To ask for the scandalous secrets of your industry?

[Iwasjustabouttosaythat]

Or just dirt?

Mine isn't very interesting, more just sad. My background is in immigration and I have never worked with so many racist (and stupid) people.

A boat of refugees when down and the guy who told us the news was laughing about it.

Endless racial stereotypes and visas refused because "as if a French person would go out with a Japanese person" etc.

Then there was the chap who said amnesty are evil because they provide money for abortions to rape victims in the Congo. He's the same guy who refuses to assess any applications from homosexuals because he thinks they should all be denied visas. He doesn't get fired for this.

There are probably more but they are the stand outs.

What's your industry gossip? I'd especially love to hear from nannies and cleaners but I'm interested in all dirt!

What's a SPAD?

You were a SPAD Vladimir? Were you the sort that shouts at civil servants😉

Have come across some of them in my time!

I thought a SPAD was a signal passed at danger!

I worked for a huge architectural firm in London for a while. Painfully sexist. Almost all the higher ups are men and they would often do business deals in strip clubs. If one of the (few) higher up women were coming to a meeting they would complain about having to go somewhere else and she would always be described as a "ball breaker".

iwasjustabouttosaythat I have worked in architectural practices and can absolutely corroborate that. The senior partners at most firms I worked for were nasty nasty people

Ooh. This thread reminds me of books I have loved:
Bodies Jed Mercurio
It's your time you're wasting Frank Chalk
I have also recently bought Do No Harm on my kindle.
Whistle blowing is hard. No one thanks you for it. I have done it once and was given a wide berth for the final three months of my contract. Here is a decent read from the Guardian two years ago on that subject:

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/22/there-were-hundreds-of-us-crying-out-for-help-afterlife-of-whistleblower

I do not have many new revelations:
Video shop: we used to judge those getting top shelf soft porn, oh yes eyebrow
Cash collecting: same route, codeword and only goggles and one unarmed guy to protect you, really?
Clothes shop: yes to the looking-out-back-but-not-really, you just weren't taking our word for it
Call centre: sort as quick as poss even if half-arsed as you're against the clock/monitored for call response speed/no. of calls
Supply teacher Recruitment: shave a tramp and lie to said tramp about the amount of work out there
Teaching: yes to staffroom chat, yes to some alcohol-fuelled hook ups, yes to some dodgy dealings (drugs in one, coursework in another)
Childcare: you will be judged on your lunch boxes, child's sleep routine and anything else my boss can think of

Worked for a large supermarket 10 years ago. Well known that the deputy store manager and regional manager were shagging, and deputy manager would shag anyone important to climb the ladder. Shame as she was very competent, but it is what it is. Anyway one day she was suspended without pay, turned out her and the regional manager had been fiddling money from our store, not sure how much. She was demoted to a section leader, regional manager kept his position.

bigblug's message above that's what really gets to me...the firm I work for, a manager and a worker got caught having sex in the office, he got temporarily demoted and after a while has the easiest job ever, still management, and she has climbed a few rungs herself to be a manager!! What a strange world.

I can confirm that when I was being induced I heard 2 midwives bitching about patients "there's nothing wrong with her I don't even know why she's being induced"

There were 2 of us being induced at the time so it was either me or the other lady they were talking about, I was induced due to severe birth anxiety so I suspect it was probably me, I almost had a panic attack and my Labour stalled for several hours Bitches.

My mum is also a nurse and they say some wicked things about people when they get together. I hate hospitals no wonder I had bloody anxiety!

On a happier note you'd probably be very pleasantly surprised at how clean and hygienic fast food chains tend to be, and how quickly they get on it if something isn't up to scratch

I had gastroenteritis that started the same day I'd been to pizza hut and then had ice cream at the cinema. Once I was able to talk on the phone I called both cinema and pizza Hut to say I'd been ill and although I didn't know there was a link wanted to inform them.

Cinema couldn't understand why I'd called.

Pizza Hut put me through to a manager straight away who went through a detailed list of time/date, exactly what had been eaten, had I given a stool sample, was anyone else who was with me ill etc etc.

I couldn't face pizza for years though

GinSwigmore

bloody hell, that article. I'm glad some people are still strong enough to stand up and blow the whistle :/

Supermarket Bakery as student.
Bakers used to do 'spots' (heated up marijuana oil) on ovens when the started at 5-6am before managers arrived. This was while using heavy machinery, hot ovens and sharp knives.
One baker was at school with me, and did a roaring pot trade, his DP grew the stuff and it was bloody good stuff he'd collect the money and stash the stuff in our coat pockets (in cupboard out back). No one battered an eyelid as he'd go around collecting money from us while we were working away. We'd go for a smoke outside on our breaks - made working almost bearable.
The managers were all cunts. Got away with paying us as little as possible, I got called into work after I'd been injured at work day before and signed off for 2 weeks by Dr. Despite knowing this, Manger still phoned and threatened to sack me if I didn't come into work. I told him where to go.
One married manager was openly shagging one of the checkout girls.
I had a few annoying and rude regular customers who would always order the same product every day - i would always put it aside 'especially' for them - after it had been drop kicked on the floor a few times. Don't ever be rude to servers.