Secrets of your trade.

@Allergictoironing yes he bought extra years few years ago. He's Grade 7 so he's not exactly going to be an exec director! But with level of security clearance he has contracting would be an easy option for him

Advertising here.

We're not allowed to lie. Adverts will never lie to you. Manipulate, present the facts in the best light, gloss over the downsides - never lie. If you see a product claim, it is based on truth.

Little Chef sausages cost less than 1p per unit.

Iceland are greenwashing charlatans - and on the same note, approach any 'This ad was banned...' with extreme caution. Ads costs hundreds of thousands to make, even cheap ones, and the media has to be booked ages in advance. They don't get banned unless you want them to get banned.

@buzzbobbly 2mb lines are still a thing for financials. Most of the worlds economy and everyone's payments and direct debits are still moving round the world on lines with way less capacity than your home broadband

Well said woby

If you cut yourself while chopping garlic it will always have a scar as it doesn't heal properly.
The fanciest hotels do the grimiest things to complainers food...

"The millennium bug was overhyped"

Maybe but it was real and still needed action but that doesn't make it scaremongering. There are numerous stories about actual issues including some horrid outcomes around people wrongly being advised about their chances of carrying a downs baby due to age calculations being incorrect that resulted in terminations and misdiagnosis of actual people carrying children with downs, amongst various other issues. If nothing had been done the millennium bug would have had an impact without doubt, due diligence shouldn't be mocked

I've loved this thread but must go to bed now, but I've remembered a biggie I need to share first.

I've worked in online training for years, and back in the midst of the PPI scandal we had to design a training programme for the department of one of the UK's big banks that was dealing with the thousands of mis-sold PPI claims.

It was basically a questionnaire to ascertain how 'influential' a claimant might be, rather than how deserving. So middle class, educated people with well paying jobs and many followers on Facebook etc got paid back in full, while the poor, uneducated and more socially isolated ones, who needed the money most, were refused, as the bank figured there'd be little comeback from them. I was shocked.

This is so interesting and heartwarming to read, even though I cry everytime I click back onto it - especially the posts from you amazing vets and nurses! Thanks for starting this thread OP :)

Care worker, both in care homes and in their own homes.

The carer who is giving out medications, dressing cuts and generally carrying for the elderly is on little more than minimum wage.

In care homes, the death part had been covered by others upthread.
Residents without families and regular visitors have the worst rooms, no ensuite, no view, tiny room for the same fees as the better rooms because nobody complains on their behalf. Staff try, but get ignored.

Home care, Carers won't be staying the full time at all calls, they can't. I was allowed 5 minutes to travel 8 miles. It's not possible. I used to start earlier and finish later than my rota said.

With both, the families who were persistent either with visits or phone calls were the ones with the best quality care. I know everyone should have top quality care all the time, but with limited staff it just isn't possible.

@Liketoshop
We still make big pots of tea and all have a cuppa together when we can..... staple nightshift behaviour 😊

I'm a midwife and some years ago with a different generation of midwives, someone would make a pot of tea on night duty and, we'd get together for a cuppa. To relieve a midwife, someone would pop their head round the door of a room to inform the midwife that "Mrs Brown was fully". Meaning there's a cup of tea waiting. Teamwork.....

I'm a bit gutted my lovely cake has been binned by school though. Is there anyone on here from a school who would eat scones sent in when jam and cream as end of term treat for teaching staff or cupcakes I spent ages on?! Head actually stopped me and asked for recipe of a tray bake I made - I’m now gutted but impressed at her acting skills! What a waste of cash!!

I used to bake a lot and often used to drop cakes into my DD's school. They certainly were all eaten. But it was a tiny village school and we all knew each other well.
Coming from a town, I have found people far more relaxed in the country about eating home made food. It is absolutely relished.

Lecturer who runs two degree programmes: contra to pps, it is perfectly possible to fail your degree - a small minority of our students do it with monotonous regularity! Yes, even at our relatively low-ranked post-92 institution. I apply exactly the same marking criteria here as I did in my former RG institutions, we do not 'up' our marks, let alone by whole degree classifications!

Also, despite running two degree programmes I don't get to see undergraduate applications unless they are 'non-standard' (e.g. from mature students). Admissions are handled by a separate,, central team who rarely deign to talk to us mere academics. I understand they really don't much care what you put in your UCAS statement, sorry.

Please don't ring me in fresher's week because darling Freddy hasn't called in 48hrs. But please DO ring me if Freddy has genuine issues and you have reason to be concerned. I won't even be able to admit Freddy is one of my students and certainly won't be able to give you any info (GDPR) but I can listen and I WILL follow up on genuine concerns and make sure Freddy is just hungover.

Also yes, we have students we like more than others but we would never let that sway academic judgement and mainly it's not the high-flying 'was always going to ace a first' types, it's the ones who flog their guts out and seize every opportunity they get (often despite truly awful backstories) and do much better than they dared hope (whether that's a first or a third).

Most contentious of all: most of us actually quite like teaching and don't resent time spent other than on research, despite all rumours to the contrary. And most of us actually quite like our students!

• Footballers with niggling injuries (muscle strains, chronic knee discomfort etc) are regularly given painkilling injections and forced to play despite the fact that it will cause more long-term damage

• A professional footballer’s contract will be invalidated if he is found to have partaken in any high-risk activities such as skiing, skydiving, bungee jumping etc whilst under contract

• Footballers are often criticised for their boring and repetitive statements when interviewed, but they are very restricted by their clubs on what they can actually say, and anyone who goes off script in interview will be fined and disciplined

I spent a year working in admin in an NHS X/Ray department.

One day they had a brand new x-ray machine delivered at huge cost. When I asked how they'd get rid of their 15 year old previous one, they said that all large, old equipment is sold to private hospitals, across the board.

I've never trusted private healthcare since...

I have had a few random jobs..

In the emergency services the royal family are all named after a bridge. If one dies, a call will be placed stating ‘X bridge has fallen down’ (London Bridge, Windsor bridge..)

Completely agree with the DNAR posts. These are so important - having to try and persuade family members to do CPR on a loved one who was ready to die is grim and ambulance staff are supposed to continue with CPR until a DNAR is seen.

Airline - sometimes if your food options ‘run out’ it may be that the crew have saved it for themselves. 90% of the time it’s not, but when you’re doing an 11 hour flight at Christmas and all that’s loaded for you is a very small, old soggy sandwich..

Pilots sometimes fall asleep.. the plane is on auto most of the time so nothing will happen. It is someone’s job to check in with them every 30 minutes to ‘check everything’s okay’ check they’re not asleep

If we think someone’s attractive sometimes we’ll ding their call bell as a sort of game to highlight it to other crew.

If you’re nice to the crew, you will get treated better. We can go really out of our way if we want to. The job is harder than it looks.

Sure there’s lots more but those came to mind..

Also
Police now, and deal with sudden deaths. (A lot)
Must say that in same vein - I talk to the deceased and apologise that I need to remove jewellery etc for the coroner. I always tak to them as I put on their name tags etc. Feels right somehow. People rarely expect police to rock up to their loved one dying so I always explain why I'm there and treat their loved one with the greatest respect and dignity whilst doing my job

Adult care social worker...we don't have directives to knock back referrals. But they do have to get through the call handler type system first. Anyone can ask for an assessment..but for support you have to be found to have eligible needs under The Care Act.
I can't think of any tricks of the trade, maybe that I can't recommend you a good care home or care agency as they're all private now so I'm not allowed to show a preference...but I will give you a big hint re ones I think are bad etc

Well I don't work in CAMHS and I have! Lots in fact, from kids!
Caveat, some.amazing stepDPs out there.

I also read on here last year that a Lancôme employee (who must have been leaving her job)
told a poster that they only produce one mascara formulation, but just package and market various versions of it, all claiming to do different things!

I work in CAMHS and I realised a while ago that despite their bad reputation, I have never yet heard a bad thing said by a young person about a step-mother. In fact many of them are selflessly caring for the whole family to their own detriment.

@olderthanyouthink I ended up fitting because an A&E doctor was making a real bodge of taking blood when I was neutropenic. He tried all the usual spots several times and I was already stressed out. Then he went for the front of my forearm and the pain was incredible. I just passed out and apparently was convulsing and frothing.

I came to after DH basically ordered him out and asked for someone who knew what they were doing. I only go to the walk in now, even if it means turning up at 07.45 as they are so gentle and quick.

Most people don't know how few police are available these days. I had a major stabbing, 3 vehicle rtc and several other incidents I was trying to resource at the same time and we just don't have enough. Sometimes it might be days before they can get out to see you, if it's not a major incident. Talking heads all muttering on tv about increase in knife and gun crime, and they don't know why. It's not rocket science: there aren't enough resources out there to cope because of the slashed budgets.

@Hepzibar don't understand the question

Years ago, on holiday in Barcelona, the friend I was with had a holiday fling with a Spanish air traffic controller.

He told us that he and all his colleagues smoked marijuana heavily at work to calm their nerves, as the environment was so stressful.

I was terrified getting on the plane home...

I used to work for a company that distributed tinned foods, dried pastas etc .....
There was always surplus stock around ... so if an order fell short or a pallet was damaged .... labels could be changed for wherever the stock was needed .......so if you think Waitrose own brand beans are tastier than Tesco value ...... it’ll just be the label making you think they taste different 😉 ...... and those date stamps ....... they can be changed too 😳 ..... I keep very few tinned foods in my cupboard 🤢