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!!!!!

Working in the NHS doesn't automatically make you an angel, doesn't make you honest or even particularly nice. They are employers like any other employer, you get good, bad and indifferent.

Thats privatisation for you, 'corportae landlord' contracts. Pressure from government to contract out/PFI everything cos the private sector is more efficient innit.

you might find its because it invalidates their insurance to have a non certificated workman doing even small jobs.

You ignored the onesided bit. I paid my full subscriptions for 18 months and when I finally get a checkup the first thing that's said isn't "thanks for your support for the past 18 months" no it's "you need to pay £15 for PPE.

By the way dental staff could be furloughed in COVID like any other staff so why would they need to sack staff?

Only employed staff could be furloughed, the dentists, therapists , hygienists are self employed so couldn’t be furloughed .

But that still wouldn’t cover the mortgage, borrowing costs of equipment , rates etc that still had to be paid and dental practices (private ones) were entitled to no help with costs that still had to be paid. www.ashfords.co.uk/insights/articles/dentists-in-financial-difficulty

I'm not far from this area as well.

Do you believe the level of manipulation and malice will be exposed at some stage?

Do you know how much Russia is involved with constant rotation of our PMs?

Yep, DM was on a daily medication for 3 months that cost £400 per tablet.
Imagine handing that over in your local pharmacy.

Non certificated? Public sector used to, and still should, employ suitably trained, qualified or supervised staff. Along with risk assessments and health and safety policies, of course they should be able to carry out work on their own premises. The private sector isn't automatically somehow employing different roles.

but the poster didn't say her brother was certificated to do that kind of work?

Is Russia really involved in UK politics? I keep hearing this and wonder if it's true?

Russia is very much involved and not in UK only, but France, Germany etc.
AfD was largely established by Russia, not openly of course, Le Pen is funded by Putin directly.
Russia was involved with Brexit, they are behind the rise of Reform.
They do it in a very sophisticated way, through SM mainly. Even here on MN it's pretty easy to spot Russian trolls.

Thanks.
Easy for you to spot, not so much me.

Are they the posts with the little red flags ? 😀

No not all are self employed. The hygienist I see is employed, we had a chat about it and she found the attitude of take take take embarrassing.

You still can't explain why it was up to me to pay towards the other things and then not even get a thanks for your support. I guess it is down to good manners and not everyone has them. Other businesses had costs did you feel the need to pay them as if you were getting normal service?

Very unusual for a hygienist in practice to be employed, 73% are self employed and the majority that are employed are employed in hospital, community , armed services or prison, very , very few are employed in general practice .

I can’t speak for what happened in your practice but it would seem to be very,very far from the norm for what happened in the vast majority of practices in the U.K. as you have seen from my other posts , links I have provided and from my own personal experience both working all throughout that time and running a support network for local practices working during that time.

We know you're using chat gpt for your emails parents of school children

yes we judge you.

no we don't treat all your kids the same (if one's badly behaved)

but omg you get better service if you're polite to us.

but omg you get better service if you're polite to us.

but surely that is universal?

You'd think people would clock that. Not parents

All major countries are involved in each others' politics. They spy on each other, influence each other, cause disruption etc, in the hopes of moving things in whatever direction suits them.

It's the modern day version of invasion and colonisation, which Britain did with great energy and enthusiasm for a long time.

Who do you think are the major players in terms of influencing UK politics - Russia/ China/ US? Also who do the UK have the most influence with.

The UK and the US have a 'special relationship' formed after WWII with a complex set of agreements around how they deal with each other and how they support each other. They share intelligence and have various agreements around conflicts etc - of course, if a certain president decides he doesn't want to honour any of that, there's a big open question about what happens then.

Apart from that, I don't know. Countries are always interested in threats and opportunities - who could we trade with? Who could cut off certain supplies? Who could kill us? There's a lot of dealing and compromise that goes on in the background as well as attempts to get one over on each other. Every country tries to pull strings in other countries. Whether it works out the way they want it to seems to be a matter of chance really.

I find the whole thing stupid tbh - history has shown over and over and over that interfering in other countries never works out well and yet it still happens. Lack of trust is the fundamental issue - the sense the everyone is trying to get ahead, screw others etc. Because men run most things they'll always view everything in terms of conflict and competition rather than realising what a waste of time most of it is.

I checked two local chains that operate locally, both directly employ hygienists. Doesn't seem that rare.

https://www.gdc-uk.org/docs/default-source/reports-and-publications/working-patterns-data/dental-hygienists-inferential-analysis-report-300725-(version-published-july-2025).pdf?sfvrsn=4e4e0e0b5

here’s the figures, page 8 73% self employed I am surprised that practices breached confidentiality by telling you hygienists employment status and very surprised as chains are the least likely to employ hygienists due to them then being liable for holiday/ sick/training pay etc and difficult in terms of productivity etc here’s the job advert for the largest dental corporate in the country…. Self employed hygienists https://www.mydentist.co.uk/careers/clinical-jobs/dental-hygienists

If you asked at reception I’m sure they receptionists were just telling you they have hygienists , they would not be aware of the terms of their contract.

Our practice employed their hygienist. She chose to leave and they've been unable to replace her.

How on earth would you know or care weather your hygienist was self employed or employed by your dentist and why does it matter? Does it mean hairdressers are also always employed because they cut your hair in a certain salon? or perhaps they are renting their place in that salon eg. being self employed?

Why argue on a thread like this, when people giving experiences from THEIR work?