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?

Hmm let’s see, it’s kinda hard to think of what people outside of sex work related industries would find interesting but I’ll rattle off a few things as this thread has been great. I’m a stripper by the way.

We much prefer “creepy old men” to young guys. Everyone always asks how we deal with having to dance for older guys or people we don’t find attractive but really they’re always way more polite and respectful. Plus they’re more likely to have money to spend.

Men’s aftershave on your down there’s after shaving really helps prevent razor burn (though of course only on front bits, nothing near actual genitalia).

Most men, no matter their age, have no clue how to pleasure women. You’ll have someone rubbing your thigh thinking they’re “hitting the spot” and getting you all worked up.

Strippers don’t wear glitter. You don’t want to be leaving trails of it on the guys.

Stripper heels are really comfy. My work shoes are 7 inches but because of the platform they feel like 3-4, plus they have a full inch of padding on the footbed. I can wear stripper heels all day but can barely go an hour in normal ones.

I too have been in numerous abattoirs and think it is baseless to say the animals '100%' know they are going to die. This smacks of not truly understanding animal behaviour, and is a bit arrogant, since we actually have no definitive idea of what animals think.

If they are scared, it is because they are taken away from everything that has been familiar. On-farm slaughter would be far more preferable. Sheep in particular have a flocking instinct, which means do-gooders who try to prevent animals seeing other animals die up the stress levels for them by separating them from other sheep first. Good abattoirs gather the sheep in groups, then touch each with the electric tongs to stun. The sheep wont react to this (naturally herdmates would be eaten by wolves or drop dead next to their mates).

I had a job once which meant dealing with the very small number of bull calves which are still shot at birth. This was an anathema to me but i did it without comment because i do not shy away from the difficult bits and want to research as much as possible. But i did whatever i could for those boys and was even pleased when i was on duty at that time because i could handle them quietly and gently and hold and stroke them as they were shot at least.

Felicitybeedle that's interesting,my mum didn't have dementia but was in an elderly persons ward, and only moved to that side room ibher last few hours perhaps the butterfly notice meant that.. .. Actually the nurse did open the window for "fresh air" after she had left us ..at the time I thought it was a bit odd ..

@HappyStripper Where do you buy stripper heels? I'd love to have a pair that I can wear for more than 5 minutes!

@Puzzledandpissedoff I'm in a residential home rather than on a ward (and work permanent nights). We always try and allocate one member of staff (day and night) to sit with the resident if we feel it won't be long. I would say 9 times out of 10, in our home, we will be with the person.

Oh oh oh

Just thought of a few more.

Most movies get Aviation and anything to do with it completely wrong.

An aircraft which is "out of control an about to crash" will never have screaming high pitched engine noise, in reality it probably wont have any engines running at all! And the aircraft wont be in a nose down attitude either, not unless something has gone very very very very wrong!

Commercially it's "Flight Level" never "altitude". There is a significant difference between the two which is always ignored in movies.

It's either "flight deck" or "up front", the latter is mostly used for aircraft which don't have a door separating the pilots from the passengers.

Irish ATC are generally considered to be the
friendlies and happiest bunch of people in the industry. I don't know any pilots who don't like flying there. They always have a little banter and always say a lovely goodbye, "good luck te ya now" "safe flight" it's fab!

Other ATC are just so "up themselves" (basically anywhere in North America) those people have ZERO sense of humour.

Someone was with my mum for which I am forever grateful.
Miss her so much.
Dementia robbed us of our last years together and it’s been over two now.

Lovely thread.
I love reading about what goes on in industries that are a bit different.

I used to rent my villa in Florida. Thankfully I never saw what went on between a guest leaving and my arrival . My cleaners saw to that.
There’s often comments about owners putting prices up at popular times. No, that’s what it cost to cover mortgage, council tax, electric for your aircon and washers and driers so you didn’t take all your dirty washing home. There was the tv company, the telephone company, the water company, the security company. The advertising company. The accountant. The income tax . The pool guy. The Gardiner. The management company and the cleaner. If there was any money left in the pot then that renewed bedding, towels, cutlery, crockery. It provided a tv and CD player in every bedroom ( 4) and one in the lounge.
Internet access.
Snooker tables, football tables, games, books
Hot tub
Repairs, painting, maintenance, carpets throughout the whole house cleaned twice a year

What we all did was discount our winter weeks to get people over when the weather could be a bit iffy....£600pw for 8 people was a bargain . One family paid for one week and the other the second week.
£500 in winter ( or maybe less when I first started up) Bargain

There’s a lot of competition out there...so if your villa got tired then you didn’t get repeaters.

I can’t read any more flying ones...till after Wednesday when I’m off to Tenerife.
We flew a year today in the middle of a snowstorm and got hit by lightning.

dowser

Sorry.

ATC people I have a question. What language do you communicate in?! I wondered if all pilots speak English?! How does everyone communicate across the sky’s with all the language barriers

The official language of aviation is English so that is spoken in ATC worldwide. However, pilots flying in their own country at quieter airports and airfields may be heard using their native language. Whether that is actually allowed, I don't know.

Thank you! I always wondered that! X

A/C are very rarely 'deep cleaned'

Once had a pax with severe case of diarrhoea, I'm talking seats....carpeted aisles....galley floors....cubicle walls....

Jet was still turned around in 35 mins and boarding the next happy lot of guests🤔

😷

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.

If the aircraft has gone tech it is not fit to fly.

Aircraft can and often do fly with technical faults, but they won't be classed as 'tech' because tech refers to not being able to fly.

@HappyStripper Where do you buy stripper heels? I'd love to have a pair that I can wear for more than 5 minutes!

Yes, I thought that! Link please!!

When someone goes into cardiac arrest, their heart doesn't necessarily stop moving completely. It may retain some movement, but not co-ordinated movement that results in a beat with blood flow.

A defibrillator actually stops the heart beating, in the hope that it then restarts in the correct rhythm. So if someone's heart has stopped working completely it cannot be defibrillated. When you see the "flat line" on the monitor on TV programmes, that's called asystole and cannot be shocked in real life. For a defibrillator to have a chance of success there needs to be some movement in the heart muscle

Thanks, HappyLife21!

LosingLola so like turning them off and on again?

MP's have a list of 'hotline' telephone numbers and contacts covering all sorts of Government Departments, regulators and utility companies - CMS, pensions/benefits, UKVI, amongst many many others.

A constituent's problem can usually be sorted out fairly quickly - or at least escalated if they have a problem. Organisations tend to respond quickly to any MP enquiry, so it is always worth contacting your MP if you are hitting a brick wall against bureaucracy.

music teacher here. Professionally qualified teachers with performance degrees who actually have got mastery of their instrument hate hate hate being reduced to teaching grade exams. Teachers dislike them not because they want an easier life or don’t want to be externally accountable, but because exam format is very restrictive and leaves a lot of worthwhile skills/repertoire out of scope. Often there are compulsory pieces which aren’t going to benefit the student, for example are too easy for them, but we still have to waste lesson time studying them. A capable teacher will have a good knowledge of the instrumental repertoire to select appropriate pieces for the student and they don’t need to be ‘told’ what they need to study in class. It is only the bad teachers who like the predictability, the rigidity and prescriptiveness of the grade exam format. Saves them time thinking about selecting interesting and challenging repertoire pieces and planning out the well rounded, balanced, steady progression for each student. So I am afraid, teacher only doing grades or only wanting to stick to grade books is the opposite of what the parents believe, it is not a good sign.

When financial statements are checked, auditors assign a materiality, this is a % usually based on revenue and it means that any of your figures can be out by a certain amount or won't even be checked (we assign thresholds). So if you have a big company, numbers could be out by millions and it is of absolutely no concern to us.

The so called Millenium Bug was one big con.
A lot of techy people went along with it because they ended up making a LOT of money going round various places 'fixing problems' that were never going to happen anyway

I work for a major high street bank.

Branch staff are paid very little but are under a huge amount of pressure to generate sales (but only ever to customer need; misselling really doesn’t happen BAU anymore) but also a lot of pressure to get a lot of risk and compliance stuff for Money Laundering etc right. A lot of it is very technical and time consuming but they don’t have a lot of time to complete the required paperwork and often end up using their lunch breaks to do so.

Most of them would be better paid working on the checkouts at a supermarket and would have a lot less stress to deal with.

So be nice to them please - they aren’t the greedy investment bankers who collapsed the economy, even if the brand above the door might make you associate them with that.

I worked in a large well known chain of fashion and home retail who have a catalogue. They sometimes wouldn't let you go home until you had got a certain amount of people signing up, and then would encourage you to sign up your family/friends just so they had the numbers. They also used to bring all the years old stuff out for the sale.

My husband works in IT. They have a saying that a job is a 'PICNIC'

Problem in chair, not in computer.

@IDrinkAndISewThings

Ref the Parkinson’s drug. That’s really interesting. My husband has a relative with Parkinson’s. We were told that having Parkinson’s makes you more impulsive, affects your decision making etc. Is it likely then that it’s not the actual parkies doing it but the meds???