Page 7 | What is something you know because of your job, that would surprise others? (My example is gross, thread warning!)

Drumrollpls · 11/05/2026 15:49

Doesn't make sense.. If they are not 'rich' how would they have a lot of money available for the pretence?

loislovesstewie · 11/05/2026 15:49

StandingDeskDisco · 11/05/2026 13:57

I have had many jobs in both public sector and private sector offices.

In the private sector, at junior / admin levels, you work your socks off. If they can possibly make your role redundant, or just not replace you when you leave, they will, and expect the rest of the team to pick up the work.

In the public sector (civil service, local authority, and FE college, but I expect the other organisations are similar), you can work at about 2/3 of the pace or less, and 'empire building' is rife: this means that every manager tries to get as many staff under them as possible. A manager with a team of six will moan to his superior how everyone is flat out and overworked, they need another person. The manager is happy to agree, because he has no idea of the actual workload, and then he also gets more people under him.
So there are hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of under-employed people working at half-speed paid for by our taxes.

Sorry, but this makes me so angry. I worked in the public sector all my working life. I do not recognize that at all. I worked bloody hard all day, often didn't get an actual lunch break, wasn't on a high salary, had to be on call and deal with anything that happened all by myself. At one point I had 200 cases to deal with because we were so short staffed. I've interviewed a customer at 4 pm on a Friday evening and at 8 am on the Monday been asked if I've made a decision! Upon explaining that I didn't work weekends, I got abuse from him. Like I wasn't entitled to any time off. Abuse was normal. Yes, I got a pension, in return for not earning as much as I could in the private sector. Coincidentally, people who joined us from the private sector couldn't cope with the work. They actually left because it was too busy.

HayfeverComethAndThatRightSoon · 11/05/2026 15:50

aSpanielintheworks · 11/05/2026 12:07

Years ago, and probably not allowed now, I had a friend who worked in a butchers and said they mix fresh heart in with the loose sold mince so it stays that beautiful rich red on the display tray.

Surely mince can be made up of almost anything, including heart? It is muscle, after all.

nomas · 11/05/2026 15:51

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.

That's awful. I don't want to eat out ever again.

Whyarepeople · 11/05/2026 15:51

I thought it was a well known fact that private school is about separating your children from the poors and buying them access and advantage, not about education?

The ultra fancy private school my friend went to in London didn't make any secret of this at all.

nomas · 11/05/2026 15:52

HayfeverComethAndThatRightSoon · 11/05/2026 15:50

Surely mince can be made up of almost anything, including heart? It is muscle, after all.

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It's not what is advertised though. If you order meat mince, you should get meat mince, not offal mince.

Whyarepeople · 11/05/2026 15:53

nomas · 11/05/2026 15:52

It's not what is advertised though. If you order meat mince, you should get meat mince, not offal mince.

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Given that a lot of mince-based products had horse in them for a long time, I think in the past the criteria were quite loose...

Manxexile · 11/05/2026 15:58

SkipAd · 11/05/2026 15:30

Where is/was this please?
I think that’s really interesting.

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I should imagine that @IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads was probably referring to somewhere like the London boroughs of Westminster and Tower Hamlets, or possibly Newham?

The answers might be different now as once deprived parts of London become more or less fashionable and trendy

GuelderRoses · 11/05/2026 15:58

Dogdaycommeth · 11/05/2026 14:45

There is a awful lot of duct tape used in aircraft manufacturing 😬 at all stages

As there is with the manufacture of anything with that many wires. An Airbus has several hundred miles of wiring in it. You wouldn't want all that flapping about and working loose, would you now?

Applecup · 11/05/2026 15:59

Whatagooddog · 11/05/2026 14:51

Ghostwriter here - most celebs don't even read the books they pretend to have written.

All of the Instagrammers I've worked with are absolutely 100% grifters - no surprise there perhaps, but I have been pretty surprised by just how much they utterly despise the people who are paying for their lifestyle.

Fiction is becoming much more of a ghostwritten world - not just the well-known authors who have always been open about it, but ones that have a reputation for being 'real' writers.

If the ghostwriters are so good why don't they just write their own books?

StandingDeskDisco · 11/05/2026 16:02

loislovesstewie · 11/05/2026 15:49

Sorry, but this makes me so angry. I worked in the public sector all my working life. I do not recognize that at all. I worked bloody hard all day, often didn't get an actual lunch break, wasn't on a high salary, had to be on call and deal with anything that happened all by myself. At one point I had 200 cases to deal with because we were so short staffed. I've interviewed a customer at 4 pm on a Friday evening and at 8 am on the Monday been asked if I've made a decision! Upon explaining that I didn't work weekends, I got abuse from him. Like I wasn't entitled to any time off. Abuse was normal. Yes, I got a pension, in return for not earning as much as I could in the private sector. Coincidentally, people who joined us from the private sector couldn't cope with the work. They actually left because it was too busy.

Edited

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Perhaps the difference is that your job was customer-facing, so more visible to management.
My experience was all back-office jobs, the kind where no-one outside the team had the foggiest idea what the real workload actually was.

Tryonemoretime · 11/05/2026 16:04

Pamnn82 · 11/05/2026 15:01

I learnt last week after hearing a couple talking about it on tv that nurseries are told beforehand the day they will be inspected by ousted, I always assumed it was random.. Bonkers. There’s a family protesting currently to try and get this changed.

And schools used to told when Ofsted inspectors were coming. This resulted in panic stricken, overworked teachers spending extra time on making their classrooms inspector friendly. Don't know if that's changed now....

Iamstardust · 11/05/2026 16:06

I knew there were good reasons to avoid any food I've not made myself!

Whatagooddog · 11/05/2026 16:07

Applecup · 11/05/2026 15:59

If the ghostwriters are so good why don't they just write their own books?

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Lots of reasons - personally, I hate attention. I love the anonymity.

Pensandpencilswrite · 11/05/2026 16:07

A really sad one but working in Children’s SW you see how bad things often have to be for children before action is taken. The sheer number of referrals means many cases do not meet the threshold for social work intervention. I often see posters being advised to contact SW about some minor issue of a cluttered home and cries of it’s not acceptable. SW’s are not going to turn up to scold the parents and tell them to wash their dishes. Obviously if you do have real child welfare concerns please do contact SW, every council will have a SW Dept and yes you can report anonymously if you absolutely have to.

Disturbia81 · 11/05/2026 16:08

DeposedPresident · 11/05/2026 13:51

That there are more paedophiles about than you can ever imagine.

This one always shocks me. Why has nature fucked up like this.

Mine would be.. how scruffy so many people live. Messy houses, stuff everywhere, clothes left on floor, kitchen full of dirty stuff and old cooking

cantgardenintherain · 11/05/2026 16:09

StandingDeskDisco · 11/05/2026 13:57

I have had many jobs in both public sector and private sector offices.

In the private sector, at junior / admin levels, you work your socks off. If they can possibly make your role redundant, or just not replace you when you leave, they will, and expect the rest of the team to pick up the work.

In the public sector (civil service, local authority, and FE college, but I expect the other organisations are similar), you can work at about 2/3 of the pace or less, and 'empire building' is rife: this means that every manager tries to get as many staff under them as possible. A manager with a team of six will moan to his superior how everyone is flat out and overworked, they need another person. The manager is happy to agree, because he has no idea of the actual workload, and then he also gets more people under him.
So there are hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of under-employed people working at half-speed paid for by our taxes.

I’ve not seen that in the public sector in the several places I have worked.

godmum56 · 11/05/2026 16:11

Corvidsarethebest · 11/05/2026 15:43

Back to my job, most parents would be horrified at how their children don't attend lectures. Most parents think it's the lecturers who aren't present enough. This is rarely the case. Many students have very poor attendance, and some don't attend the whole module at our institution, and just churn out an assignment at the end. Some watch the catch-up. About a third are engaged, great and motivated, the rest not so.

The uni doesn't want to make attendance compulsory as students wouldn't like it.

We are changing our assessments to make students attend more, test more relevant things and encourage real-world skills, but it's hard to do this as we are under anti-discrimination legislation, which means we cannot force students to, say, do a presentation; we have to offer alternatives for everything. This means the students often don't get the rigorous tests or opportunities to improve around basic skills.

I'd love to make it compulsory for attendance and to do particular skills because to me, they are basic requirements for work and if students go into work without them, they can just be got rid of in the first two years.

I was in college training for a profession in the NHS back in the early 70's. We were expected to be in college mon-fri 9-4pm. Most of the time it was lectures/practical learning but if it wasn't a lecture or practical, we were expected to be doing private study working on our written work. Most of us had friends at Unis who could not believe that attendance was a routine requirement. Plus ca change.....

prampushingdownthehighst · 11/05/2026 16:12

The criminal lack of education and investment in our manufacturing industry.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if we are the sweatshop of the world in 20 to 30 years time

KilkennyCats · 11/05/2026 16:17

Corvidsarethebest · 11/05/2026 15:43

Back to my job, most parents would be horrified at how their children don't attend lectures. Most parents think it's the lecturers who aren't present enough. This is rarely the case. Many students have very poor attendance, and some don't attend the whole module at our institution, and just churn out an assignment at the end. Some watch the catch-up. About a third are engaged, great and motivated, the rest not so.

The uni doesn't want to make attendance compulsory as students wouldn't like it.

We are changing our assessments to make students attend more, test more relevant things and encourage real-world skills, but it's hard to do this as we are under anti-discrimination legislation, which means we cannot force students to, say, do a presentation; we have to offer alternatives for everything. This means the students often don't get the rigorous tests or opportunities to improve around basic skills.

I'd love to make it compulsory for attendance and to do particular skills because to me, they are basic requirements for work and if students go into work without them, they can just be got rid of in the first two years.

Who would you be discriminating against, by asking students to do a presentation (or anything else)?
Why do they get to choose?

secretrocker · 11/05/2026 16:17

Applecup · 11/05/2026 15:59

If the ghostwriters are so good why don't they just write their own books?

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Because nobody would buy them. The "name" sells the book.

StandingDeskDisco · 11/05/2026 16:17

Disturbia81 · 11/05/2026 16:08

This one always shocks me. Why has nature fucked up like this.

Mine would be.. how scruffy so many people live. Messy houses, stuff everywhere, clothes left on floor, kitchen full of dirty stuff and old cooking

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Why has nature fucked up like this.

Depends if you are talking about prepubescent children (which is an 'unnatural' attraction, afaik not found in nature), or teenagers below the legal age of consent.

Because of course teenagers are capable of reproduction, so it is not necessarily a fuck up of nature that older adults would be attracted to them.
A fuck up of morality and psychology and civilisation, but not biology.

chipsticksmammy · 11/05/2026 16:18

Feis123 · 11/05/2026 14:31

Not from work, but from ordinary life. I was surprised to find out that private school teachers are not special, they are not chosen from a 'special pool', they are employed from the same pool of teachers and they, on average, do not give a shit about teaching children properly. They care about their wages, work conditions, sick leave, etc. Basically, it is a scam.

I was surprised to find out, again, from life, that private doctors are not special, they are not drawn from a special pool (like private teachers are not) and that most private hospitals are just rental arrangements - i.e. there is no multidisciplinary hospital team, obliged to provide input in patient care. That an ortho consultant, say, rents a consultation room and theatre per hour, that they are lone operators who pay the private hospital for facilities and it is truly scary.

I was surprised to find out that in one private hospital the outcome for post-surgery patients wholly depended not on an anaesthetist (as I had previously thought) and not on a surgeon, but on a strapping physio therapist, with his physio team - i.e. he was only in on Thursdays with his team and when patients went into cardiac arrest, they survived on Thursdays because he and his girls and lads were in (physically strong, could go on and on doing CPR properly), and had literally no chance of survival when only 3 nurses were on the ward post-op on other days (they did not have the fitness level to do it properly until the arrival of a state-funded ambulance).

P.S. I wish I did not find out the latter though.

When I came round properly from my private op on the ward, the only people still there were very junior nurses and auxiliary nurses.

Everyone else had left and I was in huge amounts of pain.

They wanted to send me straight home and I collapsed getting off the bed. They just kept taking my blood pressure until it was ‘ok’.

It was suggested at midnight to DH that he drive me home, three hours away.

I could never have left but was woken up at 6am after an hour of sleep and pretty much marched out the door at 8am. Not after the massive breakfast that was delivered to my room, charged to my bill and left uneaten by me.

Never again.

Roomforapony · 11/05/2026 16:20

Needmorelego · 11/05/2026 12:41

Retail workers might know this....
5020 1600
(Barcode for Cadbury Creme Eggs)

🤣🤣
I sometimes use the wrong child’s name (thank you chemo brain🫡), I work my way through them (via the dogs names🫣) and get there in the end but THIS is etched on my brain😏

secretrocker · 11/05/2026 16:20

Roomforapony · 11/05/2026 16:20

🤣🤣
I sometimes use the wrong child’s name (thank you chemo brain🫡), I work my way through them (via the dogs names🫣) and get there in the end but THIS is etched on my brain😏

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Can someone explain this to me? Why would anyone want to, or need to, know this?