What do you think is the worst profession?

[sanantone]

prison guard ?

I worked in a jail and a prison. The jail as a corrections officer and the prison as a counselor. My counseling office was inside the cell block.

How was it?

Inmates tend to be immature and manipulative. Most of them come from dysfunctional homes, so their emotional development is stunted. Jails have people of all security levels from petty thieves to murderers; the petty criminals caused the most problems. Jails also get people right off the streets while they're drunk and/or high, so there's a lot of vomiting and urination on oneself. Hospitals for the "criminally insane" usually don't have enough beds, so these people stay in solitary confinement if the jail can't handle them. 

I worked in a prison for people who were about to be released on parole and those who violated parole, so we only had fights about once every other month. For the most part, they didn't want to ruin their chance at freedom. It was a program for people with a history of substance abuse. 

Telemarketer, politician, ambulance-chasing lawyers... just to think of a few.

I've done telemarketing. It's pretty bad, but it's not as stressful as being a dispatcher for a large public safety agency, which is the equivalent of working air traffic control.

[dfrecore]

I spent one semester thinking it’d be cool to do ultrasound (like vascular, not pregnant people)... until I though of something during orientation and confirmed it. Vascular ultrasound technicians sometimes have to put mint under their nose so they are less likely to gag while moving peoples skin folds to find the veins. And then I was gone once I started thinking about the potentially rotten smell of skin “cheese”. Now I’m trying to avoid medical field careers, turns out a lot are not for the easily grossed out.

My 16yo daughter needed an ultrasound due to a stomach ache (thought it might be worse, turned out to be minor), and the ultrasound tech was so happy that she was thin, and it would be an "easy one."  My kid decided right then and there that something in the medical field where she actually deals with patients is a no-go.

She's thinking medical field now, but not anything to do with patients (surgical tech).

[freeloader]

I worked as an insurance agent and did a lot of what was basically telemarketing. It wasn’t that bad. You get used to people yelling at you, telling you not to call, threatening to sue you, etc.

I also have a family member who is a plaintiff’s lawyer. My wife is an attorney and some of her friends from school work for firms that advertise a lot, have catchy slogans, billboards where the lawyers are trying to look hard, etc. Everybody complains about plaintiff’s lawyers until they get into a bad accident, have a work injury, or similar. Person can’t work (either for a while or permanently), they rack up thousands of dollars in medical bills, and the insurance company offers far less than what would be required to make the person whole. Suddenly, a lot of those people’s attitudes about “ambulance chasers” start to change. There are some bad lawyers, but most of them, even most “ambulance chasers” really are trying to get justice for their clients. Of course, it’s a job so they have to make money doing it. Such is the nature of capitalism.

To me, I would say that a garbage collector or a technician at a water treatment plant would be the worst job. You are dealing with people’s waste all day, you spend much of the day outside (with that waste), it’s cold in the winter and hot in the summer (with people’s smelly waste), and—very importantly—you don’t get paid all that well.

There are plenty of yucky medical-related jobs, but many of them pay pretty well given the education-level required. I would be a lot more willing to do a “gross” job for $75,000/year than for $35,000/year...

[bluebooger]

> To me, I would say that a garbage collector or a technician at a water treatment plant would be the worst job. You are dealing with people’s waste all day, you spend much of the day outside (with that waste), it’s cold in the winter and hot in the summer (with people’s smelly waste), and—very importantly—you don’t get paid all that well.

HA
funny
MANY times I have walked home from work (11 pm) after sitting at a desk all day, and I see garbage trucks stopping at corners picking up city trash cans and I've always thought "boy, I wish I was garbage man, you're outside, you're moving around, you're staying shape. The only time I'm not sitting at a desk is when I walk home"

[Ideas]

I had a 5 minute conversation with a man who was a garbage collector and liked it. Pay was about 50% higher than the jobs stocking shelves at the time, although not much higher than factory jobs.

[bjcheung77]

Washroom Attendant. What else?! <shivers>