I mentioned via various social media profiles that I recently hired a cleaning crew for the apt. Lord knows it needed it. A friend of a friend happened to see my post and messaged me in private asking for details. In the process, he seemed to go out of his way to establish his superiority by demeaning the fact she cleaned homes for a living. I was a bit surprised because there wasn’t really a need for him to inject that into the conversation. I mean if the situation were reversed I just would have asked the pertenent details and went on about my way.
Naturally, I gave him my two cents. Performing menial tasks for a living is not demeaning. Nor does it make you less deserving of respect. Frankly, she does a service that people clearly need and want. She is most definitely doing me a service that I appreciate. I respect her hard work and efforts. I could go on and on about my ideas where this comes from. Be it societal constructs, class wars, blah blah blah not the point. I’m more surprised when I hear it from a gay person because we get treated differently because of a characteristic we can’t control. You’d think that would make us more compassionate and accepting of others. Sadly, not always the case.
I’m pretty sure I got my strong work ethic from my dad. I may not have gotten a lot from him but he did manage to instill that into me very young. My father worked a variety of blue-collar jobs in his life, some more profitable than others. He never begrudged others their higher/lower payscales. My dad always said an honest job, no matter what it is, deserves respect. An honest job is an honest living. And while he worked some pretty physically taxing jobs in his life, he was pretty content with it.
At the end of the day, I try not to put down others to make myself feel better. I don’t try to elevate myself above them to feel superior. While I am proud of what I do, that doesn’t make me better than anyone else. I’ve cleaned up some pretty disgusting things in my life. And honestly, I was happy to do it. Even a shitty job deserves to be done right IMO.