Line #66 Main/OccupationTropes


1	An index of tropes dealing with a character's job or work environment.
2
3	Note: If a job is related to one of the listed sub-categories, list it on that index instead of here.
4	----
5	[[index]]
6	[[foldercontrol]]
7
8	[[folder:'''Categories''']]
9	+ AuthorityTropes: Bosses, executives, managers, supervisors, and anyone else in a leadership position who's in charge of ordering subordinate employees around.
10	+ BigTropeHunting: Professional hunters who make their living off of chasing down animals or people to capture them (dead or alive), often for monetary rewards or other personal benefits.
11	+ BushidoIndex: Samurai, the feudal warrior-nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan.
12	+ CircusIndex: Entertainers who perform as part of circus troupes.
13	+ ClassRelationsIndex: People's ranking in the socioeconomic hierarchy depends on how much income they make from their respective jobs and on how much status those jobs command.
14	+ ClownTropes: Those goofy circus performers who wear garish clothes and makeup.
15	+ CopsAndDetectives: Law enforcement / police officers and professional crime investigators.
16	+ CountrysideIndex: Includes some tropes about farmers and other laborers who make their living through agriculture.
17	+ TheCourtroomIndex: Judges and lawyers whose job is to handle legal affairs in the criminal justice system.
18	+ ConMan: Confidence tricksters (or con artists/men/women) are professional fraudsters and white-collar criminals who fool and scam people out of their money.
19	+ {{Criminals}}: Career crooks who make a living by breaking the law in hopes of illegally acquiring money.
20	+ DoctorIndex: Physicians, nurses, (para)medics, and other medical personnel one can find in any clinic or hospital.
21	+ EatingEstablishments: Restaurant staff, including the owners/managers and cooks, waiters, etc. who serve up food for a living.
22	+ EspionageTropes: Professional spies, whose jobs revolve around obtaining confidential information and engaging in other kinds of shady, secretive activities. They often work as covert agents or informants for some sort of (usually government-affiliated) organization, such as a civilian/military/police intelligence agency.
23	+ FashionAndModelingTropes: People who make a living making and/or showcasing fashion.
24	+ GroceryStoreIndex: Retail workers who are employed at grocery stores, selling food and other household products.
25	+ HiredGuns: Mercenaries, security guards, and other private contractors whose jobs typically revolve around being hired to carry weapons and engage in various (il)legal, risky, or violent actions on behalf of their clients, especially to attack or protect people and their property.
26	+ HocusTropus: Practitioners of fake magic tricks who perform for an audience.
27	+ HotelTropes: Some people are employed at hotels, motels, inns, and other temporary lodging facilities for travelers.
28	+ INeedAnIndexByMonday: White-collar professionals working in a typical office setting.
29	+ IndexOfIndustry: Laborers who work in construction or manufacturing, often in some kind of factory or other industrial facility.
30	+ IndexOfPupilsAndProteges: Students and apprentices who are undergoing education or training in some sort of field.
31	+ MailAndDeliveryTropes: Couriers, postal workers, and delivery-people who transport mail or other goods and cargo from point A to point B.
32	+ MasterOfTheIndex: These people are ''very good'' at whatever they do for a living, if not some of ''the best'' experts in their given field.
33	+ MentorIndex: Experienced masters who train apprentices on how to do something.
34	+ MilitaryAndWarfareTropes: Soldiers and warriors who are members of some sort of armed forces, whose job is to fight wars under their leaders' command.
35	+ MovieMakingIndex: Cast and crew members involved in film or television production.
36	+ MusicTropes: Singers, instrumentalists, composers, and other musicians.
37	+ NewsTropes: Journalists, reporters, anchors, columnists and other people whose job is to write about or discuss current events for the news media.
38	+ NightlifeIndex: Includes tropes about bartenders who serve alcohol at bars, pubs, nightclubs, and restaurants.
39	+ TheOldestProfession: Prostitutes, strippers, and other sex workers who sell their bodies for satisfying others' sexual pleasures.
40	+ OrganizedCrimeTropes: Gangsters and mobsters who work for criminal groups that behave like illegal businesses, running all kinds of rackets and trading in the BlackMarket for profit.
41	+ PirateTropes: Outlaws whose way of living is based around {{pira\|te}}cy (whether in the seas, {{sk\|yPirate}}ies or {{space\|Pirates}}), through hijacking and robbing merchant vessels that pass by.
42	+ PoliticsTropes: Politicians, bureaucrats, and other government officials who are responsible for running political affairs of the state.
43	+ PovertyTropes: Poor people either have very low-wage jobs with crappy pay, or are currently unemployed from any (full- or part-time) job.
44	+ RecruitmentIndex: How employers recruit new employees to work for them.
45	+ ReligionTropes: Includes multiple tropes about priests and other clergy members who are devoted full-time to preaching their religious beliefs to other people. Some priests even exploit religious services to make monetary profit.
46	+ RetirementTropes: How older characters transition out of their occupations.
47	+ RichPeople: Wealthy elites obviously have very well-paying jobs, often through holding a high-ranking position in their company or organization.
48	+ RoyaltyAndNobilityTropes: Monarchs and other aristocrats who directly inherit titles of political authority through legally enshrined nepotism.
49	+ {{Schoolteachers}}: Educators who teach school curriculum to students in a classroom.
50	+ ServantTropes: Laborers whose job is to help assist their employer by doing some sort of unglamorous housework for them.
51	+ ShowBusiness: Careers in the mass media and entertainment industries.
52	+ SirIndexOfTropes: Knights, the feudal warrior-nobility of medieval and early modern Europe.
53	+ ASlaveToTheIndex: Forced laborers who are coerced into serving their masters, often for little or no reward.
54	+ SportsTropes: Professional athletes who compete in sporting contests and games.
55	+ StealThisIndex: Professional thieves whose "income" is derived entirely from forcibly seizing other people's money or property.
56	+ TheseTropesHaveBeenPromoted: Moving up a rank in the hierarchy of one's profession.
57	+ ThisIndexKnowsWhatItsTalkingAbout: These people are skilled experts in their given field.
58	+ TropesAtSea: Includes various tropes about maritime occupations, such as civilian sailors employed to work on private merchant ships, naval personnel conducting military operations at sea, or outlaw pirates who hijack and rob ships for a living.
59	+ TropesForSale: Merchants, salesmen, and other workers whose job is to directly sell consumer products or services to costumers; often in some sort of marketplace, retail store, or shopping center.
60	+ TropesOnScienceAndUnscience: Scholars and scientists who conduct research or experiments for the pursuit of furthering knowledge in some sort of academic field, often working for laboratories or universities.
61	+ WrestlingTropes: Professional/sport wrestlers who grapple in the ring.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Characters and their jobs]]
65	* AdaptationalJobChange: An adaptation changes a character's occupation.
66	* ApatheticClerk: Clerk or cashier who is ambivalent towards their job and everything that goes on around them.
67	* AnimalOccupationStereotypes: Jobs that certain animals are most likely to be portrayed as working in.
68	* AngryChef: A hothead who bosses around their kitchen staff.
69	* ArmsDealer: A merchant who sells weapons, acquired through (il)legal means.
70	* AsianStoreowner: An (East or South) Asian immigrant who works as a shopkeeper.
71	* BadBoss: They won't give any shits about their employees' safety and welfare and may indulge in cruel methods to keep them in line.
72	* TheBartender: Someone who serves alcohol at a bar, pub, nightclub, or restaurant.
73	* TheBlacksmith: Someone who builds metallic objects for a living.
74	* BountyHunter: A private contractor who is hired by the legal authorities to help capture (or kill) fugitive criminals.
75	* CallToAgriculture: Someone in an unrelated career field decides to take up farming later in life.
76	* CaringGardener
77	* ChattyHairdresser
78	* ChineseLaborer: Chinese immigrants hired to work in railroad construction or other menial labor jobs in the [[TheWildWest American Old West]].
79	* ChineseLaunderer: Chinese immigrants working in laundromats.
80	* ConstructionCatcalls: Workmen yell sexually aggressive comments at passing women.
81	* TheCoroner: A forensic expert whose job is to examine dead bodies, and to determine their identities and causes of death.
82	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: A ruthlessly greedy businessperson who runs a major corporation, doing evil and unscrupulous acts for the sake of profit.
83	* CorruptPolitician: A dishonest government official who abuses their political authority for personal gain.
84	* {{Courier}}: A mercantile message/cargo delivery person.
85	* CrankyLandlord: They have little patience for tenants who annoy them or are slow with paying rent.
86	* CrazyWorkplace: Where both the work ''and'' the employees are mad.
87	* CreepyGasStationAttendant
88	* CreepyGymCoach
89	* CreepyMortician: Morticians are portrayed as being disturbing or strange.
90	* CrookedContractor
91	* DaEditor: The person who runs the newspaper, or at least controlling what gets printed and published.
92	* DerangedParkRanger: A forest ranger who's crazy, possibly to the point of violent psychosis.
93	* DisposableIntern: An intern or newbie is ordered to do highly risky or undesirable work.
94	* DreadfulMusician: A musician who is terrible at singing or playing musical instruments.
95	* TheDriver: A personal chauffeur who drives their client from Point A to Point B.
96	* DropInLandlord: A friendly or comedic landlord who's always showing up at the main characters' apartment to say hi.
97	* EccentricArtist: An artist whose strange quirks are reflected in their works.
98	* EccentricExterminator: A pest exterminator who takes their job very seriously.
99	* EccentricFashionDesigner: A fashion designer with a quirky streak.
100	* EthnicMenialLabor: Hiring poor immigrants to work in cheap labor jobs.
101	* EvilChef: A chef who happens to be a villain.
102	* EvilLibrarians
103	* TheExecutioner: Someone whose job is to execute a death sentence, killing prisoners convicted of capital crimes.
104	* ExpertConsultant: A professional brought in for their expertise or special skills.
105	* FanserviceModel
106	* FantasticalSocialServices: Mundane public service jobs in otherworldly settings.
107	* FlairBartending: Someone who juggles bottles and entertains patrons while serving alcohol.
108	* FollowingInTheirRescuersFootsteps
109	* ForeignCorrespondent: A journalist who is reporting in another country besides their own.
110	* FriendlyShopkeeper: A shopkeeper who treats their customers especially well, and always provides goods and services at a reasonable price.
111	* {{Gaucho}}: A South American cowboy.
112	* {{Ghostwriter}}: Hired to write under someone else's name.
113	* GreaseMonkey: Mechanic not just for cars but things as big as warships.
114	* GreatWhiteHunter: Somone who kills animals for the fame and glory.
115	* HandyMan: Exactly What It Says On The Tin.
116	* HardTruckin: Truckers and similar.
117	* HillbillyMoonshiner: Someone who illegally brews some unlicensed liquor.
118	* HonestCorporateExecutive: A businessperson who is decent and honest and refuses to do anything illegal or unethical with their company.
119	* HunterOfMonsters: Someone who specializes in hunting down (usually evil and/or inhuman) supernatural beings and creatures, whether to protect humanity or simply for personal gain.
120	* ImmoralJournalist: A dishonest reporter who has no problems with bending the facts to get a sensational (fake) news piece.
121	* InexperiencedKiller: A hitman who's never really killed anyone before.
122	* InherentlyAttractiveProfession: A job has characteristics associated with it that people find attractive.
123	* InnocentFlowerGirl
124	* TheIntern: A trainee recruited to do some grunt work as the first step in their career, who may or may not be paid a salary.
125	* IntrepidReporter: A journalist who actively seeks out interesting news stories, even going on risky adventures to do so.
126	* JoblessParentDrama: A family struggles because a parent is unemployed.
127	* MadArtist: An evil and insane artist who engages in grotesque and sociopathic things for the sake of their art.
128	* MadScientist: An insane scientist who conducts bizarre experiments.
129	* MagiciansAreWizards: Despite their showmanship, they are in fact capable of real magic.
130	* MajorityShareDictator: Someone who owns just barely more than half of a company's stock wields a disproportionate amount of power.
131	* MaskedLuchador: A Mexican professional wrestler.
132	* MeanBoss: A boss who isn't very nice to their employees.
133	* ModelingIsGlamorous: If a character is a model, they definitely live the high life.
134	* MorallyBankruptBanker: A ruthlessly greedy financier.
135	* MostWritersAreWriters: Fiction writers create characters who are also writers.
136	* MightyLumberjack: A big, burly logger.
137	* NativeGuide: A local person who assists travelers with navigating the region they live in.
138	* NemesisAsCustomer: A character's job requires them to serve someone they hate.
139	* PointyHairedBoss: The boss is a total moron.
140	* PrivateIntelligenceAgency: A private company that's contracted to provide intelligence services or specialists for consulations.
141	* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Mercenary soldiers who are not official members of a government's armed forces; instead either being employed by a private corporation, or working as freelance guns-for-hire who will fight for any client that pays them.
142	* ProfessionalGambler: Someone who regularly takes great risks to earn more money.
143	* ProfessionalKiller: Someone whose job is to murder other people in exchange for a paycheck.
144	* PsychoForHire: A hired thug who enjoys getting paid to do bad things to other people.
145	* PsychoPsychologist: A psychologist who isn't a model example of sanity himself.
146	* RailroadEmployeeRoundhouse
147	* TheRealSpoofbusters: An {{expy}} of the {{Franchise/Ghostbusters}}, being a team of professionals who make a living by dealing with paranormal threats.
148	* RomComJob
149	* SaloonOwner: Someone who owns a saloon.
150	* SaneBossPsychoHenchmen: A relatively sane villain takes command of a bunch of nutjobs.
151	* ScaryLibrarian: You better stay quiet inside their library, and turn in all your rented books on time, ''or else''.
152	* SensitiveArtist: An artist who's quite moody and emotional.
153	* SequentialArtist: {{Comic\|s}} illustrators.
154	* ShoeShineMister
155	* TheShrink: A psychiatrist or psychotherapist who provides mental health services.
156	* SingleIssueLandlord
157	* SleazyPolitician
158	* SmoothTalkingTalentAgent
159	* SnakeOilSalesman: A ConMan who sells shoddy products of very dubious quality to gullible people.
160	* SpiesAreDespicable: Spies are automatically seen as liars, cowards, and untrustworthy.
161	* StageMagician: An illusionist who performs "magic tricks" for an audience.
162	* StarvingArtist: An artist who has trouble with profiting from their works.
163	* StockSuperheroDayJobs: Because being a {{superhero}} is usually an unpaid volunteer activity, they often have another actual career in order to pay their bills. In some cases though, they might actually be paid for their superhero work.
164	* StrawCritic: Professional media critics being stereotyped as perfectionist and unpleasable.
165	* SuperCostumeClothier: A fashion designer or tailor who specialises in outfits for superheros [=and/or=] supervillains.
166	* SweetBaker: Confectioners are nice people.
167	* TagalongReporter: A journalist who joins in on the hero's adventures to report them.
168	* TeamChef: A member of a group who is skilled at cooking.
169	* TechBro: A technology industry professional, executive or founder with a FratBro or MadScientist personality.
170	* TerribleArtist: An artist whose illustrations would fail to impress a kindergartner.
171	* ThereAreNoGoodExecutives: All wealthy entrepreneurs are nothing but amorally greedy, capitalist robber-barons.
172	* TravelingSalesman: A merchant who visits distant locations to sell their products to clients.
173	* UltimateBlacksmith
174	* UnstoppableMailman: A postal worker will cross every single obstacle to deliver mail packages to their destinations.
175	* TheVicar
176	* TheWatchmaker: Horologist the one who has to do the minute repair and construction work for clocks and mechanical watches.
177	* WesternUnionMan: The character running the telegraph system in the American WildWest.
178	* WhiteCollarWorker: The average employee of any modern office facility.
179	* WrestlingManagersAreHeels
180	* {{Yuppie}}: Members of the Baby Boomer generation who were consumption and status-obsessed "young urban professionals" during TheEighties.
181	[[/folder]]
182
183	[[folder:Other work-related tropes]]
184	* AbusiveWorkplace: A place of work that is awful to work at for various reasons (including horrible working conditions, low pay and a toxic work environment).
185	* BadJobWorseUniform: A crappy job with poor pay forces you to wear a humiliating costume.
186	* BalladOfASexWorker: A song about a prostitute or some other sex-related profession.
187	* BurgerFool: Someone has to work for minimum wage at a fast food restaurant.
188	* CareerNotTaken: "I might like making a living doing X, but I've always wanted to do Y. I'm only doing X because of Z."
189	* CareerRevealingTrait
190	* CrossingTheBurntBridge
191	* DangerousWorkplace: A place of work that's genuinely hazardous to employee health.
192	* DeadEndJob: A position that keeps getting filled by a new character.
193	* DefeatMeansMenialLabor: Where a villain, having been defeated, is reduced to menial labor.
194	* DependingUponTheUndependable: People get hired or promoted even though everyone knows (or should know) how incompetent they are.
195	* DumbButDiligent
196	* EternalEmployee: Someone who's seemingly working their job all day long.
197	* FallenOnHardTimesJob: Poor and unemployed people will have to take any job that will make their ends meet.
198	* FamilyBusiness: Any job that involves several generations of the family as laborers or management.
199	* FoundFamilyViaWork: A FamilyOfChoice that forms through work.
200	* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: A company fires its employees for whatever reason it wants to.
201	* GoofySuit
202	* HappinessInMinimumWage: A worker is content with being paid minimum wage.
203	* TheHelpHelpingThemselves: A household servant steals or otherwise uses their master's property without permission.
204	* HiredForTheirLooks: It doesn't matter if someone is qualified for a job; all that matters is that they look good.
205	* HiredOnTheSpot
206	* HorribleHollywood: The media and entertainment industry is full of morally corrupt people.
207	* HospitalHottie: Doctors, medics, or nurses who are very attractive.
208	* HotMenAtWork: Male laborers who are very handsome.
209	* TheInspectorIsComing
210	* JadedProfessional: Someone has turned very cynical because of everything they've experienced during their career.
211	* JobMindsetInertia
212	* JobSong: A musical number about working.
213	* MuseAbuse
214	* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: A character's job changes depending on what is appropriate for the current episode's plot.
215	* NotaryNonsense: Notaries depicted unrealistically (usually for [[RuleOfFunny laughs]]) in fiction.
216	* ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation: It isn't explicitly revealed what a person's occupation is.
217	* ObsoleteOccupation
218	* OfficeRomance: Coworkers falling in love.
219	* OutOfJobIntoThePlot: The character lost/abandoned their jobs prior to the story.
220	* PhonyVeteran: Someone who lies about or exaggerates their claims of military service.
221	* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: A character has a specific job, but is never seen or otherwise indicated doing anything that has to do with their profession.
222	* PlayingGamesAtWork: Slackers who goof off to have fun while on the clock.
223	* PlumbersCrack
224	* PornCreatorGoingMainstream: An adult entertainer or porn creator tries to change careers to mainstream content.
225	* PostInjuryDeskJob: After getting seriously injured out in the field, they're relegated to handling documents and paperwork in an office.
226	* PreWarCivilianCareer: What happened to a character before they joined the service.
227	* ProfessionalVoiceDissonance: A character uses a different voice for their job than their regular speaking voice.
228	* PursueTheDreamJob: Someone really wants to obtain their own ideal career.
229	* TheQueenWillBeWatching
230	* ReallyMovesAround: Someone constantly relocates from place to place, usually to follow wherever their current job takes them.
231	* {{Retirony}}: A character with a dangerous job ends up dying not long before they were supposed to peacefully retire.
232	* SentOffToWorkForRelatives
233	* ServiceSectorStereotypes: Customer service jobs can be very tedious at best, humiliating at worst.
234	* SexAtWork: Workers have sex at a place where they're employed.
235	* TheSimpleLifeIsSimple
236	* ASideOrderOfRomance: Someone meets his love interest while she is on the job as a waitress.
237	* SoulCrushingDeskJob: An awfully boring white-collar job at a StandardOfficeSetting.
238	* SoulSuckingRetailJob: An awfully tedious blue-collar job at a retail store or supermarket.
239	* StrikeEpisode: Dissatisfied employees form a labor union and refuse to work in protest of how their bosses treat them.
240	* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome
241	* UltimateJobSecurity: An employee who never gets fired even though realistically their actions would've gotten them booted out a long time ago.
242	* UnconfessedUnemployment: When a character is fired and they try to hide it.
243	* UnderStrangeManagement: When the workplace is being run by unconventional people.
244	* UnionsSuck: Negative portrayals of workers' unions in fiction, either by showing them as useless or corrupt.
245	* UnusualHiringPractices: A company hires based on a set of skills or achievements outside the usual for a job.
246	* VampireDoctor: Someone whose HorrorHunger makes their chosen profession difficult.
247	* VeryFakeResume: A character applies for a job with an egregiously fake or exaggerated resume.
248	* WaitingForABreak
249	* WeirdTradeUnion: Labor unions for the most unexpected professions.
250	* WhyWeNeedGarbagemen: Sanitation workers either can't or won't do their job, resulting in garbage accumulating.
251	* TheWickedStage
252	* {{Workaholic}}: a person addicted to working and getting everything perfect in their job, even if it destroys their health and family.
253	* WorkingClassAnthem: The "This Job Sucks" song.
254	* WrongLineOfWork: When someone gets a job they are clearly unsuited for.
255	[[/folder]]
256
257	[[/index]]

Context Main / OccupationTropes