Occupations that need to die

[reallyscrued]

Do you know the ins and outs of realestate law? I sure dont! It is worth the few % for the work they do and their knowledge (if you find a good one)

...what the hell makes you think I need to know the ins and outs of realestate law?

I want to sell MY house...which means I need to look up the 20 or 30 codes that are associated with MY lot. What exactly do I gain by paying someone for knowing knowledge that is completely useless to me?

And there is no such thing as "a good one".

I challenge you this: describe a "good" car salesman to me.

 

[Capt Caveman]

...what the hell makes you think I need to know the ins and outs of realestate law?

I want to sell MY house...which means I need to look up the 20 or 30 codes that are associated with MY lot. What exactly do I gain by paying someone for knowing knowledge that is completely useless to me?

And there is no such thing as "a good one".

I challenge you this: describe a "good" car salesman to me.

Thankfully, I have a good one that has sold two of my homes when I relocated out of state.

 

[herm0016]

...what the hell makes you think I need to know the ins and outs of realestate law?

I want to sell MY house...which means I need to look up the 20 or 30 codes that are associated with MY lot. What exactly do I gain by paying someone for knowing knowledge that is completely useless to me?

And there is no such thing as "a good one".

I challenge you this: describe a "good" car salesman to me.

my agent, who is awesome, helped me navigate a strange zoning law that was preventing me from getting a loan, prevented me from entering into a bad deal during a sellers bankruptcy, that she found out about before a title search and before the sellers told us. She even helped me get a house up to par for an inspection by supplying all the materials to replace broken switches and outlets. she worked very hard for me, and never ended up with a dime. she taught me a lot about the market and the local real-estate laws. I ended up not getting either of the homes i bid on because I like unique properties and do not have a lot of cash laying about.

so yes, there are good ones.

 

[Spungo]

my agent, who is awesome

My agent (to buy) was a seasoned pro and she was married to a contractor. She knew lots of stuff about construction and what things cost. We walked into one place and the realtor noticed things like the bathroom had the wrong kind of paint and they used crown molding along the lower edge of the walls. Her input was extremely valuable. Realtors are still useful people.

 

[PenguinPower]

Tort lawyers
Okay, let's admit some lawyers have a purpose. If you're falsely accused of a crime, you want a good one on your side. However, I think we can all admit that tort lawyers, those who engage in civil suits, have zero net benefit to society. You know the ones, the ambulance chasers, copyright and patent trolls, the corporate suits that try to silence criticism. There's a special place in hell for this bunch.

Telemarketers
Someone must be buying something from them. Otherwise it wouldn't be economically viable for them. Either way they're annoying as hell. Always some Indian guy who wants to clean my ducts. We can land robots on Mars but the phone company still hasn't figured out how to blacklist them. Of course then there's the worst telemarketer of all: the junk faxer. Using your paper and toner for their advertising. We used to have a big stack of these on the machine every morning at the store.

HR representatives & HR Gurus
I hate the word "human resources" because it really does make you feel no different than a steel ingot or bundle of paper. These folks go out of their way to make sure you're resume never gets looked at by anyone, ever. Then when you do get the job they punish you by sending you to conferences dreamed up by some HR guru. No, I would not like to learn how my skill comfort zone affects my productivity chi.

Civil Servants
There was a thing in the paper yesterday about how public sector workers make on average 12% more than those in the private sector. The list making over $100k also ballooned this year. Their response? Well, $100k is not really that much money and the bar is too low. Really? When the average wage for all Canadians is only $48,000? Yet it's never enough? You really don't understand how undeserving they are until you have to work with government employees on a daily basis. Lazy, confused, unaccountable, and useless. Stereotype is 100% true. I'll call them to ask about a crash on the highway. "What crash?" You know the ones you're guys were just talking about on the radio. "I don't see anything". It's right there, I just want you to zoom in a bit. "Oh, right". You're tax dollars "hard" at work. If they laid off half the buggers, there'd still be too many sucking at the teat.

MBAs in charge of creative projects
That big blockbuster movie or video game suck donkey balls? Probably because it was made in a boardroom with suits calling the shots. They're more worried about the bottom line and making it appeal to as many demographics as possible. The result? It flops, bad. Maybe Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom were right because this seems to be the method of today. Then again sometimes it's best to trust in the talents and judgement of the real creative folks.

Traditional HR is already in a tailspin...should hit the ground by 2020. Those who don't adapt will find themselves unemployed and without any marketable skills.

 

[Imp]

Civil Servants
There was a thing in the paper yesterday about how public sector workers make on average 12% more than those in the private sector. The list making over $100k also ballooned this year. Their response? Well, $100k is not really that much money and the bar is too low. Really? When the average wage for all Canadians is only $48,000? Yet it's never enough? You really don't understand how undeserving they are until you have to work with government employees on a daily basis. Lazy, confused, unaccountable, and useless. Stereotype is 100% true. I'll call them to ask about a crash on the highway. "What crash?" You know the ones you're guys were just talking about on the radio. "I don't see anything". It's right there, I just want you to zoom in a bit. "Oh, right". You're tax dollars "hard" at work. If they laid off half the buggers, there'd still be too many sucking at the teat.

That study you're referring to was from a right-wing lobbyist -- oh sorry, I mean "think tank".

Also, $100k is a LOT more than average and nothing to sneeze at, but it has not kept with inflation. The $100k benchmark has been around since 1996, is$100k in 1996 the same as in 2013, 17 years later? Using the Rule of 70, any investment would have doubled in 17 years at an interest rate of 4% (mediocre) compounded annually. Traditional public servants (non public corporation, just ministries) don't get to negotiate pay, they're usually on a scale that increases on an annual basis until you hit the cap. What you're seeing are people who have stayed on long enough that they got incremented over the arbitrary $100k threshold.

Average wage at $48k probably includes all the outliers making millions and all the people stuck with minimum wage shit jobs that amount to $25k/year. You're also taking the upper point of public sector wages, then comparing it to the average of the nation-wide annual wage...

When you call in about a crash, you're probably talking to an admin assistant routing calls. If you do get to the department in charge of accidents, it takes time for information to trickle down and people have different areas of responsibility. These areas are also geographically huge and you can't keep track of everything. And if you're talking about the Greater Toronto Area, there are dozens of live traffic cameras with blind areas and a couple thousand kilometers of highway, some areas with 16 lanes across.

You can also make the EXACT same complaints abour private sector call centers who make minimum wage, so......? Ever try calling your telco and getting routed to India?

As a public sector worker, I can tell you that there are a LOT of lazy fucks in the organization and stupidly inefficient processes and procedures. I couldn't get one asswipe to scan me 6 pages last week -- no, he wanted me to make a 3 hour trip to/fro to get it in person.

There's also a lot of bullshit internal politics and the "public corporations" are complete bullshit because they're paid for by tax dollars, yet they still get private sector style bonuses and compensation. The nepotism is also huge in these corporations. Civil/public servants that work for ministries usually don't, and managers top out relatively low. Meanwhile, the public corporations have little oversight and are probably buddies of the politicans and lobbyists: see ORNGE, E-Health, PRESTO, etc.

In short, you're mad at the wrong people and wrong things. And if you're in Ontario, we already "outsource" most of the work to private corporations. All your highways are likely maintained by private companies with a small permanent staff and a bunch of contract/part-timers who get treated like shit.


Edit:
Here's your source:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/0...-sector-counterparts-fraser-institute-report/
By the Fraser Institute:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Institute
"...described as politically conservative and right-libertarian."

Good line from article:
In 2011, a survey on the same topic by the Canadian Union of Public Employees found a difference of only about 0.05% in favour of the public sector.

No bias on either side... Right?

 

[Meghan54]

Teachers -- most of them don't do anything

And I guess you're a prime example of the result of that, right?

 

[tokie]

Tax preparers, people need to learn how to do their own taxes, and software makes it a joke now.

Good one. It amazes me that places like H&R Block even exist today.

I guess once all the old fogeys die off then we can focus on significantly reducing useless people in the service industries.

 

[DrPizza]

I've got some bad news about salespeople at Best Buy - it appears to be spreading. I was at Home Depot the other day, and my wife called my attention over to some pressure washers. I was looking at them for about 10 seconds when a salesperson said, "like these pressure washers? They're top of the line. They don't make them better than this." For the sake of entertainment, since it was an obvious sales line and he was full of shit, I grilled him about pressure washers and what made that particular $299 pressure washer so good as to be called "top of the line." A couple of tough questions later, he said, "well, I don't have a pressure washer." Another question later, I finally got him to admit that he didn't know much about pressure washers.

His response to why this 2.3 gallon per minute pressure washer was better than a 4 gpm pressure washer: "it saves water" was when I couldn't hold back laughter & tipped my hand that he was an idiot.

edit: but, it scares me. What if HD starts getting staffed by people who aren't knowledgeable about products they're recommending (a few of their staff seem like retired from the field types of guys who are knowledgeable, e.g., one of their electric guys) and are simply pushing sales of items that help their bottom line. "Well, you could use a regular switch to replace the switch you have, but if you buy this costs 3 times as much because it's a 3 way switch, it's better. You can feel the difference in quality, because it's heavier, so obviously better made."

 

[Mixolydian]

I've got some bad news about salespeople at Best Buy - it appears to be spreading. I was at Home Depot the other day, and my wife called my attention over to some pressure washers. I was looking at them for about 10 seconds when a salesperson said, "like these pressure washers? They're top of the line. They don't make them better than this." For the sake of entertainment, since it was an obvious sales line and he was full of shit, I grilled him about pressure washers and what made that particular $299 pressure washer so good as to be called "top of the line." A couple of tough questions later, he said, "well, I don't have a pressure washer." Another question later, I finally got him to admit that he didn't know much about pressure washers.

His response to why this 2.3 gallon per minute pressure washer was better than a 4 gpm pressure washer: "it saves water" was when I couldn't hold back laughter & tipped my hand that he was an idiot.

edit: but, it scares me. What if HD starts getting staffed by people who aren't knowledgeable about products they're recommending (a few of their staff seem like retired from the field types of guys who are knowledgeable, e.g., one of their electric guys) and are simply pushing sales of items that help their bottom line. "Well, you could use a regular switch to replace the switch you have, but if you buy this costs 3 times as much because it's a 3 way switch, it's better. You can feel the difference in quality, because it's heavier, so obviously better made."

Fact: 99% of salespeople are morons.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Occupations that need to die

I vote for whatever the OP does for a living...

 

[AznAnarchy99]

The library at my school has been trying to get rid of all of us at helpdesk for years now so now there's only 2-3 full time helpdesk left and 2-3 part timers. Then they complain about stuff breaking down and we're not fixing it fast enough. Grr. Im passive-aggressive so I let people who complain after voting to cut us back the last people I help.

 

[cubby1223]

Salesmen will never go away because they are necessary for businesses to survive.

Like someone might say "why do I need a salesman when I can just go onto Amazon and find what I want?" The simple answer is, "because Amazon does not employ the world's population."

 

[xeemzor]

Not sure it need to die per say but the banking industry needs to change. It's turned into a leech upon modern society and now have assets representing about 65% of the GDP: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m.../six-largest-banks-getting-bigger-brown-said/. They are so big that they make a mockery of democracy.

Do we really want our best and brightest going into finance insteady of something like STEM? We need REAL reform of these institutions. This issue is one of the biggest causes of the increasing wealth divide in America.

Full disclosure, I work in the finance industry.

 

[Mixolydian]

I vote for whatever the OP does for a living...

I'm guessing OP doesn't "do" anything.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

It's 2013. Here are my thoughts on occupations that need to go the way of the dodo:

Real estate agents
Travel agents
Sales associates in retail stores (i.e. salespeople at Best Buy, GAP, etc)
Any salesperson who sells products where they do not originally manufacture them

What do you think? These occupations are inefficient and a waste of money.

The first 3, I agree to a certain extent.

The last one, not so much. I work for Xerox as a "solutions specialist" ie: putting together workflow solutions, document management solutions, backfile conversion solutions, etc. While the customer could definitely buy most (some manufacturers only sell via "resellers" or the channel) of the individual pieces of the solutions themselves, the value my team and I provide is the resulting combination and configuration.

Sure the customer might pay less in $ terms for the solution if they researched, purchased individually, and implemented themselves, but what is the employee time spent on this project worth to the company? Often times it is better to have experienced resellers come in with a bundled solution that fits the customers needs.

 

[Engineer]

Factory workers (in America)

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Tax preparers, people need to learn how to do their own taxes, and software makes it a joke now.

I agree but for a different reason.

The Tax code should not be so complex that it requires a multi billion dollar industry to tackle. Ask anyone who owns their own business, taxes are a nightmare and require a lot of planning.

 

[amdhunter]

Wall Street speculators

 

[Wyndru]

The first 3, I agree to a certain extent.

The last one, not so much. I work for Xerox as a "solutions specialist" ie: putting together workflow solutions, document management solutions, backfile conversion solutions, etc. While the customer could definitely buy most (some manufacturers only sell via "resellers" or the channel) of the individual pieces of the solutions themselves, the value my team and I provide is the resulting combination and configuration.

Sure the customer might pay less in $ terms for the solution if they researched, purchased individually, and implemented themselves, but what is the employee time spent on this project worth to the company? Often times it is better to have experienced resellers come in with a bundled solution that fits the customers needs.

For some reason your post reminds me of this:

 

[DrPizza]

Tax preparers, people need to learn how to do their own taxes, and software makes it a joke now.

For probably 80% or more of the population, tax preparers are completely unnecessary. They're needed by some, and I personally think tax software isn't quite robust enough for some situations. Having a knowledgeable tax preparer will help you know exactly what is and what isn't tax deductible. I'd rather have an accountant know that stuff than be left with something that seems a bit gray to me - that way, if I'm ever audited, provided I gave the accountant 100% accurate information, I'm protected. I trust that I'm not taking deductions that I'm not allowed, and hope that I'm taking absolutely every deduction that I am allowed. Depreciation of equipment, etc.

For me, the time I'd have to invest in figuring all that out & keeping up to date makes it worth it to pay an accountant.

 

[JulesMaximus]

God forbid someone makes a living doing something the OP despises.

Personally, I don't begrudge anyone making a living.

 

[T9D]

I agree but for a different reason.

The Tax code should not be so complex that it requires a multi billion dollar industry to tackle. Ask anyone who owns their own business, taxes are a nightmare and require a lot of planning.

They were already going to make taxes easier and streamline it. But all the lobbyists tax preparers got in on it and actually made it even harder. Pretty much how everything works in America. All based on pure greed.

As far as Realestate agents they need to go. At least in the traditional sense. That should have even happened a long time ago before the internet. At worst there should have been maybe one broker who gets a flat fee, that had lots of employees that show the properties and do some legwork. They start at $10 an hour or something. Basically just grunts. But same thing, the realestate lobby won't let that happen. Instead everyone has to be an agent and get some insane cut.

And with the internet it should be that you just list your own property, take your own photos and upload them, and have someone you pay a small flat fee to show the property or something. Just like realtor.com but you wouldn't have to be an agent to list it. But you always have the option to hire a photographer or hire someone else to do different facets of it if you like.

But guess what, this will never happen either. Because the government won't let it and neither will the National Association of Realtors. You'll see no innovation or progress in that area.

 

[Mixolydian]

Surprised no one mentioned career politicians yet.

 

[xeemzor]

Surprised no one mentioned career politicians yet.

Don't get me started on some of the Chicago Alderamn...