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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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#2
Teaching. They get completely s**t on by the kids and the parents.
DUN DUN (she/her) 2 years ago
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 :(
#3
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 :)
#4
Farmers. Agriculture used to be something everyone had to do. Now people don't give a second thought about where there food comes from.
#5
In these current times, apparently a scientist.
Hawkmoon 2 years ago
There are too many scientists. On my Facebook wall alone, I have dozens of virologists, who have also just become specialists in wars and geopolitics.
Tee Witt 2 years ago
I am a scientist, I know I do not understand politics well enough to make strong arguments but I do know wars are Wrong.
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ZAPanda 2 years ago
Guys here's an interesting exercise. Read novels from the early 20th century and late 19th. Often the hero is a scientist. Then read novels or watch movies from later times. The hero is an average joe or an action man. Case in point. War of the worlds. The hero: originally a scientist. The 2005 version? Average joe is the hero. America fundamentally has become anti-science. In fact, since the whole Scopes trial.
Tamra Stiffler 2 years ago
And Republican lawmakers are trying to ban the teaching of evolution in some states, so as not to contradict christian beliefs. Mind-boggling.
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Otter 2 years ago
Scientists used to be well paid and have secure jobs, that's what's changed! Now you have people like Mayim Bialyk leaving science for acting because she needed medical insurance for her family, and the guy in my nursing school who left "the uncertain income" of a research science to be a nurse anesthetist. Too many scientists are treated like temp workers these days, constantly looking for the next paying gig and wondering how they'll ever get benefits.
Oopsydaisy 2 years ago
When acting is a more secure and better paid job than science, it is indeed a strange world.
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Paul Davis 2 years ago
Anyone who can think objectively and do math is the natural enemy of the Trump supporter and most Republican politicians, who rely heavily on public ignorance and stupidity to allow them to continue to rob everyone. So they viciously attack teachers, librarians, nurses, doctors, engineers, scientists, and anyone else with learning.
Vix 2 years ago
Yep, my shop floor colleague KNOWS FOR A FACT that Covid 'isn't real and is made up by terrorists' , telling a group of us this and one lad lost his Grandma along with 11 others in the Care Home due to Covid.
Auntriarch 2 years ago
I really don't know how I have managed to get through the last couple of years without punching anyone in the snoot
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Droopsnoot 2 years ago
Back then, scientist was more than just someone with a degree. If you finished university, you're not immediately immune to sprouting b******t
Christopher Duffy 2 years ago
Its the same now. No-one can claim to be a scientist simply for having a degree in a STEM subject. Its a professional position that involves conducting research, publishing findings, training other researchers and having proven impact. I think the problem is that the general public dont really understand what science is and what scientists actually do. The ethical scrutiny we are under is enormous, our pay is typically low (in exchange for a very rewarding and flexible job) and we are our own harshest critics (because publishing something and then being told you've made an elementary error is mortifying).
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Philly Bob Squires 2 years ago (edited)
Ask the dear leader who knows more about science than any scientist that ever lived, and more about medicine than any doctor that ever lived... OH and more about war than any general who ever lived and more about weather than any meteorologist that ever lived and more about business than any businessman who ever lived... ad nauseam. The biggliest, the bestest and he never fails or loses. Always the best... just ask him!
September 2 years ago
All the scientists will eventually move to Mars, where they will be invaluable and very appreciated. Leave Earth to the religious nuts killing each other over their gods and dying of disease and climate change effects that they don't believe exist.
Moneythink 2 years ago
Scientists have largely been co-opted by corporate interests, which do not favor human interests. Those who have resisted this trend get ostracised.
Leslie Burleson 2 years ago
Scientists know that the "facts" of science often change . A good scientist never considers the science settled
Mistiekim 2 years ago
Umm - I’m confused by what you are referring to here. A fact is a fact. There are scientific principles that have been established, and ideas are built upon them. Technology advances and the science advances. The technology for bacterial IDs has advanced to the molecular level, but that wouldn’t be possible without basic science first.
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Carla Woods 2 years ago
Still don’t know how a piece of cloth is supposed to stop the “deadliest” virus in the world. 😒
Chava Bahle 2 years ago
Check out Thomas M. Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters
Daniel Marsh 2 years ago
Scientists are still respected. The controversy is over whether bureaucrats can expect fanatical worship and totalitarian control over the entire nation by insisting people obey by "following the science." Science does not lead. Science does not demand censorship, or an end to skepticism. Science lives on skepticism.
Tamra Stiffler 2 years ago (edited)
Science also educates and enlightens. If science tells me that a vaccine will keep me alive in the face of a pandemic illness, and can help keep my community healthier and safe, then I listen to the science. That seems like logic and reason, as opposed to "fanatical worship". I guess that's where the divide is, between some people.
Load More Replies... Chuck daniels 2 years ago
I respect any scientist that backs up their claims with presentable facts and data. If they just make mouth claims, ignore them.
Pamela Blue 2 years ago
Of course! Everyone has become a PhD in Google (or a Masters in Facebook - take your pick)
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#6
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.
#7
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.
#8
Police, you would have to be crazy to join the force right now.
Al Christensen 2 years ago
And the crazy people are joining, which is why police are disrespected.
#9
Priest for obvious reasons
Dre Mosley 2 years ago
They(the Catholic Church)did it to themselves by sweeping things under the rug and paying hush money for decades.
#10
My aunt crushed it as a travel agent in the '80s/'90s. The internet totally blindsided her
Janice Hazeldine 2 years ago
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.
#11
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.
#12
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.
Braineating Spleen 2 years ago
Tucker Carlson is the the embodiment of what wrong with the news
#13
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.
Bexx 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 2 years ago (edited)
I emailed my HR lady last week. I know she’s insanely busy but I got no reply, so I asked her if she received it. She said, very irritably: “oh, no, we never read your emails.” 🙃 not sure why I deserve that cause I only email them like 3 times a year about tiny routine things that I’m required to do. I unfortunately told her to her face “weird flex but okay” and she didn’t like that 😂 (pray for me)
#14
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.
#15
No professions seem to be respected these days. Respect went away roughly 10-15 years ago.
#16
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.
#17
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.
#18
Air hostess- Once the symbol of glamor now its like a joke
#19
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.
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
They were called spinsters because they worked spinning wool, if anyone's confused.
#21
I wanted to say politician but they have always been hated the more I think about it
Droopsnoot 2 years ago
Do royals count? They were once honorable leaders, now either dictators or useless fools
#22
President of russia
Raven Sheridan 2 years ago
There's a difference between being respected and towing the company line, for fear of being shot. 🤔
#23
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!
ChimeraBubbles 2 years ago
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.
#24
Musicians that played dynamite saxophone solos in rock and roll songs.
#25
Elevator attendants. Once revered engineers capable of lifting humans hundreds of feet in the air. Now a comedic relic of a by gone era.
Janice Hazeldine 2 years ago
This is the only one on the list that actually fits the descriptoin of this list.
#27
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”
#28
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
Samantha Lomb 2 years ago
Or people who think google is a capable translator and just want you to tweak what google shat out a little for pennies.
#29
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...
#30
Alchemist
What do you think ?
Paola Martz 2 years ago
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" 🙃
ZAPanda 2 years ago
They forgot to say: stockbrokers (aka gamblers), and bankers (aka robbers).
Chuck daniels 2 years ago
I've seen alot of posts where you s**t on anyone who made smart life choices.
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Mindy Smith 2 years ago
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!
Péter Rózsahegyi 2 years ago
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.
Big Blue Cat 2 years ago
Many professions left out. I'll just add a doctor, because everybody seems to be a self-taught internet doctor nowadays.
Avtar Chauhan 2 years ago
Avtar Chauhan:- The TV Newscaster of any international channel! I strongly recommend the status & qualitative public standing.
Pezor Zass 2 years ago
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.
Paola Martz 2 years ago
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" 🙃
ZAPanda 2 years ago
They forgot to say: stockbrokers (aka gamblers), and bankers (aka robbers).
Chuck daniels 2 years ago
I've seen alot of posts where you s**t on anyone who made smart life choices.
Load More Replies... Mindy Smith 2 years ago
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!
Péter Rózsahegyi 2 years ago
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.
Big Blue Cat 2 years ago
Many professions left out. I'll just add a doctor, because everybody seems to be a self-taught internet doctor nowadays.
Avtar Chauhan 2 years ago
Avtar Chauhan:- The TV Newscaster of any international channel! I strongly recommend the status & qualitative public standing.
Pezor Zass 2 years ago
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.
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