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!

One of first jobs was working for a local authority managing the accommodation and support to asylum seekers. My manager approved the contract of a landlord who had just been released from prison for photographing his other private tenants in the bathroom, via secret camera. So his firm were used to house many single vulnerable African women and although we all morally disagreed, nothing was done as we were so desperate for accommodation - and his were the cheapest. I certainly challenge it now, but I was very young and felt intimidated.

Sodomeyes

I think most senior (and some junior) men only go to conferences for the sex

Agree. I've heard this said in many industries including car manufacturing, tech and pharma; Sex and the CPD points apparently

I'm an academic. I've never known sexual harassment or relationships with undergraduates. There are a few alcoholics but there probably are everywhere. Maybe it's different in more male dominated disciplines.

We do discuss bitch about our students a fair amount though...

Some teachers play the "name game". What is the most ridiculous name you have come across as a teacher? In fairness there are some pretty astounding ones.

In the international school scene where I live (DH is a teacher) there are a LOT of bad eggs. These are on the surface, well respected teachers with amazing looking professional backgrounds. But we live in the developing world, and drugs and women are cheap. Teachers sleep with teenage girls, paying them with drugs or a pittance. It's absolutely disgusting. More than a few teachers are sleeping with prostitutes the same age as the kids they teach. The parents have no idea.

I am so glad we're leaving soon.

I used to work internationally in a series of news hotspots. It gave me a dearth of respect for anyone involved in news reporting, no matter the format, as from talent to producers, I never knew a single one who was faithful to their partner back home. Not a single one. (Tbf, not a representative sample, but that's from in excess of 200 partnered people, at a very rough count)

Other hotbeds of fornication are international organisations, INGOs and basically anywhere people are out of their home nation, living in a hotel and often seeing challenging things, even if they weren't experiencing them directly. When I m feeling charitable, I say it's about affirming life-when I'm not, I admit we were doing it because we could get away with it. (I wasn't partnered, and didn't shag anyone who was - but I made the most of the merry go round that us singletons also indulged in)

Now I'm in academia - I agree with Sodom over senior males: it's not at all uncommon in my field (one former colleague is currently on his 4th ex student wife) and people discuss how cruisey various conferences are. It's also inevitable that there will be one pair of colleagues in your field, from differing institutions and often different countries, who hook up only at conferences (being married to other people) and thinks no-one has realised. Except everyone knows.

I've just realised I sound sex-obsessed. Probably because these days I don't get any

Oh, and the other shocking thing - except possibly not- is that the patriarchy is alive and well in academia, even amongst young lentil weavers. That and the fact that in order to be promoted, the number of publications, where n=the number you have, is always n+1!

Maybe it's different in more male dominated disciplines
I was thinking that in relation to the original comment that most male professors were fucking/trying to fuck junior colleagues or grad students. But as I said, every faculty or large dept I know has at least one creep of this kind, and they are all humanities or social science depts, many in less male-dominated areas.

Yes to the bitching :-) One notorious ex-student is still known as 'the twat in the hat' about 10 years after he graduated. In another case the entire exam board cheered when we'd finally managed to shovel an astoundingly bad and extremely dodgy student out of the door with a degree, even though it was about 3 years later than it should have been and with a 3rd.

OP - if your experience of immigration and visa applications is anything like you describe, you have to report this either openly (try SACU) or anonymously. See your union rep if you have concerns and want to raise it through the formal whistle-blowing processes

Worked in many different places. Deep breaths, here goes: nhs: widespread bullying and gossiping about and laughing behind patients backs. This is done by staff and midwives and nurses not the doctors. Retail: very very cut throat and loads of sleeping their way to the top.

I work in HR. If a manager really wants to get rid of someone, they will. Even with employment rights there is always a way around this. It's usually my job to find out what that way is. I'm not saying I agree with this approach, but you've got to remember who's paying my salary. If I was working for the employee, I'd be a Union rep.

The worst time was when I saw a manager make the scorer change the scores of two employees who were up for redundancy, and had had to go through an assessment centre to retain their jobs. So the one that had a poor score had it increased to get her through and the one he didn't want had her score decreased. This was after they'd sat tests, had interviews, jumped through many hoops....

If you're the only one doing your job it is even worse. It is very, very easy to make you redundant, share your work between colleagues, then once you are out the door wait a few months and re recruit to that position. Or create a similar but just different enough position that you have to apply for, and don't quite manage to score high enough for. Usually the person doing the scoring is either the manager who's team it is, or working for the manager who's team it is... so the process can be quite corrupt. I've been instructed to 'massage' the scores on a few occasions.

That when the Met Police say they have doubled the strength of armed officers what they really mean is they are canx all rest days and making them work loads of overtime.
There is a lot of very tired officers carrying guns in London.

I work in academia and he only senior academic I know who snagged a (PhD) student is my husband and the student was me.

Worst job ever was the short time I worked in NHS management. Contrary to popular opinion the managers worked hard and got all the blame for fuck ups made by the nurses and HCAs.

(Retired) recruiter here

If you've ever wondered whether agencies invent jobs to make themselves look more successful - you're right, they do

A major reason for going to work for my last employer was the fact he insisted he didn't do this. When I found that he did - actually sitting someone down with a map to list jobs in every major city so that his quest for "national appeal" might be realised - I left and started my own company

I've never known teaching staff at school to gossip maliciously or routinely. Yes parents get talked about but that usually because one member of staff is looking for advice/support/background from another member of staff.

The biggest issue has always been parent helpers or parents who have become TAs or lunchtime staff who have struggled to introduce boundaries between work and social life.

The accounts department sometimes knows more about your hotel trips than you realise...

E.g. Didn't use your hotel room because you're having an affair with a colleague and slept in their room... (always check in to both rooms if your employer is getting the bill and you don't want to be found out)
Have also worked for places where we got sent the bill for soiled sheets in hotels - offshore workers getting so drunk the night before being helicoptered to the rig that they crapped the bed.

Another journalist. Most journalists are really, really clever and pretty nice. A tiny minority are deeply, deeply thick and quite nasty, but still get hired because they hide it beneath working a lot of hours. By the time people realise they've been hired and it's too late.

And yes they probably are just getting everything off Twitter. Sorry.

Recent personal experience of NHS record falsification. Two weeks ago had a 5 night stop in hospital (water retention). Was weighed once on day 3. Consultant showed me 5 days worth of reducing "daily weights" before letting me go home!

We really, really don't get cash bonuses for taking children into care.

Ex midwife here- not bitching about patients but younger midwives flirting with 'hot' dad's and talking about them when out of the room.

I frequently told them how dispicable their behaviour was and how horrible to undermine a woman when she was probably at the most vulnerable she'd ever been.

I used to work for an investment bank.

About 10 years ago, we were all ordered to attend a workshop on risk. It emerged that the bank had nearly been liquidated because some people new to their job had let a settlement deadline pass, as they hadn't been sure how to do their job. No managers were available, despite the team never having dealt with this process at all, and the team who used to do it had been moved on.

Their immediate response was to hold these workshops, not blame any managers, and recreate the conditions for it to happen again.
None of our pensions are safe, not even remotely. And there are more people 'doing a Leeson' than you would think, but often banks will take the loss and tighten procedures rather than admit an employee at trader level ripped them off and got away with it.

Yes StVincent. One of my former colleagues was known as the whore because he'd do anything (apols, news rooms are really not very PC) at any time of day or night. He was an absolutely terrible journalist. He's now working for the DM. He's still doing anything they'll pay him for.

Brilliant and yet disturbing thread. Though I am not so naïve to think it doesn't go on. it's just worse than I thought

Keep them coming.

My male gay friend used to "score" most evenings - always with " straight " men

So true. I used to work in an Aids Org.

It's known as MSM - Men having Sex with Men.

Most of them are "straight" men with the usual 2.2. children which means they are bisexual cos gay men don't get an erection with women

When I started working in local govt 15 years ago, it was full of sexist ageist men who perved over us 20 somethings. That's rare now. (I'm also mid 30s now so maybe it doesn't happen as much).

I've never seen any type of backhanders from developers to planners, but I have seen it between developers and elected council members on a number of occasions. They are supposed to declare hospitality, business relationships etc but often they don't. (Members that is).

Have caught out a member more than once being lobbied by developers and responding positively to hospitality or personal business offers. In provincial areas I've seen members being lobbied by "friends" on the Rotary, Tennis Club, Business Forum etc to "have a word with the Chief Executive" etc Reported and nothing happened.