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!!!!!

This happened way too much at my (well regarded) uni...

Once a clerk got columns mixed and instead of including the exam score, included their exam desk number... 😱... Only discovered when an expected first class candidate achieved 15%
In the days when they published results on noticeboards where the candidate named were alphabetical.. Sometimes the rows got skewed... So Baker expecting a 2:2, Bradfield's 1st....it only came to light where some candidates were two grades away from their expected grade... A lot more would have never been discovered.

In a school I know a maths teacher made a very basic mistake in recording and a good handful of kids got completely the wrong (lower) results... The school covered for him.. 🙄

That’s really interesting, I wonder why

That’s really interesting, I wonder why

I agree. I always ask for the brand and not a generic.

There are no required qualifications to be a teacher in a private school. None. Not in your subject, nor in teaching. I know of teachers in private schools who don't even have a levels! (At all - not just relevant ones)

All Information sent from government departments (websites, letters, emails) is aimed at a reading age of 9-11. (Writing this stuff is my job).

We don’t always get it right, but we try really hard to explain everything in a way that most people can understand.

ha yes, k used to work for 192 BT Directory Enquiries and sometimes did the night shift. We used to regularly get the same Pervy man who was wanking in a call box.
and then others who would say, I know where you work and I’ll be waiting outside in the car park for you.

Oh I do. I had staff members who barely ever did any work and made others' lives a misery but could never sack anyone because my manager was, apparently, empire building. Some people kept up the grift for 25yrs!

What medicines does this refer to? Like Clarityn vs supermarket own brand?

That some male 'mental health peer support groups' and charities have exactly the same levels of toxic and ego created management that causes some of the MH problems faced by those attending in the first place.

Their social media use is incredibly good. It's all about clicks, likes and shares and has more than a little to do with cult behaviour and unquestioning belief in those at the top.

Teacher -
we can tell who reads with their children, even as young as 4/5 we can tell who is used to listening to stories. Once they start reading themselves it’s clear who has had reading modeled to them regularly.

Modern construction means ventilation in buildings is pretty rubbish. If you monitored CO2 in your office meeting room it would probably be shockingly high unless you're able to open multiple windows for air circulation. There's a reason meetings make us sleepy, high CO2 is linked to lower cognitive function. This is also the case in school classrooms - our children cannot focus as well in high CO2 environments.

CO2 is exhaled by us. Ambient outdoors CO2 is about 420ppm.

At 800ppm - 1/100 breaths you take is rebreathed air (i.e. has already been through someone's lungs)
At 1200ppm = 1 in 50 breaths
At 2400ppm = 1 in 20 breaths
At 5000ppm = 1 in 8 breaths

I carry a CO2 monitor around. Airplanes on the ground are usually over 1500ppm. In the air it's around 1200ppm but can be higher, depends on the plane and how full etc

A car with closed windows, air recirculating and 3 passengers can easily shoot into 5000ppm. A real danger for cognitive function of the driver. Open windows or set to bring outside air in!

Meeting room with shut windows and 20 people - easily 3000ppm after an hour.

This is why I always wear a respirator/FFP2/N95 in enclosed indoor spaces and especially in airplanes and taxis. This is why we need to fix ventilation in schools.

Of course there are plenty of other aspects to indoor air quality: VOCs, PM2.5 (including self-inflicted with wood burners or while cooking), mold...

Former Ann summers worker. People steal their mums sex toys and use them. Also when offering hygiene wipes to clean them I often got told they washed them in the dishwasher

Ewwwwww. My daughter is thinking of a career in radiology!

We have always gone the last week of August and had a wonderful time. This has been to The Netherlands after most of their schools have gone back. It's quiet, clean, beautiful and more reasonably priced than earlier in the season.

My business had a home office inspection. It all went fine. However, the officer doing the inspection told me that they know of many high net worth businesses and individuals who are regularly breaking the law with regards to illegal workers but have been told by the government that they are "not to touch them" because they are friends with MPs. Same with HMRC.

I mean, its not exactly a surprise, but still hugely unfair.

I work in operating theatres. People put some weird shit where it shouldn't be ie up their arse.

Most CSA images come from Facebook and Instagram of parents posting innocently of their children, even when locked down and private, they come out.

I would never post a picture of my children on social media and I never have. I rotated after a short period as you become desensitised to what you see, but there’s so many bad people out there.

Not due to a job but things I have experienced buying fast food.

Server who dropped the mayo - er sort of looked like the thing you use to put bathroom sealant on - on the floor, picked it up and was about to use it to put mayo on my burger.

She wasn't too happy when I told her didn't want that mayo.

McDonalds, a server emptied a bin and then went to take a couple of orders out tot he car park. I told her she should wash her hands, apparently she didn't because, "the bag is sanitised".

I once had gastro enteritis following a trip to Pizza Hut and the cinema.

When I was able to use the phone I called the cinema where I had bought ice-cream and Pizza Hut.

The cinema was not interested and didn't understand why I called.

Pizza Hut said straight away they needed to get a manager. The manger came on, identified herself by name and obviously had a check list to go through asking about exactly what I had eaten and when and had I seen a doctor etc etc.

I don't know what their hygiene practices were / are but they obviously take possible food poisoning seriously.

Feis123

Private schools can employ who they want, you don't have to be qualified teacher to teach in them.

Private hospitals are not subject to the same standards as the NHS. They don't need to employ qualified people e.g. overnight there may be no doctor or qualified nurse on duty.

I worked for one for a couple of years, and it was a good one that did employ qualified nursing staff for every shift.

But overnight the only doctor on call was an obstetrician, who was provided by the NHS.

I have only met one Dr who only had private patients.

If you do want to 'go private' your best / safest place is a private wing / ward at an NHS hospital.

OCD isn't known for being super logical

It's not vocabulary necessarily. Learning new vocabulary is easy.

it's processing and understanding more complex sentence structures, inference, metaphors, recognising that they haven't understood a sentence or that what they think they have read doesn't make sense within the wider context of the text and going back to re read it, not understanding how words are used differently in different contexts etc that is the issue for a lot of people.

It's true that the red top newspapers are more popular because they are written more simply and so are more accessible to more people. They require fewer reading skills overall than the broadsheets. It's not just about the vocabulary used.

Your GP during a telephone consultation uses Google when diagnosing you or giving you advice.

Having worked in the public sector for 15 years in a mix of roles, now senior management, I can assure you this is not normal. Where I work, we’re with skeleton staff delivering critical services to the public with no bonuses, no paid work outings, no catering. We are hit with recruitment freezes and restructuring every 3 years and constant cuts.

You’re making out like it’s an easier job than private and people are burning through money, when the opposite is true. Very unkind of you to portray it like that.

I’m glad they do! I can’t imagine being expected to remember everything from my degree, let alone the complexity the doctors work with. Thank god they have resources to use!

Have a friend that used to be involved with food distribution (think the large refrigerated lorries you see). With one major distributor, the audit process around said deliveries doesn't exist, so there is no tracking of how long the food is in the lorries at the incorrect temperature (due to failure of the fridge, or being packed the day before delivery and the fridge was not turned on) nor is there a record of damaged deliveries that are 'repackaged' to cover up said damage.