this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
1089 points (98.6% liked)
Funny: Home of the Haha
7713 readers
117 users here now
Welcome to /c/funny, a place for all your humorous and amusing content.
Looking for mods! Send an application to Stamets!
Our Rules:
-
Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.
-
Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.
Other Communities:
-
/c/TenForward@lemmy.world - Star Trek chat, memes and shitposts
-
/c/Memes@lemmy.world - General memes
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Not the weirdest, but I didn't realize this until it was pointed out.
The fascination with work, and how one's employment or career is tied to personal identity. It's a basic conversation starter, "What do you do for work?" Not "What do you enjoy doing?" or "Do you have any hobbies?" or "Where do you go to relax?" Nope.
What to you do for work.
It's a weird question that is tied up in judgement and classism. And it's so normal here
Trevor Noah has a section about this in a recent standup. Something likei if you ask a European what they do they answer with hobbies, americans answer with their job title.
Just my experience from germany but when people ask what you do, you usually say what Job you have and where the Company is.
Germany might be more like america then Europe in that case.
Why are you typing comments when you should be earning money for your boss?
My boss is a real asshole. I can't stand him and he doesn't pay me enough.
I'm self-employed
Have you tried sleeping with him for a raise?
Thought about giving him a handjob, but his weiner is shaped weird
Well then forget that promotion.
May I please be promoted to customer? They're treated much better
I've found this only to be true in white collar professions. Hanging out with blue collar people, your job rarely comes up, but it's one of the first questions with white collar people.
I grew up blue collar and am still a tradesman. I technically live in the Midwest, but lots of Appalachian people. Of course my social circles include a vast swathe of socio-economic levels so you might still be right.
I'll have to watch closer to see if there's a pattern
I'd say your definitely correct when it comes to people with "low skill" or high turnover type jobs. If they work at dollar general or McDicks they don't talk about work much. Also, there's no such thing as a low skill job, and we all know who was essential and who could stay home for a few months
It's definitely true with blue collar workers in Alberta, or at least it was when I still socialized (guess when I stopped)
Good god, yes. This is something I had to break myself from. It is so insidious and pervasive in our culture that I don’t think most of us realize it’s even a thing.
I’ve been to a lot of outdoor birthday parties this summer, and there are so many boring dads who I will hear strike up a conversation about what’s going on at work. I usually make sure to wander in the opposite direction.
And I like my job! But the “talk about work” is usually less about interesting projects or creations and more about what has been going on with that individual’s status. Like yeah Kevin I want you to do well at work and enjoy it, but if it’s all the same to you I’m going to go get chased by kids with squirt guns instead of pretending I care about how your manager is impressed by your team’s metrics.
kids sure know how to have fun. we have a lot to learn from them
More true than most realize.
After getting through a lot of shit over the past several years, and having a very good & healthy summer, I am convinced that so many of our ills (metal especially) are from this mistaken assumption that more virtual and more high tech and more consumption are positives for our health rather than negatives.
Like I said, I like my job. I have no problem explaining it to anybody who asks. But the funny thing is, nobody asks, lol. A lot times per year I get the “what do you do” question, but then they’re satisfied with that answer. Many people just volunteer their stories because they think they’re supposed (just learned behavior) to or they’re conditioned to brag about work to feel good & valid.
But despite my decent job (software for embedded linux systems — totally on brand for Lemmy!) the absolute best time I’ve spent this summer has been getting wet and muddy in the back yard. Literally.
By turning my hyperfocus and my time and some of my budget towards a big hobby project (upgrading my koi pond) I have set myself up with an activity that gives me:
AmErIcAnS DoN't hAvE A CuLtUrE
lol j/k
Yeah pervasive is right. I'd rather talk about the campaign I'm running and what my players did in our last game, but it's taken a lot of retraining my brain to allow myself to talk about what is fun instead of what I'm "supposed" to do.
‘allow myself to [do things good for me] instead of what I’m “supposed” to do’ is like a full half of what it took to figure out how to try to enjoy life.