorna@reddit
I only just started seeing it in my area! Then again, I am from Cornwall...
exhausted-pangolin@reddit
TBF Cornwall is probably a bit higher trust than the rest of the country
WheresMyFlamingo@reddit
Agreed 👍
Nicktrains22@reddit
Train ticket inspector. The amount of awfulness I overhear them having to put up with from the general public is shocking, to the point where if you're simply polite to them half the time they'll just let you off with a warning. I bet it's the kind of the job where you've heard every excuse in the book, before you're halfway through your shift
Mrslinkydragon@reddit
I was travelling back from ramsgate and the ticket inspector pulled a brilliant deal for a bunch of teens, they would have only had to pay a few quid between them. They took the piss and didnt pay, he kicked them off the train!
Thendisnear17@reddit
If they were from Ramsgate then they probably couldn'tcounthigher than 3.
Mrslinkydragon@reddit
Touche
Rac50@reddit
Had to scroll too long to find this. The awful public is one of the most challenging that everyone sees. What not everyone realises is on top of that we also have crazy/unsociable hours, no proper sleep pattern so no proper rest, when something goes wrong with the service even if not the train company's fault we (frontline staff) are blamed and get the brunt of their anger. When they're acting out, since we are not actual police we have limited(no) power, if they assault us if we physically protect ourselves we get ourselves into more trouble but if we do nothing/run away we are pussies. We're supposed to protect other passengers from the "bad ones" but again without any actual power/authority there's not much we can do without endangering ourselves even more. We also have safety critical responsibilities, if something goes wrong we have to ensure safety of all passengers (often hundreds on a train with just 2 staff - 1 driver who is busy handling the train and 1 conductor who has to deal with the hundreds of disgruntled passengers and make sure nobody does something stupid and endanger themselves or others, on top of explaining the same thing over and over every other minute/second).
Source: I work for a UK train company as a ticket inspector.
Rant over.
Pockysocks@reddit
Pharmacy Dispenser/technician. In my experience, most people seem to think it's just taking boxes of medication off a shelf.
I mean the job isn't particularly difficult but definitely a lot more involved than most people seem to understand.
fat_grey_parrot@reddit
I came here to say the same. The amount of shit I hear in community pharmacy is exhausting: questioning why we are so slow, why anything needs to be checked, why isn't anybody at the counter, etc. They wouldn't complain for a 10-minute wait in the chippy, but if we dare to spend more than 5 minutes on "sticking labels on boxes", then we are the worst people in the world. But if I hurry and accidentally stick a label on the wrong box then they could die.
Slutty_Foxx@reddit
Education, especially support staff. Everyone thinks it’s easy but you often work more than you’re contracted for and you’re only paid for time in school so wages are very poor and it’s not like you can have a second job.
A_In_Wonderland@reddit
I’m a teacher and some of our support staff DO have second jobs. It’s crazy, it makes me feel guilty when end of Friday hits and I can’t wait to relax, then they tell me they’re off to do a shift in a shop or a bar until 11pm.
liebackandthinkofeng@reddit
I’m a teacher now but started as a TA. I’d do 8-4 as a TA and then head to the local Sainsbury’s 3 days a week (and 1 weekend day) to do 5-9 on top. I worked in one of the roughest schools in the area and one of worst in the country at the time. I make such a huge effort with my TAs now
hairychris88@reddit
I used to be a support worker in the music department of a big secondary school. I used to do 8-3.30 in school, then do private teaching until 7ish, and then gig at the weekend. That was the only way of making enough money for a decent standard of living.
FraggleGoddess@reddit
Same for support staff in FE, and we have less leverage going on strike, etc, as it doesn't affect hordes of angry parents. We had a drawn-out for years pay battle - at one point, they had to increase my wage so it wouldn't go below minimum.
I stay because we make a difference, and we have really good holiday entitlement.
OddlyDown@reddit
There are also things that are done by volunteers but people still treat you like crap.
I’m a town councillor. It’s about ten hours of unpaid work a week just trying to make the town a bit nicer and the amount of crap you get because ‘all politicians are the same’ is mad. People not only assume you’re paid but that you’re somehow on the take as well.
glasgowgeg@reddit
This depends on where you live, councillors in Scotland are a paid position.
In Scotland, it's a base salary of £25,982/year as of the 1st April 2025.
Daveddozey@reddit
Those are more akin to country council level in England.
Parish and town councils in England don’t have a direct equivelent in Scotland, but closest would be community councils, and like in England are unpaid. You might get expenses back - eg if you have to do some training you could get your petrol paid, but you don’t get any allowance/salary.
scotty3785@reddit
You mean you don't get brown envelopes filled with cash to approve development? 😄
My response to that comment on social media is to ask them to report any evidence of improprieties to the police and the monitoring officer.
Stoletnazad@reddit
First line support. Call centre stuff.. I couldn't do it again. I don't know how I did it. Truly the hardest and most grueling job I had.
Eh-Beh@reddit
Childcare.
People just assume it's playing with kids all day, but it's magnitudes more than that.
bacon_cake@reddit
My wife's a nursery teacher and man alive the responsibility is not worth the pay.
"Here's 6 children, they're the most important thing on earth for their parents. Here are their individual action plans, I assume you've got your risk assessments in place. You're solely responsible for care, allergies, educational content for the day, oh and any safeguarding concerns. Offsted are rocking up later to criticise you personally and two of the parents aren't happy that their kid was covered in paint yesterday. The budget's torn to pieces so try and come up with some novel activities for them. Oh you start at 5.45am. Here's £100 after tax for the day. Don't forget to pay for parking. "
exhausted-pangolin@reddit
Apart from pay and paying for parking yes, you did just literally list bare minimum stuff for taking care of kids.
Eh-Beh@reddit
That about sums it up!
Close to minimum wage for supporting every aspect of around 24 children's development for 11 hours out of the day.
ConsciousProfile1000@reddit
It´s changed drastically the past decade.
iHorror1888@reddit
And it gets harder with every passing month as more and more work gets piled on!
BusAdditional6518@reddit
Being a bus driver.
Bendandsnap27@reddit
GP receptionist. They get a load of shit but have to deal with so many people who are either nasty or frustrated with the system (which isn’t their fault) and don’t get paid much at all.
Arschgeige96@reddit
I’m a receptionist at a university. The stress is unbelievable and I’m on minimum wage. People think it’s a chill job but it’s really, really not. If I didn’t love my team I would’ve been looking elsewhere already and I’ve only been there a few months
moanybastard@reddit
I feel really sorry for them. When they ask what's wrong with me, I damn well tell them because every single time I've got same or next day appointments with the relevant person - be it nurse, nurse practitioner, practice physio or GP.
Yet so many get so angry that a receptionist in a medical environment has had the audacity to ask what's wrong.
Obviously they aren't qualified to diagnose anyone, but they're well placed to book you in with the right person.
fussyfella@reddit
That is a fault of the GPs running the practice. If the front line staff are medically trained in triage, then the systems should make it clear to the patients (e.g. message on the automated phone system before the call goes through, large signs at reception saying they so trained). If they are not trained, they should not be asking medical questions.
Source: my wife is a GP.
These_Honeydew_8720@reddit
Close but no cigar.
You are assuming the receptionist is triaging. That was common maybe ten years ago, but almost all practices now (especially given the recent changes from the patient charter) the receptionist will be writing down on Anima/Accurz/eConsult or whatever triage system is used.
So the receptionist still has to ask.
In my experience as well there are large clear signs… but there are also 400 other signs that are mandated to be hung up. So of course nobody ever reads them.
moanybastard@reddit
I've no idea whether they're medically qualified - and tbh I'm not that fussed.
I am grateful that I get a same day appointment without needing to be on the phone at 8am if I call with something that sounds important.
I'm also grateful that they divert me to a nurse if they're more appropriate rather than me waiting and waiting for a GP only to find they weren't needed.
The problems other people moan about at about their practices don't seem to be a problem for me, and I'm quite happy about that.
H0rr0r_B0t@reddit
I completely lost my faith in humanity working in a GP surgery.
aenyeweddienn@reddit
I came here to say this! People have no idea how much stress and verbally abuse they're dealing with every day!
Astonednerd@reddit
People probably know this one will be tough but just never think about it but, people involved in prosecuting child sexual abuse. I was recently involved in taking my historic abuser to court and it amazed me that there are detectives and prosecutors capable of holding up mentally while specialising in dealing with this day in and day out.
OkCaregiver517@reddit
Major respect to you for taking that piece of shit to court. I hope the judge threw the book at them and that you are doing OK.
BornTooSlow@reddit
Local Government
Trying to run key services with almost no staf or resources,, meeting legal obligations and reporting requirements while being vilified by the public and news outlets.
godsavedonalduck@reddit
Simple way is to get rid of local government and just have a centralised government.
We don't need councils segregating money and poverty to particular areas of the country/city.
Countries like germany, Sweden, Spain etc to my knowledge after knowing people from these countries, don't have thousands of different councils around their countries each one being slightly different (well or less off) to another. Councils are such a UK thing. If we want to spend public money more fairly get rid of councils altogether and just have one centralised government.
explax@reddit
Germany has a federal government, state governments and district administrations.
I think it's pretty common.
BornTooSlow@reddit
They still have Municipal Governments though? Don't these act like councils on a greater scale?
Essentially like LGR is going to do
explax@reddit
And then you've got people going round claiming everyone in local government is corrupt taking brown envelopes
BambiTheInsane@reddit
We hate civil servants for a reason.
kestrelita@reddit
We're not civil servants though.
oktimeforplanz@reddit
I audited local government (particularly councils but a few other adjacent organisations too) and it's made me very defensive of them. It's very easy for people who've never seen the inner workings to decide it must be something other than the obvious of trying to meet statutory obligations with fuck all money. People lose it about any whiff of a budget cut, but nobody can ever articulate which area of LG's remit should get hit with the budget cut. Because there's NO good place to cut, ever.
Aromatic-Armadillo98@reddit
I got a job working for an LG via agency, in a call centre. They trained us on elections/voting for an hour and half, sent us on the phones the next day. These cluless people are probably the ones you think are purposefully not helping you.
dpk-s89@reddit
Having worked in LG the last sentence resonates. At the time our adult and child social welfare need literally ate the whole council budget, obviously not sustainable so we had to cut across the board so each department got something. That included reducing the workforce and freezing pay increases. Every department had to do more with less resource and hardly any budget. That said the departments I worked in did good jobs and delivered some really important things.
Also, you do get some who climb the ladder because they have the gift of the gab but thats the same in the private sector where I am currently, and yes you have some who are just riding it and probably under delivering, again you get that in all jobs but when its tax payers money its more contentious. I always aimed to be helpful and pragmatic and problem solve but you do get some members of society who are anti-LG regardless and dont give you the time or patience to find a workable resolution. Other than retail, bailiffs or the emergency services i dont see many jobs where members of the public are quick to abuse a person physically and verbally because of their job.
TheSecretIsMarmite@reddit
Plus local government is full of people who are complete nerds and very expert in what they do, e.g. if you want to know about dune patterns and how they mitigate coastal erosion, someone in a coastal county council will know, if you want someone extremely expert in metrology, there will be someone in the council that is the authority on it, if you want to ask about different recycling and waste disposal technologies and whether they are safe or social media hype, someone at the local authority will have spent years researching it and know exactly which tech is interesting and which is bunkum.
And they're paid peanuts but they do it because it's their special interest.
CodeToManagement@reddit
To be fair there are probably a lot of really good people working in local government. There’s also a lot of people who love the little bit of power they have and want to exert it over others.
I’ve lived in my area for 15 years now and not had one single good interaction with the local council from any department. Nothing I’ve wanted or asked for has been unreasonable they just want to make it as difficult as possible and do as little work as they can.
Objective-Bad-4051@reddit
The last 15 years have been disastrous for local government. I've worked with some incredible people in my local authority on getting projects up and running, but they have been hollowed out since 2012. Everything is so much harder as the strategic reserves dries up.
A lot of people don't know how Local Authority funding works, what the local authority is required to provide, ever changing central government decisions etc.
It's nuts as well that these elections coming up could be decided due to the boat crossings which our Local Authority has zero control of.
bonamoureux@reddit
Sadly because 99% of local government people are aligned with the national parties for no real benefit.
Keir being a waste of space doesn't stop the local councillor of the same party being decent but it will harm their chance of election and having free will.
BlondBitch91@reddit
Working in central government I have to say the quality of local governments is very variable.
Some have amazing people who go the extra mile, others… not so much.
It even varies by department. Roads might be amazing while social care is terrible. Etc.
SmugglersParadise@reddit
Yes, as a side dish to the power complex is the inefficiency local governments are run with. Doesn't help us give them much sympathy
BornTooSlow@reddit
Yeah, I agree, there's a lot of really unreasonable people in departments, there's a lot of people who I think could do more.
There's a lot of good people, and there's a lot of really smart people.
There's also a lot of people in positions that are way above their ability who are only supported or "propped up" by the good people under them
D-1-S-C-0@reddit
I worked in local government for a few years. It's a mixed picture of good professionals working with too few resources, incompetent professionals making everybody's lives harder, and jobsworths holding everything up.
PipBin@reddit
I agree. One of my closest friends is the head of waste management in our town. The new recycling thing has come in and the amount of shit and moaning they are getting is ridiculous.
kestrelita@reddit
Yes! I agree 100% - we're always the bad guys.
Prestigious_Bat2666@reddit
Yeah sure
ExtravagentLasagne@reddit
Agreed 😂
Hot_Student815@reddit
Criminal lawyer .
It's not as well paid as people might think (especially compared to other fields in law). It's a thankless task and society thinks you're scum for helping criminals! Also, having to go to police stations in the middle of the night.
That said , I enjoy it and probably wouldn't do anything else as a lawyer. But definitely harder than most appreciate
TumTiTum@reddit
I have no idea why anyone would be a teacher tbh.
Tiger_Tail77@reddit
It's hard work but in the right school it's fantastic. In the wrong school it is hell, however.
Miss_Type@reddit
Kids are brilliant. This week one of my students told me the best bit about my lessons was my socks. Made all the planning and preparation worth it XD
Honestly though, kids are awesome, and that moment when they get something they've been struggling with is absolutely amazing.
PaulWhickerTallVicar@reddit
The guy that comes to site and sucks the shit out of the builder’s portaloo. You can smell the shit on him when he gets out of the truck. Imagine him going home and his partner has made mince or toad in the hole?
Emergency-Living6584@reddit
Recovery driver
Western_Abalone3132@reddit
It's people that are difficult, not usually the job itself.
Working with too many people is an issue and working in customer focused/public/care is an issue too.
Took me 21 years to realise that picking a job where you have very little/to no contact with people is the way forward.
tx1998@reddit
Any job where you’re micromanaged, which is usually customer service work, call centres, retail and the like. Call centres being the worst ones. Having to log a toilet visit as a ‘comfort break’, dealing with unpredictable customers who can patronise/belittle/abuse you at any given moment knowing you can do little to defend yourself without getting in serious trouble and ridiculous levels of admin. Managers know little about the mechanics of your job and expect you to churn out quality customer service and to hit unreachable targets. They monitor your status even if they’re working from home and expect you to make up time if you’re 4/5 mins late to work/back from your lunch. If a call goes over the end of your shift, you’re expected to finish it rather than wrap it up for your own convenience even that takes you 10/15/20 mins over. It’s a complete joke and should be totally restructured; the general public lack understanding and supervisors are no better when it comes to support.
Bumble072@reddit
Retail. I averaged 10,000 steps per day, which included flights of stairs. Deliveries would consist of 30-50 large heavy boxes that needed lifting. Shop opens 9-6 you work 7:30-7. Customers are not always nice. Some customers can be dangerous.
Ratiocinor@reddit
I was a software dev for years and I am currently supermarket delivery driving on the side while I look for work
I'm not going to say it's more or less difficult, it is certainly less mentally taxing of course which is nice. But I wouldn't say it's "easier", just hard in a different way.
Delivery driving is probably a lot harder than most people think though since it's just assumed by many to be a doss job for lazy or stupid people, it's not
Firstly finding addresses is the worst. British people, why the fuck do none of you have house numbers on your houses? It's absurd. You don't realise how stupid some British roads and addresses are until you do a job like this
Secondly there's the stress of parking and inconveniencing people or getting the van into tricky spots. No matter what you do you are going to inconvenience someone, it's the nature of the job. You're blocking someone else's driveway / parking bays / a side street / alleyway, or partially or fully mounting the pavement and blocking that. Those are the good options by the way. Often you have no choice but to block the entire street. Most city streets are rammed with parked cars on both sides and are barely wide enough to get a van down. It's not realistic to park 10 houses down for every drop and walk everything down, you'd never get home on time and no one would get their shopping
9 times out of 10 no one comes down that street in the 2 minutes it takes you to unload anyway so it's a numbers game. I was so worried about that happening before starting the job. On the rare occasion 1 or more people drive down that road and get stuck, they're actually surprisingly understanding most of the time. They mostly will just sit there and wait. If I'm done unloading but the customer is just slow unpacking, and the road layout allows it, I'll try and move the van out the way. But mostly it's not necessary because customers are fast. I've only had 1 person so far kick off and get out the car to start effing and blinding and take their little photos to "report me to Tesco" (LOL) but honestly I was expecting a lot more. If it does happen I just ignore them and take my sweet time, let them rage it out
DueAcanthocephala329@reddit
Social Work both adult and children services. Everyone ‘hates us’ until they need this service.
neonkisa@reddit
healthcare assitant
Illustrious-Milk6518@reddit
Along those lines, police. Having to deal with some of the worst people and situations, while being short-staffed. Having constant public ridicule, and people making judgements about a situation with a tiny video snippet for context. Being first responders for violent scenes such as murders, fatal car crashes, violent suicides etc.
FigureSubstantial970@reddit
Factory worker, shifts are awful, it’s usually 4 on 4 off (days afters and nights). You’re stood on your feet for 10-12 hours and you have to deal with hundreds of other people.
Numerous-Waltz-1280@reddit
Hospitality. If everyone did one yea in Hospitality the world would be a different place.
XStaticImmaculate@reddit
I’ll probably be one of many to say this but call centre work. In most organisations you are expected to answer calls all day, with limited breaks (Which is all tracked and logged) and complete all relevant admin within a selected timeframe. Oh, and that admin better be 100% accurate as well, no exceptions, even if you’re being rushed to do it because it must be completed within a set time. And people are much braver on the phone and will say things to you they’d never say face to face. It is not for the weak. You will speak to people who will make you question humanity - and I can only assume it’s been worse post-COVID with how people generally treat and speak to each other now.
IronSkywalker@reddit
I remember the call centre staff at the company I used to work at had to log when they went to the toilet. Ridiculous
Aromatic-Armadillo98@reddit
I lost my lovely university job and am working in one as a temp for local government. Indeed toilet breaks are logged as 'natural break'. At least my shitty temp job allows wfh 3 days and is £20.36/hour.
IronSkywalker@reddit
Take your laptop to the khazi with you, happy days
Aromatic-Armadillo98@reddit
I do! And when its getting intense go on natural break.
LordEmostache@reddit
Yep - "Comfort Break".
Miserable_Future6694@reddit
My partner thinks plastering is just playing around at the grown up park.
Cearball@reddit
I don't know about difficult but harder than they think.
Checkout/shelf stacker in a supermarket.
WhalingSmithers00@reddit
List of jobs no one thinks are easy
IlIIIllIIlIlllII@reddit
Childcare / nursery / preschool workers.
Parents can be extremely difficult. They dont understand why their perfect angel when they are at home surrounded by all their loved ones and all their stuff and dont have to use manners or clearn up after themselves turn into little monsters when out of their care.
The number of parents who are mates with their kids or half ass attempt gentle parenting are causing huge behavioural or emotional issues that staff have to deal with. The number of parents who also think we are here to toilet train their children.
Rexel450@reddit
Care work for autistic kids.
Jassida@reddit
Listening to interviews with former prison officers, I had to put that right up there
Protecting scum
PTSD inducing incidents
Dealing with terrible colleagues who enjoy punishing the inmates
The worse it gets, the less people want to do it. I quite fancied it at one point but it’s one job that needs mostly replacing by actual robots for sure
Uncle-hammy55@reddit
Can’t believe no one has said Mechanic! Standard roles pay only slightly above minimum wage, you’re expected to own all your own tools which cost thousands, incredibly skilled work that takes years to understand and master, expected to complete every job in the shortest possible time without thought for setbacks or being a human, all whilst covering yourself in years of road grime and working with hazardous chemicals. That’s before you even start dealing with the customers!
electricmong@reddit
I would say engineering in general is like this, it is incredibly demanding on both the mind and body but can also be incredibly rewarding as well.
No-Tone-6853@reddit
I’m fairly biased but being part of fraud teams in banks probably harder than people would think. Trying to convince people they are getting scammed multiple times a day for like 5 days a week can get very mentally tiring.
negras@reddit
Mental health social work, government austerity decimated most services. Huge case loads and not enough time to see your clients.
off_of_is_incorrect@reddit
Cleaning.
Most people downplay the value of good cleaning, and a lot of people don't even rate the job as worthwhile.
But, I tell you what? You'll soon value the cleaner when you're in hospital and you want those bins emptied, and the room sanitised when there's an outbreak of some disease that you utterly don't want to handle ~ cos it's them that clean that shit up, not the nurses and doctors.
And you'll soon value them when you go to theatre, cos guess who's cleaning that shit up (alongside Theatre porters) and making sure its ready for Mr. surgeon to look into your insides.
You get a ton of people in and outside the job just saying 'well, it's only cleaning.' But I think if you want a good hospital experience, you'll want a good cleaner in your area on top of all the other critical staff, cos the last thing you want is a dirty ward/cubicle/whatever. (And trust me, like 50% of the cleaners aren't following hospital policy on cleaning and are doing it wrong on purpose.)
intollerablepleasure@reddit
Being a stay at home mum according to my wife.
millimolli14@reddit
Cleaners, heavy work, terrible pay, totally under appreciated
Jamie2556@reddit
I worked as a cleaner. The worst part is that no one sees what you have done, only the bit you missed. We used to have inspections and it’s like “oh this door fitting is dusty”, dude the room was a shit tip before.
millimolli14@reddit
Yep, this happens all of the time, last week the shiny black glittery floor tiles were a bit streaky, the whole house had been done, but she rang to say that 🙄
Single-Position-4194@reddit
I tried but failed to become a math's teacher. I have no hesitation in nominating teaching in that category.
quagaawarrior@reddit
Shop clerk: Nothing prepared me for the general public. Once, a till payment buzzed twice in error, she intmstantly unleashed a rage apon me. People telling me off because they had to buy a bag, rudeness and unkindness were prevalent.
I've worked with dementia patients who have thumped me and not been half as upset as I was stood in that toys and sports dept in Trago Mills.
bambonie11@reddit
I think it would be a good idea to bring back national service, but instead of the army you have to work in a shop or a pub. Once everyone has had a taste of dealing with the general stupidity of the British public, everyone would be a lot nicer to shop and bar staff.
andycoates@reddit
I half agree, but the other half of me goes "why should shops get free workers"
Active_Definition_57@reddit
I'd like to think the shop would have to pay your wedges. They would exchange zero recruiting costs for a lack of choice as to who they got.
Drath101@reddit
Spat on, punched, grabbed by the neck, pushed, screamed at, constantly surrounded by petty theft and drug use. So glad I got out of retail
coolio_Didgeridoolio@reddit
When I worked for a large store a couple years ago I remember pitying my manager every time I was on shift with her. Her shifts would change week on week with little notice, she would be on her feet her entire 9 hour shift, and regularly on evening shifts she would be like 1 of 2 managers on the shop floor of a massive store with 4 departments with an employee calling her to do something every 2 minutes, to the point where she would be zipping across the store constantly for hours at a time. And that’s not even MENTIONING the customers.
quagaawarrior@reddit
Yeah, I never envied management in those places. The red face of an outraged customer is one that is hard to keep calm with, especially when it's petty, which it usually is.
Drath101@reddit
There's pros and cons really. When I was a colleague and not management I had alot less power to say "you're being rude to me, go somewhere else, we're not serving you"
TheLoneEcho@reddit
Yep. I spent about 15 years in retail management. Eventually ended up as a store manager and it just wasn't worth the aggro.
I've been yelled at, assaulted, had threats made against me. You name it. Then my bosses would get in my case about something else and treat me like shit. No thanks.
Drath101@reddit
I've moved to office work now and I'm so glad for it. I ended up duty manager for a few of the stores classed as highest risk in my areas. It's the little stuff.
A housemate with good intentions agreed to wash the bedding for a homeless guy, problem being my security had stopped him for being aggressive and shoplifting in the past, and now I've got to worry because he knows where I live.
Scared-Room-9962@reddit
I once had a guy go absolutely berserk at me because I couldn't exchange his 6 year old iPhone that was out of warranty for a brand new one. Like, absolutely berserk. Screaming that he works for Currys and will never ever sell another Apple product to anyone again lol
Mate, I don't care.
quagaawarrior@reddit
I think it must be bottled up rage that just gets exploded on clerks because people know they can't fight back. They gotta keep in the lines of the job code, so have to take all the spew and spittle flying at them.
Owlbear_12@reddit
Apple has never recovered
andycoates@reddit
As someone who did a stint of call center work at sony mobile and then apple, the amount of times we got "i'll never buy brand again" and it's lucky i already didn't care, but the trained response was something along the lines of "yeah that's fine, we're technical support, not sales people"
PreferencePleasant53@reddit
Retail and or hospitality should be national service! Everyone should have to do it once
quagaawarrior@reddit
Well said, an empathy i wall always carry, now i stand up for them if they get shit from nobby customers.
hairychris88@reddit
Fellow Trago Mills inmate! Fuck me that place is bleak.
quagaawarrior@reddit
It was indeed, it had it's good people among the masses of staff, but i left depressed.
I found a drawing in the old storage department behind carpets, it was on the shelving and read "failure" in amongst a waterfall imagery. That dude killed his partner and child a few years later.
Electrical_Business2@reddit
Static security guard. Keeping your mind occupied for 8/12 hours while effectively doing nothing.
SpecificRange9152@reddit
I did a fair amount of this, mostly it was ok, I would happily read or make models, radio 4 on, no problem, there were times though-stuck in a wooden shed in minus 10 outside with one outlet, you could either have a dim light or a small heater-not both, on your own for 12 hours all night like that-that was harsh, doing the security, single handed with only a cowardly alsation that wouldnt come out from under a chair, for a busy hospital A+E dept on a saturday night-that was tough, but worse than any of these was being stuck in a tiny office with another member of staff-a scotsman with an accordian who played it badly from 7 in the evening until 7 in the morning-that was just the worst..All these are true, by the way.
DonkyFondler@reddit
Ideally suited to someone with not much going on in their brain, just enough to stay alert and know when somebody is doing something wrong.
Lolabird2112@reddit
Care workers and nursing. They’re paid astoundingly bad wages and deliver so much. When my mum had dementia, the women we had visit her were absolute angels.
CoffeeandaTwix@reddit
Being a train driver.
This is the favourite example of middle class outrage at what they see as a working class job that is paid equivalently to many middle class office jobs. The common rhetoric is that 'driving a train is easy; anyone can do it'.
The problem is twofold:
1) The type of people who say that are often sitting in pretty unskilled generic mid management office jobs that only ever really required them to have the right accent and have been to university in some shape or form.
2) Becoming and maintaining status as a train driver isn't easy in any sense: many try and fail at many stages because they don't have the required attributes or ability. I'm not a train driver myself but know a guy who is and got a glimpse of the process and can see that it was very far from being a cakewalk.
Complex-League3400@reddit
My background is cognitive psychology research. What people appreciate about driving a train is that it requires a special kind of cognitive skill that relatively few people have. It's an ability to pay attention to details for extended periods of time and most people simply can't do it -- they get bored and distracted. When my son was doing the selection tests I saw they were identical to the tests we used in the lab. It's not about raw intelligence (whatever the hell that is) but an ability to watch paint dry and continue to pay attention long after others have got distracted. That's why the selection tests get rid of so many applicants.
Lastly, people are often gloriously unaware of their talent to do this. When my son passed the selection tests no one said anything about what those tests were actually testing. I said "lastly" so won't even go into the next stage of the training which is a massive amount of memorisation and internalisation of the safety procedures. It's a ton of work, but some other jobs have that too. The cognitive testing is special though.
MikeCoatsDotCom@reddit
Being a manager.
So many people fall into it accidentally by being promoted out of their specialty since it’s often the only way “up”. There’s no reason to expect your “software developer” skills would directly translate into “management” skills, but we expect the people to be able to make that jump anyway.
Visual-Meeting4402@reddit
I worked as a manager for around 10 years. Started from the ground up. Left that job as hated practically being on call 247/365. I started at a new place, again from the bottom and through several promotions ended up inheriting someone I needed to manage.
Long story short, being a manager can be good when the going is good, but when theres people issues etc thats when it becomes a pain in the rear. I know not every manager cares but I did. In the end I went a different way in which I dont have to manage people, im happier and have no aspirations to really go back to management
Qrbrrbl@reddit
Yep. It absolutely can be straightforward but suddenly your own job performance is directly related to the people you manage. It only takes one difficult person to make management a nightmare.
Yes I know that report is needed today, but Jeff is coincidentally off again the Monday after the City game so I'm a man down and Sally and Jess aren't talking to each other because Susie said Sally told her Jess doesnt like her.
No we didn't hit our target this month because the business closed two offices and sacked 15 people. No I cant just force the team to do overtime to make up the shortfall.
Reddit shits on middle managers constantly without any real understanding of the kind of crap a lot of them deal with. Don't get me wrong, there's shit middle managers, but they also have a lot on their plates that people who have never been in that position really dont get, likely with no training to help them
True-Register-9403@reddit
Shit from above, shit from below...
Kizzieuk@reddit
Carer for the disabled or elderly. one of the lowest paid jobs with the highest responcablity
Flupsy@reddit
Cabin crew, and in particular budget airline cabin crew. They have critical safety responsibilities, but also long unsociable hours, impossible turnaround times, pissed-up entitled passengers, screaming puking kids… all for horrible money and often unpaid hours at work.
Acubeofdurp@reddit
My gf is cabin crew, I hear it all the time. Her best mate went from cabin crew to paramedic and says there's way less red tape and accountability in his new job.
Meat2480@reddit
I have a relative who was a prison officer,
He worked his way up a maximum security prison, was there 10 years ish and was medically retired ( there was a video of 2 topless joggers going around the prison,but that about the only upside)
I know it was a thankless job after talking to him,then I read the book about Manchester prison,and realised it really is a shite job,
SocieteRoyale@reddit
care and support work, an absolutely huge scope of a job with ill defined limits and seemingly endless all consuming hours
Tastetherainbow_2016@reddit
Running a pub. Never forget some coked up pissed up labourer leaning over my bar preaching about how easy my job is compared to his. He literally humped rubbish into skips all day ffs, yes I’m sure that’s physically demanding, but so is humping beer barrels around a cellar while managing staff rotas, safe checks and cashing up, keeping on top of all the bills like sky tv licence business rates etc, ordering and stocktaking, serving 100s of people who all want frigging Guiness and jager bombs, keeping the place clean and maintained, collecting and washing empties, diffusing potentially violent situations and kicking out troublemakers, etc!
Little shit got a dirty glass for his next pint 😂
KitFan2020@reddit
Nursing, teaching, front line police, retail, hospitality, paramedic… and people that work in social care.
All treated like sh*t regularly by members of the public.
jc456_@reddit
Teaching
GrabbedByTheGhost@reddit
Teaching.
People STILL don't get it, I thought things were getting better but they seemed to have dipped again recently.
A marination in cortisol lasting 30+ years.
gregredmore@reddit
IT. No one outside your field has a clue how complex what they are asking for is to do.
fraserandrews@reddit
Farming. Takes generations of knowledge and often 100 hours a week.
sockeyejo@reddit
Retail. Never been called a c* so many times in my life as I have working a minimum wage job and some how being personally responsible for something not being in stock or an item not working or a complicated refund procedure. Catch someone shoplifting and they'd be as polite as anything, mostly ashamed of themselves and embarrassed and scared, but tell someone that yes, we have sold out of mince pies half an hour before closing on Christmas Eve and you get screamed at for ruining Christmas. The worst language and behaviour was from parents when I worked in a toy shop. Kids brought in there at the weekend learned a lot of new vocabulary to share with their mates in the playground on Monday, courtesy of raging parents unable to accept that no, we weren't going to sell the 15 rated video game to the 10 year old, even if it was his birthday, because It's The Law and if you ring your solicitor to sue me personally, as you're threatening, they'll tell you the same thing (and hopefully charge you for the privilege). See also running out of The Must Have Toy and needing to wait until its back in stock, and no, we're not babysitters and no it's not okay to leave your kids unsupervised to destroy the aisles while you look for their birthday present.
Rant over!
beernon@reddit
Everything written here is totally valid but I’d also say it’s highly variable depending on where you work.
I was in retail for a few years and I loved it, I had a great team and great customers and it was just a generally pleasant workplace. Of course my legs and back went to shit and I was physically exhausted but I enjoyed it 100x more than the ‘cushy’ corporate job I have now where I have to take antidepressants just to cope. Take me back.
sockeyejo@reddit
I worked in stores and sectors across England and Wales, urban and rural, affluent and poor. Some customers were lovely - used to have great chats with many. And worked with some brilliant people. But many folk don't think about the human aspect of being in retail and in a thread like this, I like to point out why you shouldn't take it out on the member of staff who has no say on stock or prices or procedures.
Certain-Donut-9175@reddit
999 call handler. It pays minimum wage and it is horrendous. Relentless pace, I used to take over 150 calls a shift some days, the abuse is daily (so many people threatened to kill or rape me I lost count, one told me to buy a spade because he was going to find me, take me to the woods and make me dig my own grave before raping me and burying me alive, nice guy). Its mostly done by young people (I started age 21, a lot of them are only 18) and the things you are subjected to are pretty horrific. I've been the last person someone spoke to countless times, literally hearing them take their last breaths on the phone, I've heard 2 people be murdered while the phone line was still active, I've talked numerous parents through CPR on their newborn baby, or how to cut their child down after they have hung themselves, talked to mental health patients on ledges for literal hours, a few of whom have then jumped. The list is endless. I've lost a few colleagues to suicide and it's honestly not surprising. The resilience you need to do it day in and day out is astronomical.
I've done multiple roles since then, most still in the same service (I changed careers 20 years later), some of which paid a full 30k+ more than that role, and none of them were remotely as hard as that.
ModulusFlea@reddit
Any Customer Service/Customer facing job/Call Centre.
The general British public are truly, truly horrendous.
PatchcordAdams@reddit
I worked a city centre 24/7 petrol station between ‘99 and ‘04. It genuinely felt like doing a tour of duty.
I started as a meek teenager, came out battle hardened. I started lifting weights/boxing just so I had a chance of defending myself better. Full on fist fights with customers.
Had one guy wait outside to fight me for 4hrs. Called the Police, Friday night, they never came. So I had to take him on lol.
Had someone throw a brick at me. Had someone trash the store over a top up card. Had someone spit in my face because their card showed up as stolen and I had to keep it. Had an OD on the forecourt. Theft / drive offs were rampant so management were on us constantly to try and stop it.
That era was truly feral.
StallionSearle@reddit
Yard workers at builders merchants especially big ones, it’s outdoors, it’s dangerous, pay is low, they have a huge amount of products to wrap their heads around, they are dealing with a variety of different customers: tradesmen, general public and online orders, often understaffed and all the saws and machinery they have to operate… it’s physically hard and mentally draining and they’re often looked down upon
Plenty of bad injuries and deaths in those places
Slaughterhouse workers would come to mind but I don’t think anyone thinks that’d be easy.. but it’s certainly something people overlook for more glamorous difficult jobs
Glittering_Vast938@reddit
Call centre where you are heavily monitored and any down time is measured to the minute.
blazecranium@reddit
Definitely working in a library, at least if you’re in a rough area. It often comes up in conversations as jobs that are great to have but it can be incredibly boring (those are the best parts). If it’s not boring, you’re often dealing with a multitude of people who come in because of the free internet access and closed off toilet areas where they can do whatever they want. You get a lot of abuse and a lot of trouble from people who have no where else to go.
Connect-Bug9988@reddit
Removals, firstly to find reliable people to employ who aren't careless, reckless or thieves, plus sometimes incredibly long days, lots of long distance travel, physically taxing for extended periods, and for the small company I worked for 3-5 days per week was a great return.
I did it for 10 years, and not once was there a single breakage or lost item, which is incredibly good going.
You're basically entrusted with your customers entire lives, and when done professionally and with great care, the people you're moving really appreciate it, and reward you handsomely, and some of the bigger moves, it was not uncommon to get more in tips than you actually got paid for the day or two work itself.
Keeping people feeling confident in your ability to take care of their possessions is an entire skill in and of itself.
Minimum I came home with, even on a 3 day week was about £800 plus tips, sometimes £1500-1800 in a full seven day week, one time I got given an envelope with 5x£50 notes as my tip, as did the other 3 guys on the job.
I've never been fitter in my life, and the long days, followed by early starts the day after ensured I didn't succumb to my favourite pastimes of booze and drugs 🤣
Unfortunately the guy I worked for retired, and I worked for other companies afterwards that didn't have the same kind of methods I was used to, lazy employees, and careless attitudes, so ended up leaving shortly after starting with them.
If I could find another job with a similar feel to the one I spent those 10 years with, I'd happily spend the rest of my working days with them.
Lonely-Ad-5387@reddit
Sounds like you need to start your own company, you'd probably be very successful and highly in demand.
Kamikaze-X@reddit
Universal Credit case managers
The people making sure UC gets paid are on just above minimum wage, and a big proportion are on UC themselves
They have caseloads up to 3000 claims, often have to do very complex manual calculations, answer messages from hundreds of people and get abuse from people over things totally out of their control, and then also end up dealing with suicidal people on the phones
Bear in mind Case Managers have absolutely nothing to do with sanctions or job searching, they just want to get their caseload paid on time.
Kind_Shift_8121@reddit
Estate agent. Bare with me!
When I purchased my house I was staggered by the amount of work that the agent had to do. The solicitors were all completely useless, the sellers were total control freaks and withheld certain documents “to maintain some influence”, I was doing my best to keep a cool head but had to call them every other day to keep things progressing. Everything went through the agent, all of the technical stuff plus all of the emotionally charged correspondence. When I figured out how much they actually made from the sale I couldn’t figure out why the hell they bother.
I know they get a lot of hate, and there are some sleazy ones out there, but it’s a tough job for not a great deal of money. There are certainly easier ways to make a living!
Familiar-Woodpecker5@reddit
Emergency services like paramedics, police. Nursing. Teachers.
SmokeMountain4777@reddit
I did my work experience in a prison on the isle of sheppey in the 90's yup. Its a lot more than looking tough and always being angry, its more akin almost to social worker , school.teachers and Care home workers. Rolled into one
Unhappy-Philosophy-9@reddit
Retail. Any of it.
I did 10 years as a manager for Aldi, 3 for Morrisons and two for BHF and it is by far and away the worst profession to work in. If you’re not getting yelled at by entitled customers, you’re getting pressured by directors who don’t have a clue what’s genuinely going on at shop floor level.
I’m convinced if you wanted petty criminals to stop reoffending, have them work a year in retail.
Original-Material301@reddit
Did my stint in retail management 10+ years ago and will never go back.
Nearly impossible KPIs that you'll find difficult to meet unless the stars align that particular month.
Staff (some were great, some were dicks)
The public.
inspectorgadget9999@reddit
There was a news report about those electronic POS that they're introducing and bought back my PTSD of when the VAT changed and we had to reprint every price in the shop: so 500 sheets of A4, each sheet had between 2 and 20 perforated price tickets that needed to be carefully ripped out and put out. If you didn't then either customers would moan because the prices were wrong, or management would moan because of too much discount. Many tickets required manual reprinting because there were multiple facings. Or idiot staff would lose stacks of tickets or put them in front of the wrong item.
W51976@reddit
Corporate Security. But, this varies from site to site. One man sites, and smaller buildings are usually a better deal.
I could never work in one of the bigger office towers like Bishopsgate, or the Canary Wharf offices. Way too many security staff and more backstabbing.
Weird_Fall2028@reddit
Backstabbing??
Teaboy1@reddit
Oooh Dave went on his break 5 seconds early and came back 4 seconds late better tell the boss. Oh and Ians uniform isn't correct.
Its funny the same two or three twats seem to work everywhere.
W51976@reddit
Mostly insecure and unhappy individuals.
W51976@reddit
Yeah there’s plenty of that. On the flip side, you can work on plenty of sites with a decent team.
W51976@reddit
It happens. I worked on one site with two engineers, 2 security officers, and one security manager. The two engineers were always slagging us off, but; would ask us to carry out jobs when it suited them. Just to usual walking round the site with other contractors(which in itself was doing the onsite engineers job for them).
Thankfully, both of them were removed from site over a period of time, because of two separate incidents. Clients from different floors made complaints about them.
EzBriez_@reddit
Communication support worker for Deaf students. We are required to be translators, lip speakers, note takes, interpret multiple classroom conversation, be the voice of the teacher, be the voice of the student, and be an LSA. Its a lot, and I don't get paid any more than my colleagues who don't even have to do half the ammoint of work. But I love using BSL and I love watching my students achieve something! I just wish that there was more awareness and appreciation for the role.
Automatic-Use-6714@reddit
Prison officers are paid very well and get the best public service pension.
W51976@reddit
I don’t agree with every job having the same trajectory, when it comes to working less hard as you move up the ladder.
Some job roles become increasingly stressful, the higher up you work in a company. It just depends on the role.
DonkyFondler@reddit
Professional golfer. Golf is really hard. Have you ever tried to play golf? I mean, try playing golf for the first time, and see if you even hit the ball, never mind hit it in the right direction.
Free-Purpose-542@reddit
Mechanic for a reputable brand- training constantly for new models but having to retain the knowledge for the old models too, having to buy all your own tools, maintaining them/replacing them on relatively low wages. And now with all the ev cars- it’s an incredibly dangerous job. Most places are not providing the correct equipment/tools to carry out the jobs safely either. Constant pressure to speed up, sell up, etc.
BatmanSwift99@reddit
Police, it's a very thankless job and too many people like to criticise them
Forsaken-Original-28@reddit
Chefs/kitchen workers. Whenever I go into kitchens I always think there's no way I'd be able to do it
Stevebwrw@reddit
Security Guard.
Specifically on nights on buildings, warehouses and factories. It is you on your own patrolling a large area. 60 hour weeks for minimum wage. I did this off and on for several years.
I had to deal with a drunk guy in his car where he shouldn't have been. A old textile mill where they gave you a stick in case of the rats turning on you. Lots of boredom and not much social life.
There was not much you could do on your own if there was break in.
Altnabreac@reddit
Running a railway service which passes through Altnabreac station
bisikletci@reddit
I don't think many people see being a prison officer as a wall in the park.
Zestyclosereality@reddit
Same as most of the jobs in this thread tbh
heyyouupinthesky@reddit
Prison service is low paid? My friend's daughter is 22 pulling in £50k with minimal overtime. Not that I'd want to do the job, but it's hardly minimum wage.
FrodoTheDodo1@reddit
Must be London then or she's exaggerating because I just left the service and I was on £35k. Certainly not minimum wage but we're not raking it in either
CarelessCredit3466@reddit (OP)
I left in 2020 to be a PCSO because the money was better.
Cozmic_Fool1931@reddit
Bin man.
DoctorWhofan789eywim@reddit
Retail. It might be 'easy' in the sense that the work itself isn't too difficult. But the worst thing about working customer service? Customers. Demanding, rude, unpleasant, entitled. Day in day out. It's draining.
GosmeisterGeneral@reddit
I know it’s a bit tiny violin but
Actors. It’s a very specific craft that’s incredibly difficult to be good at - far more than just showing up and remembering some lines. If you’ve ever seen a talented actor put themselves in a headspace and turn into a totally different person at the flip of a switch… it’s very very impressive.
Add to that that it’s unstable as hell too. 99% of jobbing actors never have consistent work.
UnderHisEye1411@reddit
People lucky enough to work in the arts sometimes give the impression that the rest of us choose not to. Mate, I'd love to paint/act/write for a living but who is going to pay my mortgage and buy my kids school shoes if I chase the dream ?
Original-Material301@reddit
I've always wondered what actors who don't "make it big" in the business does in between work.
Regular job?
Be an extra?
Theatre work?
GosmeisterGeneral@reddit
All of the above. A lot of them teach too. Stand ins. Voice over. There’s a lot of side work.
noxwiitch@reddit
Hospitality, the amount of crap you have to deal with on a daily basis is insane.
jessHale011x@reddit
Mental health nurse.
Had 6 stitches in my scalp and broken finger.
strawberryblondey@reddit
Cleaners. Hard work rubbish hours and under appreciated.
UnderHisEye1411@reddit
Any job where your boss micro manages you. Unbearable.
JohnCasey3306@reddit
I know nothing about being a prison officer, but my guess it's horrendously difficult ... so I'm surprised your instinct is that it's so easy?
ILovePencils13@reddit
Veterinary Nurse. Minimum wage, high stress, constant abuse from the public, witnessing lots of death and animal abuse. Some practices are a very toxic environment as well. People think it's all cuddling kittens.
Capital-Transition-5@reddit
Social worker. Not only are we supporting society's most vulnerable but the level of legislative knowledge we need is insane.
Prior_Psychology_150@reddit
Care work. Whether that’s nursery or elderly
sjw_7@reddit
A football referee. Even if you do everything exactly right and every call you make is the correct one you will still be wrong and what you do will be heavily scrutinised. Its an absolutely thankless job no matter which level you officiate at.
Disclaimer I am not a football referee.
Roninjuh@reddit
Retail sales environment. And the pay/commission only gets worse.
Who_Knows_M3@reddit
Retail. School kitchens (number of people that quit so quickly thinking its just "popping something in the oven".)
TheBrassDancer@reddit
Working with food, especially any frontline service such as a restaurant. The pay is often poor, the hours are long and inconsistent, and the pressure can be constant and unrelenting.
I did that for about a decade and it burned me out.
fugelwoman@reddit
Bus drivers!
BeachTheHam13@reddit
I work for the civil service. The time it takes to get one task done can be measured by climate change! Why? Because of other people!!
dinkidoo7693@reddit
Hospitality, so many places are understaffed and too many customers think its ok to be rude to people who work for minimum wage in cafes and fastfood places
redandwhitewizard99@reddit
Pensions. Every administration software is awful. No wonder they are mass recruiting young people as everyone else is leaving
ukguy907@reddit
Retail
Disastrous-Place-846@reddit
Hgv driving
widdrjb@reddit
The harder the job, the less the pay. I earned 160 on Friday for 9 hours, the lads in the multidrop fleet were on minimum wage.
14JRJ@reddit
Do people think being a prison officer is easy
Scared-Room-9962@reddit
Room Attendant.
Minimum wage, rooms cleaned and tidied to be like new on a tight time scale.
Stripping and making bed after bed after bed.
That is hard fucking work.
North-Dog1268@reddit
Any customer facing role dealing with the general public
ZeroCool5577@reddit
Retail as a manager is crazy hard with very difficult KPI’s
Wonderful-Cow-9664@reddit
Retail. Specifically supermarket retail. Too many people look down on it because they don’t know what’s involved. I did it for years in my younger days-and the more you work your way up, the more difficult it gets. The pay is great and I loved every minute of it, but it’s not easy
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