Secrets of your trade.

[Confusedfornow]

I have worked in my current area of expertise for the last 20 years or so. It's in Aviation, can't say exactly what or for who as it's a relatively small community (for my role) and it would be VERY outing. Before this, my only other "job" that I did for a few years was dancing (yes, that kind ). So I don't have massive experience of the world of work.

But I was chatting with some people in a bar over the weekend and conversation turned to jobs and then to my role. I was telling them about some stuff which is perfectly normal to me, but was absolutely news to them.

For instance . .

When a plane is "parked" and everything is switched off, the aircraft is referred to as being "Cold and dark".

If a helicopter has engine failure, it won't just fall out of the sky. The pilots are trained in a procedure called "autorotation" and can usually land safely even if the engine isn't running at all.

All British Airways flights use the call sign "Speed Bird". It's unique and no other airline in the world uses it.

Last one . .

Pilots can't wear polarised sunglasses. They make the electronic displays on the flight deck appear black, and you can't read any information from them.

So, what do you know from your jobs that is mundane for you but which most people wouldn't have a clue/be surprised by?

joy

Why are the choice of outfits limited?

Is it to do with endorsements?

I really am finding this thread fascinating, I just wish I had something juicy to add! I’ll get my thinking cap on

I agree with redlock i knew some one who was foster and his parents were just interested in the money theyreceived.Whenhe was 17 he was kicked out as they were no longer receiving money for his care

This is awful. My in laws are foster carers and it is not like this, they spend far more money on the dc they look after than they get. They still have some now adult ex-foster kids who come to stay and get various support from them. The foster dc are included in everything as family members.

@Arnoldthecat The oven is full scrapped out (I think the bits are still quick big, the fine dust is from being ground down)

There was a very good AMA here last year by someone who does the cremations, she's lovely and treats the people just like the nurses above to do

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/3264486-crematorium-technician-here

I used to work for an online beauty/skincare company. We also manufactured white label products and sold on rebranded.

Price does not equal quality. Some of the most expensive creams were actually the most ineffective. There were so many times I spoke with lovely woman who were suffering with conditions like Melasma (pregancy mask) and wanted a lightening/fading product. They wouldn't listen when I warned them to a) wait until the hormones settle and b) go for the cheaper product in less fancy packaging.

A good quality product will often be less fancy to look at because the maker spent more on R&D than on marketing.

The same with anti ageing creams. At that time, to be legally allowed to call it an anti ageing cream, it had to have SPF sunblock in it! You could literally just pour sunblock, perfume and a cheap emollient into a tub and slap a £60 price tag on it calling it an anti ageing product!

Products have a lifecycle and when a product starts to decline, the maker will either reboot it or launch new marketing. A well known company that has it's brand all over will sell you the same product over and over but with new, shiny packaging and fancy meaningless names. Don't fall for sneaky tricks. Look past the shiny and read the print to get your money's worth.

Also:
Water and decent sleep cycles are better for under eye darkness than creams that are supposed to 'repair' this issue.

Stretch marks cannot be made to disappear with a cream

You won't tan like a bronze goddess by swallowing a tablet

Vitamins take time to absorb and become a help in your body. Sometimes, you need to take other vitamins or minerals to help absorption. Swallowing magic pills to get hair like Rapunzel is a waste of time. You'd be better off eating better and taking a well being mix of vitamins instead and over a long period. Companies know you will spend £30 a pop and never finish the course. Don't fall for it. Same for Aloa Vera detoxes and Magic Nail pills.

@Norfolkenchancemate do weight loss pills really work then? I've often thought the ones on sale at the chemist can't just be outright lying.

I used to work as a beauty therapist. I would never have a pedicure done no matter how nice the salon looked and always wait until I've seen a staff member using a cup that customers are served before accepting an offer of tea.

I have seen some horrendous examples of hygiene standards not being followed and once saw a therapist throw the water from a pedicure bowl down the sink where cups were waiting to be washed.

Why would you not have a pedicure?

Ex counsellor here also.
Worked for the big relationship charity.
Don’t think that the hour you have with us is all you get. It used to take me about an hour to write up my notes and thoughts on your sessions...don’t worry you were always anonymous
Then if I felt stuck on your case, I could go along to our fortnightly group meeting and get some help from other counsellors
And..there was always a supervisor I could speak to again if I was a bit stuck.

We also had extra training sessions throughout the year.

And I’m so sorry that apart from about 6 cases out of the many over 6 years that have stayed with me because of their uniqueness , lovely and special that you were at the time, you have all been erased from my memory banks now
I wouldn’t know you If i passed you in the street.
☹️

@IM0GEN working with children who had suffered adoption breakdown was the most distressing period of my practice. Whilst I fully support what you say about spending more on adoption support I would want in exchange for adopters to be better screened. Wouldn't leave my dog with some of the ex adopters I've met. Removing a child from adopters via a care order isn't unusual.

Oh and the not allowed to have a beard thing with firefighters and soldiers, it is so an airtight seal to the face can be made around the breathing apparatus masks and respirators so nasty fumes/smoke/gases can't get in. Bristles create tiny gaps but enough to kill you

arkengarthdale

its the same for CBRN trained police officers. beard needs shaving off so a decent seal is created with the gas mask.
or just be a woman!

@smotheroffive

...and Pyongyang how easy is it to pour the slops into pint glasses for serving? Is that a thing in pub circles?

Its never happened in any of the pubs I have worked in/run. We do pour it into a glass at the end of the night as we have to record our waste in pints, but then it goes down the sink. The big drip trays are a swine to do this with. There is no way you could do it without someone seeing and it would taste absolutely foul.

I can back up @Redlocks30, I was in a couple of different homes and you are certainly aware of how much you are not apart of their family. And this is not a blanket comment - It really is about the money for many of these people, usually the ones with their own dependent families tend to do it for the money, older couples whose children have left or those without children are usually the most attentive and care about their charge.

Just thought of another after working catering maintenance at a very popular carvery chain. They're stinking filthy with no exception (for the ones I covered at least) and the cooks have no issue dropping food on the grimy floors and scooping it back up to be served. An engineer was once threatened by a chef not to take pictures of an extract fan because it was so disgusting. Refuse to eat there now.

Magazines
The beauty advice generally revolves around which cosmetics company has paid for adverts in the magazine that month. So if, say, Lancome has paid for a full-page advert, then the beauty pages will feature a Lancome product.

Every few months, magazines hold internal Beauty Sales where they'll sell off all the samples they've used for the magazine, to staff. The money goes to charity. There are things like £150 moisturisers being flogged for 50p. It's a total, brilliant bun fight, you wouldn't believe how violent women can get over reduced-price beauty products.

If an article is too long to fit on the page, a sub-editor will cut it to fit. They don't cut the odd word here and there (except widows - a single word on one line), but whole sections as they're easier to remove without trashing the writer's style. The paragraphs most likely to be axed are the first couple; many writers use the first 3 or 4 paragraphs just to warm up.

Many, many, many problem page questions are written by staff, or friends of staff.

But prisoners are an unexpectedly chatty group, who regularly write in to Letters pages.

Typography
Most early fonts (Times, Gill Sans, etc) were drawn/designed so that a 3-D version of each letter would be able to stand up without falling over.

Books
There are (or certainly were, 10 years ago) people whose job is to compile the index section of books. You know, the alphabetical section at the back. These people are rumoured to be a bit... odd.

joyfullittlehippo I get that there’s only a small pool of couture gowns available to borrow. But some of them are so awful I wonder why a) the designer thinks that’s a good advert for their business, and b) the celeb doesn’t just buy a dress because even a high street outfit would look better than that monstrosity!

how easy is it to pour the slops into pint glasses for serving?

I used to work in a pub. It wasn’t so much “slops” as the fact that on some pumps you press a button which dispenses a preset amount of beer, which may be more or less than is required to fill the glass. If the preset amount was too much then we’d catch the overspill in another glass so as not to waste it. If the preset amount was too little people would complain that their glass wasn’t full so we’d have a spare glass of beer under the counter that we used for topping up. With other pumps where you could turn it on/off manually it wasn’t an issue.

My parents fostered my whole life. We had the opposite experience and so did many of our friends. Foster kids had the time spent on them because they were the ones that had the spotlight on them at school / by social services. We might not get our reading done or someone to attend our assembly because we were considered the children better off compared to the foster kids. Natural born kids don’t have a social worker or advocate for them - we looked after severely disturbed children and teens. My brothers and I were all beaten up at various points, I was raped, my brother was sexually abused. None of it went on record though as we weren’t in the system so it was hushed up.

For the person upthread who said the foster carers threw out the 17 year old. My mum still has 2 mid 30’s adults living with her as they have learning difficulties and couldn’t live alone, yet there is no social services provision for them as they aren’t “bad enough”. She doesn’t get paid for this!

working with children who had suffered adoption breakdown was the most distressing period of my practice. Whilst I fully support what you say about spending more on adoption support I would want in exchange for adopters to be better screened. Wouldn't leave my dog with some of the ex adopters I've met. Removing a child from adopters via a care order isn't unusual

Oh I agree completely. But you must be mixing me up with another poster, I didn’t say anything about assessment / screening. Indeed we need more specialist, well trained and experienced workers at every stage .

*hellenbackagen
*
Of course, the police officers too and anyone else who has to have an airtight seal round a face mask.

Unfortunately being a woman doesn't necessarily prelude one from having a beard (sodding menopause!)

School admissions here, working for an LA. Like most public servants, don't be crappy to us, it won't help and we'll be nice to you if you're nice to us. No, if you only put one school down, we don't HAVE to give you that school.

Re masks: Royal Navy are allowed full beards and still have the same mask as the others. Shows they value tradition over safety there!

Thank you to all the lovely nurses, midwives, doctors, vets and anyone doing any social care work you are the people that make a huge difference.