Unpopular opinion: if you work retail, no matter how high up the ladder, anyone of average intellect and sound body & mind could do your job

@MethDozer I have a somewhat intimate knowledge of retail management for reasons too long to explain...it just isnt that hard man. It's logistics and people skills. Dealing with people always sucks but the job itself is just communication and keying things in. Inventory. Maybe you'll move boxes around sometimes. Etc.

As for the trades, naw man not really. Electrical? Bad things will happen if I give a 4 week trainee free reign in an MCC room. Or even in just a residential panel. People may die. Things may burn.

Welding? Lol. Yeah. Lets see how that goes.

Plumbing? Ehhh, maybe. If they pay close attention. They won't be doing anything heavy duty though...at least not properly.

Carpentry? Same as plumbing.

Could anyone do a trade? Of course...but no layperson could. You need at least a year to be able to run on your own...and that's only if you're doing one very specific job. To be able to go anywhere and do anything within reason you're looking at 4 or 5.

@SW-User Your hierarchy of labor is part of the problem in society.


Also, you're not actually debating or arguing the fact that many a journyman only know how yhe "legos" go together with little understanding of the theory and workings of why these legos go with that lego. Take electricians for example. I know numerous skilled electricians who while they can assemble and diagnose any panel, can't really begin to show much understanding of complex electrical theory or really do much with it outside of commercial, reaidential, and industrial wiring. They just know how to assemble the legos properly and that's where their expertise ends. Same with many who can weld metal but have little knowledge of material data. They just know their lego piecing.


And yes, annoying is equal to difficult as you have stated is working in retail. Dealing with people is difficult. No job is easy, that's why people pay others to do them.

@SW-User Also, residential wiring is about the easiest shit ever.

@MethDozer "fitting the legos together" takes time too dude. Our legos are pretty complex. And honestly those people fill a vital role; not everyone is PLC material. Not everyone needs to be doing stress cones and high voltage splices. We need our lego men too. No shame in it.

And yeah residential is easy but you still aren't going to be doing it right in 4 weeks or less. No way...not unless you have a very lax inspector who isnt double checking anything as far as code.

In 4 weeks you will have mastered roughing the wire in, landing the home runs, and wiring receptacle and lights and whatnot. Services though? Transfer switches? Lightning protection? No.

Maybe in 4 more weeks.

@SW-User I'm not saying there's shame in it, I'm just sayin' why shame retail workers?

@MethDozer i haven't set out to shame them, there is no shame in honest work, but some jobs are easier/less complex than others.

A big problem in retail is dickish management and, universally, the excuse for being such dicks seems to be their delusion that they are 'highly skilled' compared to their subordinates.

I work in a field where it is possible to be so highly/nichely skilled that people have to tolerate you no matter how much of a cock you are.

Retail is simply not such a field.