Does anyone else's profession get shit on by the media?

[burrfoot]

I'm just sayin'. Sometimes it irritates me. I've been working with kids in group homes and in all the various permutations of foster care for almost ten years now. I can't claim that I've been madly in love with the job for every second of that time, and I don't plan on doing it forever. There are a couple of asshats where I work, as I assume there are everywhere.

By and large, though, I've been surround by some of the most caring and patient people I've ever come across in my life. They suffer all kinds of bullshit and poor treatment on a daily basis that very, very few people would put up with. All while getting paid shit.

In the movies, though, and on tv...the social worker is always the 'bad guy.' Oftentimes condescending, rude, and embarassingly brief in their visits and interviews, social workers are portrayed as being out to get the parents and as apparently being terminally stupid- i.e., child has a single bruise on his or her shin and social worker, after talking to family, decided to call in an abuse report.

Where's the consideration of the child's daily activities? How about looking for any bilateral bruising, multiples (new bruises on top of old bruises)? How about taking placement into consideration? Bruises are common on protuberances and bony areas of the body, we tend to worry more when they're on the 'softer' bits. We are, actually, trained on what to look for and how to consider the whole picture in that kind of situation. I never have known a single social worker who got as excited about reporting or removing as they seem to in the movies.

Ok. End of mini-rant. Anyone else out there get crapped on by society's view of what their job is?

[Radical Activist]

1. Community Organizer.

Yeah, the profession has taken a little shit but for all the right reasons.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Kudos to you for what you do.

It sounds like a demanding and tough job that few people could take on and the kids are fortunate to have you. Me, I was responsible for the TV listings that you see in your newspaper. Nobody ever thinks where those come from... ;)

[femmocrat]

3. Teachers. Everything is our fault.

:eyes:

What I really can't stand is comedians making fun of teachers for "having sex with students". It denigrates all the hard-working, dedicated teachers who would never, ever in a million years, take advantage of a student.

[uncommon]

4. That sucks. I'm a paralegal -

and the general view of the public seems to be that we are a bunch of airheads who don't know anything and send out mail.

What it really means is that I do most of the work of an attorney (especially in my office) for a lot less money.

[blue_roses_lib]

22. My cousin is a paralegal

The stories she tells...:scared: It's you all doing the grunt work without the pay or the status.

[raccoon]

5. Lawyers. Everybody poormouths lawyers until THEY need one.

(but I'm not a lawyer.)

[Rambis]

7. Thank Dan Q and poppy Bush for that

fuckin trial lawyers are the root of all evil according to them. My brother is an attorney and I feel sorry for him. It is not a job for a family man who wants to spend time with his family because the clients expect you to be there 365 days a year 24 hours a day.

[kentauros]

9. And yet some of the best movies have to do with lawyers and trials:

Twelve Angry Men
The Verdict
Inherit the Wind
To Kill A Mockingbird

:)

[Brickbat]

6. As an editor at a newspaper, yes, it happened to me quite a damn bit.

[kentauros]

8. Never mind the media, mine gets shit on at DU!

Oil & Energy business (drafting and design for my end of it) ;)

[Rosie1223]

10. Me, too

American agriculture -- and we deal with real shit every day.

[kentauros]

12. You mean humanure?

:P

I know very little about farming, though what I did learn years ago was about non-mechanized farming. I used to volunteer at a 19th century working farm/nature center, so it was good to see what that kind of life was like (hard!) :)

[Rosie1223]

13. haha My claim to fame is

that I've shoveled actual bullshit.

:hi:

[kentauros]

14. I've done that too

and horseshit, and chickenshit, and... ;)

One thing that was cool on the old farm was the mule-drawn, mechanical "manure spreader". So you shovel the bullshit into it and then get to spread it around

[lightningandsnow]

11. I work at a fucking temp agency.

Not as a temp, I'm a receptionist at the actual agency, and may be getting promoted to junior recruiter soon. It's actually a full staffing service - we do permanent hires as well - but people don't make that distinction. Maybe it's not so much the media, but I have had a couple of people tell me off for how the staffing agency exploits people. I do see their point, but I'm just an 18 year old receptionist.

[burrfoot]

15. Thank you everybody!

You guys definitely know the feeling, and it's good to know I'm not the only one. Thanks for 'listening' to my vent :evilgrin:

Best of luck everyone, and hang in there! Those who hate our jobs just don't understand them. I truly believe that.

:toast:

[SoxFan]

16. Noooooooo...

This is as positive as it gets:

[Mopar151]

17. The whole smorgasaboard of my career/hobbies.

Used to be a mechanic, now working as a machinist. Ever see either as a TV carachter? The few "reality" shows that dealt with car building were latgely about the "drama" _ and I thank Jesse James for presenting some of the iconic craftsmen on Monster Gararge. I'm a weekend racer, you may as well say perpetrator to most TV and print news, or "suicidal maniac". TV Sports people are very condescending about professional racing, treating the #1 spectator sport as a sideshow for illiterates, or as somehow illegitamate.

[realisticphish]

24. Overhaulin' was awesome

Chip Foose FTW

[av8rdave]

18. On a fairly regular basis

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. I practiced law for a number of years. Now I work for an airline.

I get those old hatey vibes toward my current and former professions quite regularly, including here on DU.

[kentauros]

20. I think what happens on DU is that people can't differentiate

between those at the top of the company and those of us that are just "lowly" employees. Unless you're both willing to move and change careers (and can financially afford to do so) they don't understand that it's not always possible to not work for these "heinous" corporations...

[Mendocino]

21. I work for the federal government.

My wife works for the state.

Our son is in teaching.

No, we never suffer from any criticism, but thanks for asking.

;)

[triguy46]

34. Yup, second that. I'm a State employee, wife teaches public school....

in the reddest of red states. Not fun.

[blue_roses_lib]

23. Accounting/Finance

A few years back when enron/tyco/worldcom et al hit, I was still an undergrad going for an accounting degree. Before, accounting was boring my classmates would say, then all of a sudden by God accountants and CFOs were the scum of the earth and everyone was cooking the books. After that came the period where anything related to forensic accounting was the sexiest profession on earth. LOL, makes me smile to think of it. Now, I do the books for a college bookstore. It's about as unsexy as you can get. It's not the media so much as it's my coworkers, who try to go around accounting rules and university regs, and the students who think college bookstores are all out to rip them off, etc etc etc. Complete bullshit. My store is self supporting at a state school. I am tired of hearing how we misuse the funds from the state. What money??? WTF do you think self supporting means? Or that we should give profits back. What profit? Our costs skyrocket just like every other damn thing in this economy: cost of good sold, payroll, cost of bennies, utilities, office supplies... when a publisher doubles what they charge us and I have to have the funds to pay it, guess that means I have to raise the retail. Take it up with the fucking publishers who push custom print on demand books to professors and then direct market to students. Again, complete bullshit. You would think the lot of us sit around and plot how to rip off the student body, OH and hide used books in the back stockroom, etc. I don't have time for that shit. I'm too busy ordering the textbooks that the faculty order LATE and the had the balls to say the bookstore fucked his class, meanwhile because he ordered late, I have to have them sent FedEx 2nd day air because I'm in Alaska and that's the only way to get them here by the start of class. I'm too busy making sure I have enough students to man the cash registers so that the thousands of students in my store don't have to wait in line for a long time as they come at the last possible second to buy a book. I'm making sure the buyback folks who fly up from out of state are set up so we can give as much cash as possible to students. I'm empathizing on the phone with students who have to make the choice between an expensive new edition math book (really? how often does algebra change that you have to publish a new edition? Money grubbing assholes) and groceries, or utilities, or rent, or their kid's school gear. I'm donating funds to puchase things like shuttle buses for the whole school and sponsorships, donating merchandise to everything from the local high schools, to the division wide barbeques, taking a hit on any piece of merchandise that walks out the door. So Don't TELL ME I'm trying to gouge the students, we try to find the ways to HELP students. Fuck. Me.


So maybe it's a college bookstore thing... sorry to rant. The misconception, and I've seen it on here as well, is huge. And I'm sick of it.

[TZ]

25. All the time..I work in the biopharmaceutical industry

Its rare that I hear ANYONE say ANYTHING nice about my field.

[Capn Sunshine]

26. Oh Yeah. Everything bad seems to be my fault

I used to be a Banker that specialized in CMOs and other derivatives.

I'm a Hedge Fund manager that gets in and out of the markets just in time, unlike many who have to watch as their slower larger companies they have their 401ks with just eat it.

Oh yeah, I back restaurants so maybe I'm giving back to the community

[old mark]

27. bf- I was counsellor in an adolescent drug rehab and later in a

job at a state mental institution - I was amazed the the ignorance or supposedly educated people making fun of the mentally ill and of the kids in the rehab.
(When a 17 year old boy tells you that the rehab is the best place he has ever been, you know his life has been shitty.)

People are just fucking ignorant and too damn many of them are proud of it and actually love it.

All the best.

mark

[PassingFair]

28. Arrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhh! SALESMEN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jl3cKWuJVc

Business owners have been known to
DIVE under their counters when they
see me coming!

[ScreamingMeemie]

29. ...and even friends wait until the last pea in the dish to sign up.

Even after they swore they weren't going to be "that guy".

[PassingFair]

32. You didn't want to be outdone!

Pretty picture.....

[ScreamingMeemie]

30. Real Estate Appraiser.

[Capn Sunshine]

38. So YOU'RE The One!!

Have time for a fresh conspiracy?

[RandomThoughts]

31. Shrug.

Not working really, need a correction before I can think about returning to work.

But can always think in terms of.




And keeping things in perspective.

Travel is a fun thought also, some places I would like to see. So that is a good way to avoid those issues.

[kwassa]

33. Public school teacher, the current whipping post of the Obama administration

and the Bush administration before that

Fire all the teachers! It is all their fault! Parents and the community bear no responsibility!

[pink-o]

35. Airline Ticket Agent...

so yeah, definitely!

But mostly people just call me "Stewardess". It's assumed if you're a female in a navy blue Airline uniform you must not only be a Flight Attendant, but some actually throw back to the Coffee, Tea or Me? days!

[JTG of the PRB]

36. I work in retail.

It's not that people dump on the occupation itself, but the customers give the employees shit. There are mean people, stupid people, impatient people, angry people, demanding people - and that's usually before 11am. They come into the store expecting to be waited on hand and foot, and we do our best to accommodate everybody to the best of our abilities - and it's still not enough for some of them. If we don't hand them the world on a silver platter, do it with a smile, kiss their ass and then give them a discount when they forget their coupon, it ruins their day and they take it out on us.

Granted there are some genuinely nice and plainly neutral people out there, but the assholes can really get to you. Sometimes they treat us like we're stupid or uneducated or whatever. Really gets under my skin when somebody acts like that, to my face no less! :mad:

Anyway. :rant:

[blaze]

37. HVAC Tech

Often the butt of jokes.... "Dad said my grades will land me in Air Conditioning College" :eyes:

AND... I work for a public school district.... so my pension is always on the chopping block... and, of course, totally undeserved.

[nolabear]

39. Oh sure. Therapist.

The therapist is always the one who's REALLY crazy, or sleeps with their patients, or misdiagnoses people or has some kind of agenda that ends up either being clueless or a form of mind control. In reality most of us are pretty reasonable people who do the best we can, and succeed inhelping sometimes and don't sometimes.

And very few of us are as sexy as Gabriel Byrne or Lorraine Bracco.

[XemaSab]

40. I'll come out and say that if people knew what environmental consulting biologists actually did

we WOULD get shit on here. :P

[burrfoot]

41. I actually have a good friend who (I think)

does that. She got her masters at the environmental college at Syracuse and after doing a couple really cool but poor paying field jobs, now consults with some company in Florida about how to stay within the regulations and do as little damage to the environment as possible.
Anywhere near the mark?

[burrfoot]

42. I actually have a good friend who (I think)

does that. She got her masters at the environmental college at Syracuse and after doing a couple really cool but poor paying field jobs, now consults with some company in Florida about how to stay within the regulations and do as little damage to the environment as possible.
Anywhere near the mark?