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People Share The 'Dirty Secrets' From Their Profession That Their Bosses Don't Want Customers To Know

People Share The 'Dirty Secrets' From Their Profession That Their Bosses Don't Want Customers To Know
Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash

There's a lot to learn when starting a new job. Not just from the official training seminar you're forced to go to on Saturday morning at 7am when the sun is barely waking up and the coffee has become a lifeline from heaven, but from the on-the-job experiences. The knowledge you might need to survive would be too much to fit into one-day mandatory introductions, but you'll soon discover any workplace has its secrets you'll need to learn to manage to survive. On the other hand, there's secrets not even the bosses want you to learn, because if you do, then you might take to the internet to talk about them.


Reddit user, u/borborygmi_bubble, wanted to know about the most shrouded secrets when they asked:

What is a "dirty little (or big) secret" about an industry that you have worked in, that people really ought to know?

FRA-GEE-LE. Must Be Italian.

homer simpson episode 20 GIF Giphy

Your package will not be treated any differently if it has the fragile sticker. Sorry

tkcool73

Yeahbuwhat?

Unless you're extremely lucky and your aircraft just rolled out of the hangar after major maintenance, there will absolutely be something broken in it. An aircraft can have a whole host of parts be broken and still be allowed to fly, the broken parts just get labeled, recorded, and put on the to-do list for the next time it goes to maintenance.

ConstableBlimeyChips

Licensed Pee Tester

Don't know if this counts but not too long ago when I was working to pay for college I worked in a urinal manufacturer facility (it did other ceramics as well). They still use human pee testers to try out their new urinal designs. Apparently the machines they use for testing aren't as good as real humans yet.

Edit: to confirm I wasn't one of the pee guys. I packed ceramics. The peeing presumably happened at the testing place wherever that was. My boss said they just got people who worked there to pee and they measured sh-t like splash-back etc..

ToGrillAMockingbird

We Already All Agreed To Be Traced

Just how much you're being tracked across the web. It's not exactly a secret that there's tracking going on...people know that it's happening in the abstract. But most people don't understand the scale, detail and invasiveness.

For example, there's a very good chance that a website can determine your gender, race, age bracket and socioeconomic status on your very first visit. And many websites are tracking every click, scroll and mouse movement and sending many of them to the large providers (Google and Facebook, mostly). If most people saw the sheer amount of data about them that was being collected and shared, they'd be horrified.

tablair

"Soda. Boogers."

Not me but my aunt, she refuses to get fountain drinks from convenience stores. She said shes like this because of the inside of the soda machines, she calls them soda boogers really its just mold inside of the machine. Apparently the gas station she worked for only really cleaned the soda machine out once a year. Meaning they would just refill it but never would clean the machine

Fantastic-Ad-9750

Not All Sizes Are The same

homer simpson drinking GIF Giphy

Your weight hasn't changed, the clothing size ACTUALLY IS wrong.

We often had garment production quotas with a a min/max of 5%, i.e. - if a client wanted 1000 units of a design, the least you could ship was 950 and the max was 1050 units. Sometimes we would be short a few units for a specific size(A - not enough material, B - too many damaged pieces) and had a surplus of the next size up/down. To meet the quotas, we would swap sizing labels.

Now you're thinking, "How would this get past Quality Check (QCs)?" Well, when you have hundreds of boxes filled with 80+ pieces, you won't have time to inspect every single piece. You just skim a few off the top and move on, but what you don't know is that the pieces with altered sizes have been distributed evenly amongst the dozens of boxes of each respective size, and none is the wiser.

Not going to mention any specific brand names, but these garments are often sold at large chains like Macy's. JCPenney, etc.

Magicaldandruff

Feels Like Glass, Bounces Like A Ball

When you buy stuff offline and it gets "damaged" during shipping there a good to fair chance someone was pissed off about something and they took it out on your package... the mentality that goes around is "ehh it's not my stuff". So if you have to shop online... be cautious and try not to order the heavy stuff

affecting_society

You Know Those Plastic Owls You Put On Your Roof? Like That.

If you see what looks like a big dead bird hanging from a cell tower, it's usually a bird effigy purchased specifically to hang there to deter birds from nesting. When (US) federally protected birds like ospreys or eagles nest on a cell tower, it severely limits the access to that tower, especially with nesting eagles. The fastest way to lose your job in the tower industry (besides a fatal accident, god forbid), is to get caught tampering with a bird nest without the proper permissions.

Flahdagal

Anything Can Happen In Those Car Bays

Former mechanic. Most know we are paid a bonus based on how much business we do so we have a incentive to find issues in your car and act like it's a bigger issue then it is. The part most don't know is some mechanics will purposely damage stuff for customers who clearly can afford to pay for expensive repair. Add on that if you call out a fellow employee for any of this and let a customer know, you will be blacklisted as word will spread fast. This will make a entire education you paid for from a trade school worthless in your area and is why I'm a former mechanic.

Note: I am only really blacklisted locally and could get a job in a different place or perhaps even now as that was over 5 years ago but I have a new career in IT that also pays well that I am much happier doing.

Forgot to mention that this happen in the USA and can only confirm it happens in the USA where the laws allow a dealership to only sell one manufacturer/brand of car along with franchise laws so monopoly style shady stuff like this is allowed to happen. Because of this the smaller shops are almost always (key word, almost! and only if they have a local competitor) decent at least as their reputation is everything to them. One bad rumor spreads and they take a huge hit so the damaging stuff is only really seen in large dealerships which have the back up of car sales and insurance company preference to make up for any bad press or word of mouth. Still I should again emphasis this is only really a issue in the USA and I do not intend to bash mechanics, lot of them are good, hardworking people, and wish these practices of "look the other way" would stop.

hkingkirk

For All Of Us In Retail

When we say "we haven't got it", we know that we haven't got it, we work here, this is our literal job, we don't need to "just check in the back."

UrsaMinorNinth

And when we do "check the back", we're having a drink, catching up with colleagues, or even just standing for a few seconds, only to walk back out with an apologetic shrug and tilt of the head.

crimsonstare

A Secret To Keep Hidden

There are a lot of nurses who are substance abusers. And there are more nurses that divert drugs than you would think. A lot of times they get quietly let go because that's easier for the facility they work at then pressing charges and reporting it to the state.

eternalrefuge86

I think you can just say "healthcare professional." I've seen a lot of colleague substance abuse get tragically brought out in the open across disciplines.

AnyoneGrindingXP

LIES

homer simpson episode 10 GIF Giphy

Burger King's veggie burgers are made on the same machine that makes the beef, so if they are using a drip pan to catch the burgers coming off the chain, your veggie burger is soaked in beef juice (grease.) Even if they aren't using the drip pan, unless they're testing temperatures with veggie burgers (they aren't) before lunch, the veggie burgers still come in contact with the beef. (The original ones that were made from around 2005-2019) didn't touch the beef at all.

That's why it tastes like a real whopper.

NeedsMoreTuba

The Dispenser

I worked at a frozen yogurt/smoothie joint and we were never shown how to clean the juice dispenser (we made fresh juices to sell but had a juice machine - the same as a soda machine, more or less - to dispense premade juice for the smoothies as this was more efficient) until the health department stopped by for a visit.

I was asked how often we cleaned the insides and was direct about how we were never given instructions to do so, nor how. The inspector knew how, so we opened that mess up, and inside found not only the mould clumps you are describing but also bundles of dead and live fruit flies.

You can bet I then cleaned that freaking piece of crap like crazy, all the time, until the day I quit. Horrifying. I wouldn't be surprised if practices have returned to that level of negligence with whatever staff they now have (given myriad similar issues).

Pavomuticus

Know your Doctors...

I knew a guy who knew a doctor that got caught using drugs from the hospital's supply. He had to do supervised urine tests for a while. He ended up getting caught faking those because the tests revealed that he was pregnant. He'd been using his girlfriend's urine and a catheter to fill his own bladder with her urine.

SmartAlec105

"fixed"

I had a friend whose father literally made up a car part that was "out of whack" just to "fix" it for over five hundred dollars. He thought it was funny that the guy didn't know a lot about cars. I don't care how much you know about cars or how much money you think that guy makes, you're a nasty little con artist for a move like that.

SolaPhobophobia

The Teacher's Target

Teachers can be among the worst bullies to other teachers that you will ever meet. I was horribly bullied all through my training year, undermined, gaslit and generally made to feel terrible. She wasn't alone in this behavior, I've seen it since. It's left a massive mark on me almost a decade later, and despite great observations and good results from and relationships with my students, I still wildly doubt myself. I'm getting better, but it's taking a lot of practice.

seargentangua

Nandos....

mr bean eating GIF Giphy

Former Nandos chef here, they buy the chicken for as little as 25 pence per whole chicken, pressure cook it for 7 minutes, leave them in hot boxes for up to 6 hours, add cheap chemicals instead of any actual spices and sell for roughly 20 times what they paid.

NothingHereAfterAll

Tallied Down

I used to have a job where I had to check examiners' testing of school exams, basically making sure that they'd correctly added up their own tallies. We'd only check about 20% of exams to begin with and it was pretty shocking. Let's just say a lot of kids get marked down a full grade because of sloppiness. It made me wish I'd requested my own GCSEs and a level papers back.

DazzlingPineapple0

Unclean

the sandlot dust GIF Giphy

Reminds me of a cafe I once worked at. I remember it was a slow day, so the other front worker and I were looking for literally anything to do, when I caught a look at the milkshake mixer. The mixer was fully external, but looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months. At least it gave us something to do for 20 mins? And that thing damn sparkled when we were done with it.

Sora20XX

The Replaceable...

Artist. There's the easy dirty secret that is the industry abusing and under paying artists and forcing them to work insane hours.

Then there's the other one: we let them do it. Artists are very egocentric and don't really think about how their actions and cowardice in the face of negotiating pay and better working conditions sets a president for how crappy every other artist will be treated in the future. It's honestly something that disgusts me. We all love to bitch about how crappy the industry treats us but most artists I've talked to also say: well that's just how things are and you really shouldn't complain because you can always be replaced. Lol okay.

I decided early on that I was not gonna allow myself to be mistreated like that for my entire career. If I want better working conditions for artists it starts with myself and how I let others treat me. That isn't easy when you start out but it is slowly starting to pay off and though the nature of the industry (and humans in general) is to try and overwork and under pay you even after you set boundaries, it is YOUR job to negotiate with them and/or tell them no when they squeeze the lemon too hard. Because no one will do it for you and no one gives a crap if you sell your entire life to work for them for minimal pay. They will never value you if you don't value yourself.

Didartforthegirls

Impossible Requests

In the translation industry exists the rule that any translation should be verified and edited by a second, independent translator. It's part of the ISO standard.

But customers demand ridiculous deadlines that can't possibly be met. Instead of saying that, it's common practice to just skip the editing step without telling them because literally lying and breaking contract is apparently better than telling a customer that their demands are just not possible to meet.

0xMii

Trust Nothing

Hotel Housekeeper here!

There's almost always a bad housekeeper on staff and you never know when you're gonna get put in the rooms they clean. Ask for fresh sheets and towels when you check in. unmake the bed down as far as you can and watch for stains on the mattress pad, pillow protectors, and duvet. Duvets, mattress pads, pillows, and pillow protectors are usually only changed when visibly dirty or wet. Display pillows and blankets, and couch/chair cushions are even worse.

Don't trust anything unless you saw it come into the room clean.

Of the places I've worked The Marriott had the best standards but The Hampton Inn guarantees you a free night if you find ANYTHING wrong.

Good_Rugz

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Quality Removal

During the last week of open enrollment for medicare plans, one of the biggest health insurance provider in the USA removes all their quality teams (your "make sure they don't do illegal crap" team) to put on the phones to sell and then pushing illegal sales tactics in the name of speed and numbers.

Find an unethical law for over the phone sales, they violated it.

X_Slicer_X

"close enough, nail it"

caenter GIF Giphy

With construction it is very common for people to take major shortcuts.. especially when working for national builders. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the phrase "close enough, nail it" in my short time of 4 months while working there.

Diiety-

Out it goes.

Post office (specifically mail sorting): Your letters can be eaten by our sorting machines, even super important ones. If the address becomes unrecognizable, we literally throw those letters out as they cannot be delivered. So whether it be your cheque, a bill, divorce papers, that letter from your little niece with a hand-braided wristband inside, that custom made hairpin you ordered from an artist online or birthday cards with money; If it gets eaten by the sorting machine, we can only try to reconstruct it, seal it and deliver it anyway but if not? Out it goes.

Quite often this happens randomly, just bad luck. But most of the times, it's because the letters are not according to the norm, aka they're too hard/unflexible/thick, they have foreign objects inside (such as coins, rings, other jewelry etc.) or too thin (a lot of brochures/flyers have that issue, they're made out of one single layer of plastic coated paper). These letters then jam our machines, which we use to sort hundred/thousands if not millions of letters every single day. Then the machine may tear them apart and even if the content is still fine, if we can't read an address (or even return address) there is nothing we can do.

TL;DR: If your letters get messed up by our automatic sorting machines and we can't read the address any longer, you/the recipient are screwed.

EstRinaudo

Mouthing Off

loud dexters laboratory GIF Giphy

Working in IT at a few different firms we had a habit of really bad mouthing the customers behind our back about how stupid they were.

YankelMyWankel

Kitchen Nightmares

Every chef I've ever worked for knows that the second the government pulls into the parking lot, you yell "HEALTH DEPARTMENT," and everyone in the kitchen cleans everything spotless. Meanwhile, the hostess spends five minutes walking in a circle before coming back with the FOH manager who chats up the HD employee for ten minutes. During all of this, sous chefs are putting fresh labels on every container in the walk in, the butcher is putting all meat back in the fridge and then taking a twenty minute smoke break, all sani buckets are replaced, and everything is wiped down, swept, and mopped.

With a brigade of twenty people, a restaurant can go from failing to effortlessly passing. If you go to a full scale sit down restaurant and the inspection is sketchy, dude, that place is a damn Kitchen Nightmares level of disgusting. If you go to a small pizza place or Subway style sized restaurant, it's safe to assume they had zero time to prepare and the rating is close to accurate.

Upstairs_Cow

Speed Up

Fast food joints? Yeah they probably aren't following any of the hygiene protocols.

I worked washing my hands up to the elbow every 30 minutes, using the designated spatulas for different objects. Manager showed up with her hands unwashed straight out of her filthy mouse & keyboard, grabbed the burger I was making with her bare hands and assembled it in a fast and messy way. Said ''See? Like that. You gotta be faster.''

I was sorry for the client who was gonna eat that. So yeah, especially during this Covid crisis, be wary. Those places are way dirtier than they look.

GotMuchToLearn

The Dots

Realtor here. Builders can put little SOLD dots on any and all condos they want in a development. This convinces buyers that there are "ONLY A FEW LEFT!!" Meanwhile, barely any have sold.

frick-you-fricker

A-HA Moment

shocked oprah winfrey GIF Giphy

There big secret to therapy is that you, the patient, actually have to do things differently between sessions. In order to "change", you gotta change.

I swear it is like the surprised Pikachu meme when clients find out this information.

dinosarahsaurus

Day people

Daycare workers are severely underpaid and understaffed. Most staff don't even earn the equivalent of one child's tuition a year, let alone the 12-20 students in their class. The student:teacher ratio they tell you is a lie. There's high turnover because admin usually sucks.

When choosing a daycare, look at the staff. Are they happy, or do they look tired and overworked? Do the toys/materials look like they need to be replaced? If staff looks surprised when you walk in for a tour, there's zero communication going on between admin and staff.

Also ask for names of staff (most rooms will have 2-3 teachers). If they can't give you the names of 2-3 staff members who will consistently be with your child, the place sucks.

There is no distinction between daycare/learning center/"school". Just be happy that your child will be safely cared for while you work; some staff have an associate's or even a Bachelor's degree, but most only have a high school diploma or GED.

GetBabyToy

Taking Liberties

Nurses do not always follow doctors orders. Been a nurse for 10 years now and I've seen countless nurses be like "oh Mr. Smith won't stay off his call light and go to bed, I'm gonna give him some Ativan and a Benadryl tonight" Mr. Smith doesn't have orders for these meds so they sign them out from another patients supply and drug Mr. Smith.

They also frequently fake vital signs, pop meds without looking at orders, fake assessments, withhold meds out of laziness, fake notes to make patients they don't like seem more combative... all kinds of crap!

Most of this stuff goes unreported and management turns a blind eye because they desperately need staff.

realish7

High End Gross

Recently worked (also quit) at a high-class restaurant with HORRIBLE hygiene standards.

Glasses were all spotted and dirty, again forsaking hygiene for the sake of speed. Tables were COVERED with dry wax, once I cleaned a bunch of them to reveal a white color underneath all that, I THOUGHT THEY WERE BROWN AT FIRST. On top of this, during COVID crisis, they put up ''Table sanitized and disinfected. Wash your hands!'' sign on all the tables, and I can confirm they were lying their asses off.

I decided I was done with the food industry. They don't respect anyone's standards but their own.

GotMuchToLearn

Do Room Temp...

Jesse Pinkman Reaction GIF by Breaking Bad Giphy

Since I was a waitress a few years ago, I've learned not to trust the hygiene standards around ice and sugar cubes.

DazzlingPineapple0

Enjoy that chocolate & wafer bar

I worked in a chocolate factory making bars with wafers in the middle. The chocolate has to be liquid when the wafer drops in. The wafer machine was on a bridge over the chocolate moulds. Someone had to regularly restock the wafer machine. To keep chocolate in that state it has to be hot. The people working in that hot room sweat. Sweat may or may not fall from the person on the wafer bridge onto the chocolate below.

Enjoy that chocolate & wafer bar.

thewaythatyoudoit

Keeping the Sexy Fresh...

Hollister, Abercrombie, etc. hire employees and officially call them models so they can be discriminatory and hire the ones that they think are most attractive. They also only give employees a couple of shifts a week so that customers see new people working there regularly.

mywifemademegetthis

Gloves Off

In the blood and plasma industries. You don't change gloves anywhere near as often as you should. Frankly, it's because you have to work at a very fast pace and you can't get gloves on sweaty hands fast.

SheOutOfBubbleGum

Misbehavin'

mad scientist images GIF Giphy

The principal scientists in competitive research industries don't act like how scientists should.

usefulsociopath

Road Damage

Ambulances are not well maintained at all. They're on the road for 24 hours, often miss safety checks, documentation is falsified, and get subpar repairs done to get them "roadworthy" again.

I know a lot of people who like to buy ex-service vehicles thinking they've been looked after but it couldn't be farther from the truth.

helsingforsyak

Trays Up

The trays on the cinemas are dirty as hell, you'll be surprised on how dirty people can be. Technically employees have to wash them properly in the sink but sometimes, (specially weekends) there are so many people that they just use a cloth (that also gets pretty dirty after a couple of trays). I can't assure that this happens in every cinema but just take your precautions don't assume that they are clean.

jorgespinosa

Being Vocal

Most every vocal recorded has been tuned. All drum sounds have samples layered in. Guitars are most often blended from 3-4 different tones into one. All instruments and vocals have been edited to be more in time. Music takes a lot of artists a REALLY long time to make and most of it is helped in ways that aren't acoustic.

shakespeareanff

Craft Fail

If the artist feels the need to prove to you that the art is good, it either isn't or they don't think it is. When the artist explains what their piece symbolizes and how it should make you feel on their social media posts, they're often over compensating for what they perceive as lackluster craftsmanship.

Also, those overpriced low effort art pieces you see (and many mock) are probably being used to launder money.

JessLynnStudio

Scrub Please

whole foods shopping GIF by South Park Giphy

Wash your produce. It has definitely been on the floor.

lional-hutz

In a 'float'

Transfer money from one bank to another. Until 80's maybe early 90's(?) it was done by sending a magnetic tape in mail or courier, and it really took 2-3 days. Today banks are all hooked up and a transfer takes minutes if not seconds but the money still takes up to 2-3 days, the money are kept in a 'float' where the bank earns, and you lose.

OldMork

Berry People

I used to work on a blueberry farm. Sprayed Roundup all around the rows, put fertilizer on stuff, harvested by machine.

The law in the state I worked said that after you go over the bush twice to harvest the ripe berries, any OTHER berries you get can be labeled as "wild" berries. So watch out in the store if you see them and have pictures in your head about tiny hidden blueberry patches in the wilderness. Nope.

edgarpickle

Security Fail

Security guard.

In the event of an active shooter, we're not going to protect you. Our first priority is to locate the nearest exit and get out of the building; failing that, find the securest room we can & barricade ourselves in it.

This is for unarmed security; armed security may have different orders.

Reddit

Retail

In retail they hardly hire anyone as full time if it means you will be entitled to benefits. They will also schedule you as a "split shift" say 1-5 and 6-9 so that they don't have to offer you paid breaks.

billygoat2017

Know It All

christine ouzounian dating GIF Giphy

Your nanny knows everything about you. I know when you've been fighting, I know your embarrassing secrets, I know what your underwear looks like and when you're on your period or having marital issues. I spend 50+ hours a week in your home and whatever I don't see myself your kids tell me about it.

TheBrontosaurus

Useless....

ACI logistics Bangladesh. When you're shopping there, chances are you're buying useless crap 95% of the time. the salesmen get daily bonus if they can push sale to a certain amount.

rayane_maynard

All the Value...

Real estate assistants with little to no experience or knowledge often are the ones who, not only "calculate", but send you the message saying that your home has "gone up in value" and try to convince you to sell... nothing about these properties really has to change. The inflation is all so that people in real estate can make their money. Most of the time, that's the only reason housing values/prices "increase" without any kind of renovation.

daywitchdia

Thrown About

traveling season 9 GIF by Curb Your Enthusiasm Giphy

Your checked luggage at the airport gets freaking thrown so hard multiple times and if it says fragile or a guitar case, your screwed.

captainawesome1983

Jobs That Seem Easy But Are Actually Incredibly Challenging

Reddit user CeleryLover4U asked: 'What's a job or profession that seems easy, but is incredibly challenging?'

Woman stressed at work
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

When we hear about other people's jobs, we've surely all done that thing where we make assumptions about the work they do and maybe even judge them for having such an easy or unimportant job.

But some jobs are much harder than they look.

Redditor CeleryLover4U asked:

"What's a job or profession that seems easy but is incredibly challenging?"

Customer Service

"Anything customer-facing. The public is dumb and horrendous."

- gwarrior5

"My go-to explanation is, 'Anyone can do it, but few can do it for long.'"

- Conscious_Camel4830

"The further I get in my corporate career, the less I believe I will ever again be capable of working a public-facing job. I don’t know how I did it in the past. I couldn’t handle it in the present."

"I know people are only getting worse about how they treat workers. It is disturbing, embarrassing, and draining for everyone."

- First-Combination-12

High Stakes

"A pharmacist."

"You face the public. Your mistake can literally kill someone."

- VaeSapiens

"Yes, Pharmacist. So many people think their job is essentially the same as any other kind of retail worker and they just prepare prescriptions written by a doctor without having to know anything about them."

"They are very highly trained in, well, pharmacology; and it's not uncommon for a pharmacist to notice things like potentially dangerous drug interactions that the doctor hadn't."

- Worth_University_884

Teaching Woes

"Two nuggets of wisdom from my mentor teacher when I was younger:"

"'Teaching is the easiest job to do poorly and the hardest job to do well,' and 'You get to choose two of the following three: Friends, family, or being a good teacher. You don't have enough time to do all three.'"

"We all know colleagues or remember teachers who were lazy and chose the easy route, but any teacher who is trying to be a good teacher has probably sacrificed their friends and their sleep for little pay and a stressful work environment. There's a reason something like half quit the profession within the first five years."

- bq87

Creativity Is "Easy"

"Some creative professions, such as designers, are often perceived as 'easy' due to their creative nature. However, they may face the constant need to find inspiration, deal with criticism, and meet deadlines."

- rubberduckyis

"EVERYBODY thinks they are a designer, up until the point of having to do the work. But come critique time, mysteriously, EVERYBODY IS A F**KING DESIGNER AGAIN."

"The most important skill to have as a designer is THICK SKIN."

- whitepepper

Care Fatigue Is Real

"Care work."

"I wish it could be taken for granted that no one thinks it's easy. But unfortunately, many people still see it as an unskilled job and have no idea of the many emotional complexities, or of how much empathy, all the time, is needed to form the sorts of relationships with service users that they really need."

- MangoMatiLemonMelon

Physical Labor Generally Wins

"I’m going to say most types of unskilled labor and that’s because there’s such little (visible) reward and such a huge amount of bulls**t. I’ve done customer service, barista, sales, serving, etc; and it was all much harder than my cushy desk job that actually can be considered life or death."

- anachronistika

Their Memory Banks Must Be Wild

"I don't know if I'd call it incredibly challenging, but being one of those old school taxi drivers who know the city like the back of his hand and can literally just drive wherever being told nothing but an address is pretty impressively skilled."

"Not sure if it's still like this, but British cabbies used to be legendary for this. I'm 40 and I don't think most young people appreciate how much the quality of cab service has gone down since the advent of things like Uber."

"Nowadays it's just kind of expected that a rideshare/cab driver doesn't know exactly where you're trying to get and has to rely on GPS directions that they often f up. Back when I was in college, cabbies were complete experts on their city."

"More even than knowing how to get somewhere, they could also give you advice. You could just generally describe a type of bar/club/business you're looking for, and they'll take you right to one that was spot on. Especially in really big cities like NYC."

- Yak-Mak-5000

Professional Cooking

"Being a chef."

- Canadian_bro7

"I would love to meet the person who thinks being a chef is easy! I cook my own food and it’s not only OK to eat but I make a batch of it so I have some for later. So, to make food that is above good and portion it correctly many times a day and do it consistently with minimal wastage (so they make a profit), strikes me as extremely difficult."

- ChuckDeBongo

Team Leading, Oof

"Anything that involves a lot of people skills and socializing. I thought these positions were just the bulls**t of sitting in meetings all day and not a lot of work happening but having to be the one leading those meetings and doing public speaking is taxing in a way I didn’t realize."

- Counterboudd

Not a Pet Sitter At All

"Veterinary Technician."

"Do the job of an RN, anesthesiology tech, dental hygienist, radiology tech, phlebotomist, lab tech, and CNA, but probably don’t make a living wage and have people undervalue your career because you 'play with puppies and kittens all day.'"

- forthegoddessathena

Harder Than It Looks!

"Sometimes, when my brain is fried from thinking and my ego is shot from not fixing the problem, I want to be a garbage man... not a ton of thinking, just put the trash in the truck, and a lot of them have trucks that do it for you!"

"But if the robot either doesn't work or you don't have one on your truck, it smells really bad, the pay isn't what it used to be, you might find a dead body and certainly find dead animal carcasses... and people are id**ts, overfilling their bags, just to have them fall apart before you get to the truck, not putting their trash out and then blaming you, making you come back out."

"Your body probably is sore every day, and you have to take two baths before you can kiss your wife..."

"Ehh, maybe things are not so bad where I am."

- Joebroni1414

Twiddling Thumbs and Listening

"Therapist here. I’ve always said that it’s pretty easy to be an okay therapist—as in, it’s not that hard to listen to people’s problems and say, 'Oh wow, that’s so hard, poor you.'"

"But to be a good therapist? To know when your client is getting stuck in the same patterns, or to notice what your client isn’t saying? To realize that they’re only ever saying how amazing their spouse is, and to think, 'Hmm, nobody’s marriage is perfect, something’s going on there'?"

"To be able to ask questions like, 'Hey, we’ve been talking a lot about your job, but what’s going on with your family?' And then to be able to call them on their s**t, but with kindness and empathy? Balancing that s**t is hard."

"Anybody can have empathy, but knowing when to use empathy and when and how to challenge someone is so much harder. And that’s only one dimension of what makes being a therapist challenging."

- mylovelanguageiswine

Constant Updates

​"For the most part, my job is really easy (marketing tech). But having to constantly stay on top of new platforms, new tech, updates, etc etc is exhausting and overwhelming and I really hate it."

"Also, the constant responsibility to locate and execute opportunities to optimize things and increase value for higher-ups. Nobody in corporate roles can ever just reach a point of being 'good enough.' More and better is always required."

"Just some of the big reasons I’m considering a career change."

- GlizzyMcGuire_

Performing Is Not Easy

"Performing arts and other types of art. People think it’s a cakewalk or 'not a real job,' not realizing the literal lifetime of training, rejection, and perseverance that it takes to reach a professional level and how insanely competitive those spaces are."

- ThrowRA1r3a5

All About Perception

"I suspect everything fits this. Consider that someone whose job is stacking boxes in a warehouse has to know how to lift boxes, how many can be stacked, know if certain ones must be easily accessible, know how to use any equipment that is used to move boxes around."

"Not to mention if some have hazardous or fragile materials inside, if some HAVE to be stacked on the bottom, if a mistake is made and all the boxes have to be restacked, etc."

"But everyone else is like, 'They're just stacking boxes.'"

- DrHugh

It's easy to make assumptions about someone else's work and responsibilities when we haven't lived with performing those tasks ourselves.

This gave us some things to think about, and it certainly reminded us that nothing good comes of making assumptions, especially when it minimizes someone else's experiences.

Left-handed person holding a Sharpie
Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash

Many of us who are right-handed never even think about how the world is designed to cater to us.

It probably doesn't even cross your mind that 10% of the world's population is left-handed.

Because of this, there tends to be a stigma for being left-handed since society tends to associate the left with negative things.

For example, the phrase "two left feet" applies to those who are clumsy and therefore, incapable of dancing.

Curious to hear more about the challenges facing those with the other dominant hand, Redditor johnnyportillo95 asked:

"What’s something left-handed people have to deal with that right-handed people wouldn’t even think about?"

If only manufacturers appealed to an ambidextrous world.

Furniture Obstacle

"Those desks or couch chairs that have a small desk attached. They do make left handed/sided ones but they are few and far between."

– Prussian__Princess

"And they’re only on one side of the lecture hall, and it’s never a good seat. There is ONE front row, lefty desk in the entire room and it’s in the far corner, obscured by an ancient overhead projector."

– earwighoney

Everyday Objects For Everyday People

"as a left-handed person myself, one thing we often deal with is finding left-handed tools or equipment. many everyday objects, like scissors or can openers, are designed with right-handed people in mind, which can make certain tasks a bit more challenging for us lefties. we also have to adapt to a right-handed world when it comes to writing on whiteboards or using certain computer mice."

– J0rdan_24

Dangerous Tools

"The biggest risk is power tools. I taught myself to use all power tools right handed because of risks using them left handed."

"Trivial, I love dry boards but they are super hard to write on."

– diegojones4

It's hard to play when you're born with a physical disadvantage.

Sports Disadvantage

"Allright, Sports when you are young. Every demonstration from PE teachers are right handed. You cant just copy the movements they teach you you need to flip them and your tiny brain struggoes to process it. As well, 98% of the cheap sports equipment the school uses is right handed."

– AjCheeze

No Future In Softball

"I tried to bat right handed for so long in gym class growing up because the gym teacher never asked me what my dominant side was and the thought never occurred to me as a child to mention it! Needless to say I never became a softball star."

– Leftover-Cheese

Find A Glove That Fits

"In softball and baseball we need a specific glove for our right hand that's often impossible to find unless you own one, and we have to bat on the other side of the plate."

– BowlerSea1569

"I was one of two left-handers in a 4-team Little League in the 1980s. Nobody could pitch to me. I got a lot of "hit by pitch" walks out of it."

– Jef_Wheaton

These examples are understandably annoying.

Shocking Observation

"Having right handed people make comments whenever they see us write, like we’re some kind of alien."

– UsefulIdiot85

"'Woah! You're left-handed????'"

"I find myself noticing when someone is a lefty, and sometimes I comment on it, but I try not to. I'm primarily left-handed (im a right handed wroter but do everything else left), and every single time I go to eat with my family, someone says, "Oh hey, give SilverGladiolus22 the left hand spot, they're left-handed," and inevitably someone says, 'Wait, really?' Lol."

– SilverGladiolus22

Can't Admire The Mug

"We never get to look at the cute graphics on coffee mugs while we’re drinking from them."

– vanetti

"I just realized…I always thought the graphics were made so someone else could read them while you drink. Hmmm."

– Bubbly-Anteater7345

"I'm right-handed and I often wondered why the graphics were turned towards the drinker instead of out for others to see."

– Material-Imagination

The Writing On The Wall

"Writing on whiteboards is a nightmare. I have to float my hand, which tires out my arm quickly, and I can't see what I've already written to keep the line straight."

– darkjedi39

"Also as a teacher, it means I'm standing to the left of where I'm writing, so I'm blocking everything I write. I have to frequently finish writing, then step out of the way so people can see, instead of just being able to stand on the right side the whole time."

– dancingbanana123

Immeasurable

"Rulers."

"How the f'k is no one talking about rulers? It's from 30cm to 0 cm to me, or I have to twist my arms to know the measure I want to trace over it."

– fourangers

Just Can't Win

"EVERYTHING. The world has always been based around people being right handed. As a Chef, my knife skills SUCKED until I worked with a Left Handed Chef. Then it all made sense."

"Literally, everything we do must be observed, then flipped around in our heads, then executed. This is why Lefties die sooner, on average, than Righties."

"I had to learn how to be ambidextrous, just to complete basic tasks (sports, driving a manual, using scissors, etc). I am used to it now, and do many things right handed out of necessity, as wall as parents and teachers 'forcing' it upon me."

"But, at least we are not put to death anymore, simply for using the wrong hand (look it up, it happened)."

"Ole Righty, always keeping us down."

– igenus44

The world doesn't need another demographic to feel "othered" for being different.

But if you're right-handed and tend to make assumptions about left-handed people, you may want to observe the following.

Ronald Yeo, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin told CNN:

"We shouldn’t assume much about people’s personalities or health just because of the hand they write with."
"And we certainly shouldn’t worry about lefties’ chances of success: After all (as of 2015), five of our last seven U.S. presidents have been either left- or mixed-handed."

Word.

Dog lying down on a bed
Photo by Conner Baker on Unsplash

Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.

While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.

Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.

Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.

For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.

Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:

"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"

The Tiny Issue Of Water...

"Absolutely not."

"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649

Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...

"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."

"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."

"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."

"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep

The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...

"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."

"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3

Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen Giphy

What Do You Mean Allow?

"I have no choice."

"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412

"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle

Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way

"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show

Hug GIF by The BarkPost Giphy

Who Needs An Alarm Clock?

"I let my two cats sleep with me."

"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."

"And so do I."

"We've all developed a lil routine."

"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_

Whose Bed Is It Anyway?

"Yes."

"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."

"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor

"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."

"Would not come out."

"Got some food and some water in dishes."

"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."

"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."

"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."

"She was too busy eating."

"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."

"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."

"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."

"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."

"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."

"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."

"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."

"She would not go."

"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."

"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588

sleepy kitten GIF Giphy

Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...

"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."

"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."

"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle

Saying No Just Isn't An Option...

"'Let'."

"Lol."

"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren

Felines Only!

"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz

Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official Giphy

Is That My Hair On That Pillow?

"My dog is perfect."

"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."

"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."

"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester

It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.

Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...


Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.