Do people really view certain jobs as beneath them?

[Anonymous]

I'm a waitress, so I'm pretty close to the bottom. There are no jobs beneath me. They would just break my back. Can't be dishwasher, the detergent eats into my skin already now. I cannot cook, cannot make desserts or salads. I clean a little at work, but to do it full time, I'd have to get in better shape that I am now.
Rich people never stopped eating out- that's how we survived the last recession. Some of us got 2nd jobs when people eat out less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think this is one of the roots of subtle sexism and discrimination at work. Women are raised to think that "no job is beneath me", it's part of having empathy for everyone around us, and we tend to be willing to chip in with whatever needs to be done. Men are raised to think that they are above certain types of work, and they only aim for or do those jobs that are worthy of them.

At my office, most of the technical and management staff are men. All of the administrative staff are women. I'm among the technical/management, but am female. It's amazing how often we have a situation such as: we're all in a conference room, and the coffee pot is empty. The men keep getting up, trying it, realizing it is (still) empty, and going back to their chair. I, wanting a cup a coffee, pick it up to take to kitchen for a refill. My boss, also in the room, says "oh Larla, you don't need to do that, I'll get Larletta (his admin)". I'm like, why would you call Larletta? She's on the other side of the building, we are right here! But in his mind, getting coffee is an admin's job. In my mind, it's the job of whoever wants coffee.

But guess what - next time the coffee needed refilling, everyone in the room assumed I would do it. That's fine, except I realized it meant they had mentally moved me "down" a level from peer/manager to admin.

It's not fine! Nice of you to get coffee for others, and I get your larger point, but don't do it next time. When I was the only woman manager in a room of male managers at my last job, they tried just one time to ask me to be the note-taker during a meeting. I flatly said no. They never asked again for me to do "female" work. I might volunteer, but I won't have them assume I'll do it.

Pp here. I agree with you, and I don't do it anyone. But it was a hard habit to break after a lifetime of thinking that "team players" will chip in on whatever needs doing and that "no job is beneath me". And I will admit to still feeling guilty asking others to do tasks that are more convenient for me, simply because my role is "above" that.

And it's not just the "female" jobs either. The other day my team was unloading some new equipment that arrived for our project. I, as the team lead, jumped in and started carrying boxes. A few guys came up to me and said I didn't need to carry that, they'd get the techs to take care of it for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people really have these attitudes that certain work is beneath them?

I do. Like accounting for example.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't work in a slaughterhouse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course some people feel that way...and it's ridiculous.

My plumber and handyman both make way more than I do, and I'm a lawyer. It would be ridiculous for me to look down on them.

Clearly many people think cleaning up after themselves is beneath them, and that's why they pay hundreds a month for a cleaning service.

But that's not the question - about money. I find it strange when people equate prestige with money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think this is one of the roots of subtle sexism and discrimination at work. Women are raised to think that "no job is beneath me", it's part of having empathy for everyone around us, and we tend to be willing to chip in with whatever needs to be done. Men are raised to think that they are above certain types of work, and they only aim for or do those jobs that are worthy of them.

At my office, most of the technical and management staff are men. All of the administrative staff are women. I'm among the technical/management, but am female. It's amazing how often we have a situation such as: we're all in a conference room, and the coffee pot is empty. The men keep getting up, trying it, realizing it is (still) empty, and going back to their chair. I, wanting a cup a coffee, pick it up to take to kitchen for a refill. My boss, also in the room, says "oh Larla, you don't need to do that, I'll get Larletta (his admin)". I'm like, why would you call Larletta? She's on the other side of the building, we are right here! But in his mind, getting coffee is an admin's job. In my mind, it's the job of whoever wants coffee.

But guess what - next time the coffee needed refilling, everyone in the room assumed I would do it. That's fine, except I realized it meant they had mentally moved me "down" a level from peer/manager to admin.

I think it's also nice that he said that - from the perspective of not pegging the woman as the coffee-getter (and sad that this is a "nice" move). A better move would be for HIM to have made it.

[Anonymous]

I think that there are jobs that it's resource inefficient to assign to me. For instance, I CAN do secretarial work (but not as well as most real secretaries) but since I get paid more than a secretary it makes sense to instead give me work others can't do. It happens that what I can do and others can't IS a bit "higher level" and/or pay.

The whole gender dynamic really grates at me. Jim saying "Oh, I just can't do notes at the meeting" seems to be a common excuse, so Suzie is stuck with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I spent a college summer gluing shampoo bottles together on a factory floor. It paid $6 / hr and my brain seriously atrophied. Standing almost all day in the same spot. No chitchat. Training was completed in 10 minutes.

I don't feel bad about thinking that job is beneath me...because it is.

Ok but the way you describe that job, it's basically beneath everybody. Nobody likes those conditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course. My brother is on the brink of homelessness because he won't just got get a job at target.

Yep. It plays out again and again. I know several men in their 30's and 40's, bright guys who had a lot going for them in high school and college. After graduating, they were shocked that they weren't getting offered full time, well paid office jobs at cool or prestige organizations. Instead of hustling at internships, clerical jobs, or anything to earn money, they gave up. Live at home, do drugs, endless pity parties. Nothing is their fault. I don't know one woman in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll admit I had a job I felt was beneath me. After working as a lawyer in DC for 10 years, we moved to my husband's hometown after his dad died so that he could take over his family business. I couldn't find work as a lawyer and really waned to workl, so I finally accepted a position that was advertised as a paralegal - which would have been ok if it had actually involved paralegal work, but it was in reality a secretarial position that involved getting lunch for a group of older southern men, making copies for them, cleaning up after them, and doing their personal errands. I have never been so depressed as I was in that job. Thankfully, eventually I went back to school in another field.

I was in exact same position just in a small consulting firm. I had to do dishes after bunch of assholes.

[Anonymous]

Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spent a college summer gluing shampoo bottles together on a factory floor. It paid $6 / hr and my brain seriously atrophied. Standing almost all day in the same spot. No chitchat. Training was completed in 10 minutes.

I don't feel bad about thinking that job is beneath me...because it is.

Ok but the way you describe that job, it's basically beneath everybody. Nobody likes those conditions.

Does someone have to like those conditions to have another person consider the job beneath them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a waitress, so I'm pretty close to the bottom. There are no jobs beneath me. They would just break my back. Can't be dishwasher, the detergent eats into my skin already now. I cannot cook, cannot make desserts or salads. I clean a little at work, but to do it full time, I'd have to get in better shape that I am now.
Rich people never stopped eating out- that's how we survived the last recession. Some of us got 2nd jobs when people eat out less.

+2

I worked in restaurants in my twenties - considered myself a free spirit but was just aimless. My parents, typical type A Washingtonians, were horrified. They'd talk up any side thing I'd have going on with their friends and were SO relieved when I finally got a "real job."

Most people on this board consider restaurant and service work beneath them, I'm sure. It's hilarious because working with the public in the capacity I did took so much grace under pressure, ability to constantly multitask (for hours on end), and actually required a great deal of education and knowledge (about food and wine) that I was expected to constantly update.

I knock off so much in my professional life now, and most people I work with are both lazy and entitled. The irony.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spent a college summer gluing shampoo bottles together on a factory floor. It paid $6 / hr and my brain seriously atrophied. Standing almost all day in the same spot. No chitchat. Training was completed in 10 minutes.

I don't feel bad about thinking that job is beneath me...because it is.

Ok but the way you describe that job, it's basically beneath everybody. Nobody likes those conditions.

Does someone have to like those conditions to have another person consider the job beneath them?

And/or does PP consider the job beneath anyone? Or just people without formal education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course some people feel that way...and it's ridiculous.

My plumber and handyman both make way more than I do, and I'm a lawyer. It would be ridiculous for me to look down on them.

Clearly many people think cleaning up after themselves is beneath them, and that's why they pay hundreds a month for a cleaning service.

But that's not the question - about money. I find it strange when people equate prestige with money.

In our society, why do you find this strange?