History Main / WrongLineOfWork

** In the prequel, ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity'', Mike Wazowski wants to be the world's best scarer, but despite his encyclopedic knowledge of scare tactics, he has to face the AwfulTruth that he's not frightening enough to be a scarer, and gives up on his dream career. In [[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc the first movie]], it's Mike's knowledge that allows Sully to become the best scarer at Monsters Incorporated while working as his scare assistant, though after discovering that [[spoiler:children's laughter is several times more powerful than scream]] Mike finds his true calling [[spoiler:making children laugh as a comedian]].

** Due to laziness and lack of motivation, Homer is largely incompetent at his job at the power plant, either being the source of many problems that occur there or making existing ones worse. And he's the ''safety inspector''. It's hard to think of a worse job for someone like him. Many episodes show he is rather skilled at a great deal of other professions, like being a referee, a chess master, or a bodyguard, to name a few.

** In "Realty Bites", Marge is hired by Lionel Hutz to work as a real estate agent at his new realty company. Her natural honesty puts her at odds with [[ShadyRealEstateAgent Hutz's shady business practises]] - she puts her customers off by pointing out flaws in the properties or telling them she really likes the house they're currently living in, is wracked with guilt when she sells the Flanders family a house where a multiple homicide took place without telling them its grisly history, and is fired for returning Ned's uncashed cheque after the house is destroyed in a car crash.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': Plankton is absolutely ''horrible'' at running a restaurant. His chum-based dishes [[LethalChef are all inedible at best and outright harmful at worst]] (A fake customer mentions he had to get his stomach pumped twice before going to do it a third time from eating so much of it), has lousy customer service skills because of his short temper, and has to resort to trying and always failing to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula from the Krusty Krab to make his restaurant a success. He is a much better scientist, whose skills rival (or even at times surpasses) that of Sandy and would have much better luck at profiting from it if not for his obsession with stealing the formula.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' provides Al Bundy, a ButtMonkey and JadedWashout who had big dreams of being a football star but was condemned to spend his life selling womens' shoes. He hates the job and is terrible at it, partly because he thinks [[ICouldaBeenAContender he was meant for better things]], doesn't think selling shoes is really a "man's job" and is disgusted by how many of his customers are fat. He constantly insults them for their weight (and it's implied he literally ''cannot'' stop himself even when he tries) and rarely ever sells anything.
* ''Series/PerryMason2020'': Perry Mason is a private detective, but he's frankly terrible at it since he's too confrontational and emotional to avoid pissing off people he really needs to keep on his good side for the sake of an investigation. However, these same qualities make him an ''excellent'' lawyer because they give him tremendous presence in the courtroom and enough charisma to get the jury in his side.

May also occur as a result of KlingonPromotion when the next highest ranked person in an organization is forced to take up the position of their superiors or SpareToTheThrone if the job involves monarchy and the one next in line proves to be underqualified for the job. Compare with TheAllegedExpert, HeroWithAnFInGood, MinionWithAnFInEvil, UnderStrangeManagement, TheDilbertPrinciple and ThePeterPrinciple.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2022NYSEveOfTheDaleks "Eve of the Daleks"]]: Sarah inherited a storage business from her late uncle. She only keeps it open out of a sense of duty to her family, and feels so little sense of investment in it that she'd rather change the name from "Self Storage" to "Elf Storage" than [[SignOfDisrepair fix the damaged sign out front]].

** [[Recap/DoctorWho2022NYSEveOfTheDaleks "Eve of the Daleks": Sarah inherited a storage business from her late uncle. She only keeps it open out of a sense of duty to her family, and feels so little sense of investment in it that she'd rather change the name from "Self Storage" to "Elf Storage" than [[SignOfDisrepair fix the damaged sign out front]].

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" implies that this is the case for Karl, a tower crane operator with a fear of heights, and low self-esteem that seems to be caused by him being unsuited to his job (he has to listen to a recorded motivational speech, telling him his contribution is valued, while working). It's also implied that he only got the job through {{Nepotism}}, as he mentions several times that the company he works for is owned by his dad.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': Team Rocket have often created or started working for a business in order to provide cover for their criminal activities. During this time, they prove more successful performing honest regular work than committing crimes, implying they would have better lives if they just gave up crime.

** In "Realty Bites", Marge is hired by Lionel Hutz to work as a real estate agent at his new realty company. Her natural honesty puts her at odds with Hutz's shady business practises - she puts her customers off by pointing out flaws in the properties or telling them she really likes the house they're currently living in, is wracked with guilt when she sells the Flanders family a house were a multiple homicide took place without telling them its grisly history, and is fired for returning Ned's uncashed cheque after the house is destroyed in a car crash.

** In "Realty Bites", Marge is hired by Lionel Hutz to work as a real estate agent at his new realty company. Her natural honesty puts her at odds with Hutz's shady business practises - she puts her customers off by pointing out flaws in the properties or telling them she really likes the house they're currently living in, is wracked with guilt when she sells the Flanders family a house were a murder took place without telling them its grisly history, and is fired for returning Ned's uncashed cheque after the house is destroyed in a car crash.

* SomeoneHasToDoIt - and there's nobody else to fill the position.