People who work in controversial industries, do you ever worry about what other people think about you?

38 comments

1. Only when I get a call from the front desk that someone wants to see me and they wouldn’t give their name.

2. I can’t afford to think what other people think/say about my work, but I couldn’t work anywhere that I felt personal disgusted by.

3. Not really, most of the hate comes from people not understanding anything about the industry.

4. I’m a BigPharma lobbyist, that crap just rolls off my back.

   Then again I don’t tell people outside of DC what I do. They don’t understand and I don’t want to listen to what they heard from Fox/MSNBC/Twitter about what I do all day.

5. Not quite controversial but when I worked in aerospace defense I got pretty sick of everyone immediately thinking I was a conservative republican

6. I work in marketing & advertising. I get it though. I have ad blockers on everything and live an anti-consumptive lifestyle.

7. I work in cannabis. People usually think it’s cool and start telling me their weed stories. But rarely there are some people that act like it’s scary and horrible.

8. I say what I do, not the industry I do it in (government contracting)

9. No, other than for safety reasons. Sometimes I avoid wearing my company logo clothes around towns I have projects in to avoid getting yelled at. I feel strongly that I am doing the right thing (renewables)

10. I used to care, and carefully tap dance around it with some folks. Now I don’t GAF. I focus on the positives that you don’t hear about because they don’t make interesting headlines, and embrace it fully. I worked my ass off to get where I am and make a comfortable salary and I won’t be ashamed of it.

11. I used to work in abortion rights as a digital director for a big non-profit. I don’t give a fuck what someone things about me and the work, especially if they were pro-life.

12. [deleted]

13. I never thought a trade like water treatment could be sketchy but people like alex jones and david icke have a much wider audience than you would think and it makes customers insane. Plus genuine and sometimes legitimate distrust of people who work for a government even on a municipal level. Like im just a guy trying to get by and feed my family im not poisoning you or your kids. I guess to answer it kinda bugs me that people don’t trust me. I’m just a dude.

14. I never thought “government contractor” would be controversial until I mentioned it outside of the DC bubble early in my career. I don’t care but I’m prepared for the eye rolls and speeches if I’m in a conservative area.

15. Mostly for safety reasons. Unhinged people make threats against infrastructure all the time

16. I work Security, I am used to people thinking I’m a lazy ass who does nothing all day.

    It still bothers me. I get paid to be around for when things go wrong.

17. I worked in the plastics industry for about 25 years and not really. Mostly because anyone that gave me crap about used more plastics than me, and was just being a hypocrite.

18. I used to do graphic design for cam girls. I personally didn’t have any qualms about doing it because I was working directly with the workers themselves, I wasn’t dealing with a management company or anything. I feel like the bulk of the issues with the adult industry has to do with the big companies, not the performers, so I didn’t have any ethical issues with what I was doing.

    Now, was I going around telling everyone the exact nature of the work I was doing? Absolutely not lol. But I did tell friends and while most of them thought it was surprising, no one had any issues with it.

19. No. Because everyone is all talk.

    Everyone hates the banks, everyone hates the governments, everyone hates big tech… yet, banks will be cheered on for hiring a “Chief Diversity Officer”, the government will “backstop” a fuck-up and you’ll sit down and watch Netflix every night while scrolling twitter/instagram/facebook/tiktok/whatever.

    I’ve found people in general only care about things for as long as the conversation lasts.

20. Insurance, no not really.

    I don’t do heath insurance so you can just always deflect on to them.

    Also, if people really do have complaints about short term or long term disability I can usually give them really solid advice.

21. Oil and Gas and IDGAF what anyone thinks about what I do do for a living as you all willingly and repeatedly consume what I produce. In fact, I love what I do and I’m proud of it.

22. My wife is in HR. She’s aware of the negative feelings people have regarding HR generally but her perspective is that bad companies have bad HR. If a company doesn’t care about their employees, HR will reflect that because HR follows or writes policies dictated by or influenced by the company’s vision.

    It’s HR’s job to protect the company, sure, but in a good company that values its employees and culture, more often than not that means protecting the employees first and foremost and keeping them happy and safe because employees that are happy and safe don’t sue.

23. The truth is EVERYTHING is controversial to small but vocal portions of the population in the USA.

    Teacher? Yep. Librarian (!)? Yes. Businessperson? Indeed. Nurse? Indeed. Healthcare that does OR does not provide abortion or vaccine related care? Absolutely. Business that does OR does not support lgbt/religious/racial justice/police/science/Israel? You betcha.

    Don’t worry about what people are going to say unless the job is objectively evil or criminal.

    *Outrage – it’s not just for for-profit child prison, racist lunch counters or military funeral protestors anymore!*

24. I used to work for the Federal Government. People felt like learning that gave them a license to vent to me about politics or their displeasure. I would usually just try my best to change the subject. The funny thing is that what I did for the Federal Government wasn’t political at all, it was a very crucial service in Disaster Assistance. No politics involved really, just doing what necessary to help your fellow American that’s in serious need.

25. I worked for Blackwater (and a few of their re-brandings) for a couple years. It was less cool/insidious than people imagine. But yeah, I don’t mention it in certain company.

26. I just say I am a machinist. I usually leave out the part where the things I make usually end up in military weapons.

27. Most of the people criticizing have wildly unrealistic ideas about how dangerous the world really is.

28. Those folks don’t have the right to kiss my ass. I’ve heard it once or twice since I work in the medical field fixing x-ray machines.

    Had one dude tell me I’m the reason people get cancer. Like dude I literally fix a machine that helps them find and treat cancer.

29. I work in health insurance butI don’t sell plans. It’s a job and the pay and benefits are better than most other options here. Our American system sucks but it provides for me.

30. As a writer once put it, “Your boos mean nothing to me, I’ve seen what makes you cheer.”

31. Urban Planning.

    I have never cared how people feel about my profession. I do obviously care how our profession impacts people…because if you didn’t, why the fuck would you get into urban planning in the first place? But feeling like I deserve some sort of cultural opprobrium because I am an urban planner? Not once has this ever crossed my mind.

    I’m glad that planning theory and practice has gained mainstream acceptance, though.

32. Nope. Law enforcement is a lot more nuanced in real life than it is online. I know I’m an ethical person, so I don’t need the approval of strangers in that regard.

33. I used to work for a government agency with highly classified programs. People might be interested in the work because frankly it is interesting. I’d generally respond with an accurate comment that I’m working in the business office.

    If people asked about the work at the facility, I’d respond “Well, I could tell you but then ….”

    “I know. Then you’d have to kill me.”

    “Oh no! We have a different department for that! But the paperwork is horrendous!”

    That usually ended the conversation on a cordial note.

34. I work in banking. I’ve had people literally tell me to my face that I’m responsible for people getting evicted from their homes and economic crashes.

    My dude I’m just an analyst. Lmfao

35. I’m a scientist and I do experiments on animals. I’ve thought a lot about the ethics of what I do and ultimately I’m comfortable that it’s for the greater good and that the suffering of the animals is minimized to the greatest extent possible, so I don’t worry too much about what other people think.

    I find often people who are opposed to animal research are uninformed about the extensive legal protections lab animals have and/or are hypocrites (i.e. they might be opposed to animal research but are all too happy to use drugs/surgeries that are based in animal research. Cures for me but not for thee.)

36. I’m left of democrat on most things. I work in oil and gas. Once someone “called me out” on it and I could honestly say I’ve donated tens of thousands of dollars towards causes I believe in including political campaigns. And then I ask them which of us has likely “changed” the world more.

    We work within the limitations we have and money is needed to do almost anything Period. For me the way to earn it was get in industries where 80% of the people either don’t think climate change is real, or don’t care.

    That person said it makes me “heartless” or whatever. I’d rather I’m in this position, someone willing to push back on things like spills. I just call the environmental guys without going to the supervisor. When they complain that I should call them first I just point out that anything over X amount says to call the environmental guys, so I did that. Etc.

37. I work in oil. People can think whatever they want, my job revolves 100% around stopping oil from getting out of the pipes. Seems like a worthy goal to me

38. I worked for Raytheon after college on an anti aircraft missile program. A friend liked to tell me I killed babies for a living.