A thankless job, is a job where a person often (or most the time) feels the pay is not
up to par with the work they do; or that their efforts go unnoticed or unappreciated.
Jobs where one hears mostly the negatives and not the positives tend to be thankless jobs.
A think prime example of a thankless job would be that of a
content editor at Everything2. These editors spend
countless hours working (for free) to make this place better for all of us, and yet their judgements often get critizied and they are often expected to be perfect. It'd probably help if there were a place
on E2 where we could post
kudo's to the editors, but till then /msg's will have to do.
"Have you thanked an Editor today?"
Another good example of an often thankless job would be that of a
parent, especially during the
teenage and
college years.
There are many other examples of thankless jobs, many in the following professions are often left with the feeling that they are in a thankless job:
Finally, I'd have to guess those who maintain this site may at times feel it's a thankless job, though I imagine an email and/or a
donation would go a long way towards thanking them.
A thankless job does not always refer to actual employment, or voluteer "work" - but can also include various tasks. For example, paying bills may be referred to as a thankless job.
Picking weeds in a garden, may be referred to as a thankless job as well.