Have you ever heard somebody’s job title and wondered what it is they even do all day? Some jobs just seem useless, either to outside observers or even to the people hired to work them. Some jobs are crucial to the organization; others are average, and some jobs may be just an accessory or unnecessary. Here are 17 jobs people hesitate to admit they find completely useless. Is your job here? Continue reading and let us know in the comments!
1. Sorting Files
One person shared, “My very first job. I’m a toxicologist and was hired by a very big private laboratory. My main job was to sort and redirect case files depending on the time at which the results came out. THE DOCUMENTS WERE SENT TO ME IN EXCEL. I was getting paid to just click sort by date descendingly.”
Another user replied, “I had to do something similar to this when I was doing summer help at a steel factory. They paid me $14 an hour to sit there for eight hours and just move files to different folders and rename them. Sometimes, I would pull weeds and paint walls, but that was about it.”
Sorting Files
Another added, “Working for a big company, one of the top 20 in the world, I am realizing how bad people are with basic computer tasks… like really bad!”
2. Teachers Who Don’t Teach
“My math teacher who tells me to log in to Pearson and then disappears,” one person stated.
“I dropped a university class this term because the week 3 assignment said to ‘look up how to do this on Google, Stackexchange, or ChatGPT.’ I’m not paying 1400 dollars to be taught by an AI chat bot, [lol],” another one shared.
“As a teacher myself, trust me, these are the kinds of colleagues we can’t stand,” one Redditor added.
3. Management Consultant
One person stated, “Mine. I’m a management consultant, and while I have quite a bit of industry knowledge and experience, my clients either have the same knowledge or they aren’t willing to accept change. Often times, my firm gets paid a lot of money to make very little difference strategically and/or operationally. Where we do add value is in implementing enterprise-wide software solutions. Why do I stay? The money is pretty good given the futility.”
“I heard from an acquaintance of mine who is a management consultant that most of the time, people just want to hear their ideas out of someone else’s mouth and will pay you to do it so that their peers will be more amenable to the idea,” another user replied.
One commenter added, “Nothing like a bunch of 20-somethings telling a bunch of C-Suit executives how to run a business.”
4. Pet Psychic
One user said, “Our Golden Retriever was getting joint therapy (shoulder injury, worked with a vet, dog did swimming three days a week in a heated pool where he could exercise without putting weight on the joint, also did some exercises, is now fine. The place also did laser therapy and acupuncture for dogs.) Someone said something about ‘Hudson’, which is our dog’s name, only they were talking to another dog. ‘Oh,’ they said, ‘That’s the dog psychic’s dog.’ Apparently, you could find out what your dog was thinking. I know what my dog is thinking. Most of the time, he either wants what I’m eating or he wants me to throw the ball.”
Another Redditor replied, “My cousin is a ‘pet psychic.’ She’s got quite the following on IG, a fancy website, and even a podcast. She claims to receive telepathic messages from your furry friends. She can even talk to reptiles and horses now! And she’s not horsing around; apparently, each species requires a specific training. I’m not sure if she’s delusional or just scamming people, but either way, she’s making a lot of $$$.”
5. Elevator Attendant
One person shared, “I’m so old. I remember when they had these in department stores. Whilst shopping with my grandma one day, we got in an elevator, and the attendant asked if we wanted the second floor. My grandma replies, ‘Why yes, how did you know?’ He says, ‘Ma’am, there’s only two floors, and we’re currently on the first one.’”
“They’re from an era of manually operated elevators. You used to have to close the doors manually, then use a lever to control the elevator and stop it just right at the floor you wanted. It was tricky and very dangerous if you got it wrong, so you had an elevator operator whose job it was to run the elevator,” the second one replied.
6. Telemarketers
“Telemarketers, I don’t know a single person who has actually purchased something from a telemarketer. Maybe it’s something the older generation does, but everyone hates them and immediately hangs up on them around me,” one person stated.
“I worked as a telemarketer for State Farm when I got out of high school, and in 8 months, I had one person actually let me give her a quote. It was my aunt,” another Redditor replied.
One commenter added, “I remember when I was 12 I told this random telemarketer to get a life because at that point we were getting like 5-10 calls a day. She called me back and cussed me out. To this day, I think it’s so funny.”
7. Sign Spinners
Sign spinners, or sign twirlers, are people who hold a sign and stand on the street to get attention and possibly a customer for the business that hired them.
“The job only exists because the businesses want to put a sign there, but it’s cheaper or the only legal option to hire a person to hold the sign and stand there,” one person shared.
“That was my job for one summer in college. I got to hang out outside and listen to music all day. But I always thought it was weird that they were paying some guy $15/hr to do the job of a stick and a piece of duct tape,” another commenter replied.
One Redditor added, “I had a job like that, except I didn’t even have to hold the sign. They said I could just lean it against the front of the store and stand next to it.”
8. Paparazzi
Everybody knows what the paparazzi jobs are doing—stalking people, taking pictures of them, and making money.
“You know why paparazzi make a ton of money and keep doing what they are doing? Because people keep buying their photos to put in magazines that people keep buying. Stop buying the magazines and watching the shows that feature their photos, and the paparazzi will go away. Easy peasy,” one person said.
Another commenter replied, “Scum of the earth.”
One user added, “They’re just filling a demand. I blame and judge those that consume the media they produce.”
9. Bathroom Attendants
One person said, “I don’t need somebody in there pulling paper towels out of the dispenser just to hand it to me and compel me to tip them.” The second one replied, “I never saw this until I was visiting Ireland a few years back, and man, was it annoying. It’s bad enough there’s a guy standing at the sinks watching you have a leak, but then he wants a euro or two for handing you a towel to dry your hands.”
Another commenter said, “They’re essentially bathroom security guards. They prevent people from doing drugs and having relations in the bathroom.”
10. Patent Trolls
One user said, “People that apply for Patents. And then just hold onto them forever with no intent of making the thing. And then when somebody does make the thing, oh-boy, you owe me money because I own the rights to that thing! It’s one of those weird ‘Do nothing and hope to eventually get a big payout’ jobs, like Domain Squatters.”
Another commenter stated, “There should be a law that makes the patent public domain if the owner doesn’t actually use it. It would probably accelerate the progress of humanity by a big factor.”
11. Shop Security
One person said, “Shop security—in most cases, they can’t legally do anything but just watch.”
Another user replied, “Depends on the type of security they invest in. Security guards who stand at the door all day in a uniform—yes you’re right, in most cases, they’re used as a deterrent. However, store detectives go undercover and try to blend in with other customers (in their own clothes, browsing stock, and carrying a basket/trolley) so that they go unnoticed. Those people are allowed to tackle shoplifters and actually do something about it.”
One commenter said, “Security is used primarily for insurance and tax reasons. You have to show that you’re actively trying to prevent and deter theft and accidents.”
12. Car Dealerships
“Just let me buy a car from the factory. Your job is to get me to pay as much as possible. So useless and so annoying,” one person said.
“It’s an ancient law that mandated dealerships, so you’d have a guaranteed mechanic to work on it. Obsolete since auto shops are a thing,” another user replied.
“Car salespeople, realtors, stock brokers. They are pure middlemen who produce nothing for society other than putting cash in their own pocket,” another added.
13. Health Insurance Operators
One person said, “While it’s a billion-dollar industry, health insurance. Literally, they exist to prevent you from cashing out on what you paid into. They have little to no medical knowledge, make everything more expensive, and exist solely as a useless middleman to make themselves rich.”
Another person shared, “Exactly. They just refused to cover my medication that they suggested several years ago to replace another medication that they did not want to cover at the time. This time, they didn’t even offer a replacement, just refused to cover my meds without any explanation. It’s an absurd world where the insurance company makes decisions on my healthcare instead of my doctor.”
14. Homeopath
“I’ll do you one better. a few weeks I saw an ad for a homeopathic veterinary doctor. I feel bad for the animals unfortunate enough to find themselves as patients,” one person shared.
“Ugh. Literally, the only possible benefit homeopathy could have due to the placebo effect. Pets ain’t even benefiting from that,” the second replied.
15. Reiki Healer
One person stated, “I knew a lady, very nice and caring, but off the wall hippie, who would charge people to hold her hand over them and transmit ‘healing energy.’ She also offered long-distance reiki where she promised to send you healing energy from her couch and would even set appointments to do just that.”
Another user added, “The funny thing is anyone can just open a Reiki clinic and call themselves an expert/shaman. If you go to school for it, you’re just another victim of the grift.”
16. Middle Management
“Most middle management positions. Their job is literally to take things from above and send them below and to have someone to shift blame to.” one person expressed.
“Don’t forget all the useless meetings that they organize. I bet redundant managers everywhere were really sweating for their jobs when everyone was WFH,” another one added.
Another commenter said, “You clearly have no idea what management does. Or worked on a team that was poorly managed.”
17. Hedge Fund Managers
One Reddit user said, “They produce no goods or services that actually make the world a better place. They are gamblers and leeches on society.”
Another user replied, “I’m convinced that half the time, even the news articles about stocks are [intentionally] misleading in order to get uninformed people to bet against the winning play.”
Source: Reddit.
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