Secrets of your trade.

Pharmacy here.
Handing you a prescription is not black and white, you request it, prescription team write it, doctor signs it, it gets sent to us, we send it to a robot to dispense (selective about who's we send) and then we finally have it for you to give out. If you order your medication the day before don't come in shouting at us the next day because you've run out. Well do our absolute best to get that script but it's a lot of hassle, if you're nice we'll track it down which involves a lot of phonecalls!
Medication going out of stock is a nightmare for us too, if the manufacturer has stopped making it, I can't produce it out of thin air. Behind the scenes were ringing your doctor to find an alternative item!
If you're desperate well do an emergency prescription. If you're nice to us.
We know more about you by the medication you take than you think. We know when you're painkiller addicts and we try to put in interventions to keep you safe but usually the doctor will just keep prescribing it.
If we make an error (rarely) we think about it for days and have to report it to 500 people.
We don't just make your prescription, there's loads of paperwork we are trying to do inbetween and we don't have enough hours to do this. Understaffed and underpaid springs to mind.

@IfOnlyOurEyesSawSouls have you read all of my posts on this thread or just the one? I’ve given more detail which explains the context of my experiences - some, not all, people ‘fake’ MH issues, or have MH diagnosed with little support beyond medication.

I’m not saying what you’ve implied regarding “sticking plasters”, you’ve taken that out of context.

Placemarking

From working alongside police officers frequently i know that ours carry very snuggly brand new trauma teddy bears in the back of their cars ... these are given to children in situations where the police turn up at their home for a distressing incident, eg domestic violence, to arrest a parent etc etc.

@SnugglySnerd i am a mental health nurse of 20 years - your understanding of mental health issues is really poor.

Medication is certainly not a sticking "plaster" ... many mh illnesses are related to brain biochemistry, medication can be crucial in rectifying this .

The paying in advance tipping? Well that just smacks of plain ol'fashioned bribery and corruption! Yep but it works!! :o

As for "take one for yourself", I would say be selective where you do it. We have a thing at my pub where we all have a pint if offered a drink. It was never formally agreed its just something we all do. Or if you prefer you can take the cash equivalent. And the customers know that, they know us, everyone gets it, no one takes the piss. But I know someone who thinks its fine in her pub to take a £7 G&T because "they offered". Oddly enough, she nevers gets offered a drink anymore and she cant work out why, despite her "take one" costing twice what the customer paid for their own drink!

In my places the tips have always been pooled at the end of the night with all staff except management taking an equal share, including all the kitchen staff. Although I cant remember a chef ever taking their share, they usually give it to the pot washer, as they are usually a 16/17 year old working for the minimum of the minimum wage. That said, these are pub grub places where tips are thin on the ground, you might make a tenner on a really good night. Maybe if there were hundreds being tipped a week it would be different!

Loved this thread!

Does it? It was always all above board, and always the customer's idea, it was never suggested, requested or god forbid demanded/threatened as bribery and corruption would suggest. I suppose it is a lot like bribery, but tipping at the end is more so if you think about it. What can I say? It works.

Yes, agree about the shit tipping system,don't put it in a jar for all, or on a card, your waiter won't see it. The only way you can guarantee they get it is by giving it to them. Frankly it's gross that it's added to bills automatically.

The paying in advance tipping? Well that just smacks of plain ol'fashioned bribery and corruption!

Kitchen staff have got half the tips almost everywhere I've worked, so it is with asking. And definitely do ask who gets the tip, sometimes staff don't see it at all, especially common on the % gratuities bills and on card payments.

Wow I've never worked a bar where pints are topped up/drips used (15years now)! Never seen dropped food put back on a plate either!
If you're terribly rude (clicking fingers, saying "I've been here 20mins" not you haven't we aren't blind ) will either get you to the back of the queue or your cocktail may taste a little less like alcohol than usual though.
If you're going to tip, Please don't say "take one yourself" that could mean anything from 20p to an actual drink, either keep the change or give your server a physical tip. If tipping a waitress at the end of a.party, check where your tip is going, managed bars the manager often takes a share --even if they've been hiding in the office for 4hours and are on 5x more money). If you want to tip the chef/kitchen, ask to see them, if it's for your wait staff, tell them that. Kitchen staff dont get a tip, or rarely do (DH is a head chef, the foh staff will boast about tips while he pays for a drink for his team/ puts a £5 in the kitchen kitty, for birthdays/staff drinks/had a shit day need a pint).

And just seen the reference to Refusal Shoes. It definitely was a thing - tassels on shoes mainly where I worked were seen a possible sign of a refusal of entry.

This is a really interesting thread.

I can't give out the really interesting secrets as I need to keep my job, but if you're a civil servant supporting your minister in the box (to the left of the speaker's chair on parliament TV) and they call a division, you get locked in so you can't run through a lobby and vote.

Sometimes the vote by goes on for 45 mins - so you need to go to the toilet beforehand!

We call the gentlemen ushers 'the penguins' but never to their faces!

Wouldn't RSPCA fine them or something for this or at least charge them?

@origamiunicorn ha ha! Maybe if they said thanks they meant it. Maybe they didn't. But most will prefer to at least be able to put the tray down properly first 😁 some of them will be holding their breath all the way to the table in an attempt not to spill it

I work in healthcare. We say we’re going for Mrs Brown when we’re going for a tea break.

A surprising amount of rehoming/re-purposing of animals is done in racing. The tales I could tell of horses whose top bosses had ordered to be put to sleep, but who were found suitable homes on the quiet, or who lived their lives out as "we just need this one for the summer before we pts because such and such is really bonded to him... oh he's a great nanny for X foal... nooo that's not him in the red rug, that rug means it's clearly X horse" and/or, hiding them in the back paddock for years sometimes!

Vets end up with animal themselves. Mine has the most fugly not-his-type-at-all little thing because he was brought in to be put to sleep when there was nothing wrong with him, owners just couldn't be bothered any more Vet said "I'll put him out back and do him later" and that was how Rupert got a second chance at life 😁 SO many vets and vet nurses end up with animal from work that way.

A 'my dad' secret of trade now...
There is a hill nearby. It is hollowed out and used to store the kind of weapons that are used in underwater vehicles. Some nuclear. It is guarded by a security guard who is not armed in any way. The belief being that anyone with the capability to use such a weapon won't be interested in stealing one, they'll be making their own weapons.

Everyone local knows about this 'secret weapons storage' . It's so obvious. Two fields of sheep are separated by a LOT of razor wire...

@ChanklyBore - to respond to your question about named midwives etc, in both of my pregnancies I had a "named midwife" noted on my official notes!

Just to add on that interesting rabbit factoid, lots of animals can't vomit! Horses can't, for example.

Continental shelves are the area of the continents land mass that's submerged in shallow waters, on an island its an insular shelf, geographical terms.

So the UN 'sell' earth resources! I've always found the concept of owning bits of a land mass weird, or bits of anything on earth, or planets for that matters. I think the whole establishing the rights to own is all a bit odd. I totally get the selling of water that you've treated, but selling/owning naturally occurring water; they'll be selling air next! I mean the gas (not the area of space, although that's weird too!)

And Full Metal Cardigan by David Emery for an insider view of social work!

I recommend the books/audiobooks "The Secret Barrister" and "This is Going to Hurt" for an insiders experience of the criminal legal system and being a junior doctor. I really enjoyed those two.

Why do judges have to complete advanced driving courses?

Perhaps for personal safety and security reason.

Smotheroffive states can apply to a UN commission to claim seabed zones that are a natural prolongation of their continental shelves. Once owned, they can then drill for oil and so on.

The sea above remains international waters.

Why do judges have to complete advanced driving courses?

Would love to see more from vets, mine are just wonderful but always so busy I’d never get to find out such interesting information.

Narcissistmum each coastal state will own a distance out into the sea from its coast, these are referred to as continental shelves. Each state’s distance varies as they can apply to extend/reduce it.

Also, we own the land beneath and airspace above the homes we buy (to an extent, of course).

Here’s my very pointless input:

Rabbits can’t vomit.

Spaniel feet smell of popcorn

Barristers in their first year can be paid as much as £12k. This is set to rise to just under £15k in September.

Some junior criminal barristers can come away having spent more than they’ve earned that day due to the amount of travel and rate of pay.

Some pubs I’ve worked in will tell you reuse pints/halves. So say you pulled a pint of fosters at 1pm but the customer wanted carling or whatever, it would then sit there and be ‘topped’ up when the next customer ordered a fosters - this could be 10 hours later.