What is a real job?

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I sometimes hear "get a real job" or hear about someone not having a real job even though they do have a job. What exactly is a real job?


Not everyone has considered what I do as a real job and I work as a janitor. I have also worked in the housekeeping department at a couple hotels and that "wasn't a real job" either.

What do you see as a real job?

Full time and gainful. Even if that just means making rent and keeping the kids fed.

People seem to say "Get a real job" to show disdain for what somebody else does to make a living....so I think sometimes it depends on who you ask.

In my opinion, a "Real" job is one that:

• Pays enough for one person to support him- or her-self without supplemental income. This includes being able to afford independent housing, personal transportation, nutritious food, clothes, shoes, medical care, and other basic necessities of life.
  
• Allows opportunities for promotion and advancement based on merit, not favoritism.
  
• Allows for autonomous decision-making and personal recognition.
  
• Encourages the development of new skills.
  
• Follows to the letter and spirit all aspects of Equal Employment Opportunity.

The link takes you to a downloadable PDF. Please download and save it for reference and study.

If you get paid, it's a real job.

Pretty much. You'll hear that often if you do unskilled labor for a living, or anything that involves menial tasks like getting coffee for the someone else. People will also say that if they don't respect the field you're in.

A real job in my opinion is one that allows you to be financially independent and to support a decent lifestyle, Fnord has a really good answer. Unfortunately most janitorial jobs aren't going to pay much above minimum wage or have many decent benefits, so it can be really difficult to support oneself with that kind of income.

based on dictionary.com

job
2.
a post of employment; full-time or part-time position


employment
3.
an occupation by which a person earns a living; work; business.


living
1.
having life; being alive; not dead: living persons.

------
therefore,
any real job earns enough money to keep you alive

so, if being a janitor is enough to pay medical bills, food, housing, water... you're set.

Many years ago, my brother (who at the time was a recent college graduate) was working as a car salesman. I remember my dad asking him, “When are you going to get a real job”. At the time, I was puzzled, because my brother was working, supporting himself, developing sales skills, etc.

Eventually, I discovered that my dad really meant, “Get a respectable job” which is one that my dad could be proud of. LOL.

I consider a real job to be a job that supports you, is full time, and has benefits.

Some older people will use "get a real job" in a negative manner to describe people who work in jobs that didn't exist when they grew up or in soft jobs (not manual labor).

I've also heard it used to put down those who work blue color or non-traditional jobs.

I read and downloaded the equal employment opportunity pdf file and read it. I looked up the term reasonable accommodation. I found this website. http://www.ada.gov/qandaeng.htm



What this implies is that one will not be exempted from doing parts of his job if it is part of his technical duties, is this correct?

These are my questions to you Fnord.

Unless one is in sales or in a job that requires one to deal with the public then
a. how is eye contact an essential job function?
b. how is positivity considered an essential job function?
c. how is shaking hands considered an essential job function?
d. how is having excellent communication and social skills an essential job function? Why does one have to be an excellent salesperson?
e. how is being made to show energy and negating one's monotone voice an essential job function?

If you do not mind, will you break this down to me because I do want to try to understand where you're coming from and where employers are coming from.

A real job is a job that exists. Unlike a fake job
What people think when they say this is that it should make a lot of money and be something where you have to go study for it. I hear this all the time even though I went abroad to Uni and the job I have now makes more than the job I studied for.

When people talk about reasonable accommodation for aspies, they are typically talking about executive functioning concerns (I have particular difficulties with multi-step directions that are given verbally without having an opportunity to write them down), sensory issues (reasonable accommodations would be switching to non-fluorescent lights, having an office/workspace in a (comparatively) quiet area) and adjusting to different situations (an accommodation here might be getting an advanced agenda for a meeting, when possible).

For more pointers, check out this website: http://askjan.org/media/asperger.html
It has some typical "What is Asperger's" boilerplate before giving some good tips for employers (and employees!) for making employment work for Aspies. It's certainly not exhaustive, but it gives some good starting points.

There are two points you brought up that I think are important and they are d (communication skills) and b/e (positivity and showing energy).
In terms of communication skills: People may have a hard time communicating, but doing so effectively is essential to being successful at work. I communicate best through writing, so a reasonable accommodation for me would be, whenever possible, to have my communications happen via e-mail or what have you (I'm a therapist, so this can get tricky... :0p). People may not need to have salesman-like charm, but speaking your thoughts clearly, effectively and tactfully are important.
In term of positivity and showing energy: One grump can bring a whole room down. Think about the most miserable jerk you've ever encountered. Maybe a teacher who didn't care about his/her students or a cop who pulled you over just because he had a bad day and making someone else miserable would cheer him up... Would you want to spend 8 hours a day with that person? More so, would you want to be that person?

I work as a cashier and have had my job nearly 3 years.
When I was diagnosed, 6 years ago, it was after I had been fired from a call centre for 'inappropriate behavior'. When I was diagnosed doctors said I wouldn't work again, maybe low level training in the future. So while being a cashier may not be considered a real job by most, to me, it's a real job because I'm out doing something! My mother has worked as a cashier most of her life.
One of my former co-workers called it a 'job' but wanted to find a 'career', now she is selling cars.

I have executive functioning issues as well. I don't really have sensory issues except for awful loud noise. I do have pragmatic issues and possible CAPD.



I definitely will check it out. You are awesome.



lol silly me my pragmatic issues got in the way again. I thought excellent communication skills meant being an excellent salesman. I would love to have my communication happen by email as well.



Oh my gosh I know exactly what you mean now. I had this teacher in 6th grade who supposedly taught auto repair(he didn't teach us squat) tell us how lazy and sorry we were. He was a complete a**hole. No, I definitely would not want to spend 8 hours with this person.

This is what would happen to me as well. I would have to do everything in my power from having a meltdown.

Most of what I conveyed was learned the hard way... I have had several meltdowns over what other people saw as trivial things but I found immensely important. These were very embarrassing and I beat myself up about them for a while... That's better now, thankfully!