I hate it when people use the term “real job” to describe a certain type of employment. Like, what do people even mean when they say this? If some jobs are “real jobs,” are the rest of the jobs out there “fake jobs?” How about “unreal jobs?” “Pretend jobs?”
I’ve sometimes asked people to describe what they meant by “real job” and each time, without exception, the person found themselves at a loss for words. Being full-time seemed to have something to do with it, but not all full-time jobs were “real jobs.” Paying out a lot of money also seemed to make certain kinds of jobs “real,” but that wasn’t the whole story. Was a “real job” one where you took your responsibilities seriously? Not really, since I know a lot of people who don’t take their so-called “real jobs” seriously at all. Or was it a job that leads to a bigger career? That description falls short too, since there are plenty of internships and part-time jobs that lead to fulfilling careers without fitting the “real job” category.
The more you dissect the term “real job” the less sense it makes. That’s because it implies that some jobs matter and some jobs don’t.
And, unfortunately, all too often that’s also how we view the people who do them.
All Jobs Are Real—Otherwise, We Wouldn’t Pay People to Do Them
As many of you know, I’ve worked a lot of different jobs since I was in middle school. These jobs ranged from those that society typically considers mid- to high-status (university teacher, marketing assistant in an office environment) to those that society considers very low status (farmhand, preschool janitor). Working those jobs taught me a lot about different kinds of work, different kinds of work environments, and different kinds of people, and those skills have proven invaluable in making me the person I am today.
I also, without exception, took every single one of those jobs because I wanted money. Usually that money went toward paying my bills, but it often went toward fun stuff too, like using my middle-school dog-walking money to buy Nintendo 64 games from Electronics Boutique. Having money has allowed me to carve out my own place in the adult world where I don’t have to rely on my parents for basic sustenance, and that’s allowed me to do a lot of things I wouldn’t have been able to do if I’d been stuck at home with no money.
This leads to the following conclusion: People work jobs so they can get money to do things.
Jobs, meanwhile, exist because some people need work to be done and are able to pay other people to do it. Finance companies needs stockbrokers to buy and sell stocks, steel mills need workers to make steel, construction companies need carpenters and stone masons to build houses, and Subway needs employees to make sandwiches for hungry people. In each of these cases there are demands for a certain product or service (stock trading, steel, new houses, meatball subs), a company that makes money by selling that product or service, and workers who create or do it. In the strictest sense, a job is just an opportunity for people to make money—and there are countless ways to make money in this complex and multifaceted world we live in.
So why should we shame people by treating them as if their jobs don’t matter, or as if their jobs aren’t quote-unquote “real” ones?
But What About the Status That Comes with Certain Jobs???
This next section is really, REALLY important.
Besides money, there’s a lot of other reasons people work certain jobs. For example…
- Because they find the work fun and interesting.
- Because they want to gain experience they can use to get a different type of job later on.
- Because the job doesn’t have a lot of stress, which allows them to harness more energy for outside of work.
- Because the job allows them to network and meet people.
- Because they see the job as temporary while they wait for another opportunity.
- Because they feel settled in a routine and don’t want to leave.
I would argue that these are all REALLY good reasons to work—I’ve worked jobs for every single one of these reasons, even the last one. (The Day Job I have now meets almost all of these qualifications, but I won’t tell you which one it doesn’t!)
All that aside, there’s another reason certain people work certain jobs that’s pretty shallow and terrible:
- Because they want the perceived social status that goes along with that job.
I’m ashamed to admit that I used to go after certain kinds of jobs and avoid others because of the social status they carried. This was mostly after I finished college, when I felt like I had to have a sit-down desk-job that involved more brainpower than physical power. This mindset seemed to make sense at the time—I was a college graduate now, damn it, so wasn’t it time for me to be moving on to a new stage of my life where I could do more advanced work and garner appropriate status ?
The reality, though, is that most people’s job qualifications don’t suddenly change the day they graduate, and there certainly wasn’t much I was qualified for at age 22 or 23. I missed out on a lot of opportunities early on because I was afraid of how other people might view me if I took a job that didn’t require a college degree, one that was only part-time, or one that was traditionally viewed as blue-collar. Fortunately, though, that mindset melted away pretty fast when my student loan payments came due, though it took many years and many different kinds of jobs to completely rid myself of it.
The social status certain jobs carry exists separately from how much those jobs pay—for example, plumbers make a hell of a lot of money but no one considers plumber to be a high-status job. Meanwhile, a lot of entry-level office workers barely make anything, yet because they work in shiny buildings and wear nice clothes to work, people tend to associate them with comfortable middle-class lifestyles, making it easier to answer the “What do you do?” question at parties.
Take a second to think about some jobs that people typically consider high-status: doctors, lawyers, CEOs, and the like. Now take another minutes to think of some jobs that people typically consider low-status: janitors, McDonald’s workers, dishwashers, etc. What preconceived notions do you have about people in the first category? How about the second category?
The reality, though, is that once again, people work a lot of so-called “low-status jobs” for the reasons I mentioned above (gaining experience, as a temporary gig, because they’re low stress, etc.), and this includes a lot of creative people. These individuals don’t fit the stereotypes of being lazy, poor, dirty, stupid, in trouble with the law, or any number of other derogatory accusations. Remember: a job is just a way for people to earn money, and it exists separately from the person doing it.
On the flip side, there are plenty of people with high-status jobs who are selfish, mean, lazy, abusive, and all-around terrible people. Just look at Harvey Weinstein, or Donald Trump. Or consider my Crooked Boss from my old Office Day Job, who ran his own company and made a lot of money doing it, but took advantage of immigrants by not paying them overtime, ignored US tax law, and once refused to give a $200 pay advance to an employee whose Paypal account had been hacked.
That’s not very high-status, is it?
Judge People By Their Character, Not Their Day Jobs
I’ll borrow a line from Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech where King says that we should judge people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I’ll tweak that a bit to say that we also shouldn’t judge people by the jobs they work, but should once again look at the content of their character to see what kind of person they really are. And this goes for people and jobs across the board.
If you’re thinking about what kind of job you need to keep your bills paid and what direction you want to be moving in, consider the factors I listed above and make the decision that feels best for you. No one should make major life decisions involving a job or career because of social status, because social status isn’t worth anything, is all about how narrow-minded people perceive you, and won’t really move you closer to anything meaningful.
And don’t ever use the phrase “real job” again.
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