(What follows are generalizations that of course have exceptions.) For the record, this is likely less true in Barcelona than in most parts of the US. While a supermarket cashier isn't seen as a good job in Spain, people also care much, much less about having a "good" job, and much more about their quality of life outside of work. Also contributing to this is the fact that the difference in social respect and overall quality of life between, say, a supermarket cashier and an engineer is vastly smaller in Spain than in San Francisco.
Anecdote: my wife is from Barcelona, and is currently finishing her PhD in a technical field. We're in the US at the moment and she could likely get a well-compensated job after graduation if she wanted, but is considering applying to be a barista at Starbucks or similar instead. It's not that she particularly dislikes what she studied -- just that she doesn't particularly care about work life one way or the other at all. I've observed this attitude a lot with Spanish friends.
I'm not talking about salary or social status. I'm talking about doing the actual job. There is nothing full-filing in a routine, very basic job (scanning items back and forth). A plumber is more interesting in this regard.
Another useless job: A door-man.
Re:Amazon Go
by DanPitrowiski on Monday December 05, 2016 @01:00PM
(#13107558)
As a man I'd be happier raising kids than processing mail for the post office. Or scanning groceries all day.
I put women because they seem to care more about kids. But men are fine too. That's not my point. My point is some very successful people have trouble creating families which is not sustainable for the human race as it is.
These guys might have been ordered by management to smile for customers. That doesn't make them happy. Just a bit more miserable, but you don't see any of it.
I can't see why anybody will like to finish their life counting stuff and money for other people. I can hardly see them happy even if they smile to me.
And here is another guess: They are probably getting a salary that barely covers their basic needs and won't cover urgent ones.
How about: Machines do this for us while we work on more interesting thing. Maybe if the bright of us are failing to get married and raise kids, we let these guys handle the task for us. I can see women being much more happier raising kids than processing mail for the post office.