In general, do people actually take our profession seriously?

Hi All, just a question reflecting on a recent experience I have had with a friend that ties through with many experiences I have had with being an architect.

In this particular situation a friend had asked me for some help with their interior design project. They informed me they found a designer, but that ‘designer’ couldn’t produce drawings and proposed unreasonable timescales. I advised against using them. My friend ignored me.

3 months down the line I’m being begged for drawings, on the same day the project is starting on site. This is clearly a disaster and as a professional I have numerous questions about how this project has been designed and tendered for, but whatever, I agree to help and contact this designer asking for all the design information on the project.

This designer then calls my friend in a panic, saying they refuse to give me any drawings and my friend then tells me to back off!

Walking away from this makes me think about how there is a consistent thread, that while I have delivered million pound projects on site, the people around me just won’t listen to me when it comes to architectural advice.

So architects of reddit, in general, do people actually take our profession seriously?

Further examples include my neighbour wanted to build a house in their garden, so I investigated and I wrote him a lengthy feasibility with all the surveys he would require; he refused to read it and kept asking me why he couldn’t just get on with it. He had protected trees in the way. I told him this. I highlighted which ones they were in the report. I referred to the legislation. He kept phoning and just asking me the same question until I stopped answering. (How do you deal with that awkwardness by the way?)

My parent’s house is freezing and the walls only measure 200mm thick, but they’re insistent they have an insulated cavity wall.

My FIL demanded drawings for a patio, then ignored them, thought he knew better and overruled them, telling the builder to build the slab in line with the door threshold (bye bye any vertical room for the tiles).

Does anybody else have this experience or is it just me? It’s driving me mad!