What is YOUR opinion of a highly educated person who has a clerical or Mcjob? D

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   gmwilliamsposted 7 years ago

   What is YOUR opinion of a highly educated person who has a clerical or Mcjob?  Do you believe that
   
   this highly educated person isn't so intelligent because h/she has a clerical or Mcjob?
   
   

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2. 0

   threekeysposted 7 years ago

   Grace who are you? What are your qualifications? Forgive me I shouldnt reply to your style of questions because you sound hurtful and too judgemental. All I ask is that you be mindful you may just be starting to come across people that do not fit the sterotypes you appear to be dealing with on a daily or in a consistent way. What are your qualifications for life? Did you get to where you are LITERALLY on your own or did your family give you a big hand me up and are still doing that?
   
   Ouch!! Is all I want say. Life does not happen for all of us and it sure diesn't follow a linear formula of A, B, C....just give it a thought Grace.

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      threekeysposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Grace you are aware. Why ask then?
      Why are you so hung up on class? It matters and doesn't. How much are you "selling out?". I can tell you the professionals I know and who are in positions of trust? Now to me no one is beyond reproach.Class? A joke

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      gmwilliamsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Social class & education are the most important things. Highly educated people who take Mcjobs are seen as unintelligent,even stupid for it is thought that if they were intelligent,they would wait to take a job commensurate w/their educational le

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   3. 0

      threekeysposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Lack of confidence. NOT stupidity!
      Are you in the 1%? I feel we are currently on the tipping point of falling into mass collapse or if we ALL can pull together we may just scrape through. With no money? Assests? Class is irrelevant. Irrelevant.

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3. 85

   gmwilliamsposted 7 years ago

   
   
   There are people who believe that any highly educated person who has a clerical, Mcjob, or any job beneath their educational level isn't so intelligent.  Such people surmise that if this highly educated person was intelligent, h/she would have a job commensurate w/his/her particular educational level.  This highly educated person can even be seen by these people as "lacking" & are viewed as non-persons because the former has a low level job.
   
   There are some employees & supervisors of a highly educated person in these low level jobs who see the latter as mentally lacking because h/she is at the same or subordinate level to the former although h/she is more educated.  It is the surmising of the employees & supervisors that this educated person should be in a higher position on the basis of his/her education.  They believe that if the educated person has a low level job, then how intelligent is h/she really.
   
   Then there are others who strongly assert that it is far better for an educated person to be unemployed than to take a low level job.  They view him/her as either woefully unlucky or incredibly stupid to have to be relegated to a job that is not commensurate w/his/her particular educational level.  They may not even believe that this educated person is really educated, reasoning that if h/she was as educated as h/she state that h/she IS, h/she wouldn't have taken such a low job in the first place.  They strongly maintain that this educated person will be subsequently relegated to a job w/no promotional opportunities which is dead end.
   
   Then there are those who maintain that this educated person is exercising initiative.  They maintain that at least this educated person is working & making his/her way in life, no sitting down & waiting until the right job comes along.  They admire this educated person who is making his/her opportunity while supporting himself/herself.  They see this educated person as being a self-starter unlike those educated people who refuse to take a lower level job beneath their education, preferring to be unemployed. They admire such an educated person for demonstrating a work ethic.

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      WordCrafter09posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      The real problem is that anyone is "maintaining" (essentially judging) anything about people they don't know and/or are not listening to those people if/when  they have the chance/inclination to try to clear up misunderstandings.

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   lisavollrathposted 7 years ago

   You know, there was a time in my life when I thought a person's job said a lot about their education level, or their intelligence, but as I've grown as a person, I realize that isn't so.
   
   I have a graduate degree, and worked for a decade in the field in which I was educated. As progressed in my field, I would often be presented with new opportunities that made me ask whether heading in that direction would make me happy. Increasingly, the answer was no, and so, I left my field, to do other things. Sometimes, those things included working menial jobs, while also teaching. Sometimes, the menial jobs led to better things, and sometimes, I just took them on to pay the bills while I looked for another opportunity.
   
   I'm a pretty intelligent person. I'm clever and creative. I wasn't more intelligent when I was working as a designer than I was when I was working in a craft store. What I do isn't who I am, and where I get my paycheck doesn't effect my IQ score.
   
   Some people are driven to achieve, and that shows in their job history. They climb the ladder, and appear to be successful. If that's what makes them happy, and gives them a life that they want, that's great.
   
   Some people are content to take on work that doesn't have anything to do with the usual definition of success, in order to have the freedom to pursue the things that make them happy. If your passion is, say, surfing, and you take on a menial job to pay the bills, but makes very few demands on your time outside work hours, that leaves you more time to pursue the thing that really makes you happy.
   
   If you can pay your bills, and live a modest life while pursuing something you love that isn't your job, why is that considered any less successful than someone who has a great job and makes a lot of money? Why is success defined by jobs and income, rather than happiness?

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      gmwilliamsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, success is defined by job & salary level.  Educated people in Mcjobs aren't viewed as intelligent. They are even deemed to be quite subpar by other educated people. People's educational & intelligence levels are still determined by job t

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      lisavollrathposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I can't define my success in life by my job, or my salary level. And honestly, anyone who views me as stupid for taking the occasional "mcjob" had better not voice that opinion to my face, or they'll get an earful.

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   WordCrafter09posted 7 years ago

   Since gmwilliams went on (after posting this question) to kind of sum up the whole picture  (and therefore answer the question), I'm going to make just a few  "spin-off" points in reply.
   
   First, I do think that the term, "Mcjob" is demeaning and one that could have more respectfully been replaced with "fast-food job".  I know that some people who work in fast-food jobs don't even take their job all that seriously.  Maybe they're students on the way to "bigger and better things".  Maybe they're mothers for whom the hours work well and for whom their part-time job means being able to pay for things like dancing lessons or music lessons.  People in such situations may not even find it offensive to have their job referred to with a demeaning term.  I don't think it matters who, among ff workers, views his work as "something more" or not.
   
   Employees and situations vary, so I think what has to be respected is the employment itself and the fact that honest work done conscientiously is worth something more than a "cheap" term.
   
   Personally, I don't have a problem with the term, "clerical".  With that one, even if organizations often break down into "grades" work under that category not all "clerical" jobs are the same, and not all organizations/businesses even have "grades".  "Clerical" is some settings (like a smaller business) often has whole sets of responsibilities that wouldn't otherwise be called "clerical".  However, I don't have a problem with the term/categorization (even on a site that has the mix of users that this one does).  My main point is that not all "clerical" work is the same.
   
   It's kind of unfortunate that ThreeKeys commented that "life does not happen for all of us" because it kind of seems to imply that fast-food OR clerical work means that someone doesn't "have a life" or that "life hasn't happened for some people".
   
   More to the point of both the question and gmwilliams' comment, it can be kind of horrifying to realize how many people were not taught by parents how not to judge, and yet how many learn from the "outside" world how, what and whom to judge  by some pretty misguided and/or narrow standards.
   
   As far as work/education goes, people often have to make choices based on inadequate information (like expecting what most often applies to apply and/or not being able to predict the unforeseen).  Sometimes things work out well.  Sometimes they don't.  Then people do "the next thing".  It's misguided to judge/asume things about others.

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      gmwilliamsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      A Mcjob is any low level job that doesn't require a college education.  Mcjobs are menial jobs that don't require intelligence to perform.  A clerical job can be considered a Mcjob.

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      threekeysposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yes..and words are finite and I'm limited in expression."Life doesn't happen" for some of us? Meaning choosing and not choosing. Opportunities are not always available. Some are entrepreneurial. Some  want to focus on family & relationships. more

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      WordCrafter09posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Ah, well....  I didn't realize you were lumping the "whole world of jobs" that don't require a college degree all as one thing.  (I tend to be a sorter of things in any one category, rather than "just a lumper of everyone/everything"

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   bradmasterOCcalposted 7 years ago

   In this age of technology, and the fact that the US has turned from mfg prowess to a service industry, intelligence is not enough to get a job. Not all college degrees are useful in getting a job.
   
   The degrees that are in demand today are those that can be useful in technology. It is just like getting a degree in the arts, including acting doesn't mean that you are going to get a job. Most of the actors work in minimum jobs waiting to get their break. For many, it never comes.
   
   So when you are going to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for your degree, it is imperative that you know what kind of jobs and salaries await you and your large student loan debt.
   
   So maybe picking the wrong degree is not so smart even if you excel at the academia of it.

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7. 87

   tamarawilhiteposted 7 years ago

   No, because I realize they may have that job to pay the bills while looking for another one. And I respect someone working to pay bills at something they may not feel is at their level over someone who sits at home waiting for the perfect job while seeking welfare or loans.

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8. 63

   wingedcentaurposted 7 years ago

   This essay is a response to a question posed by Grace Marguerite Williams. It concerns the question: Is there any relationship to innate intelligence and the job one holds, in the United States. read more

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