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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 :(
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.
Lawyers are great, but you have to admit the big, blaring "I will sue anyone for you" billboards don't give a very nice look into the profession.
Read thebpickwick papers? Samuel weller?
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Lawyers have ensured that law and justice have become two completely different things. Because of them, there are now unjust laws that no longer have anything to do with justice, but have everything to do with legal mumbo jumbo.
Lawyers don’t pass laws. Look, there are plenty of shitty lawyers who will work the legal system to their clients’ benefit for the money. But I know two lawyers. One is in construction law, and he works hard to hold contractors and developers accountable, both environmentally and regarding code. The other is an environmental lawyer who works hard to hold corporations accountable to prevent them from or punish them for poisoning the environment.
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Lawyers are disgusting. They take money to protect crooks and the poor and oppressed cannot afford their services and have to accept substandard lawyers from the state, resulting in them losing their case every time to the rich prick who can afford a hotshot lawyer. They profit off the misery of others and charge rates which are outrageously high. In our country they are paid (I can't say "earn") regularly more than the president, regularly! Arrogant knowitalls who just have undergraduate degrees in memorising what the rules say and dogmatically applying them. I hate them passionately.
You sound like you haven't made great life decisions.
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Nope, still hate them even then. Doesn't matter what happened, doesn't matter who's right or wrong, lawyers are NEVER on your side. They only care about the money, not about truth and justice.
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Mine did nothing. Proof of that is my separation agreement was not drawn in my favor. As well, when I pointed out a blatantly obvious clause that was not in my favor (If I Iive with a man 6 weeks, this voids alimony payments to me), "my lawer" said, "I didn't see that." One depends on their lawyer to look after their best interests. My ex had two lawyers working for him. His lawyer and my lawyer.
I worked in law offices, for over 25 years. In my experience, I can attest to the fact that I came upon only TWO lawyers were ethical and fair. The others put more emphasis on on their billable hours and the reputation of the firm, much to the detriment of clients. One of the lawyers, for whom I worked, received a frantic phone call from a distraught client, whose husband had beaten her so badly that she spent 10 days in the hospital. She called to say that he was being released from jail and that he said that he was coming to kill her. My attorney boss asked, "How much does she owe me?" When I told him, he said, "She'll have to pay the balance, before I will help her." Most of the others were like him.
" ... when you actually need one, you either cannot afford one or it will ruin you for the rest of your life" Corrected that for you.
All the comments aside, it's easy to make jokes about lawyers until you need legal assistance. Then, their services and knowledge are essential.
What's the difference between a lawyer and a leach? One's a blood sucking parasite and the other is an insect.
It's so unfair when one party can afford a lawyer and the other can't. e.g. My brother attempting to cheat me out of my inheritance from my mom's estate. He has money to hire a lawyer and I don't. I ended up having to settle for less than what was fair.
Yeah they are handy... however I think the only time I have ever been charged for phone calls from a business and for printing/photocopying. Absolutely astounding!!
All a big joke until you **NEED** a lawyer. Thanks lawyers. Not all are scum suckers like the celebrity defense attorneys. .
Maybe it's just me, but this seems to be a US thing. Has any non-US lawyer ever heard themselves referred to as an "Ambulance Chaser"?
I think it's far worse in the US. My ex had a money grabber, but we're Dutch, so the money grabber had to go to court himself.
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Yeah, it's greed alright! Billboards every several miles on the Interstate advertising how Lawyer Dan got me $2 million. Every billboard has a picture of Dan and another smiling person with a different amount. Then there is this classic from another lawyer and that's a real working phone#. WTF-Popo-6...b6373c.jpg 
No longer the Trusted Individual, Lawyers are mistrusted as being 'In it for themselves'.
There's also the public perception that it's a glamorous and insanely well paying job. Most of the work is done by paralegals, who make almost nothing and are desperately trying to get enough experience to jump to the next rung on the ladder. Your named lawyer will make a reasonable salary, depending on the area of law (assuming it's not criminal defence), but it's not great when you average it on hours worked. You may or may not get a bonus, depending on how the partners think the firm performaed. I'm my experience, the only people who'll get rich from law are the partners who control the firm. There's exceptions - the top firms do pay well, but they'll work you into an early grave.
I'm scared of lawyers. My Mom got fu*cked over twice for her divorce, and the lawyer we used to file bankruptcy (the crash of 2008 was so much fun /s) wasn't much better. If I hadn't given myself a crash course by using the 'net, my library and calling a ton of people for help.... it just sucks. She lost out on THOUSANDS. I'm still trying to fight. Here's a fun tidbit, her divorce lawyer in 1997 said he charged as much as he did because, in part, he had to pay $1,200 for health insurance for his family of 4. We had 0 insurance, and this guy had a TON of clients. So yeah, lawyers are needed.. but good luck with that in the US.
It's not the lawyers that have to change! It's the laws Most are asinine!
I had a lawsuit that lasted 7 years. My attorney got married and had 3 children in that time. When we won the case, I took his assistant to Europe.
I'm sure the ambulance chaser bit is part of it but the larger aspect that crushed the prestige of the profession is that the average person can see too clearly what money (individual and corporate) can buy in the way of legal protection. Look at the way rich people get off with a slap on the wrist for something that would get the average person jail time. Look at the way corporate legal swamps any average person attempting present a legitimate case for injury received. It also doesn't help that damned near every politician in the U.S. comes from a legal background, typically that of being a lawyer, and they use their knowledge to obfuscate their actions to the benefit of themselves and their cronies.
Many jokes are made about lawyers, yet when someone needs legal representation they cant call fast enough.
Finch was an fictional exception. Even Shakespeare made jokes about lawyers. Also, there are too many lawyers... many of whom are incompetent. And don't get me started on there being too many laws. It's one of the reasons there are too many lawyers.
I don't think it's ambulance chasers that people think of. The image I have is "For money I'll do my best to bend, stretch, and see how far I can twist the letter of the law, while totally ignoring the spirt of the law, so my, quite often, abominable client can get away with hideous crimes".
i agree - there's trash out there but when it is legitimate and necessary it's good to know a good one.. there should not be attorney adverts on the television - [ imo ].
ALSO OUR CLIENTS ACT LIKE THE KNOW THE LAW BETTER THAN US. OR THEY THINK THEIR STINKING THINKING IS BETTER THAN A OUTSIDE OBSERVATION OF HOW THEY LIFE THEIR LIVES.
That's not the point. Every area of expertise has clients that think they know better. If you doubt this, try google "clients from hell". The point against lawyers is they profit of others' misery and use complex technical arguments to get immoral or questionably moral results which nonetheless are fully legal. Basically they're satan.
Load More Replies...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...
Models - seems like anyone with a camera and a social media account can call themselves one now.
Clowns were seen as funny back then, but now everyone is terrified of them
Journalists and News Anchors (at least in America)
While there are still a great deal of respectable news outlets, a lot of respect for the industry has been lost because of those who are simply mouthpieces to the corporate propaganda machine.
Most major news networks and publishers have put profits over journalism, turned the news cycle into 24-hour theater, and caused untold damage to our collective mindset. They hire charismatic anchors and manipulative writers to try and make the readers and watchers believe whatever will bring the most profits and help those in power the most.
Singer. They just use autotune with no real skil
Wrong Pas. Today’s popular singers aren’t singers they’re SCREAMERS !
Lawyers are both loved and hated. Notice how parents are proud to say their child grew up to be a lawyer. How prestigious! But then when, as a society, we talk about "slimy money grubbers" lawyers get lumped in to that group not uncommonly.
Witches. Or Magicians.
I'd love to know when witches were predominantly respected. Maybe in fantasy novels.
Radio DJ. Even in small cities, the dj’s were well known. Today, there is still some level of fame in large cities (the morning drive time team), but radio is dying….
Astrologer
Anything in the corporate media
Commercial Pilot.
Back in the day, a pilot was a man's man with great pay. Today the regional carriers pay less than a minimum wage job at 40 hours a week. Just to get to that point a person must spend years of time building or fast track by spending a fortune.
Probably pilot Once second only to astronauts, now just glorified bus driver.
Last I heard it was almost impossible to make a living as a pilot, they don't get enough flying hours to survive on and it's hard to even keep enough flying hours to maintain qualification.
IT support
Journalist.
I still remember wanting to study journalism in college back in the early 90. I wanted to be the next Hunter S. Thompson (I definitely did enough hallucinogens) and in high school I had several short stories and articles published in a very niche tabletop gaming magazine that was distributed internationally. My life took a different turn and I'm glad it did. Nowadays there's no such thing as a respected journalist. They're all basically shills who seem like they need to hustle for every dime they make because thanks to the internet anyone can be a "journalist".
Chief Information Officer; in the 1990s that was a very prestigious position in a company. It showed the street that the company took technology seriously.
Now, if you work in a business where tech isn't the product, your CIO or SVP of Tech reports to the Chief Financial Officer. Most times it isn't a strategic C-level job. You watch the budget and look to outsource as much as possible. Try to be aligned with the business, who really doesn't want anything to do with you other than what you can give them for less money. Rough gig.
One corporation I worked in, I know the CIO was completely handicapped by the fact his colleagues didn't want to hear or understand how technology affects the company and what the technological needs were, saying that was all to hard to understand. And even told him to never say big technical words like "computer". In other words, they were a bunch of morons. That corporation is a slim shadow of its former self now, though -- all thanks to technological competition they were too incompetent to deal with.
Anything in retail (mostly food shops) I often hear people saying to their children if they don't do well in school then they will work at "tesco" for the rest of their lives.
But in reality people in retail usually do it as a waiting ground or to fund other projects. For instance I do it to fund my films whilst I learn how to drive.
Believe it or not, some people want to work in retail. They enjoy certain aspects such as merchandise displaying, organizing, they actually like the products and get a discount on them. I used to think waitstaff were just doing it to get themselves through college or rank up in the restaurant business. I asked a girl at a restaurant what she wanted to be (I believe there was more leading up to this question but I can't remember what), and she surprised me by saying a waitress. I didn't know this was a career goal. It gave me a new perspective that it's okay for any job to be a career goal if that's what you enjoy doing. Money can't be about everything.
Umbrella repairman. We had one in our town years ago
The town crier
Jester. In the olden times they used to be entertainers, housekeepers, comedians and yardsmen to kings and nobles. They had to empty the toilets and entertain the king while he took a dump.
I feel like the Air Force soldiers are made fun of because 'their work isn't holding a gun on the ground,' and feel like they only ever do work when there's a war and they need to fly planes. This is absolute bulls***t. More air force soldiers work with the space division, control satellites, do mapping, fly planes (yes) but not just during a war. They safely transport important politicians to necessary meetings. Their lives are high risk out there too. They are not to be demonetized just because they aren't out on the fields holding a gun. In fact, they do that kind of training too in case their plane gets shot on and they survive.
Military pilots being less respected than infantry soldiers? In which country?
Policeman in Germany... Used to be highly respected and popular among people. No the situation is different. Police forces had and still have problems with too many old officers retiring and not enough young people starting to work that profession. So they decided to lower "job entry requirements" which leads to complete idiots joining police academy
The real problem is that our government bashes the police force when- and wherever they can. The criminals are often better protected than the cops. If they control or arrest the wrong person they get called Nazis, when they get beaten up by the Antifa they are the ones that provoked them... guess why nobody wants to do that job anymore
Bard
Court jesters . You know, like all the people that were in trump’s administration.
Mail man.
To clarify I was a mail man for a bit and liked the job sometimes but all the old timers used to tell me the job isn’t what it used to be. Used to have to take a standardized test to get in for one. Also the increase in e-commerce made delivering all the mail in a reasonable time in our office an impossible task.
Newspaper Journalists
With the death of print media, Journalism has died as well. Ultimately it has also killed the attention span as well.
Elected official
Door to door salesman — just not a thing anymore for safety and practical reasons
Soldier, police officer. I became a soldier but I can remember when I was a kid how all I wanted was to be a bike cop. That changed ricky f**kin tick quick.
I think all trades at some point have a hey day. But once they hit the headlines for being well paid and the market gets flooded by people jumping on the bandwagon. This then leads to companies being able to recruit people for less. The IT industry is a classic example. People are now doing the job of 4 people for less than the wages one person earnt 30 years ago. Add to that there has been a massive decrease in loyalty from companies towards employees which gets returned in like.
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.
