There are tons of misunderstandings about what professionals actually do at their jobs. For one, a lot of people have a lot of these wildly incorrect assumptions due to the media they consume. But when you take a peek behind the curtain, you realize that the reality of any position can be incredibly different from what you think you know.
Some seasoned job veterans shared the (not so) obvious truth about their work in an interesting discussion on AskReddit. In it, they opened up about the most common things that the general public gets wrong about their professions. We’ve collected their most intriguing insights to share with you. Keep scrolling to check them out.
#1
When you're food shopping and you change your mind about a chilled/frozen product, but you put it back into an *ambient* product shelf, it will go straight into the waste when a member of staff finds it. Please don't do that.
We can't leave chilled foods out of the chillers for longer than 20 minutes due to food safety laws(in the UK, ymmv), and we have no idea how long that steak or chicken has been sitting with those cans of soup, so it gets binned.
F**k food waste. Ask a member of staff to put it back for you.
Image credits: Muntjac
#2
IT professional here. As dumb as it sounds and as much as everyone hates hearing it, "turn it off and turn it back on again" works roughly 65% of the time. MOST computer problems (including phones!) are caused by a temporary glitch or memory error. Restarting eliminates most common problems. Seriously, before you panic that something is broken, always try this first. 😁.
Image credits: thejameswhistler
#3
Diamonds are a complete, idiotic f*****g waste of money. They're not rare, valuable, or traditional. Diamonds being associated with marriage comes from a 30's ad campaign
That 2000 dollar rock you bought could have started your kids college fund, could have done literally any good in this world.
Image credits: BenedictBadgersnatch
The truth is that the media and entertainment you consume can have a major impact on how you perceive the world.
Pop culture—movies, shows, books, music, etc.—shapes how you see certain things. For instance, if you watch a lot of medical or crime investigation TV shows, you might make assumptions about the jobs of doctors, police officers, and other experts without even realizing it.
Even the shows that get most of the technical details right have to take some liberties to make the narrative more dramatic and engaging.
#4
Librarian aka information professional here.
The scholarly publishing industry is a massively profitable industry (check out Elsevier’s profit margins).
They are holding academic research hostage with paywalls.
We are trying to push for a sustainable model of open access publishing where everyone can access the information they need.
Information is important and shouldn’t be hid behind paywalls especially when these companies are not the ones securing the grant money, doing the research and writing the d**n paper.
Image credits: ceedee2017
#5
UTIs in seniors cause dementia like symptoms.
Image credits: glitterpile12
#6
You may not remember me, but I hold your hand while you are being intubated before surgery. You are not alone. OR RN.
Image credits: heatedblanketheaven
According to US News, vet technicians, construction workers, dental hygienists, carpenters, and medical assistants have the top five most stressful jobs.
Other majorly stressful professions include being diagnostic medical sonographers, solar photovoltaic installers, bakers, electricians, and pilots, followed by flight attendants, nurse practitioners, delivery truck drivers, registered nurses, and medical records technicians.
#7
The Oxford Comma is literally never optional.
Image credits: kgxv
#8
CPR and resuscitation is a lot less effective and a lot more violent than medical movies and TV shows depict. You usually break ribs.
And if you do get a person to "come back" they don't sit up in the bed coughing, gasping and thanking you...they're usually still unconscious. You just see through machines that they have a stable heart rhythm.
You then intubate them, move them to an ICU and hope that you didn't give them brain damage.
Image credits: PhillipLlerenas
#9
Many/most teachers get to a point in their careers where they no longer like kids.
Image credits: anon
Meanwhile, Business News Daily argues that the most stressful professions involve working as military personnel, police officers, firefighters, social workers, broadcasters, newspaper reporters, emergency dispatchers, mental health counselors, anesthesiologists, and emergency room nurses.
On the flip side, some of the most zen and least stressful jobs include people working as massage therapists, hairstylists, librarians, landscapers, orthodontists, art directors, occupational therapists, medical records technicians, web developers, and data entry specialists.
#10
L&D nurse here. While I could go with the obvious "labor is nothing like the movies" I'm gonna switch it up. Pregnant women need to drink an ungodly amount of water. Think 16 16 oz glasses. Crampy? Drink some f*****g water. Baby not moving? Go drink that water. Contractions? Before you rush to the hospital chug a bunch of water and see if they stop. Literally half of my triage patients are just dehydrated.
Image credits: alkakfnxcpoem
#11
I work for local government. yes, taxpayers pay my salary (which also means i’m contributing to my own salary), but that doesn’t justify why i should give a person extra attention or service. people who come to my office and say “i pay your salary” right after asking for something completely ridiculous have no respect for me and assume i do nothing all day.
Image credits: anon
#12
The cloud is really just someone else's computer.
Image credits: ForsakenOn3
What are some of the wrongest assumptions you’ve ever had about someone else’s jobs, dear Pandas? On the other hand, what do people tend to usually get wrong about your own profession? How stressful is your work? What do you see as the ideal job for you personally? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
#13
I'm an accountant and people think I'm some type of math wizard. Excel, literally, does all the math for me.
Image credits: ahungrywookie
#14
I am a chemist and it’s not all fun experiments with colourful solutions and explosions&flames with rainbow sparkles and m**h cooking and instant results from all our shiny fancy machines. It’s more like preparing 50 solutions a day (all of which look alike, usually like water) and waiting for instruments to complete the analyses (for hours!) and then trying to make sense from the results while cursing and having a mental breakdown.
Image credits: anon
#15
"Hackers" are seldom the actual problem with computer security. Insider threats and the battle against the end user's stupidity make up the vast majority of security breaches.
Image credits: ToadRancher
#16
I’m a security guard and we have standard operating procedures for bombs and mysterious packages.
A few weeks ago, someone tried to plant a bomb at the high school near my apartment. The school janitor found it and he brought it INTO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE to show him.
Image credits: anon
#17
I'm a computer programmer and programming is no where near as glamorous as the movies make it. Code does not make digital noises when it runs.
Image credits: Panamaniac224
#18
Just because someone works in a hospital and has a hospital ID badge clipped to their shirt does not mean they're a doctor or a nurse. I've lost track of how many times I've had to explain to patients and visitors that I'm not qualified to answer their medical concerns.
Image credits: upvoter222
#19
No one is maliciously hiding a cure for cancer. It's just really f*****g hard to figure out.
Image credits: geneticshift
#20
Don’t yell or be rude at the person who anwsers the phone for the company you are calling. It will not make us help you better or faster. It will do exactly the opposite.
Image credits: feestfrietje
#21
Fats don’t make you fat they just contain more calories than carbs or proteins. Eating too much of any of them is the problem.
So don’t feel bad eating cake on your cake day!
Image credits: BrutalNutritionist
#22
Therapy doesn’t work if you don’t go consistently and don’t want to go. Many people complain about their psychologists, but usually you’re not opening up to us. Also please don’t lie down on couches, that’s a freud thing and most of us dislike him.
Edit: I never meant to say it’s a person with mental illness’s fault if they don’t want to see a psychologist. I was meaning that until we find a way to make you understand how important treatment is, you won’t get the full benefit of it. It is a part of job to make you want to get better.
Image credits: 12001ants
#23
That industries spend huge amounts of money to keep people addicted to things like gambling, smoking, drinking, and sugar and work to create new addicts once their customers die. I'm looking at you Big Tobacco and Big Sugar....
Example: Coca-Cola engaged in a major campaign to spread the myth that obesity had more to do with how much you excercise than your diet, to shift the focus away from their products. It worked shockingly well. Many people still believe this.
Image credits: koolaid-girl-40
#24
I work at an airport, don't drink the coffee on commercial flights, they don't give us anything to clean the coffee pots, and the water truck is used fill the plane with potable water, isn't cleaned as much as it should be.
Image credits: robtk12
#25
Tech support needs descriptions and preferably an exact error message. We are not psychics.
Image credits: Nazamroth
#26
Nobody gives a flying f**k about your website beyond whether it gives them the information they came to find.
99% of people just want to know where you're located, what your phone number is, and what your hours of operation are. The thousands of dollars people spend adjusting colours and logos are all done in the service of business owners' egos.
#27
Many cargo ships turn off their signal in the ocean for weeks and do a lot of shady stuff...
Image credits: butdidyoulive
#28
Cement makes concrete, not the other way around. And it's more complicated than you think it is.
Image credits: BobaFett0451
#29
That antibiotics don't do anything against viruses. Every time I hear someone say they're going to take antibiotics for their cold it seems so stupid to me.
Oh also, I heard someone say "when you have down syndrome, it's probably because your parents were relatives" which is so w r o n g.
(The only factor that affects the chances of a child suffering from down syndrome is the mother's age.)
I also heard someone say that for humans most genetic disorders are due to the lack of chromosomes. That, again, is wrong, there is only one case of people who lack a chromosome and still survive.
Image credits: evi_idk
#30
The left lane isnt "the cruise lane"
Another one is if an 18 wheeler is creeping past you that doesn't mean "go faster/match their speed" you didnt have an issue when you were going 55 infront of me dont be a d**k because i want to go 60 in front of you.
#31
Oil well drilling is an industry full of snakes and liars. There are people, known as promoters, who put together drilling programs of one or multiple wells then go and try to get investors to buy into their project. Many of these people are straight, good businessmen. Many of them are crooked and unethical AF. All of them will make money by drilling the well whether the well makes money or not. Promoters put their fees, usually to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, into the cost of drilling the well, then, more fees for completing it. There are many ways to trick investors by using well logs and and seismic data that have been manipulated.
Participating in a drilling program where there is no promotion (Everybody who stands to make money from the well is putting money into the drilling/completion) is the best way, although very difficult to get into.
All promoters should be looked at with a very, very skeptical eye.
Image credits: dopavash
#32
That when referring to the race of a black person as a physical descriptor you do in fact default to the word “black”. African American is only used when you are certain that that person is American and their ancestry does in fact go back to Africa, rather than say Jamaica, Haiti, etc.
#33
No, we don't bake the cakes the same day we sell them. Chances are you've never had a "fresh" baked cake. If you want it to be iced we have to let it cool off.
Oh and you can't order a custom cake day of, I don't care what its for. It isn't our fault you can't plan things.
Image credits: anon
#34
Don't go ahead with DIY electrical repairs or installations at home, if you're not qualified. You're going k**l your family one day! ESPECIALLY DONT GO MAKING NEW PLUG POINTS AND CONNECTING HIGH AMPAGE S**T TO SMALL CABLES. WTF GUYS!?
Image credits: obtrae
#35
The cigarette smoke and smell will stick to all the textiles in your car, its as if either people dont know or just dont care, its nasty.
Image credits: anon
#36
How unethical speculation artwork is and how it’s really only regulated to the artistic profession.
One of the bigger issues is that many young designers are lured into these contests.
Speculative artwork is when a company holds a contest to design or create artwork in exchange for a prize. Only the winner gets the prize, the rest of the entries who did the same work get nothing.
I cannot solicit the local pizza places to make their finest pizzas for me and then choose only one to pay.
Image credits: SaintPaddy
#37
People tend to think that lawyers are expensive, so they don’t involve one in drafting contracts. When s**t inevitably hits the fan, they suddenly NEED a lawyer and have to pay 10.000s€ to fix the problem, where a measly 500€ would have gotten them an airtight deal if they hired us in the first place to draft that f*****g thing.
Plus, if we f**k up, we have insurance for that, that covers up to 100.000.000€ in damages, and we aren’t even a big firm.
#38
I am a web designer. People need to lay off the center alignment. 8/10 times, stuff looks way better left aligned (if you're from a country that reads text left to right) than center aligned. This applies across websites, powerpoints, business cards, posters, everything.
You can tell right away that something has been designed by an amateur if everything is center aligned.
Image credits: Anzyanz
#39
Lawyers write a lot (like a LOT) of stuff down that *probably* wouldn’t actually work in court. It’s just written down to discourage people from going to court (or hiring a lawyer to start a dispute) in the first place.
Looking at you “opening this envelope binds you to all terms and conditions” and other such shenanigans.
Image credits: MeowSchwitzInThere
#40
911 is not some magic cloud in the sky that automatically knows where you are or where the emergency is.
I need you to tell me where you are. That means YOU need to know where you are. Yes, cell phone technology is great but it doesn't always get it right or it takes a minute or more to get it.
If you call 911 because someone who is not near or with you told you to call (like your dad is having chest pain in Alabama and you are in Oklahoma) calling 911 will get you 911 where you are. I cannot transfer you out of state. You will need the 10 digit non-emergency number to the agency local to the emergency. It is always best if the person having the emergency calls 911.
Answer the questions the 911 dispatcher asks. It is not delaying help. The help is on the way as soon as we have an address. Do not hang up until you are told to do so.
#41
There is NO such thing as a GMO free food. Selective breeding by it's very nature means that everything you eat has been genetically modified to look and taste and give a better yield compared to the wild varieties. The only difference is that GMO in a lab is more precise and faster in the results than selective breeding.
Also please please be skeptical/cynical when you see organic or GMO free. Often the label is put there so the price can be hiked up.
Image credits: anon
#42
Most military arent taught truly how to fight. Or how to shoot great. We train them to be passable to standards, which are generally higher than the general public, but its not that much higher.
Military grade imo has more to do with swap ability and long lasting (in the heat of the moment) than longevity. I always say military trucks wont break as long as they are running. Once they turn off, they fall apart. But they are pretty standardized and parts are generally easy to swap.
#43
Just because Amazon can get you something in 24 hours doesnt mean I can.
#44
I work in Ad Sales/Marketing.
The amount of advertising you see every day but don't realise. There's a massive industry working to get you to buy specific things with subtle advertising that you're not gonna notice unless it's pointed out and they're getting better and better at it.
Image credits: Kilen13
#45
Large construction projects will be delayed, and no we can not control it. Nine times out of ten the engineering for it is not finished when we break ground, and the thought process that 20+ subcontractors can work independently but still together and hit every date that you’ve squeezed down to save every last minute is ludacris. It will be completed about one to two months after your “target” date, however, if you try to get in our way and tell us how to do the job your paying us to do I’ve seen it push projects out 6 months before.
#46
The little toss a delivery driver does to put your package on your porch is the best it's been handled on its way to you... It's been thrown. It's been stepped on. It's been dropped. It's gone through dozens of conveyor belts. It might have fallen apart and put back in the box and taped back up. If the box is smashed but the product is fine then the box did its job. Don't get mad at us for dropping it 3 inches down to your porch. It'll be okay.
#47
Being an attorney involves tons of reading, writing, research, and very little of your time overall is spent in a courtroom.
You spend more time doing discovery (i.e. fact-finding), interviewing witnesses, preparing for and conducting depositions, and reviewing tons of documents that often have no relevance to the actual case you're working on.
Worst career choice ever.
#48
I'm an esthetician so I see a lot of bad things in regards to skin care.
I would say pore strips is probably the biggest thing people are unaware of.
They don't remove blackheads and even if they did they don't come with anything to keep the follicles clean. They're removing sebaceous filaments.
They do more harm than good. If you want to remove blackheads by yourself buy an ultrasonic blade for $30+ on Amazon and some sort of post extraction solution to keep the follicles clean.
#49
1000 degree glass and room temp glass look the same. Put the hot end down facing AWAY from you.
Image credits: blueshiftglass
#50
Apparently nobody knows that you should reset your computer before calling tech support.
#51
We don't care that you're picking up the heaviest weights or even don't know what you're doing, we're here to help you and we respect the effort and commitment you're putting in towards improving yourself at the gym. Besides everyone has to start somewhere.
#52
The 10's of thousands of dollars you have to spend on dirt for your home's foundation is NOT where you want to start cutting corners.
#53
I sell used car parts. There is no such thing as "the wheel that comes with my car." There are a dozen or more styles and sizes of wheels that any given vehicle can come equipped with straight off the dealerships lot. You need to know the size of the wheel and be able to describe the appearance of it if you want me to try and find you the wheel that matches your other three.
#54
A nuclear reactor going critical doesn't mean it exploded or anything bad. It simply means it is self sustaining.
Image credits: totalmike
#55
A software developer can't fix your d**n phone, uncle.
#56
A*******n issues and substance abuse runs rampant in the food service industry! Especially the kitchen.
#57
Making changes to any mass produced product takes years of planning, designing, planning, training, planning, testing, and more planning before it can be released to the public.
People that want all new (and I mean major brand new stuff, not just a slightly tweaked version of the old) cars or phones or whatever RIGHT NOW THEY'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT FOR 5 YEARS WHY DON'T I HAVE TWELVE IN MY POCKET FOR A DOLLAR YET have no comprehension of the massive cost in time, materials, and man-hours (yes, that's a different metric from time) that goes into new product development and has to be recovered within a certain period of time from product launch otherwise there will be no money for the next big new thing ...
Image credits: anon
#58
In public auditing (where a company pays you to audit them, not an IRS personal audit), we have a 'materiality' threshold that's based on revenues, assets, etc. and if you're a very large company, that number could be say...$450M. In other words, you can be off $449M on your financial statements, and we don't care.
#59
Someone’s bare hands have touched your food.
Sorry to break it to you. Restaurants ain’t all that.
#60
Professors have NO formal training on how to teach/educate.
Image credits: growup_andblowaway
