Let’s face the music, friends. Humans in general are…well…kinda dumb.
And that stupidity definitely shines through when you think about all the jobs out there that have no good reason to be jobs.
These AskReddit users share what jobs they believe exist solely because of our stupidity. What do you think?
1. Ummm
“Met a guy once – his job was putting dirt on potatoes. Somebody along the supply chain washed them pretty well by the time they got to the grocery. People didn’t trust the clean potatoes. So one guy had to put dirt back on them to make them more authentic.”
2. Crossing guards…kind of
“On crowded nights, Disney Springs has employees working at crosswalks at the intersections from the overflow parking lots to tell people when they can cross. They’re normal intersections that have lights telling you when you can cross. People just don’t acknowledge them and will try to run across oncoming traffic.”
3. Unbelievable
“Traffic police in Baltimore.
I was there this summer and the gridlock was atrocious. People push their way into the intersection, the light turns red, and they are stuck there until the light is about to turn red in the opposite direction, at which point those people push their way into the intersection and the cycle perpetuates. During rush hour, they have police standing in the intersections–not to direct traffic, though, simply to hold their hand up when the light turns red so that people don’t push their way into the intersection. Basically, a human has to stand in traffic for hours JUST to tell the drivers what the lights mean. It was unbelievable.”
4. Don’t do that, please
“My husband is a Labor and Employment attorney for a massive company and gives monthly seminars to everyone there to not send penis pics/sexually harass one another.
And like clockwork someone in that room does it within a couple weeks.”
5. Sounds like a good gig
“I have a side gig doing data entry. I earn $25 USD/hr copying and pasting stuff from a webpage in to an excel spreadsheet, while doing some light formatting.”
6. Stair location expert
“I had a temp job in a posh department store a few years ago. The escalator going down from floor 2 to floor 1 had to be taken out to be replaced which took a month. Despite the many, many notices and the signs directing people to the lifts & stairs, a member of staff had to stand at the top of the closed escalator just to direct the public to the lifts and stairs.
It broke peoples’ brains and it was worrying to see how many tried to get past the barriers, or got pissed and shouty because there was no escalator. Like holy sh-t how did people cope before moving stairs were invented.”
7. Litter control
“I remember when I was a kid my Mom used to take my brother and I to this park across town.
One time I had a wrapper from a piece of gum in my pocket and I walked to the trash to throw it away. A police officer happened to be just patrolling the parking lot and saw me throw the wrapper away. He came over to me and told me I did a good job by doing that and he gave me a coupon for a free ice cream at the DQ. I told him I was just doing what I thought everyone else was doing. He told me that wasn’t the case.
I don’t get how hard it is to just throw something in the trash.”
8. Good work!
“At my university we have a person who’s job is to stand by the garbage area and make sure people dispose of their trash appropriately”
9. A necessary occupation
“Tier 1 IT support.
Did you try turning it off and on again? Sure you did. Could you blow into the cable to make sure there is no dust in the connec– Oh the cable was loose? How surprising! Have a good day.”
10. I need one of these
“Psychic detectives: because why trust a professional detective to be intuitive?”
11. Don’t touch those
“I work in an aquarium and we have what I can best describe as floor guides, which are just staff that interact with people and share interesting info about the exhibits. Realistically while that is part of the job the main reason for these people being out there is to tell people to keep their hands out of the Stingray and Turtle tanks because for some reason beyond my comprehension people don’t naturally get this concept.
At least once a day I hear “well why cant I touch the stingrays” and so far my all time favorite outcome of that question was a kid who said “They have the word Sting in their name”. I have wanted to say that so many times, but am unable.”
12. Safety first
“The guys who install rubber padding around telephone and light poles so when we walk and text, we dont break our noses walking straight into them.”
13. Smokey
“In great ‘murica there was/is a whole campaign where designers, marketers, PR staff, mascots and what not were organized to create a bear with a hat, to teach people not to set fire to forests.”
14. I wouldn’t complain if I were you
“Attorney.
90% of our work is spent on 10% of our clients. Then they blame us for getting in trouble after doing what we told them not to do.
Basically stupid people keep us employed.”
15. I’m lookin’ at you
“All the jobs at MLM companies.
(Instagram ladies selling flat tummy teas with ‘entrepreneur’ written in your bio… I am looking at you!).”
