24 Jobs That People Once Respected But Realized Are Done By Awful People
Article created by: Mantas KaÄŤerauskas
According to a 2023 Ipsos survey of 22,816 people from 31 countries, doctors are the top trusted profession (58%), followed by scientists (57%), and teachers (53%).
At the very end of the list, we have journalists (24%), business leaders (24%), advertising executives (18%), government ministers (17%), and general politicians (13%).
Reddit user OnAFalseErrand wanted to know which of the latter were long in the making, so they asked everyone on the platform to share the occupations they once had a lot of respect for but ultimately lost every ounce. Below are the replies that generated the most buzz in the discussion.
Not sure respect is the right word but I always thought HR were “for the workers” I work in Management now and 100% know HR are not your friend, do not go to them thinking they are ever!
Got the HR community after me!! All I said was when I was on the tools I was under the impression that they were there for the workers and were the go to for independent help guys when they are absolutely not and you shouldn’t ever go to them under those pretences!!
The BBC management. They’ve fought a mate of mine over ten years after a severe accident at work. They basically bankrupted him, destroyed his life, and hired experts to discredit him in court. After a decade, he won the case, but those who dragged him over the coals for years continue to have successful careers and just saw him as a game, a toy to be played with, with hundreds of millions available to outspend his lawyers. The BBC top brass are pretty sick in the head – they could have just admitted liability and paid up years ago, but no one would.
Lawyers. I studied law and did so many work experiences to see what area of law I wanted to get into. Every single lawyer I met (save for a few posh white men) was a glorified administrator. 99% of the job is soooooo menial. It’s really a profession where success is determined by your socio-economic profile and connections, not actual talent. Boring.
Car mechanics.
I worked in the field for 40 years, and there were always bad actors, but the norm was that something would be diagnosed and repaired as needed, and you tried to keep the bill down and respect the customer and the car. The normal markup on parts was 40% for ages. Now it’s fairly normal for shops to just replace everything that might cause a problem (instead of diagnosing it), and markups are almost always over 100%. Customers get a $2,000 estimate for a small issue, with a shrug, “take it somewhere else if you want”.
The number of guys on the job who don’t know or care to know how to actually service things rather than just swapping new parts in is appalling.
Academia and anything based in universities. Since starting a PhD and being considered a staff member instead of student, the corruption and egos involved from a Dr to senior management makes a struggling industry toxic to work in. Can’t wait to finish and move on.
Not going to shock anyone as I don’t know if they ever had it, but Estate Agents. They straight up lie, they make negotiation more complex between seller/landlord and buyer/renter. They make an already stressful situation worse to deal with. I actually believe their jobs are now redundant in the modern age where the internet can do a better job of advertising and owners/landlords do a better job of showing you around.
Politicians have become (even more) spineless and all they’re doing is saving their jobs and securing income for themselves and family.
Journalists because they’ve stopped explaining who has expertise and a decade in the job and who has just done a google search. But they don’t they give equal importance under the guise of fairness. But that’s not fairness, that’s spreading misinformation.
Vets. I used to buy into the whole “we’re just covering our costs” with insane prices but since working alongside them a lot, they mark up emergencies surgeries based on availability of vets, not a percentage, to the point where when there aren’t alternatives, owners just have to go into crazy debt or put thier animals down. They also try and talk you into treatment and tests that aren’t necessary.
Disclaimer: not all are bad, like any profession.
Physio’s. I used to think they played a key role in injury recovery and were very knowledgeable about the human body but over time, and several sport related injuries, its become clear to me that a lot (not all) of them dont actually know a great deal and its not much more than i have learned through life experiences and reading up on injuries online.
I had one who was giving me exercises so light i dont think they took in to account i was a regular exerciser and gym goer before the injury and the exercises were far far too simple. I had another who regularly pulled out a little book that looked like it was ÂŁ5.99 from Amazon on leg exercises and another who i told repeatedly i had a back problem and they just focused on my knees for weeks and weeks (it was later proven to be a back problem).
Im sure theres some very good ones out there but im yet to encounter them.
Midwives. I work in a hospital and I’ve been unfortunate to work at a very high level for a while a few years back. The midwives were the most vile, abusive and toxic cohort. Totally delusional. Thinking they’re better, more important and special. I copped more abuse off them than the rest of the hospital put together. Recently (in a different role) I had the misfortune to have to go to their ward to review a patient. I got interrogated about who I am and why I’m there 7 times on my first visit and 11 times on my second visit. Yes I kept a tally. They were aggressive, argumentative and generally bullies.
I got a very irate phone call from their discharge planner about my patient demanding I create the patients discharge plan then getting angry when I didn’t know what she was on about. The discharge planner had not spoken to the patient about what and how they wanted to discharge. I suggested the midwife have a discussion with the patient rather than me and reminded her of putting the patient at the centre of her care.
I’m torn about writing this as I am friends with a couple of midwives and they’re great. But they seem to be the few and far between.
Independent Financial Advisors are an absolute joke. I work in pensions and some of the questions they ask me are shocking, some even ask me to explain basic maths to them. They shouldn’t be giving financial advice to anyone, and the advice they end up giving to their clients is always “we’ve evaluated your portfolio and recommend you invest your funds with us”.
Builders. I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with them. One stole a lot of money from me and I’ve had to fight them in court for it back. They won’t get into trouble or pay interest on what they owe because these kind of people get away with stealing… but if a member of the public went into a shop and stole something, there would be hell to pay.
For me, dentists.
Growing up, dentists were people who stopped you eating sweets, but actually cared about your health.
But as an adult, they just seem money hungry, as they seem to find issues where you’ve never had them before. FiancĂ© was told they needed 12 fillings (2 pretty big ones, the rest small ones), and went to a different dentist to have them done (as they are anxious about dentists, so needed a specialist). The dentist looked at their mouth and said “You don’t need any fillings, no idea why your dentist said you needed any”.
This happened a week after the same dentist gave me a filling on a chipped tooth… Which just over a month later abscessed, and I find out the dentist was fired from the practice. So him alone completely turned my view of dentists on its head… And my current dentist seeming to always have something extra to charge me extra for…
Controversially, builders/laborers.
They seem to come in 2 distinct categories.
Reliable cowboys, or unreliable craftsmen.
You either seem to get a bunch of workers who turn up do the “work” quoted and leave, but when you find out all of the corners that were cut you end up having to foot the bill for repairs as they won’t ever return.
Then you get the ones with great repertoires, good reviews and generally coming in at a higher price point. You know you’re going to get good results from them. The problem is *if* they turn up. Take “I’ll be there at 10am Tuesday” with a large pinch of salt. They will also prioritise jobs on value. My friend had put ÂŁ2k down on a new kitchen worth ÂŁ10k, agreed on a start date. Start date came, nobody turned up. When he rang to see what was happening they said they needed to push it back a month. When down on the high street of the village he lives in, the contractors vans (small company, only have 2) were both parked outside a restaurant that had recently closed for renovation. He called and asked what it was about, they said that the bigger job had to take priority.
They’re a group of people that I wouldn’t trust as far as I could throw them.
CPS
I did jury duty earlier this year and their case collapsed on the first morning when it became very apparent that the alleged crime didn’t happen. The defendant did have previous for something similar and it seemed like the police just wanted this guy off the street and the CPS blindly went along with it. It’s a joke when the jury is the one getting warned about not talking about the trial because it collapsing would be massive waste of court and lawyer time and money. Rules seemingly don’t apply to the CPS.
