The most thankless job ever?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What are some of the jobs - they can be real or fictional - that you can think of, which are the most thankless, most ill-treated, most UN-respected in all of creation? Ones that even if they do the best they can, nobody ever cuts them any slack whatsoever?

I'll start off with a few real ones:

- Anyone in the DMV or customer service. They get this reputation of being surly and ill-tempered and bureaucratic to a ridiculous extreme, but think about how they feel. That's a job just like any other. Most of them have families to go home to.

- TrekBBS mods

And a fictional one:

Guy who Rose marries - or supposedly marries, assuming she's not just using him as a sperm donor - after Jack dies in Titanic. (Not that being married to Kate Winslet would be a bad thing, mind you. But think of that poor sonofabitch and what he has to compete with. And yeah, I know, 'my heart will go on', yadda yadda yadda. But explain the final scene of the movie, then!)

So what are some lower-than-dogshit jobs or roles that you can think of?

 

[Sheep]

Telemarketers and other phone center jobs.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Being an orderly in a nursing home. You get to do all the grunt-level shit no one else wants to do, and take abuse from old people. So I assume.

Also, any job involving food service or retail sales.

 

[ares93]

Bin men, without a doubt. We'd be up to our bloody necks in rubbish without them and they are still treated like crap.

 

[SmoothieX]

It's important to have a job that means something. That's why I manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination.

 

[SeerSGB]

It's important to have a job that means something. That's why I manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination.

Well they do say take a hobby you love and make a career out of it.

Bin men, without a doubt. We'd be up to our bloody necks in rubbish without them and they are still treated like crap.

This is true. I usually have more respect for "manual labor" sort of jobs over office jobs.

Personal Experience: Theater usher. We're (my case, were) paid to keep things clean and running on time, and all we get is blamed cause someone's popcorn isn't exactly right, people just dump their trash any where. Basically we get treated like shit for next to nothing pay.

 

[Kemaiku]

Anyone else have "Thankless Job" from Repo! in their heads now?

 

[Shazam!]

The answer is Traffic Warden

 

[ares93]

The answer is Traffic Warden

I once put a banana in the exhaust pipe of a traffic warden's car. Poor bastard couldn't start the damn thing for an hour.

And no, that's not an euphemism... I was twelve.

EDIT: From personal experience. A mechanic at a shop that repairs vehicles for the emergency services. They expect miracles and are rude when things don't go according to plan. Coppers are especially mean. Its almost as if its my fault i have to replace the entire sodding car because they drive like idiots. And then we get an hour long earful about how the streets are awash with filth and we should do your duties to the public and hurry it up.
I actually quit my last job because of this. Hell, one bloke even recognized me on the street on a Saturday and asked me how the cars are coming along. Gave me a new rant too, might i add.

 

[doubleohfive]

And a fictional one:

Guy who Rose marries - or supposedly marries, assuming she's not just using him as a sperm donor - after Jack dies in Titanic. (Not that being married to Kate Winslet would be a bad thing, mind you. But think of that poor sonofabitch and what he has to compete with. And yeah, I know, 'my heart will go on', yadda yadda yadda. But explain the final scene of the movie, then!)

Rose died. She reunited with Jack and the rest of the people she knew when she knew Jack, which could be argued was the happiest time in her life.

 

[sidious618]

And a fictional one:

Guy who Rose marries - or supposedly marries, assuming she's not just using him as a sperm donor - after Jack dies in Titanic. (Not that being married to Kate Winslet would be a bad thing, mind you. But think of that poor sonofabitch and what he has to compete with. And yeah, I know, 'my heart will go on', yadda yadda yadda. But explain the final scene of the movie, then!)

Rose died. She reunited with Jack and the rest of the people she knew when she knew Jack, which could be argued was the happiest time in her life.

Yeah, but it is kinda sad for her husband of 60 some odd years. Dude got kicked to the curb.

 

[doubleohfive]

LA Parking Enforcement. But then, that's also largely because they can be colossal dicks, too.

 

[doubleohfive]

And a fictional one:

Guy who Rose marries - or supposedly marries, assuming she's not just using him as a sperm donor - after Jack dies in Titanic. (Not that being married to Kate Winslet would be a bad thing, mind you. But think of that poor sonofabitch and what he has to compete with. And yeah, I know, 'my heart will go on', yadda yadda yadda. But explain the final scene of the movie, then!)

Rose died. She reunited with Jack and the rest of the people she knew when she knew Jack, which could be argued was the happiest time in her life.

Yeah, but it is kinda sad for her husband of 60 some odd years. Dude got kicked to the curb.

I don't see why her being with Jack in the afterlife somehow precludes Rose from also having loved her actual husband. I've had several girlfriends in my life and loved each of them to varying degrees; one in particular was quite special to me and always will be. That doesn't mean I didn't love the others.

 

[Kestra]

Eh, it gives the feeling that he's her "one true love" which makes any other relationships look less meaningful.

 

[doubleohfive]

Obviously there are different ways to interpret it. I'm just expounding on what I walked away with at the end of the film.

 

[Kestra]

There can be only one (correct opinion)!

 

[6079SmithW]

Being Jesus. His fellow countrymen condemned Him to execution, no one really listened to Him, one of His best friends betrayed him for cash and another denied even knowing Him. That's pretty thankless.

 

[doubleohfive]

And the fun conversation begins when you ask yourself -- did Jesus do it to be thanked?

 

[6079SmithW]

And the fun conversation begins when you ask yourself -- did Jesus do it to be thanked?

No. It was still pretty thankless nonetheless.

 

[doubleohfive]

No I know what you mean. I wasn't asking you directly or even expecting an answer; merely supposing that it would be an interesting discussion to consider at some point.