Be careful what you say about people, places, and things.
You don't want to burn a bridge.
And you never know when you may need the same person, place, or thing you're disparaging.
It's never a good look to have to gravel back for help.
Though eating a little crow can give birth to some much-needed humility.
Some specific jobs and experiences constantly revolve around this type of behavior.
Nobody wants to come face to face with the funeral home's make-up artist.
But all of us want to look cute for the viewing.
Redditor Spektakles882 wanted to hear about the workers people love to hate, so they asked:
"Everyone hates me until they need me. 'What jobs are the best example of this?"
Stay Away
"Try getting a dentist appointment when you have a raging toothache. Crickets.' - Dentist"
- Radiant_Grade_1743
"My dentist underbooks his time so he always has room for an emergency appointment. I had an issue one evening, called the after-hours line, and a few minutes later had an appointment for the next morning. He’ll be my guy for as long as we are both around."
- VegasAdventurer
Ricki Lake Teeth GIF by NettaGiphy
I Object!
"Lawyers."
- Aromatic-Home9818
"I actually hugely respect criminal defense lawyers. Even the one who stood there and tried to say I was making up the domestic violence charges against my ex because I wanted money."
"It was her job, and all she had was the information my ex gave her. It was her job to defend him to the best of her ability, and he deserved the right to be defended. As do all criminals. That’s part of the process."
"Oddly, keeping that rationale was what led me to be so cool and collected while I swatted that sh*t down and got a conviction against my abuser."
"Having been through the system, there is corruption on both sides. I have no doubt innocents get railroaded on both sides. I have nothing but respect for them."
- K19081985
Non-Emergency
"I work in security, so me. We're the ones who have to tell people no and make their tasks more difficult/time-consuming because of policies and whatnot."
"Like I'm sorry, man, but I can't just let you in because you tell me what company you're with if you're not on the list. It means someone didn't submit the request properly so that's not on me, if I start letting people in I WILL lose my job."
- SenorDangerwank
On the Road
"Hate them until you need them? A tow truck."
- mastercylinder2
"Well, I hate them even when I need them, because of the obscene rates they charge."
- CrypticWeirdo9105
"You might hate them when you need them. Where I live they’ll show up and forcefully tow your car from the side of the highway for safety concerns. They’ve been known to drive crying, injured, distressed motorists to the nearest atm, tell them to pay up, and then leave the crashed car in the mall parking lot."
- joeyggg
WHY?!?!
"IT."
"When everything is working? 'Why do we even have IT?!'"
"When something is broken? "Why do we even have IT?!'"
- KhaosElement
"At my first tech job, I was in Operations which was also IT. I saw the power we had. At one point I had the most powerful PC in the company. I didn’t need it, but the guy who doled out the hardware loved to play Quake and needed people to play with. One day I told him I couldn’t play because I needed to monitor some stuff on the website. He put a second video card in my PC so I could add a second monitor, and gave me another stick of RAM just so I could play Deathmatch with him."
"At every job since I’ve made a point of befriending IT. I used to buy donuts for them every few months just as a thank you. I always got my issues handled fast."
- LocalInactivist
The Invisibles
"Shipping and receiving depts at any company."
"Inventory Control as well. Production doesn't want to hear or care why something is delayed. 99% of the time, we're invisible. Something happens, and the fingers start pointing."
- NecessarySir
Season 1 Nbc GIF by The OfficeGiphy
Hardworkers
"Housekeeping. People were such aholes to the housekeepers at the hotel I worked at. To them, they were a bunch of foreigners, personal servants, and thieves. In reality, those girls were the hardest workers I’ve met, and for little pay in return. They had a lot of integrity. They could find a diamond ring and every single time when they could pocket it they are turning it in to me so I can call its owner. If you accuse a housekeeper of stealing with no proof otherwise, you’re an a**hole. Years in the hotel industry and I’ve only ever seen one person steal. A manager."
- ageekyninja
POOF
"Administrative assistants. We do a lot of things that people just think magically happen."
- Obi1NotWan
"I was an HR admin for a growing company. I was frustrated beyond belief with my boss. We had a few store openings coming up that were acquisitions of other companies, so basically, I had to process all the new employee paperwork for several hundred new employees. These were flagship stores, communicated to investors as the future."
"Well, I quit at a point in this process, literally told the boss off, and walked out."
"According to my friend/coworker who remained, they were unable to get the stores open on time because of this. It crashed investor confidence, and the stock price, which had been climbing rapidly, stalled and later crashed (not taking credit for the crash, but I do believe I was the straw that broke the camel's back)."
- No_Act1861
Necessary
"Children Services. Everyone hates us and has an opinion."
"Of course - if there's a child being locked in a basement then we get called."
- Jordantrolli
"Damned if they do and damned if they don't. If a child has to be removed it's CPS being overly involved. If the child dies it's because CPS was negligent and did not do its job properly. These are at opposite ends of the child abuse and neglect spectrum-where there are a lot of gray areas and circumstances in between. This is a very complicated nuanced type of job where we have to juggle major judgment calls."
- gtizzo36
Essential
"Retail workers. We were 'essential workers' during the pandemic but before and after were unskilled workers. Also daily, if we can help a customer find something, we’re good but if it’s not available, the amount of verbal berating we take is absurd."
- allanon1105
"Covid really taught us that most of the 'essential workers' were people whose jobs weren't valued much at all pre-COVID--truck drivers, cashiers, retail stockers, garbage men, cooks."
- Redsmoker37
"I was a manager at Target during the pandemic. I never in my life felt more expendable than I did during that time period. F**k retail and f**k Covid. Never again. My stress was so bad I was almost hospitalized."
- CabbageStockExchange
Check Please
" Food service workers. People seem to hate them while they need them."
- RainMan915
I remember the pandemic. Went from 'That's why you have to do good in school, honey, so you don't end up flipping burgers' to 'Why are restaurants short-staffed all of the time' real quick."
- KevMenc1998
music video legs GIF by Apple MusicGiphy
Money Savers
"CPAs but accountants in general. No one wants to talk to us or hear about our work until it’s imperative. And then at least some of them are astonished by standard market rates and feel they’re being fleeced."
- lake_effect_snow
"My wife and I went through a time when we were both self-employed and, among other complexities, had payments in and from different states. That $325 I paid for my CPA's hour of advice saved me literally thousands of dollars."
- YesNoMaybe
"Same. 2009 tax year was when I hired a CPA. With everything that went on that tax year, I hired a CPA. It was all too much for me to do on my own. Never looked back. We just gather everything, drop it off, then get a call when it's time to sign."
- Pho-Nicks
The Babysitters
"Teachers. Apparently, currently, teachers are grooming children and letting kids use litter boxes, but then I remember once the pandemic hit everyone was calling teachers essential because people were forced to deal with the evil spawn they spewed onto the world."
- rubrent
"I'm a teacher's aide, but yeah, we aren't indoctrinating your kids, I'm happy if they remember what I've taught them after showing the same concept 26 different ways hoping it clicks (and not surprised if it doesn't) while also keeping your kids from murdering each other at recess."
- VerifiedMother
Bare Minimum
"Building site laborers."
"Everyone sh**s on them, the pay is basically whatever the bare minimum is. The tradies crap on them. When they aren't there to do all the heavy lifting so the tradies can have an easier life, the tradies b**ch that they have to do actual hard work."
- Sirlacker
"I work in construction and our laborers work incredibly hard. It is beyond impressive. Sure we’ve had some slackers but so does every field."
- lostinthewoods8
Snl Fail GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy
I hate to admit it, but there are a lot of people on this list I, too, never like to see.
I hate the dentist.
Going for a visit makes me queasy.
And my wallet cries a little as well.
It's fascinating the number of people and professions we take for granted.