Years ago a friend gently nudged me away from the usual get-together ice breaker of "what do you do for a living" because it's inherently biased to the well paid professional. He suggested I change to the more open "how do you occupy your time" . The answers are far more interesting and I never need to make stay at home spouses, underemployed or unemployed people feel uncomfortable.. this post reminded me of that (we are not our corporately bestowed titles)