>>718282834
Pay wasn't bad (because it's hard to find people that want to be refs, so at least in my area they were willing to pay for you to stay), and I almost never had a problem with the players, but being a ref is an extremely taxing test on your mental fortitude. I always joke that if you want to be treated like an actual subhuman by the public, either murder someone, diddle a kid or become a referee because you're no longer seen as a person once you put on the stripes. You're just an object for dozens/hundreds/thousands of voices to dump their frustrations on and unlike players, the expectation is that you just shut up and take it all on the chin or else you're both seen as unprofessional and a target that can be manipulated through continued verbal lashings, and this is going to happen regardless of how well you actually do your job. I'm not afraid to admit that some of those refereeing days ended with me crying in my car because of how mentally beat down I was from all the shit I had to endure for hours on end.

Highlight of my career in that aspect was during a flag football game for 5 year olds where the head coach of one team charged at me just because his son got hurt during a play, as if I had any control over that. Also got cornered by a group of angry dads one time during halftime, but thankfully there was a security guard nearby that was able to shoo them away before they did anything. Given that /v/ still gets butthurt about Spec Ops The Line calling them meanie heads over a decade later, I couldn't imagine what would happen if an anon on this board tried to be a ref. Had a fuckton of new refs (usually teens just looking for a side gig) that ended up either quitting right after the game or just walking off the field after just a game or two.

tldr: neat job that paid nicely because nobody else wanted to do it, but you're going to get an ungodly amount of verbal abuse from all angles at all times. Feel free to call me a sensitive pussy if you must.