# Poll (take two): Which profession do you despise the most, and why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600 "2010-05-24T18:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/21 "2010-05-24T20:08:38Z")
Do parking nazis count as cops? If so, that’s my answer. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/22 "2010-05-24T20:14:39Z")
Anyone in advertising/marketing. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/23 "2010-05-24T20:23:02Z")
Definitely clerics of any stripe. Most of them are leeches and have never done a day’s work in their lives, yet presume to tell you how to live yours. ---
**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/24 "2010-05-25T00:18:36Z")
What about something in the prostitute/pimp/porn star category? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/25 "2010-05-25T00:22:18Z")
I’m surprised by all the votes for telemarketers. Well, OK, I’m not. But I’ve never gotten the hate (then again, I don’t get called by them very often). I voted for politicians. There are very few that I don’t think are scum. Religious workers are a close second, for reasons described by **Chefguy** , not to mention that they keep the population enslaved to ignorance and superstition. ---
**Author:** ![sharding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@sharding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharding)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/26 "2010-05-25T00:49:59Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I’m surprised by all the votes for telemarketers. Well, OK, I’m not. But I’ve never gotten the hate (then again, I don’t get called by them very often). I voted for politicians. Politicians don’t interrupt me when I’m eating dinner with my family or sitting on the couch quietly reading a book with a pushy attempt to get me to give them money for something I don’t want. Unless, of course, they’re calling me on the phone, at which point they become telemarketers. Overall, I find the poll to have a very bizarre collection of options, but I guess any set of choices would be arbitrary. I have negative feelings to very, very few of the choices there (telemarketers being one of them, but I voted “other” anyway). ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/27 "2010-05-25T00:56:24Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Definitely clerics of any stripe. Most of them are leeches and have never done a day’s work in their lives, yet presume to tell you how to live yours. But who are you going to turn to when the zombie apocalypse begins? I mean, Turn Undead and the other divine magic can be pretty useful. I’m thinking C.E.O., but I haven’t voted yet. I’m still not sure what they actually do of any real worth these days. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/28 "2010-05-25T01:00:00Z")
I went for telemarketers. And I’d like to cast TWO votes for political telemarketers. I’m on the Do Not Call list, but the politicians decided to exempt certain categories of telemarketing…one of them being political calls. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/29 "2010-05-25T01:21:37Z")
I picked “other”. My pick is sport stars. Not that sport stars are always (or even mostly) bad people, but fans fawn over them like they’re gods when they contribute nothing of worth. And yet sport gets so much money that it’s obscene. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/30 "2010-05-25T02:01:43Z")
Had to go with clerics, with politicians IMO a close second. Clerics are insane, deluded, or outright frauds. Every single one, pretty much by definition. Some of them are quite nice folks, though. You may have guessed I’m an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/31 "2010-05-25T02:50:10Z")
I voted other for contractors: I have never worked with one who was able/willing to give an estimate for time and cost anywhere near reality. They are almost always dishonest. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/32 "2010-05-25T03:23:03Z")
New age ‘alternative medicine’ practitioners. The kind who will expand your energy for only $100 a pop! I despise them. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/33 "2010-05-25T04:07:29Z")
Telemarketer. Useless _and_ annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/34 "2010-05-25T04:11:46Z")
That’s not to say I don’t think there is use for them in investigating and capturing “real” criminals; I’m specifically refering to the patrol types. If you spend your time writing tickets for traffic violations or taking reports that get typed into a computer and never followed up on, all you’re doing is making a little more money for the state, making people’s days miserable, and perhaps making a few random people feel like something is getting done, when it isn’t. Can anyone can honestly say they think they’re really making the world a better place by spending half their day giving out speeding tickets and the other half hiding in a random parking lot taking a nap? Reply With Quote Yeah I can honestly say that enforcing traffic violations are an important part of what I do. Several times I’ve caught a wanted felon by first stopping them for a minor traffic violation. Tim McVeigh was caught by a state troop on a traffic violation. Everytime i have to stop the expressway and call fire out so we can extricate somebody with the jaws of life It re-enforces to me the necessity of enforcing traffic laws. It may be annoying… but one of the problems is is that people have an over-inflated sense of their driving abilities. And running the red light to get to the daycare on time is not a valid reason to put someone else in danger. As for the reports… they are tedious… and trust me… the guy in the Uni hates them as well. But one of the ways to pick up crime patterns is with the use of the data. Now if you might want to tell the cute dumbass co-ed outside of Applebees that when you leave your Dell Laptop on the front seat its highly likely the window will be busted out. Your vote of disdain is well noted and accepted… its like my old man told me… if you want to be loved… be a fireman… ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/35 "2010-05-25T04:22:50Z")
Another vote for telemarketers. Which will be the reigning champ by a wide margin unless you add “email spammers” to the choice list. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/36 "2010-05-25T15:50:12Z")
Other: HR I’m sure that the people themselves are nice, but I can’t stand Human Resources (especially when one HR associate where I work told a fellow IT associate _to his face_ that she personally thinks that IT are the most overpaid department). ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/37 "2010-05-25T16:20:00Z")
Somebody here actually despises doctors? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/38 "2010-05-25T16:28:28Z")
That was an easier choice than I thought it would be, since you asked about the profession itself rather than the people in the profession. While most of those professions certainly have their fair share of despicable individuals, the profession itself is a necessary part of society, and some of its practitioners, at least, can be good, honorable, useful people. But if every telemarketer disappeared off the face of the earth, I don’t see any downside. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/39 "2010-05-25T16:35:37Z")
I was leaning toward cop, but then I realized that in theory there could be good ones. So I went with telemarketer, where that is not a concern. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600/40 "2010-05-25T16:47:42Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Other: HR > > I’m sure that the people themselves are nice, but I can’t stand Human Resources (especially when one HR associate where I work told a fellow IT associate _to his face_ that she personally thinks that IT are the most overpaid department). Yet what would you do without an HR department? Those benefit and retirement plans don’t run themselves, and good luck running a company without any recruting or training. Signed, Defensive HR professional [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-take-two-which-profession-do-you-despise-the-most-and-why/540600.md?page=3)