For most of us, a bad day at work might mean a missed deadline, having to fire off a few snarky "per my last email"s or maybe a snoozefest of a meeting. For medical professionals, a bad day at work can mean literally the worst - or last - day of someone's life.
These are those stories.
Reddit user J0E_The_Psych0121 asked:
Doctors/surgeons/nurses of reddit, what's the worst thing you experienced while at work?
We're going to caution you, if you've got a weak stomach for talking about bodily fluids (or solids... or semi-solids) or you're easily upset by talk of death or dying, proceed with caution. This article will have plenty of it all.
The responses were sometimes funny in retrospect, but for the most part they ranged from disgusting to heartbreaking to disgustingly heartbreaking. Take a look.
Go Through It Alone
"Taking care of a fall patient that broke her pelvis. She just found out her husband had cancer and she wouldn't be there for him. She was crying, telling me that he was there for every appointment and treatment when she had cancer, and now he'd have to go through it alone. She felt like she was failing him or letting him down."
"She About To Die Anyway"
"Watching another nurse pulling a fall mat away from a patients floor next to her bed. When asked why, she said flatly (in front of the patient!) "She about to die anyway."
"The patients mouth was stuck open because she was so emaciated, but she could still cry. Her frozen face somehow allowed her to still cry after she heard that, and she did for a long time. I sat there with her. The patient was in custody of the state (a mental hospital) and they chose to withhold food and water as a type of forced DNR (do not resuscitate.)"
"Part of a DNR type of plan can include refusing artificial ways of being fed like a feeding tube etc... and if someone else is in charge of making you a DNR or not because you've been deemed not of sound mind, then yes that can happen. A lot of mental patients have no family and their "guardians" are the state. The state doesn't know the patient and will chose whatever option they want, typically the most "cost effective" one which can lead to situations like this."
"She was around 90 something. We were forced to watch her slowly starve to death and were not cleared to give her enough medication to ease her awareness of it."
"The nurse who made that heartless comment in front of the patient was reported, but I don't know what happened because I quit right after that."
The Longest Incident Report
"Former Paramedic, long story short, got a call for what turned out to be a very dead, decomposing man who had passed alone in his apartment. His body was filled with gas (fairly common.) As I'm standing by the body calling the hospital to give them a heads up about what's about to come their way and get approval to move, the new EMT decides to poke gas filled body. It explodes. He loses a hand and a trillion vaporized bits of dead old man cover me, got in my open mouth, under my clothes, etc. Taste was...awful."
"A lot of gas can accumulate in dead bodies, and if it gets trapped, it can be almost like a bomb. New guy was kneeling next to the body, I think this was his first serious call because he had that kind of glazed-over, "I'm in shock" look in his eyes, and he put his hand on the guy's stomach. NEVER press on bloated dead body's stomach. His hand sank down into this bloated, gas filled sack until said sack just..broke."
"My crew chief said it would be like sinking your fist into a box of firecrackers. Honestly, not sure how he came up with that analogy and didn't really work in my mind. But yeah... dead body exploded, got gunk everywhere and took off the EMT's hand."
"After hundreds of showers I could still smell corpse on me. My SO at the time said every time she nuzzled me, or got close to my hair she could smell it too. It was like that for about a week. It still makes me gag to think about - but that new kid's life was pretty much permanently changed."
"Longest Incident Report I have ever filed."
- Sam9231
Fear Of Dentists
"This happened when my wife was a student nurse. A guy came in who had broken a tooth; but as he had a morbid fear of dentists and of anything to do with his mouth, he didn't seek any treatment for months and the tooth got horribly infected."
"By the time he came to hospital, he was seriously ill and it was too late. The infection got into his blood and he died a few days later of septicemia. Apparently, the smell from his mouth was the worst smell that any of the staff had ever experienced."
Why I Gave Up On Pediatrics
"This case in my internship made me give up on specializing in pediatrics."
"Young boy got brought in for rheumatic heart disease, already in heart failure. Apparently this all started from a minor skin infection and went all the way up into his heart valves. We met him already in the pediatric ICU. He was still conscious and able to talk, and so for his first day we built a sort of rapport."
"The next morning, before my friends and I clocked out, he wasn't looking so great so the resident in charge called in the general surgery team to perform a cutdown to expose his veins for access. I had to hold down the poor kid during the procedure, since local anesthesia could only do so much. He was screaming so I told him, "Just hold on, we'll get through this!"
"He nodded and said "Okay" then tried his best to be brave."
"That was the last conversation we had. When I came in for my next shift, he was already intubated. The only parent with him was his father, since his mother was employed overseas. Now for many of these cases, a letter to the employer is needed to explain why so and so must go home in this case of family emergency. I volunteered to draft the letter and send it out so we could get this lady on a flight soon, and have her come home for her son."
"As soon as I put the last period on that letter I was typing in the nurse's station, the kid coded just a few feet away. We couldn't bring him back. The next worst part, of course, was telling his father what had just happened and asking if he wanted us to stop the resuscitation. That conversation will stay with me."
"No one should have to bury a child due to something so preventable."
- KatyG9
Death Over Debt
"The saddest one was a woman who had an aggressive but treatable cancer. She was riddled with guilt from all the debt her family was incurring and broke down when she told me she wished she would just die soon so that the debt would stop accumulating. That one hurt to hear."
When Mom Only Wants One Baby
"Respiratory therapist here. When I was a student we had to do a rotation through a NICU/PICU. The NICU was very busy with 7 or 8 sets of twins all on mechanical ventilation. As the therapist I was with was giving me a generalized report on the babies and trying to teach me about the disease states the babies were experiencing, she said "and mom only wants one of them" and moved on like it was nothing."
"I asked if it was common if a family only wanted one baby and she said "Oh, yes. all the times. sometimes it's because one baby is a lot worse than the other and mom doesn't want to get too attached in case it doesn't make it, or, like those two over there, mom can only afford one of them."
"I couldn't believe something like that took place and was as common place as it was. Made me never want to work in pediatrics. The human experience is far, far worse than the traumas and illnesses."
- rip_lyl
"People think they want everything possible done to save them until they see what that means on a dying family member. We had it happen in our family. It took two months for her spouse to finally let their dying partner go and the shock and grief made our younger daughter not talk for a year. I went gray in those two months and my husband barely spoke during that time. Death with dignity should be available for anyone who needs it."
"Our younger daughter is back to singing again after years of therapy. We all wish more people knew the importance of medical wishes being filed before things go really wrong so that nobody else suffers the way my family member did because of someone that just doesn't want to let go. She needlessly suffered and it devastated everyone else."
Worthless Nephew
"I worked a temp job for a local hospital's home health/hospice department. One of my jobs was to call new patients and confirm their address before the nurse and/or therapist would make their first visit. I had to call this one patient who tried to take his own life by jumping in front of a commuter train."
"When I called, his uncle answered and went on a twenty minute rant about how worthless his nephew was and how he was a complete burden on the family now and that it would have been better if he died. I understand suicide can be seen as a selfish act but my heart went out to this guy."
"The patient obviously had some stuff going on to push to the point of attempting to end his life and then for him to survive and have to listen to his family member say such harsh things... it was brutal to say the least. I often wonder what happened to him."
Diarrhea Blood Fountain
Giphy"I was a 3rd year med student on my 3 month internal medicine rotation. For people who don't know, this is generally the time in your life where you feel the most stupid every minute of every day."
"I had arrived for work just barely on time (at 430 am) for my 573 hour shift. Of course I was dressed to the nines because medicine is stupid sometimes and you have to dress to impress. Tie, nice shoes, slacks, button up, that sort of thing. Might as well have had on tails and a top hat. Imagine a monocole for effect."
"I started rounding of course. I went in to see a patient I will call "Mr. Hipaa." I had seen him for several days at this point and he was usually pretty chipper. He had been in the ICU for a GI bleed, but had done great and now stepped down to the floor. This morning he wasn't talking very much. That's not unusual though, it was 442 AM and I was barely conscious myself. But something felt off and there was just an odor in the room."
"My spider sense was tingling so I checked the bathroom. They always say you only have to smell melena once to never forget. This was my once. The floor, the toilet, the walls, were covered in that inky black anal spray. I was assaulted by the pungent aroma of iron shavings and death. It was icky. So I went, "Oh. Mr. Hipaa I'll be right back!"
"I toddled off to find one of my residents. Those lazy bums didn't usually wander in until after 5. Managed to find my chief who seemed uninterested in what I had to say. I wasn't chicken little, I had never cried wolf before. I remember this seemed fairly important and him showing no interest whatsoever. Bad resident, no donut."
"So I went to the real power on the floor, the nurses station."
"They promptly did the wrong thing too."
"They check his BP and systolic is in the low 80s. Prior had always hovered in the 130/40s. My internal dialogue is screaming "that boy aint right!" but my third year medical student body is standing there, now surrounded by multiple nurses, just trying not to get in the way and trying not to look even more stupid or say the wrong thing."
"Well, they want to move him to the chair. I still all these years later have no idea why. I managed to squeak out a "Should we be standing him up right now given the crazy low BP and massive blood loss?" but an MS3 speaking is like a fart in the wind so I went unheard."
"So we stand him up. I'm holding on to his left arm, another nurse on his right. He had little strength to support himself. A half a gallon of blood-tinged feces (or feces tinged blood?) promptly falls out of him and on to the floor. I mean it literally fell. Imagine moving your china cabinet and it tilts a little bit and the dishes just FALL. It didn't squirt, or spray. It just fell as a mass, hitting the floor and splashing out."
"At that point Mr. Hipaa decides, "Enough with being conscious!" and promptly passes out. It could have been something to do with he now had a Hgb around 3 and went from laying to standing with a BP on the lower end of life compatibility. Now I'm a regular sized big guy, 6' 200 pounds. My nurse was 5'3 120. Mr. Hipaa was 6'3 250. There was no stopping this fall once it began. Timmmmbbbeeeeeerrrrrr He fell face forward and planted... right into his bed! Crisis averted! My moment of joy was instantly changed to terror as I looked down at his bare behind, jack-knifed into the air like a Whataburger A-Frame. Then it happened."
"Diarrhea blood fountain."
"The perfect symmetry of it as it exploded from him is something I'll never forget. It was like the Bellagio, or Buckingham fountain in Chicago. Just this perfect fluid dynamic cone that reached a foot and a half into the air then gently allowed gravity to pull it down making that gorgeous trumpet like flare."
"Except it was made of diarrhea and blood."
"I, in my tie and fancy clothes suddenly became Neo from the matrix. My concrete pillars were the various nurses. They took hit after hit, while I dodged like Christian Bale in Equilibrium. I danced, I juked, I spun like no one has ever spun before. I was the Fred Astaire of sh*t swerving."
"When it was all said and done, three nurses lost their lives that day (meaning were covered in feces and blood) while I, who had been staring down that fleshy barrel, had gotten away without one speck of red or brown or black on me."
"The outcome? Mr. Hipaa went back to the ICU, little bit of PRBC, another embolization and he was home happy and healthy two weeks later, I got in trouble for not letting my resident know what was going on (WHAT?!), And as far as I'm aware those nurses are still showering to this day."
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
We thank all the medical professionals out there for their commitment to their patients.
Do you have any experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.
It seems kids are being encouraged and pressured to choose a career at an earlier age every year, and often the information they have to base their decisions off of isn't the most accurate or transparent.
Unfortunately, a lot of people pursue the dreams they had as a child, like to be an artist or astronaut, only to discover all the hard work they'd put in was for a job that fell desperately short of their expectations.
Redditor American-pickle asked:
"Did you ever obtain your 'dream job,' only to realize it wasn’t actually what you wanted? Why did it not live up to expectations?"
Working from the Air
"I always wanted to be a flight attendant. Then I actually was one. No thanks, ever again, but for a few years it was fun, and then it just became a series of indistinguishable hotel rooms, and it wasn't worth putting up with the passengers anymore."
- oy-withthepoodles
Too Far From Home
"I always wanted to be a part of the music industry but didn't want to be a performer. I went to college for audio engineering and was a live sound engineer/stage tech/guitar tech for about seven years."
"I did love the job and I'm glad I did it, but it was pretty clear after I started touring that it wasn't feasible for me as a lifestyle."
"In order to do the job consistently, you have to basically be homeless and miss everything that happens at home. It wasn't like I was miserable and being held hostage, but after missing enough birthdays and holidays with family and instead spending them with other random stage techs that you aren't super close to, it gets hard to rationalize."
"The days are long, but the pay doesn't reflect that. If it was a show day, I'd usually work for 16 hours straight. I was working with pretty big-name acts, but my day rate was still about $175 a day, and if I asked for a raise, they'd call someone else."
"Everything I did was also as an independent contractor, so my taxes were f**ked to begin with. That was actually what forced me out of doing it full-time, the change to the tax code in 2017 pretty much ruined my career. I went from paying $600 per year to paying $4,000 in one year."
"When I quit, I still kept doing it on the side for a few years with some of the local audio companies I worked with coming up, but it paid way less than touring, which already didn't pay a lot. After about two years and the beginning of the pandemic, I walked away entirely to focus on my career as an electrician, which is a much better fit."
"I miss the experiences, but I don't miss the lifestyle. Again, I'm glad I did it, but I'm glad I don't do it."
- DeltaBearlines
A Little Too Quiet
"I worked a lot of physically demanding jobs during my twenties and had these recurring fantasies about working in a store, sitting all day waiting for people to buy something, and having all that free time."
"Well, a couple of months ago, I found that job. Great pay, some benefits, great bosses."
"But every day it's slower than the last, and weirdly enough, I come back home tired from doing almost nothing all day long, the f**k is with that?"
"Now sometimes I fantasize about going back to my old job, where I would end up covered up in sweat and dirt but at least there was a feeling of accomplishment."
"So dumb, I hate it."
"Edit to Add: Yes, I tried to use that free time on something educational. First, it was programming, and then knots, not sure why, and then I got bored and started Portuguese to 'learn how to learn,' so I could move to more serious subjects and stop abandoning interests."
"I'm planning to study English formally instead of picking it up through memes, but I never get that right motivation or discipline or mental state to actually do it, to do anything at all."
"I just... play mobile Mobas for hours."
. MaeSolug
Camping for Work
"My first job out of college was as a forestry field tech. Turns out camping is way less fun when you worked 10 hours, don't have cell service, are on a random flat spot you found, and there's no one to talk to."
"Now make that eight days in a row, your only water is in jugs in the work truck, and you're covered in grime and wearing the same clothes for the entire time."
"Now I get to stay in a cabin during the field season. Having running water, a bed, and four friendly people on the crew is a godsend. I am so much happier just having company and running water, 'adventure' be d**ned."
- Mirrorflute88
That Living at the Zoo Dream
"All throughout childhood and college, I wanted to be a zookeeper."
"When I was finally offered the internship though, it took me less than a week to realize I couldn't stomach it."
"It's a lot less 'playing with and training cute animals' and a lot more 'cleaning up the vilest messes and being bombarded with the absolute worst smells on planet earth' than I imagined."
- duneden9
"A pony kicked me and gave me a concussion and I got fired for it, lol (laughing out loud)."
"It makes me laugh now. But I was a Junior Zookeeper and they just would tell me to do random things with no training or supervision."
"I had never even seen a horse in real life. I was cleaning its stall and from behind pushed it softly and told it to move outside."
"So in response, it broke two of my ribs and launched me into the gate and I got a concussion, and then it came over and bit me while I was puking."
- MaloPescado
Boring License
"I never really enjoyed driving but always wanted to learn to fly. So I dropped 10k on a pilot's license and found out flying was just driving with up and down added."
"Weird was how quickly a childhood dream turned to 'meh.'"
- thecoolerllcoolJ
It's Not All About Helping Animals
"I dreamt about working in Veterinary Medicine my whole life. When I finally did, I ended up traumatized."
" It wasn't the blood, the abuse, or even the euthanasia. It was how we just didn't talk about it."
"Bad day? Don't talk about it. Got hurt? Don't talk about it. Rude pet parent? Don't talk about it. Burnt out? Don't talk about it."
"I felt so alone in situations where having support was essential."
- lilybear032
Playing with Trains
"When I was younger, I desperately wanted to work on the railway as the money was great, and I really loved railways and everything in that world. I eventually managed to get a job as a welder with a local firm."
"It was f**king w**k. Permanent nights, working every weekend in all weather, with equipment that weighed an absolute tonne that had to be loaded up dark embankments. I was working with thermite and explosive gases, usually after pushing all the gear about three or four miles down the track."
"One Christmas, I worked a shift on a site where a guy was killed the previous weekend after getting his arm chopped off by an excavator. They had a collection box in the site cabin with a picture of him and his young kid on it. F**king heartbreaking. And to top it off, everyone I worked with was a complete and utter [c-word]."
"F**king s**t job."
- CommentOne8867
Working in the Science Lab
"Working as a chemist in an academic research lab."
"Academia is full of narcissistic nutjobs that pretend like their research is the holy grail of their field when it's actually practically inconsequential. The stakes are so low that the results don't matter and everyone is just scavenging for what little funding they can pull together for something nobody really wants or needs."
"The amount of pettiness, sabotage, and frankly fraud is rather pathetic. But they face little to no repercussions because, again, nobody cares."
"Which is why I now do research in a corporate lab."
- AbortionSurvivor777
The Renowned Music Teacher
"I am a teacher and when I first graduated college, I couldn't decide what age range I wanted to teach. My first job was ages four to twelve in orchestra."
"At first, this was amazing, because I could guide the same students from beginners to graduating, but I quickly learned that the 4-12 position was supposed to be a three-person job and not a one-person job."
"I, unfortunately, had to quit because I was so overwhelmed and my school wouldn't hire anybody else. I lasted six years and I don't regret it, but I also don't miss it..."
- karaoke_knight
The Glamourous Life
"To answer the original question, sort of. I got close to it. Close enough to see what that life would actually be like. And it sucked."
"It turns out, I don’t like working with celebrities. They’re kind of annoying clients. It’s not fun and glamorous. It’s unnecessarily stressful."
"And I don’t want to be a famous stylist or famous anything. It makes people weird. Mark Ruffalo is only normal because he hasn’t figured out he’s famous yet."
"I still enjoy doing hair. And I still like people, for the most part. So I went with a more low-key path. I’m very happy with my choices. Sometimes on the way to your dream job, you have to make adjustments."
- friendlynbhdwitch
Hopefully an Isolated Incident
"I got my dream job as a designer of skiing magazines, but then my workload doubled with no raise, the raises I was promised never came, all of the people I liked working with left, and things just got gradually worse."
"I left three months ago, and they still haven't been able to fill the position because they're offering a wage that was low nine years ago for half of the work."
- partial_birth
Teaching Isn't What You See in the Movies
"Teaching at a college."
"I love my field and I love research. It's easy to ramble for hours on end about a topic. The passion and curiosity I held for my discipline, I thought, would make me a good instructor. What I did not expect was how much hatred, contempt, jealousy, and sabotage would come from the administration."
"'Oh, you're enjoying teaching an entry-level class with 30 students? We'll raise the cap so it has 75 enrolled. Have fun grading until you cry each week!'"
"'Oh, you want to be an expert educator in one area? Then you get to be the (unpaid) consultant on *all* department exams on that topic. Enjoy re-writing 7 midterms for your colleagues with one week's notice!'"
"'Oh, you haven't had a raise in six years? The football coach *needs* to be the highest-paid person in the state. If you ask for a cost of living increase again, we'll set the students against you by claiming inflation-adjusted raises for instructors would result in doubling tuition costs for students!'"
"And so many of the students see the courses as box checking and are burnt out from previous bad educational experiences. I don't blame them, but no matter how hard I tried to be kind and share my excitement for the subject it felt like throwing a dandelion into the grand canyon of despair."
- Clever_Mercury
The Truth Behind Graphic Design
"I always wanted to be a graphic artist. I wanted to pass by billboards that I designed, print ads I made, a portfolio with all my paid work, and case studies. I even centered my major around it."
"When I got to the professional world of it, I found out it wasn’t as fun as it was when it was just a hobby, not even close to how I thought it was going to be. The sleepless nights, the deadlines, moving goalposts brought by irrational revisions and indecisive stakeholders; it’s draining."
"I shifted careers and started a job as a backend software developer. I find it more enjoyable. If the code quality passes and it works as expected, then I’m off the hook. No 'Can you try a different font? I just wanna see it,' or 'What happens if you switch this and that? How is it gonna look?' types of stuff."
"Fast forward, and I’m in an architect and designer role now. Best decision I’ve made for my long-term well-being. I still do graphic design, but it’s for my passion projects now."
- abmendi
Plot Twist!
"I worked for a small non-profit doing work that I was super passionate about. I thought it was going to be a dream job. In reality, I was super overworked and underpaid. And being such a small organization there was lots of interpersonal drama that I was just not into."
"I now work a more 'corporate' job, but it’s still work I’m passionate about and makes a difference. I’m getting paid over double what I made previously, my workload is manageable, and I am way less stressed. I also really like my coworkers and boss, AND I work from home full-time."
"The job I was unsure about wound up being the dream job."
- littlepinch7
Like anything else, careers are often portrayed in our social circles as something that's wildly different from actually living the life of that profession. How teachers, doctors, and zookeepers describe their days at the front of a classroom full of starry-eyed children is hardly the same as when those children later walk into those jobs as an intern or new-hire.
Fortunately for some of these Redditors, they were able to find adjacent work that better suited their needs, without leaving behind the full dream they'd been chasing.
The world has become wrought with individuals who seek to bamboozle you into forking over your hard-earned money.
There have been so many cons throughout history that have evolved as people have gotten wise to them, but the scam artists were always one step ahead and improved upon their malicious schemes to continue being on the prowl for more gullible victims.
Curious to hear examples of some of the most notorious cons, Redditor GransShortbread asked:
"What are some of the biggest scams to have happened in history?"
Caveat Emptor.
European Con Artist
"Fake selling of Eiffel tower. Twice."
– pavioko
"Victor Lustig, exactly who i thought of too."
"He had another scheme where he sold people with too much money and not enough sense a box that “duplicated currency”, and then when they realized they had been scammed they would either be too embarrassed to do anything or scared of being busted for attempting to counterfeit."
– SlainSigney
Moving To A Fictional Country
"Gregor MacGregor tricked a whole bunch of people into moving to a fake country in Central America."
– SnooChipmunks126
American Fraudster Financier
"Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme."
– neonblue3612
Italian Swindler
"Charles Ponzi’s scheme."
– Brainjacker
"Damn, he was named after the term for scamming somebody, bad luck."
– insertstalem3me
Beware of the companies you trust.
Misuses Of Funds
"US Telecom companies getting like 200 billion to expand infrastructure, which they didn't do - then using that money to f'k us over with the FCC's 'fast lanes.'"
– yalaket111
Where The Funds Were Allocated
"Most of the money went to rural ISPs who just used the money to buy off all other rural ISPs and nearly bankrupt themselves with operating costs. CenturyLink and Frontier were the worst actors. Bought up a bunch of small local ISPs and cities that Verizon and ATT wanted to give up on supporting."
"Didn't make any improvements to infrastructure. Really should have had more regulation around it because that money was essentially stolen."
– foxbones
Live Event Exploitation
"My hate for Ticketmaster is beyond anything in the world."
– aRealTattoo
"22k for Taylor swift. HAHAHAHA"
– Cornyboy100
A certain religious organization got a bad rap.
Faith In Hollywood
"The Church of Scientology."
– SuvenPan
Sometimes, it's the little things.
Expensive Solution
"The price of printer ink."
– SolarGum
"This is really a thing the EU ought to regulate better. They have introduced USB-C for standardization, now please force printer companies to make new models that all adhere to one standard ink cartridge that must be able to accept any 3rd party made ones."
– Chillypill
This Cuts Deep
"Replacement razor cartridges have entered the chat."
– Hockeygoalie1114
Too Much 4 Tulips
"Tulips in the Netherlands in the 16th century. There was a point at which one tulip bud cost as much as a good house."
– Aerobiesizer
It's always good to be aware as a consumer that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Also, listen to your gut instincts when in a suspicious scenario.
My first time in New York during snowfall, a man "bumped" into me and "dropped" his glasses on the freshly accumulated snow and accused me of breaking them because I wasn't watching where I was going.
He insisted I repay him by going to the ATM and handing him $200. Being skeptical right away, I told him I didn't have my debit card on me and I offered to take his address so I can send him a check.
Considering he wasn't getting cash in that moment, he huffed and walked away. I guess he didn't really need the money.
Unfortunately, incidents like this has made me a cynic and it's made it very difficult for me to trust everyone I meet.
But is it better to always be on your guard or allow yourself to be vulnerable from time to time to avoid being judgmental?
Ultimately, that's up to you.
Non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, are becoming a far too common practice amongst businesses and corporations.
While generally signed and distributed to ensure classified information isn't leaked, far too many companies and businesses use them to cover up shady business practices, as well as hostile work environments.
As a result, when employees sign them, they are unable to come forward about the unhealthy, unethical, or even unsafe working conditions they may have had to endure.
As doing so could possibly result in their being faced with legal issues themselves.
Thankfully, certain types of NDAs are now illegal allowing many people to come forward and share the hostile and dangerous conditions they had to endure at their former places of work.
"Blanket NDAs are now illegal. What can you finally tell us about your former employer?"
Insider Trading And Dirty Money
"They bought back a sh*tload of shares from employees under the pretense of 'we know the extra cash is better now than later!' and then went public shortly thereafter."
"The bonus is that the CEO then admitted he was using 'some' of that money to finance his divorce."- crackpotpourri
Improper Spending
"They misused pandemic assistance funds."- Quercus408
Falsifying Records
"I worked for a school district that changed grades to boost graduation rates."- RoscoeFreidland·
GiphyToo Little Too Late...
"They tried to get me to sign one when I retired but I just laughed at them and walked out."
"When you retire you are not under any circumstances required to sign an NDA!!!"- Tede6977
How Long Have You Got?
"I worked for the political consultant best known in DC circles for having gotten a dead fish in the mail from Rahm Emanuel."
"The consultant was a super weird boss."
"Full of shady business practices, including expensing all of his personal sh*t like family vacations to the business."
"But this is the story that tends to blow minds:"
"My former employer had me print out his emails so he could handwrite his responses, which I would type up and send back."
"No, I wasn't his assistant lol."
"He was too cheap to hire one."
"So he'd pull people off time sensitive client projects to do this crap, which turned everything into chaos."
"One of the many reasons turnover was high and the business failed."- rotatingruhnama
Buster Keaton Secretary GIF by MauditGiphyDeception At It's Worst
"Our sales department deliberately used deceptively vague language when selling extremely expensive travel packages to disabled passengers."
"They routinely left caregivers stranded with no accommodation other than 'the floor' or sleeping in the same bed as their patients."
"They also routinely failed to provide accessible bathrooms for disabled passengers."
"They also lost/damaged wheelchairs and mobility aids."
"There was little to no sympathy for these passengers and their caregivers when they rightly complained."
"When I tried to raise the issue with higher ups I was labelled a trouble maker."
"I left the company back in 2019 but I know nothing has changed in regards to sales."
"The price for the cheapest trip offered was over 2k CND person for a two day trip."
"The average booking was 8k for a 5 day holiday."
"They charge much more now."
"Can you imagine paying 8 thousand dollars and not being able to shower, or your mobility aid being lost."
"Then when you complain you are told you were never promised anything only 'we will do our best' or 'that shouldn’t be a problem!'"
"F*cking disgraceful."- moodychurchill
But Did They Get It In Writing?
"A publication I worked for completely embezzled from the parent company."
"The editor in chief hired their best friend as creative director."
"Creative director contracts their husband as a 'men’s fashion editor' when the publication had no men’s fashion section and was not a fashion-related pub."
"He was paid thousands monthly on retainer and almost never came into the office, and if he did, he never did any work."
"On top of that he was paid usage fees for travel images he took and were printed."
"That family took a one week trip for a story, brought their child, and submitted a $40,000.00 expense report after for it."
"Oh, then there were the future invoices for her husband’s usage fees for his photos, while they were being paid to be there because it was for a story."
"Other editors in chief from other publications were given a $25,000.00 clothing budget every year and a daily black car driver to take them to the office."
"When I worked for another title in the building that EIC submitted a very high expense report which included his groceries."
"The company would even provide interest free down payments to EICs for homes but they stopped doing that."
"Meanwhile they ran multiple rounds of layoffs a year, consolidated staffs so they worked across multiple titles, and paid peanuts to regular employees."
"I was laid off from that company twice within 2 years and they didn’t vest my 401K match because both times I missed the cutoff by months."- The_RoyalPee
Editor In Chief Media GIFGiphyConflict Of Interest
"One of my old bosses reprimanded an employee after the employee called HR to file a complaint about him."
"This is because the HR employee happened to be a friend of the boss in question, and the HR employee blabbed about it to the boss."
"The boss did not get fired but he did get reassigned not long after."
"Not sure what happened to the HR employee."- NotConsistentCalc
Lack Of Common Sense
"I worked for a company that f*cked up itself by biting off more than it could chew, and then a competitor went under, which flooded the market and f*cked over the company I worked for even more."
"Most of the company has been laid off by now."
"CEO went before anyone else."
"The new CEO?"
"The same f*cking sh*tty CEO that sunk their competitor."
"Who the f*ck would see a competitor fail, have it nearly take themselves down too, and then hire the same f*cking idiot a few weeks later."- prettyqueerdad
Not What They Appear To Be
"The weather forecasting company I worked at a while back didn’t actually forecast."
"They just copy/pasted products from the National Weather Service and slapped their logo on it."- freesedevon
GIF by Owain Wyn EvansGiphyIt's shameful to think that some companies are able to silence their employees from exposing their corrupt practices.
Unluckily for them, the truth always has a way of coming out.
Very few people enjoy being scared.
Those very few that do enjoy being scared often seek it out, by watching scary movies, going to a haunted house, or enjoying a thrill ride.
But even those brave souls who seek out being scared do not enjoy the feeling when it comes upon them by surprise, in real life.
Finding themselves or loved ones in life-threatening situations, and leaving them with a memory they would give practically anything not to have.
"What's the scariest experience you've ever been through?"
Narrowly Avoided Drowning
"At about 10 years old, I fell through ice on a pond."
"When I came back up, I smacked into ice...instead of the hole I fell through."
"The water was too murky to see any light from the hole, and I thought that I was witnessing the end of my short life."
"I was lucky to find the opening again, but as I tried to get back up, the ice kept breaking and I'd go under again."
"The whole event probably lasted 30 seconds...but to me, it was a lifetime."
"It's been 35 years, and I'm still nervous on a frozen body of water...even if cars and trucks are driving on it."- jekern
"Drowning."
"I was jumping off some high rocks into a river."
"It’s was a place in the town I grew up in that everyone knew."
"One day I somehow got turned around in the water after hitting and swam down, when I realized and turned around I was too deep to make it up."
"About 8 feet down I inhaled water."
"It burned and was cold at the same time."
"I could feel the pain in my ears as I tried to exhale the water."
"I don’t remember surfacing, my friends pulling me to shore or coughing up all the water."- WhatWouldTNGPicardDo
Chainsaw Accident
"I survived a chainsaw accident to the throat, 16th March 2022."
"Trachia, thyroid and epiglotis (hope I spelled those right) were each in two parts."
"The operating doc came by two days afterwards, with huge eyes, and told me about the puzzle pieces he had to put back together."
"I’m basically fully recovered except for my voice that sounds a bit hoarse because of nerve damage."
"It is slowly recovering and I am going for speech therapy."
"At the beginning though I did sound a bit like Lemmy Kilmister and thought about reviving Motörhead."- TokoloshNr1
Family In Danger
"Getting a phone call at work to tell me that my wife’s routine surgery had gone wrong due to an anaesthetists mistake and she was now in a coma in the ICU."
"I dropped everything and ran."
"What greeted me when I walked in was the stuff of nightmares."
"Tubes everywhere, machines beeping."
"My wife was in ICU for 23 days before they took her off life support and she died in my arms."
"Life has never been the same since."- M1r9f7i9sh
"Watching my 3yr old son whither away due to Leukemia to the point he was so weak he couldn't walk, sit up, talk, and we would have to hold his head in place so that he could watch 'Paw Patrol'."
"He's now almost 4 and back to walking again, and seems to be winning this long hard battle."- -Alter-Reality-
Held At Gunpoint
"One night I was working in a rural old wooden gas station."
"A masked man kicked the door open and robbed me with a shotgun."
"He was more scared than I was, which made me more scared than he was."
"I got him out of there with the money and all the cigarettes."
"The next day the newspaper published my name and address."- eightfingeredtypist
Infectious Disease
"Tick-borne encephalitis."
"I didn't even know a tick had bitten me and went from headache to shivers and extreme fever until I wasn't able to walk without my wife supporting me."
"Even reading made my head spin like crazy and I didn't know what the reason was."- DifferenceDependent6
Near Abduction
"I was 13 years old and my dad had just picked me up from high school but had my grandma in the car too so I sat in the back seat."
"We were driving back home and my grandma wanted to quickly run into a shop so we parked up outside the shop."
"My Gran was having trouble getting up the steps out front of the shop so my dad jumped out to help her, at that exact moment I noticed my dads gold chain he lost a couple of weeks ago under the seat in front of me so ducked down and reached under to get it, as I'm trying to reach under the seat someone got in the car."
"I looked up and they kinda looked like my dad from behind so I said "Dad?"
"They turned around and I immediately saw it wasn't my dad, they clearly didn't realize anyone else was in the car and were a little startled but quickly replied 'sit back and shut up, I'll let you out in a minute'."
"The key was still in the ignition and they started the car and peeled off."
"I have never really felt fear like it, all the worst kinds of thoughts rushed through my head and I was convinced they had stolen the car because I was in it but they drove down a couple of streets and pulled over and just said 'OK, get out'."
"I ran back to the shop and halfway ran straight into the arms of my dad who had been running after the car."
"I could literally feel the relief that he was feeling through that hug."- PeyJ
Unknown Illness
"I was in a hospital for months because of something else, couldn't get up and had already lost a ton of weight which made me severely underweight."
"Then caught some kind of virus (the doctors couldn't figure out what it was) and got weaker every day, I couldn't eat or drink and vomited all the time, at some point what I spat out was entirely black, probably dried blood."
"I can hardly remember that time of my life, but looking in the mirror and seeing my bloodshot eyes where all the veins popped and my chin and neck with burns from the acidity in stomach fluid and my skinny arms and ribs was horrifying."
"I think I was around 14 at the time and was sure I'd die."
"It went on for days and then just stopped."
"We thought it was that hospital virus that happens sometimes but apparently it wasn't, still don't know what happened and how I survived."- fluorishingStripe
Near-Fatal Car Accident
"Back in the early 2000s I lived in northern Minnesota."
"I was born and raised in Louisiana, so direct opposite side of the US where the only ice on the roads was when someone dumped out a cooler into the street."
"At the time I was dating a Canadian girl and went to spend Christmas with her and her family."
"Drove across the border, went to Ontario, had a good time."
"I came back across the border a few days after Christmas, sometime late afternoon."
"It was a 5-ish hour drive from her house to mine."
"Being the middle of winter, the sun went down very early so it was dark by the time I got to the first town in Minnesota."
"I drove down highway 61 which runs along Lake Superior, and is dotted with blink-and-miss towns."
"No one travels that highway that late unless they live there or are a trucker usually driving from Duluth to Thunder Bay."
"The roads were clear, no snow, no ice that I could see, so I cruised along at my usual 60 MPH."
"I hit a curve that had a patch of black ice and sailed off the road."
"One side of the road was an almost 90-degree drop straight into Lake Superior, the other was into a forest."
"I sailed into the forest, barrel rolled a few times, and landed on my wheels in a ravine."
"I credit my seatbelt for saving my life, so I'm now a hard a** about that when anyone gets into my car."
"So there were a few problems."
"First, cell phones weren't nearly as ubiquitous as they are now, and by extension cell towers weren't covering as much area."
"I had a cheap prepaid cell phone but no signal."
"Second, I was in a ravine so I was hard to see on a road that was hardly traveled anyway."
"Third, it was the middle of winter and I think in the single digits, somewhere between 0 and 10 F."
"I had a blanket I kept in my car in case sh*t hit the fan like that, but that won't do good for long since I had to stand on side of the road to be seen, and hope no one else skidded on the ice and squashed me."
"I for certain thought I was going to freeze to death."
"A local guy named John, who lived in the town of Schroeder, found me."
"He brought me to the hospital, I think up in Grand Marais, and even let me stay with him for a few days until someone could come get me."
"He had a long distance calling card (remember those?) that I used to call my roommates and girlfriend to let them know I was alive."
"I spent the first day sleeping from the painkillers."
"Nothing broken but everything hurt."
"The second day one of my closest friends said she would come up from Duluth the following day to get me."
"I slept a lot that day too and I found out John had this massive collection of musical instruments and played blues."
"That's what we bonded over, that and him literally saving my life."
"I found out recently he passed away a few years ago, though I'm not sure where his grave is but I've been trying to find out just so I can pay my respects."- SuperflyX13
Risky Surgery
"My son's brain surgery."
"He has epilepsy and had a small portion removed in 2020 to alleviate his seizures and give him a better quality of life."
"He spent a week with wires in his brain tracking his seizures as he had them in real time."
"They slowly stopped his anti-seizure meds to induce them, he had 26 in one night as he slept."
"Once it was enough data they removed a portion of his brain near his speech and memory center."
"This was the location of his misfires."
"The general consensus was that he had a good chance of losing his speech and memory."
"His personality could disappear."
"After his surgery as he was being taken back to his room he raised his arm to touch his face, the physician told him not to and my son said 'I'm not, I just want to touch it'."
"He spoke before he was fully out of anesthesia."
"Three days later he was home, three days after that he was being transported back for emergency surgery because of a nasty infection UNDER his skull."
"The surgeon later said he was maybe 12 hours from dying if he hadn't been seen."
"He had no symptoms other than a gross drip."
"No pain, no fever, nothing."
"Another brain surgery and six weeks with a drain tube and monitor on him at home with nurse visits weekly."
"He is now seizure-free and on a much lower dose of meds than he was previously."
"1500 daily down to 100mg."
"I spent a month in the children's center helplessly watching my son slip in and out of consciousness and have hundreds of seizures."
"The possibility of him waking up with no memories and no way to speak was horrifying to me as his father."
"So the scariest moment in my life was almost losing my 16 year old child 3 times in one month."- MardawgNC
Perhaps one reason people enjoy being scared at scary movies is they know that what they're watching isn't real, and the fear and adrenaline will eventually wear off.
Reality is far more terrifying than fiction.