Salaries/Job Misconceptions

[winneythepooh7]

The whole median salary thread got me to thinking..........so many people out there think that depending on what we do, we have it easier then other fields, make too much, don't do anything at work, etc. How many of you face this and what are some of the common stereotypes/misconceptions you hear about your work?

[Morgan81]

For what I actually do, I making serious cash. But for what I know I could do, I know I could be doing a lot better.
When I first started, one of my coworkers would bitch NON-STOP, about how we're so underpaid, overworked and everyone sucks and craps on us and... It was so nice to see that dope get fired. :huge:

[winneythepooh7]

My boyfriend definately agrees I am underpaid, but at the same time, will complain that me and a lot of other people don't do "real work" cuz we are not doing manual-construction-type labor. :googly: :googly: :googly: . The best is the debate on who "should" be more tired after a work week.

[capella]

Well not that long ago I read a story in the Orlando Shitinel, ahem, Sentinel that all teachers just sit around and gossip with each other during breaks and planning time and that we could be doing more for our kids if we didn't have a whole hour of plan time every day. We should teach another class each day. :madder:
I mean honestly! As if I don't already grade papers every waking moment and plan on the weekends and call parents at all ungodly times of the day (just so I can reach the stupid #Q%$@$%$ who aren't involved in their kids schoolwork enough to begin with, hence why I have to call home. Oh that's when the #s actually work and it's not just the Target or Walmart #, but that's seriously a whole other rant). Oh and what about all the times I wake up realizing I was teaching metaphor or grading a test in my dreams? Hmm, can I mark that on my sign in sheet in the teacher lounge?
Teachers are really, really one of the most misconcepted (yeah I'm making up words. What? What!) professionals out there. I mean for a freakin' country who loves to pay lipservice... I still only got a 3% raise this year while the school board members felt themselves worthy of 20%. And to top it all off we teachers had to make up all the hours missed due to Hurricanes on a little sheet. I mean we had to document every little second we missed on a "makeup time sheet". I mean WTF? Act of nature!!!! 3 huge hurricanes. Maybe they thought in the horrid 85+ degree humid weather we were just knocking back martinis while school was closed those few days. Not worrying about all the food going bad in the fridge.
And by the way, when I do call parents who are half educated (not the Target and Walmart # leavers) I get serious disrespect. I mean how could their little angel have said Shit in class, surely it was shoot because MY child doesn't say those words. Maybe your teacher ears are too stupid to hear her correctly. Grrrr.... I have an IQ of 129 and freakin' common sense to boot. I wanna scream "Screw you! Your kid said shit! Yeah that's right S-H-I-T!"
If it weren't for the fact that I made less as a journalist and my "maybe one of them will listen and it'll help them" mantra I'd so be job hunting. OK end of rant. :huge:

[LakeJay]

For what I actually do, I making serious cash. But for what I know I could do, I know I could be doing a lot better.
When I first started, one of my coworkers would bitch NON-STOP, about how we're so underpaid, overworked and everyone sucks and craps on us and... It was so nice to see that dope get fired. :huge:

I hear you on thse first two sentences. I have been working at my company for quite a while already and I've seen plenty of people leave and get better paying jobs with less skills than I have. One person who was about par with me left about a year and a half ago and got a 40% pay increase at a new place. Makes me even more pissed because I still have done nothing to leave. :mad:

[labrat2111]

That having an engineering degree = I make buttloads of money

Yeah that's why I live in an apartment over a hundred years old and drive a 16 year old car :googly:

[MollyMe]

I am probably overpaid for "what" I do. I'm an engineer who lately has been getting info from databases. It takes at the most 15 minutes and I might do it two times a day. Anyone can do it.

I work with military and I hate when they complain about how little they make. Bull. Their salary is lower than mine but they get a housing allowance and food allowance, free health care, and they are always getting days off. Funding for civilian programs are being cut left and right to pay for Iraq.

[pisces2473]

I'm definitely overpaid for what I do. But I'm unionized (ugh) so our salaries are inflated.

[WeirdBrake]

People think law students are serious study-hounds with their heads in the books. LOL

[shimmer728]

I think journalists are underpaid in general. It irritates me that assembly-line jobs and other unskilled labor positions pay sometimes twice as much as reporting gigs. That just makes no sense to me.

[shimmer728]

Oh, but as for misconceptions.......some people I've met have actually thought I make good money. I don't know where they got that idea.

[pisces2473]

People think that those who work in a library are dull and have no lives. HA!

[biodork]

My parents were under the impression that I would be making at least 35k after graduation, that I'd get a huge raise. Um HELLO i work for the federal gov't! I'm not in the private sector! That's where the money is.

[GetMeOuttaDC]

My parents were under the impression that I would be making at least 35k after graduation, that I'd get a huge raise. Um HELLO i work for the federal gov't! I'm not in the private sector! That's where the money is.

Just get a contracting job, for a private company contracting to the federal government.

[shimmer728]

People think that those who work in a library are dull and have no lives. HA!

The people who work in the Altoona library are freaking weirdos. When I went to get a library card there (I have a card for the Bedford library, but it's very small and doesn't have much), they demanded a list of personal references! Have you ever heard of that?!

I think they're a special breed, though. :rolleyes:

My parents were under the impression that I would be making at least 35k after graduation, that I'd get a huge raise. Um HELLO i work for the federal gov't! I'm not in the private sector! That's where the money is.

This comment reminded me.......I cannot stand it when my parents try to convince me that I'm actually making good money. In what era are they living?

[pisces2473]

The people who work in the Altoona library are freaking weirdos. When I went to get a library card there (I have a card for the Bedford library, but it's very small and doesn't have much), they demanded a list of personal references! Have you ever heard of that?!

I think they're a special breed, though. :rolleyes:
WTF? Even when I lived in Boston, all I needed was proof of residency for a library card. This was BOSTON with a zillion branches.

[GetMeOuttaDC]

WTF? Even when I lived in Boston, all I needed was proof of residency for a library card. This was BOSTON with a zillion branches.

bizarre. in MA and in VA, I just had to TELL them I was a resident. (OK, so the librarian in MA has known me since I was a year old...)

[shimmer728]

Yeah, the Altoona librarians are definitely the stereotypical school-marmish type, the kind who scold you for returning your books a day late and scowl at you while you're on the Internet, because they know you ain't using it for research. :p

[lilyflower]

My parents were under the impression that I would be making at least 35k after graduation, that I'd get a huge raise. Um HELLO i work for the federal gov't! I'm not in the private sector! That's where the money is.

LOL, and that's one of the misconceptions about our field. In science you make virtually NOTHING if you work for the government but a good salary if you work in the private sector.

I personally love people have no idea how expensive research is. Forget about the salaries researchers get paid - the basic equipment to do our jobs is ridiculously ridiculously expensive.

[biodork]

I personally love people have no idea how expensive research is. Forget about the salaries researchers get paid - the basic equipment to do our jobs is ridiculously ridiculously expensive.

Yeah like $100,000 Taqman machines...

Oh and yesterday, my spill of a bottle of buffer that my co-worker called a "$100 mistake" and I was like "oh you mean like $50" and he was like "no that little bottle costs $300" and then I said "yeah that would be a $100 mistake"

heh

[lilyflower]

Yeah like $100,000 Taqman machines...

Oh and yesterday, my spill of a bottle of buffer that my co-worker called a "$100 mistake" and I was like "oh you mean like $50" and he was like "no that little bottle costs $300" and then I said "yeah that would be a $100 mistake"

heh

Exactly! Probably 99% of the time the cheapest part of an hour of research is the researcher.

[biodork]

Exactly! Probably 99% of the time the cheapest part of an hour of research is the researcher.

Even more reason to go private...

[mishl982]

Are you two gonna turn every thread into a science one? :p

My parents were under the impression that I would be making at least 35k after graduation, that I'd get a huge raise. Um HELLO i work for the federal gov't! I'm not in the private sector! That's where the money is. I don't know which is worse, your parents thinking you should be making more, or your parents thinking you make too much and expect for you to buy things for them. :googly:

[lilyflower]

Even more reason to go private...

Basically. Oh, and that's another misconception - you can understand all the science in the world but if you can't perform lab procedures as well (which involves a decent degree of manual dexterity) then there's absolutely no way you can work in a lab. People forget about the physicality involved - run a high number of plates/pipette all day and it seriously leads to sore muscles.

[biodork]

Basically. Oh, and that's another misconception - you can understand all the science in the world but if you can't perform lab procedures as well (which involves a decent degree of manual dexterity) then there's absolutely no way you can work in a lab. People forget about the physicality involved - run a high number of plates/pipette all day and it seriously leads to sore muscles.

And adding to my back problems! My boss has let me go home early before because I came in with stiff neck. I think my arms are starting to get really strong from sitting at the bench for hours (although my bf makes fun of me because I show him the motions of using a pipette and he says it looks like i'm jerking someone off).

Also, I find it easier to figure out the lab procedures than some of the details of the project

What colleges really need to do is have courses for science students that just shows you lab procedures. Even though you get a little exposure to some of them in labs that are associated with classes, it would be better to have a specific CLASS that focused on lab procedures. So many people (like myself) come out of college with science knowledge but like you said, if you can't do the lab procedures, you are pretty much out of luck.

[lilyflower]

And adding to my back problems! My boss has let me go home early before because I came in with stiff neck. I think my arms are starting to get really strong from sitting at the bench for hours (although my bf makes fun of me because I show him the motions of using a pipette and he says it looks like i'm jerking someone off).

Also, I find it easier to figure out the lab procedures than some of the details of the project

What colleges really need to do is have courses for science students that just shows you lab procedures. Even though you get a little exposure to some of them in labs that are associated with classes, it would be better to have a specific CLASS that focused on lab procedures. So many people (like myself) come out of college with science knowledge but like you said, if you can't do the lab procedures, you are pretty much out of luck.

Couldn't agree more. I got my first job because I could run an ELISA, if you don't have the basic skills you can't make it in ANY lab no matter how routine the testing. To go into a research field you have to have the skills AND the knowledge. I just spent the last fifteen minutes calculating dilutions to get concentrations in the picogram range.

Oh, and my neck is killing me too!

[biodork]

I just spent the last fifteen minutes calculating dilutions to get concentrations in the picogram range.


Man I HATE those types of calculations-especially when I usually work with ug and then have to switch to pico and everything I've memorized has to be reworked a little. My brain takes a bit to catch on heh (and i'm a visual learner, so it doesn't help when a co-worker tries to EXPLAIN it to me...i'm like NO just write it down!)

[lilyflower]

Man I HATE those types of calculations-especially when I usually work with ug and then have to switch to pico and everything I've memorized has to be reworked a little. My brain takes a bit to catch on heh (and i'm a visual learner, so it doesn't help when a co-worker tries to EXPLAIN it to me...i'm like NO just write it down!)

The worst is when your stock comes in mg/mL and you need some really really tiny amount (like anything pg/mL) or like 2ug/mL. Because then you're sitting there trying to calculate a dilution that doesn't have you pipetting like .018 uL or something. Which is when you usually have to add those lovely initial dilutions in

[blueyes]

We're underpaid for our industry (env. consulting), but on the grander scale of things, consultants are ridiculously overpaid for what they do. There is very little that a consultant does that a normal, moderately intelligent, semi-trained, mostly conscious human being couldn't do. The only edge that a consultant really has over a client is that the consultant has the expertise and the connections. And the consultant's ego - the arrogance of it all is nauseating and it makes me even sicker to know I have gotten into that mindset when at work.

Our company just needs to realize that if we don't feel suitably compensated for our time, effort, and expertise - we outta here for a company that will suitably compensate us for our time, effort, and expertise.

[MollyMe]

That's like my job too. They will hire consultants to do a project and most of the work comes from the workers.