"We Are NOT Overpaid": 20 Myths About Jobs And Professions That Are Completely False
People make incorrect assumptions about others' jobs all the time — and sometimes those assumptions become so widespread that they're accepted as close to fact.
Redditor u/Madalyn_Robert recently asked the people of Reddit, "What's a myth about your profession that you want to debunk?" Pull up a chair and listen closely — you just might learn something.
1."Anesthesiologist here: You're not asleep; you are anesthetized. When you're asleep and someone stabs you, you wake up."
2."Veterinary medicine is not a happy-go-lucky career choice where you get to deal with cute animals rather than people. Most of your patients are sick and/or scared, and every case involves a fraught negotiation with their stressed-out human."
3."IT person here. Rebooting is NOT a waste of time and solves a remarkable number of problems."
4."Commercial aircraft are built almost entirely by hand — like, 96%. There's very little automation in the process."
5."I am a public librarian. While curating books is still a portion of the job, much of it these days is taken up by database assistance and training, program development and teaching, and public education. It’s much closer to school teaching — but for adults and without grading homework — than it was in the past."
6."If you go to the ER via ambulance, it does NOT mean you will be seen quicker. ERs take the sickest people first, definitely not the ones who come in by ambulance first."
7."Teachers have very little say in anything. We advocate the best we can, but most of the time, it’s out of our hands — including holding children back who desperately need help."
8."School custodian here — we are NOT overpaid cleaners. What would you pay someone who can paint; tape or mud drywall; patch concrete or asphalt; operate or repair commercial landscaping and snow-removal equipment; operate and repair commercial custodial equipment; restore various types of floors, including VCT, hardwood, carpet, and tile; replace toilets and faucets, air filters, and belts; trim and fell trees; shovel roofs, etc.? Not all of us are cleaners or janitors, who are vital and underpaid as well. Some of us are skilled in a variety of trades, and you want to pay us peanuts? All employees of a school are important, and administrators shouldn't try to balance their budgets on the backs of workers. I've seen an exponential number of stupid administrative-salary and purchasing decisions, not to mention unfunded mandates from the state."
9."Hospital lab workers DO exist! No, really! The lab isn't just a black hole where tubes go in and results come out — there are people inside making that happen!"
10."There is sooooo much more to the speech-language pathologist scope of practice than working with kids who stutter or can't say their R's. An entire half of the field is in the adult medical setting, working with people who have dementia, swallowing disorders, oral cancer, strokes, Parkinson's disease, and voice disorders, plus some other niche areas like transgender voice or accent modification. The pediatric half of the field also works with AAC devices, social skills, literacy development, syntax, executive functioning, writing, feeding, and more."
11."Couples therapist here. Therapy is not just about venting or having someone agree with you all the time to make you feel better. Yes, we validate and listen, and venting happens at times. But we also challenge you, encourage you to set goals and make change, and sometimes give 'homework.' Therapy is an active process, and if you want to see change, you have to be willing to make change. I think media has really warped people's ideas, and they expect miracles to happen just by their showing up, without any effort. I wish I could do that for you! But I need you to partner with me to make things happen."
12."That all lawyers make absurd amounts of money. The ones who won't sell their entire life for big bucks tend to make pretty average money."
13."System administrator for a major company. It's NEVER as easy to make a change as you think. 'It's just text. How hard can it be to change?!' Changing that specific text requires changing five training files, multiple SharePoint pages, and 10 other places in the application — and on top of all of that, a code change, which costs time and money. We also have to ensure that the display doesn't break if the new text is a different length, on three browsers, and mobile devices. Then there's translating it to the 20-plus languages that we support — just so an executive director can see it say 'Personal Time Off Request' instead of 'Vacation Request.' That's just for a single line of text."
14."People in minimum wage retail and restaurant jobs are not all high school dropouts or losers who wish they had gotten better educations."
15."Fashion design is not glamorous. It has glamorous moments, but it is mostly a catty corporate mindfuck and the second-biggest industrial polluter. You might have a nice colleague here and there, but in general, people and management tend to be fucking AWFUL; 4/10 stars, do not recommend."
16."OB-GYN here. Childbirth absolutely can and does change the caliber of the vagina. The entire field of urogynecology wouldn't exist if that weren't the case. People love to say everything goes back to normal after delivery. It's not true, and it doesn't make you an anti-feminist to acknowledge the realities of pushing a 10-centimeter-diameter, 9-pound sack of potatoes out of the pelvis. This messaging is detrimental and causes patients with incontinence and prolapse not to seek help. This is NOT to say that the 'husband stitch' is a good thing...or even that it exists. I've literally never heard of it being performed outside of the internet, and a partner has only asked me about it once in my entire career. (My response was, 'Do you need it?')"
17."That your fellow drivers on the road in big trucks are sober and the trucks are well maintained. The number of drunks and addicts driving around should scare you."
18."Massage is not sexy, professionally. If you want a sexy massage...IDK, do it with a partner or a sex worker, not your physio."
19."Logistics is a vital component of our society. Everything we touch has employed around 10 people — more, if it’s food-related. Take a banana: The planting, fertilizer, cultivation, and harvesting involves about eight different types of transportation, warehousing, storage, distribution, and delivery. On average, 17 people will physically touch a banana before it’s eaten (and very few people wash the outside of a banana). I’ve been in logistics for years; I was previously a break-bulk specialist, with my area of expertise being Russia. It’s a very interesting career."
And finally...
20."Speaking as an unemployed disabled person, most of us want to work, but society won't give us a chance."
Got your own to share? See you in the comments!
Note: Some of these entries have been edited for length and/or clarity.
