What does your job make you notice?

[alligatorsmile]

I work in advertising so I always notice bad fonts, dodgy claims, poor punctuation, use of stock photos and all sorts of things that leave me steaming with annoyance while normal people all around seem to be able to walk past a crap sign without wincing.

Does your job make you notice things the normals don't see?

Oooo mine’s a bit niche...

My hobby is watercolours, but specifically the origins of the pigments used (to make the paints), and the qualities of those pigments when they hit the paper. I know, weird.

So I can tell you 85% of the pigments used in any given watercolour painting, I can identify which are fugitive (the colour will change or fade with time), which pigments are no longer available for sale. I can probably pick which brand of paint was used in about half the paintings (out of about 5 professional brands).

Even my 8yo refers to some colours in her world by their proper pigment code, or specific commercial name. ‘Look mummy, that bird has Perylene Maroon on its wings. Is that PR179 or 178?’

That’s no humble-brag, by the way. I’m slightly afraid the world will judge us both absolute loons. Like the rest of our family does already!

Badly trained dogs, nervous, clueless owners who are screwing up their dogs without even realising it. I don't do that job anymore but I used to get quite angry and depressed at the amount of problematic dogs I met who had been made that way by their owner.

How vastly widespread drugs are.

I’m a cleaner. You would not believe how disgusting female toilets are. Much worse than male toilets. The amount of people who poo on the floor, sanitary products ( used ) left on the floor or stuck to the walls, food in the toilets ( that’s the one I hate the most!)

@Skittlesandbeer it's not just Italian menus in English speaking countries, quite often English menus are littered with mistakes too nobody checks, and even the printers don't notice / don't say.

YY to limping dogs, I notice that a lot. I always want to rush up to them and ask if they've heard of canine osteoarthritis and how common it is and that it can be treated but it's expensive but not treating is really expensive.

Ex-waitress. Badly-frothed milk. I normally just have black coffee now as it's such a crapshoot out there. I get the urge to go behind the counter and do it myself

Now work in subtitling, and 90% of the time have the subs on when I watch TV, just out of interest, so I notice mistakes - things I'd have done differently, punctuation errors, messy-looking line breaks, important or significant stuff left out for timing reasons where I'd have looked for a workaround.

Mistranslations. Even if I don't have the original text, I can spot 'em.

Poor quality frozen or microwaved food served as 'homemade' in restaurants
Dirty kitchens, food serveries and bar areas
Children's menus all comprising of 'something' and chips

I am in high end commercial and residential construction.
I can spot shoddy workmanship and cost cutting with ease.

Nitpickpicnic - I love that. A total niche skill.

Sal1977 - I’m a little relieved to be in the 5%

I agree not. If people haven’t got theirs wills or LPAs done I judge. Leaving behind confusion as well as grief for your family.

That the immigration system for the UK is totally and utterly appallingly messed up. To the detriment of British people and the people coming here for a better life.

This is a great thread.

@CharDeeMacDennis I'm fascinated by subtitling and you've just put a big smile on my face! My interest is through ASC rather than hearing loss and I'm utterly dismayed at some of the very poor work out there.

Don't go near Now TV, some of the series have ST running 8 minutes behind the scenes! I've raised it via customer email and the forums but no one cares.

Is it work that can be done remotely? How did you find the job?

To clarify-I'm dismayed because how anyone with hearing loss is meant to make sense from the very poor subtitles is beyond me.

Sorry for hijacking OP.

That the NHS needs to go and be replaced by a better system of healthcare (a small in other European countries not the US model)

That cannabis damages more young peoples lives that I could have ever imagined it’s frightening how many young people are having long term serious mh issues form cannabis induced psychosis

I'm fascinated by subtitling and you've just put a big smile on my face! My interest is through ASC rather than hearing loss and I'm utterly dismayed at some of the very poor work out there.

I'm glad! Yes - the last series of Veep was especially badly done.

Yes, I work remotely, and found the job through Mumsnet, actually!

I have the subtitles on a lot and sometimes they are awful. Sometimes they miss out an important NOT or NO or something, and give completely the opposite meaning to what's been said. Must confuse the hearing impaired something chronic.

I also worked in a kitchen years ago and did the basic hygiene certificate. It now drives me mad to see bloody TV chefs with long hair dangling down in their effing vongole, PUT A HAT ON OR TIE IT BACK YOU FILTH MONKEY.

I used to teach.

I notice bad or ineffective parenting and it makes me cringe and feel sad for so many children. It’s also made me hypersensitive and a bit anxious actually, about my in laws’ influence as they really fucked up with DP and we’re all paying the price.

Also, how many children don’t know how to play anymore. My last post was as a nursery teacher and I’d say well over half my class had to be taught how to play, but 80% of them knew how to work the bloody iPad just fine.

I’d just like to agree with a PP about how many places have children’s menus that are something and chips, and it’s isually something breaded and chips. DS is gluten intolerant and I’d say 8/10 there’s nothing GF on the children’s menu... unless I wanthim to have just chips!!

My previous job made me realise how rubbish companies are at paying invoices on time, or at all.

Sometimes they miss out an important NOT or NO or something

Yes, this is the sort of thing that really irritates me. That last series of Veep (I do keep going to that well, don't I?! It's one of my favourite shows, and the subs were so awful!) had a lot of that. Whole words, names, even, just wrong. It WOULD be a difficult one to work on, because it's got some very rapid and dense dialogue, with jokes flying past right, left and centre. But I'd have done a much better job

CharDeeMacDennis I don't understand why you can't do the subtitles straight off the script??