Depressing Job List May Have Negligence Hints

I’ve written before about my interest in the underlying reason for why people do things that cause harm. Why do usually good drivers suddenly drive through stop signs? How does a person suddenly lose an arm in a machine they work with almost every day? Why does an elderly person suddenly get left to fall and injure themselves in a nice expensive nursing home?

I cam upon this list from Health magazine of the 10 most depressing Jobs with the Gawker Descriptions:

• Nursing Home and Child Care Workers: Yes, it sucks to be around death all the time and also annoying sick kids and their horrible parents.

• Food Service Worker: Spend all day being cussed at by customers and go home smelling like onions? No thanks.

• Social Worker: Maybe if they spent some more time focusing on their problems rather than everyone else’s. God, get selfish!

• Health-care Worker: They see dead people.

• Artists, Entertainers, Writers: Exhibit A.

• Teachers: Just like I always said, dealing with kids makes you depressed.

• Administrative Staff Support: "I don’t know what happened. I told Julia she couldn’t go to her birthday party because she had to wait here for a very important fax and she just burst into tears."

• Maintenance and Grounds Workers: That’s such bullshit. My gardener is always saying, "Good morning, Mr. Moylan. Great day, Mr. Moylan. Good to see you, Mr. Moylan." He couldn’t be happier!

• Financial Advisers and Accountants: Yeah, that shit is grim.

• Salespeople: They’re paid to lie to other people to get them to buy shit they don’t need. I wouldn’t feel depressed, I’d feel superior.

There has to be something more. This is an example of why discovery (interrogatories and depositions) are so important. It is why early investigation can make a difference. In most cases defendants didn’t mean to cause the harm they did. But, in those same cases they did something wrong. As Steve Lombardi has pointed out it’s not just nature. The helpful answer in many cases is "why"?