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Each era has its own folklore and its own myths. In the old days, these were mighty heroes and terrible monsters, then noble knights and beautiful princesses, cowboys shooting without a single miss, and bulletproof superheroes. The contemporary world also has its own myths, and moreover, we face them literally every day.

Ask any software engineer you know how many times in their lives they have been asked to fix a desktop - simply because they are "programmers". Or how many times an accountant - even if they have never dealt with a tax report in their entire professional career - receives requests from acquaintances to sort out their taxes?

Myths, myths and more myths surround literally every profession, and we create these myths ourselves. Just from watching a couple of James Bond films, we are sure that spies spend their lives doing nothing but driving around in luxury cars wearing insanely expensive suits. Just from watching a couple of children's films, we will strongly believe that the workers at the animal shelter have the most wonderful job in the world, as they pet doggos and kitties all day long.

The list is literally endless, and a popular thread starter in the AskReddit community recently helped us by asking people the question: "What's your profession's myth that you regularly need to explain 'It doesn't work like that' to people?" In just a few days, the thread has racked up 2.5K upvotes and over 3.8K comments, bringing together an incredible collection of today's mythology.

To make it easier for you to figure out all this abundance, Bored Panda has made a list of the most popular comments of the original thread. So now feel free to read stories on debunking modern myths, scroll to the very end, and if you have your own professional experience that can also dispel some myth literally in the wind, please be sure to tell us about it in the comments.

More info: Reddit

#1

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Your terminally ill grandmother isn't "becoming addicted" to her pain medication. She's dying in as much comfort and with as much dignity as we can provide.

Aggressivecleaning , Rick Kimpel Report

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LH25
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep. MIL was on morphine pretty much on demand at the end of her life. Having an addiction was the least of our worries.

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#2

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Pet euthanasia. There is a wildly popular post that goes around about how pets dropped off for euthanasia “look around for their owners” and know they’ve been “abandoned”. It’s nonsense, and I will defend clients dropping off until I myself die.

I’ve seen what happens when owners can’t say goodbye so they don’t. The animal suffers for days to weeks until their bodies finally give out. I have literally seen a dog rotting from the inside out, SOMEHOW still alive, but the owner couldn’t commit to euthanasia so she didn’t and that dog suffered tremendously for it.

Everyone has boundaries to what they can handle. Requiring an otherwise loving, doting, and responsible owner to be present when it was all they could do to make the appointment doesn’t help pets the way you think it does.

Furthermore, in the nine years I’ve worked in this industry, I have *never* experienced what is described in that post. Ever. And my colleagues overwhelmingly agree. We love on them and hug them, and tell them they’re a good boy until they pass. **By the logic in that post, you should also never drop off for sedated or anesthetic procedures either because the process begins the same way (with sedation). How is that pet to know that death is imminent? They don’t.**

You’re projecting your emotions onto people who are already suffering, and you’re not helping pets by shaming owners, and my local, professional cohort overwhelmingly agrees.

Graceishh , christopher cornelius Report

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Deborah Harris
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Every time I take one of my dogs to the vets they hate it, the Vet always asks me or my partner to stay whilst they do whatever it is they are doing in order to calm the dog down and help her/him relax. There is no way on Gods sweet Earth would I leave my dogs alone whilst being euthanised, no matter how much it would kill me inside I will be there at the end giving them my love and comfort ..

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#3

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Weight loss surgery is NOT the easy way out. There is nothing easy about getting your stomach resized to hold a cup or less of food, it f***s up your metabolism, eating the wrong things can cause serious pain, and guess what you're on for the rest of your life? A restrictive diet. Because your stomach's tiny but you still need all the nutrients.

Weight loss medications are not the easy way out either. They don't work unless the patient does, and even then, sometimes it takes months to find the right combo of meds. And there's still nutrition and exercise requirements.

Basically, being obese is really hard, and getting to a point where one is no longer obese is also really hard, so when you see someone obese, assume that they're doing their best and could use some kindness.

insertcaffeine , Andres Ayrton Report

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Helen Waight
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, there is no ‘easy way out’ of being obese and for some of us it’s not possible at all (disabled, messed up metabolism due to ED and medications…). So don’t look at us and think ‘lazy’

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#4

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community No Ma'am, we aren't going to 'shock' (defibrillate) your family member because their heart isn't actually beating.

Defibrillators do not restart a heart, they reset a malfunctioning cardiac rhythm. If the heart isn't at least doing something then our options are CPR and meds until we get some kind of rhythm.

Sincerely,
Tired Medic

OTTB_Mama , Iain Cameron Report

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helen gray
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yup, the hearty-starty machine is actually a hearty-stoppy machine. A heart needs to have a shockable rhythm, that is it needs to be fibrillating (like quivering) in order to be de-fibrillated. To de-fibrillate means to stop its rhythm which usually, and certainly hopefully, prompts the heart to restart itself in a sinus rhythm.

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#5

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Antibiotics don't work on viral diseases.

The_Max_V , Bytemarks Report

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Lantana Howell
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What? You mean you need to let a virus run its course and treat the symptoms or take an anti-viral!?

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#6

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Child welfare investigator here

My job isn’t “hard” for the reasons most people think: constantly being exposed to and interviewing abused children

It’s hard because 90% of the time, it’s just disgruntled exes calling on each other over nothing..and dealing with grown adults’ drama is exhausting af.

KyleB2131 , Eren Li Report

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Amy Taylor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep!! My friend's ex husband called CPS on her and put her life into a tailspin. She did absolutely nothing wrong. The incident in question? Their daughter was angry her phone was taken away as punishment so she told her dad her mom threw the phone at her face. My daughter was there when it happened and said that it was an absolute lie. She felt really bad for not backing up her friend, but I told her the truth was more important. It cost my friend thousands of dollars to fight him in court.

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#7

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Just because I’m a psychologist doesn’t mean I’m immune to psychological disorders or distress.

0_0moon0_0 , cottonbro Report

#8

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community I'm a retired used bookstore owner. People were always saying "Oh, I would love to own a bookstore. You can read all day.". Um, no. It's actually a lot of hard, physical work, (boxes of books are heavy), lots of bending and reaching. And then you get to clean the store and do the paperwork. Owning any retail store is not an easy job!

lmcbmc , VasenkaPhotography Report

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Bernd Herbert
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sorry, but anyone who thought owning a book store would mean „reading all day“ is an idiot

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#9

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Retail. If an employee tells you they're sold out of that hot sale item. They're sold out. They're not hoarding them in the backroom, because f**k you. They know they're sold out, because you're the 10th person to ask about it, in the last 20 minutes.

RagingHolly , Clean Wal-Mart Report

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Linus G.
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But could you please check in the back? Where you have all the extra ones.

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#10

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Former pastry chef, and still work in a hotel. No I do not make amazing food at home. I barely survive on a diet of cereal, sandwiches and chocolate bars. Pot noodles if I’m feeling fancy.

Also most people in the industry are either junkies or alcoholics to cope with the brutal schedule. My extended family still can’t fathom me working the amount out of hours a week I work.

Also we do not enjoy weddings, they are fun to attend, but nothing but a headache to run.

Catherineb84 , laredawg Report

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Amy Taylor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The restaurant industry sounds a lot like the film industry, lol. People are in utter disbelief when I tell them that I work 18 hour days a lot, and that a 10 hour day is a "short" day in my industry.

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#11

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community When I was building decks I remember a lot of people asked for shorter railings because it'd look nicer. I totally agree, but if 42" is the minimum in this state we're gonna do 42"

LetzterMensch11 , ntm1909 Report

#12

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Although I'm a skilled teacher the students need to do the learning. I can't do it for them.

MrsMisthios , MART PRODUCTION Report

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jai putman
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm a language teacher, teaching English to kids and teenagers. As a native speaker it's astounding how much English grammar that I wasn't actually taught in school and I now have to learn myself as it was considered common knowledge in my native UK.

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#13

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community No doctor does all aspects of medicine and surgery.. it’s specialized and sub specialized. Obviously in more rural areas people do more, but for the most part, complex things get sent to very specialized folks and a doctor like House would never exist (and anyone who acted like him would be fired in about a week)

nematocyst987 , Anna Shvets Report

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#14

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Being a car machenic that specializes in a couple of cars. We dont know everything about how to fix the car out of our heads. we use youtube a lot to figure out stuf we dont know.

potato13254 , neajjean Report

#15

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community "I have this great idea for a book. You write it, and we'll split the profits."


Nope.

weird-oh , Sergey Torbik Report

#16

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community That vet techs get to play with puppies and kittens all day. It’s a physically and mentally exhausting job.

Constant_Problem9387 , p.nguyen Report

#17

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Wearing glasses doesn't make your eyes worse. There are so many misconceptions and so much false reasoning that goes into that one belief that I don't even know where to start. But I'll try anyway I guess.

1) "I noticed my eyes got blurry only after wearing glasses!" That is because your eyes have adjusted to seeing things with more clarity. So of course you're now going to notice when you're missing that clarity whether it be because you took off your glasses or your prescription has changed.
2) "Wearing glasses cause eye strain!" No it doesn't. Your usual eye strain is from working long hours or staring at screens. But you're only noticing it now because the adjustment period when getting glasses for the first time or when getting a new prescription does increase eye strain until you adjust.
3) "I used to never need glasses but now I need new ones every two years! My eyes are getting worse because of glasses!" Refer back to 1. But also you didn't need glasses previously because your eyesight wasn't s**tty enough for you to notice yet or be really othered by it yet. That doesn't mean you didn't actually need them. Your eyesight was probably changing every year even while you didn't notice. Now that you are used to seeing with clarity, you'll notice when things aren't clear and crisp anymore.

I have dealt with many adults who insist they don't need glasses, either distance or reading or both, because they just don't want to concede that their vision isn't great anymore. These are adults with nearsightedness, astigmatism, and sometimes who even need reading correction. And they can't see s**t. Like why are you so stubborn.

kirabera , Lisa Fotios Report

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#18

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community I work in childcare and no, I don’t just get to play all day and have fun. I have to deal with behavioral issues, developmental delays, diapers, injuries, curriculum, art projects, huge messes during mealtime, working with one other person to put 12+ toddlers down for nap, etc. Of course it’s fun at times but dealing with all of that is so stressful.

cocoavendorbecky , TeaMeister Report

#19

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community The "defense attorney" aspect of law

It's not your job to lie, deceive, and cheat to get your client acquitted. You give them the best legal defense so that they receive the due process that everyone has a right to.

*"The job of the defense is to make sure the prosecution does theirs."*

If your client is guilty, then the prosecution should be able to prove it fair and square. If they can't then the quality of evidence does not meet the minimum standard and your client should go free. Full stop.

Does that mean the occasional guilty person gets away with it? Yeah. But far worse is a system where innocent people are more likely to go to jail because a s**tty prosecutor's weak arguments were accepted.

A good defense attorney would recognize a losing case and just try to get the best deal for their client, and getting the weaker charges dropped (in case the prosecutor just decides to "throw the book" at them)

NoStressAccount , Sadmir Kanovicki Report

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Strings
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Better 100 guilty men go free, than 1 innocent man go to prison"

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Daniel Milam
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've always thought that if the defense attorney does his job - challenges the evidence, exposes potential conflicts of interest, demands to know the hows and whys of every witness' testimony - then it would actually help eliminate the "shadow of a doubt" contingency.

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Rodney Bowie
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just imagine being on the receiving end of a false accusation. Want to go jail cuz your ex made up a story about you?

jenniferdmann avatar
Alecto76
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In law school (US) we were taught a criminal defense attorney is really defending the constitution, not the defendant.

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Alana Voeks
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, but this idealism is not the norm, and never has been. The "justice" system over here in the us has always been about punishment. So say "innocent until proven guilty" all you want, people have been convicted on b******t evidence way too often for me to have faith in this system.

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David Zumwalt
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This needs to be higher. "Feelings" should never send someone to prison.

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Michelle C
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly. Ideally, the guilty would be punished in ways befitting their crimes and the innocent would go free as well, but no justice system is perfect, sadly,

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arienne libbrecht
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's why super high profile cases (Golden State for example) take so long to go to trial. They want to make sure they get it right the first time with no mistakes.

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Clare Urbanski
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This PSA was brought to you by Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth

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similarly
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My two cents as a non-attorney. If you know your client is guilty, the client admits it to you, and the client is willing to admit it in court, the Defense's job is to make sure the punishment is fair. If the client is adamant that they are innocent, even with their attorney, no matter what the evidence seems to show, they deserve an attorney who will believe them, and will do everything legally in their power to see them go free. If they client admits to the attorney they are guilty, but wants to plead innocent ... that's a tough one. I'd advice my client to lie to the next attorney and ask to be excused, but I'm not sure that's allowed.

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Vix Spiderthrust
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's exactly right. In the UK at least, one cannot act in defence of a client who has admitted to you they are guilty but wants to plead innocent. You have to drop the case and let them go to the next lawyer in line.

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Dim T
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or in other words, the defense attorneys make sure the threshold of evidence for the state meting violence upon you is high. You know, as it should be A country that has a low threshold for that or with a weak defense attorney and public defendant system ends up with innocents going to prison without even going to trial. Aka the us with its staggering prison population and massive number of plea deals

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The Fan Of Nothing
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fun fact: If you execute an innocent person, the guilty person is still free. Obviously. And there is no less criminals. So best to just let the guilty people go free instead of having that one person imprisoned and or killed for nothing.

colintimp avatar
Colin Timp
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We need Federal laws to ensure justice for those wrongfully convicted. It's truly disgusting. Innocent people rotting in prison for decades; and often their compensation is severely limited, or they're forced to give up any chance of getting compensation to get released. Even in the case of prosecutorial misconduct, the officers and prosecutors rarely (if ever) face any consequences whatsoever. Often they are already retired or passed away. In some cases, they're even allowed to quietly retire with a nice pension despite the damage they've caused.

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Randy Klefbeck
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Our judicial system is very adversarial and is wrought with politics. There is no penalty for prosecutors failing to present evidence, and justice is not about the truth, but just what people can get away with or prove. Speedy trial does not necessarily mean a fair trial. Judges are appointed or elected and with that fact, comes the fact of political prejudice. Juries are not paid sufficiently for their part in the case, thus they cannot necessarily be a group of peers as some may not be able to participate due to loss of wages. Wealth brings with it the entitlement of having the best, and politically connected attorneys. Poverty, brings with it, the opposite.

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AmandaKay
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah. Agree. But we do need to accept George Zimmerman & Kyle Rittenhouse are still celebrity murderers. They are free to murder again because sometimes the system fails.

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Dorey Bell
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Both sides are officers of the court, so lying is unethical and can lead to sanctions and/or disbarment

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The Starsong Princess
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My defence attorney BIL dealt with probably around a thousand clients over his long career. He says most of them were just damaged people and made bad decisions. He says he maybe dealt with three people over the course of his career that he considered truly evil.

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Mary Wiseman
Community Member
1 year ago

This comment has been deleted.

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Hugh Willie Mungous
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At least we have Russia to admire as a paragon of justice . . . . . I mean to say - nobody in Russia ever gets wrongly convicted and no judge is ever leaned on,surely?!? Faults are many in the English/American/European systems but we should nevertheless be grateful that despite their flaws the courts generally operate in a fair and democratic (small D) way and judges are, almost completely, incorruptible. The main reason for that, I think, is separation of the state from the judiciary.

god_2 avatar
Vix Spiderthrust
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Welllll...in the UK, the state and the judiciary aren't entirely separate (if by "state" you mean the legislative branch - obviously the judiciary is part of the state). The highest-ranking judges, known collectively as the Law Lords, also sit in the House of Lords, which is the higher of the two Houses of Parliament. But they aren't part of the government.

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Jods
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So why do so many defence solicitors push to the fore that their client had a very difficult upbringing as an excuse for their mistakes? Or is this just a UK thing?

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Vira
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Plea types which use abuse backstories, or illness, etc, still have to be proven. The point is to differentiate how responsible is the accused, to give appropriate punishment. Basically, is there any diminished responsibly (for example, most people would agree a successful self defense argument should mean a lesser sentence, or even zero guilt.)

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Holly Gennaro
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So many people here are chanting, "Yes! Let 1000 guilty go free, lest one innocent be condemned!" Tell me, have any of you spoken to a family who have lost a loved one due to a career criminal who was "set free?" Do any of you live in NYC, Chicago or Los Angeles? Those three cities have the "turn them loose" law. Assault with a deadly weapon? Psshaw! Let 'em go. Armed robbery? That's nothing! Let 'em go! Second degree murder? Ahh, small potatoes! Turn 'em loose." So if your daughter is carjacked and then a victim of second-degree murder, from a guy with a three-page list of "being a bad boy and not making good decisions," you're okay with it? He's been set free because everyone knew he was guilty, but, like Casey Anthony, one juror refused to believe it and went in there already with their mind made up that this guy was innocent, so he was set free and your daughter's path and his crossed. He was free before the trial and was free AFTER the trial, and then found your daughter.

god_2 avatar
Vix Spiderthrust
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How does locking innocent people up protect anyone's daughters? You can argue for a totalitarian state all you like, but you're still just wasting resources locking up people who've done nothing wrong. And if people go free even though "everyone knew he did it", that's on the prosecution for failing to prove their case. Throwing innocents in jail isn't the answer to that.

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#20

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Computer animation doesn’t mean the computer does the animation…I do.

CheeseburgerBrown , Vancouver Film School Report

#21

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community There are no skeleton keys. There is no "one key that fits all locks". There are master keys that have been painstakingly installed into a buildings locks, some of which might fit all the locks depending on that particular keys chosen mastering levels, but no. There is no skeleton key. I, a locksmith, use special tools to open locks. I have a big bag of them. Tools like picks, jiggle keys, bump keys 2in1 Lishi keys, and many more. Yes, I got into your house fast. That's because I know how your lock works and know how to defeat it. No I did not turn up with a working key (disclaimer: sometimes I do as I have codes recorded for places I've worked on and I can get codes from car dealers so I can make a key before I turn up.)

PapaOoMaoMao , plenty.r. Report

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Devil's Advocate
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The phrase "skeleton key" comes from the time when locks were all very basic and had "wards" that would physically stop the wrong key from turning. A "skeleton key" was therefore the "bare bones" necessary to slide the lock pin, while missing all variations of wards *for that particular size lock" so even then it was never meant to fit *all* locks.

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#22

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Something being 'off the record'.

If you're speaking to a journalist, you can't just say 'off the record' and then spill your guts. You need to have agreed with the journalist beforehand that you will not be quoted.

Yossarian__ , CoWomen Report

#23

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community University prof. I do not get summers off.

Teaching in front of classes is only about 30% of my job. The rest is one-on-one supervision of graduate students. Doing research, writing grant applications, writing research papers. Summer is the time of year when I finally have the time to do all that other stuff.

bigbrowbeater , eren {sea+prairie} Report

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Chich
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Worked in wildland fire and got "what do you guys do in winter, theres no fires. Must be nice sitting around all day". In the fire season I had a seasonal staff of 70+ and in the off season there were three of us. Lots of wrapping up the last season and getting ready for the next (reports, equipment restocking, invoice processing, hiring, giving/taking training, contract prep, etc). Although some would take a week or two off in summer, especially if they had kids and were able to, we also took our annual leave during the winter. I rarely had a "summer".

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#24

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Tax professional.

Most clients think that the best tax Pros necessarily get them bigger refunds. If you get a smaller refund in a particular year it may be because tax laws change, because you didn't pay in as much, or because you didn't have as many deductions. Explaining stuff to people doesn't work if their eyes are all glazed over because tax law discussions bore them

Going to another tax Pro to get a bigger refund, thinking that that tax Pro is "better" may just get you an audit

But the worst myth about taxes manifest itself when scammers call people on the phone climbing to be IRS agents. They tell folks that they owe money and that authorities are coming to their house to put them in jail if they don't pay up. The truth is that the real IRS does not call anyone on the phone unless they have contacted IRS first and are expecting them to return the call. IRS does not accuse you of text fraud. Even if they truly believe you have committed tax fraud they will simply send you a letter stating that they think you have underpaid your taxes. They will give you a chance to prove your case. If you don't do this or pay them what they say you owe, they will simply Levy your paycheck or your personal property. They do not show up at your house to put you in jail. So please if a scammer calls you do not give them your credit card information or give them payments in any form. Call the real IRS and report them.

Bebe_Bleau , Keith Cooper Report

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kellyhoward_1 avatar
Kel_how
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can someone explain to me why I need to file my own taxes as opposed to just receiving a check or bill/statement straight from the IRS? Legitimate question.

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#25

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community That converting to salt water pools does not ‘get rid of the chlorine’. Salt is sodium chloride, salt gets converted to chlorine in a salt water pool, and you use the exact same test kits to monitor the chlorine levels in the pool water.

Malka8 , Aaron Toth Report

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willcancel avatar
Will Cancel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But at a MUCH lower rate, and yes the water is salted, small electrode blades convert a small amount of salt into chlorine.

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#26

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Just because your old technical device (laptop, tablet, phone) is in good condition, doesn't actually mean that it's any "good" today.

wildfire98 , Alan Levine Report

#27

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community I work in a hardware store and apparently people think we have a huge underground storage big enough to hide every product in existence. No, i can't just go and fetch a part for your 20 year old fireplace or power tool from the backroom.

Mjarf88 , L.C. Nøttaasen Report

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#28

I work in a bakery.


Baking stuff for 5000 people every day will take all night to do so when we run out of something during the day. We can't just slap something together in five minutes.


Come back tomorrow and we can get it for you.

AlleywayGum Report

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lsaizul avatar
Lsai Aeon
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

or call 24 hours (or more) in advance and make a special order for the thing you want

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#29

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community If something isn't stocked on the shelf and I tell you it isn't in the back then it isn't in the back and I can't magically make it appear out of thin air... that being said if you are a d**k I also might just tell you it ain't in the back

m_g2468 , David Stewart Report

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jyaskowich avatar
John Yaskowich
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Shoe stores are the exception - very few can have all sizes and all styles out front. Asking them to check / get your size from the back is valid.

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#30

30 Of The Most Entertaining 'It Doesn't Work Like That' Stories, Told By Professionals In This Online Community Factory worker here.. Once a machine is set up, it can run all day, perfectly, without adjustment. Nope. Steel can vary in hardness, even within a continuous coil of wire. Humidity, ambient temperature, tooling wear can also spoil parts.

fafaxsake , Ekkasit Chaingam Report

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David Zumwalt
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Machinist here. Everyone thinks I just push the green button and magic happens. Sorry, I have to do hours of programming, cutter specific geometry, and lits of a*****e puckering to make your part.

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