People From Different Professions Are Sharing 30 Things That The General Public Has No Clue About
“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.
This post may include affiliate links.
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.
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!
Curious that he only mentioned Fukushima and Three Mile Island and not, I don't know, one of the biggest nuclear disasters in history. No, flooding a nuclear power plant won't topple buildings, but exploding one certainly might. Nuclear is definitely a comparatively clean fuel, if you are only considering the period being used for energy production. There are still waste products involved that are definitely dirtier than wind, solar, wave, etc. And when it does go wrong (and anyone who thinks that's an unlikely possibly has been living under a rock or on an atoll somewhere) it *really* goes wrong. With a lot of regulations, it's safe - goddess help us if we get some idiot in charge who doesn't believe in regulations...
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.
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.
They also could have just flooded their apartment by trying it themselves like my upstairs neighbors did.
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.
When you're in a hospital, not every man is a doctor and not every woman is a nurse.
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.
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.
Unless it's an actual emergency you'll have to wait in the ER. It sucks, we know, but a suspected heart attack will be treated before a busted knee.
The other thing is your definition of emergency is different to mine. While clearly a suspected heart attack is more important than a broken ankle, the drunk guy with blood pouring down his face getting seen ahead of "maybe appendicitis, maybe gallstones, may even just be gas", because blood, is a level of triage that just won't make sense to many people.
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.
And its getting easier and easier all the time, like products for general public is getting closer to very convincing deep fakes, I think I even read/saw somewhere about rendering face swap deep fake on live video, so throw in bit voice modulating and I could example fake live statement impersonating our president.
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.
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.
And some folks, who were the dix from previous years, grow up to be ignorant adults who can't understand that many teachers actually have this ability, so they end up thinking themselves a "King" and make angry posts in the internet.
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.
Thank you. I was going to ask for banana weight but I also happen to be well versed in hobbit measurements
Load More Replies...
I hate to see people racing to get in front of a semi when approaching a stoplight, or slowed/stopped traffic. I see it all the time and I'm impressed so many drivers are able to get stopped in time and not kill the people who do this. Makes me cringe. I wish people would be more aware of their surroundings when driving.
We used to say "No matter how big you are, madam Physica will win". It is one of the basic rules in historical fencing, when somebody 30 or 50 kilos heavier than you bodychecks you, you will fall down. When somebody is way heavier than you and you jump on his shield, you will (probably) roll over it and hit ground. Kinetic energy is real thing and it hurts.
Load More Replies...
Please define "cut off." I was always taught not to pull in front of a semi until I could see the whole front end in my rear view. And I have seen some stupid people pull out from a dead stop in front of a semi doing 110 km/hr on the highway. Bad idea folks.
Good question. Daughter of long-haul truck driver/wife to heavy equipment & dump truck driver, here. The short answer is, it depends. You want to take the truck's rate of speed, type of load, type of truck, road conditions, experience of the driver, what THEY can see (NOT what the other driver can see) into account. A very safe way to tell if you are okay to pass a semi is 1) Use your blinker/signal intent to get in front of them 2) wait for their lights to 'flash', which is them signaling to 'go ahead' 3) if they don't signal/for whatever reason, give them at least the length of 2 truck lengths, while continuing at same rate of speed/faster is better/so they don't have to slow down for you. It takes a lot to get those trucks back up to their rate of speed, so they'll appreciate you not making them break. Also, if you can't see their side-view mirrors, they definitely cannot see you. I guess there is no pat answer, just give those big boys lots of room. They (the trucks) can be killers
Load More Replies...
I am not familiar with those scales of measurements... could you please tell me how much 40 tons/8 Elephants would be in Bananas?
In Australia we have a lot of 34-wheeler B-Doubles and that's 56 tonnes. Which equates to about 3,733 drop-bears. So assuming one drop-bear equals about 125 bananas, then one 56 tonne B-Double equates to about 466,625 bananas. Note: assumes bananas are complete with banana-skin.
Load More Replies...
You'll never educate people on this, they're too stupid. My husband drove one for years and the amount of people who do this is staggering. No, your car is not going to win against a loaded tractor trailer. You cut one off at your own peril.
My friend is driving teacher and he likes to say "Do not trust trams. They weight 50 tons and are on tracks, they will not stop suddenly and will not turn. And they are made of steel, when they hit you, you will be crushed and it will be your fault." Valuable lesson.
Load More Replies...
It's about four-and-a-half times as heavy as a Tyrannosaurus rex The weight of a Tyrannosaurus rex is about 8.80 tonnes.
Yes! I see this all the time! I hate the billboards and commercials against truck drivers! These truckdrivers are working to keep everything, yes everything up and running! Then some idiots don't think about physics, or want a payout. The idiots don't think of how some driver's job could be affected either.
Thank you so much! Trucking co owner here and I literally stress myself sick worrying about what they are now calling "Nuclear Verdicts" against trucking companies and drivers when often its not their fault!!
Load More Replies...
Same with trains. You would be surprised to see how many people cut in front of Light rail trains when they are alongside traffic.
It's about two-fifths as heavy as a Blue Whale The weight of a Blue Whale is about 105 tonnes.
Stopping distance on an 18-wheeler is considerably more than on, say, a Subaru Outback. And in that distance, the 18-wheeler can turn that Subaru into scrap metal, and you'll be identified by your teeth. Assuming they're found. True story.
Try stopping a train quickly. DON'T WALK ALONG THE TRACKS WITH YOUR EAR BUDS IN. But every time this happens, the reporters ask, "Why didn't the engineer stop when he saw him?"
I always laugh when the jack*ss that cut me off gets stopped at the same red light. Yeah, that little stunt you pulled really paid off, didn't it?
Yep. Older woman came down on ramp which put her behind my son, she punched it to race him to the end of the ramp (he's running 70), cuts in front of him then hits her brakes. Needless to say her Hyundai didn't fare well. Then she had the gall to tell the trooper she didn't see him, then changed it to she didn't know he had a trailer and then told the trooper he couldn't write her a ticket because she's old. He told her, "you're right I'm not writing you a ticket. I'm writing you 3". Now State Farm (her insurance) is refusing to pay for the $25K damages to his truck.
Same goes for any large, or heavy vehicle. Normal people towing are even more dangerous as the truck does not have the same oversized brakes and specific design as well as experienced driver behind the wheel. Don't be stupid.
I cannot get people to understand this. OR that truck drivers are sleep deprived and not that great behind the wheel most days. Don't cut them off. Don't squeeze between two rigs in the same lane because 'theres plenty of space there.' Don't ghost in their blind spots.
I unfortunately was a witness to this but it was a bicycle that got hit when a 18 wheeler was turning. She was only in her early 20's and newly married. It happened when she was biking to work. I saw it minutes after it happened.
And be courteous to that semi (or anyone) trying to merge on a busy. Yes you likely have the right of way. Yes the semi driver will likely be cited if he hits you trying to merge. And yes you will still likely be dead. Now if it isn't busy and that driver decided the were gonna merge ahead of you even though there is no one behind you and they couldn't be bothered to let of the gas a bit... still let them merge. Not worth your life just to be right
I kinda have dark moments where I laugh when I see a Getz or some other stupid bubble car do it 😂 like how dumb can you be to not weight up the risks with Lorries/semi trailers/ Optimus primes.
Oh no! 80,000 lbs gross weight!!! That is what's legal in the US which includes truck, trailer and cargo. 44,000 pounds is what most loads weigh!!!
Load More Replies... **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 suck 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**k 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.
One teacher, plus 32 kids doesn't yield optimum results.
Our son’s second grate year was a wash. Children on the “Bookends” of learning suffer the most, unfortunately. It’s not the teachers’ faults, either. Imagine being just ONE person, in a room of 30, that equates to 20 average learners, 6 exceptional learners, and 4 with challenges. How do you divide your attention? 😥
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.
I think this happens in other fields too, because I use computer to do my work I obviously also am IT expert and people ask me how to fix stuff.. depends how well I know the person I might google the answer because apparently that is also too hard for majority of the people. (I have zero training and zero professional experience about computer science)
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.
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.
I was told that live in a 'plus' society. We always expect a doctor to give us something and feel cheated if he actually takes something away - like give up your daily donuts and chocolate or you'll keep on having heart attacks. Whereas here's a pill does - which is part of why the placebo affect happens
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.
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.
The pastures you drive by don't just exist on their own. Grass is an actively managed crop.
Here in Brazil we are developing a kind of grass crop to make the soil better and keep the humidity on the ground even on dry seasons. Once a plague, now a blessing.
Deathcare industry worker here. Embalming a body is a creepy practice and an unnecessary expense.
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.
"Knowing how to Google" and "knowing how to read tech forums" are both very much skills - and there are many people who *really* don't have either. "Anyone could do my job if they learn the skills" is both true and kinda meaningless :D Don't sell yourself short just because skills you already know and use seem easy to you.
The more you know how the Internet really works, the more you're amazed that it still works at all.
especially if your making an app. most of the time you wonder how its functioning
That I don't set or control the prices and I can't give random people discounts.
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.
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.
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)
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
Yes u can. I work at a quality inn. We don't take deposits. If u pay cash that's all u pay.
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.
Note: this post originally had 66 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
it is fine on my android, it may be because I use the online version though
Load More Replies...
Psychotherapist: If someone claims to have been told by their therapist to leave his/ her (non abusive or so) partner, chances are that in reality they just didn´t want to take the blame and went on and on at their therapist complaining about their relationship, while not giving valid reasons to continue (although repeatedly asked by the therapist), till the therapist said something along the line of: "Well if you really got all those reasons to end it and all the reason you find to continue is not wanting to hurt your partner [f..e.] ,then maybe you should end it - or what do you think? "
Psychologist: If you’re a college student and became convinced you have ADHD because you can no longer put off your work until the last minute, or you’re easily distracted, you likely don’t actually have ADHD. I’ve tested around 45 people for ADHD in the past few years and literally 3 actually met criteria for it. Most peoples’ attention issues are due to depression and anxiety.
When the order taker on drive thru says "One moment please" that does NOT mean start ordering
Just let me know when you’re ready. I’m trying to be respectful of your time so please be respectful of mine. I had a “one moment please” the other day and waited 5 minutes before I finally said “ready when you are” to which the immediately confirmed they had been waiting.
Load More Replies...
Please check your alarm systems keypad to see if there is a trouble on it BEFORE you call your alarm company and scream at them because your smoke detector is beeping. 7 out of 10 times the culprit is either a store bought battery operated smoke or a high voltage smoke that is tied to your homes electricity. Can we fix that? NO. We are low voltage. Thanks.
Another hotel one: NO we cannot just take a credit card over the phone. NO I don't care if your parents booked the reservation with their card, I have to have the card physically present, in front of me, and being swiped by the named owner, whom I have confirmed and identified with photo ID. That person not there? You are giving me YOUR card to charge. The only way around this is through a 3rd party, pre-paid booking systems, like Orbitz (which is a nightmare if you ever have to cancel), or with a credit card authorization on file, which is a bunch of paperwork. You'll probably need a fax machine to complete it, because this computer system is 20 years old. Of course, if you don't show, we will charge the no-show fee to the credit card on file without you there.
Please bring your insurance card and picture i.d. to your doctor visits. Every. time.
Universal Healthcare and Medicare-for-All aren’t the same thing. Universal Healthcare means everyone is covered by some type of coverage-whether it be private or govt. Medicare for all, means everyone has Medicare. You can argue for one or the other. I just wanted to point out that the concepts are not synonyms.
Content writer a s social media marketer for B2B. No I cannot provide you with solid stats on how my work has contributed to the bottom line of the company. Especially when you won't pay for ads
it is fine on my android, it may be because I use the online version though
Load More Replies... Psychotherapist: If someone claims to have been told by their therapist to leave his/ her (non abusive or so) partner, chances are that in reality they just didn´t want to take the blame and went on and on at their therapist complaining about their relationship, while not giving valid reasons to continue (although repeatedly asked by the therapist), till the therapist said something along the line of: "Well if you really got all those reasons to end it and all the reason you find to continue is not wanting to hurt your partner [f..e.] ,then maybe you should end it - or what do you think? "
Psychologist: If you’re a college student and became convinced you have ADHD because you can no longer put off your work until the last minute, or you’re easily distracted, you likely don’t actually have ADHD. I’ve tested around 45 people for ADHD in the past few years and literally 3 actually met criteria for it. Most peoples’ attention issues are due to depression and anxiety.
When the order taker on drive thru says "One moment please" that does NOT mean start ordering
Just let me know when you’re ready. I’m trying to be respectful of your time so please be respectful of mine. I had a “one moment please” the other day and waited 5 minutes before I finally said “ready when you are” to which the immediately confirmed they had been waiting.
Load More Replies... Please check your alarm systems keypad to see if there is a trouble on it BEFORE you call your alarm company and scream at them because your smoke detector is beeping. 7 out of 10 times the culprit is either a store bought battery operated smoke or a high voltage smoke that is tied to your homes electricity. Can we fix that? NO. We are low voltage. Thanks.
Another hotel one: NO we cannot just take a credit card over the phone. NO I don't care if your parents booked the reservation with their card, I have to have the card physically present, in front of me, and being swiped by the named owner, whom I have confirmed and identified with photo ID. That person not there? You are giving me YOUR card to charge. The only way around this is through a 3rd party, pre-paid booking systems, like Orbitz (which is a nightmare if you ever have to cancel), or with a credit card authorization on file, which is a bunch of paperwork. You'll probably need a fax machine to complete it, because this computer system is 20 years old. Of course, if you don't show, we will charge the no-show fee to the credit card on file without you there.
Please bring your insurance card and picture i.d. to your doctor visits. Every. time.
Universal Healthcare and Medicare-for-All aren’t the same thing. Universal Healthcare means everyone is covered by some type of coverage-whether it be private or govt. Medicare for all, means everyone has Medicare. You can argue for one or the other. I just wanted to point out that the concepts are not synonyms.
Content writer a s social media marketer for B2B. No I cannot provide you with solid stats on how my work has contributed to the bottom line of the company. Especially when you won't pay for ads
