I saw an advertisement in a newsletter recently for a Traffic/Litter Warden. One of the required competencies for the job was related to Customer Service & Communications Skills.
‘The successful candidate will be a person who actively listens to others and tries to understand their perspectives/requirements/needs. Must be respectful, courteous and professional, remaining composed, even in challenging circumstances.’
You could be forgiven for thinking that they were advertising for a marriage counsellor, but I double-checked and they were definitely looking for a traffic warden and these were the desired characteristics for someone looking for the job.
I’ve come across a few traffic wardens in my time who would seriously struggle with some of those and none of them ever actively listened to me or tried to understand my perspective or needs.
As far as occupations go, being a traffic warden must be one of the most challenging. Not because the work is physically demanding but because they are generally not liked by anyone. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that they are about as popular as a dose of piles.
It’s difficult to see what the attraction is or where the job satisfaction comes from. They must get a lot of grief because there isn’t a driver alive who will admit to any wrongdoing or who will accept that they deserve to get a parking ticket. We are all innocent victims of insensitive traffic wardens.
Anyone who ever got a ticket, got it because the traffic warden was an idiot. It had nothing to do with the fact that the car was parked on a footpath on a double yellow line and was obstructing the entrance to the local fire station on the clearway at peak traffic hour. The warden was just being completely unreasonable.
Apart from being treated like an infectious disease, there are other drawbacks to the job. They spend their time outdoors in bad weather, in constant noise, breathing exhaust fumes and operating in a hostile environment where everybody wants to kill them. Confrontation is par for the course.
Many polls have been taken over the years to try and find the most hated professions. Traffic wardens hit the top ten in most of them along with lawyers, car salesmen, politicians, bouncers and sometimes, dentists. Police officers don’t feature and that surprised me, but estate agents do which I also thought was strange.
But for all the abuse that is aimed at them, there is one other profession that doesn’t get a mention in the list of top ten most hated professions and that is the professional football referee. I’m thinking about the soccer referees in particular.
I have often wondered why anyone would want to stand on a football pitch in front of 80,000 or more supporters as the lone official in black. At various times during a game he will be despised by either set of supporters or maybe by the whole lot of them depending on what decisions he makes.
Even being a referee in the amateur football world can be dangerous as we saw with the recent alleged assault on a match official in Co. Offaly. The man was officiating at an adult soccer game and was apparently chased into a car park after the match and beaten by a group of men. He suffered a broken jaw and other facial injuries as a result and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.
This happened at an amateur game so the pressure on professional referees must be enormous.
In every game of football from the English Premiership to the lower leagues, the referees get a lot of stick from players, management and supporters. They are regularly surrounded by players who disagree with their decisions and they take a lot of abuse.
There is one other job though, that doesn’t appear on any list and I would put it at the top of my mine. I don’t care how much money they make, I just wouldn’t be able for it. The job of looking after feet.
According to Spectrum Foot Clinics, a chiropodist, or podiatrist, is a foot doctor who treats people suffering from lower limb or common foot problems such as bunions and ingrown toenails. Gross.
They can also treat calluses and corns, verrucae, smelly feet, cracked heels and athlete’s foot. I feel like throwing up already. Podiatrists and chiropodists can also help to ease the pain of people who have diabetic foot ulcers and diabetic foot. A verruca, by the way, is a contagious and usually painful wart on the sole of the foot.
I can’t imagine I’m going to eat for the rest of the day after reading that and I very much doubt, that there is a child anywhere in the world who goes to bed at night dreaming about one day being able to treat smelly feet and verrucae.
Their role, is to advise you and your family on how to take care of your feet and the type of shoes that you need to wear. Podiatrists and chiropodists can also treat and alleviate day-to-day foot problems such as fungal or ingrown toenails.
I can’t stand the sight of feet and I don’t like being anywhere near them. My own are six feet away from the top of me and even that’s too close. I can’t imagine any circumstances where I would volunteer to touch a foot that is attached to somebody else. I would probably vomit all over it.
I would lose the will to live if I thought I had to go to work every day and deal with feet. I would starve to death before I could even consider earning a wage that way.
I don’t care what these chiropodists are paid, I’d prefer to be a traffic warden.