Bitterness of Scuba Instructors

[RTee]

My perception when going through the threads seems to be the opposite...the mass expressing bitterness or dissatisfaction towards the service providers (LDS, instructors, DMs, dive ops, etc).

 

[Jim Lapenta]

You think you get disrespect Jim? Try doing what I do for a living. I write manuals for a municipal utillity ... and I'd way rather tell people I'm a manual laborer than tell them I work for the government ... :shocked2:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Writing is a noble profession. Even if it is for the gubmint. But you do get all those great holidays! And as long as you write manuals and not specs. The ones who decide on and write specs are in training for jobs at gitmo and those prisons the CIA does not have. Those people are sadists. We are going for direct contracts from DOD and others. I swear they have specs for the toilet paper you use when you go to the bathroom while running their jobs.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk

 

[TCDiver1]

Rhone Man, post #31 nailed it.

Expecting what is posted on SB to mimic real life is about the same as believeing everything you read on the internet. While being a good general resource you still have to get out in the real world, not the electronic one, to figure out what is really going on. Most Scuba Instructors i know or have known are good passionate people who are far from bitter with their jobs. Ask yourself when they tend to make squat, why they keep doing it. Either they are all basically mentally unbalanced or they really like doing their job.

Also, i think i need to find out where some of you Docs work and live. If the septic tank guy is making more than you, i'm going to move to your area and learn how to dig up septic tanks.

 

[kimbalabala]

There seems to be hostility toward incompetence, a sort of arrogance, among many of the posters here. Most of the instructors on this forum are as nice as could be, but many seem to have a certain resentment or hostility, for some reason.

Matt, I wish you had been more specific about your observations. Everyone's responses have been based on conjecture and that may not be particularly helpful. "Hostility toward incompetence" is natural. Who doesn't get hostile when faced with incompetence? I get irritated when I give my students an open book quiz and they ask me what page they can find the answers on - incompetence BEGS a hostile reaction! (I just stare at them with a quizzical look!) I don't get the impression that anyone is hostile/angry/irritated at "ignorance" - they're irritated when a diver knows the protocol and does whatever the heck they want to do anyway.

In a more recent post someone reminded us that when we get more experienced we forget what it was like to be a new diver and we get impatient. I know this has happened with me - ok, I'll admit it's a little bit fun to smugly say "I'm not the newest diver on the boat today!!". Sometimes we all get out of line with our impatience. But it's not the instructors that I've seen this happen with - it's select divers who have lots and lots of experience and have the expectation that we newer divers should just "know" things that we haven't had the opportunity to learn yet.

I don't think it has anything to do with money (of course there will always be exceptions). I teach at a community college and it AIN'T for the money! Dive instructors are there (from what I've seen) because they really love diving and they want to share it - with anyone willing to learn. The only time I can think of seeing any sort of nastiness about new divers are toward the folks who want to learn "real quick" so they can go on a tropical vacation, and they don't really put effort into it. As a result they end up a danger to themselves and others. I don't like being on a boat with those folks either. It's probably not a coincidence that those folks also have "comfortable incomes". So if you're seeing a connection it might not be that money begets poor service and attitude - it might be that lack of investment in the sport begets irritated instructors and fellow divers.

Just my 2 cents (or 2 psi?)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Yeah but you wouldn't swap the pay check at $8/hr competing with Latino illegals hey? You make a service worthless, you better be able to do the work yourself, when nobody longer bothers learning a Trade for a living.
Irony of you name "Grateful" tisssssssss'

Ahh ... your humor gene hasn't woke up yet I guess. Frankly, I wouldn't swap my job for anything ... I love what I do for a living ... both jobs. Otherwise, I'd have found something else to do long ago ...

... Bob (Grateful ... )

 

[Rhone Man]

The list of people who make more money an hour than I do: The guy who digs up my septic tank when it clogs on a weekend; the personal training I went to for a very short time (and would love to go to again, but I can't afford her); a whole HOST of riding instructors I've done clinics with. Some of the latter have rare talent, but you can't tell me that it takes either talent or education to dig up a septic tank . . .

Semi related story: a friend of mine who was a lawyer got laid off during the Lehman's criss and he retrained as a plumber. Although he makes slightly less money now, it is only slightly less (helped by the fact that, like most plumbers, he does a lot of cash work that does not make it all the way through to his tax return), but only works 2/3rds of the hours he used to work. He wishes he had gotten the sack years ago.

 

[flots am]

Semi related story: a friend of mine who was a lawyer got laid off during the Lehman's criss and he retrained as a plumber. Although he makes slightly less money now, it is only slightly less (helped by the fact that, like most plumbers, he does a lot of cash work that does not make it all the way through to his tax return), but only works 2/3rds of the hours he used to work. He wishes he had gotten the sack years ago.

There's a lot of that going around. I make just about the same fixing software as my doctor makes fixing people. The difference is that I work about half the hours he does with about 90% less stress and nobody calls me in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure he'd switch with me if he could.

flots.

 

[lowviz]

Ahh ... your humor gene hasn't woke up yet I guess. ...//...

THIS from a guy who shamelessly resorts to puns???













Sent from my PILOTFISH X2 (without actually entering this thread again)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

There's a lot of that going around. I make just about the same fixing software as my doctor makes fixing people. The difference is that I work about half the hours he does with about 90% less stress and nobody calls me in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure he'd switch with me if he could.

flots.

... and I bet you pay a hell of a lot less for liability insurance than he does ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ScubaSteve]

There's a lot of that going around. I make just about the same fixing software as my doctor makes fixing people. The difference is that I work about half the hours he does with about 90% less stress and nobody calls me in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure he'd switch with me if he could.

flots.

But a doctor should know what they are getting into before they get there AFAIC. At least the doctors that I know personally knew well before they got into the field. And I personally do not want to deal with the doctor that got into the field for the money. That is clearly the doctor that will do a sub-par job because they are sour they ended up making less per hour than they expected. Just my outlook.