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Someone Asks: “What Are Facts About Your Job That The General Public Has No Idea About?” And 30 Folks Online Deliver
Insider information is a great thing, especially in today's world. From insiders, we learn everything we need and don't need to know. From Charlie D'Amelio's personal breaking news to stock tickers, from the Lakers locker room to the White House.
In addition to established insiders who have made gossip their job and main source of income, there are also other types of insiders. These are just people who not only do their job, they are well versed in it - but at the same time, they know something about it that an ordinary person could hardly guess.
And, to be honest, we would hardly have thought of it, if not for this thread in the AskReddit community, whose topic starter asked both a simple and non-standard question: "What are the facts about your job that general public has no idea about?" To date, the thread has over 11.6K upvotes and almost 8.5K comments, where people willingly reveal all the light and dark sides of their work.
Bored Panda collected for you the most interesting, surprising and unusual revelations from representatives of various professions. Some, perhaps, you already knew well, and some will probably shock you. Either way, feel free to scroll to the very end of the post not to miss something really interesting. And now, a little inside info from our work - more than anything in this life, we love your upvotes and comments!
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That as a trucker, that space I left in front of me is so I don’t kill anybody, NOT your personal invitation to jump in front of my bumper because you forgot your exit or whatever reason. So many want to get in front of us and slow down and park in front my bumper.
YSK: Don’t believe the billboards those ambulance chasing lawyers put up about big truck accidents mean big bucks. Only survivors get money, most likely not you. If you do survive, more than likely your quality of life is going to be miserable.
Also YSK: these trucks can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, 34,000 pounds empty and around 20,000 pounds without the trailer. How does that compare to your SUV or even your lifted pickup. Do us all a favor and give us some space, leave us room so that you can live and go home to your family
One final thought, NEVER assume the other driver sees you.
Wow! Thanks for all the upvotes. Glad you found it helpful.
Public defender.
I don’t do this because it’s the only job I could get. I do it because I’m passionately invested in making sure poor people have access to the courts and because without us, there would be absolutely nothing between them and the awesome power of the government. The vast majority of us are there for the same reason.
The perception that we’re not as good as private attorneys is just wrong. In fact, most PDs have done many more trials than privates because we have many more clients. The difference is that we can’t pick and choose our clients as private attorneys can. We have to work with what we get so our win/loss ratio isn’t as impressive as theirs. Ask a private defense attorney what they think of public defenders- most will tell you that some of the best attorneys they’ve known are PDs.
While we can’t take the time to hold your hand and take every one of your calls, we actually do care about you and your case. I work nights. I work weekends. In fact, every weekend I’m at the jail, seeing my guys, because I don’t have time during the week.
We are excellent attorneys who chose public service.
Public defenders are the unsung heroes of the American criminal justice system. The system supposedly provides fair trials, but it falls to PDs to keep some semblance of fairness actually in the courtroom. If nothing else, PDs require DAs to do their jobs, rather than railroading one of the 'usual suspects'.
I work in IT support.
Legit about 80% of all problems are solved by rebooting the computer/terminal/phone.
If not, 20 percent is pure detective work.
ER Nurse.
People get seen by severity, not the order they came in the door... Also, just because you came in by ambulance doesn't mean you immediately bypass the waiting room.
When you call 911, please say your address before anything else. It doesn’t matter if someone is actively dying, say your address first. (I’m from a rural area so this might just be a problem where I’m from) but if you’re calling on a cell phone sometimes it can ping in a completely different spot then you are. If you call and don’t say where you are and we get disconnected, I might not have any clue where to send rescue/police/fire and therefore I cannot help you. Say your address (if you don’t know then please give like a cross street or notable location) first, then preferably your name, THEN tell me what’s going on.
A lot of people assume that we automatically have a precise location where they’re at, and the systems can be pretty accurate but you can’t always rely on them. If you say the address and we get disconnected I can at least send someone to the area to figure out what needs to be done.
(Source: I am a 911 dispatcher and I have so many people scream at me for not automatically knowing their location)
If you are on a cellular telephone, the phone can be connected with the 9-1-1 dispatch where you live, so if you`re roaming several hundred kilometres from home, the dispatch will be unable to help you! TELL THEM WHERE YOU ARE! (They can transfer your call to a local 9-1-1 dispatch!) Do so even if you are on a landline, because some people have their landline outgoing location data blocked! (In some cases, automatically because of where the phone is - like a Shelter for Abused Persons!)
The bags of cement are not filled by a robot. A person handles every bag. I can fill 2500 bags in an
8 hour shift.
Ex-security guard here.
We're not there to protect you. We're there to observe and report. Don't assume that just because whatever building you're working in has security that you're safe. Especially if security is of the unarmed variety.
Ain't that the truth. One of the security guards where I used to work was this little old lady who was as sweet as the day is long, but lord help her if she was called on to do her duty. It took her a good 30 seconds to get out of her chair. I don't remember her name, but everybody called her "Maxine" because she looked like the cartoon character.
I’m a nanny and most people think the kids are what bothers me the most or what would lead me to quit. It’s never the kids, always the f****d up parents. People with too much money who don’t intend on raising their own kids are far too prevalent.
Bridge carpenter.
When you drive by 6 people standing around one guy working, the group is usually comprised of inspectors, superintendents, subs, engineers, and foremen all standing around a laborer to talk. You can differentiate by the hardhats and how clean they are.
If you want to get upset at someone for your commute being slowed, don't pick the dirty guys.
I was a licensed Cremationist for 8 years. Regardless how hard we tried, that wasn’t just grandma or grandpa in the urn….
I want to be cremated when I die and I personally don't care. I wouldn't care if it wasn't just my mom in her urn either. After you die your body is just that - a body. It isn't what makes a person imo.
Chef here. The reason you love our food is salt and butter... and a lot of it.
I have worked for the US federal government.
Every time Congress waits until the 11th hour to pass a budget or a continuing resolution (a temporary "budget"), the government spends an unknown amount of money, probably millions of dollars, preparing for a government shutdown, whether the shutdown happens or not. If the government actually shuts down, even if only for a few hours, it wastes millions more tax dollars. Taxpayers get no benefit from these expenditures, and the money is simply wasted.
When Congress holds the budget hostage, they're not actually hurting political rivals. They're punishing taxpayers and anyone who relies on government services directly or indirectly for anything.
Edit: One more thought:
If your Representative or Senator engages in this, **vote them out at the next election**, because they're burning your tax dollars to deceive you into supporting their careers. You get nothing, your tax dollars are thrown in the trash, and a bunch of stupid rubes get duped into voting to keep a do-nothing politician in office, earning six figures.
Term limits. Anyone who has been in elected office for more than a decade, is out of touch with the people.
I'm a massage therapist. I don't care if you didn't shave. But please wash your feet.
Always wash your feet... for your sake and for everyone else's, too LOL
I work at a large biotech/pharmaceutical manufacturing company. The medication you take or buy from your local pharmacy are so insanely and meticulously regulated & inspected at every step of the journey - from petri dish to pharmacy shelf, that you could take a pill from a bottle and it can be traced back to the exact room it was made in, the exact equipment that was used, who was responsible for each step, and the time it was made down to the very second. Seriously, there is no misteps when it comes to GxP.
Damn straight... not only do we pay enough for that level of attention, but our very lives are at stake.
Retail worker so this may not be surprising
A majority of food waste/waste in general are from customers. Yes, leaving that cold f*****g food at the other side of the store because you decided you didn't want/need it and were too lazy to put it back correctly, that s**t adds up and is a majority of what we throw out. Cannot tell you how much good food went to waste for no good reason, just because people were too lazy to put it back
But, at least we donate our meat to animal shelters.
I was at a Kroger once where a customer had left a pack of chicken in an empty cooler at the front of the store. Someone opened the cooler several days later (the day of my visit) and the entire front of the store was unbearable because of the smell.
I currently work the line at a recycling facility.
Y'all m***********s throw a lot of s**t away when it could have been given to a charity.
As someone in construction, statistically speaking, I have a bigger chance of [passing] on the job than police officers do in their line of work. It was even more dangerous when I did scaffolding at an oil refinery.
I think people abstractly know construction is dangerous, but sometimes you have to put it in perspective for them.
I work with the developmentally disabled. While we are allowed to encourage our clients to make good choices and try to talk them out of making bad ones, we are not allowed to stop them from doing what they want. They are people first, and everyone is allowed to make poor choices and suffer the consequences. The United States government calls it "The Right to Consequences."
Healthcare worker - part of the reason your doctors appointments are so quick is the amount of documenting we have to do so we get paid. We can be the most brilliant clinician and save your damn life but if we don’t write a note that’s complete enough or have the right elements, your insurance company will pay less. We get nothing for being smart, correct or compassionate….only what we can “document” and takes time away from you.
Agreed. But, please, don't blame your Coder, if you have one (and get a good Coder, if you don't). Your Coder should be able to give you advice on minimizing your documentation, while still hitting the requirements to get get you paid, fairly. Source: 11 years as a medical coder (CPC).
Working for giant companies, it’s comical how many systems are raggedy messes of bare-bones functionality. All available money gets thrown at certain projects, leaving everything else to work on complete shoe-strings.
Very true. And everyone gets the standard build laptop/PC, no matter if you're a receptionist or a programmer
I’m the spray tech at a golf course. We use green dye on our putting greens.
The grass at Augusta national is sprayed green as well; “any grass you see on camera has been sprayed green”
If you ever fall off a ship/ferry at sea and were lucky enough to be spotted - don't try to swim your way to safety. The more you try to swim, the lesser the chances of survival. Just try to keep afloat and conserve energy (and body heat) while the rescue team does what they're supposed to. Unless you are in hypothermic waters, the best bet always is to stay afloat without trying to swim to 'somewhere'. This information about falling overboard, hypothermia and conditions, survival at sea etc are based on my own experience of many years sailing on [mega container ships]
In newswriting, if we like you we don't quote you exactly. If we don't like you, best believe you're getting a 'sic'.
Government worker here. You know how you all have the opinion that government departments are massive bureaucracies that take forever to get anything done efficiently, if at all?
It's true. And we hate that, too. It can take me 2 months to get an answer that would normally take 1 day in the private sector.
Not my experience. Government departments are operating on a shoe string.
I'm in pharma. So. Much. Paperwork.
Also we use a lot of single-use stuff, so the pharma industry's probably responsible for a not-insignificant amount of the world's plastic waste.
Structural Engineer
We take materials we do not entirely understand, form them into shapes we cannot precisely analyze to resist forces we cannot truly assess in such a way that the public at large has no idea of the extent of our ignorance!
That's why there is so much redundancy. Still, it's a solid (hopefully) point
Crisis hotline. Sometimes we get really disturbing prank calls. I always encourage people to call back if they are ever in crisis. A lot of times, they (the prank callers) do.
US based flight attendant here. Unless you’re flying on Delta, your flight attendants aren’t getting paid during boarding and deplaning. We’re just as annoyed as the next person that the flight is delayed because of a mechanical issue, weather, etc. If the boarding door is closed we (usually) don’t mind though.
Radioactive contamination can often just be cleaned with Windex or even water
i work with recycling
i can assure you that recycling is WAY more dangerous than it looks like
people throw away loose razor blades, glass (sometimes even whole knives)
there's also the problem with human excrement ,if you're cut and get an infection from human fecal meter ,you're f****d
Paramedic here
Me and a shocking amount of my medic friends learned vital, life saving skills off of YouTube. The schooling just isn't always what it should be and often we are left on our own to figure things out while we are learning. More often than not that leads to YouTube video tutorials (they have one for everything) so more frequently than you'd think people are learning how to give needles and read ECGs from the same place we all learn what the proper time to hard boil an egg is
Martial arts/self defense instructor
"Women's self defense" is a waste of time. Unless you're taking real classes regularly, that seminar you took that taught you what to do if a man tries to kidnap you is really only good for getting away momentarily.
I know it's not necessarily the point but you'll NEVER fully stop an attacker with anything we can show you in an hour. If you can, take a normal martial arts class. No reason that what works for the men won't work for you.
Edit: Boxing and MMA are also martial arts. Pretty useful on the streets
Let's spend more time teaching people, often men, not to attack women... Then this becomes moot
Unfortunately, you can't educate someone who is a savage, chooses to be a savage, and likes being a savage.
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I'm all for throat punches and when they're bent over grasping at their throat kick in the junk. You play as dirty as you can if you want to live; low blows only matter in professional boxing and mma. Oh and if the height difference isn't too bad, headbutts are great to stun and then you go on the attack like a rabid beast until they are too preoccupied with pain to give chase and run like the floor is lava.
Our instructor is a former law enforcement officer. His women's self defense classes focus on escape. Lesson 1 is always running away. Everything after that is ways to get away from an attacker. Nothing is taught to defeat an opponent, and he absolutely emphasizes this.
The scary truth is your attacker is likely stronger than you, has a plan on how to handle someone weaker and how to block defenses. The whole gouge their eyes, cause bodily injury to them is great for the short time you get away. But if you leave injuries or marks better call your lawyer.
In my experience the main problem is that women often don't fight/ become aggressive when attacked. We freeze, try to wriggle loose, etc.. We almost never hurt the attacker. I have suffered several attacks and have found that hurting / verbally assaulting the attacker often works because they don't expect it. Best getaways ever ware a guy who literally grabbed me by the pussy... I just saw red and punched him in the groin. He never saw that coming, LOL. And that time a guy pushed a knife almost into my chest (was wearing a thick coat)..... I just yelled at him to get the f*ck out of my way because I want to MOVE . then reported him to the doorman.
On tv they always show women in self defense classes throwing a guy over their shoukder. Or they tell women to attack someones eyes
Jiu Jitsu is great for self defense because it helps you learn how to overpower an attacker larger than yourself.
The classes are or should be designed to get women past their instinct to freeze. Those first few seconds are crucial.
One of the things my sister learned was to be loud, and that can be very useful. Attackers don't want scenes. But this is of course assuming other people are nearby.
Get a firearm and training! It's the great equalizer in the human aggression world
Copy/print industry.
I have signed a lot of NDA's and copied/scanned many jobs that I wasn't allowed to 'look at'. Medical documents, documents for law suits and such, and helped a few people with patent application.
Had a few print jobs they guy had to sit there the whole time. No one was allowed to look at the printouts. Had to show him how to take the prints out of the copier and make sure no customers came back by the copier.
I couldn't copy the files if the DVD, and had to sign a document no copies of those documents - physical or digitally were kept by my company. I think the guy was a defense contractor, so that was interesting.
Also - the pulp to make paper mostly comes trees specifically grown for making paper. The rest comes from leftovers from the lumber Industry. Recycling paper into reusable white paper is WAY worse for the environment that making new paper. Making brown paper goods from recycled paper isn't so bad, but still not great.
Most fossils in museums are plastic replicas. Not always the whole thing, but any full dinosaur you see more than likely has at least some plastic components.
There's only a handful of businesses in the world that make the replicas and, at least in the US, they're pretty small operations.
Software developer here. Only a minority of companies take data security seriously enough to prevent leaks. For every publicly announced leak, there are 20 that were swept under the rug. Proper security requires that the whole structure, from the top down, has an understanding of the issues. It's not just down to the techies, it's down to their managers, and their manager's managers.
So, no real data privacy for ordinary people? Why am I not surprised?
When your Nan or pop passes away in a nursing home, often they're still in their bed for over 12 hours before the funeral home picks them up. We just quietly close the door and continue our shifts.
Worked at an automotive assembly plant. Every 60 seconds the assembly line is shut down, the plant is losing $10,000. Missing parts, incorrectly sequenced material(a red bumper shows up next in line when it’s a blue car in bumper install), broken lift assist devices, 1 person running off the line to bathroom(it’s happened), chains breaking etc.. could all shut down the line.
Tensions were incredibly high and the stress was unbelievable on some days. Other days it was super easy and chill. Good pay. High school degree is the only mandatory requirement to be a supervisor, and with the mandatory OT(usually you work 5-6 days, 10-12 hour shifts) you’re making at least 100k.
I'm a supervisor at a home health company. I may actually have the easiest job in the entire world and I get paid decently for it too. Because of Medicare/Medicaid regulations the company has to send a supervisor out to all the homes our employees go to so we can make sure things are going well and the client is being taken care of well. My time is spent either driving to someone's home and asking them maybe 15 questions about their care or sitting in the office doing paperwork about those questions. That's it. That's all I do.
I'm glad you like your job, but as someone with social anxiety and agoraphobic tendencies, your job sounds extremely difficult and stressful. 🙂
People dont realise how much work goes into making boxes or binders for products. Huge machines are used, tens of thousands are made in the matter of days. I have made the same binder about 70,000 times roughly in the 6 months since I started on the job. If you receive a box with your product and its still in good shape, consider reusing it for something? As a production operative, i know how much anger and frustration goes into making a simple box. Honestly you wouldnt think its that hard. But when 1 box goes wrong, every single box following does too. Its hard work for a job that should be simple
My wife and I have our own business, which has evolved into making branded items for other small businesses, including boxes. The most time consuming aspect can be gold foiling (laminator feed is slow and it can take multiple passes) but when everything goes smoothly, making a 10x10x2.5 cm box takes 2 A4 sheets of 180g/m card stock, two A4 sheets of 280g/m posterboard (reinforcement) 3x2cm square of gold HTF. Foiling can take 1-3 minutes, die cutting the box shape takes 15 seconds per piece (4 pieces per box) Assembling the two pieces takes less than 20 seconds, and hot gluing top and bottom pieces inside takes another 30 seconds (2 pieces per box). 3 - 5 minutes (and 20 seconds) to make one small box by hand, which we sell for $3 apiece. Material cost is less than 10 cents. The most we've done in a week, was 2000 which sucked as it was one of many clients, 500 is a comfortable output (44 hours of labor split between us) where we still have time to sleep and fulfill orders for others.
I work for a department that does tolls by mail. A robot may take your picture, but a live human ends up processing it. We can see inside your car... even in the dark tunnels.
I'll share a few different facts from my experiences;
Most fast-food is kept around much longer than it is supposed to be. Bacon from the previous night will be reheated and used the following day. Anything that's heated and not a burger or fried good is microwaved. Grills and fryers aren't cleaned as well as they should be.
If you want to check quality on furniture, look underneath. Most places won't clean the underneath of their furniture. If there's a lot of excess glue or chipped/scratched/dented parts the manufacturer cares about quantity over quality. Good quality furniture will last forever.
Bulletproof helmets have very little QC done to them other than ensuring they will stop a bullet and even then it CAN be hit or miss depending on the thickness and quality of the material used to create the helmet. Some helmets were born from styles that were created for a contract that was terminated before completion. I.e. we have 1000 helmets that the customer no longer wants, what should we do? Shape em a lil differently and call them a new type of helmet.
Writer went from bacon to furniture to helmets. They must change jobs every few years. As a 20+ restaurant manager I call BS on microwave and other items. Our restaurants didn't even have microwaves. Strict nightly schedule on grills and weekly on fryers at any national chain. I think he just likes to make stuff up. Check under "new" furniture to find chipped or dented? Where is he buying? Who buys bulletproof helmets? Guess he had one and it failed.
Teachers 100% are generous/not generous with grades depending on how much of an a*****e you are to them.
I cannot agree with this point of view. It's unethical and unprofessional.
Unrelated to the article, but: Has anyone else been getting notifications on here about a comment but when you go to click it, it takes you to a comment section where you didn't comment anything? Idk if this is just a glitch for me or if other people are experiencing it too.
That happens when your comment is about those submissions that are not shown initially. You know, when you have to click the link at the bottom of the article to see all submissions. Scroll down and click on the link and you will get to your comment.
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Lifeguards are NOT babysitters/nannys. Do not drop your small children off at a pool or a beach and leave for hours at a time. They aren't a daycare. Our job is not to look after just your kid. Also we get paid for what we might have to do not what we are actually doing.
I'm a train driver, do not kiss someone through the window. We hit animals quite often and stuff can splash surprisingly far back along the train. Then there's the myth that som male train drivers relieves themselves through am open door even when the train is in motion. Impossible with most modern trains/locomotives but still.. And yes, trains do get washed but no ones going to cancel a train because of animal blood, we're not exactly drowning in working trains.
Not related. Is anyone experiencing bogus web pages or Mcafee notices randomly popping up? This is the only site I experience these. It's darn annoying.
Unrelated to the article, but: Has anyone else been getting notifications on here about a comment but when you go to click it, it takes you to a comment section where you didn't comment anything? Idk if this is just a glitch for me or if other people are experiencing it too.
That happens when your comment is about those submissions that are not shown initially. You know, when you have to click the link at the bottom of the article to see all submissions. Scroll down and click on the link and you will get to your comment.
Load More Replies... Lifeguards are NOT babysitters/nannys. Do not drop your small children off at a pool or a beach and leave for hours at a time. They aren't a daycare. Our job is not to look after just your kid. Also we get paid for what we might have to do not what we are actually doing.
I'm a train driver, do not kiss someone through the window. We hit animals quite often and stuff can splash surprisingly far back along the train. Then there's the myth that som male train drivers relieves themselves through am open door even when the train is in motion. Impossible with most modern trains/locomotives but still.. And yes, trains do get washed but no ones going to cancel a train because of animal blood, we're not exactly drowning in working trains.
Not related. Is anyone experiencing bogus web pages or Mcafee notices randomly popping up? This is the only site I experience these. It's darn annoying.
