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?

I didn't get sick with any of my labours, and there's a distinct difference between early stages and active labour, regardless of timing of contractions. I often muse this when watching women having a chat through their contractions that are supposed to be in labour!

Maybe has qualified her post actually so you give it rest. Quite the overeaction towards me on your part!

Thanks Olddentist

But both my dentist and dental hygienisit have both confirmed that I don't have gum disease. My gums are healthy. I have bone loss in my upper jaw and freaky, pointy molar tooth roots than don't anchor properly, which means I have lost a number of them. And my front teeth are very secure! They don't move like my upper molars did.

My lower jaw doesn't have any such problems. My teeth are all there, still fully intact and not moving. As my dentist said, if I had gum disease I'd have lost them as well. I brush, I floss, I use interdental brushes, I visit the dentist regularly but of course I must have gum disease. You do realise that menopausal women suffer bone loss that affects their teeth and tooth loss?

I haven't got time to rtft, but just in case this hasn't been posted:
Newspapers write their obituaries in advance. Sometimes years in advance.

Oh yes bluejelly also there are TV obituries already made for all the major public figures, they get updated periodically. So they can broadcast on the day they die.

some people are interviewed for their own obituary!

@steppemum

What questions?
Would that not just be an interview?

yes it is obviously just an interview about their life, but it is done for the obituary, rather than an interview for something else which is then used.

It is not my field, I saw it on a programme about it a few years ago

I used to work in a hair dresser many years ago. I don't know if this is a 'trade secret' or I just worked at a bit of a dodgy salon. When you get your hair washed, the towel used to dry it was put in a laundry basket. When the basket was fully it was taken out back and put straight into a tumble dryer without being washed and then folded and put back on the shelf. They were only washed once a week.

These are getting a bit tenuous now.

Following on from the secret Nuclear accidents mentioned at the start. I thought the secret event would be the accident at Windscale (now Sellafield) in 1957.
www.britannica.com/event/Windscale-fire
I live near the Solway Firth and remember a tv programme around the 1970s taking a geiger counter along the banks at the edge of the firth and it clicking like mad. Stuff was being leaked from Windscale .
I don't know if the deposits were a result of the 1957 event or later leaks, or even due to the powerstation on the north side of the Firth. But I remember reading that the 1957 radioactive cloud drifted west (unusually) to Dublin rather than north east with the usual prevailing winds.
I wonder if anyone is following this up to see if there is an increase in illness due to the leak.

PenguinFeathers

Nope that’s just the manky salon you worked for that’s vile!

The salon I worked in as a teenager (late seventies) did that too. Sometimes a towel would be put aside if it reeked of perm lotion but otherwise they were only laundered once a week. It was part of my job to take them to the launderette two doors down.

Midwives, why is there no pain relief for checking to see if stitches are needed? I haven't needed stitches but that was worse than labour. Being told to look at my baby didn't help and being checked is the only time I swore or got angry. I assume that actual stitches have some sort of numbing injection?

I work in the pensions industry, I have no secrets but I would never have a pension with nest or now pensions. Their customer service is absolutely shocking and their systems are awful, contributions getting mixed up or lost constantly. The company I work for is actually really good, you can even get rewarded for not following policy to ensure that the member gets what they need if possible.

Gummy I would add to that: midwifes, why are there so many of you who decline local anaesthetic when actually suturing a woman’s perineum after giving birth? The first time I didn’t know any better and went along with her suggestion of gas&air. After the first stitch I was begging her to stop and give me local. The second time I knew what was coming and said I wanted local - I had just given birth with no pain relief whatsoever ffs! Only to be told that I “just needed two or three into the muscle and a few on the outside” and for her to just proceed. I’m still so angry at them!

It is actually disgusting practice to be stitched without anaesthesia, only women, no-one else has this done, and repeatedly told it won't hurt. Yeah, well you do it to yourself. I refused any stitches eve for large tear (including 2nd degree). Screw that.

What is painful about 'checking if needs sutures?' Genuine question,just wondering what form of torture this is that hurts so much. In the main this is women doing this to women!

There's no anaesthetic for stitches?! Thank fuck I never needed them!

It was extremely painful to be checked both times. I had two home births, one back to back, no pain relief and being checked was so much worse than anything else. And I know they were being really gentle as well.

Are you talking about checking dilation? Previously it was about checking if needed suturing being painful!!

No, I refused examinations. I'm talking about checking to see if I needed stitches, so after placenta was out.

These practices are absolutely barbaric

Ok. Just to mix it up a little, here are a few random aviation ones.

Ahem!

The average passenger jet, Boeing 777 for example, has an average "lifespan" of 25 years. In that time it will have flown 50,000,000 miles! It will have landed and taken off again about 45,000 times.

The above numbers mean that a passenger jet spends about 9 years in the air!

The wipers on an aircraft are not synchronised like the ones on your car. They move independently, at slightly different speeds, and if are a particular type of character, this can be VERY distracting!

Aircraft are not designed to be on the ground. Most of the systems are compromised to some degree by the aircraft not being airborne. The airframe is happier when the weight of the aircraft is being supported by the wings rather than the landing gear.

Ill think of some more soon

There is local anaesthetic for post birth stitches, or at least there was when I had children 25+ years ago and when I did maternity placements five years ago. The injection was painful as nearly all locals are but the stitches themselves weren’t. Mine was a second degree tear.

I’d never stitch a woman up without using local anaesthetic or an epidural - are there actually midwives —bitches— who do this??

see this thread on saying NO to medics during and before labour

So am I being a bit of a wimp to want anaesthetic just to look to see if I needed stitches? I'd rather spend 5 whole minutes crowning than have that ever again. I almost kicked the poor midwife last time and I could tell she was trying to be really gentle.