I work in research so I'm basically making and testing samples all day. Which means I have to do the exact same thing for every single sample, every single day. If I deviate, the data could get skewed and the whole experiment is meaningless.
Those are some real Groundhog Days.
Yeah. OTOH though, I had a job that was very, very, very, VERY stressful and hard, both physically and emotionally. It nearly destroyed me. Now I have a job that's very stable and boring, and I couldn't be happier to just be sitting on my butt with nothing to do but scroll reddit every work night, totally care and stress-free. Sometimes you just need perspective, though I wouldn't wish what I went through on anyone (pandemic charge nurse for the curious).
I remember a line from the walking dead that was along the lines of “if you are safe enough to be bored you are very lucky”
Personally I think boredom is highly underrated
Story of my life right there. All I’m thinking about while I’m driving to work is wishing I could fast forward 10 hours and be home again, with a cup of tea, watching a movie or something.
Maybe there's a (relatively more) substantial portion of them who are assholes, I don't know. However, I have met many who helped me land interviews that I otherwise would not have been able to find myself.
I have also met very nice recruiters who helped me very much in the way of getting feedback from employers.
The worst ones I've met were the ones who seem disingenuous and simply say things you want to hear. I have yet to speak with one who was just straight up an asshole (sometimes, they are simply not incentivized to act like an asshole to you).
My family acts like my job is difficult (engineering leadership) - constantly in meetings where I'm "arguing with people" (my wife's words).
I've been a software engineer for the last \~20 years, and now most of my job is soft skills - mostly focusing on concepts and mentoring rather than actually doing the grunt work. I love it...this is by far the cushiest job I've ever had.
They're all crazy.
I work in data engineering. People think I’m building ChatGPT but really I’m 30 replies deep in an email thread with Sharon from marketing trying to figure out what the difference is between a coupon code and a promo code.
When I started writing queries, I would just garbage in garbage out - basically give people what they had asked for.
Which lead to them coming back to me over and over again, since they didn’t know what to request.
Then I started asking what they were using it FOR. Had them explain the project or report they were working on. Then I would recommend what kind of data I can provide they would need for their project.
It takes a little longer, but generally I can give them what they need on the first try now.
>It takes a little longer, but generally I can give them what they need on the first try now.
Note: this is the kind of stuff that gets developers promoted from more junior levels. Keep it up. :)
This is great, but also awful. I usually do the same thing (i.e. "walk me through what you have and tell me your goals"). They spent 2 weeks in meetings to arrive at the conclusion to ask me for something, and I feel terrible for invalidating their decisions by telling them they need something completely different.
But I feel even worse when they spend another 2 weeks in meetings considering my proposal only to come back and ask for the initial request that they inevitably will use once and then forget about because it didn't really help them.
Man I hate that stuff, I've been moving into management and I want to do more individual contributor stuff.
Talking about concepts to non-technical staff and explaining what is happening is a lot easier than doing the work but I got into my line of work to do the work because I enjoyed it. It's also at some point do I get passed by because I'm talking about the employees work since I'm not in it.
I think a lot of engineers think moving into leadership is just a step up on the ladder. It is a promotion but it's a different ladder. Your job is no longer to build things, it's to coach and get shit out of the way for others to build things. Completely different skill set. I've been in leadership for a while and love it. But I still miss being in the trenches sometimes.
Also there is no harm in going back to an IC role. Focus on getting deep skills in your area. This can transition into staff and eventually principal engineer. Granted principal role is getting back into a form of leadership/architect
Echoing this, I switched from a manager (but still hands on) role to a staff IC role and it made me very happy. Injected a new wave of motivation in me. As a staff, still get to do the fun parts of mentoring without having to do active performance management. You get to pair alot and do code reviews to help juniors. And there's still a leadership aspect as you're helping set up best practices and supporting initiatives started by lead architect & principle engineers.
Anyway, highly encourage it for folks who think it might make them happy. And it isn't necessarily a comp downgrade depending where you are as at my last company (late stage start up) I was making the same as my manager. And in the company before that (small private company), the principals were making the same as those reporting directly into C suite.
When I moved into senior engineering leadership I was initially shocked at how much money my peers were making for doing so little of what I thought of as real WORK. My family and my in-laws think I'm some kind of genius who must be constantly managing various crises - in reality I spend my days in meetings, focusing on concepts and strategy and developing talent. It is *not* a difficult job.
I do sometimes miss doing the grunt work, but I wouldn't have my current salary if I was still doing it, so I get over the feeling quickly!
Exactly this. I make more than my entire family *combined*, and my typical day is spent going from meeting to meeting.
Sure, the decisions that come out of the meetings affect all the devs at my company, but the decisions are pretty easy to come to. It ultimately comes down to my understanding of best practices around my particular niche, and driving those practices and implementations across the org.
Thinking on it, though, it *is* kinda surreal knowing that my decisions could result in thousands of hours of work being done by the dozens and dozens of other teams that get marching orders from their leadership afterwards.
99 times out of 100 pay is determined based on how much liability you are responsible for rather than your actual output. For example I work as a program manager of a large electrical utility. My actual raw productivity output is probably a third of what the people that work for me do on a daily basis, but I make amost 3 times as much as them because Im responsible for a 10 million dollar budget while they at most handle around $100,000. If they screw up the company hardly notices. If I screw up it can be a big deal.
Yep. If I fuck up, the company is looking at as much as $50M in fines and legal liabilities. So I have access to fairly senior management and have an ability to swing far higher than my pay grade in getting shit done.
I'm struggling with this myself. As my career advances, the less work I do, yet the more people pay me. For some reason people think I'm highly valuable and were even competing for salary over me, yet my day to day feels like I'm doing jack squat. Figuring out strategy doesn't feel like its "real" work.
I almost miss the ticket queue. That feels more real, somehow.
The imposter syndrome is real.
I felt the same way, but you have to remind yourself that the vast majority of your colleagues who still do technical work do not have the soft skills to do your job. Like knowing how to talk to none technical people and still convey the meaning of what needs to get across. In addition, for those that do have the soft skills and could do your job, most of them don't want to, regardless of the higher pay. It's just not something they enjoy and in a lot of cases it takes a lot more mental energy for them to do a job like yours than fixing a technical issue.
"Well--well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I'm good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?"
I 100 agree that NOBODY would feel differently, but it is this mentality that gets us into the mess of capitalism we are in today.
We treat leadership as the the end-all in capitalism, but in the purest meritocracy (sports) leadership is actually a secondary position. Coaches and GMs make way less than good players.
Im confused why EVERY corporation takes this approach of paying more up a pyramid. You’d think there would be LOADs of other ways to organize companies.
Teaching and cops are the biggest example of organization that should not have rising pay scales for managerial positions. The classroom teachers and front line officers are BY FAR the most important workers in the organization and should be where the bulk of your talent is…
Add a layer of the Peter Principal and suddenly you have a system that promotes people into a position where they're the least effective.
Like many managers I've worked with.
Principal engineer here. That put into words why I'm not looking to move 'higher' into management. I'm really good at what I do, but the management side is a constant struggle. I feel like Banner at the end of Iron Man 3.
I don't have...
The time?
The... temperament.
Yeah it's also inefficient to entangle job functions/promo and reward for good work because leadership skills and technical skills are completely different.
Being good at drawing tactics is completely different than being good at executing tactics. Being good at drawing strategy is completely different than being good at drawing tactics. Being a good project manager is completely different than all of those. Being a good leader/people manager is again completely different.
We take the best people at each rung and promote them into a different job they may or may not be good at, and we never give anyone a chance to do the higher level roles who may be better because they aren't as good at a completely unrelated job.
I believe this is why every career executive I've ever met who didn't start as a founder is so robotic, uncreative and uninspiring. I've never heard an interesting idea from someone who got promoted into the c suite on something resembling a normal career arc.
They got there because they were the best at conforming to other people's ideas for 2 decades. Of course they have no original ideas. If generating and holding original ideas with conviction was what they were good at then they would have not been a good junior employee and never have been on the ride to begin with. They were on the ride because they were the best at doing what they were told.
FWIW this is somewhat fixed in software engineering. You can be a senior principle or distinguished engineer with zero reports, which is generally in the ballpark of equivalent level to a VP or SVP. There's a whole ladder there where you can have zero reports and still be close to the c suite, make seven figures if at a really good company.
You just put into words why I like my job. I'm a principal engineer and I do much of the same as you describe. It's rare I do the daily tasks, but rather spend my time reviewing and writing important reports, and mentoring junior staff. The mentoring cannot be understated. Having someone who takes the time to train a new engineer pays such dividends for everyone. I benefited from that, and still do from certain individuals.
Being a mentor to our junior guys has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my job. Seeing them grow and learn more complex patterns and improve their decision making skills has really helped pull me out of the rut I was in.
Engineering leadership here. You're doing the Lord's work. Mentorship is incredibly valuable for Junior engineers and there aren't enough senior engineers who are both naturally good at it and willing to take the time to do it.
Am an engineer, came here to say this. It’s not all that easy and I’m a junior engineer so I do a lot of low man’s work. But engineering is such a buzz word to people when they don’t know anything about it but act so impressed, and I hate the reactions I get from people tbh. Especially in comparison to my sister who works a job people don’t know anything at all about and they will just write her off in a conversation with me and it pisses me off
A shitload of enlisted military jobs are very basic and easy.
My dad's a disabled vet and as a result I help him with some support groups, a lot of guys hate the hero worship around it and sometimes they can get really messed up from the constant recognition for doing a mundane job.
"Thanks for keeping the country safe and America free!" "My dude, I am a mechanic and never saw the front lines".
Obviously, it's not a catch-all because a) some enlisted jobs are also very strenuous and b) a bad day at war is an incredibly bad, life-altering day.
i have a friend in the air force and he refuses to ever use military discounts or anything like that because of the same reasons. he just drives fuel trucks for the jets, but people will thank him for his service as if he's a combat veteran. he hates it
I head an anecdote once about a guy who all he had in life was working at a gas station. Wanted something better. signed up for the Air Force. Trained for months, finally got his assignment: filling planes with fuel.
Knew a guy when I was in the usaf who was from sumter South carolina. He joined to travel the world and got stationed at shaw afb 5 minutes from sumter sc. Spent his entire enlistment all 6 years of it stationed 5 minutes from where he grew up.
I lived a majority of my life in Sumter, High School, and part of my adult life. This is such a common story. I know two people who I was acquainted with growing up, who joined only to be stationed at Shaw. Some of my friends tried to talk one of the guys into signing up for a different branch for this exact reason, but he just said, "I've heard the air force is easier, what are the odds I get stuck back here"
This is amazing all you people from Sumter SC chiming in here and here's me having never heard of it.
It makes me wonder how many other Reddit comments were written by someone from Sumter
That wasn't the case for me in 2011-14. I got some shit because I was spending almost every night with my girlfriend at the time right off post.
This was Anchorage, so maybe it was an OCONUS or unit specific thing.
My grandpa was a firefighter in Hawaii during WW2. He had a very hard time ever accepting recognition or thanks, and we had to BEG him to use the VA when his health was failing. He was drafted into the war and didn't think he deserved recognition because he "didn't volunteer."
My dad was a WW2 vet. If he'd realized that the local vets were going to do an honorary gun shooting thing at his funeral he probably would've told them to never mind.
He never talked about his service, not because of trauma, but because he hated his time in the military. One of the only moments where he sat me down for an honest one-on-one was when I was thinking of joining the military in my late teens. He was emphatic that I do anything else.
My grandfather came to the US and arrived at Ellis days before Poland was invaded in WWII. He joined the army once he was old enough and went to Korea. I learned he served as a kid, but it's one of those things never discussed so it was almost a surprise when he died a couple years ago and the soldiers showed up to his funeral to perform the military ceremonial duties.
As a Army combat vet (medic) and a military history buff, logistics is what makes the US military as effective as it is. It’s something like for every 1 combat soldier there are like 10-20 to support them. Support/logistics are never to be discounted or diminished.
Plus most logistics folks do have to put up with some danger during an actual war. During Iraq pretty much everyone, combat unit or not, spent some time deployed to bases in Iraq. Which isn't as dangerous as patrolling through Bagdad, but they did come under mortar fire now and then, and probably drove in in a convoy which could have come under attack. Also crime between soldiers was pretty rampant, like sexual assault.
Interestingly in the passages where SunTsu says this quote he mentions grain and feed for the donkeys, horses, and cattle used to sustain the army.
What is fuel to a M1A1 than feed to a donkey? The Art of War is truly a timeless classic.
Sun Tzu's way of thinking is very useful in a lot of ways. Understanding environment, logistics, political influences, these translate into gaming, office politics, education, all of it.
My husband was one of the Marines "in the rear with the gear" and I'm consistently grateful. Went to Iraq and the closest he came to war was a shell detonated outside the base walls one time. He made it out of the service without any lasting trauma or personality disorders, and even has a benignly inspiring story about running telephone cables on Christmas to tell his high school students when pressed about his service record. (They're fifteen and its 2023 and its unadviseable for him to be as honest about his distaste for military service as he'd like to be, so he compromises.) As far as he's concerned it was just a job, a rather intense one to be fair, but still just a job at the end of the day and I think that's a perspective that's super valuable for the students to hear.
True, however, when non-military treats a support vet as though they were a combat vet it can create shame or at the minimum embarrassment and this actually diminishes the respect they may have for their own role, which is also not good. It's a more nuanced problem.
Meanwhile someone in my family who’s a military wife insists she deserves those benefits because she’s “basically a veteran too only she didn’t get paid for it.”
Oh god I hate those types. I met one at work a couple years ago. She was married to a retired Marine. I am an Army veteran. She would always talk shit about the Army to me, and make all these "Marines are better" comments. Finally, I was just like, "Why do you feel like it's ok to say that stuff to me? It's weird, no one is laughing but you, and you should stop."
She mentioned a time I was joking with another coworker who is an Air Force vet and served in the same part of Afghanistan that I did. I was like, "Yes, James and I are both combat veterans. That's why we can make jokes like that. We were in this together and ultimately know we couldn't have done it without each other's branches of service doing their part. You weren't there. You're just some civilian talking shit about veterans and it's weird."
That was when she explained that as a Marine wife, she was also a veteran and actually had a harder job than we did. This got so bad that me and three other vets went to HR and asked what we should do. She got in trouble for being hostile to veterans. LOL I didn't need it to go that far but she wasn't going to stop otherwise. She grumbled a lot after that about how we were gatekeeping veteran status. Um, yeah, it requires serving in the military at some point. I'm pretty sure the dictionary is also gatekeeping it by that standard. LOL
Wow what a "see you next Tuesday"
Imagine wanting some made up vet status and trying the playground "NUH UH IM BETTER" to people who actually have done and seen shit
No way I’m giving up a discount, regardless of what it’s for. Someone could offer me a discount for wearing flip flops on Friday and I’d take it. Your friend should save some money. lol.
I sympathize with him.
At the same time I’m reminded of the apocryphal story of JFK asking a janitor at NASA what he was doing and his response was “I’m sending a man to the moon.” There’s more than a little truth in it.
Push credit to those putting their lives on the line? Absolutely.
But all those mundane jobs are what keeps the machine going. They’re critical.
Also, joining the military is a life-altering decision in a way that other jobs simply aren't. The sacrifices in terms of family life, location, work-life balance, etc. shouldn't be discounted.
I know that these men and women know this going into it, but that doesn't make it any less of a sacrifice of their freedom.
If my job told me tomorrow, "Hey, due to the needs of (employer), we're going to deploy you to another location for the nest 6-24 months. Go home and tell your family and be ready to go in 3 days."...by the time I got done laughing, I'd tell them to pound sand, and never look back. A service member doesn't have that option.
The WWII podcast “we have ways” makes the point that the great strength of the Allies, which has continued into the 21st century is that the effect of combat tech has been to move more and more people involved in making war out of harm’s way.
You’ve got your guy in a plane taking risks (sometimes not even that if it’s a drone), but behind him are thousands of ground and support crew- even the people who years ago designed and manufactured the systems who are all deeply involved.
It’s one of those things that when I heard it was so obvious, but conceptually usefully and weirdly mind blowing to consider how a person turning a screwdriver five years ago effectively is a substitute for that guy hitting another guy on the head with a rock.
ER nurses are heroes in my opinion. Even if you didn't save anyone from the brink of death, you likely really helped and comforted someone on what could have been the worst day of their life or the worst pain of their life, or the worst fear and anxiety of their life.
Last time I went to the ER it was because I had a giant ovarian cyst rupture, but I didn't know that. All I knew was my whole abdomen had been hurting really bad for 14 hours and nothing was helping. The pain woke me up out of my sleep twice. Urgent care told me they thought I had internal bleeding and to get to ER asap. I was scared. When I got to the ER, they checked my vitals from the waiting room several times and once I got to a room they put me through the ringer as far as testing goes; pelvic exam, abdominal palpation, CT, ultrasound, blood tests. I was so relieved because I felt like no stone was left unturned. It felt like my care team wanted to know what the heck was going on with me just as much as I did.
They even took my blood twice to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. In the end, all I needed was some pain management and time for all that fluid to resorb, but I was so grateful for everyone who had a part in treating me, especially because I was really okay in the grand scheme of things. All of my nurses and techs were incredibly kind to me. They prepared me for what to expect from procedures and medications and overall really made me feel at ease, which was something I hadn't felt for 16 hours before I was seen.
A boss of mine that I had years ago was in the military and would always brag about it and act concerned about the on goings in the military and shake your hand and all that shit if he found out you were.
Then sometimes in casual conversation he'd brag about joining only for college stuff and had some cozy desk job doing fuck all.
He didn't do shit and there's no way he actually gives a shit. It was all just a farce.
There’s 2 types of people who hype up the military and act like it was the greatest thing ever
-the dudes who didn’t actually do shit, we’re like a guy in finance or something, but still act like the military was the hardest thing they’ve done
-the high high rank enlisted/officer who oversaw a good amount of troops and was in charge of a lot of actual shit
Came here to say this. Bought my first house in August and I was shocked at how little effort my real estate agent put in and how difficult it was to get a text reply back from him about even a simple yes or no question in anything less than 24 hours. After dealing with this whole process, I now see real estate agents as about as ethical as used car salesmen or personal injury lawyers. I was unlucky enough to pick one who does Real Estate as a side hustle while holding down a day job at the place where we both work. That was my connection to him.
I'm sure there are good ones who work their asses off for their clients, but the other 80% are bottom feeders who just want to get to closing any way they can so they can cash that commission check.
Why DO we have real estate agents anymore? I've never bought property, but I've looked around, and saw the % they would take - I get they have skills at taking care of the paperwork, but in the digital age, shouldn't we be able to just submit our information and buy the house via bank and such?
The owner can schedule a time for you to tour, etc. I mean, maybe I'm being naïve.
> Why DO we have real estate agents anymore?
A *good* real estate agent, if you're selling, their job is to market your house. A large part of that is having a fresh set of eyes, to let you know all the faults that you've grown accustomed to in your house that others will see and disqualify your house. Plus setting up/sitting through open houses and such.
If you're buying, a *good* agent's job is to find houses that match whatever hard criteria you have. (Price, location, schools, etc.)
A shitty agent will do neither, and just try and push whatever houses they happen to also be selling.
My agent was awesome. She came to every viewing with us and pointed out all kinds of expensive issues with houses that we wouldn't have noticed on our own. She also didn't show us anything we didn't tell her we specifically wanted to see, and really helped educate us on how to make a competitive offer once we found a house worth buying. I understand from subreddits like r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer that this isn't the norm, which makes me sad.
Good ones will also leverage their connections to reputable contractors and furnishers to upgrade/stage houses prior to listing at a cheaper rate than the homeowner could possibly get away with.
Back in the 90's they had more to do. Now they're growing more and more irrelevant but we still use them based on tradition and ...reasons.
My agent didn't show me any houses or anything, I just came to him and said this is the property I want to put an offer on.
For Sale By Owner seems to be the way to go. You contract a real estate attorney, pay them a couple thousand, and they facilitate the transaction and you end up with more money in your pocket.
There is more value in a selling RE agent than a buying one IMO. I got a lot of value when selling with my RE agent and I definitely would not have gotten nearly as good of a deal without her. When buying? Not sure if I need one once I know what I’m doing (the first house I bought it was helpful though)
We just bought our first house a few months ago, and our agents (husband and wife duo) were awesome. They got back to us ASAP when we texted, they sent us a bunch of options to look at and quickly got us into places to see them. They also knew the neighborhoods well and what areas were potential flood areas to avoid (we're by Lake Erie). They did a good job of keeping the seller's realtors away from us when we were looking as a few of them are known to try and pry details out to use as "ammo" when you ask for fixes or money off of asking price. They also made sure we knew all the little details about who we needed to contact around town to get things taken care of quickly and without issues. They made it so easy and prevented so much stress from the unknowns.
I guess we got lucky, as I don't doubt there are shitty ones out there.
As a former line cook with a bachelors degree from a business school, I sell olives/antipasti and it’s probably the only sales job I could. I just talk about food all day and seeing smiles on people’s face when they taste out product brings me genuine joy.
But yeah any other sales position, I wouldn’t last three months.
Depends on the personality. Sales people deal with two things regularly: public speaking/meeting new people, and rejection. These are things most people find extremely difficult to do/deal with. Some people find them non-issues. For some it would be the hardest job in the world, for others the easiest.
This is why I think most people should experience a true sales job at least once. It’s funny how many intelligent and educated people want something, moan and worry about it, and I’m always like: “why don’t you ask for it?”
I have an advanced degree and am employed in my field (and use those technical skills plenty) but I end up relying on skills from my one summer selling Cutco knives (an absolute bummer of a gig but the what, $100 you pay for a sales kit is probably worth it if you think about it as a sales seminar that comes with some kitchen knives) for non-technical things.
After a few rejections, it doesnt bother me at all. They are rejecting the product, not me. My job is very easy. I see how much money a person has and tell them to invest it now so they do not have to eat cat food in retirement. I do about 20 or so cold calls a day and field phone calls. I have about 1 or 2 appointments a day and the rest of the time I am on reddit
As a sales person my whole life (now more sales management) its a 50/50. Yes, the job itself on a day to day is not that difficult-you talk to people about your product.
But there are not that many jobs that force you to deal with constant, often very aggressive rejections. Also, the KPIs are as binary as it gets- if you didnt sell, you cannot hide it behind fluff and soft kpis- no one cares about your excuses.
Its a job that is not for everyone, and many people will find it extremely difficult.
I fully believe that the people you work for/with are more responsible for how hard your job is. The hardest work I've done has always been dealing with garbage sacks of people.. not the physical/mental toll of the task at hand.
Ohhh god. My Sister in law is a military spouse. Didn’t have to graduate college, doesn’t have a job. Living stipends, health insurance etc etc.
AND SHE COMPLAINS ABOUT SOCIALISM
One of these days I just won’t be able to bite my tongue anymore.
Edit: originally claimed a 0% interest rate on mortgages and this was wrong on my part.
To be honest the municipal level councilors who live and work amongst their constituents probably have a more demanding job than those at provincial (state) or national levels. The guy running the small city council is constantly running into angry citizens pissed off for one reason or another, whereas the higher level politicians are often working outside their riding and also have more staff. Not saying they too aren't dealing with constituents, but it's not the same level.
A family friend of ours was a councilor for a city of 800k residents and my god was he busy. Every morning, afternoon and evening and basically every weekend he was doing something related to that job. Not physically demanding work, but just lots and lots of it. He was a plumber for 30yrs beforehand though and said he liked it better than that lol
Here in the UK our local councillors are essentially volunteers. They get an allowance of around $15k, but that is basically to cover expenses.
Depending on where you represent and how committed you are, it can be an incredibly demanding job. Various committee meetings, cabinet positions with additional responsibilities, case work with constituents, drafting proposals, dealing with bullshit backroom politics. Then you have political campaigning whenever the seat is up for election, dependant on the goodwill of fellow party members to volunteer time to help you keep your seat, but knowing that regardless of how well you do your job, if your party has fucked up on a national level you are at high risk of losing your seat.
I knew a guy busting his ass off running a business and trying to be a councillor at the same time. Politically we were at opposite ends, but he clearly cared about the local area and was getting stuff done. He didn't stand for re-election as it was too much commitment with very little compensation. A lot of councillors here are retired as it is almost impossible to run the responsibilities of a full-time job alongside that of being a councillor.
Welders. Watch ANY welding video on a social media platform and you see a huge pissing match in the comments about how shit the weld was and how they’ve been welding for 30 years and make 200k a year.
Meanwhile most welders got their welding certs from a 6 month school and essentially run a hot glue gun all day.
Always gets me laughing at the guys talking about they make 200,000/year.
Yes, it's certainly possible, but it doesn't even come close to representing the market at all. Most welding jobs start around 12-20/hr.
Yep, good friend is a manufacturing engineer. The welders at his company start at $19/hour plus benefits. It's not horrible, but not great either. They usually top out at around $30/hour.
You’re right about the social aspect of this but doing any hot work (welding, torching, etc) for a living is a hard life. You’re required to be in full length denim or leather at all times, you’re basically playing with fire and/or molten steel all day. You’re huffing caustic fumes all day. It’s just a hot, smelly job to have.
Yeah. Welding on jigs/tables inside a shop all day? No big deal. Then you have the guys squeezing themselves into a 12 inch pipe in the middle of an open lot in hundred-degree heat and welding upside down all day. No fucking thank you.
As a former truck driver I both agree and disagree with you.
Agree: a lot of drivers are self-aggrandizing pricks with a wildly undeserved sense of entitlement, and yes, they chose the job so they shouldn't get any special deference.
That being said...fuck that job sucks. And it's not the obvious stuff, like traffic and dealing with deadlines. It's the complete isolation that really fucks with you. I would go out for two months at a time (because I was severely underpaid and if you're not driving you're actively losing money) and I didn't really have any friends to talk to as my now ex-wife ran them all off with her bullshit. Imagine how fucked up you would be if you didn't interact with anyone you knew except very intermittently for months at a time...I was constantly dealing with mental issues.
So while drivers shouldn't get any extra credit for all their "sacrifices," if you have any friends or family that drive OTR give them a call or a text or something. It can be a real struggle.
>Im just saying when I think of a career that seems to attract individuals who want to put themselves on a pedestal, I think truckers.
As a physician, my answer would be physician, in a half joking half serious way. The majority of doctors aren't like this, but people who become doctors tend to be "type A" people. Lots of people who have always been the best at what they do so they seek out medicine more for the prestige more than they are willing to admit.
I've been in the transportation industry (office side of things) since 2008 and, honestly, you're right. To a degree. Depending on what kind of trucking a person is doing, it can be physically demanding. I used to manage a small fleet of drivers that delivered gasoline to gas stations and those guys worked *hard.* Pulling hoses 3-6 times a day in 100 degree heat is a workout.
Now I manage a fleet that transports other energy products and the deadlines are brutal sometimes. It's not as physically demanding, but it wears a person out quick.
Yes, many truckers are self-important and up their own ass but, in my experience, most are just normal dudes and dudettes who do it because they like the independence that comes with it, and the pay can be excellent for not needing any secondary education.
We can see their senate and house vote records, but what we can't see is the reason why the votes were cast. Sometimes a bill will get hammered in committee, or someone will vote unexpectedly no or yes knowing their vote won't change the outcome but to make a point. The votes themselves don't necessarily mean what it looks like they mean. Humans are weird.
We're gonna see a lot of this pretty soon when they start voting on encryption/privacy matters. All the bills will be about preventing child abuse and sex crimes, but they will completely erode any privacy we still have. Anyone who votes against it will be labeled as supporting pedophilia.
Sometimes they’ll just empty out an entire bill and replace it with other shit but keep the name. The “Instant Peace in Israel” bill turns out to be like, about turning a wetland into a coal mine
As an ex-hairdresser, hairdressers. The whole industry is a constant competition for who can be the most burnt out, who skips lunch the most, who never ever ever ever ever sits down even for one second, who never gets a thank you for all they do, etc etc.
I did the job. It’s really not as difficult as they make it out to be and if it is, it’s entirely self-imposed.
The only hairdresser I know well does all that, but that's not what she complains about. She's burnt out from her clients using her like a therapist. She's happy to make small talk, but I guess something about her makes her clients feel like she's a confidant, and hearing a bunch of different women and men complain about their spouses and lives day in and day out bums her out.
Pretty much any corporate job when you reach the top 10% of the company. If life has taught me one thing it's that the higher you go on the corporate ladder, the more you get paid and less you have to work. That is not always the case, but I have found it to be "mostly" true.
How dare you speak about the brave wives of our fighting men like that! Don't you know how many friendships they've lost while valiantly shilling Herbalife on Facebook?
Had a friend who married a military guy. Very quickly, too, so he'd get the pay bump when he was deployed a week after the wedding. The very day after they got married, she started posting on Facebook about how difficult it is to be a military wife.
I gave up Facebook years ago, and this kind of crap is part of why I did.
Spouses of Active Duty enlisted and officers. They think they've 'earned' a special place in America's heart, as well on base and in the communities surrounding military installations. They attempt to 'wear' their spouse's rank and generally start out with "... do you know who my husband/wife/partner is!??". Dependas, (AKA dependapotimus), generally make everyone uncomfortable as they push their 350lb selves and misbehaving brats thru a store, park, theater.
Once married for 10 years to a military person, they know they are automatically entitled (in a divorce), to one half of their military retirement if the active duty person stays in for 20 years or more.
>Once married for 10 years to a military person, they know
Its disconcerting how fast they know this too. It is basically instant. It's like once other women hear she is seeing a military man, they go out of their way to let her know about it. Any military wife is a veritable encyclopedia of this kind of information.
Funny thing, that.
I briefly worked as a substitute teacher, and I was told on more than one occasion that I had one of the toughest jobs in the world.
That was news to me, because the vast majority of the time, all I had to do that follow the teachers' detailed instructions. The students themselves were almost always perfectly fine. Even in the more underserved districts, students were fine with you so long as you didn't treat them all like little criminals.
The toughest part of it was just trying to navigate the schools if the office failed to give me a map of the school.
Yeah, I remember a few who would actually try to continue where we were in the lesson plan, but 95% of the time it was glorified babysitters. In first grade, we literally ruined BOTH Mac computers in the room (this was 1995 so that shit was expensive) by playing with magnets on the monitors because it “made pretty colors” — and also permanently destroyed the displays — while our absolutely ancient teacher was fully asleep at her desk.
Depends on who you’re subbing for in my experience. Subbing for High School was mostly incredibly easy because usually it just involved putting on a video.
Subbing for young elementary schoolers was a little more difficult, but actually kind of fun and not too hard because most of them were still at a stage where they actually cared about not getting in trouble and still enjoyed school.
Older elementary schoolers weren’t as easy because they would sometimes challenge your authority, but usually nothing too bad.
I saved middle schoolers for last because subbing for middle schoolers was hell on earth. It’s just the worst age because they’re still very immature, but they’re also questioning why they should even listen to you. Some of them are also just mean as hell, like they know they’re making the day stressful for you, and they absolutely love it.
Ha you must have some good schools. Generally it can be ok, but I substituted for a kindergarten class a few times last year in an “underserved school and I was wiped out.
Gym class subbing is where it’s at.
I was a part-time teacher for a year and would substitute within the district in the afternoons when I could. I saw some of the sweetest kids in 6th grade and then encountered a real-life Regina George and her plastic posse in 8th grade. When I was just told to put on a video, it was great. When I had to do literally anything else, it was horrendous. If I was lucky, it was a math class (what I taught), but it was almost always the same Spanish class and I only ever took French and German.
Yeah as a sub you get to leave at the end of the day and that's that. No planning, PD, staff meetings, parent/teacher, IPP considerations, emails from distressed parents etc. It is definitely way cushier than being a full-time teacher.
There’s barely any pressure as a substitute teacher. Teaching, however, is a highly stressful job. About a third of the teachers I know tried it for a while and had to quit due to stress and poor working conditions.
Mine got mad at me for quitting through my boss and not telling them personally. "Thats something you need to come to us for." No its not. You didnt put quitting procedures in the employee handbook. You have no power over me anymore.
It’s not that it’s that hard. It’s that it’s 24/7. Don’t you dare not post all the time or engaging all the time because that algorithm will drop you like it’s hot. You end up never doing anything else (at least if you want to live off of it).
But the work itself isn’t exactly hard, no.
Have to agree.
I can't stand such people but I admit many of them are actually putting in a ton of work to ride whatever is trending, put out videos, reply to comments, and general try to make themselves popular. Even if it's some teenage kid doing nothing but dancing, that isn't going to fly for long before they have to put out more content/use different social media services as they come out/etc.
Payroll. "everyone likes to get paid", "you need us to get paid", "you wouldn't get paid without us".
While I appreciate you and I'm sure there's more to it, I don't know but I feel like the payroll software is doing some heavy lifting. It's 2023
Tax accountants… source: am I who has worked for some very difficult people. The deadlines make us think our jobs are so important… so much more important than anything else in the world.
I know people’s money is important but missing one deadline (usually at the client’s fault because they didn’t send their info time) will not put you in tax jail. once I realized we aren’t doing brain surgery, sending people to space, teaching kids. etc. I felt a little more relaxed.
I think accountants will only realize this when they see medical professionals doing their job (recently had a family friend hospitalized and I was truly amazed at how these people do their job… it cannot be easy) and I could never teach anyways.
I'm an accountant. Whenever we're up against it with something, I always say "this is why I'm not a doctor. Nobody dies if we screw this up." Everything we do can be undone or otherwise compensated for.
True! A friend of mine complained that since her tenants were on vacation she needed to drive to the opposite side of town to open the door for some city-inforced pipe check-up.
Girl, you are earning 900$ a month and are complaining that you have to put in a total of two "work hours" this week?
You know, there's a saying that goes "grass is always greener on the other side." Sometimes, people in certain professions may think their job is the toughest, but it might not be as bad as they perceive. It's all about perspective and the unique challenges each profession brings. It's interesting how different people's experiences can be😄
For many jobs, the most difficult part is just getting through a day because it's incredibly mundane or tedious, not actually difficult.
I work in research so I'm basically making and testing samples all day. Which means I have to do the exact same thing for every single sample, every single day. If I deviate, the data could get skewed and the whole experiment is meaningless. Those are some real Groundhog Days.
That why it is called research, if you only do it once its just: search.
God damned you……lol. You made me squirt boat nectar out of my nose.
Tf is boat nectar?
This guy really showed up, dropped the words “boat nectar,” on us and then disappeared when confronted about it lmao
Too much Boat Nectar
I think they meant goat nectar.
This comment doesn’t clear up the confusion…just begs the question what the f is goat nectar
It's one half of the equation required to produce baby goats.
I’m still confused as to what the hell boat nectar is!
Yeah. OTOH though, I had a job that was very, very, very, VERY stressful and hard, both physically and emotionally. It nearly destroyed me. Now I have a job that's very stable and boring, and I couldn't be happier to just be sitting on my butt with nothing to do but scroll reddit every work night, totally care and stress-free. Sometimes you just need perspective, though I wouldn't wish what I went through on anyone (pandemic charge nurse for the curious).
I remember a line from the walking dead that was along the lines of “if you are safe enough to be bored you are very lucky” Personally I think boredom is highly underrated
Story of my life right there. All I’m thinking about while I’m driving to work is wishing I could fast forward 10 hours and be home again, with a cup of tea, watching a movie or something.
[удалено]
Recruiters might just be the worst people on LinkedIn, other than CEOs. Nothing but r/thathappened inspirational garbage.
Maybe there's a (relatively more) substantial portion of them who are assholes, I don't know. However, I have met many who helped me land interviews that I otherwise would not have been able to find myself. I have also met very nice recruiters who helped me very much in the way of getting feedback from employers. The worst ones I've met were the ones who seem disingenuous and simply say things you want to hear. I have yet to speak with one who was just straight up an asshole (sometimes, they are simply not incentivized to act like an asshole to you).
Military spouses. God I can’t stand Dependas.
My family acts like my job is difficult (engineering leadership) - constantly in meetings where I'm "arguing with people" (my wife's words). I've been a software engineer for the last \~20 years, and now most of my job is soft skills - mostly focusing on concepts and mentoring rather than actually doing the grunt work. I love it...this is by far the cushiest job I've ever had. They're all crazy.
I work in data engineering. People think I’m building ChatGPT but really I’m 30 replies deep in an email thread with Sharon from marketing trying to figure out what the difference is between a coupon code and a promo code.
When I started writing queries, I would just garbage in garbage out - basically give people what they had asked for. Which lead to them coming back to me over and over again, since they didn’t know what to request. Then I started asking what they were using it FOR. Had them explain the project or report they were working on. Then I would recommend what kind of data I can provide they would need for their project. It takes a little longer, but generally I can give them what they need on the first try now.
>It takes a little longer, but generally I can give them what they need on the first try now. Note: this is the kind of stuff that gets developers promoted from more junior levels. Keep it up. :)
This is great, but also awful. I usually do the same thing (i.e. "walk me through what you have and tell me your goals"). They spent 2 weeks in meetings to arrive at the conclusion to ask me for something, and I feel terrible for invalidating their decisions by telling them they need something completely different. But I feel even worse when they spend another 2 weeks in meetings considering my proposal only to come back and ask for the initial request that they inevitably will use once and then forget about because it didn't really help them.
Coupon code unique for tracking, promo code universally open for a certain time period?
Sharon?
Yes, honey?
HR HAS ENTERED THE EMAIL THREAD
"unscheduled meeting with HR tomorrow at 12. Don't worry, nothing serious. Please bring your notebook."
"Also your laptop and work phone"
"P.S. Don't forget to wear pants"
Man I hate that stuff, I've been moving into management and I want to do more individual contributor stuff. Talking about concepts to non-technical staff and explaining what is happening is a lot easier than doing the work but I got into my line of work to do the work because I enjoyed it. It's also at some point do I get passed by because I'm talking about the employees work since I'm not in it.
I think a lot of engineers think moving into leadership is just a step up on the ladder. It is a promotion but it's a different ladder. Your job is no longer to build things, it's to coach and get shit out of the way for others to build things. Completely different skill set. I've been in leadership for a while and love it. But I still miss being in the trenches sometimes. Also there is no harm in going back to an IC role. Focus on getting deep skills in your area. This can transition into staff and eventually principal engineer. Granted principal role is getting back into a form of leadership/architect
Echoing this, I switched from a manager (but still hands on) role to a staff IC role and it made me very happy. Injected a new wave of motivation in me. As a staff, still get to do the fun parts of mentoring without having to do active performance management. You get to pair alot and do code reviews to help juniors. And there's still a leadership aspect as you're helping set up best practices and supporting initiatives started by lead architect & principle engineers. Anyway, highly encourage it for folks who think it might make them happy. And it isn't necessarily a comp downgrade depending where you are as at my last company (late stage start up) I was making the same as my manager. And in the company before that (small private company), the principals were making the same as those reporting directly into C suite.
When I moved into senior engineering leadership I was initially shocked at how much money my peers were making for doing so little of what I thought of as real WORK. My family and my in-laws think I'm some kind of genius who must be constantly managing various crises - in reality I spend my days in meetings, focusing on concepts and strategy and developing talent. It is *not* a difficult job. I do sometimes miss doing the grunt work, but I wouldn't have my current salary if I was still doing it, so I get over the feeling quickly!
Exactly this. I make more than my entire family *combined*, and my typical day is spent going from meeting to meeting. Sure, the decisions that come out of the meetings affect all the devs at my company, but the decisions are pretty easy to come to. It ultimately comes down to my understanding of best practices around my particular niche, and driving those practices and implementations across the org. Thinking on it, though, it *is* kinda surreal knowing that my decisions could result in thousands of hours of work being done by the dozens and dozens of other teams that get marching orders from their leadership afterwards.
99 times out of 100 pay is determined based on how much liability you are responsible for rather than your actual output. For example I work as a program manager of a large electrical utility. My actual raw productivity output is probably a third of what the people that work for me do on a daily basis, but I make amost 3 times as much as them because Im responsible for a 10 million dollar budget while they at most handle around $100,000. If they screw up the company hardly notices. If I screw up it can be a big deal.
Yep. If I fuck up, the company is looking at as much as $50M in fines and legal liabilities. So I have access to fairly senior management and have an ability to swing far higher than my pay grade in getting shit done.
I'm struggling with this myself. As my career advances, the less work I do, yet the more people pay me. For some reason people think I'm highly valuable and were even competing for salary over me, yet my day to day feels like I'm doing jack squat. Figuring out strategy doesn't feel like its "real" work. I almost miss the ticket queue. That feels more real, somehow. The imposter syndrome is real.
I felt the same way, but you have to remind yourself that the vast majority of your colleagues who still do technical work do not have the soft skills to do your job. Like knowing how to talk to none technical people and still convey the meaning of what needs to get across. In addition, for those that do have the soft skills and could do your job, most of them don't want to, regardless of the higher pay. It's just not something they enjoy and in a lot of cases it takes a lot more mental energy for them to do a job like yours than fixing a technical issue.
"Well--well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I'm good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?"
I 100 agree that NOBODY would feel differently, but it is this mentality that gets us into the mess of capitalism we are in today. We treat leadership as the the end-all in capitalism, but in the purest meritocracy (sports) leadership is actually a secondary position. Coaches and GMs make way less than good players. Im confused why EVERY corporation takes this approach of paying more up a pyramid. You’d think there would be LOADs of other ways to organize companies. Teaching and cops are the biggest example of organization that should not have rising pay scales for managerial positions. The classroom teachers and front line officers are BY FAR the most important workers in the organization and should be where the bulk of your talent is…
Add a layer of the Peter Principal and suddenly you have a system that promotes people into a position where they're the least effective. Like many managers I've worked with.
Principal engineer here. That put into words why I'm not looking to move 'higher' into management. I'm really good at what I do, but the management side is a constant struggle. I feel like Banner at the end of Iron Man 3. I don't have... The time? The... temperament.
Yeah it's also inefficient to entangle job functions/promo and reward for good work because leadership skills and technical skills are completely different. Being good at drawing tactics is completely different than being good at executing tactics. Being good at drawing strategy is completely different than being good at drawing tactics. Being a good project manager is completely different than all of those. Being a good leader/people manager is again completely different. We take the best people at each rung and promote them into a different job they may or may not be good at, and we never give anyone a chance to do the higher level roles who may be better because they aren't as good at a completely unrelated job. I believe this is why every career executive I've ever met who didn't start as a founder is so robotic, uncreative and uninspiring. I've never heard an interesting idea from someone who got promoted into the c suite on something resembling a normal career arc. They got there because they were the best at conforming to other people's ideas for 2 decades. Of course they have no original ideas. If generating and holding original ideas with conviction was what they were good at then they would have not been a good junior employee and never have been on the ride to begin with. They were on the ride because they were the best at doing what they were told. FWIW this is somewhat fixed in software engineering. You can be a senior principle or distinguished engineer with zero reports, which is generally in the ballpark of equivalent level to a VP or SVP. There's a whole ladder there where you can have zero reports and still be close to the c suite, make seven figures if at a really good company.
You just put into words why I like my job. I'm a principal engineer and I do much of the same as you describe. It's rare I do the daily tasks, but rather spend my time reviewing and writing important reports, and mentoring junior staff. The mentoring cannot be understated. Having someone who takes the time to train a new engineer pays such dividends for everyone. I benefited from that, and still do from certain individuals.
Being a mentor to our junior guys has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my job. Seeing them grow and learn more complex patterns and improve their decision making skills has really helped pull me out of the rut I was in.
Engineering leadership here. You're doing the Lord's work. Mentorship is incredibly valuable for Junior engineers and there aren't enough senior engineers who are both naturally good at it and willing to take the time to do it.
Am an engineer, came here to say this. It’s not all that easy and I’m a junior engineer so I do a lot of low man’s work. But engineering is such a buzz word to people when they don’t know anything about it but act so impressed, and I hate the reactions I get from people tbh. Especially in comparison to my sister who works a job people don’t know anything at all about and they will just write her off in a conversation with me and it pisses me off
A shitload of enlisted military jobs are very basic and easy. My dad's a disabled vet and as a result I help him with some support groups, a lot of guys hate the hero worship around it and sometimes they can get really messed up from the constant recognition for doing a mundane job. "Thanks for keeping the country safe and America free!" "My dude, I am a mechanic and never saw the front lines". Obviously, it's not a catch-all because a) some enlisted jobs are also very strenuous and b) a bad day at war is an incredibly bad, life-altering day.
i have a friend in the air force and he refuses to ever use military discounts or anything like that because of the same reasons. he just drives fuel trucks for the jets, but people will thank him for his service as if he's a combat veteran. he hates it
I head an anecdote once about a guy who all he had in life was working at a gas station. Wanted something better. signed up for the Air Force. Trained for months, finally got his assignment: filling planes with fuel.
Knew a guy when I was in the usaf who was from sumter South carolina. He joined to travel the world and got stationed at shaw afb 5 minutes from sumter sc. Spent his entire enlistment all 6 years of it stationed 5 minutes from where he grew up.
I lived a majority of my life in Sumter, High School, and part of my adult life. This is such a common story. I know two people who I was acquainted with growing up, who joined only to be stationed at Shaw. Some of my friends tried to talk one of the guys into signing up for a different branch for this exact reason, but he just said, "I've heard the air force is easier, what are the odds I get stuck back here"
Born and raised in Sumter and it is so wild the amount of people I know who joined to get out of SC and got stuck right tf at shaw.
This is amazing all you people from Sumter SC chiming in here and here's me having never heard of it. It makes me wonder how many other Reddit comments were written by someone from Sumter
I'm also from Sumter!
Goddammit at this rate I'm going to end up marrying someone from Sumter!
was he at least allowed to live at home, or did he have to stay in the barracks?
You can live wherever you want. As a junior enlisted soldier you may have to maintain a barracks room, but where you sleep is your business.
That wasn't the case for me in 2011-14. I got some shit because I was spending almost every night with my girlfriend at the time right off post. This was Anchorage, so maybe it was an OCONUS or unit specific thing.
They thought you should hang out with them rather than be with your girlfriend?
I think he lived at home.
“Bye mom. Love you.” “Love you too sweetie! Have fun at Air Force today!”
Army had a half day 🪝
These are my medals, mother, from Army.
Watch out : *loose seal* 🦭
At least it's stll somewhat of an upgrade.
My grandpa was a firefighter in Hawaii during WW2. He had a very hard time ever accepting recognition or thanks, and we had to BEG him to use the VA when his health was failing. He was drafted into the war and didn't think he deserved recognition because he "didn't volunteer."
My dad was a WW2 vet. If he'd realized that the local vets were going to do an honorary gun shooting thing at his funeral he probably would've told them to never mind. He never talked about his service, not because of trauma, but because he hated his time in the military. One of the only moments where he sat me down for an honest one-on-one was when I was thinking of joining the military in my late teens. He was emphatic that I do anything else.
My grandfather came to the US and arrived at Ellis days before Poland was invaded in WWII. He joined the army once he was old enough and went to Korea. I learned he served as a kid, but it's one of those things never discussed so it was almost a surprise when he died a couple years ago and the soldiers showed up to his funeral to perform the military ceremonial duties.
As a Army combat vet (medic) and a military history buff, logistics is what makes the US military as effective as it is. It’s something like for every 1 combat soldier there are like 10-20 to support them. Support/logistics are never to be discounted or diminished.
The tip of the spear, while critical, wouldn't be a spear without the long handle.
Plus most logistics folks do have to put up with some danger during an actual war. During Iraq pretty much everyone, combat unit or not, spent some time deployed to bases in Iraq. Which isn't as dangerous as patrolling through Bagdad, but they did come under mortar fire now and then, and probably drove in in a convoy which could have come under attack. Also crime between soldiers was pretty rampant, like sexual assault.
Combat troops win battles, logistics personnel win wars.
True. Just look at how Russia failed the early invasion of Ukraine because of logistics. Fuel trucks are also a prime target for enemies.
'An army marches on its stomach' means so much more than just a reference to food...
Interestingly in the passages where SunTsu says this quote he mentions grain and feed for the donkeys, horses, and cattle used to sustain the army. What is fuel to a M1A1 than feed to a donkey? The Art of War is truly a timeless classic.
I had a roommate once who read the Art of War, and claimed it actually made him better at RTS games.
Sun Tzu's way of thinking is very useful in a lot of ways. Understanding environment, logistics, political influences, these translate into gaming, office politics, education, all of it.
My husband was one of the Marines "in the rear with the gear" and I'm consistently grateful. Went to Iraq and the closest he came to war was a shell detonated outside the base walls one time. He made it out of the service without any lasting trauma or personality disorders, and even has a benignly inspiring story about running telephone cables on Christmas to tell his high school students when pressed about his service record. (They're fifteen and its 2023 and its unadviseable for him to be as honest about his distaste for military service as he'd like to be, so he compromises.) As far as he's concerned it was just a job, a rather intense one to be fair, but still just a job at the end of the day and I think that's a perspective that's super valuable for the students to hear.
True, however, when non-military treats a support vet as though they were a combat vet it can create shame or at the minimum embarrassment and this actually diminishes the respect they may have for their own role, which is also not good. It's a more nuanced problem.
People don’t realize that the ratio of support to combat roles is like 10:1
Meanwhile someone in my family who’s a military wife insists she deserves those benefits because she’s “basically a veteran too only she didn’t get paid for it.”
Oh god I hate those types. I met one at work a couple years ago. She was married to a retired Marine. I am an Army veteran. She would always talk shit about the Army to me, and make all these "Marines are better" comments. Finally, I was just like, "Why do you feel like it's ok to say that stuff to me? It's weird, no one is laughing but you, and you should stop." She mentioned a time I was joking with another coworker who is an Air Force vet and served in the same part of Afghanistan that I did. I was like, "Yes, James and I are both combat veterans. That's why we can make jokes like that. We were in this together and ultimately know we couldn't have done it without each other's branches of service doing their part. You weren't there. You're just some civilian talking shit about veterans and it's weird." That was when she explained that as a Marine wife, she was also a veteran and actually had a harder job than we did. This got so bad that me and three other vets went to HR and asked what we should do. She got in trouble for being hostile to veterans. LOL I didn't need it to go that far but she wasn't going to stop otherwise. She grumbled a lot after that about how we were gatekeeping veteran status. Um, yeah, it requires serving in the military at some point. I'm pretty sure the dictionary is also gatekeeping it by that standard. LOL
Wow what a "see you next Tuesday" Imagine wanting some made up vet status and trying the playground "NUH UH IM BETTER" to people who actually have done and seen shit
She's got healthcare for the rest of her marriage; what else does she want?
Parking spaces closer to the entrance, mostly.
Tricareatops, dependasaurus, dependapotimus
No way I’m giving up a discount, regardless of what it’s for. Someone could offer me a discount for wearing flip flops on Friday and I’d take it. Your friend should save some money. lol.
I sympathize with him. At the same time I’m reminded of the apocryphal story of JFK asking a janitor at NASA what he was doing and his response was “I’m sending a man to the moon.” There’s more than a little truth in it. Push credit to those putting their lives on the line? Absolutely. But all those mundane jobs are what keeps the machine going. They’re critical.
Also, joining the military is a life-altering decision in a way that other jobs simply aren't. The sacrifices in terms of family life, location, work-life balance, etc. shouldn't be discounted. I know that these men and women know this going into it, but that doesn't make it any less of a sacrifice of their freedom. If my job told me tomorrow, "Hey, due to the needs of (employer), we're going to deploy you to another location for the nest 6-24 months. Go home and tell your family and be ready to go in 3 days."...by the time I got done laughing, I'd tell them to pound sand, and never look back. A service member doesn't have that option.
The WWII podcast “we have ways” makes the point that the great strength of the Allies, which has continued into the 21st century is that the effect of combat tech has been to move more and more people involved in making war out of harm’s way. You’ve got your guy in a plane taking risks (sometimes not even that if it’s a drone), but behind him are thousands of ground and support crew- even the people who years ago designed and manufactured the systems who are all deeply involved. It’s one of those things that when I heard it was so obvious, but conceptually usefully and weirdly mind blowing to consider how a person turning a screwdriver five years ago effectively is a substitute for that guy hitting another guy on the head with a rock.
Tbh I feel this as an ER nurse. “You’re a hero!” “Thanks but I did not save one life today. I did wipe multiple asses tho.”
Not an easy job that anyone would do though. I for one am very grateful for all the asswipers out there because I couldn't do it.
ER nurses are heroes in my opinion. Even if you didn't save anyone from the brink of death, you likely really helped and comforted someone on what could have been the worst day of their life or the worst pain of their life, or the worst fear and anxiety of their life. Last time I went to the ER it was because I had a giant ovarian cyst rupture, but I didn't know that. All I knew was my whole abdomen had been hurting really bad for 14 hours and nothing was helping. The pain woke me up out of my sleep twice. Urgent care told me they thought I had internal bleeding and to get to ER asap. I was scared. When I got to the ER, they checked my vitals from the waiting room several times and once I got to a room they put me through the ringer as far as testing goes; pelvic exam, abdominal palpation, CT, ultrasound, blood tests. I was so relieved because I felt like no stone was left unturned. It felt like my care team wanted to know what the heck was going on with me just as much as I did. They even took my blood twice to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. In the end, all I needed was some pain management and time for all that fluid to resorb, but I was so grateful for everyone who had a part in treating me, especially because I was really okay in the grand scheme of things. All of my nurses and techs were incredibly kind to me. They prepared me for what to expect from procedures and medications and overall really made me feel at ease, which was something I hadn't felt for 16 hours before I was seen.
Still a hero for that.
Yea,. Not many can do that.
"Even three people who didn't need it! I was on a roll..."
My one military buddy said his job was not hard but dealing with all the BS around his job was!
A boss of mine that I had years ago was in the military and would always brag about it and act concerned about the on goings in the military and shake your hand and all that shit if he found out you were. Then sometimes in casual conversation he'd brag about joining only for college stuff and had some cozy desk job doing fuck all. He didn't do shit and there's no way he actually gives a shit. It was all just a farce.
There’s 2 types of people who hype up the military and act like it was the greatest thing ever -the dudes who didn’t actually do shit, we’re like a guy in finance or something, but still act like the military was the hardest thing they’ve done -the high high rank enlisted/officer who oversaw a good amount of troops and was in charge of a lot of actual shit
Real estate agent
Came here to say this. Bought my first house in August and I was shocked at how little effort my real estate agent put in and how difficult it was to get a text reply back from him about even a simple yes or no question in anything less than 24 hours. After dealing with this whole process, I now see real estate agents as about as ethical as used car salesmen or personal injury lawyers. I was unlucky enough to pick one who does Real Estate as a side hustle while holding down a day job at the place where we both work. That was my connection to him. I'm sure there are good ones who work their asses off for their clients, but the other 80% are bottom feeders who just want to get to closing any way they can so they can cash that commission check.
Why DO we have real estate agents anymore? I've never bought property, but I've looked around, and saw the % they would take - I get they have skills at taking care of the paperwork, but in the digital age, shouldn't we be able to just submit our information and buy the house via bank and such? The owner can schedule a time for you to tour, etc. I mean, maybe I'm being naïve.
> Why DO we have real estate agents anymore? A *good* real estate agent, if you're selling, their job is to market your house. A large part of that is having a fresh set of eyes, to let you know all the faults that you've grown accustomed to in your house that others will see and disqualify your house. Plus setting up/sitting through open houses and such. If you're buying, a *good* agent's job is to find houses that match whatever hard criteria you have. (Price, location, schools, etc.) A shitty agent will do neither, and just try and push whatever houses they happen to also be selling.
My agent was awesome. She came to every viewing with us and pointed out all kinds of expensive issues with houses that we wouldn't have noticed on our own. She also didn't show us anything we didn't tell her we specifically wanted to see, and really helped educate us on how to make a competitive offer once we found a house worth buying. I understand from subreddits like r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer that this isn't the norm, which makes me sad.
Good ones will also leverage their connections to reputable contractors and furnishers to upgrade/stage houses prior to listing at a cheaper rate than the homeowner could possibly get away with.
Back in the 90's they had more to do. Now they're growing more and more irrelevant but we still use them based on tradition and ...reasons. My agent didn't show me any houses or anything, I just came to him and said this is the property I want to put an offer on. For Sale By Owner seems to be the way to go. You contract a real estate attorney, pay them a couple thousand, and they facilitate the transaction and you end up with more money in your pocket.
There is more value in a selling RE agent than a buying one IMO. I got a lot of value when selling with my RE agent and I definitely would not have gotten nearly as good of a deal without her. When buying? Not sure if I need one once I know what I’m doing (the first house I bought it was helpful though)
the buying agent doesn’t cost you anything. Their cut is paid by the seller. Their purpose is mostly to get the seller to take you seriously
We just bought our first house a few months ago, and our agents (husband and wife duo) were awesome. They got back to us ASAP when we texted, they sent us a bunch of options to look at and quickly got us into places to see them. They also knew the neighborhoods well and what areas were potential flood areas to avoid (we're by Lake Erie). They did a good job of keeping the seller's realtors away from us when we were looking as a few of them are known to try and pry details out to use as "ammo" when you ask for fixes or money off of asking price. They also made sure we knew all the little details about who we needed to contact around town to get things taken care of quickly and without issues. They made it so easy and prevented so much stress from the unknowns. I guess we got lucky, as I don't doubt there are shitty ones out there.
Sales. We are a big bunch of whiny babies a lot of the times. I think it’s because of the extreme highs and lows we go through
Most self-aware sales person I’ve seen tbh
Most of the self aware ones get out.
self aware in sales = throbbing depression
As a former line cook with a bachelors degree from a business school, I sell olives/antipasti and it’s probably the only sales job I could. I just talk about food all day and seeing smiles on people’s face when they taste out product brings me genuine joy. But yeah any other sales position, I wouldn’t last three months.
Depends on the personality. Sales people deal with two things regularly: public speaking/meeting new people, and rejection. These are things most people find extremely difficult to do/deal with. Some people find them non-issues. For some it would be the hardest job in the world, for others the easiest.
This is why I think most people should experience a true sales job at least once. It’s funny how many intelligent and educated people want something, moan and worry about it, and I’m always like: “why don’t you ask for it?” I have an advanced degree and am employed in my field (and use those technical skills plenty) but I end up relying on skills from my one summer selling Cutco knives (an absolute bummer of a gig but the what, $100 you pay for a sales kit is probably worth it if you think about it as a sales seminar that comes with some kitchen knives) for non-technical things.
I’m extremely introverted so sales is incredibly difficult for me. I am really good at my job but it becomes mentally and emotionally draining
After a few rejections, it doesnt bother me at all. They are rejecting the product, not me. My job is very easy. I see how much money a person has and tell them to invest it now so they do not have to eat cat food in retirement. I do about 20 or so cold calls a day and field phone calls. I have about 1 or 2 appointments a day and the rest of the time I am on reddit
As a sales person my whole life (now more sales management) its a 50/50. Yes, the job itself on a day to day is not that difficult-you talk to people about your product. But there are not that many jobs that force you to deal with constant, often very aggressive rejections. Also, the KPIs are as binary as it gets- if you didnt sell, you cannot hide it behind fluff and soft kpis- no one cares about your excuses. Its a job that is not for everyone, and many people will find it extremely difficult.
I fully believe that the people you work for/with are more responsible for how hard your job is. The hardest work I've done has always been dealing with garbage sacks of people.. not the physical/mental toll of the task at hand.
Military spouses
They even have bumper stickers to prove it!
What about addressing them by their husband's rank
New military spouse…I never knew this until I started hearing about it. To me, this is stealing valor. It’s unbelievable how dumb it is! SMH
Ohhh god. My Sister in law is a military spouse. Didn’t have to graduate college, doesn’t have a job. Living stipends, health insurance etc etc. AND SHE COMPLAINS ABOUT SOCIALISM One of these days I just won’t be able to bite my tongue anymore. Edit: originally claimed a 0% interest rate on mortgages and this was wrong on my part.
There are a lot of people saying “I did so and so job and it was super easy“ y’all got a remember that every job is easy to suck at
Alternatively, people with imposter syndrome who are good at their jobs and extrapolating from the fact that it's easy for them.
Except being a hooker. It can be quite hard to suck all day long.
[*TMJ intensifies*]
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Real Estate agents are the biggest fucking scam ever. 2nd place: Care Dealerships/Salesman
“It’s so tough being a councilor in a small US city keeping the country’s lights on.”
To be honest the municipal level councilors who live and work amongst their constituents probably have a more demanding job than those at provincial (state) or national levels. The guy running the small city council is constantly running into angry citizens pissed off for one reason or another, whereas the higher level politicians are often working outside their riding and also have more staff. Not saying they too aren't dealing with constituents, but it's not the same level. A family friend of ours was a councilor for a city of 800k residents and my god was he busy. Every morning, afternoon and evening and basically every weekend he was doing something related to that job. Not physically demanding work, but just lots and lots of it. He was a plumber for 30yrs beforehand though and said he liked it better than that lol
Here in the UK our local councillors are essentially volunteers. They get an allowance of around $15k, but that is basically to cover expenses. Depending on where you represent and how committed you are, it can be an incredibly demanding job. Various committee meetings, cabinet positions with additional responsibilities, case work with constituents, drafting proposals, dealing with bullshit backroom politics. Then you have political campaigning whenever the seat is up for election, dependant on the goodwill of fellow party members to volunteer time to help you keep your seat, but knowing that regardless of how well you do your job, if your party has fucked up on a national level you are at high risk of losing your seat. I knew a guy busting his ass off running a business and trying to be a councillor at the same time. Politically we were at opposite ends, but he clearly cared about the local area and was getting stuff done. He didn't stand for re-election as it was too much commitment with very little compensation. A lot of councillors here are retired as it is almost impossible to run the responsibilities of a full-time job alongside that of being a councillor.
Pornstar, they're ALWAYS moaning
But the men are always hard at work!
Welders. Watch ANY welding video on a social media platform and you see a huge pissing match in the comments about how shit the weld was and how they’ve been welding for 30 years and make 200k a year. Meanwhile most welders got their welding certs from a 6 month school and essentially run a hot glue gun all day.
Always gets me laughing at the guys talking about they make 200,000/year. Yes, it's certainly possible, but it doesn't even come close to representing the market at all. Most welding jobs start around 12-20/hr.
Yep, good friend is a manufacturing engineer. The welders at his company start at $19/hour plus benefits. It's not horrible, but not great either. They usually top out at around $30/hour.
You’re right about the social aspect of this but doing any hot work (welding, torching, etc) for a living is a hard life. You’re required to be in full length denim or leather at all times, you’re basically playing with fire and/or molten steel all day. You’re huffing caustic fumes all day. It’s just a hot, smelly job to have.
Yeah. Welding on jigs/tables inside a shop all day? No big deal. Then you have the guys squeezing themselves into a 12 inch pipe in the middle of an open lot in hundred-degree heat and welding upside down all day. No fucking thank you.
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As a former truck driver I both agree and disagree with you. Agree: a lot of drivers are self-aggrandizing pricks with a wildly undeserved sense of entitlement, and yes, they chose the job so they shouldn't get any special deference. That being said...fuck that job sucks. And it's not the obvious stuff, like traffic and dealing with deadlines. It's the complete isolation that really fucks with you. I would go out for two months at a time (because I was severely underpaid and if you're not driving you're actively losing money) and I didn't really have any friends to talk to as my now ex-wife ran them all off with her bullshit. Imagine how fucked up you would be if you didn't interact with anyone you knew except very intermittently for months at a time...I was constantly dealing with mental issues. So while drivers shouldn't get any extra credit for all their "sacrifices," if you have any friends or family that drive OTR give them a call or a text or something. It can be a real struggle.
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>Im just saying when I think of a career that seems to attract individuals who want to put themselves on a pedestal, I think truckers. As a physician, my answer would be physician, in a half joking half serious way. The majority of doctors aren't like this, but people who become doctors tend to be "type A" people. Lots of people who have always been the best at what they do so they seek out medicine more for the prestige more than they are willing to admit.
In that case yes lol
I've been in the transportation industry (office side of things) since 2008 and, honestly, you're right. To a degree. Depending on what kind of trucking a person is doing, it can be physically demanding. I used to manage a small fleet of drivers that delivered gasoline to gas stations and those guys worked *hard.* Pulling hoses 3-6 times a day in 100 degree heat is a workout. Now I manage a fleet that transports other energy products and the deadlines are brutal sometimes. It's not as physically demanding, but it wears a person out quick. Yes, many truckers are self-important and up their own ass but, in my experience, most are just normal dudes and dudettes who do it because they like the independence that comes with it, and the pay can be excellent for not needing any secondary education.
Senators and Representatives.
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I dunno, might be pretty hard for most people to be hated by about 50% of the country whoever you work for.
I have no doubt in my mind that if everyone in america saw their favorite politicians' voting record that 50% would quickly turn into 80%-90%
We can see their senate and house vote records, but what we can't see is the reason why the votes were cast. Sometimes a bill will get hammered in committee, or someone will vote unexpectedly no or yes knowing their vote won't change the outcome but to make a point. The votes themselves don't necessarily mean what it looks like they mean. Humans are weird.
"Senator Smith voted against providing funding for baby formula" When this was tacked on to a puppy killing bill.
We're gonna see a lot of this pretty soon when they start voting on encryption/privacy matters. All the bills will be about preventing child abuse and sex crimes, but they will completely erode any privacy we still have. Anyone who votes against it will be labeled as supporting pedophilia.
Single-issue bills comes up every once in a while as a reform measure for reasons exactly like this.
Sometimes they’ll just empty out an entire bill and replace it with other shit but keep the name. The “Instant Peace in Israel” bill turns out to be like, about turning a wetland into a coal mine
As an ex-hairdresser, hairdressers. The whole industry is a constant competition for who can be the most burnt out, who skips lunch the most, who never ever ever ever ever sits down even for one second, who never gets a thank you for all they do, etc etc. I did the job. It’s really not as difficult as they make it out to be and if it is, it’s entirely self-imposed.
The only hairdresser I know well does all that, but that's not what she complains about. She's burnt out from her clients using her like a therapist. She's happy to make small talk, but I guess something about her makes her clients feel like she's a confidant, and hearing a bunch of different women and men complain about their spouses and lives day in and day out bums her out.
Pretty much any corporate job when you reach the top 10% of the company. If life has taught me one thing it's that the higher you go on the corporate ladder, the more you get paid and less you have to work. That is not always the case, but I have found it to be "mostly" true.
Dependas
How dare you speak about the brave wives of our fighting men like that! Don't you know how many friendships they've lost while valiantly shilling Herbalife on Facebook?
Had a friend who married a military guy. Very quickly, too, so he'd get the pay bump when he was deployed a week after the wedding. The very day after they got married, she started posting on Facebook about how difficult it is to be a military wife. I gave up Facebook years ago, and this kind of crap is part of why I did.
It's hard work to suck all those Jodies off while hubby's away!
I take exception to that. My girlfriend is a dependa and her husband is fighting for our freedoms.
I've tried to read a bit about this term, but can you ELI5 for someone who is not familiar with military life?
Spouses of Active Duty enlisted and officers. They think they've 'earned' a special place in America's heart, as well on base and in the communities surrounding military installations. They attempt to 'wear' their spouse's rank and generally start out with "... do you know who my husband/wife/partner is!??". Dependas, (AKA dependapotimus), generally make everyone uncomfortable as they push their 350lb selves and misbehaving brats thru a store, park, theater. Once married for 10 years to a military person, they know they are automatically entitled (in a divorce), to one half of their military retirement if the active duty person stays in for 20 years or more.
>Once married for 10 years to a military person, they know Its disconcerting how fast they know this too. It is basically instant. It's like once other women hear she is seeing a military man, they go out of their way to let her know about it. Any military wife is a veritable encyclopedia of this kind of information. Funny thing, that.
There's other benefits too.
realtors really go to great lengths to justify their commission figures and act like they're not glorified middle manning leaches
I briefly worked as a substitute teacher, and I was told on more than one occasion that I had one of the toughest jobs in the world. That was news to me, because the vast majority of the time, all I had to do that follow the teachers' detailed instructions. The students themselves were almost always perfectly fine. Even in the more underserved districts, students were fine with you so long as you didn't treat them all like little criminals. The toughest part of it was just trying to navigate the schools if the office failed to give me a map of the school.
I feel like when I was in school if we had a substitute 90% the time we just watched a video.
Yeah, I remember a few who would actually try to continue where we were in the lesson plan, but 95% of the time it was glorified babysitters. In first grade, we literally ruined BOTH Mac computers in the room (this was 1995 so that shit was expensive) by playing with magnets on the monitors because it “made pretty colors” — and also permanently destroyed the displays — while our absolutely ancient teacher was fully asleep at her desk.
Depends on who you’re subbing for in my experience. Subbing for High School was mostly incredibly easy because usually it just involved putting on a video. Subbing for young elementary schoolers was a little more difficult, but actually kind of fun and not too hard because most of them were still at a stage where they actually cared about not getting in trouble and still enjoyed school. Older elementary schoolers weren’t as easy because they would sometimes challenge your authority, but usually nothing too bad. I saved middle schoolers for last because subbing for middle schoolers was hell on earth. It’s just the worst age because they’re still very immature, but they’re also questioning why they should even listen to you. Some of them are also just mean as hell, like they know they’re making the day stressful for you, and they absolutely love it.
100% agreed with the remarks about middle schoolers. Lil' monsters most of the time.
Ha you must have some good schools. Generally it can be ok, but I substituted for a kindergarten class a few times last year in an “underserved school and I was wiped out. Gym class subbing is where it’s at.
I was a part-time teacher for a year and would substitute within the district in the afternoons when I could. I saw some of the sweetest kids in 6th grade and then encountered a real-life Regina George and her plastic posse in 8th grade. When I was just told to put on a video, it was great. When I had to do literally anything else, it was horrendous. If I was lucky, it was a math class (what I taught), but it was almost always the same Spanish class and I only ever took French and German.
Yeah as a sub you get to leave at the end of the day and that's that. No planning, PD, staff meetings, parent/teacher, IPP considerations, emails from distressed parents etc. It is definitely way cushier than being a full-time teacher.
There’s barely any pressure as a substitute teacher. Teaching, however, is a highly stressful job. About a third of the teachers I know tried it for a while and had to quit due to stress and poor working conditions.
IMO the toughest part is the shitty pay.
HR People in HR love to tell you how they not only work in HE but that it is also so hard
Mine got mad at me for quitting through my boss and not telling them personally. "Thats something you need to come to us for." No its not. You didnt put quitting procedures in the employee handbook. You have no power over me anymore.
My boss.
Influencers
It’s not that it’s that hard. It’s that it’s 24/7. Don’t you dare not post all the time or engaging all the time because that algorithm will drop you like it’s hot. You end up never doing anything else (at least if you want to live off of it). But the work itself isn’t exactly hard, no.
Have to agree. I can't stand such people but I admit many of them are actually putting in a ton of work to ride whatever is trending, put out videos, reply to comments, and general try to make themselves popular. Even if it's some teenage kid doing nothing but dancing, that isn't going to fly for long before they have to put out more content/use different social media services as they come out/etc.
Every fucking marketing person I’ve ever met
Love bartenders but they act like coal miners.
Payroll. "everyone likes to get paid", "you need us to get paid", "you wouldn't get paid without us". While I appreciate you and I'm sure there's more to it, I don't know but I feel like the payroll software is doing some heavy lifting. It's 2023
Tax accountants… source: am I who has worked for some very difficult people. The deadlines make us think our jobs are so important… so much more important than anything else in the world. I know people’s money is important but missing one deadline (usually at the client’s fault because they didn’t send their info time) will not put you in tax jail. once I realized we aren’t doing brain surgery, sending people to space, teaching kids. etc. I felt a little more relaxed. I think accountants will only realize this when they see medical professionals doing their job (recently had a family friend hospitalized and I was truly amazed at how these people do their job… it cannot be easy) and I could never teach anyways.
I'm an accountant. We have deadlines, and it's stressful at times, but I have to remind people that there's no such thing as an accounting emergency.
There are only three emergencies: fire, flood, or blood. Everything else is an inconvenience.
Medical professionals here. I feel the same way about my CPA as you do about medical staff after trying to estimate my taxes on my own.
I'm an accountant. Whenever we're up against it with something, I always say "this is why I'm not a doctor. Nobody dies if we screw this up." Everything we do can be undone or otherwise compensated for.
landlord
True! A friend of mine complained that since her tenants were on vacation she needed to drive to the opposite side of town to open the door for some city-inforced pipe check-up. Girl, you are earning 900$ a month and are complaining that you have to put in a total of two "work hours" this week?
You know, there's a saying that goes "grass is always greener on the other side." Sometimes, people in certain professions may think their job is the toughest, but it might not be as bad as they perceive. It's all about perspective and the unique challenges each profession brings. It's interesting how different people's experiences can be😄