Quick to judge..?
'What do you do' is often an opening gambit when meeting a stranger. It's deemed to be a safe, fairly neutral way of starting a conversation and getting to know someone. But how influenced are we by someone's reply, how much difference does it make if they say they're a brain surgeon, nuclear scientist, cleaner or supermarket worker? How impressed are we by their answer? Interestingly many job titles have changed over recent years, presumably to deliver greater importance and gravitas to the roles: the use of ambiguous words like consultant, operative and adviser are now used liberally in job descriptions. Sometimes it's impossible to guess how powerful or senior the role is and some businesses prefer to keep it that way, wanting to maintain a more level playing field, with less apparent hierarchy. I know of at least one multi-millionaire businessman who refers to himself as a grocer! And then there are those less common, perhaps more unusual jobs. If someone says they're a taxidermist, funeral director or even a hypnotherapist it can cause others to pause and be unsure as to whether they're impressed or not! Discovering what someone does typically results in us digesting that information and forming an opinion. For example, if someone's says they're a stay-athome parent do we automatically reflect on their circumstances, presuming them to be wealthy, privileged or lazy? Or if someone starts a cleaning job do we speculate that they must be desperately trying to make ends meet, a comment I read on social media, prompting the writing of this article.
