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?

Just thought of one . .

If the crew are trained and the aircraft is equipped (mostly modern passenger jets, I wont bore you with the exact types) an aircraft can literally land itself. It's called an "auto land" and is mostly used in very heavy fog. A trained crew usually perform an auto land at least once a month to mantain certification.

Please please keep them coming. This is fascinating

"Would Mr Jet please report to the Stage Manager"

=

Bomb scare

I work in council tax and all councils have a big pot of money to award to customers who are facing difficulty (a different pot to council tax reduction). It is often not widely publicised but at this time of year there may be some left and not much time for it to be used so is a good time to request help if you have a balance left on your council tax account

pisspants

What's the official name? Why do people ask for? I know someone who would benefit from this kind of help

@Roomba please don’t feel bad! It wasn’t your fault at all! It just makes me so cross - babies should not come to the neonatal unit unless absolutely necessary and your Ds’s admission was clearly completely avoidable.
Also - I can assure you your DS will have been well looked after. Myself and every single one of my colleagues treat all the babies under our care like they are our own. We will cuddle them and soothe them and generally do everything we can to make them feel secure and loved until they are well enough to come back to you. We know how traumatic the separation is for you, so we do all we can to make sure your little one is well looked after.

@thelightsideofthemoon horrified at the nails in bodies and thinking vampires! Did you really mean screws?

Awww that’s lovely summersb

Do keep them coming.
I don’t really have anything but back in the day when we had a woolies and it had a sweet counter..1967 to be exact
Most of our sweets were unwrapped and came In Huge boxes.
Malrezers were my favourite . They came in 26lb boxes and I would bob down under the counter when it was time to open a fresh box...and have a slack handful 👍

Now they were lush and I’ve never tasted anything in a prepack like those fresh Maltesers.

Oh and my family never paid for anything to be dried cleaned.
We used trichlorethylene on any stains...that my dad brought home from the large chemical company he worked for.
Apparently it was the same chemical as used in the dry cleaners.

( in fact we had a cupboard full of very dodgy, hazardous chemicals)

needthisthread** they are called discretionary council tax payments

Thanks, that's really interesting.

Most politicians are decent people who went into politics to make a difference

Some are phenomenally clever, some not so much. Some are very nice people, some not so much. The clever and / or nice ones are not always the ones that you would think of from what you hear about them in the media (and vice versa)

@DarlingNikita There is an amazing thread in Mumsnet Classics titled something like ‘What happens after people die?’ And it is full of NHS staff talking in the most moving way about the respect and care that they give when someone has passed away. It really is worth reading for anyone who has any concerns.

Aviation again.

Aircraft are very complex machines with lots of things which can go wrong. Which they do. Frequently. When something breaks or malfunctions, the aircraft “goes tech”.

You might assume this means the aircraft is unserviceable until the fault is fixed by an engineer. Not always. Sometimes, an engineer will assess the fault and decide that fixing it can wait. If the Captain agrees, the aircraft will operate flights with loads of paying passengers despite having a technical fault. Happens all the time.

They are aircraft, by the way. Never ‘planes’. Calling an aircraft a ‘plane’ is a dead giveaway that someone has never worked in the industry.

Auctioneers bid "against the wall" - when an auction starts to get it going if no one has bid they will pretend some in the room has bid and may do this several times

BUT they can only do this below the reserve price. apparent early bids may not even exist.

Photographer here: purple is the most difficult colour to photograph accurately which is why I hate it when brides choose purple flowers.
Also, the reason you don't get every single photograph we take is because we are trying to cherry pick the best images to give you a beautiful story of your day. And NO, we won't give you the RAW files. That's the equivalent of giving you the negatives, thus taking away our copyright to those images. Oh and no it's not the expensive camera that takes good pictures, it's me!!! I have that camera so I can avoid using flash in really bad light and still give you great pictures. Oh and no we don't charge extra just because it's a wedding. Weddings are very labour intensive, and require a lot of man hours pre and post event which is why a good photographer isn't cheap!

My jobs boring(pubs), but I don't want this thread to die!
Ice machines are vile, almost never cleaned and often mouldy ( I was the only person in my old job who bothered to learn to do it- I left two years ago, not been done since).
We have to clean up after you, so when we/bouncers ask you to leave we're not spoiling your fun, we still have another 1-2hours of work to do. In big chains we will probably be on the morning shift too, so 6-7 hours between shifts. Many big chains only pay to a set time too, so we don't get paid after XXX time, but still have to complete tasks.
A 20p tip is better than none, if everyone tippped 20p the unpaid hours would even out, and we will be more patient. Being nice and polite trump's tips, as does bringing empties back to the bar.
I now work with male only customers (except functions/occasions). Drunk men are boring, and most very courteous. They are more relaxed than when in the company of wives/gf's, there's always more trouble when partners are around then when men only.

Great thread 😁

I have nothing interesting to add really.

Except : people abroad are not as territorial about mugs as Brits are. In fact, they don't even bother having a personal mug at work

@laksa2meryls
I can’t comment on the side room but the butterfly on the door generally means that someone is confused/has a dementia diagnosis. It means we will treat them in a certain way, so we start every conversation reminding them who we are and what we do, we talk more slowly and explain what we are doing for them in small steps so they wont get all the information at once and forget it. There are more things to it, but they are the important ones

Young people's support work.
It is absolutely unbelievable how much shit some people have to go through in life and how resilient they can be. And heartbreaking when it's too much. Like other posters have mentioned, the support of colleagues and a dark sense of humour is vital.

@triggers34 was going to give the same fact from my time working in a wedding dress shop.

From my uncle an aircraft engineer.

When maintenance or repairs are carried out on the aircraft as with anything in life sometimes you have a few nuts and bolts left over. These are called "weee bolts" because you say "weee" as you throw them in a bucket in the corner of the hanger

Teachers hate giving detentions. We are in detention too. Believe it or not we are trying to help the pupil learn a valuable life lesson, not trying to punish or humiliate them. As pp said, teachers’ favourites are often the cheeky ones, mainly because they make you laugh. Boys are far more forgiving than girls and almost never hold a grudge after you tell them off; teenage girls, on the other hand, may hate you forever.

A few insiders notes...the panam Lockerbie aircraft was was laid almost pieced together decades after the crash inside an air craft hanger
Commerical kitchens and roaches!!
Being paid for signing death certs in the mortuary referred to as going to the 'cash point' (as cash paid for each signing)

Thanks newsername if you're sticking a needle in I'm already freaking out so oh well. My booking bloods and 12 week blood were rolled together to limit the trauma I caused a scene and ended up with an audience of doctors and nurses standing at the door to see who was being tortured