Who do you work for baby?

I manage a 24 hour veterinary emergency and specialty hospital. I am sometimes reluctant to tell people when I’m out and about because they often proceed to tell me how they had their pet euthanized at our facility.

(My previous position was much more exciting to talk about at parties – I used to work with lions and tigers and bear, oh my.)

i, personally, don’t always like to say what i do because it just changes everything.

The United States Postal Service, Sweet Cheeks.

I work for a massage company so I hate it; people just tell you to fix their physical problems as soon as you mention it. I know when i meet doctor’s I don’t ask them to check my prostate (anymore)

I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

I ditto your response Charlie. It does change everything.

I’ve been in the military for over 20 years now and I’m proud to tell people that this is my career choice.

To be clear, I don’t think Charlie and I are ashamed of our career choices.
For me it is just one aspect of my life. To others w/ the same career, it is their entire life. People often incorrectly assume that I walk the same walk. I don’t.

thank you for your service, BF

@snoopy: gotcha bro!

actually its sista’
:)

love my career, but sometimes i just gotta be on the down-low…

I tell people I’m an editorial illustrator and art director – then wait for the confused, blank stare.

Sorry for being such a stickler, but I truly re-read the question quite a few times before I understood it. I truly craved to see a coma before the word, ‘baby’

I work here, sweetie pie!!

@Snoopy, I can understand why you want to keep it a secret.

Nina, ducks, a great response but it’s comma. :-)

I manage a pie shop. People always think I’m kidding when I say that, but I’m proud of it so I don’t care.

@sfortunata I think it would be neat to run a pie shop!

@sfortunate any cobblers in the pie shop? blackberry cobbler. yum

@gail, I kinda liked having a coma before “baby.” It just raises all kinds of deliciously strange images. Such felicitous mispellings. Sometimes, with mine, I’m tempted to leave them, because they are so funny (to me), but I don’t.

@gail and dal: wow, you guys are really a hard crowd. yeah, i could have added the comma, but you get the picture guys—come on! do i have to be that politically correct with the grammar on such a liberal, creative site?

It ain’t grammar; it’s punctuation, man. And being clear is helpful when asking or answering, no? Nothing to do with politics, I don’t think.

I’m not proud of where I work, so I don’t like it when people ask me.

I hate when people ask me what I do for a living and my response is that I don’t work. It makes me feel like I am lazy or something. But believe me when I say being a stay at home mom is just as hard as being in the work force. Well, at least for me it is. So to answer your question I work for my offspring.

I don’t mind at all when people ask where I work. If that’s how they feel comfortable starting/making conversation then that’s fine with me. Honestly, there are very few questions I would refuse to answer… ever. I’m also pretty comfortable opening up to strangers, especially if I’m never going to see them again.

Depends on the context. If it’s in a work-related setting, I’d find it perfectly normal – if it’s in social/private setting and this is one of the first questions, I wouldn’t be offended, but I also probably wouldn’t be very interested in getting to know that person – if all they’re interested in is work.

I just see it as a conversation starter. I was never embarrassed by the work I did (office manager/accountant) but I was embarrassed by the name of a company I worked for. It was a stupid name for a company, dreamed up while the owners were drunk, but it stuck.

@lynzeut Never let anyone make you feel ashamed or lazy for being a stay at home Mom. You do work, and your job has many hats.

To name a few, you are : a teacher, nurse, nutritionist, fashion consultant, spiritual advisor, transportation coordinator, and so many more things.

Just hold your head up high and tell people you are a “Domestic Engineer”, and be proud of what you do. I think the world would be a much better place if more people were able to stay home and raise their children instead of counting on a stranger to do it for them. You are molding and nurturing what could one day be someone who could solve the problems of the world.

I applaud you for what you do!!

@stay at home mums, et al:

The following excerpt is from this link

What mothers are really worth
Stay-at-home mothers wear many hats. They’re the family CEO, the day care provider, accountant, chauffeur, counselor, chef, nurse, laundress, entertainer, personal stylist, and educator. Based on a 90-hour work week, Salary.com has estimated that a fair wage for the typical stay-at-home mom would be well over $90,000 for executing all of her daily tasks. Factor in overtime, and the appropriate salary takes a leap of around $25,000.

“Mothers are responsible for the mental and physical well being of the family – putting a price on that isn’t easy,” said Lena Bottos, compensation market analyst for Salary.com. “But we looked at it as what you would have to pay other people to do the same work if the mom weren’t there.”

Even if these mothers were getting paid what they’d be worth on the market, Bottos added that they still wouldn’t be adequately compensated. “When you take into account that it represents a 90-hour workweek, and doesn’t even begin to factor in that they are on call 24 hours a day, it’s not so large. Plus, stay-at-home moms get no benefits in terms of pension or 401(k).”

Mom jobs

Job title Annual salary
Child Day Care Worker $20,259
Teacher $44,824
Taxi Driver $27,346
Facilities Manager $73,239
Short-order Cook $27,477
Laundry Attendant $17,917
Janitor $22,440
Counselor $27,638
CEO $545,268
Administrative Assistant III $37,143
Accounting Clerk III $34,842
Licensed Practical Nurse $38,111
Plumber I $33,155
Automotive Mechanic I $30,725
Cake Decorator $21,340

Jobs listed in order from largest to smallest component of a stay-at-home mom’s job. All salaries are national averages. Source: Salary.com, 2004.

The estimate composite salary calculated by Salary.com’s team of compensation experts for a stay-at-home mom is based on a 90-hour work week, consisting of six 14-hour days and one 6-hour day. Job titles, responsibilites, and qualifications were considered and weighed on a scale of importance, frequency, and average time spent on tasks per day. Hourly rates of pay corresponding to the 15 job titles in the above table were applied to the 90-hour model and multiplied by 52 weeks a year to determine an annual salary. It assumes the mother has two children of school age.

@charlie, please, I was just having fun, and more with the mispelling. I love fortuitous mispellings. Please think of it as teasing, at least, and otherwise, a collborative effort to amuse.

Believe me, I’m not a punctuation or spelling drill sargeant. I truly love figuring out what people mean, or, if I can’t do that, having fun with whatever I make out of it. I’m sorry if you felt I was being hard on you. It’s just my weird sense of play.

@Snoopy Thanks for including that link. It’s exactly what I was trying to say!

@Charlie I don’t care if your comma is in a coma, I still think this is a great question!

Thanks to all who share my views on staying at home. Now if I could only find a way to get my husband to compensate me for the $90,000.00 a year plus over time I’d be set.

@lynzeut: No kidding! I did that for 14 years…I’d be rolling in the dough : )

Me too!

When you’re NOT and never were a stay at home mom, (worked my butt off when the kids were home :-( ) it’s kind of awkward explaining that I am retired at 47. I still work a little, but I don’t punch a time card and it’s only a few hours a week overseeing reports and asking questions from home. Sometimes I miss the structure of having a place to get up, get ready and go to every day.