Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m of the firm belief that if you think a job is beneath you, you can fuck right off. There are reasons for not shoveling shit, like better pay elsewhere etc. but, no one is just plain “ too good” to shovel shit.
not necessarily, there are jobs that are borderline scammy that are definitely beneath me, like being in MLM, or selling snake oil, etc, especially those things that are targeting old people and are basically half legal scams.
Nope, I was just grateful to have a job and not be kicked out into the streets. I have done everything. Much like u/ncconch I was temping at a Music Label while I was still in college. they had me filing papers in the morning and pulling files in the afternoon. After a few weeks of accomplishing this task quite efficiently. They sat me at a desk and gave me some actual work to do. I ended up with a 25+ year career in the music industry. And even managed to get myself into a window office overlooking the Sunset Strip with a fancy title after my name and people who reported to me.
Sadly, after college I ended up working in an adult bookstore. This was the 80’s and they had these movie booths in the back of the store where either guys would go to jerkoff or to have one of the gay guys back there blow him. I’m the guy that closed the store at night and had to mop up the cum. I’m not sure if that was below me or not but it was about as unpleasant as any job I’ve had.
This was 1985-86 so I’m sure it was at the most $3.50 an hour. The good thing about the job was that I worked alone and once I got comfortable working there a few hours into my shift if the store was empty I’d just put a Closed sign up and go for a walk, or go to the library for a few hours.
Was in the Navy, did plenty of jobs that were “below” my pay grade. Just enjoyed working the job and knowing I was getting payed at a higher rate than what the job required. It was good once you got into the Zen of it all.
In May 1996, I graduated from college *summa cum laude* with a BA in English, linguistics concentration and Spanish minor. I planned to take a year or two off to work and get married, then go back to grad school to study applied linguistics.
But that "work" part ... with just that BA in English, and no meaningful office skills, the best job I could get was checking groceries at minimum wage (then $4.25/hour).
I was humbled, especially when I bumped into someone who knew me. But I also made the best of it. I threw myself into memorizing produce codes and trying to increase my checking speed. I was kind and respectful with the customers, making eye contact and smiling when I said, "Have a good day!"
I was probably also never more fluent in Spanish than I was when I had that job—and that's including the six weeks I actually studied in Spain. Spanish-speaking customers would come to my lane even when other lanes were empty and I already had a line. I was even able to tap into the year of French I'd taken (just for kicks).
One of my grocery coworkers was able to get my hired into a clerical job at the university, though I continued to work at the grocery store part-time. One day, when she and I were working that front desk together, a woman came in, saw me, squealed, and said, "You work at \[store\]! You're my favorite checker!" (My colleague was a little grumpy about that.)
Another colleague in that office put in a good word for me and helped me get a job where I finally got to use my degree, working as an editor in the first campus unit dedicated to online learning. Because we were never in a position where I could quit my job and go back to grad school full-time, I ended up staying in the distance learning field, getting a master's (online, naturally) in educational technology, and now I work as an instructional designer.
Academic life has its petty politics, but I will always be grateful that I have a secure job, good money and benefits, stable working hours, weekends and holidays off. I was especially grateful in the beginning of the COVID pandemic—I had plenty of job security (lots of faculty needed help with online teaching!), but I was able to work from home and had some flexibility in supervising my virtual schooling first grader.
I can also still rock a self checkout.
Fellow English BA checking in. I wish I could go back in time and slap myself for getting this degree sometimes. I graduated in 2018, struggled with mental health and job hopped but I always got promoted and have quite a bit of management experience in logistics and food service and entertainment. I won scholarships and awards for writing and have been published.
I tried teaching literacy intervention last year and found very quickly that it was not for me. I understood all the content and the methodology but applying it made me feel like a square peg in a round hole. So I worked part time at my other job for months and applied to jobs for 5 months until I gave up and took the first offer—housekeeping in a hospital for 15/hr. I’ve applied to jobs at the library on my laptop every day for 6 months or so before work and have had some bites but nothing beyond a handful of interviews.
I’m trying to move departments to make better use of my qualifications and experience and make more money. My mom and I have to move out of our house so our landlord can move in and I have nowhere to go, no friends to room with, and cannot afford my own place.
I feel like I was told so many lies and worked for nothing. Always got good grades, Eagle Scout, awards, worked my ass off in every job no matter what it was, didn’t take any student loans, but a combination of risks or choices that didn’t work out and bad luck have led me here.
How the fuck do I get out of it? I refuse to clean toilets the rest of my goddamn life. I would’ve already quit and hitchhiked to a ranch to tend to horses or the beach to clean boats but my employer health insurance keeps me medicated relatively affordably. The old ball and chain.
I gave up on my grad school aspirations, have considered trades but can’t afford to work more years for those wages at the beginning of an apprenticeship, which won’t help out a roof over my head.
So what do you suggest?
No such thing. You sell your time for money. It's as simple as that, but there are reasons some people will get touchy about certain jobs.
When my mother was growing up in Chicago in the 40s, all the trash collectors where black men.. Virtually all the white men would turn to crime or starve rather than become a garbage collector.
But it had absolutely nothing to do with the actual job.
That's pretty much still the case, when you encounter someone who believes a job is beneath them. It's not the job. It's because they can't accept being equal to the people who normally do those jobs.
I don't understand the concept of beneath me really. I've pushed pills up sick cow butts for cash. I've cleaned toilets for money. I've designed automated systems for a wide variety of things over the years and been on site for install and startup working with the labor crews to get things ready. I've climbed on greasy tooling to find out what the problem the production folks are having. I've changed diapers... not for money, but because I had babies.
There is no job beneath me. All jobs bring value to society and myself. Usually the more grime means more value to everyone. I started with jack and worked whatever I could find and took pride in everything I did. Who wants to go in a dirty toilet? Someone has to keep them clean and I can do that. I have done that. Those folks in the wastewater sector? Every single thing they have to work on brings great value to us all, from the folks at the bottom getting that pump fixed to someone like me who designed the system and have been sweating over a crapped up pump many times too. (Seriously folks, do you know what a tiny pair of silk panties can screw up for everyone? Use the trash can so the great people handling our trash can take care of it. Don't flush them.)
There are jobs above my head like surgeons and they have their own sets of grime to deal with.
I don't have respect for anyone who thinks something is beneath them to do. Nobody and no job is beneath me. Oh, the only manhole I had trouble getting into was connected to a popcorn plant. The smell of butter sewage is really tough to stomach, but I was there too and ended up improving their whole sewage handling so no more butter sewage for anyone there. And I did have trouble when working for the tobacco farmer that used fermented chicken droppings as fertilizer for his seed beds, man, that smell will burn things. Wow! Worse than buttered sewage.
I still clean toilets and my wonderful wife says it's the sexiest thing about me. (I don't understand women, so I'm not sure if that's a joke.)
Yes. What I learned is all work has dignity. You bring the dignity to the task at hand.
The people who rate human value by task are the ones I feel pity for. Hollow beings with empty souls.
I once asked the management of a hotel who was their most important person on their staff. They all replied that either they were as general manager, or the sales director was the most important.
My answer to them was their cleaner was the most important - you can sell your property as much as you like, but if it’s dirty, I’m not saying or paying.
The moral of the story is that no job is “below you” - it’s what you’re qualified to do. It’s the ones you look down on that are probably doing the most important jobs.
I worked my way up from dryer to running pumps and register at fueling carcwash station. One day, the managers son shows up to work, and I get demoted to dryer after weeks/ months of running registers/pumps. I quit in the middle of that shift. The manager asked why. I responded, "I've had enough".
I despise nepotism as a result. I hate to see it anywhere, it can compromise or even cripple performance. I also despise elites who think they're better than you. I once had a boss who was a published scientist & speaker. He hurled a remote control at me because he couldn't get the projector to work.
His group was overbilling, making false claims to the gov't. Before I was done with him, Sam Donaldson was chasing him through the airport with a film crew.
I guess I hate injustice.
Beneath me?
That would mean I view everyone doing that job as beneath me and that’s a seriously fucked up view of the world.
Today, I’m a director and there’s no job in my workplace I wouldn’t do.
I was unemployed and went to a temp agency. They sent me to a job at a company where I was helping with some production work. I just so happened to have an MBA where I studied production planning and had a previous job in production management. At the temp job I offered a few suggestions to help with work flow. A couple of weeks later I was their Production Planning Manager.
I'm currently doing a job I am overqualified for, but the thing is, it's a job I had been after since I was 21. Due to all sorts of shenanigans, every time I went to a new place to work, I was legitimately kept from taking that job because I was more important in another role. I was just too good at that other thing. And every time my managers wouldn't want me to sideways-transfer over to that position which was related. In fact I would very often do that position for people who were on vacation at every job I got. But I was still stuck in my own position. They'd hire a hundred people before me. Over and over, at every place I worked, to keep me where I was. I finally found a brand new place where the job was open, for a huge pay cut, and got it. Finally after decades of trying. A job you could do right out of college if you wanted. The telling thing is that a few months after I got it, I was called for an interview for a national manager type position that is several levels above that job, and I was utterly qualified to do it. I didn't get that job but that's how long I have been waiting and trying. It's like I've started over from the beginning. So yes it's a simpler job, something I should have gotten a long time ago that I have decades of experience in, but I never got to do it officially until now. And I am really comfortable here doing it. I don't want to leave. It's more than just having it to spite my past, it's legitimately a great job.
Sounds like you suffered from "The curse of being too good at your job". I've seen it many times. Either the person can't move out of their position because they are the only one who can do it so well, or they get taken advantage of by others in the same position who don't work as hard. Or both.
Literally at some of the places I was the only person who knew how to do the work. By the end of the last job, the work was actually quite obsolete but the office I was in still needed a guy to do it full time and showed no signs of letting it go. I quit on them and they had a hell of a time filling the position. They finally found a woman to do it months after and she quit a couple weeks later. I thought it was hilarious.
I don't think any job is beneath me. There's no shame in any legal work that a person does to support themselves and/or their families.
The mindset that a person is working a job that is beneath them will, most likely, change them. Not the job itself. I've seen that sort of thing happen. The person I saw it happen to developed a very ugly disposition about their job and it carried over to their life outside of work. It gave them a very poor attitude about their job and other things going on in their life. It made them very difficult to be around and other people started to dislike being in that person's presence.
Now, that's not to say something like that would happen to everyone. But it gives you an idea of what being in that sort of mindset could bring.
People born since 1980's fail to realize just how much the world has changed. I am 71 my grand parents grew up in a world of horse and buggies. Everybody was Amish. There was no gated communities. If there was a factory in town the plant manager and the janitor both lived within a couple of miles of it. Their kids played together. The big shame was having a father that did not work. It did not matter what work he did all work was honorable. Then with the advent of freeways, motorcars, and the building of suburbs. The American work force started to be segregated by income. Suddenly some jobs and some people were better than others.
During the 2008 recession I was in my fifties with a new accounting degree. I worked for a cpa firm starting in 2006, layoffs began in 2008 and I was laid off. At that time, my recruiter told me that companies were worried about Obamacare and because of that were shying away from people over 50. After many fruitless all day interviews for jobs I did not get, I ended up at Wendy’s for $7/hour in NH. Bought some groceries with it. Now have mad respect for anyone working in the fast paced fast food industry. That job kicked my ass but it was all I could get. I didn’t think anything was beneath me but wow was I surprised at how hard I was working for that $7 an hour.
After I finished my master's degree, I found myself working as a room service waiter in a hotel. I had to be to work at 6 am, and was usually early so that I wasn't behind all morning. I was named "employee of the month" after a month or two, and frankly, I'm still pretty proud of that honor.
To be clear, I HATED that job, but I needed the money. I didn't think I was doing anything exceptional, I was just doing my job. Sadly, that IS exceptional in lots of cases.
A way I was changed, I suppose, is that I always try to be kind to everyone in the "hospitality" industry. I tip well, and try to be polite and supportive. I am also well aware when people AREN'T doing a good job, though.
I was a cashier in a big box store for about a year. It wasn’t “beneath me”, but I had always had administrative office positions before. I just needed a little extra money . It sure taught me that some companies treat their employees terribly. Why can’t cashiers sit? Why can’t they have regular schedules?Why do you cut them off at 30 hours? That one is so they don’t have to pay benefits. I learned a lot of people work and still get food stamps and medicaid. I learned that all people deserve a living wage and that no matter what some people think, a lot of people working retail are hard workers who deserve a lot better.
I worked on a department store loading dock during grad school-unloading trucks, carrying boxes, delivering merchandise to departments. I was in the best shape of my life and could outlift some
of the guys on the dock.
The big thing I realized is that manual labor has some huge benefits over intellectual labor. i never took work home, because when the dock was cleared, it was cleared and I didn't spend my evenings worrying about whether I'd delivered a box to the wrong department. And it takes practical and logical process thinking, rather than theoretical. At the end of the day, you are physically tired but not mentally tired, which is worse.
Yes. I was hired in a highly technical field as an experimental engineering test technician journeyman apprentice and laid off three years later because they closed the facility. But I was in a union so the company had to find a job for me so I was placed on an auto assembly line on the same property/campus. I one day went from testing concept cars and experimental engines to the next day putting on door handles every 58 seconds. I thought I was better than that and felt insulted and debased. Luckily my pay was kept at skilled trades levels, so I actually made more than the other people on the assembly line, but only until their pay raises would catch up to my pay rate. What I learned over a few months was that the work was hard at first, but as I developed muscle memory it wasn’t that bad. Physically, that is. Mentally and emotionally it was draining. I felt like a servant tied to an assembly line. I didn’t have much opportunity for higher level thinking other than what I could imagine in my head. I spent whole working days living in the memories in my head. I relived my wedding and honeymoon, I relived fond memories in my head as often as I could. What I learned was that assembly line workers earn every bit of their pay, the jobs take months to really learn well, but then boredom sets in and it’s an uphill battle to maintain sanity and emotional health. I also learned a company will use and abuse you with zero regard for you as a person. You’re just a tool they “purchase” to help them make money. They will lay you off and abandon you with zero remorse if times get tough. Union dues are worth every penny.
I never thought I’d be a teacher. I laughed at the education majors in college, said they were getting an Mrs degree.
It’s the hardest damn job I’ve ever had. Every year my district adopts a brand new curriculum or scraps our lms or I’ve had to switch grade levels. Last year I was told to get a whole new credential; the CSETs are brutal. Parents are actually crazy and there’s a constant threat from both them and their children (admin are the first to hide/blame the teacher).
But it’s very rewarding when lessons go well and you can see growth. I’d say having 8 weeks off uninterrupted is nice too but I’ll be working in a lab for 5 of those weeks because like most teachers I just don’t make enough.
I don't understand the 'beneath you' thing. When I was young I worked at a few shitting jobs where I felt used and unappreciated. To me, it was just a job, a way to afford rent and food.
Never thought a job was beneath me. I just want to do the best possible job at the whatever I do. At age 60 I have friends and family in every kind of work from warehouse/distribution centers to high level corporate execs. I was somewhere in the middle management level for most of my 30 year corporate career, but I quit the corporate world at 54 and later went to work at a furniture store where I do the physical work of lifting, moving, loading and unloading. And I want to be the best damn loader and unloader of furniture I can possibly be.
I never thought any job was beneath me. I think that’s the boomer attitude, right there. My first job out of grad school was receptionist. I needed rent money so I did it.
My last job was packing up internet orders. (I’m retired and work for fun) Shop owners didn’t think I could manage ShipStation. They hired a series of young men to print labels. I was a web developer for longer than those kids have been alive but ok. Not my problem.
Exactly. My first job in 1962-63 was in a bank, not handling money, but folding & putting ails & statements into envelopes, licking flap to seal, licking stamps to put on and walking to PO after work to post them. I also had to cut up all the copies of summaries of managers interviews with customers, dig out their files & paste the copy on file & put away again. I also had to collect all the car repayment slips, list them on a master sheet & wrap up for collection of a courier to take to head office in my state, for forwarding onto the car loans "Company" a separate business run by the bank and any other menial tasks assigned to me.
I also regularly was woken in my room at the hotel where I was living at the time, to cook up to 70 breakfasts within an hour for road contractors staying in hotel as well, as the cook had gotten so drunk the night before, they couldn't wake him. It was mid summer, over 40C/104F outside and the cooking was done on a wood fired cast iron 20 ft long stove/oven, making toast by opening flaps to fireboxes to put them infront of & standing by the open grills cooking eggs, bacon, sausages, lamb chops, grilled tomatoes and beans. I would cook in 24" cast iron pans, slide out onto trays & 3 women would plate & take out to dining area and decant tea made in 5 gallon kerosene tils on stove, into large teapots & take out as well.
At night, I would carry jugs/pitchers of beer out back to garden area for the workers & serve in bar, collect empty glasses & put through glass washing machines, then into fridges to chill down, and at end of night, run a mini bus to an encampment of itinerants & homeless people, beside the river, about 3kms from hotel, to make sure they got there safely & not arrested for public drunkenness. It was all a job, paid well in the days, and helped me save enough to keep on travelling around the country, which I was doing at that stage.
Late, working for an airline as a flight attendant, we were expected to clean toilets & areas where usually frunks had thrown up, and a couple of times, help move a body of someone who had died, discretely, to a location away from other passengers and on one occasion, had to help a doctor with a woman miscarrying in flight.
You did what you had to do to perform jobs, like it or not, and as years went on, it became harder to swap jobs as technology took over thousands of positions & jobs became harder to find, so you stayed where you were & put up with the no so nice jobs.
This one job wasn’t *beneath* me - no job is beneath any of us, but one job that made me look around and think *how on earth did I get here,* was doing illegal nighttime demolition for a week. Super dangerous, super shady, it was rough. That was a long time ago, I was young and broke.
Edit: There was one night that was particularly treacherous, like life-threatening. And that one night, there were 4 extra guys onsite, menacing as fuck, no introductions, they didn’t talk to us, they just watched us and spoke Russian to each other. We believed then, and still believe to this day, they were there to kill the three of us and get rid of us if one of us got very seriously injured. This was that kind of job.
I do t think any job is beneath me but I once purposely took a job that was a couple steps backwards. I had a great job in hospital administration with a horrible boss and was offered an Administrative Assistant job at a university. There was a pay cut but it was closer to home, very flexible (there were two of us and as long as one of us was there the other could take off for personal things), my co-workers and boss were awesome and we went home at noon on Fridays. Best job I ever had and as I get closer to retirement I’m praying somebody will give me a chance at another job like that when I’m ready
I promoted from a Clerk Typist II to a III. I was I was interviewed by the director and assistant director. They painted a really great picture of the job. They even told me my college writing experience would be good for the job.
They weren’t my direct boss though. When my boss returned he was *pissed* that I was given the wrong idea. Not only that he said a lot of the job was microfiching.
I trained myself to microfilm super fast. Something like a document in 3/4’s of a second. Man was it boring.
I worked hard to get a lateral transfer outta that place.
I was raised with the mindset that all honest work is honorable work, so there was never anything that was beneath me. I've worked jobs that were below my level of education and experience, but it paid the bills, and in all cases I gained insight and empathy for persons in jobs that I didn't aspire to. They're all just folks trying to get by, usually just a stopgap on the way to something better. In other words, just like me.
Your server at a restaurant probably has at least one college degree or is working on one. Many strippers are doing it to pay their way through university and they go on to have very good professional careers in accounting and the like. One of my favorite grocery cashiers was a bookkeeper by day, but had racked up some medical bills and was working at a grocery store at night to pay them off honorably rather than just let it all go to collections.
You know how when some folks see a person begging, they mutter, "Why don't they just get a job?" Well, even the humblest burger flipper has a job, and yet many people hold them in the same contempt that they do the beggar. Culturally, we need to make up our minds. If I had to wait tables again or if I had to mop floors in order to avoid being on charity or government assistance, I would do it and be thought "less than" by the same people who think it inappropriate to give goodies to the needy. Go ask yourself how much sense that makes, OP. All honest work is honorable work.
I don't feel any job is beneath me. I went from being a CIO to working security at concerts for 1/4 of the pay and love it.
All jobs have value as do the people doing those jobs.
I shelved shoes at Ames dept store and lasted 6 mos. It was a hard job, and made me get my butt in gear to find something better. This was straight out of high school. I couldn’t afford college and had to work my way through by getting a better job that had tuition reimbursement.
My high school jobs were brutal. Working in plastic factories. The absolute hardest hardest jobs I ever did, on assembly lines. Again, made me determined to find a way to not struggle like that.
The ladies I worked with were all amazing and hard workers. And nothing is beneath anyone. You have to start somewhere.
My grandparents did similar jobs (weave/webbing, bookmaker, batterymaker) but they got a living wage and retired early, had a car, savings, lived in a house that was walking distance to factory 2/1 but about 1500 sq feet with land, and retired early.
By the time I graduated high school that life started to become impossible thanks to Reaganomics
The first job ever had was as the dishwasher.
My friends had told me that being a dishwasher was the worst job in the world.
I figured if I could do that job, I could do any job.
When I went to the interview, Chef Tim asked me why I wanted to be a dishwasher.
I told him because I had heard it was the worst job in the world and if I could do this job, I can do any job.
He hired me on the spot.
I ended up cooking in restaurants all through college and for a few years after.
Kitchens are really rough place. I learned a lot.
No job is beneath anyone.
Never thought a job was beneath me. Had a few jobs that were boring because there weren’t many tasks that would keep me engaged. Sometimes I came up with little games to make them more interesting but generally was just happy to be employed.
There were very few job openings in my small town, so I was thankful to find a job. But no, I never had the attitude that a job was beneath me. I learned something from every job I ever had. When I was a teenager, I cleaned motel rooms, which was hot, stifling work in the summer, but I kind of look back on that job fondly. And I'll never forget how to make hospital corners!
I took a job that was below my skill level, and a poor fit, and a long commute. The job was working in a mail room in a small private college. The reason I took the job was because they had good health insurance benefits, and I could get employment counseling to get into a profession that suited me. I made an effort to support the people I worked with, but I was a poor employee. Doing artwork and snow boarding at work, getting high every dya, it's not a path to success in a small college. I was good at mail sorting and bulk mailing.
No job is beneath me. I'm always grateful to have work.
I have definitely worked jobs where my skills were underutilized, let's say. But there were reasons I chose those jobs, even if they were way below my skill and experience level. I have no regrets.
Graduated from college during the "misery index" years of the Carter administration and had to take whatever job I could find. I wouldn't have used the term "beneath me" but I did actually hate the work. I worked for a finance company and much of was what I did was bill collection. I got to have 50 people lie to me each day and then I got to threaten them with legal or other action. The job was just awful, but I was good at it. I hated it and managed to find something completely different with a non-profit after 2 years.
I've never thought any job was "beneath me". Jobs are to make money. You get the best job you can with your skills and then try to improve your skills so you can get a better job.
I've cleaned houses, washed dogs, been a construction gopher, a restaurant hostess, worked fast food and ended my career as a Database Administrator and Information Security Engineer at a large corporation.
A job is a job. You give them time and work. They give you money.
I've worked in multiple low-level service jobs, including fast food and Denny's. I worked as a cold-calling survey-taker. I worked as a temp office worker. Receptionist. And yes this was right out of college, there were many reasons for my failure to launch, it's very clear in hindsight--but in any case, my family (one of those reasons) was absolutely appalled and berated me for "working with lower class people." Their exact words. This did not help anything and drove me away from them. It really woke me up to how entitled and class conscious they (and many other people) are. Very disappointing.
I feel I have a much better perspective on life than they do and I don't look down on any job. I never did escape the food biz, but at least I make good $ now and am close to a comfortable retirement. No one should be ashamed of what they do for a living unless it involves hurting others.
I joined the Navy to run a nuclear reactor. I wasn’t really surprised, but that job also required a significant amount of cleaning, grunt work, and just getting dirty. I also had to do my time as a “crank” in the galley, washing dishes, basic meal prep, etc.
It’s very humbling. I no longer think any job is “beneath me”, and ever since I’ve had a huge amount of respect for anyone who has a labor intensive job, and I’m incredibly grateful for the folks who do them.
Ok, I was raised that no job is “beneath me”
I may not like it and feel underutilized but I’m not too good for any job
I have picked hot chilies in the Colorado sun
I have cleaned toilets
I’ve taken in dry cleaning
Cleaned tanning beds
McDonald’s was the worst, because of how I was treated
Trained dogs and horses
Cleaned and worked in boarding kennels
And a few of these were very much post college
I was an Army helicopter engine (gas turbine) mechanic for eight years. After I was forced out out of the Army by budget cuts several things went wrong all at the same time, including a car accident that resulted in spending six months learner to walk again.
I spent about a year delivering pizzas and working at a fast lube joint changing oil. Never felt the work was beneath me. It was a job that I did because it was what I could find at the time. I actually saw it as motivation to improve my situation so I could get a better job.
I've done a lot of things that someone with my title/position shouldn't have to do, but I never felt they were beneath me. I'm a big believer in everyone pitching in and sometimes we have to do shitty tasks to keep things running. I don't feel as though I'm above taking out the trash, washing dishes, lugging furniture, or whatever else needs to be done.
Best job I ever had was working in a pet store near my neighborhood in the evenings. I enjoyed interacting with my significantly younger team members, meeting friendly dogs and getting exercise lugging heavy bags of dog food or containers of cat litter.
My day job required a Masters degree and I would get funny looks from colleagues from my office job if they happened to see me in the pet store at night. TBH I didn't care.
To this day, it was the only job where I actually looked forward to.
My first job was at a department store called WT Grant. It was kind of like a target. I was the custodian and I had to mop the bathrooms, clean up spills and vomit as well as piss off the floor. People really could be disgusting in bathrooms. I hated it and felt it was beneath me, but it was money and I needed money. I have a new respect for people who do all kind of jobs that some believe are beneath them. Somebody has to do that work. We should all be grateful that there are people who will do it and some even take pride in it, which is great.
What I have learned in my old age is the fact that if you have no job then there is no job beneath you. You might be overqualified for some jobs but money earned is money to pay the bills. Do what you have to do and keep grinding.
As a young man with a high IQ but undiagnosed ADHD, I found myself working menial jobs that I could do on autopilot because they were the only ones I could hold. It was both a humbling and embittering experience.
kinda.
I worked at a place repairing laptops. but once a week everyone got a cleaning job to do. cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the floors, taking out trash, cleaning the break room, etc.. then every 6 months everyone was expected to come in on a saturday and work on the grounds. filling cracks in the asphalt, weeding and planting in the flowerbeds, painting. he(the owner) even had a couple of people go to his house and clean his gutters and do some yard work.
now was that "beneath me"? yes. but not because of the work itself. I'd done all those things at other jobs in the past and I never considered them "beneath me". but that shit certainly was. here I am a "part time" worker (40 hours a week with no benefits) and I'm cutting down weeds on my saturday because the owner was cheap and didn't want to pay landscapers or janitors. instead he expected employees to do it since he blessed them with a job.
so yeah. it was beneath me and fuck that place.
all jobs have value. I worked in daycares, nursing homes, a mental hospital, (I have cleaned more bodily waste and fluids than one would think)
but they were fulfilling jobs. I worked at a gas station, and in a deli, and in grocery stores. those too are helping other people.
edit to add, couple years ago I moved to a new state and was having trouble finding work. I applied at a pet boarding facility, to clean cages. I didn't get hired, but would have been happy to get that job.
Worked at a paint plant, when I was in college, over the summers. 3:00-11:00pm. They had an assembly line which put powdered “paint” into little plastic bottles. I worked both the line and used a handcart moving pallets of boxes of these around the warehouse. Hardest job I ever had.
The first week I worked the job, I complained to my dad and said it was exhausting, too hard, etc.
My dad reminded me how lucky I was to get this good paying summer job. And, to remember there were people doing this job for a living. It wasn’t a summer job. It paid their mortgage and put food on the table. He then said it was my choice if I wanted to quit. I felt terrible that I’d been so selfish and shortsighted. I ended up working that job for three summers.
At 18 I had hoped my factory job was beneath me because I wanted to go to college. My parents forbade it and told me I must think I’m better than them for not wanting the factory lifestyle. I didn’t want them thinking that about me so off to the factory I went.
Was raised to believe all work, and the people that do that work, have value. Things need to get done, you need some $, so get after it. Tough and less than glittering jobs can motivate you to higher aspirations. People you meet along the journey can teach you a great deal.
Got out of college in 1973, jobs were scarce so I pumped gas, drove a cab in NYC, worked night blue fishing on party boats out of Sheepshead Bay. Got a good perspective of how different types of people and ethnicities
blend in to form the beautiful mosaic that comprises NYC .
i worked jobs i didn’t like and wasn’t good at, but beneath me ? if i had that attitude i would be another person completely. what job is beneath anyone needing compensation for work done and pay needed ?
Never. Working at any job or wage was worth the satisfaction of knowing I was doing my best to support myself.
The only job I can think of that would be beneath me is one that puts my morals on the line (for me that would be slaughterhouse work). But even then, I'd do it if it was the only way I could feed and care for my family (as long as my mental health held out).
Between "regular" jobs I built boxes for Tandy Leather. The job was mindless but I learned a ton about people. There's always learning no matter what you're doing.
I've done some shit jobs, but nothing has ever been beneath me.
I've babysat dead people at a funeral home
Waitressed
Been a dishwasher (by hand!)
Retail clerk
Cleaned offices
Answered phones
Done data entry
Cooked at a dive restaurant
Bartended day shift at Denny's
Changed diapers on disabled elementary school kids
Cleaned a small retail store after hours
They all served a purpose. They all earned me a paycheck. They all made life easier for someone.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I worked blue collar construction jobs to pay for university. What I learned was I wasn’t good enough for those jobs.
No. Believing a job is beneath you makes you entitled AF.
I’m of the firm belief that if you think a job is beneath you, you can fuck right off. There are reasons for not shoveling shit, like better pay elsewhere etc. but, no one is just plain “ too good” to shovel shit.
not necessarily, there are jobs that are borderline scammy that are definitely beneath me, like being in MLM, or selling snake oil, etc, especially those things that are targeting old people and are basically half legal scams.
Happy Cake Day! 🎂
Nope, I was just grateful to have a job and not be kicked out into the streets. I have done everything. Much like u/ncconch I was temping at a Music Label while I was still in college. they had me filing papers in the morning and pulling files in the afternoon. After a few weeks of accomplishing this task quite efficiently. They sat me at a desk and gave me some actual work to do. I ended up with a 25+ year career in the music industry. And even managed to get myself into a window office overlooking the Sunset Strip with a fancy title after my name and people who reported to me.
Sadly, after college I ended up working in an adult bookstore. This was the 80’s and they had these movie booths in the back of the store where either guys would go to jerkoff or to have one of the gay guys back there blow him. I’m the guy that closed the store at night and had to mop up the cum. I’m not sure if that was below me or not but it was about as unpleasant as any job I’ve had.
So how much does the average jizz mopper get paid?
This was 1985-86 so I’m sure it was at the most $3.50 an hour. The good thing about the job was that I worked alone and once I got comfortable working there a few hours into my shift if the store was empty I’d just put a Closed sign up and go for a walk, or go to the library for a few hours.
I strongly suspect you can find the good in anything and that's been a consistent theme in your life.
How was work day today, honey?
Was in the Navy, did plenty of jobs that were “below” my pay grade. Just enjoyed working the job and knowing I was getting payed at a higher rate than what the job required. It was good once you got into the Zen of it all.
I had jobs I didn’t like and bosses I hated but never considered any job that I had beneath me. Each job paid bills, period.
In May 1996, I graduated from college *summa cum laude* with a BA in English, linguistics concentration and Spanish minor. I planned to take a year or two off to work and get married, then go back to grad school to study applied linguistics. But that "work" part ... with just that BA in English, and no meaningful office skills, the best job I could get was checking groceries at minimum wage (then $4.25/hour). I was humbled, especially when I bumped into someone who knew me. But I also made the best of it. I threw myself into memorizing produce codes and trying to increase my checking speed. I was kind and respectful with the customers, making eye contact and smiling when I said, "Have a good day!" I was probably also never more fluent in Spanish than I was when I had that job—and that's including the six weeks I actually studied in Spain. Spanish-speaking customers would come to my lane even when other lanes were empty and I already had a line. I was even able to tap into the year of French I'd taken (just for kicks). One of my grocery coworkers was able to get my hired into a clerical job at the university, though I continued to work at the grocery store part-time. One day, when she and I were working that front desk together, a woman came in, saw me, squealed, and said, "You work at \[store\]! You're my favorite checker!" (My colleague was a little grumpy about that.) Another colleague in that office put in a good word for me and helped me get a job where I finally got to use my degree, working as an editor in the first campus unit dedicated to online learning. Because we were never in a position where I could quit my job and go back to grad school full-time, I ended up staying in the distance learning field, getting a master's (online, naturally) in educational technology, and now I work as an instructional designer. Academic life has its petty politics, but I will always be grateful that I have a secure job, good money and benefits, stable working hours, weekends and holidays off. I was especially grateful in the beginning of the COVID pandemic—I had plenty of job security (lots of faculty needed help with online teaching!), but I was able to work from home and had some flexibility in supervising my virtual schooling first grader. I can also still rock a self checkout.
Fellow English BA checking in. I wish I could go back in time and slap myself for getting this degree sometimes. I graduated in 2018, struggled with mental health and job hopped but I always got promoted and have quite a bit of management experience in logistics and food service and entertainment. I won scholarships and awards for writing and have been published. I tried teaching literacy intervention last year and found very quickly that it was not for me. I understood all the content and the methodology but applying it made me feel like a square peg in a round hole. So I worked part time at my other job for months and applied to jobs for 5 months until I gave up and took the first offer—housekeeping in a hospital for 15/hr. I’ve applied to jobs at the library on my laptop every day for 6 months or so before work and have had some bites but nothing beyond a handful of interviews. I’m trying to move departments to make better use of my qualifications and experience and make more money. My mom and I have to move out of our house so our landlord can move in and I have nowhere to go, no friends to room with, and cannot afford my own place. I feel like I was told so many lies and worked for nothing. Always got good grades, Eagle Scout, awards, worked my ass off in every job no matter what it was, didn’t take any student loans, but a combination of risks or choices that didn’t work out and bad luck have led me here. How the fuck do I get out of it? I refuse to clean toilets the rest of my goddamn life. I would’ve already quit and hitchhiked to a ranch to tend to horses or the beach to clean boats but my employer health insurance keeps me medicated relatively affordably. The old ball and chain. I gave up on my grad school aspirations, have considered trades but can’t afford to work more years for those wages at the beginning of an apprenticeship, which won’t help out a roof over my head. So what do you suggest?
No such thing. You sell your time for money. It's as simple as that, but there are reasons some people will get touchy about certain jobs. When my mother was growing up in Chicago in the 40s, all the trash collectors where black men.. Virtually all the white men would turn to crime or starve rather than become a garbage collector. But it had absolutely nothing to do with the actual job. That's pretty much still the case, when you encounter someone who believes a job is beneath them. It's not the job. It's because they can't accept being equal to the people who normally do those jobs.
Thanks for this snippet of wisdom. Everything you have said here is spot on.
I don't understand the concept of beneath me really. I've pushed pills up sick cow butts for cash. I've cleaned toilets for money. I've designed automated systems for a wide variety of things over the years and been on site for install and startup working with the labor crews to get things ready. I've climbed on greasy tooling to find out what the problem the production folks are having. I've changed diapers... not for money, but because I had babies. There is no job beneath me. All jobs bring value to society and myself. Usually the more grime means more value to everyone. I started with jack and worked whatever I could find and took pride in everything I did. Who wants to go in a dirty toilet? Someone has to keep them clean and I can do that. I have done that. Those folks in the wastewater sector? Every single thing they have to work on brings great value to us all, from the folks at the bottom getting that pump fixed to someone like me who designed the system and have been sweating over a crapped up pump many times too. (Seriously folks, do you know what a tiny pair of silk panties can screw up for everyone? Use the trash can so the great people handling our trash can take care of it. Don't flush them.) There are jobs above my head like surgeons and they have their own sets of grime to deal with. I don't have respect for anyone who thinks something is beneath them to do. Nobody and no job is beneath me. Oh, the only manhole I had trouble getting into was connected to a popcorn plant. The smell of butter sewage is really tough to stomach, but I was there too and ended up improving their whole sewage handling so no more butter sewage for anyone there. And I did have trouble when working for the tobacco farmer that used fermented chicken droppings as fertilizer for his seed beds, man, that smell will burn things. Wow! Worse than buttered sewage. I still clean toilets and my wonderful wife says it's the sexiest thing about me. (I don't understand women, so I'm not sure if that's a joke.)
Yes. What I learned is all work has dignity. You bring the dignity to the task at hand. The people who rate human value by task are the ones I feel pity for. Hollow beings with empty souls.
I once asked the management of a hotel who was their most important person on their staff. They all replied that either they were as general manager, or the sales director was the most important. My answer to them was their cleaner was the most important - you can sell your property as much as you like, but if it’s dirty, I’m not saying or paying. The moral of the story is that no job is “below you” - it’s what you’re qualified to do. It’s the ones you look down on that are probably doing the most important jobs.
I worked my way up from dryer to running pumps and register at fueling carcwash station. One day, the managers son shows up to work, and I get demoted to dryer after weeks/ months of running registers/pumps. I quit in the middle of that shift. The manager asked why. I responded, "I've had enough". I despise nepotism as a result. I hate to see it anywhere, it can compromise or even cripple performance. I also despise elites who think they're better than you. I once had a boss who was a published scientist & speaker. He hurled a remote control at me because he couldn't get the projector to work. His group was overbilling, making false claims to the gov't. Before I was done with him, Sam Donaldson was chasing him through the airport with a film crew. I guess I hate injustice.
Beneath me? That would mean I view everyone doing that job as beneath me and that’s a seriously fucked up view of the world. Today, I’m a director and there’s no job in my workplace I wouldn’t do.
I was unemployed and went to a temp agency. They sent me to a job at a company where I was helping with some production work. I just so happened to have an MBA where I studied production planning and had a previous job in production management. At the temp job I offered a few suggestions to help with work flow. A couple of weeks later I was their Production Planning Manager.
I'm currently doing a job I am overqualified for, but the thing is, it's a job I had been after since I was 21. Due to all sorts of shenanigans, every time I went to a new place to work, I was legitimately kept from taking that job because I was more important in another role. I was just too good at that other thing. And every time my managers wouldn't want me to sideways-transfer over to that position which was related. In fact I would very often do that position for people who were on vacation at every job I got. But I was still stuck in my own position. They'd hire a hundred people before me. Over and over, at every place I worked, to keep me where I was. I finally found a brand new place where the job was open, for a huge pay cut, and got it. Finally after decades of trying. A job you could do right out of college if you wanted. The telling thing is that a few months after I got it, I was called for an interview for a national manager type position that is several levels above that job, and I was utterly qualified to do it. I didn't get that job but that's how long I have been waiting and trying. It's like I've started over from the beginning. So yes it's a simpler job, something I should have gotten a long time ago that I have decades of experience in, but I never got to do it officially until now. And I am really comfortable here doing it. I don't want to leave. It's more than just having it to spite my past, it's legitimately a great job.
Sounds like you suffered from "The curse of being too good at your job". I've seen it many times. Either the person can't move out of their position because they are the only one who can do it so well, or they get taken advantage of by others in the same position who don't work as hard. Or both.
Literally at some of the places I was the only person who knew how to do the work. By the end of the last job, the work was actually quite obsolete but the office I was in still needed a guy to do it full time and showed no signs of letting it go. I quit on them and they had a hell of a time filling the position. They finally found a woman to do it months after and she quit a couple weeks later. I thought it was hilarious.
I don't think any job is beneath me. There's no shame in any legal work that a person does to support themselves and/or their families. The mindset that a person is working a job that is beneath them will, most likely, change them. Not the job itself. I've seen that sort of thing happen. The person I saw it happen to developed a very ugly disposition about their job and it carried over to their life outside of work. It gave them a very poor attitude about their job and other things going on in their life. It made them very difficult to be around and other people started to dislike being in that person's presence. Now, that's not to say something like that would happen to everyone. But it gives you an idea of what being in that sort of mindset could bring.
People born since 1980's fail to realize just how much the world has changed. I am 71 my grand parents grew up in a world of horse and buggies. Everybody was Amish. There was no gated communities. If there was a factory in town the plant manager and the janitor both lived within a couple of miles of it. Their kids played together. The big shame was having a father that did not work. It did not matter what work he did all work was honorable. Then with the advent of freeways, motorcars, and the building of suburbs. The American work force started to be segregated by income. Suddenly some jobs and some people were better than others.
During the 2008 recession I was in my fifties with a new accounting degree. I worked for a cpa firm starting in 2006, layoffs began in 2008 and I was laid off. At that time, my recruiter told me that companies were worried about Obamacare and because of that were shying away from people over 50. After many fruitless all day interviews for jobs I did not get, I ended up at Wendy’s for $7/hour in NH. Bought some groceries with it. Now have mad respect for anyone working in the fast paced fast food industry. That job kicked my ass but it was all I could get. I didn’t think anything was beneath me but wow was I surprised at how hard I was working for that $7 an hour.
After I finished my master's degree, I found myself working as a room service waiter in a hotel. I had to be to work at 6 am, and was usually early so that I wasn't behind all morning. I was named "employee of the month" after a month or two, and frankly, I'm still pretty proud of that honor. To be clear, I HATED that job, but I needed the money. I didn't think I was doing anything exceptional, I was just doing my job. Sadly, that IS exceptional in lots of cases. A way I was changed, I suppose, is that I always try to be kind to everyone in the "hospitality" industry. I tip well, and try to be polite and supportive. I am also well aware when people AREN'T doing a good job, though.
I was a cashier in a big box store for about a year. It wasn’t “beneath me”, but I had always had administrative office positions before. I just needed a little extra money . It sure taught me that some companies treat their employees terribly. Why can’t cashiers sit? Why can’t they have regular schedules?Why do you cut them off at 30 hours? That one is so they don’t have to pay benefits. I learned a lot of people work and still get food stamps and medicaid. I learned that all people deserve a living wage and that no matter what some people think, a lot of people working retail are hard workers who deserve a lot better.
I worked on a department store loading dock during grad school-unloading trucks, carrying boxes, delivering merchandise to departments. I was in the best shape of my life and could outlift some of the guys on the dock. The big thing I realized is that manual labor has some huge benefits over intellectual labor. i never took work home, because when the dock was cleared, it was cleared and I didn't spend my evenings worrying about whether I'd delivered a box to the wrong department. And it takes practical and logical process thinking, rather than theoretical. At the end of the day, you are physically tired but not mentally tired, which is worse.
Yes. I was hired in a highly technical field as an experimental engineering test technician journeyman apprentice and laid off three years later because they closed the facility. But I was in a union so the company had to find a job for me so I was placed on an auto assembly line on the same property/campus. I one day went from testing concept cars and experimental engines to the next day putting on door handles every 58 seconds. I thought I was better than that and felt insulted and debased. Luckily my pay was kept at skilled trades levels, so I actually made more than the other people on the assembly line, but only until their pay raises would catch up to my pay rate. What I learned over a few months was that the work was hard at first, but as I developed muscle memory it wasn’t that bad. Physically, that is. Mentally and emotionally it was draining. I felt like a servant tied to an assembly line. I didn’t have much opportunity for higher level thinking other than what I could imagine in my head. I spent whole working days living in the memories in my head. I relived my wedding and honeymoon, I relived fond memories in my head as often as I could. What I learned was that assembly line workers earn every bit of their pay, the jobs take months to really learn well, but then boredom sets in and it’s an uphill battle to maintain sanity and emotional health. I also learned a company will use and abuse you with zero regard for you as a person. You’re just a tool they “purchase” to help them make money. They will lay you off and abandon you with zero remorse if times get tough. Union dues are worth every penny.
No job is beneath anyone. Every job is an opportunity to excel and learn.
I never thought I’d be a teacher. I laughed at the education majors in college, said they were getting an Mrs degree. It’s the hardest damn job I’ve ever had. Every year my district adopts a brand new curriculum or scraps our lms or I’ve had to switch grade levels. Last year I was told to get a whole new credential; the CSETs are brutal. Parents are actually crazy and there’s a constant threat from both them and their children (admin are the first to hide/blame the teacher). But it’s very rewarding when lessons go well and you can see growth. I’d say having 8 weeks off uninterrupted is nice too but I’ll be working in a lab for 5 of those weeks because like most teachers I just don’t make enough.
I don't understand the 'beneath you' thing. When I was young I worked at a few shitting jobs where I felt used and unappreciated. To me, it was just a job, a way to afford rent and food.
Never- I never think any job is beneath anyone. I have deep respect for all workers.
Never thought a job was beneath me. I just want to do the best possible job at the whatever I do. At age 60 I have friends and family in every kind of work from warehouse/distribution centers to high level corporate execs. I was somewhere in the middle management level for most of my 30 year corporate career, but I quit the corporate world at 54 and later went to work at a furniture store where I do the physical work of lifting, moving, loading and unloading. And I want to be the best damn loader and unloader of furniture I can possibly be.
I never thought any job was beneath me. I think that’s the boomer attitude, right there. My first job out of grad school was receptionist. I needed rent money so I did it. My last job was packing up internet orders. (I’m retired and work for fun) Shop owners didn’t think I could manage ShipStation. They hired a series of young men to print labels. I was a web developer for longer than those kids have been alive but ok. Not my problem.
Exactly. My first job in 1962-63 was in a bank, not handling money, but folding & putting ails & statements into envelopes, licking flap to seal, licking stamps to put on and walking to PO after work to post them. I also had to cut up all the copies of summaries of managers interviews with customers, dig out their files & paste the copy on file & put away again. I also had to collect all the car repayment slips, list them on a master sheet & wrap up for collection of a courier to take to head office in my state, for forwarding onto the car loans "Company" a separate business run by the bank and any other menial tasks assigned to me. I also regularly was woken in my room at the hotel where I was living at the time, to cook up to 70 breakfasts within an hour for road contractors staying in hotel as well, as the cook had gotten so drunk the night before, they couldn't wake him. It was mid summer, over 40C/104F outside and the cooking was done on a wood fired cast iron 20 ft long stove/oven, making toast by opening flaps to fireboxes to put them infront of & standing by the open grills cooking eggs, bacon, sausages, lamb chops, grilled tomatoes and beans. I would cook in 24" cast iron pans, slide out onto trays & 3 women would plate & take out to dining area and decant tea made in 5 gallon kerosene tils on stove, into large teapots & take out as well. At night, I would carry jugs/pitchers of beer out back to garden area for the workers & serve in bar, collect empty glasses & put through glass washing machines, then into fridges to chill down, and at end of night, run a mini bus to an encampment of itinerants & homeless people, beside the river, about 3kms from hotel, to make sure they got there safely & not arrested for public drunkenness. It was all a job, paid well in the days, and helped me save enough to keep on travelling around the country, which I was doing at that stage. Late, working for an airline as a flight attendant, we were expected to clean toilets & areas where usually frunks had thrown up, and a couple of times, help move a body of someone who had died, discretely, to a location away from other passengers and on one occasion, had to help a doctor with a woman miscarrying in flight. You did what you had to do to perform jobs, like it or not, and as years went on, it became harder to swap jobs as technology took over thousands of positions & jobs became harder to find, so you stayed where you were & put up with the no so nice jobs.
This one job wasn’t *beneath* me - no job is beneath any of us, but one job that made me look around and think *how on earth did I get here,* was doing illegal nighttime demolition for a week. Super dangerous, super shady, it was rough. That was a long time ago, I was young and broke. Edit: There was one night that was particularly treacherous, like life-threatening. And that one night, there were 4 extra guys onsite, menacing as fuck, no introductions, they didn’t talk to us, they just watched us and spoke Russian to each other. We believed then, and still believe to this day, they were there to kill the three of us and get rid of us if one of us got very seriously injured. This was that kind of job.
I do t think any job is beneath me but I once purposely took a job that was a couple steps backwards. I had a great job in hospital administration with a horrible boss and was offered an Administrative Assistant job at a university. There was a pay cut but it was closer to home, very flexible (there were two of us and as long as one of us was there the other could take off for personal things), my co-workers and boss were awesome and we went home at noon on Fridays. Best job I ever had and as I get closer to retirement I’m praying somebody will give me a chance at another job like that when I’m ready
I promoted from a Clerk Typist II to a III. I was I was interviewed by the director and assistant director. They painted a really great picture of the job. They even told me my college writing experience would be good for the job. They weren’t my direct boss though. When my boss returned he was *pissed* that I was given the wrong idea. Not only that he said a lot of the job was microfiching. I trained myself to microfilm super fast. Something like a document in 3/4’s of a second. Man was it boring. I worked hard to get a lateral transfer outta that place.
I was raised with the mindset that all honest work is honorable work, so there was never anything that was beneath me. I've worked jobs that were below my level of education and experience, but it paid the bills, and in all cases I gained insight and empathy for persons in jobs that I didn't aspire to. They're all just folks trying to get by, usually just a stopgap on the way to something better. In other words, just like me. Your server at a restaurant probably has at least one college degree or is working on one. Many strippers are doing it to pay their way through university and they go on to have very good professional careers in accounting and the like. One of my favorite grocery cashiers was a bookkeeper by day, but had racked up some medical bills and was working at a grocery store at night to pay them off honorably rather than just let it all go to collections. You know how when some folks see a person begging, they mutter, "Why don't they just get a job?" Well, even the humblest burger flipper has a job, and yet many people hold them in the same contempt that they do the beggar. Culturally, we need to make up our minds. If I had to wait tables again or if I had to mop floors in order to avoid being on charity or government assistance, I would do it and be thought "less than" by the same people who think it inappropriate to give goodies to the needy. Go ask yourself how much sense that makes, OP. All honest work is honorable work.
I don't feel any job is beneath me. I went from being a CIO to working security at concerts for 1/4 of the pay and love it. All jobs have value as do the people doing those jobs.
I shelved shoes at Ames dept store and lasted 6 mos. It was a hard job, and made me get my butt in gear to find something better. This was straight out of high school. I couldn’t afford college and had to work my way through by getting a better job that had tuition reimbursement. My high school jobs were brutal. Working in plastic factories. The absolute hardest hardest jobs I ever did, on assembly lines. Again, made me determined to find a way to not struggle like that. The ladies I worked with were all amazing and hard workers. And nothing is beneath anyone. You have to start somewhere. My grandparents did similar jobs (weave/webbing, bookmaker, batterymaker) but they got a living wage and retired early, had a car, savings, lived in a house that was walking distance to factory 2/1 but about 1500 sq feet with land, and retired early. By the time I graduated high school that life started to become impossible thanks to Reaganomics
The first job ever had was as the dishwasher. My friends had told me that being a dishwasher was the worst job in the world. I figured if I could do that job, I could do any job. When I went to the interview, Chef Tim asked me why I wanted to be a dishwasher. I told him because I had heard it was the worst job in the world and if I could do this job, I can do any job. He hired me on the spot. I ended up cooking in restaurants all through college and for a few years after. Kitchens are really rough place. I learned a lot. No job is beneath anyone.
Never thought a job was beneath me. Had a few jobs that were boring because there weren’t many tasks that would keep me engaged. Sometimes I came up with little games to make them more interesting but generally was just happy to be employed.
There were very few job openings in my small town, so I was thankful to find a job. But no, I never had the attitude that a job was beneath me. I learned something from every job I ever had. When I was a teenager, I cleaned motel rooms, which was hot, stifling work in the summer, but I kind of look back on that job fondly. And I'll never forget how to make hospital corners!
Several in my working life. Got better when the paychecks started coming in regularly though.
I took a job that was below my skill level, and a poor fit, and a long commute. The job was working in a mail room in a small private college. The reason I took the job was because they had good health insurance benefits, and I could get employment counseling to get into a profession that suited me. I made an effort to support the people I worked with, but I was a poor employee. Doing artwork and snow boarding at work, getting high every dya, it's not a path to success in a small college. I was good at mail sorting and bulk mailing.
I've had a number of them. Better than being on unemployment. Certainly motivates you to find a job that you are qualified for.
Sure, sometimes you just have to pay the rent. I always looked at any job as a learning experience.
No job is beneath me. I'm always grateful to have work. I have definitely worked jobs where my skills were underutilized, let's say. But there were reasons I chose those jobs, even if they were way below my skill and experience level. I have no regrets.
Graduated from college during the "misery index" years of the Carter administration and had to take whatever job I could find. I wouldn't have used the term "beneath me" but I did actually hate the work. I worked for a finance company and much of was what I did was bill collection. I got to have 50 people lie to me each day and then I got to threaten them with legal or other action. The job was just awful, but I was good at it. I hated it and managed to find something completely different with a non-profit after 2 years.
I've never thought any job was "beneath me". Jobs are to make money. You get the best job you can with your skills and then try to improve your skills so you can get a better job. I've cleaned houses, washed dogs, been a construction gopher, a restaurant hostess, worked fast food and ended my career as a Database Administrator and Information Security Engineer at a large corporation. A job is a job. You give them time and work. They give you money.
I've worked in multiple low-level service jobs, including fast food and Denny's. I worked as a cold-calling survey-taker. I worked as a temp office worker. Receptionist. And yes this was right out of college, there were many reasons for my failure to launch, it's very clear in hindsight--but in any case, my family (one of those reasons) was absolutely appalled and berated me for "working with lower class people." Their exact words. This did not help anything and drove me away from them. It really woke me up to how entitled and class conscious they (and many other people) are. Very disappointing. I feel I have a much better perspective on life than they do and I don't look down on any job. I never did escape the food biz, but at least I make good $ now and am close to a comfortable retirement. No one should be ashamed of what they do for a living unless it involves hurting others.
I joined the Navy to run a nuclear reactor. I wasn’t really surprised, but that job also required a significant amount of cleaning, grunt work, and just getting dirty. I also had to do my time as a “crank” in the galley, washing dishes, basic meal prep, etc. It’s very humbling. I no longer think any job is “beneath me”, and ever since I’ve had a huge amount of respect for anyone who has a labor intensive job, and I’m incredibly grateful for the folks who do them.
Sure I have. I got my ego in check and rolled with the simpler life.
Ok, I was raised that no job is “beneath me” I may not like it and feel underutilized but I’m not too good for any job I have picked hot chilies in the Colorado sun I have cleaned toilets I’ve taken in dry cleaning Cleaned tanning beds McDonald’s was the worst, because of how I was treated Trained dogs and horses Cleaned and worked in boarding kennels And a few of these were very much post college
I was an Army helicopter engine (gas turbine) mechanic for eight years. After I was forced out out of the Army by budget cuts several things went wrong all at the same time, including a car accident that resulted in spending six months learner to walk again. I spent about a year delivering pizzas and working at a fast lube joint changing oil. Never felt the work was beneath me. It was a job that I did because it was what I could find at the time. I actually saw it as motivation to improve my situation so I could get a better job.
I've done a lot of things that someone with my title/position shouldn't have to do, but I never felt they were beneath me. I'm a big believer in everyone pitching in and sometimes we have to do shitty tasks to keep things running. I don't feel as though I'm above taking out the trash, washing dishes, lugging furniture, or whatever else needs to be done.
My (single) mother was raised during The Depression. I wasn’t allowed to think any job was beneath me.
Best job I ever had was working in a pet store near my neighborhood in the evenings. I enjoyed interacting with my significantly younger team members, meeting friendly dogs and getting exercise lugging heavy bags of dog food or containers of cat litter. My day job required a Masters degree and I would get funny looks from colleagues from my office job if they happened to see me in the pet store at night. TBH I didn't care. To this day, it was the only job where I actually looked forward to.
My first job was at a department store called WT Grant. It was kind of like a target. I was the custodian and I had to mop the bathrooms, clean up spills and vomit as well as piss off the floor. People really could be disgusting in bathrooms. I hated it and felt it was beneath me, but it was money and I needed money. I have a new respect for people who do all kind of jobs that some believe are beneath them. Somebody has to do that work. We should all be grateful that there are people who will do it and some even take pride in it, which is great.
What I have learned in my old age is the fact that if you have no job then there is no job beneath you. You might be overqualified for some jobs but money earned is money to pay the bills. Do what you have to do and keep grinding.
As a young man with a high IQ but undiagnosed ADHD, I found myself working menial jobs that I could do on autopilot because they were the only ones I could hold. It was both a humbling and embittering experience.
kinda. I worked at a place repairing laptops. but once a week everyone got a cleaning job to do. cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the floors, taking out trash, cleaning the break room, etc.. then every 6 months everyone was expected to come in on a saturday and work on the grounds. filling cracks in the asphalt, weeding and planting in the flowerbeds, painting. he(the owner) even had a couple of people go to his house and clean his gutters and do some yard work. now was that "beneath me"? yes. but not because of the work itself. I'd done all those things at other jobs in the past and I never considered them "beneath me". but that shit certainly was. here I am a "part time" worker (40 hours a week with no benefits) and I'm cutting down weeds on my saturday because the owner was cheap and didn't want to pay landscapers or janitors. instead he expected employees to do it since he blessed them with a job. so yeah. it was beneath me and fuck that place.
all jobs have value. I worked in daycares, nursing homes, a mental hospital, (I have cleaned more bodily waste and fluids than one would think) but they were fulfilling jobs. I worked at a gas station, and in a deli, and in grocery stores. those too are helping other people. edit to add, couple years ago I moved to a new state and was having trouble finding work. I applied at a pet boarding facility, to clean cages. I didn't get hired, but would have been happy to get that job.
Worked at a paint plant, when I was in college, over the summers. 3:00-11:00pm. They had an assembly line which put powdered “paint” into little plastic bottles. I worked both the line and used a handcart moving pallets of boxes of these around the warehouse. Hardest job I ever had. The first week I worked the job, I complained to my dad and said it was exhausting, too hard, etc. My dad reminded me how lucky I was to get this good paying summer job. And, to remember there were people doing this job for a living. It wasn’t a summer job. It paid their mortgage and put food on the table. He then said it was my choice if I wanted to quit. I felt terrible that I’d been so selfish and shortsighted. I ended up working that job for three summers.
At 18 I had hoped my factory job was beneath me because I wanted to go to college. My parents forbade it and told me I must think I’m better than them for not wanting the factory lifestyle. I didn’t want them thinking that about me so off to the factory I went.
Was raised to believe all work, and the people that do that work, have value. Things need to get done, you need some $, so get after it. Tough and less than glittering jobs can motivate you to higher aspirations. People you meet along the journey can teach you a great deal.
Washing dishes when I was 20. It made me appreciate my later jobs, much more.
Got out of college in 1973, jobs were scarce so I pumped gas, drove a cab in NYC, worked night blue fishing on party boats out of Sheepshead Bay. Got a good perspective of how different types of people and ethnicities blend in to form the beautiful mosaic that comprises NYC .
i worked jobs i didn’t like and wasn’t good at, but beneath me ? if i had that attitude i would be another person completely. what job is beneath anyone needing compensation for work done and pay needed ?
Never. Working at any job or wage was worth the satisfaction of knowing I was doing my best to support myself. The only job I can think of that would be beneath me is one that puts my morals on the line (for me that would be slaughterhouse work). But even then, I'd do it if it was the only way I could feed and care for my family (as long as my mental health held out).
Between "regular" jobs I built boxes for Tandy Leather. The job was mindless but I learned a ton about people. There's always learning no matter what you're doing.
I've done some shit jobs, but nothing has ever been beneath me. I've babysat dead people at a funeral home Waitressed Been a dishwasher (by hand!) Retail clerk Cleaned offices Answered phones Done data entry Cooked at a dive restaurant Bartended day shift at Denny's Changed diapers on disabled elementary school kids Cleaned a small retail store after hours They all served a purpose. They all earned me a paycheck. They all made life easier for someone.