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“What Profession Was Once Highly Respected, But Is Now A Complete Joke?” (30 Answers)
We currently have jobs that didn't exist 30, 20, or even 10 years ago. In fact, by one popular estimate, around 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in a career that's not even on our radar yet.
Interested in the changes of the labor market, Redditor u/jaysmith007 asked other platform users last week, "What profession was once highly respected, but is now a complete joke?"
And people gave plenty of examples. From flight attendants to nurses, continue scrolling to check out those that have received the most upvotes.
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Teaching. They get completely s**t on by the kids and the parents.
Absolutely. Sometimes parents meddle too much in their child's school life. It's ok to supervise what your child's been doing and whatnot, but for god's sake let the teachers handle how and what they teach in class. And I get it, there are some wacko teachers and they need a constant reminder of their job, but there are really good ones who have become so frustrated with all the nags! As if the school's pressure and the workload wasn't enough :(
Somehow teaching seems to have become customer service, with the parents being the customers. And believing they're always right.
All teachers do is the best they can. My school had a shooting today, where the principal and resource officer were shot, but even though kind of a chaotic situation the teachers handled it very well.
OMG, I live in the same city as you! I'm so sorry you kids had to go thru that, I was horrified when I saw the news this morning. I'm so grateful that there weren't more injuries & I'm praying for the injured. And I've seen the reports about how well the teachers handled the situation.Sending you hugs from the west side of town tonite, and Go Hawks 🤍💙🧡!
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It's not like the American school system is doing a good job in solving the situation
Might have to do with that horrible person that has been responsible for public schools from 2016 -2020 who HATES public schools and wants everyone (aka: the rich everyone) to private schools? I mean... wild idea, but it could be!
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My best friend is a teacher. I never realized how bad the job has gotten but parents these days are really ridiculous, they text her at all hours with the dumbest crap, their kids are not going to know how to handle their own problems as they mature. So much of her time is spent coddling all the sensitive children and if anyone gets punished she is sure there will be a meeting with the parent and the principal the next day.
So did I! It wasn‘t even a decision, the job made me really ill. I just had to go.
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Retired teacher here, 54, 5'5" female, and no one ever dared s**t on me, or they might have tried it ONCE, got told, got set some STRONG boundaries and limits, and told they could go take a long jump off a very short pier. Worked in a couple of states, half a dozen schools. People absolutely never have anything good to say about education, mostly due to their own insecurities that get projected outward. This is one of those times. The person who wrote this, I would bet good money, has NEVER and would never be behind the desk and speaking from experience. Twenty six years experience here. Sh*t free here. Don't believe bad hype from people who would not and could not do the job.
I teach the after-school program & omg do I see how teachers don't get the recognition they deserve! Being in a room with 20+ kids, some with adhd or behavior problems, for an entire day!
My aunts and uncles (both mom and dad side) are teachers and they used to love teaching, but now they wanted to find something else because it has become unbearable and the work load is inhumane while their salary is a joke. Government should pay teachers more, they take care of sh*tty kids!! That’s why I’m always happy to help out my aunt on her baking side hustle just to earn extra income.
The comments here show exactly what is going on withregards to respecting teachers.
I'm married to a teacher. I think they deserve a babysitting fee, over and above their base pay. Teachers spend more time with your children, than you, the parents do. It's time you let teachers teach and you do the parentingn at home Teachers aren't meddling in your parenting style at home. Kids today are super soft compared to just the 80s, when I was in junior high & high school.
Teachers do get s**t on a lot by parents but for the longest time I only heard about how parents aren't involved at all and teachers have to be the parents to these kids because the parents won't. Careful what you wish for because parents (for good or bad) are definitely involved now.
Hey, techer from central Europe here.. I do not feel disrecpected by "my" kids at all... I relly love my job and I guess, that if your are not an a*hole and show respect for the kids, they do the same. I usually have lot of fun during my lessons and we still have results - national exams.
It took me a long time after graduation to realize that most of my teachers were the ones who actually cared about me, and the rest of the world didn't really GAF. It was a harsh lesson that entitled parents and kids will learn eventually.
I work in education in the UK and had access to log books from 1901 onwards. These were books that headteachers had to make notes in about each day. You saw how teachers went from respected members of the community that even parents went to for advice and would make home visits. In the 1950's you see the change in attitude of parents as they became more hostile and antagonistic towards teachers. Even threatening teachers outside the school gates. This attitude only gets worse and today we have many extreme variants of parents, such as lawnmower parents, helicopter parents and friend parents who don't think their kids can do any wrong.
It's a vicious cycle in many places, that makes the worst ones survive the longest, and the best ones, those who care and act as seen fit, who have reasonable standards and criteria ... suffer, get burned out, leave and get kinda destroyed in the process. The less you care and agree to school being meant to provide big corps with easy-to-use economic gain providing units, uncritical and obedient, the more you use the authority by position instead of the one by knowledge, caring, abilities and merits in general, the less it makes you suffer. After all, "nobody needs backtalking brats", "no one is even hiring them!" and similar stuff. Well, I got hired, Mrs. H, and I do not live on the streets selling something prohibited, neither even, and in general don't think I'm a total loss ... but my relation to authorites got irrepairably crushed in 1st grade of elementary school.
Our primary issue is that our state government bashed teachers for a decade and fully undermined the respect the public has for the profession. The state government did this because they wanted to privatize K-12 education. The goal was to break the powerful teachers Union, cut teacher pensions, and funnel tax dollars to lucrative donors that run charter schools. Our state is getting ready to go back to school with 2,300 unfilled teaching jobs.
They have an easy time in the UK as low paid teachers assistants do most of their work now.
Teachers in the 1950’s taught kids much better. About 20% of kids leave school now not being able to read, do maths or spell. In the UK half their work is done by minimum wage teachers assistants while the teachers get the big bucks.
This is sad!! Teaching is a noble profession!!! They should be respected, but aren’t!! Such a pity!!
They are respected up until the point they inject their political opinions
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Some folks at my school think it's perfectly acceptable to talk back to (and by "talking back", I'm not referring to trying to explain themselves after they were yelled at, I mean arguing/insulting) teachers and I've seen a few of them who have bragged about making a teacher have a mental breakdown because it's "funny" and "you're a teacher, you should be used to it".
(2) I had him for Creative Writing, so I knew what he was like. In AP classes, it was always a battle. He'd give us a TON of personal history info in the author of a poem, short story, novella, novel, etc. then notes on the work itself, THEN ask us, for a major part of our grade, to tell what WE thought. So I did. Never went well, but I spent more time with that teacher than any other. Second place would be my history teacher(s). My 11th and 12th grade years, I got nominated for the Who's Who Among USA High School Students, and I have 0 idea who nominated me. It takes 3 teachers to do that, with paperwork. My HS experience, I have NO clue... but yeah, teachers can be bad, and they can be oddly sneaky.
(1) I have to say, that SOME teachers are bad. I'm sorry, it's a ratio like all others, and there ARE and WILL be, bad ones. I've had some, esp. in high school. My AP (advances placement for college) Chemistry teacher, for example. He taught "his way" which was really hard for a lot of us. When I asked him personally, he said, "If you don't get the way I teach then you'll fail, not my problem."I didn't like that. In the 90's in my area, tutors cost $25 - 35 an hour, but I couldn't find a tutor, so I turned to my public library. This was before the internet was flooded with information, etc. I also rode my bike to our local college satellite campus, and caught the Chemistry professor. My HS teacher was sh*it but I ended up with a B+ (up from a D), using info and people that were WAY beyond me, but it also sparked my interest and love in the sciences even more. I had similar problems in my AP English/American classes, etc. Those were my REAL problems, because I always fought my teacher.
I wish you luck. The hard part isn’t teaching the kids.. it’s everything else. Teaching the kids is the part you get paid for. The planning, meetings, parent phone calls, additional trainings, DCS reports, IEP reporting, etc is the hard part.
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Let's face the truth, without teachers, we will not learn anything. We do need them for us to have diplomas or else you won't graduate. And teachers was badly needed in election of your political officials. Imagine the world without teachers, you go to school, who's going to teach you? No one.
You don't need a teacher to learn anything honestly
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When was it highly respected though? It has always been seen as just something women do and therefore not that hard or important. Movies and TV have long treated it as something anyone can just start doing.
I think teaching as a profession and teachers as professionals garnered a lot more respect a few decades ago.
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Teachers were never respected, only professors were. Both SHOULD be
Not all teachers are professors but all professors bare teachers
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Not sure why this is on the list. Teaching is an honorable profession. Pay them better wages!
Depending on the state, they are paid just fine
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It started in the 90s, actually (talking for Spain).
Well, decades of building up unions that fight accountability and shield bad teachers/child touchers will do that. There's also the extremely racist hill that teachers' unions have chosen to die on, by working against charter schools and school choice. Also, NOW we have the internet and can see the ridiculous contracts that teachers' unions have negotiated. Working 9 months a year for over $50k and STILL getting full benefits and student loan forgiveness? Maybe teachers were ALWAYS a joke, and we're just getting savvy now.
Oh ffs. I'm not American, but I am highly amused whenever I see someone from the far right screaming 'racism' when it suits them. Teachers work bloody hard. I'd you think their contracts are ridiculous, go try teaching yourself. There's a reason why teachers have strong unions. Ignorant opinions like yours are one of them. Btw, why are those on the right obsessed with child sexual abuse? Hoping to point the finger away?
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AKA right wing nonsense. Just say you don't want your kids to know about the racist stuff your parents did and be done with it.
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Actually having worked in this sector my problem was primarily with the teachers. They were nasty pathological fascists who had a "my way or the highway" approach and refused to be corrected in their own ignorance and/or accept that they might be wrong about something. There were few who were open-minded. Another brick in the wall - Pink Floyd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqTTojTija8
I have no respect for teachers that push their politics onto students. Stick to actual teaching, not social justice propaganda.
So you are against social justice? Maybe you need to check your politics
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Nursing. Long hours, hard work, front line workers for dealing with annoying ass and insane people, the definition of “I don’t get paid enough for this s**t!” Edit: thank you for the awards! My first ones :)
Farmers. Agriculture used to be something everyone had to do. Now people don't give a second thought about where there food comes from.
Journalist. It used to be a respected and necessary career, now, for more than one reason, it's lost almost all the respect it had.
Philosopher. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. Now if someone tells you they are a philosopher you probably assume they don’t have a job and do a lot of drugs.
Police, you would have to be crazy to join the force right now.
And the crazy people are joining, which is why police are disrespected.
Priest for obvious reasons
They(the Catholic Church)did it to themselves by sweeping things under the rug and paying hush money for decades.
My aunt crushed it as a travel agent in the '80s/'90s. The internet totally blindsided her
If you can get a really good one that does their research they are worth so much. Sadly most of them just book easy stuff so you might was well do it yourself.
Lawyer.
I’m one and I’ve already heard all the jokes, thanks.
In the 19th century it really was a position of prestige. In the mid-20th century it meant Atticus Finch.
Now it’s just the equivalent of ambulance chaser in the minds of most people. And it’s too bad, because when you actually need one, you see what they genuinely do.
News media, regardless of their "slant." We've gone from Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite to talking heads and sound bites. Kids today won't believe that back in the day somebody came on TV or the radio and told you the who, what, where, when, why and how- and you were expected to make your own mind about it. Yes, there were editorial/opinion sections, but they were separate from the news reporting. And "journalistic integrity" is filed away somewhere with buggy whips and vacuum tubes.
Tucker Carlson is the the embodiment of what wrong with the news
Human Resources.
I get it, the protect the company and not the employee, but over the last 20 years that scale has tipped so far that modern HR practices are barely legal and usually unethical.
Critic, for the most part. It used to be that to be taken seriously as a critic, you had to have some accomplishments in the field you were critiquing, to show that your opinion on the subject was worth some value. Somewhere along the way, the position devolved to "any as***le with an opinion is a critic". It has fallen even further in the internet age, with "critics" giving obviously stupid "hot takes" just so their name can be spread out among the media.
No professions seem to be respected these days. Respect went away roughly 10-15 years ago.
School principal. Teachers who fail in the classroom flee to administration because they're too heavily invested to quit and start a new career. Of those, the ones with high ambition, low self-awareness, and weak personal character tend to fail upwards by parroting trendy buzzwords and supporting failed pedagogy. You'll meet the odd unicorn, but most principals are incompetent at everything except camouflaging their incompetence behind buzzwords and task-offloading.
Chef. My dad was a chef and in his day you could have your pick of jobs. Literally walk out of a restaurant and into another by the end of the day. People respected them and allowed creative and financial freedom. Now I work as a chef and I constantly have to answer to people ( managers, waitresses etc ) who have absolutely 0 culinary experience. The pay is sh**ty, the hours are ridiculous it's about 3 decades behind in terms of workers rights. This goes double for smaller places like non-chain bars and restaurants. They know that theirs always another chef looking for a new gig and often have no problems treating chefs like absolute dogs**t.
Air hostess- Once the symbol of glamor now its like a joke
Spinster. In the middle ages, it was a respected career which could keep a woman financially independent and secure. She worked damn hard and had to be physically strong and good with money. And a spinster could choose to be in a relationship, but it wasn't imperative for her survival. Nowadays it's just become a term for middle aged or older single women and the fact it used to be a respected job title has been all but forgotten.
They were called spinsters because they worked spinning wool, if anyone's confused.
I wanted to say politician but they have always been hated the more I think about it
Do royals count? They were once honorable leaders, now either dictators or useless fools
President of russia
There's a difference between being respected and towing the company line, for fear of being shot. 🤔
For me personally, doctor. I used to hold them in high regard until I started working with them. Most are lazy, greedy and do not know a single thing outside of medicine. Some don't even know medicine!
I only respect a doctor if they show respect for me. I'll acknowledge their expertise, I'm not questioning that. As soon as they try to tell me what I'm able to sense in my body or what my life is like with a disability they can piss off. I don't know what life is like in their body why assume they know what it's like in mine? Keeping me as healthy as possible is a mutual endeavour. Respect goes both ways.
Musicians that played dynamite saxophone solos in rock and roll songs.
Elevator attendants. Once revered engineers capable of lifting humans hundreds of feet in the air. Now a comedic relic of a by gone era.
This is the only one on the list that actually fits the descriptoin of this list.
Optician. Back in the day, if you were an old-school Optician you knew absolutely everything about complicated prescription issues, making glasses, grinding lenses, manufacturing a complete set of glasses yourself from your own lab in the back of the store. Nowadays it’s mostly 20 yr old idiots who take a cr**py little express program to certify themselves as ‘Opticians’ , but all orders are sent to an outside lab to be made. If you have a problem with your glasses, 90% of these ‘opticians’ have no idea how to solve your problem. It’s also now essentially just a glorified salesperson job.
Source: Im an ex-optician who’s biggest mistake in life so far was wasting years on that sh**ty low-paying “career”
Translators used to be members of royal courts, but are now full-on taken advantage of by agencies who know nothing about the industry, but hold all the clients. They often expect people with B.A.s, M.A.s, multiple certifications, and decades of experience to work for very low pay
Or people who think google is a capable translator and just want you to tweak what google shat out a little for pennies.
My friends Dad was a pretty successful ad salesman for yellowpages. After no one needed phone books anymore and he cheated on his wife and had 2 divorces, and bought a purple harley with a dragon on it, he then became a seller of funeral packages...
Alchemist
Note: this post originally had 59 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I'm a painter (went to school, study hard the old masters, learnt the antique methods of making paints and varnishes from scratch), and every time I tell anyone I'm a painter they ask me "yeah, but I mean, what's your job? Painting it's just a hobby" 🙃
They forgot to say: stockbrokers (aka gamblers), and bankers (aka robbers).
I've seen alot of posts where you s**t on anyone who made smart life choices.
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In reference to the optician...you don't even see him/her anymore! At my last eye doctor appointment, she was on a TV screen asking me questions. Had to have the glasses remade 3 times!
Watchmakers? Once every house had at least one wall beautiful hung or floor standing clock and people weared mechanical wrist or pocket watchea that required regular tune ups and repairing services. Then came the Swatch-era when these watches became a plastic piese of sheet. Now everyone look at their mobile phones if they want to know the time. Watches became a part of fashion outfit and they go out of style before they would need any maintenance. Source: I learnt to be a watchmaker but left my profession long time ago for coding.
Many professions left out. I'll just add a doctor, because everybody seems to be a self-taught internet doctor nowadays.
Avtar Chauhan:- The TV Newscaster of any international channel! I strongly recommend the status & qualitative public standing.
Journalism was often a crappy profession. There was really only a very short period of time when ethics were a big deal and journalism was seen as noble. the rest of its history was like it is now: mainly pandering in order to get the biggest market share to make profits for the people who owned the media outlets. Check out early newspapers if you don't believe me.
I'm a painter (went to school, study hard the old masters, learnt the antique methods of making paints and varnishes from scratch), and every time I tell anyone I'm a painter they ask me "yeah, but I mean, what's your job? Painting it's just a hobby" 🙃
They forgot to say: stockbrokers (aka gamblers), and bankers (aka robbers).
I've seen alot of posts where you s**t on anyone who made smart life choices.
Load More Replies... In reference to the optician...you don't even see him/her anymore! At my last eye doctor appointment, she was on a TV screen asking me questions. Had to have the glasses remade 3 times!
Watchmakers? Once every house had at least one wall beautiful hung or floor standing clock and people weared mechanical wrist or pocket watchea that required regular tune ups and repairing services. Then came the Swatch-era when these watches became a plastic piese of sheet. Now everyone look at their mobile phones if they want to know the time. Watches became a part of fashion outfit and they go out of style before they would need any maintenance. Source: I learnt to be a watchmaker but left my profession long time ago for coding.
Many professions left out. I'll just add a doctor, because everybody seems to be a self-taught internet doctor nowadays.
Avtar Chauhan:- The TV Newscaster of any international channel! I strongly recommend the status & qualitative public standing.
Journalism was often a crappy profession. There was really only a very short period of time when ethics were a big deal and journalism was seen as noble. the rest of its history was like it is now: mainly pandering in order to get the biggest market share to make profits for the people who owned the media outlets. Check out early newspapers if you don't believe me.
