“Everybody Hates Me Until They Need Me”: 30 Professions That Are Underestimated Until People Need Them In Emergency Situations
There are certain professions that you would only contact in cases of bad news. Morticians, paramedics, and the police all come to mind. Others don’t exactly have the most stellar reputation, like lawyers and plastic surgeons. All of you probably have some profession that you simply dislike out of principle or perhaps experience.
One internet user wanted to find out more, but with a twist. They asked for examples of jobs where “everybody hates me until they need me,” and people delivered. So scroll down and upvote the jobs which you agree get a lot of flack, but everyone needs at some point in their life.
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Garbage collection workers. Without them, our streets would literally be overflowing with refuse, but people still talk down to them like they’re less than human.
I scrolled a long time and didn’t find it:
Fast food workers
They’re the butt of every demeaning comment about a lack of achievement or the reason why minimum wage shouldn’t be raised blah blah blah
But those people get real quiet once they’re ordering their Big Mac
What?? Why is this first?? Anybody working in services, where have to deal with people is a saint. Everybody should try this once in life and will never judge these people anymore... world will be nicer.
Paramedics for sure. Doctors and nurses spit on us and treat us like we have no qualifications. the media calls us ambulance drivers or ambulance workers.
And whenever there are reports of the Healthcare crisis, you rarely hear about medics getting ground into dust due to call volume, its always about nurses and doctors.
TV shows only ever show medics being told what to do by cops, or just plopping a patient on a stretcher then disappearing.
The general public votes for policies that make us get paid like s**t.
Yet, when their family is dying at home or in a ditch, people beg us to help and cheer for us.
At one point they were just ambulance drivers. Paramedics have had medical training for decades now maybe over a century. People and media need to get with the times.
One of the first options that many people thought of are lawyers. From ambulance chasers to sleazy defense attorneys, there are so many examples of legal professionals who bend rules or generally are bad-mannered. But, as the question states, there are times when you really really need a legal professional. Lawyers can help you avoid a predatory contract or help you obtain damages when a neighbor floods your apartment.
Lawyers' poor reputation is actually a time-honored tradition at this point. Shakespeare alludes to it in Henry VI, Part 2 (act 4, scene 2, line 73, if you are particularly curious). When a group of pretenders to the throne are discussing how to improve the nation, one offers a simple idea: “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.” This is presented as a reasonable idea. If a line like that can get a laugh almost 500 years later, that shows something.
I've been scrolling forever and haven't seen this yet:
Scientific research.
During downtime, we routinely get made fun of for doing "pointless" things like dropping balls down a waterfall or making people listen to sounds. Our staffing is small and we're chronically underfunded, which only gets made worse when some guy in a basement thinks he knows more about climate change than someone with a PhD and politicians claim vaccines cause autism.
But then a catastrophe happens and suddenly everyone looks to us to churn out answers at 300% speed.
My mother is making fun of me for “believing the lying scientists”. I just want to chuck a chair at her sometimes
All the trades guys. “They’re so expensive!!!”
Until that plumber shows up at 2am to prevent the sewage backup. Or the electrician that fixes an overloaded breaker panel, preventing a fire. Or the carpenter who builds the room for your toddler so you can get some sleep and *maybe* some sexy time.
Definitely tradesmen.
Tradies have to pay for their education, then their tools, job insurance, tool insurance and transport insurance and still actually charge reasonable rates. Those who don't understand this are being ignorant.
Historically, lawyers have been a tool of the powerful to keep and legitimize their power. A regular person’s interaction with one would normally be costly and unpleasant. 19th-century American short story writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce defined litigation as "a machine which you go into as a pig and come out as a sausage.” This was also intended as a joke, though no doubt many people at the time lost their livelihoods and freedom to lawyers working in the interest of industrialists and other powerful groups.
Therapists. I'm a licensed therapist. Even in this comment thread someone called therapists "glorified life coaches" which couldn't be further from the truth. We are significantly more qualified. Everyone wants to s**t on therapists until someone gets hurt or hurts themselves and suddenly "Mental health matters! They should've had a therapist!"
A psychologist at my school said that I needed therapy just a couple of days ago yet my parents insist that therapists will give the exact same advice they’re giving me right now for extra money
Truck drivers. Everyone is either scared or annoyed at us, but good luck buying anything without truckers.
When I was a janitor I got a lot of hate for knocking out my 8 hour day in 4 individual hour long chunks of effort.
I Was always available for spills and got extra work done every day but spent another 4 hours basically chilling and management not once got on my case.
The other employees despised this until a customer's colostomy bag somehow ruptured in the bathroom. From that day forward none of them gave a f**k if I was just hanging out on my phone.
Another common option where those salespeople who contact you at the strangest time to suggest you update your car's extended warranty. While this doesn’t sound so bad, the main reason most people hate them is the fact that it’s generally just a scam. These scammers want to get some data about you, like your social security number, credit card information, driver’s license number, or bank account information. This can then be used to defraud you in the future.
Essential services during COVID, bunch of derps calling us heroes now back to s******g on us
Thank you to those who kept working at the pharmacies and the grocery stores and gas stations and all those other places that we had to have
The US Coast Guard for fishermen and boaters. Usually there's a pretty good working relationship between them, but some hate the Coast Guard for the various inspections they do. But the USCG is also the ones who will come out there in a storm to rescue them.
I have not an ounce of hatred for someone who will come and get me when I'm stuck in the middle of the OCEAN. I don't need Wilson the soccer ball, I need the Coast Guard.
Plastic Surgeons. My uncle is a plastic surgeon and he does only reconstructive stuff, fixing burn victims faces and stuff like that. But when people ask him what kind of doctor he is and he says Plastic Surgeon, they usually kinda scoff.
While scammers are truly detestable, sometimes your car’s warranty or insurance really has ended. And since most people don’t keep their car insurance or warranty expiration dates marked on a calendar, someone needs to remind them. But let’s face it dear pandas, even if you didn’t know that many of these callers were scammers, most of us deeply dislike cold calls from strangers.
Lawyer here. The expectation that because you are a lawyer you know everything about every law everywhere. In reality most lawyers are highly specialised.
Former lawyer here. Don't be a lawyer unless your parents own a firm. It is a miserable freaking job. Most likely you will end up in insurance defense working long a*s hours for not enough pay. Seriously, minimum billing is equal to 8.6 hours per day without vacation and only taking holidays off. Add a vacation, and it goes up. Take a vacation, you have to make up those hours. So you end up working harder the month before and after. And best of all, you go into massive student debt to be able to do this. I now work as an insurance adjuster and make more money, normal hours and way less stress.
Child protection caseworker. People generally hate us and vilify us but man when you need us you need us. Most people genuinely do not understand the work that we do (I work in Australia) and I have been chased out of houses with knives, punched, had abuse hurled at us, had my kids threatened the whole shebang but we never stop trying to keep kids safe.
There's way too many cases of CPS having multiple reports of and not removing the child, resulting in death the majority of the time. Not to mention the countless children that have died in CPS custody (United States, not entirely sure about other countries) Over 200 kids died in Texas while in CPS custody from 2020-2022. That's more than 200 kids in one state.
Disease Intervention Specialist!!! By state law, when you test positive or are exposed to a certain infection (in my work’s case, STDs), the state health department is required to reach out to you to follow up and make sure you have access to treatment, resources, answer questions, etc. DAILY I am cursed out (as if I’m the one who gave them Syphilis…), hung up on, told to never call them again…….until they realize they have no idea where to get treatment. Then they come crawling back, being as polite as ever, because they finally realized we’re literally just trying to help them get through a potentially scary/confusing situation.
Our society is not very good at respecting professionals
Nurses. A lot of people think they don’t deserve pay raises or think we’re not overworked, or that not much education is required but they don’t realize a 12 hour shift is 13 hours with patient handoff, most hospitals require a bachelors rather than associate’s, and a lot of hospitals stick a nurse with 6 patients which is extremely demanding and also dangerous for the patients and can result in a nurse losing their license if something goes wrong. Nursing is 100% either manual labor+ critical thinking or tedious charting, there is 0 downtime for 13 hours straight.
If nurses didn’t advocate for their patients, nobody would. Doctors treat the illness, not the patient. I’m not trying to downplay the importance of doctors or anything but if they actually had to take care of the patients they treat, the patients would be dead. Nurses are specialized in reacting to the needs of a patient and identifying underlying causes quickly.
EDIT: People are interpreting this wrong. I'm not saying other healthcare professionals don't care about their patients or protect them, but doctors see 20+ patients a day in a hospital setting and spend around less than 5 minutes around each patient in most cases. (Yes they are taking care of their patients all day long but its by orders, virology, etc. They are barely with the patient at all unless something arises). My point is that nurses do nearly all of the direct medical care and CNAs do a lot of the daily living tasks. This isn't the doctor's fault its just a symptom of our broken healthcare system. If the doctor is not in the room with the patient for 23.9 hours out of the day, how are they going to do anything for their patient without a nurse first inquiring on the patient's behalf?
Retired nurse here, I agree with much of this comment but I would like to elaborate on CNAs. Yes, they do the ADLs but they are so much more than that. They are the ones that notice first 99% of the time if something is wrong with a patient. They notice first if their skin is breaking down because they're washing them. They notice first if there's a problem with eating/swallowing because they're feeding the patient or collecting the meal trays. They notice if a patient is constipated, having problems urinating, if they have a fever. CNAs are the backbone of any medical facility and they are highly valuable and underappreciated. A nurse can only be as good as their CNAs and I worked with some of the best! Hats off to you, I couldn't have done my job without you!!!👍👏❤️👍👏❤️👍👏❤️
IT, not the clown.
Everything runs well: "What do we pay you for again?" - Things don't run well: "What do we pay you for again?"
Dentists for sure
Lawyers and mechanics. You want to have a good one of each, but you never want to have to call either of them.
Lineman. Been called a lazy overpaid drug addict by old men I don't even know. God forbid we go grab lunch or a coffee.
Thanatologist, embalmers...any funeral workers really.
thanks for teaching me a new word. I thought a Thanatologist was someone who preaches Thanos' gospel :D
People are very quick to look down on people who work retail or in the food industry, people openly disrespect sanitary workers and even USPS and DMV workers but our society couldn't function without any of them.
Honestly though USPS and DMV workers are almost always rude and because the U.S loves to make simple things complicated all the stupid rules at both the places are almost physically painful and If I had to deal with it for 40hrs a week I would probably be rude too.
Traffic control. They make you late to work but they are there to protect construction workers.
Safety manager.
Everyone thinks they’re sissies that needlessly spend money and complicate things… until someone gets hurt or the company gets cited, then suddenly everyone wants to know what can and should be done to remedy the situation.
Tow truck drivers
You hate 'em when they drag away your car for being parked in the wrong place - but appreciate 'em when your car conks out!
Criminal defense attorneys
In the uk, criminal defence barristers are allotted cases on a taxi rank basis - the take the next case, and don’t pick and choose. It is an absolutely necessary part of law that everyone gets a solid defence- if they don’t, how can you be sure that the right person has been convicted? Those people who you demonise for defending horrific cases may some day be defending you. It’s not only guilty people who are prosecuted - Birmingham six, Guildford four, Colin Stagg (thankfully acquitted) Derek Bentley, and countless others maliciously prosecuted by the police and CPS. Defence barristers are your last hope if you are unlucky enough to find yourself in that position.
Locksmiths, or people in general who know how to pick locks or how they work.
What?! This is nonsense. I've never ever heard anybody talk down to locksmiths, or use it as an insult/threat to someone that's not 'making it' in life, nor even heard bring up locksmiths outside of some issue with a lock. And lockpicking is a hobby with a growing group of people (see also LPL, the LockPickingLawyer, on YT).
UX designer here. Every engineer thinks they know how to make an interface, yet the software or site they create is terrible and they would rather accuse users of being dumb than admit their baby stinks.
Same here. You can always tell when a system was built by an engineer coz everything works (most of the time) but it's almost impossible for anyone else to use it. It's fine if it's just other engineers using the software coz they'll figure it out. It's so great when you finally get to work with someone who appreciates the value of a system that works as intended but is also very easy to use, even for someone with limited tech knowledge
The guys *actually* trying to contact you about your cars extended warranty
If I need it, I can find one without having some putz blow up my phone.
Note: this post originally had 43 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I want to add "farmers". People dont realise how difficult it is to manage a few hundred hectares of plants in random weather conditions and actually yield a good crop. It's not trivial at all. And without them we are dead.
As a farm kid, I thank you. One bad day can ruin a season of hard work.
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I am a translator. Private customers only hate me when I tell them how much I charge. People think that you will translate their 80,000 words romance for USD 2-300 (I can do it for 5,000-6,000, instead). That's why I usually don't deal with privates.
Marcos, I work in the linguistic field and used to be a translator as well. The linguistics field is so severely underpaid despite the amount of education and skill it takes to become a specialized translator (I did government and literature--weird combo I know). Many professional translators have a specialized domain that they work within like pharmaceutical text and spend years upon years of study honing their specialization. A lot of my clients are medical and governmental and the amount they want to pay our linguists for translation and interpretation is laughable at times. It is always "how fast can you get this". Whelp, you can either pay me pennies and get it done by Goolgle Translate or have it done by a skilled translator. We help people communicate is some of the most dire situations yet we are still paid peanuts.
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My approach is that we over-value too many USELESS occupations and they are admired and financially rewarded for activities that provide ZERO societal benefit - Actors, musicians, star athletes, CEO's of mega-corps, a majority of politicians, etc. THOSE are the folks we need to take down a few notches.
Very few actors and musicians make enough money to live on. I think you are referring to those with celebrity status? But most actors are making tv commercials, or working at local theaters, etc. Most musicians are playing at bars in 2 or 3 states around where they live.
Load More Replies... I want to add "farmers". People dont realise how difficult it is to manage a few hundred hectares of plants in random weather conditions and actually yield a good crop. It's not trivial at all. And without them we are dead.
As a farm kid, I thank you. One bad day can ruin a season of hard work.
Load More Replies... I am a translator. Private customers only hate me when I tell them how much I charge. People think that you will translate their 80,000 words romance for USD 2-300 (I can do it for 5,000-6,000, instead). That's why I usually don't deal with privates.
Marcos, I work in the linguistic field and used to be a translator as well. The linguistics field is so severely underpaid despite the amount of education and skill it takes to become a specialized translator (I did government and literature--weird combo I know). Many professional translators have a specialized domain that they work within like pharmaceutical text and spend years upon years of study honing their specialization. A lot of my clients are medical and governmental and the amount they want to pay our linguists for translation and interpretation is laughable at times. It is always "how fast can you get this". Whelp, you can either pay me pennies and get it done by Goolgle Translate or have it done by a skilled translator. We help people communicate is some of the most dire situations yet we are still paid peanuts.
Load More Replies... My approach is that we over-value too many USELESS occupations and they are admired and financially rewarded for activities that provide ZERO societal benefit - Actors, musicians, star athletes, CEO's of mega-corps, a majority of politicians, etc. THOSE are the folks we need to take down a few notches.
Very few actors and musicians make enough money to live on. I think you are referring to those with celebrity status? But most actors are making tv commercials, or working at local theaters, etc. Most musicians are playing at bars in 2 or 3 states around where they live.
Load More Replies...