# What's considered "scut work" in your profession? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 21, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309 "2016-12-21T17:36:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [December 21, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/1 "2016-12-21T17:36:32Z")
As I was toasting my croissant this morning, I wondered what the newbie at a bakery gets stuck with doing. Most all professions have grunt work to be done, and some may be obvious. For instance, I know that young architects spend a lot of time doing repetitive things like window and door details. In the Navy, young sailors can end up doing a variety of onerous chores like swabbing decks, chipping paint, and other so-called “shit details”. But what do people in less traditional jobs end up doing right off? What does a young astronomer get stuck with? A botanist? A chemical engineer? ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/2 "2016-12-21T18:14:16Z")
The scut work in a bakery is packaging product and slicing bread. The secret is to do it quickly AND correctly. The more you dawdle, the more overthinking you’ll do on how crappy these tasks are, I don’'t wanna do them, yadda-yadda. Your attitude will go into the toilet, and your coworkers will give you death stares. Look, I don’t particularly enjoy doing either but I’ll do them because it gets the product out there on the selling floor. That’s the whole point. More packing, less yakking, got it?\* - - [sub] This is what my first manager pounded, figuratively, into my head. When it finally got through my skull and I could perform both swiftly and correctly, I was given more varied tasks and the newbie(s) got stuck with the packing/slicing.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/3 "2016-12-21T18:19:48Z")
As a cop? It’s all scut work. After training when they are set free on their own rookies get last pick at vacation and pick of shift. Maybe they will go on more prisoner transports. For the most part if something happens in your district you handle it. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/4 "2016-12-21T18:25:30Z")
As a programmer, it’s maintaining old code that the company is legally obligated to support. Years ago, I had to study an ancient processor architecture because the company was required to maintain support for the processor. Yuck. ---
**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:** [December 21, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/5 "2016-12-21T18:36:47Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > As a cop? It’s all scut work. > > After training when they are set free on their own rookies get last pick at vacation and pick of shift. Maybe they will go on more prisoner transports. For the most part if something happens in your district you handle it. I saw that first hand when I was a volunteer cop. As one long time officer told me: “It’s 99% drudgery and 1% HOLY SHIT!” ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/6 "2016-12-21T19:10:24Z")
I started as a “brush boy” in the theatre. Wash the paintbrushes and buckets for the experienced scenic artists. Clean the trap in the sink. Lay out drops, which is stapling them stretched, but not stretched too much, then prime with hot starch water to close pores and shrink the cloth. ---
**Author:** ![maisoui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@maisoui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maisoui)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/7 "2016-12-21T19:41:50Z")
I work in the Medical Transcription department for a teaching hospital system. Newbies here get the tedious clinic notes, usually Fracture Clinic at first… “Mr. So-and-so was seen in followup in Fracture Clinic today 1 (or 2 or 4 or 6 or 12) week(s) after his such-and-such repair. Range of motion as expected. Wound healing is good. Next appointment scheduled in x weeks.” …over and over and over, 90 or 100 times a day. Occasionally you would get lucky and the patient would not be progressing as expected (not so lucky for the patient, though!). Then you move on to other clinics with more varied diagnoses and terminology. As you get experience you get to do inpatient work, which is MUCH more interesting and you learn something new every day. I must say we haven’t had “newbies” in the hospital system in years because Medical Transcription is being outsourced by most hospital systems, but I assume the transcription services are much the same. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/8 "2016-12-21T20:34:50Z")
IMO transcription is pretty much all scut work. Kind of highly specialized scut work but still… ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/9 "2016-12-21T20:49:47Z")
Taking session notes - scribing. Executing system testing scripts. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/10 "2016-12-21T20:55:47Z")
Washing glassware, pour plates or media. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/11 "2016-12-21T20:57:40Z")
In IT: Patching servers, babysitting backups, doing tickets. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/12 "2016-12-21T21:04:43Z")
Mail and/or supply. That’s where I started as a GS-2. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/13 "2016-12-21T21:32:34Z")
For specific federal agencies, it varies. I was mail & supply at the National Endowment for the Arts but they had a position even lower: manually putting labels on grant applications. That was almost 30 years ago, one hopes the process has been digitized by now. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/14 "2016-12-21T21:45:35Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > As a programmer, it’s maintaining old code that the company is legally obligated to support. Years ago, I had to study an ancient processor architecture because the company was required to maintain support for the processor. Yuck. Boy, that hasn’t been my experience. In fact, mostly the opposite - folks who are willing/able to work on old code like that get paid a pile of $$. I once knew a Fortran programmer who maintained an old Fortran application well into the 2000s and he made more money than I’ve ever made in my life, doing leading edge software development. I’d say scut work is doing small bug fixes all the time. At least, that’s where I put the not-so-great coders. “Go track down and fix this low-priority-but-pain-in-the-ass-bug.” ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/15 "2016-12-21T21:52:10Z")
In a law firm, it’s doing filing work and scanning. Scanning has become a big thing, but it has not cut down on the paperwork. Attorneys like to have hard paper copies of everything, AND have it scanned into our document control system as well. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/16 "2016-12-21T22:49:08Z")
College prof. in Computer Science: teaching the computer literacy course for non majors. A useless course that needed to Go Away but the college touted as a sign of how “progressive” they were. Right. We made it as easy as possible to test out of it and still most people didn’t do that. One big problem teaching it is that too many thought it was an Easy A. Nope. It was a real college course with actual assignments, tests and a final project. If you want credits, you gotta do work. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/17 "2016-12-22T13:58:04Z")
Graphic design / Junior designers end up making text amends to long brochures or websites, rolling out campaigns across multiple formats (ie, here’s the concept, now give me Facebook ad, a digital banner ad, a 2 pp flyer, a mug design etc). Oh and looking through stock photo libraries. Endlessly. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/18 "2016-12-22T14:01:57Z")
College prof here. Our newbies are expected to teach developmental composition their first two years. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/19 "2016-12-22T14:24:41Z")
Store cashier: Aisle clean up. Take a shopping cart, start at aisle #1, pick up anything that doesn’t belong there, put it in the cart, and put it back in the right aisle. When you get to aisle #14, turn around and repeat. Tedious, non-ending work, but it lets you know where every item is. ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309/20 "2016-12-22T14:46:39Z")
Environmental scientist. Cleaning and calibrating instruments that have been sitting in the river for a month. Dive 4 hours, clean and calibrate for 1.5 hours, drive 4 hours back. The part that’s underwater is covered with zebra mussels, the part not underwater is covered with spiders. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-considered-scut-work-in-your-profession/775309.md?page=2)