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Job Insights: 30 Workplace Realities The General Public Does Not Grasp
“What do you do?” is that one little question we all hear on a daily basis. But sometimes it doesn’t end just there. It’s not just about “what?” but also about “but really, what is it like to do your job?” And that’s the point we step over the small talk and get into explaining the complexities of our professions.
What’s interesting is that even the most no-brainer things about our jobs are often far from obvious to the general audience. This thread from Ask Reddit is a great example of it: “What's something that seems obvious within your profession, but the general public doesn't fully understand?” someone asked, and the illuminating responses started rolling in.
Below we selected some of the most interesting ones, so scroll down below and be sure to check out our similar post on more things that people don’t have a clue about when it comes to these common jobs.
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#1
Doctors/healthcare workers use dark humour as a form of resilience not to be callous or flippant. A lot of traumatic events occur in a hospital on a daily basis. Sometimes a dark joke is the difference between breaking down emotionally or being able to compartmentalise and treat you with all our wits about us.
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#2
Nuclear engineer here, and if you think radiation is the devil incarnate then buckle in for a quick second as I tell you that: 1) No one from Fukushima died from radiation exposure. You saw pictures of the horrific devastation from the earthquake and tsunami. Flooding a nuclear plant doesn't topple buildings. 2) Nuclear is one of the safest, renewable, and cleanest energy sources that exist. Second cleanest only to water (and air if you count that). 3) Unless we start growing energy and picking it off the vine, oil and coal will run out in the very foreseeable future and nuclear is the way to go. 4) You get more radiation from eating a banana than anyone ever did from 3 Mile Island. The most radiation I get everyday is from my morning fruit and I play with radioactive sources and crystals all day. 5) Nuclear is actually really cool and by making it to the bottom of the list you're pretty cool too. Edit: Woah, my first gold! Thank you kind stranger, you the best! Edit 2: Double gold! Y'all are spoiling me too much, thanks Reddit!
#3
Libraries are not [vanishing]. The main reason we're suffering is because idiots decide, without doing any research, that libraries are [vanishing], so they cut funding because...why fund something that's dying? It's so circular that it makes my head hurt.
#4
As a plumber replying to my customer who just hovered over me during the whole repair: Yes, you could have done this yourself. Yes, you would have saved 100s of dollars. No, I can't come down on the price because of how simple it looked to you. We are a business and I gave you the quote before I started.
#5
Graphic Designer here (but this applies to a lot of creative professions). Doing a job faster actually means I need to be paid *more*, not less.
#7
Wind farms require environmental impact studies that take birds in account. Yes, they do have an impact, but so does the playground in front of your house. And trust me, if we don't put wind farms up and keep burning coal, it's gonna be worse, even for the birds.
#8
Organically grown produce is still grown using pesticides. I stopped arguing with people when I realized the fact that I worked for the EPA and it was literally my job didn't dissuade them from arguing with me.
#9
Unless it's an actual emergency you'll have to wait in the ER. It [is bad], we know, but a suspected heart attack will be treated before a busted knee.
#10
As someone in the movie/tv business, most people don't realize that doctoring and altering footage is really really really easy for someone with the right software. I see my old relatives falling for obviously fake footage all the time because they trust all video to be real. This problem is only going to get worse as the software gets better.
#11
As your child's teacher, I see them for 53 minutes a day for 180 days of the year. I cannot undo all of the poor habits you've taught/enabled/encourage and "make" your kid successful. I see people post on the book of faces about their child's [lousy] teacher because they won't do "x" or "y" when those things are the responsibility of the parent. Also, my contract says I work until 3. I will not call, text, or meet with you after hours because I need to have my own life separate from my work life which is really hard for parents to understand for some reason.
#12
If I cared what teenagers thought of me, I wouldn’t be a high school teacher. No, I don’t go home and drink away their lame insults. They don’t bother me, they’re just hormonal kids, and I love my job.
#13
If you cut off an 18-wheeler, you might die and it will be your fault. The dashcam will show it was your fault, and your family will recieve nothing. Not only will you be dead, but you will probably not leave a corpse that is in fewer than a dozen pieces. 40 tons moving at highway speed does not slow down quickly, and physics doesn't give a s**t that you want to get home two minutes faster. Yes, *literally* 40 tons. That's about 8 elephants. It depends on what kind of elephant.
#14
**Hotels:** 1) If you can't prove you are allowed to have access to a room, I can't give you keys to the room. That means if you're staying in your brother's room and you get locked out, you're SOL until your brother shows up with his ID. This is to protect you, your family, and your stuff. If you don't like it, you can go [be bad] a lemon. 2) If you call and ask for a person, but don't have their name *and* room number, I can't just say "YUP HERE YA GO" because some people in the hotel might specifically hiding out from someone. I don't know you're not some stalker or jealous ex-lover trying to track a person down by calling every hotel in town and saying "Hey can you transfer me to Jane Smith's room, please?" I have no way of knowing you aren't some phone scammer calling every hotel in town and asking to be connected to random room numbers. 2.5) Even if the name you give me is not a guest at my hotel, I'll still tell you "I'm sorry, I can't acknowledge whether or not someone is here unless you give me name *and* room number." Sorry, Sherlock Holmes, the fact I'm stonewalling you right now doesn't mean that person is staying here. Nice detective work, though. 3) Obviously you can't leave your dog in the room and go out for the day. You're thinking of a kennel. Dogs left alone in strange places howl and bark and p**s and chew up the furniture and dig at the carpet. "But my dog doesn't bark when I'm gone." How the f*** would you know? I've been told that by so many people who are then shocked to learn their dog barked while they were gone. 4) Yes, you need a card for incidentals. No, I don't care if you tell me there aren't going to be any incidentals, I still need the card. 5) Emotional support animals are not service animals and we will charge you full price for them. You can't sue us for it, so if you threaten to we'll just write notes about you and laugh behind your back. 6) Vaping in your hotel room can set off the smoke alarm. Most importantly: 7) Being a bully to the staff might get you some special perks and privileges, but we will remember you. We will do the absolute bare minimum and not go above and beyond anywhere we don't specifically *have to.* We may even go r/maliciouscompliance on your a*s. For example, when a cranky older man tried to bully me into giving him a discount for some petty problem last month (which I'd have been happy to help him with if he hadn't been a d**k), I jacked the rate up on him and took a small percentage off of that. He walked away thinking he had gotten a discount when in actuality, he was paying higher than full price. I think of it as an a*****e tax.
#16
Different artists excel at doing different styles. I work primarily in watercolor, my website and my portfolio are almost entirely watercolor pieces, and yet I regularly field requests from clients asking if I can do oil painting, mural painting, or God Forbid, tattoo them. Just yesterday I had someone ask if I'd give them a tattoo, which I have never done before, have not trained in... I try to refer people to other artists I know who work in the styles and mediums they're looking for. "But you make lots of cool things!" YES. IN WATERCOLOR.
#17
Clip your dogs toe nails. The longer you wait, the less we can clip them because the quick grows out with the nail! Also: hold the microphone where it’s meant to be held, the handle. When you cup the head it starts to feedback.
#18
From an ex-nurse. People don't understand there isn't a pill to fix everything and if you don't exercise and eat sensibly you will die younger than you should. Simple.
#19
Electricity is dangerous. Yeah getting shocked by an outlet is nothing more then a quick scare when you're dry. But when you're wet it's almost certain death (a painful one at that). And when you get into some larger stuff it will literally vaporize you. If you're untrained, you should leave electrical work to the professionals.
#20
Writing code is not really that exciting to watch. It is very unlikely that you will have a lot of cool graphics or special effects on the screen. Its going to be some slightly color-coded words, and very little else.
#21
The pastures you drive by don't just exist on their own. Grass is an actively managed crop.
#22
Deathcare industry worker here. Embalming a body is a creepy practice and an unnecessary expense.
#23
I work as deskside IT support for an office. Anyone could do my job if they knew how to google and read tech forums. Besides, 75% of my job is customer service, 20% knowledge, and 5% politics.
#24
The more you know how the Internet really works, the more you're amazed that it still works at all.
#26
Just because someone was doing a bad thing doesn't mean its bad when they are trying to make themselves better. Getting healthy shouldn't be looked down upon. I work in compliance for an addiction recovery company and it's part of my job to tell people to go away when they want to use our patients recovery against them.
#27
I need details to troubleshoot your website problems. "The website isn't working, can you fix it?" What isn't working?? What page, what section of the page, what is it doing that it's not supposed to be doing, what is it supposed to be doing instead? What device, browser are you using? What were you doing before it happened? Give me *something* to work with here. Even if words aren't your forte and it's just a cell phone picture you took of your monitor, I need details. The more you give, the faster your issue will get fixed.
#28
Public Spending on construction projects. What do you MEAN building this new road will cost $100 Million Dollars ?!? Why does the Govt. take so much money for themselves ?! Not understanding that it’s $50 Million Dollars in materials and another $50 million in labor instantly injected into the *local* economy (obviously its not 50/50 but for the sake of this post)
#29
You cannot check-in to a hotel without giving us a deposit or a working credit card to protect us from possible damages. "There aren't gonna be any damages." OH OK, I GUESS WE DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT IT THEN
#30
A significant portion of active duty military personnel (in the U.S., at least) spend a majority of their time sitting at a desk doing basic administration work. I'm technically trained in my job speciality, but since I'm not exactly in a combat zone when not deployed, I spend most days at a computer answering e-mails and s**t.
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