What aspect of your profession might be surprising to those who aren’t in it?
Posted by snoopingsam@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 374 comments
I’m a year 1 teacher. Most people understand that I’ve got to teach children that young life skills, but are quite surprised when I mention having to deal with toileting stuff. People seem to assume that kids going into school being toilet trained means that they are perfectly fine with understanding and knowing when to go to the toilet. Well, I’ve had my fair share of shit experiences, unfortunately :(
angel_0f_music@reddit
Common sense is not common in the least.
The number of over-55s who think that bank statements and utility bills cease to exist after a bank/company goes paperless is astonishing.
ctesibius@reddit
Erm, not sure what you intend to say here, but it sounds as though you think that printing off a statement is as good as a posted copy for all purposes. It isn’t.
In some cases electronic copies can be good - but mainly if they are on your hard disk, not just web access. Most financial institutions seem to only let you search a 1y range, for instance.
Smidday90@reddit
I let you in on a secret, when you come into the branch for a bank certified statement, we download them from the same place you can download them online. Sure I can stamp it and sign it but theres no difference or way of telling them apart.
k20vtec01@reddit
Just wait until they figure out they can send mail electronically, without the need for posting! Revolutionary.
ScatterCushion0@reddit
Frustratingly there are still organisations that require paper copies. Husband's student loan deferment (for reasons) needed three months of paper payslips to be posted to them. They categorically would not accept electronic copies. This loan company (or their admin at least) were literally the only reason we ever bought stamps. This was as recent as 2023.
Smidday90@reddit
Worked for them too, backwards as fuck.
ctesibius@reddit
And how is this relevant? What matters here is what the customer has at home, and the posted statement will certainly be perceptibly different from one run off on a domestic inkjet.
FarmingIsCharming@reddit
Most banks would accept the original pdf statement nowadays.
bitofrock@reddit
I've literally emailed pdf bank statements to use as id plenty of times. Including the council.
I was the first wave of going paperless and it's not impeded me.
angel_0f_music@reddit
OK, here is an example:
Me: "Dear Mr Mann, thank you for your email. Our automated Identification & Verification system has been unable to confirm that we hold the correct address for you. So that we can confirm your address, please send us a copy of a recent bank statement or utility bill. If you no longer receive paper statements or bills, you can download a PDF copy from the bank or utility provider's website which can then be emailed to us, or you can send us a hard copy via post. If you need helping obtaining a bank statement or utility bill, please contact your bank or utility provider."
Mr Mann: "My bank and utility bills are online, I don't get paper bills and statements anymore, so I can't send you one."
MJLDat@reddit
The same people who say ‘I guess it’s free then’ when buying stuff that doesn’t register on the till?
tinyfecklesschild@reddit
Theatre actor. People know about the risk of unemployment but are often surprised by how poorly paid it is when you are working.
DarthScabies@reddit
School caretaker. The amount of teachers and teaching assistants that leave windows open and lights on when they leave is ridiculous.
One-Parsnip8303@reddit
The caretaker at my school very rightly taught me that lesson the hard way. I left a heater on and he took it away. I saw the error of my ways and we can have a good chat and be will happily fix the broken lock or look at the leaky ceiling. 5 years on he still won't replace the heater.
DarthScabies@reddit
Damn. That's harsh. We're not that evil at my school. (Unless you really upset us.) 😂
One-Parsnip8303@reddit
To be honest hes always been consistent and treats all heater operating culprits the same so I can't blame him 🤣
DarthScabies@reddit
Fair enough.
minisrugbycoach@reddit
By...........leaving a heater on?
DarthScabies@reddit
Nope. Has to be more annoying than that.
quentinia@reddit
Trust me, in a Year 6 classroom during summer - you need as many windows open for as long as you can.
Screaming_lambs@reddit
I remember being in year 6 (I'm 40 now) and having health lessons about puberty and the need to shower properly and maybe use deodorant.
Albert_Herring@reddit
I'm a translator, not an interpreter, and they are substantially different skill sets.
And I can successfully translate to a professional level out of languages I struggle to buy a coffee in, face to face.
angel_0f_music@reddit
That's really interesting - is it because you learn "business speak" (for want of a better term) in the other languages, as opposed to everyday language?
What is the difference between a translator and an interpreter?
I know someone who can read and write in German, but can't actually carry out a verbal conversation.
Albert_Herring@reddit
Translators do written, interpreters do spoken.
In practice, that means that translators are spods who spend their working days sitting at home on their own in their pajamas looking stuff up about varities of plaster on Google and Linguee and worrying about the correct use of the en dash and whether you need a space before a percentage sign, while interpreters are people with a deeply weird brain that renders them capable of talking in one language while listening in another, a high-stress suit wearing occupation that usually burns them out in their mid-30s. Mostly (assuming you're not risking nuclear war or something), interpreters get by with close being good enough, while translators tend to get their work picked apart in detail.
For my less good languages, it's a matter of knowing my limits and sticking to formal language. I have done a lot of legal work and a contract in Spanish (which I have never had a single lesson in) looks a very great deal like one in Italian (which I have a degree in). Colloquial stuff, full of local cultural references, is much harder.
(Sadly, that means that "AI"/machine translation LLMs are also better at those documents, so I don't get to do many contracts these days, and there has been lots of pressure on rates across the board.)
robbertzzz1@reddit
Would you be able to have a casual conversation in Dutch?
Albert_Herring@reddit
In Belgium, yes, once I've settled back in. In NL, my accent gets double-takes (as a parallel from a British perspective, it's like meeting a non-native speaker who has learned English with an Irish accent, I guess) and the moment I have any trouble with theirs they switch into English.
robbertzzz1@reddit
Yeah the Dutch tend to be like that in general. I'm Dutch myself and moved to the UK a few years ago. My MIL is English but has lived in the Netherlands for half her life. After all that time she still had Dutch people switch to English which she absolutely hated because she understood Dutch perfectly, it's just that she has quite a thick accent.
I've met Flemish people who I really couldn't understand at all. I could hear that their words sounded like Dutch, but I had no idea what they said. If that's the Dutch you're familiar with, I'm sure many dutchies absolutely would not understand you haha
Albert_Herring@reddit
Ah, deep Gordel or Westvlaams seem pretty opaque. I just sound something like a VRT newsreader only not quite right, I think.
Linguistin229@reddit
It’s because you’re training different skills.
Say you translate civil engineering docs into your English (your native language). The most important thing is to be able to write civil engineering docs in a way a civil engineer in the UK (or another English-speaking country) would immediately understand and not even realise it was a translator, they’d think it was written by a UK civil engineer in the first place.
If you do that in languages 1-3, and for years and years, then doing it from language 4 which is quite similar to language 3 really isn’t as hard.
saccerzd@reddit
I'm surprised by this. I'm originally from north England but have lived in various places, and I encounter the following complete conversation very regularly:
"Hi, y'alright?" "Hi mate, y'alright?"
End of conversation.
Linguistin229@reddit
Yeah I can believe it’s also said in the north of England! I’ve just never heard it personally myself in real life I don’t think, but I’m Scottish.
Quinlov@reddit
I used to work mainly as a proofreader but also dabbled in translation (Spanish to English). My Spanish is good spoken as well as written but to be honest even in English my verbal comprehension is maybe not the best, I have to ask people to repeat more than the average person does. Obviously in Spanish this is even worse. When I lived in Spain I still had no problem functioning and socialising in Spanish but I can see how some might essentially just learn the written language and be a translator but have poor pronunciation and spoken comprehension
Albert_Herring@reddit
I acquired the translation skills in languages I do also speak reasonably well (Italian and French), but was subsequently able to apply them to languages I was absorbing environmentally (Dutch, while living in Belgium, learnt off the TV mostly) and then related ones - Portuguese, which I did a bit of as a minor course at university, German, which I did to O level at school, and Spanish, which is just Portugatalian with a lisp really. Have done a few snippets of Galician and Catalan too. It's not really an economic proposition (pre AI, the money was in finding a niche and sticking to it, and I'm a lot slower in Spanish and German), more a combination of curiosity and opportunities presented through mistakes by translation agency project managers.
Always into English, by the way. Translators work into their native languages, and my most important skill is written English (may not come over in posts on here, but I'm off the clock). Interpreters tend to do both ways, especially in situations other than booths at international conferences.
tonypconway@reddit
I'm answer to the question about the difference between a translator and an interpeter.
A translator is someone who is given a text in a source language and renders that text for readers of a target language. There are different specialisms which require different skill sets: literary translation requires an amount of creative skill in the target language; technical and scientific translation require you to understand quite a lot about the topic to get it right; legal translation may require you to know about multiple legal systems and how they relate to each other. It's largely a text driven job that allows some amount of background research as you work, access to dictionaries and in many cases some amount of machine translation as a first pass that an experienced translator cleans up. You can also lump people who translate subtitles/dubbing, video games and software into this, which are all very different practices.
Interpreters do it live with spoken language. Some do simultaneous interpreting: they listen to someone speaking and translate at the same time, usually for somebody giving a speech or people having a dialogue in front of an audience, commonly in international political, news or media contexts. Some do consecutive interpreting where they listen to someone speak then repeat it for the benefit of other listeners, usually switching back and forth between two languages to facilitate a conversation. And you also get live captioners who do similar work to the simultaneous oral translators but they output to text for live broadcasts.
You'll also hear people talk about sign-language interpreting - the folks who do this in e.g. legal contexts are just the same as the folks who do it spoken-language to spoken-language. But you also get sign interpreters who do it for live performances of music or for prerecorded TV broadcasts, which is less like "interpreting" as described above and more like a combination of translation and live performance in its own right. Cool as hell.
hellsangel101@reddit
I’m like that with languages. I can read them (Spanish/French) just fine, I’ve picked up a lot of Spanish phrases whilst my son has been completing his homework, I just can’t hold a conversation. Although that is probably due to accents/pace of the conversation.
minisrugbycoach@reddit
As a translator, do you worry about AI? Out of many things it can and can't do, translating seems to be a definite can do tick, and it's very quick at it to my eye.
Or is it actually not particularly good to a person who knows the difference.
Albert_Herring@reddit
Beyond worrying to actively going broke, yeah. It's wiped out large swathes of the market, and quite a lot of my remaining work is now effectively just revising DeepL output. Machine translation has been one of the main feeds into the other uses of LLMs, and is well advanced. Its output is still patchy and unreliable, but its issues are largely style and consistency. If you just want to know what's going on, across a common language pair, it's basically adequate; if you want a publishable standard, or lives or lots of money are at stake, you still want to get a human involved; it will still do the same confidently wrong thing that ChatGPT is notoriously prone to.
greenhail7@reddit
Reminds me of a scene in the war film, "The Covenant," (2023), where the main character, an army sergeant, says to his interpreter.. "You're out of your bounds, Ahmed, and you're here to translate," to which the character replies, "Actually, I'm here to Interpret." Always stuck with me, that.
neenoonee@reddit
I’m very similar, albeit not to a professional standard (nowhere near). I can get by in a few European countries by reading. Signs, menu’s, information boards, leaflets, instruction manuals.
Ask someone to take a look at my washing machine in Spanish? Absolutely not.
My teachers ALWAYS pushed the speaking aspect of learning and it just didn’t interest me.
robbertzzz1@reddit
I'm a game developer. I never play games at work and I barely play them outside of work.
People think it's such a cool job whenever I tell them what I do, but I'm really just a specialised software developer.
sir__gummerz@reddit
Im a train conductor/manager, almost everyone think its just checking tickets and answering questions.
It took me 4 months of training, only 3 days of that related to selling and checking tickets.
V0lkhari@reddit
What does the rest of your role involve when not checking tickets etc?
sir__gummerz@reddit
The primary role of a guard is to operate the trains doors. When leaving a station, the guard makes sure it's safe to close the doors, then observers the doors closing, then send a signal to the driver once the train is ready to start. The guard is in charge of the PTI (platform train interface) alongside dispatchers(white lollypop people) if there is one
The guard is responsible for any faults on the train above the floor of the saloons. This primary means the doors, HVAC, lights and toilets.
The guard also operates the trains computer, mainly putting trip information in so that it shows on the screens and also displayes seat reservations. This is something that is often surprisingly difficult and requires fighting with the train to do.
Other things include, making announcements, helping disabled passengers, being the person In charge of evacuation, estimating the number of passengers on board for ridership data, and undertaking emergency protection
We also need to know alot about the line, mainly for evac reasons, but also so in an emergency that renders the driver unavailable we know how to rase the alarm, below are my routelearning notes for a roughly hour and a half route. Also you can probably work out what company I work for from it 😅
➖️non stop station 🚇 tunnel🔀junction 🚨level crossing ⭐️ stoping Station
⭐️new street 🚇 holliday Street 🚇 canal tunnel 🚇Granville 🚇bath row ➖️five ways BIRMINGHAM WORKSTATION ⬆️ King's Norton workstation ⬇️ 🔀Church road 🚇Church road ➖️University 🌊Selly oak ➖️Selly oak 🌊 Birmingham and Worcester canal ➖️Bournville 🔀 Lifford west 🚇 Pershore Road 🔀 Kings Norton station ➖️kings norton 🔀kings norton 🔀kings Norton west ➖️Northfield ➖️Longbridge 🔀 Longbridge 🔀 cofton 🔀Barnt green ➖️Barnt green King's Norton workstation ⬆️ Bromsgrove workstation ⬇️ 🔀 Blackwell north 🔀Blackwell south 🎢 Lickey 🔀 Bromsgrove north ➖️ Bromsgrove 🔀 Bromsgrove South 🔀 Stoke works 🚨 Boat 🚨dunhampstead 🚨 oddingley 🚨 evelench 🔀 Spetchley north 🛤 up Spetchley goods loop 🔀 Spetchley south ➖️ Worcestershire parkway 🔀 Abbotswood north (Down goods loop 🔀 Abbotswood 🚨 Wadborough 🚨 Pirton 🌊 River Avon viaduct 🔀 Eckington north 🚨 Andrews (UP goods 🚨 Cooks 1 loop) 🔀 Eckington south 🚨 Cooks 2 🚨 Nortonside WMSC Bromsgrove ⬆️ Gloucester panel ⬇️ 🚨 Northway 🛤 Down loop ➖️ Ashchurch 🛤 sidings 🚨 Homedown 🚨 Tredington 🚨 Burdetts farm 🚨 Swindon road 🚨 Morris Hill 🚨 Alstone ⭐️ Cheltenham spa 🛤 Up goods loop 🔀 Gloucester barnwood 🛤 Gloucester yard loops 🔀Gloucester yard (Horton Road 🚨🔀) 🔀 Tuffley crossover 🛤 Up goods 🛤 Down goods 🔀 Standish 🚨 old ends 🌁 Stonehouse ➖️ Cam &Dursley Gloucester panel ⬆️ TVCS Stoke Gifford ⬇️ 🔀 Berkeley road 🛤 Charfield 🚇 Wickwar 🔀 Yate middle ➖️ Yate 🔀 Yate south 🔀 Westerleigh 🌁 Bristol road 🌁 Hackford 🌁 Winterbourne 🌁 M4 🔀 Stoke Gifford East ⭐️ Bristol Parkway 🔀 Stoke Gifford 1 🔀 Stoke Gifford 2 🔀 Filton 1 ➖️ Filton abbywood 🔀 Horfield TVCS Stoke Gifford ⬆️ TVCS Bath ⬇️ 🔀 Narroways ➖️ Stapleton road ➖️ Lawrence hill 🔀 Dr days TCVS bath ⬆️ TVCS bristol ⬇️ 🔀 Bristol East ⭐️ temple meads
ATSOAS87@reddit
You have to input the little "reserved from Bristol to Paddington" thing manually?
sir__gummerz@reddit
Not each indervidual seat, you put a code into the computer that then loads the reservations in. Although less than a decade ago every seat reservation on that line was done manually, someone has to put a slip of paper into the seat, this is still done by grand Central as there trains don't have screens
V0lkhari@reddit
Really interesting, thank you. Hadn't really thought of all those extra things they have to do, always just thought tickets and doors. Appreciate the answer!
sir__gummerz@reddit
blake-a-mania@reddit
The tickets please guy
OneLessEar@reddit
Animation. Sometimes there's tons of brainless monkeywork
SomewhereBZH29@reddit
I am an adult trainer officially. But I am also an educator, social worker, psychologist... Many people have enormous social problems which complicate access to employment. I love my job, I never get bored.
Defo_not_a_bot_@reddit
I’m a dog walker. I work 7 hours a day and I’m only walking for around 2.5 hours. I do about 15,000 steps a day. The rest is pick ups, drop offs, cleaning shit and mud off dogs. And about an hour’s paperwork in the evening.
morganselah@reddit
How do you like it?
Defo_not_a_bot_@reddit
It’s the best job in the world! I used to work in corporate sales and there’s no way I’d go back.
It is bloody hard work some days though, particularly when it’s muddy.
Ok_Adhesiveness_4155@reddit
Their parents should be jailed. Disgraceful
gogginsbulldog1979@reddit
I used to work for one of the leading travel companies in the UK as a travel writer. You'd think they'd have loads of knowledge and teams in other countries, but everything was Googled and rewritten.
AffectionatePart4128@reddit
I'm a lecturer in an FE college, teaching UAL qualifications, since we moved to this awarding body, I don't teach anything tangible anymore.
In short, I don't do much teaching, mainly just crowd control and student management.
UpstairsMaybe3396@reddit
Work in IT. We Google stuff a lot.
shibbol33t@reddit
The skills are about knowing what to type into Google and how to assess the results :)
Substantial_Page_221@reddit
I thought I knew what to search in Google. But then Google changed and I don't know what to search any more.
inspectorgadget9999@reddit
Scroll past the first 4 results (they're ads) then the next 6 (they're SEO optimised pages that are just more ads but presented as prose), then retry the search but with Reddit added to the end
Simple-Wave2177@reddit
Yeah I'm in IT too and reddit has become my google because the google results are shit
pouchey2@reddit
The addition of reddit at the end is now the key to success
bacon_cake@reddit
Don't forget 'UK' on 90% of searches too.
pouchey2@reddit
You're so right! I was looking into some ISAs over lunch and literally added "reddit UK" to my search
minisrugbycoach@reddit
It's like autotrader but looking for everything, not just cars.
concretepigeon@reddit
The decline of Google.
inspectorgadget9999@reddit
Enshitification
BoringPhilosopher1@reddit
This guy googles
Snoo-55142@reddit
It's become really crap hasn't it.
Leather_Let_2415@reddit
SEO was always going to fuck it
daddy-dj@reddit
Not sure which is worse between Google and Amazon search results.
Snoo-55142@reddit
Oh lawd, I forgot about amazon's search engine. At least with you mentioning it somewhere you've kept their dream alive 😀. Somewhere in an amazon search engine office, someone's popping corks "hey we got a mention on reddit! We're back people!".
WillWorkforWhisky@reddit
R/unexpectedsimpsons
dth300@reddit
Working in information management I’ve seen how bad most people are at doing searches
Possiblyreef@reddit
Half the problem is recognising what the issue is at least accurately enough to be able to string something coherent enough to actually Google the problem in the first place.
I had a grad bring me a powershell script earlier and they said it wasn't working, now I'm a terrible programmer but I knew enough to figure out what they were trying to do, could figure out from the errors what was going wrong and be able to articulate a Google search well enough to fix it
Robotica_Daily@reddit
Most people are not good at managing information, that's why it's a profession.
Leather_Let_2415@reddit
My parents thought i was a computer whizz and this was literally the only thing I was doing
teratron27@reddit
This is what all the AI bandwagon people who say it will do away with skilled jobs get wrong. I’m a software engineer, use ChatGPT all the time but I also know what to put in the prompt, I know and understand what it’s replying to me with AND the most important part is I know when it’s making shit up
filbert94@reddit
It's hilarious how people think "just ask AI" with no fucking concept of how specific they need to be.
Personal-Listen-4941@reddit
The amount of colleagues who think I’m a genius with Excel, Outlook etc.
Nah, just google. Google knows…
TipsyMagpie@reddit
I am a lawyer and am also the go-to question and answer person in the family about pretty much anything. I spend a lot of time googling stuff too, people think I am the font of all knowledge, but I’m just good at keywords. Don’t tell them.
PercySmith@reddit
100%. I'm a 3rd line engineer and the only difference between me and 2nd line is a better ability to Google and having the confidence to make drastic changes and know how to revert them if needed.
anoamas321@reddit
How to revert things is the key here
As a software dev I can try whatever random stuff I like coz if I fuck up I roll back
concretepigeon@reddit
I’m not an IT guy but use a few different bits of software in my job and I’m constantly surprised by how unresourceful most people are. People think I’m some sort of genius but all I do is play around to figure out how to do things and if that doesn’t work I’ll google for an answer.
originallovecat@reddit
Yep, I've ended up as the defacto computer software fixer for my work - I'm one of the oldest people there, but I'm worked not afraid to try stuff, plus I used Windows and Office when they were first introduced, had excellent training at the time and still remember all the shortcut keys to press...
I also assume that someone, somewhere will have had the same problem before me and I know how to google... my colleague is constantly saying "but I just googled that and it gave me nothing!" - then I look at what/how they googled and... yeah. It does seem to be a skill, of sorts.
minisrugbycoach@reddit
Out dated Google information don't help on this:
How do I change the name on a link file
Click the file, go to the file settings page and click file title options.........there is no file title options heading to click.aaahhhhjjj
xeroksuk@reddit
Noticed Stack Overflow is getting more and more out of date?
JavaRuby2000@reddit
I think a lot of people quit when SO decided to share all their content with OpenAI. Several high rated posters on there deleted all their historical answers.
Calamatan88@reddit
"I can Google it for you, I cant understand it for you" goggling is a skill
Ecstatic_Effective42@reddit
"We need a SME to join this technical call, you okay to join?"
"Yup, let me just fire up my browser"
IrrelevantPiglet@reddit
"Hello, I understand you need a Small to Medium sized Enterprise?"
Ecstatic_Effective42@reddit
Subject Matter Expert (in case you're not being sarky 🙂)
SchoolForSedition@reddit
I recently had to take my work computer problem to a colleague who prefers to operate in French. I look forward to increasing my vocabulary but wondered whether I’d have enough to understand the context.
However he diagnosed it as “foutu”.
rainbosandvich@reddit
Now that AI is entering the world of technology, we are slowly adapting and improving our skillset.
Now we put things into copilot a lot and fix the AI mistakes
__Severus__Snape__@reddit
I work in seo. We Google stuff a lot too.
Miss-Hell@reddit
I started an IT apprenticeship 7 months ago and during my interview they asked if I had done any troubleshooting and what steps I would take. I told them how good I was at googling and following instructions but was worried about how that came across. Now I realise it was exactly the right thing to say!
And now ai can tell you exactly the right scripts for cmd and PowerShell it's brilliant!
AzzTheMan@reddit
I feel like there's a lot of detective work involved as well. Usually being given half of a brief, or part of a backstory to a fault, and having to dig for info until you have enough to complete the task
watsee@reddit
Also see: ChatGPT. That thing has helped me get the right Cisco IOS syntax far too many times.
doc1442@reddit
Nobody who has ever used IT support is surprised by that
UsernamesAreHard2684@reddit
I work in science research, I also Google A LOT. I like to think that parsing the results for useful information is still a skill tho.
YorkieLon@reddit
OP said surprising.
MJLDat@reddit
We know.
SpiritedVoice2@reddit
Computer programmer, really hard to get away with being a geek with no social skills, expected to do loads of presentations, pitches and have great soft skills. I feel robbed.
Beorma@reddit
The great con of software development. Half the job is talking to people, the other half is trying to avoid talking to people so you can get some work done.
SpiritedVoice2@reddit
Too true, we might actually deliver something if there wasn't 4 hours if meetings scheduled each day. Yet alas there never is.
811545b2-4ff7-4041@reddit
Also, a cheeky bit of CoPilot to write the odd script here and there
UpstairsMaybe3396@reddit
Yes. Also a fan of asking chat GPT to explain something to me!
Worried-Cicada9836@reddit
i quite like perplexity
DaveBeBad@reddit
Asking ChatGPT to explain something to me in a way that would sell it to a client…
TwoBadRobots@reddit
Nope we're not allowed copilot #sadface
811545b2-4ff7-4041@reddit
It's the only one we're allowed, everything else is locked down
Haunting_Revenue_924@reddit
Work in financial advice Don’t know how investments are going to perform any better than 99% of people out there. Just put it all In a worldwide tracker fund and hope for the best.
David_is_dead91@reddit
I’m a vet. “I want to work with animals” or “I like animals, not people” are probably the worst reasons to get into this career. The vast majority of the job involves human interaction - it is essentially a highly qualified customer service role. Much of this interaction is inevitably laden with emotion, and very little of it is desired by the public - nobody wants to take their pet to the vet.
In addition, half your patients hate or are terrified of you, and you only get 10-15 minutes with the majority of them so very little time to win over those who are not fans of the vet. Those you get more time with you’re usually having to do procedures on that they don’t thank you for, no matter how much they need it. Risk of injury is pretty high, as is the strain on physical and mental health.
You certainly don’t spend all your days cuddling puppies and kittens.
partywithanf@reddit
When you realise being a vet mostly involves hands up arseholes, it’s not the job people think it is.
AquaTourmaline@reddit
My cat had their anal glands expressed 10 years ago. The vet was a complete trooper and did it quickly with a smile. It was the worst smell I've ever experienced. I almost threw up on the floor.
Just thinking about that unforgettable smell turns my stomach. I have so much respect and gratitude for the people who deal with that on a regular basis.
A_Literal_Fruit_5369@reddit
I did a three day work thing at a vets to see if i wanted to be one. It was literally enemas the whole time, turned me right off it
partywithanf@reddit
“Let’s do a rectal”
glitterswirl@reddit
I’ll bet most of the animals aren’t in the mood for you to cuddle them if you’re the one who put a thermometer up their bum or gave them injections or clipped their claws etc.
downlau@reddit
I feel like a lot of people who like animals latch on to vet (or maybe zookeeper) as a career option because when you're very small you don't know many jobs that work with animals. I know I wanted to be a vet when I was 5 for that reason...and very much did not choose to pursue that option as I got older and learned more about other pathways.
luuuu67788@reddit
Statistically has one of the highest suicide rates of any profession :(
SweepTheLeg69@reddit
Good answer. It's not nearly as emotional, but working in IT is the same. It's less about the technology, and more about interacting with brain dead morons you wouldn't piss on if they were on fire.
Round-Spite-8119@reddit
I'm in tech - I think people would be surprised how "laddy" your average tech office is. Lots of football, lots of banter, lots of people into fitness, cars, music, clubbing etc.
There are, of course, many who fit in the typical "geek" persona but for the most part it's very, for want of a better phrase, Deano.
JavaRuby2000@reddit
Almost none of the software engineers I've worked with over the past 20 years or so I would fit into the "geek" stereotype. Almost all the places I've worked have some kind of office Gym membership and almost all of them worked out or did a lot of sporting activities. One of the devs I used to work with did MMA and fought in Bellator.
I wouldn't call any of them Deanos. They weren't getting Turkey Teeth or going on holiday to Dubai or spending their time at Flat Roof pubs. They were just mostly regular people with CS degrees and regular none geeky hobbies and interests.
Round-Spite-8119@reddit
Haha, true, yes perhaps Deano was a touch far - though I'm not in software engineering, so I could probably argue operational IT tends even further away from "geek"
minisrugbycoach@reddit
You sound a complete "tech head"
Round-Spite-8119@reddit
Or just a fairly normal guy, with hobbies and a life!
minisrugbycoach@reddit
Not seen "people just do nothing" I guess.
No offence meant.
Round-Spite-8119@reddit
Ah, sorry, no I haven't
notouttolunch@reddit
Haha. Nope!
Round-Spite-8119@reddit
Haha. Yep!
doctorace@reddit
They’re called tech bros, and it’s not a compliment.
Round-Spite-8119@reddit
THey're not tech bros, they're just normal people who chose IT as opposed to another career.
gracefulorange@reddit
Working in hospitals and then in the clinical research part of hospitals, patients seemed to think I was best friends with all departments. Some patients I'd try to recruit would even accuse me of not even working in the hospital when I asked to access their medical records for information and take extra tests. Hello GDPR, GCP and informed consent rule clinical trials??? I was also wearing a uniform, name badge and visible NHS ID card 🫠🫠🫠 The amount of misinformation and stigma around clinical research is truly astonishing. You need permission and documented approved reasons to do ANYTHING.
Before going into clinical research, I thought everyone thought it was a wonderful thing to develop and improve treatments. Once I started working in clinical research, I felt like I was a parasite on standard of care healthcare staff. Some departments were very supportive but others I dreaded going to because of the hostility.
Tattycakes@reddit
I don’t think most people know my job exists, I certainly didn’t before I found it, so I can’t imagine what assumptions people would make about it! They probably think that we try to code to squeeze as much money l of the healthcare system as we can, but in fact we code for accuracy. Also there can be thousands of pounds difference from just a few different letters and numbers.
luckeratron@reddit
There are hundreds of billions of pounds being looked after just in an Excel spreadsheet that probably aren't even locked.
JavaRuby2000@reddit
Used to work in a very large Spreadbetting company. They have their own apps and trading platform now but, back in the day their entire business model was an Excel formula that you paid to access and it plugged the live streaming prices into your spreadsheet which you had to create yourself. If you didn't know what you were doing setting up the spreadsheet you could accidentally fire off buy orders with no stop losses or visual feedback that you'd done it.
Rhubarb-Eater@reddit
I’m a doctor. A lot of things about the job seem to surprise the general public, but I guess the main one would be that I work part time and do an average of 40 hours a week. Our full time is 48 hours a week (again, an average - we can work up to 72 hours in a week perfectly legally).
Substantial_Page_221@reddit
I most sincerely apologise if this offends you.
But fuuuuuckkk being a doctor.
Rhubarb-Eater@reddit
Honestly I adore being a doctor. I think it’s the best job in the world. It’s such a privilege and immensely satisfying too. But it’s incredibly tough. When I was applying I was told that if I could think of any other job I could do and be happy, to do that instead, and I think it’s still great advice - 11 years in, there is still no other job I’ve ever even contemplated doing.
Public-Magician535@reddit
Are you in the doctors uk sub? They all seem to hate being a doctor, happy that you do!
SuzLouA@reddit
Eh, that could also be the usual internet effect of overrepresenting negativity. You’d think looking at most relationship or parenting subs that everyone hates their families, but people save their rants for internet strangers and their good news to share with their loved ones. Nobody feels moved to write 600 words on Reddit about what a brilliant day they’ve had the way they do when they’re feeling crap.
I’m guessing there will be some doctors who absolutely hate their job, some who absolutely love it, and a lot more in the middle who have good days and bad like most professions. Obviously a bad day for a doctor though is more than averagely likely to involve death in some way (a patient dies, you have have to tell a patient they’re going to die etc), so I’m not surprised the bad days hit hard. I also wouldn’t be surprised if there have been more of them since March 2020.
Public-Magician535@reddit
Yep, I suppose you’re right there. It’s like when relationship advice sub pops up and every second question is asking why some guy feels so bad about watching 5 men rail his wife
Substantial_Page_221@reddit
If you really enjoy it then that's cool.
But I don't see the point of putting so much time, energy and your own money into this profession that pays so little and few actually give a shit about.
minisrugbycoach@reddit
Not sure about the pays so little bit. I guess it depends where you are I suppose.
My sister in law is a GP. She's actually a partner in a GP surgery. Their building alone is valued at over 5 million quid and the local councils desperate to get them out. So they are in negotiations with the local authority to build them a full state of the art centre which they'll move into costing them nothing, and then they'll sell the old building and split the money.
She also only works 32 hours a week over three days and takes home over £100000 annually.
She studied ridiculously hard to get here, and she is truly an incredible person, but to call her underpaid would definitely not be the case.
Substantial_Page_221@reddit
I think senior doctors are better paid, but junior docs are underpaid.
There's no guarantee junior docs will be better off in the future.
Rhubarb-Eater@reddit
Oh don’t get me wrong, the frustrations, pay cuts and general injustices drive me up the wall. I can’t afford my next mandatory exam, the price has just gone up to £890. But I guess I view the pure work and the management as two entirely separate things.
BoringPhilosopher1@reddit
MRCP exam?
I was one of the test subjects for an MRCP exam a few weeks back when I was in hospital. God did I feel sorry for the doctors.
Most important exam of their life, you could feel the pressure they were under.
Massive respect for your profession.
veryblocky@reddit
I thought there was a thing about having to opt out of the weekly maximum, and you can opt back in at any time without repercussions to your employment?
macfearsum@reddit
Thanks for what you do. Our society wouldn't survive without folk like you.
Maleficent_Trainer_4@reddit
I'm also a doctor. First, the hours. Second, the admin/secretarial load.
BobBobBobBobBobDave@reddit
My wife is a doctor, and it confuses people because she works full time but does 3 shifts a week clinical and an on call every fortnight.
People at first think that is less than full time, but considering the 3 shifts often end up being 10-12 hours, she had about a day's worth of admin to do per week in the time she isn't doing clinical, and the on calls often end up with her being in hospital for 18 hours...
It is way more than full time.
No-Hall-3978@reddit
Honestly this doesn’t surprise me. Whenever I’m treated by any doctor, I am almost always struck by their visible fatigue; I’m also very impressed by and grateful for the ability of most doctors to weather this and remain personable and patient. I can see how unbelievably busy most of you are.
I know there are more demanding / fatiguing professions out there; but I myself work in the public sector for an underfunded and understaffed department and fully appreciate the additional demand posed to professionals like us by a largely unsympathetic and increasingly frustrated public.
Sustainable_Twat@reddit
None of us in our IT jobs know what we’re doing.
JavaRuby2000@reddit
Working in frontend software development and games development I always knew what I was doing. Make program match design, make controls do the right thing, write tests, easy peasy.
Now as back end / full stack dev nobody knows what we are doing. It seems to take several months of fact finding meetings and architectural meetings just to figure out what services we need to call in order to spit out a single API.
dave_loves@reddit
Thats why stack overflow exists
DaveBeBad@reddit
Is expert sexchange still going?
(Http://www.experts-exchange.com is an IT site that kept getting spelled incorrectly)
TheToolman04@reddit
I always liked to browse penisland for new writing implements.
Substantial_Page_221@reddit
I'm sure there wasn't a hyphen in there. Stack overflow was created because of the terrible site.
Stack is now shit too.
DaveBeBad@reddit
There wasn’t, but there is now…
d4ng3r0u5@reddit
They call it "expert gender confirmation surgery" now
puzzlecrossing@reddit
This one does not surprise me ;)
SweepTheLeg69@reddit
Speak for yourself.
HenshinDictionary@reddit
That's why I went into teaching secondary. I wanted pupils who were capable of talking to you and talking care of their own basic bodily functions. Of course, it didn't prepare me for all the other mental anguish I went through, but hey, I never had to take anyone to the toilet!
fat_mummy@reddit
We had a kid smear shit all over the walls in secondary… sooooo
JavaRuby2000@reddit
In secondary we had a poo stuck to the ceiling in the hall. It was about 8 meters high (the ceiling not the poo) and just stuck by one end to the ceiling like it was being curled out of the ceiling. I don't know who did it or who the first person to notice it was. In the end the Netball teachers managing to knock it off the ceiling after half an hour throwing an old hairbrush at it that they found in lost property.
jaynoj@reddit
People have shit on the floor in the toilets on multiple occasions at one place I worked at.
This was at a massive global IT company full of skilled professionals ....
Kumquat-May@reddit
Sorry about that
TheFlyingHornet1881@reddit
Knew a secondary school teacher who had a child shit themselves in a classroom, and tried to hide it. No known medical issues or warning, just a very unpleasant experience for quite a lot of people.
furrycroissant@reddit
Ha! What kind of posh secondary do you teach in? My last one had used sanitary pads stuck to the walls, kids who wet themselves, and shit smeared on toilets.
JoobileeJoolz@reddit
My son was an it tech in a secondary school and had to check the cctv to find out which kid had done a poo that almost stuck up out of the toilet! Apparently the kids was only just bigger than the turd he created!
idunnowhateversrsly@reddit
I'm a sign language interpreter.
Most people accept that all interpreters are equal, we're not. Some are really bad.
yearsofpractice@reddit
I’m a senior-ish change management / project manager for corporate companies.
I’m one of the people whose job is simply impossible to describe to someone over 70.
Most of my job is knowing what to do when I don’t know what to do when problems arise. The remainder is putting together solutions to business problems for execs to approve. The key to this is giving the exec confidence they’ll look good if they agree to the activity - and also someone to blame (me) should things go wrong.
Reading this back, none of this actually sounds like a profession, or indeed surprising (or interesting).
I should have been a butcher or a tax driver. Everyone knows what they do for a living.
TheToolman04@reddit
Can confirm, am project manager.
yearsofpractice@reddit
It’s an interesting challenge, isn’t it? As always, my favourite explanation of what we do:
macfearsum@reddit
British Sign Language is not just interpreting word for word. There is an entirely different grammar structure and non manual features that are used to express what you are conveying.
Mrwebbi@reddit
Indeed. Some people have no idea that some people that speak BSL don't speak English
macfearsum@reddit
Plus there are accents.
splateen74@reddit
I'm a memorial mason and I use cuttlefish a lot!
pinklepickles@reddit
Tell me more!
splateen74@reddit
When you've engraved letters onto polished granite and then gilded the letters with gold leaf you use cuttlefish to remove the excess gold from the surface. It's abrasive enough to do this but doesn't scratch the surface. It's the best stuff to use and has been used like this for a very long time.
CraftyCat65@reddit
Funeral Director
Yes, coffins are cremated. No, the handles are not removed and yes, the ashes you get back are 100% the crushed calcified bones of your own relative.
Toon_1892@reddit
I feel like we've missed an important thing here.
You're saying we get crushed after cremation?
CraftyCat65@reddit
I'm afraid so.
The cremation process doesn't reduce bones to actual ash- or at least not the larger bones, so they come out of the cremator as recognisable bones.
These would obviously not fit into urns or caskets for burial and certainly wouldn't be able to be scattered (well not without attracting the attention of dog walkers and thus the police 😬), so they are crushed/ broken down into granulated ashes.
Toon_1892@reddit
I genuinely wasn't aware of this, I'd always just assumed (at least in western countries) the crematoriums had some super blast furnace type things that did the entire job 😂
CraftyCat65@reddit
I think most people do assume this to be fair - I know I did until I had a behind thr scenes tour of the crematorium after I started working here.
VladimirKal@reddit
Strange question but in your experience is there an acceptable or I suppose standard size of how finely ground the bones should be in the UK?
It's just something my mum and I have wondered for a while because in any of our previous experience of dealing with ashes they were pretty much what you expect of that fine powdery type.
However when we got my dad's back (at about the start of 2021 so a lot of it did seem to still be done pretty unusually), nobody had mentioned options or anything like that to us beforehand but they were sent in a huge cardboard cylinder and for lack of a better term, they're chunky, like 4/5mm gravel.
It did slightly upset my mum at the time because it was so different to what we expected and so obviously bone fragments but despite us having no illusions as to the actual process, nobody would explain when she tried to ask and popping him back in the Vitamix for another wee blitz apparently wasn't an option either.
CraftyCat65@reddit
There's no standardised size for them as far as I'm aware, but they are usually more like fine cat litter than either powdery or gravel like.
A lot of the consistency depends on the bone structure though: people with osteoporosis, other bone diseases or elderly women who have had a lot of children have softer bones, which translates into smaller, softer ashes (because they break down easily in the cremulator).
Where you have a younger person - with no bone issues - and particularly a man, the bones are much harder which results in coarser ashes as the cremulator struggles to grind them.
The cremulator is like a small, solid, tumble dryer with metal balls loose inside. It's the balls that crush the calcified bone as the drum rotates.
It grinds my gears when people working in the profession won't explain things to families!
VladimirKal@reddit
Thanks very much for your detailed response, it means a lot to me.
People have suggested it's a bit odd but at the time I'd read a lot about the actual technical process of it as for some reason knowing as much detail on the process as I could get actually helped me a lot at the time but I never found all the extra details that you've kindly provided here.
CraftyCat65@reddit
You're welcome - and I'm sorry for the loss of your Dad 💞
JimDixon@reddit
I have a friend who found a jeans rivet amongst her mother's ashes, and she swears her mother never wore jeans in her life. Fortunately, my friend isn't the sentimental type; she laughed it off.
CraftyCat65@reddit
Trust me, a jeans rivet would not make it through a cremator intact. It's likely that it came from the clothing of the person operating the cremulator (the machine that crushes the calcified bone into the gritty ashes that you get back) 👍
JimDixon@reddit
Cremulator was not a word in my vocabulary. Thanks for that; I'm always eager to learn. However, (1) jeans rivets don't just pop off-- at least I've never heard of them doing that; and (2) I didn't mention some other details of the story-- my friend also found fragments of a zipper, but those didn't surprise her. I don't think my friend would lie about this.
CraftyCat65@reddit
Ahhh! I couldn't vouch for how things are done in the States, so it is possible...and somewhat concerning! 😬. Note to self: try not to die in the US 🤯
Johnnycrabman@reddit
That sounds like a far worse job than actually running the furnace.
CraftyCat65@reddit
It's usually the same person who does both.
Robotica_Daily@reddit
She carried that jeans rivet in her pocket since she was 16, it belonged to her first love. He got drunk and threw his pants into the camp fire on that unforgettable night.
Public-Magician535@reddit
I thought you were about to quote pulp fiction and say she hid that uncomfortable rivet up her ass for years
MJLDat@reddit
I don’t wear jeans. I’m going to swallow a rivet and some other stuff on my deathbed.
Sir-Craven@reddit
Either that or she stuffed it up her bum at some point
IllustriousApple1091@reddit
The duality of mankind
CouchKakapo@reddit
How did you get into the funeral industry? I'm curious about a potential career change in the future...
CraftyCat65@reddit
Completely by accident.
I'm an accountant by training and had always worked either in accounts or in customer service.
My husband was working here as a driver/bearer. The long serving office manager/ funeral arranger/ mortuary assistant ( it's a tiny independent company) wanted to retire and they were struggling to find anyone.
The issue was that they needed someone with office, accounting and people skills who was also OK with working hands on with the deceased and, apparently they're hard to find. My husband suggested me and here I still am nearly 17 years later.
notouttolunch@reddit
That’s interesting. Having had a chat to the staff after a funeral at a crematorium (I’m not overly sentimental and I suspect it was rare to see this door open) and the handles are removed from the ashes… they’re not part of the dust. Similarly, I think some people don’t realise the charred remains are ground up like coffee to make the dust.
CraftyCat65@reddit
Handles on coffins for cremation are made of plastic ( at least, in the UK they have to be), so they completely vaporise in the heat.
They look like metal but they aren't, because falling metal would damage the ( very expensive) ceramic lining of the cremator.
Admirable-Cookie-704@reddit
I work for a car dealership just doing admin mostly and most people who speak to me assume I have extensive knowledge about every vehicle and how to fix them. I am not qualified to do that at all but unfortunately the people who are qualified are already busy fixing the cars. (Hence why I'm here)
So people get angry at me for not knowing the answers straight away because they don't understand my job role
LightningGeek@reddit
Aircraft Mechanic
The windows are held in by air pressure. There are a handful of clips, but they are to stop the windows falling inside when outside. You can't touch the actual window either, there is a clear plastic scratch plate that stops you touching the real window.
Contrary to popular belief, the cargo holds on your flights are pressurised just the same as the passenger cabin you sit in. The pressure vessel is basically like a giant 2l drinks bottle on its side, with you sitting in the top half. The pressure is the same in the ceiling above you and under the floor below you. The only major difference is that the holds aren't as tightly temperature controlled as the passenger cabin.
Opening_Candidate_83@reddit
Teaching is only 20% actual teaching.
pinkthreadedwrist@reddit
10% walking students through how to hand in the assignment and look at comments.
minisrugbycoach@reddit
Stop using shitty Google classrooms then and it'd be a lot easier.
That must be the worst platform for home learning. Sometimes my son can hand in work on there, and sometimes he can even add links or pictures. But many times he can't even open and edit the attachments.
It really is a shit fest.
pinkthreadedwrist@reddit
I work at an in-person university.
Firstpoet@reddit
Teacher. Aka Exam Pass Operative.
One-Parsnip8303@reddit
This is our job in a nutshell. And the next two years with it being attainment based will be fun 😑
Firstpoet@reddit
Teacher and HoD of English for 41 yrs intil a few yrs ago.I think I was the 'last man standing' to get to age 62 before retiring in my county ( those funny things before sinister academy chains where you do as you're told). Nearly everyone else went in their 40s or 50s. They'd had enough.
Resisted the exam factory approach despite numerous younger 'Assistant' Heads with schemes to improve results. Strangely, the deep skills and broad learning approach I persisted with, ended up with the best results in the school most years. Cue puzzlement. Then most Dept praise from OFSTED for real independent learning. Cue more puzzlement from management drones- including- have to say it, ex PE teachers who couldn't understand an academic subject.
Binned most annual shakeups of approaches and just shielded my team from useless half-baked initiatives and absurd assessment regimes or crazy regimented lesson templates. Gave them time to do what they loved.
Retained my team for years. Didn't want to move!
hypertyper85@reddit
I used to be a dog warden and it used to make me sad when dog wardens were featured in films because we were always shown to be nasty dog catchers. Usually in American films to be fair (Homeward Bound, Secret Life of Pets, Beethoven, oh and Shaun the sheep movie but they do show a nicer side to them at the end) we work as dog wardens because we love working with dogs! If anything, it's the other way around, the amount of owners who dumped their old dogs on us, or we'd ring the owner and they say 'keep the fucking thing' and slam the phone down on us. The owners are the baddies really.
moustachelady29@reddit
I just finished a chemistry PhD. No one realises that a bunch of underpaid, stressed out 20 something year olds will be given a 20 minute training talk before being left to use and maintain instruments that are easily worth a £250k.
DerwentPencilMuseum@reddit
I work in a library - a lot of us are not big readers
Leather_Let_2415@reddit
Not to be blunt, but then why do it for like 18k a year?
DerwentPencilMuseum@reddit
We understand the importance of libraries to society and want to contribute to that
There are a lot more jobs in libraries than just handing out books, and not everyone is on 18k
I personally have to read a lot for my studies, so I don't enjoy it as a hobby anymore
pabalinoo@reddit
I work in a library - a lot of us ARE big readers!
PixieT3@reddit
I know its silly but that, of all the posts here, initially made me raise my eyebrows lol
Bitter_Cricket3733@reddit
Engineer. People are the problem. In school people are steered towards engineering if they are good at math and science. You do need these things, but the actual challenge is communicating and coordinating between people.
TheFlyingHornet1881@reddit
Also people who think it's a good career if you have poor people skills, in practice technical knowledge can only get an engineer so far, they'll need some level of people skills to complement that
complicatedsnail@reddit
Work in a prison.
The high levels of self harm and mental health in the prison population. Prison Officers are meant to deal with this with minimal training - they are not mental health carers.
Most prisoners are not the hardened stereotype criminal. A lot of are there for petty crime that's difficult to stop when there is no society support. By this, I mean it's not uncommon for someone to be released with no home to go to, they're released on the streets. No holdy, no job. At that point, they're doing what they need to survive. Middle of winter, breaking into a shop, being placed in y remand seems a good alternative to sleeping on the streets in freezing conditions.
Leather_Let_2415@reddit
What would you say the ratio is for people who have been failed by society?
complicatedsnail@reddit
Honestly, I couldn't give you a ratio, I wouldn't even be able to hazard a guess. It happens enough though that you notice it when you work there. There are a good few prisoners I have known to come and go several times over the years because of homelessness, or they're a drug addict and were released before completing their detox programme and end up using again upon release etc.
Don't get me wrong, there definitely are the hardened stereotype ls in there, ones who made a stupid mistake/decision (careless/dangerous driving) or malicious actions (fraud, assault etc).
But it happens enough you see it. Some prisoners are very open about it.
twopeasandapear@reddit
Work in pharmacy.
A lot of people don't realise the incredible shortage of base pharmacists. We use "locums" a lot as no one wants the responsibility of managing a pharmacy, and why work for 70k when a locum can average 90k? It's ridiculous.
So sometimes not only are we busy, but we also have a pharmacist who doesn't know us, doesn't know our patients, doesn't know our pharmacy, (sometimes) doesn't know procedures (we're scotland and get a lot of English pharmacists, things are done differently). Most days we want to bash our heads against the wall.
Smart-Grapefruit-583@reddit
Retired dental nurse.
We don't just suck up your saliva
Everything you've touched or had in your mouth we cleaned and made it sterile. We prob made your mouth guards etc and can take your xrays.
We also. Do exactly the same emergency. Meds and response training as the dentist. And have to do anatomy, biology and a few other things to qualify.
Oh and we don't look at your mouth at parties.. Enough of that at work thanks.
luuuu67788@reddit
What’s the number thing about when the dentist is just saying different numbers while looking at your teeth?
Smart-Grapefruit-583@reddit
When we go round your teeth with a small (blunt since we get accused to stabbing you alot) probe we're checking pocket depth so zero is ideal but up to three. Anything more than that and you can't reach it to clean it out at home.
All we are doing is checking how healthy your gums are and how tight they are to the gums.
Then we use all the numbers to make a 6 number over all. Most people sit at 212/212 Cause back teeth are hard to clean.
I'm not zeros either. So don't worry and we are prob in the chair less than you guys are. I don't whiten, don't use mouth wash, don't use charcoal or anything abrasive. Just a decent 1450ppm toothpaste and an electric toothbrush with a 2.min timer. That's all most of us use. Nothing magical.
notanadultyadult@reddit
Do you judge people and the state of their teeth when in the chair?
Smart-Grapefruit-583@reddit
I've had everything from perfect to severe neglect.
Most have stories behind neglect alot are sensory or drug related. They need help not judgment.
The judgment is mostly at Turkey teeth. 🤮
minisrugbycoach@reddit
That quote alone tells me you're the right person for this job, along with many other jobs we could do with someone as awesome as you in.
Stay incredible
pinkthreadedwrist@reddit
What's turkey teeth?
saswir@reddit
Shit dental work done on the cheap abroad, usually Turkey
Ocelotstar@reddit
I’m an accountant. No I don’t know how to do your tax return, and no I don’t have good mental maths I use excel for a living.
Impressive_Monk_5708@reddit
Bus drivers don't always intentionally drivers away from you at the stop, you're in the left mirror, you look in the right to pull away.
TeaBoy24@reddit
I work for a council. It's all mixed.
Grants... We want to help but we only get so much money from the gov, hence the 1.5 year waiting list for a disability facility grants.
No we aren't racist because we tell you you have too much cash in your accounts. Seems like most people think we are racists or against X religion when we refuse something.
This is a bit more controversial: Not every council worker wants 4 day work week and less working hours. Sure condensing hours would be great but....
Most council workers are middle aged. Work in public sector obviously provides a good pension but it also attracts those looking to retire.
So the people are slower, less computer savvy and not as interested in improving or learning but they do care and already know a great lot. (Eg sign paperwork weather than pdf, draw by hand rather than use autocad)
So you don't see many younger people in L.A. I am one of them.
I can tell you that many would love to have an option to increase their work hours from 37 to at least 45 but apparently we can't. (If there is a legal way to force a council into more working hours... Please let me know).
You see.. being young you can't just have one job even when it pays above average UK salary at the age on 23.... Because you are battling against rent to make huge savings for a house.
So after doing the job you are qualified for you are forced to take a side job which you are overqualified for and it's a massive drain having to work all evening after main job and during weekends despite everyone always thinking how successful you are because you are an Officer or what not at a young age.
Johnnycrabman@reddit
Your pension is absolutely not irrelevant in your 20s and 30s. They’re the years that will grow the most to help make for a comfortable retirement.
TeaBoy24@reddit
Your idea is short sited.
Not true. It grows the most based on the amount of contribution and time worked. Not because you are 20.
You can be 40 have the same working times and get the same contributions as when you are 20. Sure there is increase over time due to interest however.....
Larger pension since 20 in the current state of affairs causes LESS help towards retirement than getting paid the same amount directly in cash.
How? Capital. In your 20s you need cash to build capital. Get a house and start a family.
Just these 2 factors alone are greater investment in the long term.
Simultaneously, the state saves money because it won't need to substitute your housing costs (on top of your pension).
Need adapted property for my needs? Move. Sell it and downsize.
4.The longer you wait to get a house, the more expensive and harder it gets. Hence why money instead of pensions in 20s is more important than in 40s
So yeah, irrelevant is an exaggeration. Negligible and potentially damaging would be more fitting.
It's 27% pension contribution by my employer only, plus mine... Plus a golden pension. Is a lot for something in 45 years when I also might be dead..
HerbTP@reddit
I'm a community manager for medical professionals, all the way from consultants to support staff. The amount of babying some of these highly intelligent people require is astounding. One of them had a public tantrum the other day because we didn't have his favourite brand of milk in the office 🫠
_Spiggles_@reddit
AI isn't what you think it is, if you saw how it worked you'd realise it's not taking over the world any time soon.
Jackalope_Sasquatch@reddit
Marketing -- how little of it is creative. It takes a lot more time to execute a marketing campaign than to create the concept, write the copy, create the design, etc.
Darthblaker7474@reddit
Of course I can play your song right now/next. But I don’t want to because it will probably sound shite and clear the dance floor.
Tomoshaamoosh@reddit
I'm a nurse. A decent number of people would be surprised to find out that we have to wash dead patients ourselves before we send them to the morgue. Every time without exceptions. I was certainly surprised by that when I found out. I always assumed that was the undertaker's job.
I've even seen two colleagues pulled from looking after their living patients on the unit because they were sent down to the morgue to give a patient who had passed TWO DAYS PRIOR a second wash before their family came in for a viewing. They found it absolutely traumatizing as the patient had died of liver failure and had an exceptional amount of ascitic fluid that had seeped out through their skin in the time since their death. I'm told that the body was slipping and sliding all over the gurney from how greasy it was and they couldn't get a proper grip to stop this from happening so they had to lean her against them which caused the fluid to penetrate their clothing despite their PPE.
The morgue staff then made them stay a bit longer to comfort the family during the viewing while they were still wearing slightly damp contaminated scubs!
In my opinion, that whole situation is fucked up and that should not have been considered within the nursing remit at all. I had to cover a whole extra allocation of patients for something like two hours and they were really upset by it. It should have been the morgue staff's job. The patient had left our unit two days prior, surely the duty of care that the nursing staff had to her had ended at that point?
devianceisdefiance@reddit
Wow. Was that not reported? Definitely out of scope for nurses to be doing that. Id have refused. It's stuff like that why I left the profession. Nurses are expected to be caretakers, cleaners, admin, doctors, chefs and all things in between. If you look at most healthcare settings, the running is all down to nurses. The lack of respect is astounding. Your poor colleagues having to do that, it must be traumatising.
Tomoshaamoosh@reddit
It was. Matrons supported the morgue staff.
stuntedmonk@reddit
People (intelligent people) think sales is magical
Johnnycrabman@reddit
No, most people think salesmen would sell their own grandparents if the commission was reasonable.
stuntedmonk@reddit
Believe me, sale of grandparents doesn’t command enough commission
purrcthrowa@reddit
I've been a lawyer for 30-odd years, and in all that time, I'd say that the part of my work that involves the law (as in applying and interpreting statutes or the common law) amounts to something less than 5% of my workload. And I work in quite a law-heavy area (intellectual property).
d00000med@reddit
What's the other 95% mainly?
purrcthrowa@reddit
For client work: reading into documents, understanding the client's situation, understanding their business and business goals, and then generally advising them within well-understood frameworks. It bears about as much relation to the law as an electrician advising you which sockets you're allowed to put in which part of the house. Yes, it's all underpinned by law and regulation, but I very very rarely have to go back to the regulation to figure out whether I can advise one way or the other.
That's about 60% of what I do. The rest is admin, management, writing and taking training courses, marketing and so-on.
SuzLouA@reddit
I think the training courses would surprise a lot of people, because the law is constantly changing in small ways that don’t affect 99.9% of people at all day to day. I used to be a clerk and then later a legal secretary, so I saw it both from the side of receiving new pages from the Law Society to put into our reference books (I imagine it’s all digital these days but that used to be a weekly part of my job, going and finding the right book, which was always actually a ring binder with a fancy cover to make it look like a leather bound book on the shelf, and carefully removing the outdated pages and replacing them with the new, ever so slightly different ones), and then later booking courses for my partner, who had been practicing for decades and still regularly had to go and do new bits of training. Until I worked in a solicitors’, I assumed it was just, you go to law school and you’re done. But it never really ends.
purrcthrowa@reddit
I remember this books (and the endless updating them - this was one of the staples when I was a trainee).
The field I'm in is changing so rapidly (it involves AI), that I've done over 120 hours of CPD in the current CPD year. I've given up counting now.
Effective_Soup7783@reddit
You missed all the interminable meetings, and filling in billing sheets and activity forms to justify your existence.
d00000med@reddit
Thanks. Keep up the good work!
Bunion-Bhaji@reddit
Time recording 💀
glasgowgeg@reddit
Phoning IT and saying "I got an error message, of course I didn't read what it said!" based on my historical experience.
BobBobBobBobBobDave@reddit
I think people underestimate how much pretty much any office-based job involves writing a lot of emails, processing paperwork, talking to clients, etc.
I work in marketing and used to work in advertising, and whilst both of those can be quite creative and exciting at times, I have probably spent 90% plus of my working life just answering emails, doing a bit of power point, running reports, etc.
I think most office workers, especially if you have any management responsibility, just spend most of their time doing one kind of admin or another, and a much smaller amount doing the sort of work unique to their role or industry.
Substantial_Page_221@reddit
Software development can be same, once you move into more senior roles. Maybe not 90%, but certainly more than 50%.
Anaptyso@reddit
Definitely. I work as a computer programmer and last week I wrote maybe a dozen lines of code at most. The rest was taken up with discussions, investigating issues, planning, reading up on stuff etc. The cliche of someone sitting at a computer typing away frantically all day long is hardly ever true.
Anaptyso@reddit
Definitely. I work as a computer programmer and last week I wrote maybe half a dozen lines of code at most. The rest was taken up with discussions, investigating issues, planning, reading up on stuff etc. The cliche of someone sitting at a computer typing away frantically all day long is hardly ever true.
purrcthrowa@reddit
Absolutely. I'm sure you're right.
jacksonmolotov@reddit
Also law: that lawyers take their professional obligations incredibly seriously. Being caught lying is social death.
Pivinne@reddit
Being caught lying isn’t just a social death, dishonest behaviour can have you banned from practice
TheFlyingHornet1881@reddit
Yeah, and law is one of a handful of careers getting banned (disbarred) can kick you right to the bottom of the ladder in any other career.
1032throwaway@reddit
The scare stories live rent free in my mind. I once marched some friends back into a bar to pay when they told me they’d realised they hadn’t been charged for a round of drinks… unpopular move but my lecturers would be proud lol
1032throwaway@reddit
Yes! Me too. People always think I’m joking when I say my job doesn’t actually involve much law.
I always describe it as just having the legal know how to be able to achieve whatever we’re trying to do commercially. The actual law just becomes background for the most part.
wildOldcheesecake@reddit
I’m in contracts and transactions. I always like to tell people how creative the legal field is. They usually don’t understand what I mean
purrcthrowa@reddit
I agree that law can be creative, and you must be an excellent lawyer, because in my cynical experience, most lawyers are just going through a process without thinking about what the client really wants.
wildOldcheesecake@reddit
Ah, very kind of you to say! At the risk of sounding like a total shill, I genuinely enjoy working within the legal field. Though mind you, I’m only 2 years pqe so I may change my tune in a few years time haha
Willsagain2@reddit
That is a surprise. I worked my career in HR mainly dealing in grievances, discipline, redundancy, redeployment, ill health, and a few other things, and we had to apply statute, regs and keep up with caselaw very frequently. Just about 1/3 of cases would need us to check if the facts fit particular caselaw or detailed application of regs.
purrcthrowa@reddit
Yes, I think if you work in a dispute-adjacent area, then that makes more sense. My litigation colleagues spend a lot more time looking at the law then I do.
Affectionate_Bat617@reddit
What's the other 95%
peekachou@reddit
Ambulance, we'll get chatting to patients and they don't often realise how much we do shifts without any breaks, especially coming into the winter months its not uncommon to do a 13h shift with no break and then be back in to do the same the next day.
BCS24@reddit
Accountant, a lot of people lack basic computer skills despite working on a computer all day.
Johnnycrabman@reddit
Also, most accounting is done using a very basic level of numeracy. It’s not like physics or engineering.
jlelvidge@reddit
I’m a Head Housekeeper, you’d be surprised to learn (or not) that as well making sure bedrooms and public areas in a hotel are cleaned etc, I’m responsible for quite serious Health & Safety standards to be met that if not dealt with could cause illnesses even leading to death. Cleaning of air conditioners, bathroom extraction fans and regular shower head and hose cleaning, water purging in empty rooms. All these could be leading factors in harbouring Legionella bacteria. When you stay in a hotel, always check your showerheads, especially in high limescale areas which blocks the jets and never use if black. Lots of dust accumulation in a bathroom extractor or air con needs reporting too. Any hotel housekeeper worth his/her salt keeps records of cleaning readily available for Environmental Health inspections.
Douglesfield_@reddit
Traffic wardens (or civil enforcement officers) don't earn commission.
You really wouldn't like them if they did.
Honest-Lunch870@reddit
The entire logistics sector is constantly at the brink of collapse. DB Schenker have been seconds (at times microseconds) from death for almost a decade at this point, and if they go...
Niccagediscomfort@reddit
As a non-logistics I need more on this. Who or what is DB Schenker and what's happens if it dies?
Could equally believe it would mean death to all humans or just me not getting my favourite crisps for a bit
Honest-Lunch870@reddit
Have you ever played Transport Tycoon? That is the simplest and most succinct way I can describe what DB Schenker (other huge logistics firms are available) does. If they or another firm at that scale go bye-bye, someone else (Fedex probably) will swallow them whole, after several days/weeks of covid-like havoc. Handily, they've just been bought by Danish megacorporation DSV, so your crisps are safe for now.
Arbor-@reddit
Can you be more specific?
Honest-Lunch870@reddit
Moving things around, usually large quantities of things.
Arbor-@reddit
Sorry, I meant in response to your first comment
Arbor-@reddit
Can you explain this further please?
What would be the consequences?
What is the lie?
Thanks
carbonvectorstore@reddit
Yep, used to work there.
They operated like a feudal empire when growing and then went fully the other way in an effort to standardise things, but that doesn't work when the central gatekeepers of everything are hyper-bureaucratic Germans that work at a snails pace.
Most of my job involved finding a way to get IT changes through to support necessary business changes in the UK, without it popping up on the German HQ's radar (because if they did, it would instantly take a year longer to get started). And I only managed it about half the time.
Honest-Lunch870@reddit
They don't do any work, that seems to be the point. Everyone else does all the work and they attempt to ruin it, then take credit for saving it. It's an excellent scheme to do no work and make money, but a terrible way to run a gigantic company. I have this terrible feeling in the back of my head that DSV are going to choke on them.
notanadultyadult@reddit
Oh please don’t say this. I work in the logistics sector. Just started 6 months ago lol
Original_Jury5825@reddit
Policy Officer - Like law and others only about 10 percent is really about interpreting and analysing government policy
ZombieRhino@reddit
That there are a whole host of people who deal with rules and regulations that you've probably never heard of, and who deal with things that you don't notice are happening, but if we stopped doing it, you'd notice.
nicskoll@reddit
I'm one of rhea hidden people!
Keycuk@reddit
Water regulations officer here, I stop people being poisoned by dodgy plumbing all the time
Niccagediscomfort@reddit
God bless the car parking charges ombudsmen and women
V0lkhari@reddit
Hairy-Dinner7711@reddit
Doorstep delivery driver. I'm well aware that you think your parcel is special, but to me it's just one of around 300, that I have barely enough time to deliver. Don't think I'm rude if I don't wait for you to come to the door, every second is precious to me. One road closure is enough to cause the entire route to fail, and I don't get paid!
folklovermore_@reddit
Communications/PR is a lot more of a sales job than it is a writing job.
HummerDriver6000@reddit
Accountants are not all good at maths. It helps, but it's not a necessity
folklovermore_@reddit
I used to work for one of the professional accountancy bodies and this was a thing we really pushed when we were trying to encourage people to take our courses. We used to quite often profile people who'd studied with us but whose background wasn't maths (or even really that academic) as well.
partywithanf@reddit
“You have a maths degree, you could do this arithmetic”. Brother, we all use calculators.
TastyGreggsPasty@reddit
I work in Compliance at HMRC and can confirm this, although, we're not any good either..
lekisgoesbump@reddit
I’m a speech therapist. I spend a lot of time assessing and treating swallowing disorders.
No-Tone-6853@reddit
Work in a banks fraud department, I will google maps your address to check you aren’t lying about building work being the reason for a large payment. It’s one of the most common reasons scammers give people to tell their banks when a large payment is stopped. If you live in a flat but tell me you’re getting an extension done I know you’re bullshitting and getting scammed.
Certain-Trade8319@reddit
Financial advice. The number of people stuck in old, expensive and outdated pension contracts is astonishing.
If you were sold a pension in the 90s, it's likely twice as expensive as newer contracts, can't facilitate drawdown and has a small selection of dogshit funds.
surfdan88@reddit
Teacher pension scheme?
Certain-Trade8319@reddit
I was thinking of personal pensions that were expensive and widely sold in the 90s but a big provider.
notouttolunch@reddit
Then all I can say is you lot are terrible at marketing your products!
Certain-Trade8319@reddit
Meh. If people refuse to take professional advice there''s not a lot we can do.
falsetwat@reddit
General building maintenance. Most large buildings are not up to fire/general safety standards.
No-Hall-3978@reddit
Local government in the housing and homelessness sector. We really do care about you and wish we could do more than legislation and funding allows
cragglerock93@reddit
I think people generally (unfairly) assume that the person dealing with them in any job doesn't give a shit and I don't think that's true. Many people do care, they just don't have the time or resources to help.
Cheese_Dinosaur@reddit
Support worker for the homeless here, I know you do. 🩷
YorkieLon@reddit
Exactly the same. People hate us because we are seen to be giving bad news daily. But they don't see the effort we put into our cases to ensure people aren't homeless. We don't want people to be homeless. I hate having to tell people they're none priority. I try and find anything that helps them fit into a vulnerable category. I hate that private renting is unaffordable for the vast majority of people where I live.
We get some great outcomes for a lot of people but at the moment it's a tough sector.
bitofrock@reddit
I didn't blame the individual who gave me the non-priority news back in the eighties, but it did feel like a cruel system. I was eighteen, had been brought up by my grandmother, she'd died and the bank refused to let me buy or take over the shared ownership bungalow we had. I was made homeless and the council merely said "sorry, you've got a job and you're healthy, we can't help." It seemed incredibly unfair when huge numbers in the generation before me had received council houses. The secondary problem that led to was that there was no real rental market. The fact I had her dog as well meant that what renters there were didn't want me.
But in a way the council was right. With a bit of cunning I found a way of taking out two mortgages so I could buy a tiny flat. But I was shocking with money and ended up in all sorts of debt and had problems both financially and psychologically for years.
That generational divide and the problems within it, really hit home early for me.
omgbaobunstho@reddit
Absolutely
Independent_Ask9280@reddit
Nice
The_Salty_Red_Head@reddit
That a childminder is considerably more than a glorified babysitter, and it takes an awful lot of training and certificates to pass.
Plus, the inspection the Ofsted do in schools has to be done in our homes. The entire thing. Not just the bit where the kids are.
You also have to constantly be doing training off your own back through the year, or you can lose your registration.
SnooGoats2411@reddit
OMG, I came here to say the same thing! The amount of training, certificates and legislation we have to adhere to, plus the ofsted inspections means we're just as qualified and knowledgeable in early years as schools and nurseries. The amount of people who think it's not a 'real job' and that we do it for pin money is unbelievable. I've forged a successful career as a childminder for many years now and love what I do, I just wish we had not respect for the industry. No wonder no one wants to do it any more.
The_Salty_Red_Head@reddit
I gave up my registration last year. I couldn't do it anymore. Between Ofsted and shitty parents that behaved like I owed them a living, it was too much. Plus, the government deciding Childminders are the only profession in the country to legally get considerably less than minimum wage for "funded places" is sickening. My bestie has been a childminder for years, and she's really struggling to get new kids on the books right now. It's nuts.
musicistabarista@reddit
As a freelance orchestral musician, and one who absolutely loves my job and music in general, a large part of the job is being able to tolerate boredom.
I often hear people share the sentiment that doing something you love must be an amazing feeling, and it is. But it's also quite rare that I feel able to enjoy it. Most of the time, I'm stressed/anxious, exhausted, pissed off about something, bored, or possibly all of the above.
Also, the best musicians and instrumentalists are rarely the ones who are most successful. It often comes down to other skills like communicating well (both in person and by email), concentration, adaptability and awareness. When you go into new groups, you're rarely given any advice on how to fit in, or any feedback after the event, aside from getting booked again or not. It's up to you to work out what you think is going on with the dynamic, both musically and non musically, and trying to fit in with that as best as possible.
Counting is often the hardest and most stressful part of my job.
Footprints123@reddit
I'm a child therapist and the job has changed so much since I started 15 years ago. I'd say 80% of my job now consists of either parenting what you think would be the most obvious things in the world or dealing with the most entitled parents known to man. And then we wonder why we have a child mental health problem. Hint: it's the parents.
I mean come on, surely it should be obvious we don't call an upset 7 year old a bitch? Or that telling your 10 year old all about your sex life and Only Fans account isn't appropriate. Or asking your 12 year old if you should divorce their Dad and that they can make the decision after he's had to listen to you screaming at eachother for hours every night.
So you're going to complain because your child has been diagnosed with anxiety but you wanted a schizophrenia diagnosis when there's zero evidence for it? Oh, you're going to go to the papers because we've refused to put your 6 year old on antipsychotics that they don't need because you have diagnosed them with psychosis from a TikTok video.
I wish I was exaggerating.
mrafinch@reddit
I work with dangerous goods... it's just a case of putting it in a specific kind of cardboard box and your radioactive material/explosives can be happily loaded onto a passenger aircraft.
astrid_rons@reddit
I am an architect. The amount of admin and paperwork is insane. The more senior you get, the less actual design you do. Sadly, I spent most of my days answering emails, chasing planners and reading regulations and specs
RestaurantAntique497@reddit
As an accountant we aren't necessarily good at counting numbers. We're good at knowing rules on how to report numbers. Microsoft Excel does the counting for us
chartupdate@reddit
I work in IT.
I truly have better things to do with my day than read your email.
CouchKakapo@reddit
My company sends about 4 automated emails for every ticket you log with the IT team. Regardless of whether further interaction is required or not. RIP inbox.
JimDixon@reddit
I once had a boss who was very suspicious of me and was looking for a reason to fire me. She asked IT to look into my search history. (She had no idea how to do it herself.) They told her they couldn't do it. I'm pretty sure they were lying; they simply didn't want to do it.
If she thought she had a right to see my search history, why didn't she simply ask me to show it to her? Nah, she'd rather do this shit behind my back.
My_Knee_is_a_Ship@reddit
BUT CANT YOU SEE I FLAGGED IT URGENT?!
FarmingIsCharming@reddit
I work in property finance on the lender's side. A huge percentage of the mortgage brokers out there are massively under qualified, inexperienced and worryingly overly confident refusing to truly learn anything and as soon as something goes wrong, they are ready to throw their toys out the pram when in fact it was their incompetence that led to it at the expense of the client.
To name a few examples - inability to read or understand credit file and credit risk; inability to read accounts; poor application packaging which at times can result in applications being declined as they haven't provided the right info to the lender; refusal to learn what each lender 'likes' and just assumes they are all the same resulting in cases being declined when they could have saved all that time if only they asked the lender a question in advance.
What really triggers me personally, is how stuck some of them are in the past completely refusing to introduce themselves with current trends and new lenders which can help someone get a mortgage. The number of people who would say 'this is who I've always used' although said new lender offers quicker timescales and competitive rates is baffling.
They tend to look at a mortgage in isolation and some still recommend 2 year periods to get frequent payment rather than taking a holistic approach and applying market understanding when making a recommendation.
Also, a controversial one but i think the ones being abusive on the phone should be banned from practicing rather than getting away with it. So many are playing nice to clients to then proceed to verbally destroy some poor soul trying to earn a close to minimum wage in a call centre.
I can't talk about this forever. After many years of this, I left the mortgage lending side as I truly had enough of them. The fact you can get certified for 600 and sign up with a network as self employed without a day experience should tell you enough.
originallovecat@reddit
I was a primary school admin bod (recently retired), and I think about only 40% of my day was spent doing actual admin stuff. I got to clean up diarrhoea and vomit (yay!), talk people through government websites (about 70% of our parents have English as a second language), fix computer problems for the teachers (never fails to amaze me how many people much younger than me cannot work a computer), sort out lunch issues, design posters and wall art (again, not an artist, but I can use Paint...) and do a lot of small child wrangling.
I loved it, though. Having ADHD (which my Head actually saw in me, leading to a diagnosis as an adult), I love a job that is never the same from minute to minute.
-myeyeshaveseenyou-@reddit
Used to be a chef, most of us hate cooking at home and in general have really shit diets despite the fact that we understand nutrition
buildingigloos@reddit
I'm a registrar, most people think we only do weddings and maybe births. Most of my job is actually spent registering deaths, including stillbirth and baby deaths. People think I have a really easy, nice job and don't really think about the emotional toll it can take talking to bereaved families every day. People also don't realize that by doing weddings, we do all legal weddings, including prison and deathbed marriages. We also don't get paid that great, just above the living wage. People think we earn loads because the registrars for the weddings cost so much. We don't see that money haha
Melbgirl399@reddit
Public servant - if you write to a politician, it’s pleb like me that prepares the response…
heysanatomy1@reddit
I used to work at a popular pizza chain. That XL Pizza that you pay 20 quid for costs pennies to make.
KatVanWall@reddit
I’m an editor (of books, mostly, not magazines or newspapers). We don’t get any pleasure out of making you feel bad. Most of us try to be polite and gentle if we have to criticise your work. Also, there are a lot fewer actual ‘rules’ than people think, especially in fiction.
RadicalTherapy@reddit
A psychotherapist in the public sector. I think a lot of people expect tears and trauma and they’d be correct, but I’ve genuinely laughed so much with clients too. The epitome of never knowing what the day will bring is front line work! And also, paperwork. So, so, much admin.
TSC-99@reddit
Also a teacher. The amount of teaching of life skills we have to do is ridiculous now. Too many parents think it’s a teacher’s job to teach children bloody everything. Most the year 6s can’t tie shoelaces.
TrinityTosser@reddit
As the client - making TV adverts is incredibly dull and repetitive. Two days of filming to end up with a 30' ad' (after further post-production work). Loads of hanging around for retakes, adjustments, multiple product shots etc.
MD564@reddit
Secondary school teacher here - dealing with other adults (other teachers and parents) is often worse than dealing with my teenage students.
Scarred_fish@reddit
How varied it can be. Officially I'm a Senior Network Engineer - but as anyone in a senior role knows, that takes up very little of your time. In the 90% of the time I'm not dealing with the high level stuff I can be doing anything from driving trucks to clearing drains, developing AI solutions to installing hardware. I love it as every day is different.
notouttolunch@reddit
You work on old networks? Do you still use BNC connectors?
Scarred_fish@reddit
Mostly bitmac..
Darkheart001@reddit
Senior IT guy with 30 years in, people underestimate the amount of creativity there is in the is job. People think it’s just about knowing stuff or looking it up but really the interesting bit is having all these amazing technical tools and being able to put them together in lots of different, interesting ways to create solutions that can make a huge difference to people’s lives.
I really like designing and building something that works really well and is resilient, people don’t realise how much work goes into making the normal every day stuff happen reliably.
---x__x---@reddit
Finance. Fewer sociopaths than the stereotype suggests.
DigitalRichie@reddit
If you live in a regular terraced or semi and you’ve paid an architect for any kind of home extension plans, sections and elevations, you’ve probably been vastly overcharged.
Sufficient-Sprite@reddit
Did you know telecom's providers can misdirect a certain percent of calls (as in accidental), to premium rate numbers. I want to be clear major providers dont do this on purpose within England/Scotland/Ireland (because calls are based on the prefix you dial), but major offshore islands purposely do it as much as they can, ever get a tarot reading/sport score or other automated message when calling a number check you dialed you probably been charged an excessive amount.
I-eat-jam@reddit
If you answer "your best price" you are almost definitely not going to get my best price.
Bacon4Lyf@reddit
I work in aerospace, we haven’t made any actual new parts in like 40 years, we’re working from drawings from the 60s a lot of the time
SeparateEmu3159@reddit
I work in a similar industry within a large company, but we don't work off any old drawings. In fact everything we do is brand new, mostly because the company decided to extend into a market it didn't have any current capability in. However, what normally happens is that we spend ages solving a problem, only to find the guys down the hall had the exact same issue 10 years ago.
Usually we came to the same solution, which is nice to see, but an efficient way of learning lessons across a business covering multiple sectors and thousands of people would make everything so much easier.
nosuchthingginger@reddit
I work in marketing. But people who don’t understand marketing think it’s fluffy and is ‘just social media’ but it’s so complex and you need so many different strings to your bow
doctorace@reddit
I do design research, usually in tech product (apps/websites). Most of the people I work with don’t know what my job is supposed to be, so the general public have no notions for me to correct. I can tell you it’s not market research though.
oktimeforplanz@reddit
Accountants don't need to be any good at maths at all. If you can use a calculator to do basic arithmetic and can get your head around percentages, you could be an accountant.
turkishhousefan@reddit
IT. None of us have a clue.
Actually that might not surprise anyone.
ImTalkingGibberish@reddit
Part of my job is explaining the business why this solution will work and why we should use it.
The other part is explaining the junior developers exactly all the pieces we need.
Whenever I feel like I’m drowning I rely on the senior devs to do my role, but that will come at great cost because the reality is that they’re doing the real work.
DogDrools@reddit
How much time a copywriter can spend on research before writing a word.
cankennykencan@reddit
Alot of effort, money, resources, emergy and time go into supplying 4.5 million people with potable drinking water.
krappa@reddit
I don't think anybody thinks otherwise
dread1961@reddit
I work in theatre and live events. An average day is 14 hours (9am to 11pm) and 6 day weeks are normal. The basic pay is terrible so you often have to work Sundays and overnighters to get a decent wage. When you go to see a show those lights and sounds were probably installed by someone who has had very little sleep.
ibreatheinspace@reddit
I’m a lecturer. Only 40% of my job is teaching students. And I don’t get the same long vacations as the students do.
Expression-Little@reddit
Physiotherapy is a lot more than broken bones and learning to walk again. I'm currently in respiratory - lung clearance, suctioning, and a lot of cool machines that beep a lot. A lot of also cool toys that don't beep so much as involve bubbles and silly noises that kids love and get a giggle out of adults because they seem silly but are actually really effective therapeutic tools. And interestingly coloured fluids.
roberole@reddit
My partner is in respiratory physiotherapy. So because of that I understand the amazing work you guys do changing people's lives. I can also tell you all about secretions, ear gass (I'm sure I've spelt that wrong) and the sleep vent machines.
Awkward_Stranger407@reddit
I run a recycling centre, it might be surprising to know some people will actually try and fight you if they have to flatten boxes, or post paper through a hole, some people will general waste a whole month of saved up recycling if they have to sort it first. I could carry on lol
CraftyAttitude1321@reddit
There are a team of people in every financial institution whose job it is to check your account activity and make sure you're not committing fraud or money laundering.
fishercrow@reddit
im a support worker. i find the biggest misconception about support work is that the job title is incredibly broad. some support workers do personal care (helping shower, toilet, dress, etc.) and some don’t. we may have to physically intervene or not. our hours can be anything from 5 to 13 hours a day, and may or may not work weekends and bank holidays. we generally support people with their day to day lives, which can be anything from making phone calls, attending appointments with them, cooking, cleaning, taking public transportation, or just being a listening ear. we may be trained to dispense medication (as in, take out the medication and give it to the person to take) or maybe we just watch them take it. or maybe we just remind them. it’s a very broad spectrum of duties and i wish external professionals (doctors, social workers, etc.) would just ask rather than assume what we can and cannot do in our role. it’s very frustrating when an external professional says we should be doing xyz when our internal guidelines are very clear we can’t do xyz. overall it’s a great line of work, partly because there’s so much variety!
hellsangel101@reddit
I work in a Dementia home. Specifically in the kitchen. We have to do training courses on Dementia, Dysphagia, how to mix thickeners into drinks and most of the other things the Carers learn, even though we don’t actually assist our residents with eating/drinking. We just make food, wash up and serve meals onto plates.
But we do know all of our residents’ dietary needs off by heart.
Other_Exercise@reddit
Involving videos. Videos take quite a lot of time. There's scripting, planning, setup, shooting, retakes, uploading, editing, polishing.
Numerous_Ticket_7628@reddit
I make £80k+ a year in travel sales (through commission).
jade333@reddit
I work in a bank.
I don't get involved in cash in any way. Literally not allowed to touch it at work.
RiseUpAndGetOut@reddit
Automotive is all about cost, cost and cost. Cars are nowhere near as profitable as people think.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
Work in investment banking. At the junior level you’re hardly working with the important numbers and you do not need any kind of technical degree like maths or economics for it, there are people with English degrees working here. Most of the work you do is editing PowerPoints lol.
Bubbly-Thought-2349@reddit
I knew some guys in investment banking. They spent many years editing PowerPoints but only after 9pm. Now they’re older they’re the ones sitting on emails until 1630 the night before a deadline. The circle of life.
Affectionate_Bat617@reddit
Ahhh I love making ppts and materials. That's only 1 small part of my job
ItsDominare@reddit
PLGI, which is consumer insurance (house, car, etc). Everyone assumes you constantly make massive profits, but very much not the case.
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