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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   766 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 10, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I recently had my third child and my much younger brother broke his leg. As a result, I’m spending a lot of time in doctors offices, medical offices, and physical therapy outfits.

For whatever reason I started to notice that every one of these places have these big horseshoe front desks with somewhere between 6-12 women working. They’re generally between 20-60 years old, natural blonde or dye job, mostly slightly overweight or seriously overweight, at least one tattoo, and all of them pretty miserable. These are the working women proles. When people talk about the outrageous healthcare costs, I can’t help but think that it’s all a racket and jobs program. Healthcare companies make a nice margin and get an army of women that toe the line with “public health” and collect a paycheck.

I’m 42. It wasn’t always like this.

I’m saying this all tongue in cheek for Friday fun. But I am kinda curious what people think about the socio-economic-political forces that are driving this.

Is it the same in the UK? In China? I’ve been to a Chinese hospital. That seemed like a lot of young village type Chinese in white uniforms and hats.

What makes these people so miserable? Do people go into this field and turn into this stereotype? Or do the stereotype people get attracted to this field?

I’m 42. It wasn’t always like this.

William Baumol (yes, that Baumol) coined the term "pink collar" in 1967. The category referred to teaching, nursing, secretarial and social work--the kind of work disproportionately done by women. You might not have noticed it 30 years ago (and certainly you would have seen less obesity and fewer tattoos) but the basic dynamic has been in place for decades at least.

I would suggest that these people are not so much miserable as they are irritated by the presence of patients. In most medical practice today, the patient is not the one paying the (lion's share of the) bill. And if you are not the one paying the bill, you are not the customer. A really good day for most medical office workers is one in which a large number of cancellations or no-shows allows them to spend the day scrolling their phone (or, a touch less cynically, getting a lot of insurance billing paperwork done because there are no humans distracting them with questions or, worse, complaints). They get paid the same either way.

And the office workers you're talking about were probably not attracted to "this field" so much as to a flexible-hours, prestige-adjacent job with air conditioning and low physical demand. Ideal conditions for parents of young children, of course, but also not a terrible compromise position for childless individuals who would prefer to not be working at all but aren't in a financial position to actually take that route.

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