Just got back from my latest surgery, it went fine. The staff were nice, ones I hadn't seen before. Although I got the dreaded question, "So what do you do?" And had to say "Nothing at the moment," and then justify it by explaining all my health issues, but these were some of the rare people who accepted I couldn't be expected to work in my condition instead of being judgmental about it. Although they did do the whole "You'll get better soon," thing, and imply that I can get back to work eventually. Why is our society like this? No matter how insurmountable your health issues society can never just accept that you're on the scrapheap, work-wise. There always has to be some undercurrent of "You should be working." Hence why even people with degenerative conditions get re-assessed for disability benefits again and again instead of being left in peace.
And don't even get me started on "So what do you do" being the standard conversation opener for everyone, everywhere, always. Always immediately judging and classifying someone by their job. Are we really so unimaginative that we can't think of another way to start a conversation with a stranger? How about "So what music do you like? Been anywhere nice lately? What's your favourite film?" I mean, literally anything that is about an individual's personal interests rather than how productive they are to capitalism and where they fit on the job-based social respect scale.
So I'm not disabled but i also hate this question because it's like what i do to make sure i don't starve tells you nothing about me as a person. So what i do is purposefully misunderstand. I'll start telling them about my hobbies. Like oh i like to write, or i garden, or something.
I feel like the average person would still use this against you, either say "No, I mean what do you do for work?" Or think "Well if you won't answer the question the way I intended you must be unemployed and therefore worthless."
If they do that then theyre not worth talking to anyway. If someones just asking what do you do cuz its like the thing people say and theyre trying to start small talk they'll be perfectly happy with the hobby response. If someones trying to find out how much money you make/your social class they wont be. And in that case they can fuck off anyway. It's a good way to weed out the shitty ones, and still get to talk to the people who are chill, and just trying to chat.