Inspired by this question here that asks is being a police officer a thankless job. I said no to that and gave my own more deserving choices. What do YOU think are the most underappreciated professions in society?
To me, being a teacher is the most thankless job around. Teachers also get paid far less than cops do and put up with more sh*t; from both students and entitled AF lazy parents. (In full disclosure, I AM a teacher, but I've always felt this way. I teach in South Korea because American teachers are treated too much like sh*t and paid too poorly, and I didn't want to go through that.)TEACHERSFARMERSDEFENSE ATTORNEYSDOCTORSMY ORIGINAL POST:
"While cops MAY be able to save people's lives (although I think that's rare), I'd consider the most thankless job in both America and the world, is being a teacher. And yes, I am a teacher, but this isn't about me. I've always felt this way. Teachers are among the most thankless professions I can think of. Then at number two would be farmers. I appreciate the HELL out of farmers, cause I grew up too poor to eat, at certain times. I like food! Third would be doctors, who don't get enough credit for what the do. Fourth would be defense attorneys, especially good ones who keep innocent men and women out of prison. Cops wouldn't even be in my top ten."
Updates
+1 y
You guys have convinced me to add delivery people, postal workers, and sanitation/sewage workers to my own list. I guess where I'm from, a lot of sanitation workers were just assholes and only picked up your trash "if they felt like it that week."
What do YOU think are the most underappreciated professions in society?
I thought of traditional farmers before I saw the rest of your post. Beyond being super labor intensive, farmers need to be businessmen, and they need a high degree of knowledge in a variety of things. Plus, they are under extreme financial risk and pressure. The majority of people these days don't even have any idea where their food comes from.
I think anyone who performs hard, dangerous labor is under appreciated. Being a traditional fishermen in a fishing boat is the most dangerous of all professions.
When I talk about farmers and fishermen, I want to be clear that I despise mega-agribusiness corporations and fleets of giant factory fishing ships.
I also agree that teachers are payed way to little and get way less credit and respect than they deserve.
A lot of cops are good people. But those who think of themselves as American heroes and whine about being underappreciated are little bitches. They get really good salaries and amazing perks for the amount of education and training they go through. Plus, too many of them get away with criminal behavior and, even if caught, they get top-notch defense from their unions and police benevolent associations. And the legal system is on their side. On top of that, the truly good cops wind up going nowhere while it's the ass holes who get promotions. Finally, almost every cop will abuse innocent people if they are ordered to. And you're right, MCheetah, their jobs aren't even in the top 10 of most dangerous.
I've lost a lot of respect for doctors over the years. Many of them have become mere technicians who, instead of using their knowledge to assess patients, order expensive tests just to cover their asses against potential lawsuits. And they have basically become drug peddlers instead of health experts.
Sanitation workers. More of them suffer fatalities on the job than do both cops and firefighters. They work often in heavy traffic and with machinery that could probably crush just about anything. Moreover, they're often harmed by the things people carelessly put in their garbage bags-- hypodermic needles, broken glass, nails, etc. They also have to work with hazardous chemicals and materials. And it's godawful, back- breaking work, even with the hydraulic machinery they have. And if we think their job isn't important, imagine what a big city would look and smell like if nobody ever took away the garbage. Sanitation workers are really underappreciated.
I disagree with the teacher one. I think they are overly appreciated. At least in chicago and california they strike and stop working more often then not, demand to be paid far more then necessary (they make on average 61,700 a year for working nine months.) while refusing to actually teach then they brainwash children and teach them things that are provably false. I mean california has the highest paid teachers in the country and the crappiest school system. To be fair though, I think all of this is due to the teachers union which ruins everything (In chicago they strike like every year setting every one back but their performance is subpar so why the hell are they constantly demanding more (and again, most of the wealth goes to the union).
That said I would also disagree with the cop one, they put their lives at risk every day and people are constantly attacking them, if they so much as blink wrong they are accused of racism and lose their job (the police officer in georgia for instance, who had a black suspect violently attack him and his partner, steal a weapon (turned out to be a taser) then the guy shot it at him resulting in him open firing and the DA and the public all stated that the police officer, who performed CPR and first aid to the guy who just shot at him, was a racist murderer and they where trying to give him the death penalty. You don't get more unappreciated then that.).
I'd say farmers is also a good choice (you don't have a society without them.).
Also waste managment and plumbing. The single greatest thing to happen to society was plumbing, it combined with hand washing has saved hundreds of millions of lives and we take it for granted and even look down on it. Just from a convience factor its looked down on (having had to use latrines and such, I can say its not fun going to the bathroom in the middle of the night in winter outside.).
Service industry. You are respectful to your car mechanics, your respectful to your electricians who are all providing a service but how many people show the guy making their sandwich respect? They are the most mistreated given the circumstances. Because its unskilled work instead of seeing them as some one providing a service they are seen as a slave and are treated as such. Its insane really, you should treat people with respect because they are people, especially if they are the ones handling your food.
I can understand why you disagree, I suppose, but I disagree with the service industry one, especially waiters. That's like, one of the most useless jobs in society. And they get paid WAY more than they're qualified for, cause of the tipping culture in America. As far as the ones making your food; I think they are given proper respect. No one really talks bad about chefs or cooks and for what they do, they are paid justly.
Every job is useless except farming technically. You can survive without adminstrators, you can survive with out politicians, you can survive with out doctors (we did for tens of thousands of years), you can survive without teachers, archeologists, scientists etc. If we are basing on its utility everything is useless because we don't need it to survive. That said, lifes a lot better with all of those things then without them. As for cooks, no, not really. My cousin's husband was a chef, he was paid only slightly above minimum wage despite being at a big restraunt, and he had to work fifteen hour days. The only time you get paid well as a chef is once you become a big name and own your own restraunt, then your fine but otherwise your basically an indentured servant (a lot of people dont realize that. Its brutal.). I hear nothing but disrespect to service workes because many are unskilled jobs and as such they are treated like they are less then human (personal experience and personally witnessed it) and they are paid utter shit in most cases. Waiters get paid decent because of tips that is true, but waiters are the ONLY service worker that gets tips (and bartenders) every one else who works just as hard if not harder get absolutely nothing and that is including the cooks. Bartenders are probably the biggest exception being given the greatest amount of respect despite them not really doing all that much and they get paid an absurd amount of money (now that I'm thinking about it I should probably become a bartender it would pay more and I would get treated better).
Ah, so you work in food service? I've never met ANYONE who treats cooks and chefs badly. Even only a few people ever treat wait staff like they're 'the greatest thing ever for bringing food from point A to point B' and getting paid $20 an hour in tips for it (like I can't do that myself or would prefer to) because of the garbage tipping culture in the US, like I said. You're the only person I've ever heard say service people are treated badly. I think your experience on this comes from personal bias. That's my opinion, anyway.
I do agree that tipping is stupid, you pay for the meal, the owner is suppose to pay the workers (hold over from the great depression supposedly). I cook, I am not a chef, and we are treated like shit. You make shit, you work absurd hours (use to work sixty hour work weeks and still was struggling to make ends meet). Chefs don't get treated like shit per say, at least not by other people, its a shitty job because they are considered grunts until they make it on their own (its a weird thing I don't understand it but your basically the head chefs personal bitch for years making next to nothing but then when you finally break out it flips and your making absurd money. Problem is not every one is going to break out). Work in the industry and you will quickly realize you are the most disrepected group their is (not talking about waiters), your a servant nothing more.
Teachers came to mind yeah. They together with the parents have so much influence on us. Then the kind of kids that you see. One managed to break a perfectly good bench, not even an old one, clean in two, like wtf? Kids fainting, fights during the break everyday, chairs being thrown out the window. And you're like how do the teachers go through this everyday without losing their minds? Like have the parents abandoned them? Is the teacher the only parent figure they have?
"Is the teacher the only parent figure they have?"
In most cases, yeah. I live here in South Korea, where supposedly a lot of "traditional, conservative" values (by Western standards) are still a thing here, like importance to family and being Christian. But nope; a lot of parents are still just as shitty, lazy, and negligent as they are in the US. The type to have little monsters for kids because they don't raise them, but also be the first to complain when their kids don't do well on a test or get disciplined in class. Much of Korean life is just lip service and lies; a lot of them are just as lazy and awful at being parents or doing their jobs as Westerners. They just hide it better because the risk of being publicly shamed is greater. But they don't exactly try harder to be good parents or workers.
Teachers are doted upon like a mother's favorite son, so are doctors.
The only underappreciated workers are sanitation workers, delivery drivers/truckers and construction workers/linemen.
All of them have a really high fatality rate that put all other professions to shame, and no one sings their praises or gives them credit. In fact, although society would collapse without them, they are mostly looked down upon and basically thought of as dirty or low class. They also save and extend lives for real, not just take credit for it regardless if it is true.
I'd like to see how a doctor would survive in a world with no sewer, garbage collection or electricity.
Flight attending. They're always getting abused, physically and verbally. Do these dumb asses not know that they aren't just a waiter? Like they're fucking trained to save your life. But yeah go knock their teeth out when they tell you to remain seated.
If we consider that modern society gave birth to a plethora of not-working positions and some of those are ironically the ones making the better money, this question is long overdue. Anything strictly tied to any shade of actual professionalism come to mind, but the list's to long to enunciate here.
As an educator, I 1000% agree. Teachers are often overlooked and underpaid while being blamed for everything under the sun when it comes to teaching these children.
Teacher, farmer, child care workers, utility company workers, civil engineers, nurses and medical assistants, sanitation workers, plumbers, construction workers
Most Helpful Opinions