What is something you know because of your job, that would surprise others? (My example is gross, thread warning!)

[Mrmen1100]

It can be anything!!

I will start..

I am a food safety inspector (local authority) and have been for over 15 years, working in two large cities, and my current job in a smaller local authority. The same theme...

Food handlers do NOT wash their hands properly after using the toilet / before preparing your food.. lack of antibacterial soap in a toilet cubicle or in a kitchen is common place.... even when I am there, hands are not washed, it is an absolute bug bear of mine.

Preparing with raw meat then handling food ready to eat.. not uncommon

Handling cash / touching screens then handling food.. not uncommon.

Yes it does put me off eating outside of my house unfortunately 🙃

I have come across a LOT worse but this example irritates me.

Your turn!!!!!

That’s frankly terrifying…

Many years ago, I was told (on a Media Studies Ed course) that the Sun was at one point written for those with a reading age of 6, but the reading age has since been increased.

That school staff judge parents and often have favourite pupils.

That you’d never leave your child in a private nursery if you’d worked in them.

Dear God 🤯

Only once in my life did I need to fill up a return for CGT. I finished up paying an accountant £400 to do it for me because I was so nervous of doing it online and mucking it up.

We still get A level results early. Every year we're warned about not disclosing results before the official results day. It's a sackable offence to breach the embargo.

but people in general could learn more complex words so what prevents them learning them ?

Only just incorrect.
15% of UK adults (2011) have only basic vocabulary knowledge and don't understand the structure of sentences or paragraphs.
29% can read short texts to locate a single piece of information that they know to look for. They can recognise basic vocabulary, determine the meaning of sentences and read short paragraphs.
57% can match text with information and paraphrase, reading at least short texts and making at least low-level inferences.

Young adults have worse literacy than older people.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a8225f5e5274a2e8ab57bf4/11-1367-2011-skills-for-life-survey-findings.pdf

https://literacytrust.org.uk/parents-and-families/adult-literacy/what-do-adult-literacy-levels-mean/

Worked in a chain hotel, was, disgustingly, trained to do this.

why do they do it ?

I was stunned by this when moving to the local authority from private practice a full time staff member had 10 cases and part time 5-6 it was staggering they worked at a snails pace, I had a manger tell me they had to spend all their budge before April or it would be cut the following year so they would order stuff and spend like mad to use it all up before the year end rather than save costs

Taking this entirely at face value - Cool!

There are so many incredible posts on this thread, thanks for starting it OP.

I think that was definitely the case until approx 2005 - or that was when the school i worked in started requesting actual teaching qualifications

Before then somw teachers hadn't even completed their teaching subject at university

I know for sure though that in 2002 the private school i worked in got a letter saying we were no longer allowed to use corporal punishment

That had been a loophole for private schools we didnt know existed 😱

I've been an office cleaner and since then have never used a work kitchen, not even to make a drink.

That raising most grievances in academia is pointless!

Blokes are really really weird at times aren't they?!

I never use a hand drier, but I always wash my hands. Hand driers just spray more bacteria onto your hands.

Except when it's the Vice Chancellor asking...

Thank you so much for this post!
I was a nurse for 25 odd years- and 100% agree.

It's hell isn't it? I used to work for the press. Was given a huge list of printed names and addresses of registered sex offenders.. from just one town in Surrey. All men. Must've been a thousand on the list easily, never got to the end before going on another job anyway. I presume this is repeated up and down the country and only the tip of the iceberg because of reporting and conviction rates are so low in this country.

Working through some of the addresses, there were far too many living next to schools and youth clubs such as ATC, Cadets, Guides etc. I cannot walk past schools now or kids clubs without wondering which houses nearby have the pervs in and this was about 20 years ago. Truly depressing.

My husband told me he was hit at school which I found difficult to believe as corporal punishment was a distant memory by the time I was at school. But he was educated privately so this makes sense now.

Probably lots of factors. Low IQ or learning difficulties like dyslexia; no interest in reading or learning, lack of opportunity… Some adults with low literacy might not even be aware that their literacy is below average. Obviously if you’re struggling to read or write at all, then you’ll know you have a problem; but if your life and your work environment means you are never required to read or write anything too complex, then you might not realise you have the reading age of a 10 year-old. And if someone like this gets a letter from the dentist that they don’t understand, they’re likely to feel too embarrassed to tell anyone.

I can believe that 😂

not true they have different recipes. I used to order the ingrediants for some of these brands

I knew someone would say bananas too 😂