Did your opinion of people go up or down upon working?

[Austin]

My opinion of people deteriorated almost entirely when I first started working. Worked at a Wendy's when I was 16 and can safely say that my view of people in general definitely took a dip. Dealing with the public and their attempts to do something as trivial as order the correct size combo without getting frustrated and upset made me realize the sheer incompetence of the average person on a whole.

There was my sub-manager who would have dope delivered to the back of the store, or the various individuals who'd hand out probably 30-40$ of free food once the general manager left, or the illegal alien grill-guy who would steal bacon sheets from the freezer yet never be fired due to having a near-slave mentality to which the managers gladly utilized in various ways.

I'd say the biggest issue I have with people at work now and in the past is that most people cannot resist injecting emotion into a situation where it is not required, creating drama where drama is not needed. They let their petty internal frustrations manifest into little drama episodes which create whole hosts of new problems which otherwise would have never existed.

[Faith]

Yes! I work in the travel industry, so I know first hand how people overall generally speaking can be petty. Its nice to have those people once in a while who show gratitude; unfortunately that is not the case overall, in most cases nothing ever seems to be good enough for people. I'm a peaceful person, but in order to be able to work in the real world, you have to learn really quickly to deal with confrontations, dishonesty, detraction, etc. No wonder people are so bitter, but with me I have enough will to understand why things happen the way they do and that is the only way you can deal with it, and still work without breaking apart. At the end though you do get a good feeling of self-worth, because of being a part of the community and contributing, and making a living of course. I will admit deep down there are some days where I do not want to deal with lots of people at once. I'm just graceful as can be in communicating with people.

[Cato]

It's the same. I've seen some real lousy scumbag types at work, yet I've seen some real diamonds midst the rough.

[Bloodeagle]

I have always had a low opinion of the human race.
I have only had a job that dealt with the general public once. It was an enlightening experience.
It taught me that I am not a real people person.

[Austin]

Yes dealing with the public on any level is easily the worst fate a person can have in regards to a career.

[Faith]

I have always had a low opinion of the human race.
I have only had a job that dealt with the general public once. It was an enlightening experience.
It taught me that I am not a real people person.I used to be much more sensitive when I was younger, but I have faith ;) and been improving on dealing with situations and not taking it personally is the hard part. Sure there are people who are going to judge you by how they perceive you just by looking at you and "aura," and that effects how they treat you, and those are the crappiest situations. I have had people be rude to me for no apparent reason, then be friendly to the person right beside me. Hum, suspicious. I can be described as a "non people person" too because these situations are not favorable. But unfortunately I can't really get the job I really want now, because the economy limits jobs in that area, so I am working were there is availability. What I love about working in the travel industry is everyday meeting people from a variety of different places around the world; its pretty cool. And from my recalls, the vast majority of complainer (the hard to please) are from old people.


Yes dealing with the public on any level is easily the worst fate a person can have in regards to a career.Okay there are moments when I would rather be anywhere else and everyone must feel like that. EVERY kind of job you have to deal with that, even in a desk office job you have to deal with short notice deadlines and/or jerk bosses. I certainly would not consider my job the worst fate, not remotely. Overall it is a good experience. I will tell you the worse of dealing with the public job I had was telephone customer service job, that really sucked. Same uninteresting routine everyday. In my job now, it is something different every time.

[Cato]

I've had some odd experiences at work, like the mean-looking fat black lady who turns out to be a very nice fat black lady or the nice-looking white lady who turns out to be a real harpy.

[SuuT]

I'd probably say that what I was raised being told about people (in general) was verified and confirmed when I entered the workforce. I went through a phase, though, where I thought maybe I was just predisposed to see the worst in people as opposed to the best for having been raised how I was. It was an uncomfortably short phase.

[Liffrea]

I’m not as negative as the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork but he does give you pause for thought:

“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You’re wrong of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some are on opposite sides……….A great rolling sea of evil. Shallower in some places, of course, but deeper, oh, so much deeper in others. But people like you put together little rafts of rules and vaguely good intentions and say this is the opposite, this will triumph in the end. Amazing! Down there are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum every day badness. Not the really high, creative loathsomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no.”

[mustangeroo]

This probably depends on where and with you you work. I was a lifeguard in Los Angeles in high school. People watching is part of the job. Watching swimmers all day definitely reinforced some stereotypes I held about certain people. All jobs I have had since then haven't dealt with customers. However, I hold coworkers in my career field in high regard. Some other career fields are pretty disappointing.

[Eldritch]

Yes dealing with the public on any level is easily the worst fate a person can have in regards to a career.

I think people in general are scumbags and/or idiots. That's the norm, and the exceptions are what makes life worth living, among a few other things. And I'm certainly not trying to present myself as somehow better, because i'm not.

And still I like working with the public at the reference desk (I'm a librarian). It's my favorite part of the job, in fact. Go figure.

[Grumpy Cat]

When I worked at a tobacco/lottery stand it sure did. Because the day the welfare cheques came out there were people lined up to buy smokes and lottery tickets, and they'd drop lots of money, too. I just shook my head.

This job also made me anti-lottery, because now I see it as a way to make money off the poor. The people who would buy the most expensive lottery tickets (ones with the most lines) were obviously poor (not just people on welfare but also working poor, who I have respect for), you could tell by looking at them, they were sometimes even dressed in rags.

[Grumpy Cat]

I also worked in tourism for a while. That kinda made me racist. lol (but I'm over that) Because certain nationalities are ruder than others.