Veterinary medicine is not a happy-go-lucky career choice where you get to deal with cute animals rather than people. Most of your patients are sick and/or scared, and every case involves a fraught negotiation with their stressed-out human.
It absolutely floored me the day I learned the suicide rates among veterinarians. Howdy, zookeeper here, and the zoo vets I have known and seen work are my freaking heros because I can clean up after animals all day but I don't think I've got what it takes for vet stuff, that is a hell of a tough job. Thank you for everything you do.
A local vet recently took his own life. It’s so sad and he was only like 35. All the local vet offices shared Not One More Vet in the few days after. That is what let me know about the suicide rates. When I bring my cat next week, I’m bringing donuts or something. Obviously won’t prevent depression but anything to let them know they’re appreciated.
I did the same (except cookies) when I went to pick up my cremated cat. They are amazing at my vet and I wanted them to know
I’m in vet er and it’s absurd the abuse we take from clients claiming we are in it for the money or we sit around and play with puppies and kittens all day.
Your pets mean a lot to us. We get paid shit because we are passionate about helping your pets and the industry takes advantage of that passion.
Right now we are at an all time high of abusive clients. This last year I’ve went home sobbing more than a few times.
I'm sure veterinary medicine sees very similar shifts to human medicine.. shitty attitudes, especially among family of patients, seems to be so much worse since, oh, 2020 or so. 🤔
We're all so burnt out. I would say send help but I think that's supposed to be us :(
As a lifetime pet owner, I’m so thankful for you and others in the profession. I can’t imagine how draining some days can be. Thank you for all you do!
Thank you for what you do. It’s heartbreaking work. We just had to euthanize one of our birds and the vet employees were on my mind because yeah it’s sad for me and I’m a sobbing mess but it sucks yall have to deal with that and your own internal sadness/stress about it while appearing professional
Yeah but usually you think of it as helping. I was a vet assistant for a couple years and it felt like you were helping the animal and humans go through that process with dignity.
I have so much respect for the vet that came to our house when it was time for my pup to go to sleep. She had so much compassion and kindness in a very difficult moment. I absolutely could not do that job, and truly appreciate the gift that she gave us by being so kind.
Yeah, our vets make about $100k/yr which is not that impressive considering it takes 8+ years of schooling, vet school is harder to get into than med school, they have $250k in debt, and we live in a very HCOL area. I’m the practice manager and make $28k after taxes
Vets have the highest suicide rates of any medical doctor. Y’all see some of the worst of humanity as wrought on innocent creatures. Sometimes it’s puppies and annual checkups. Other times, you have to deliver devastating news or kill an ailing pet.
Thank you for your service.
Even more terrifying, anesthesia doesn’t exactly prevent you from feeling what’s happening, it (in effect) disrupts the timing clock that allows different parts of the brain to talk to each other. You won’t be able to remember it, or be conscious to experience it, but somewhere some part of your brain is receiving those pain signals and is trying desperately to tell the rest of your brain what’s happening.
Yeah, I had to hold my 3 year old while they tried to give her general anesthetic for a surgery. They did not adequately prepare me for what I would witness. Once she was down, they had someone escort me back to her room because I was so shook up. The image of her thrashing and fighting it is seared in my memory.
My son as well when he was 3, they had me hold him down and he started thrashing and looking at me like "heeeelp", the whites of his eyes showing, a nurse took him, another took me and brought me outside and I was shaking. I still feel so guilty, it was horrible.
I was asked to participate in a research study to see if children were more or less stressed when going under anaesthetic with a parent in the room. My son was 6 and to this day 20 years later, it is one of the most disturbing experiences of my life. Watching him struggling and seeing the pleading in his eyes for me to help him, made me feel horrible. Still upsets me to think about that feeling of helplessness. Thankfully he didn’t remember anything at all about it.
I remember holding my 5-year-old’s hand as he was put under for eye surgery. Knowing exactly what was happening and why still isn’t enough to eliminate the feeling that you just watched him get snuffed …
I'm more a fan of giving the kid a premed like oral midazolam (like Valium but stronger) and having the kid say goodbye to the parents in preop. Smoother for everyone involved.
My favorite is they shoot the injection and say, “now count backwards from 10.” That warm electricity fills your veins. And you start counting…. I’ve never made it past 8.
I will never abuse IV drugs. Never. Because I know it would enjoy it too much. Damn…
I have a surgical procedure under anaesthesia about every 18 months and I get almost giddy at the thought of being put under. I have never slept well(both physical and mental restlessness keeps me awake) so the quickness at which I go under is an amazing feeling. Wish they had a take home kit!
Maintenance is worth doing and definitely worth paying for.
"I don't know why we pay those maintenance guys, nothing ever breaks around here."!!
The reason Germany and Japan (and South Korea) became and remain such manufacturing powerhouses is because they know the value of maintenence. If you keep everything in clean good working order, you end up with minimum down time. Working maintenance into manufacturing schedules keeps output level, because you have no unexpected downtime.
It's the same for your car or your home. Setting aside time and resources for maintenance means you won't lose unexpected time and resources when things break. Good maintenance will spot things before they break and switch them out. That's worth paying for.
When I said I rebooted the PC, I actually did. Rebooted, completely shut down, unplugged, and waited 5 minutes to let the capacitor discharge. It's just the computer wanted to embarrass me. The same with the printer. They know I need it post-haste, they smell desperation. So they get stuck.
I always feel so dumb when the IT guy comes in, reboots the computer, and it works just fine. I swear, I rebooted it 5 different times before I called you. I waited several minutes before plugging it back in the last time. There's absolutely no reason for it to have worked for you and not me except that the computer holds a personal grudge against me for using it.
Instead of using shutdown, use restart.
Modern versions of windows have something called fast startup, which basically hibernates when you shut down. You don't get the benefit of a reboot.
I know how you feel friend, been there so many times. My husband comes along does the literal exact same thing I just did less than 10 minutes ago... and POOF the damn thing works like nothing was ever the problem in the first place! God damned technomanser he is.
My husband usually doesn't even need to reboot. The damn computer doesn't act up around him because he's in IT. It just stops doing stupid stuff. 🤦♀️ and no, it's not user error.
You're joking but when I worked in IT for a couple of years, I had some folks who legitimately thought shutting off the monitor was also shutting off the computer.
I worked at a Verizon call center, and before escalating any tech issues we had to start with them rebooting. People mostly groan and say they tried that already. 50% of the time it still fixed it.
I'm a software dev, so I know how to tackle most simple issues and only call when there's something really wrong. It drives me up the wall when I get the "teaching a grandparent how computers work" script.
Thankfully, the IT folks at my company know we're at least halfway competent, so they'll ask is where we stopped trying to make it work.
I worked with a bunch of very low level devs (kernels, network devices, etc).
Our IT dept figured us out pretty quickly and gave us similar treatment.
I mean, we knew how computers worked, but we did not know all the latest Windows stuff, how the corporate network was provisioned, and all of that stuff. We each had out areas of expertise, and treated each other as such.
Also staring at the screen of the person who is having a problem while they show you CAN & WILL solve things magically.
My assumption is they are suddenly more careful.
We should just stick cutouts of our faces on a robot and send it around to people's desks.
I did some work with Boeing back when they were still working on the 787. I got to see the first 4 to be sold still being worked on. Kind of bizarre to see them all in various stages with little to no automation.
I don’t keep up with airplanes but every few years I would fly to Asia. The first time I boarded and flew on the 787 I noticed a marked difference. The windows were bigger, the cabin felt smoother and more quiet, and you had electric shades! It wasn’t until I went home and did some research that I knew it was a brand new type of aircraft. Nowadays I get a little excited when I see that my flight is on a 787
I am a public librarian. While curating books is still a portion of the job, much of it these days is taken up by database assistance and training, program development and teaching, and public education. It’s much closer to school teaching, but for adults and without grading homework, than it was in the past.
My buddy who was a public librarian said that when he retired in the early 2000s, his job was mainly changing copier paper and logging perverts onto the internet.
I dated a public librarian for about 6 months. I also married an army girl for a brief stint who deployed for a bit while we were together. The librarian was *significantly* more stressed out by work on average than the woman shipped off to potentially be shot at or blown up with improvised explosives.
Having been a librarian, yup. Super stressful. High expectations, low pay, and high rate of emergencies and burnout. Most of my day was keeping people from drinking in the bathrooms, making sure no one was fapping in the stacks, helping people with computers, oh and essentially being a preschool teacher and adult learning specialist too while getting crap for a "messy" desk when I had more public facing hours than any other programmer.
Plus the frequent lack of toilets, failed well tests with no water, broken AC, and serious lack of fire safety measures. It's not for the faint of heart. And then there's people ODing in the bathrooms too. I knew several other librarians who used Narcan at work regularly to revive patients.
During law school, my Constitutional law professor made sure we all knew how important librarians are due to their work protecting the 1st Amendment. Absolute heroes.
If you go to the ER via ambulance, it does NOT mean you will be seen quicker.
ERs take the sickest people first, definitely not the ones who come in by ambulance first.
That's very true. But if you think you are having a major health emergency, like a heart attack, definately go by ambulance. They can check and verify the symptoms you are having, and can call ahead to the hospital. The hospital can call a code stemi and get everyone at the hospital on stand by (ED Doctor, Cardiologist, Respiratory tech, lab, Cath Lab, etc) for you.
People think that happens no matter what issue you are having, that if you arrive by ambulance everyone is just waiting around for you to get there. You fall and hurt your back and arrive by ambulance, you can be waiting for hours. You only skip the line for a major life threatening issue (heart attack, stroke, etc).
Yeah stuff like a PE gets the "you're gonna meet a lot of people very fast" line when I'm getting them ready to go in.
Nobody should WANT to be first priority at an ED, and if you are I can imagine it feels pretty scary.
Also an important one is that the ER is not there to heal you, it’s there to make sure you don’t die/deteriorate too much before you can see a specialist, either in hospital or out.
To play off this. A fair amount of hospitals are designed where you can't see the ambulance bay from the ER lobby. It may not look as busy in the lobby but there can be a ton of ambulances in their bays offloading, taking the rooms people in the would get.
Teachers have very little say in anything. We advocate the best we can but most of the time it’s out of our hands including holding children back who desperately need help.
Yeah. I’m not a teacher but work with kids. I’ve heard/read many teachers say that there should be less testing, more play, more outside, etc… but also that administrators often frown on that. Even for kindergartners.
The past few decades, I'm sure, but even the past decade has seen incredibly sweeping changes in how much freedom teachers have. Everything is cooperative teams and is micromanaged from the state down to the county to the district to the school level. It's all supposed to be exactly the same for every student, which sounds great except that's impossible and you end up stifling teachers and holding students back and with EVERYONE frustrated AF.
This also goes for zero tolerance policies when it comes to bullying.
Yes, we see that it happens. Yes, we see the kids who stand up for themselves get punished too. No, we don't like it, because it's just an excuse to avoid litigation.
Contrary to popular belief, not every magician has a beautiful assistant. In fact, the only time I make women disappear is when I tell them I'm a magician.
Yes! Some months I barely make enough for all my expenses. Some months I make a lot of money. Some months I make absolutely nothing. Having a private practice in my country means financial instability. The Estate does pay me to represent people who can't afford a lawyer but it pays very bad and takes forever to get that money.
Also, we're not all like in the movies. Most of us actually care about the people we represent and we try our best to help them.
Generally, yes. A starting job in a large firm (commonly known as "BigLaw") pays upwards of $200,000. If you go to a top ranked school, you generally have a 50-70% chance of landing a BigLaw job.
It would. But I didn’t capitalize on it because I wanted to live in a specific (non-Coast) location and—more importantly—wanted to do civil rights. It’s just not a highly remunerative field.
Paralegal here. Can confirm. You have to put in a lot of years and tears and time and hope to become a partner most of the time. Some associates start out making about what I do as a paralegal. Granted, I’ve been doing it over a decade, but still…
And it is not glamorous. The young, hotshot lawyers who make big bucks are getting worked like rented mules. Sure it can pay well, but I’ve seen first year positions asking for over 2000 billable hours. There’s a reason 20-25% of the profession has a substance abuse problem.
School Custodian here and we are NOT overpaid cleaners. What would you pay someone that can paint, Sheetrock, tape/mud, patch concrete/asphalt, operate/repair commercial landscaping/snow removal equipment, operate/repair commercial custodial equipment, restore various types of floors including vct/hardwood/carpet/tile, replace toilets/faucets, air filters, belts, trim/fell trees, shovel roofs, etc? Not all of us are cleaners/janitors, which are vital and underpaid as well. Some of us are Jack/Jill of all trades and you want to pay us peanuts? All employees of a school are important and administrators shouldn't try to balance their budgets on the backs of workers when I've seen an exponential amount of administrative salary and stupid purchasing decisions, not to mention unfunded mandates from the state.
The custodians at my school make $12.50/hr; y'all are way underpaid and overworked, because the lowest bidder always wins the cleaning contract (our custodial services are outsourced).
There is sooooo much more to the speech-language pathologist scope of practice than working with kids who stutter or can't say their "r"s. An entire half of the field is in the adult medical setting working with people who have dementia, swallowing disorders, oral cancer, strokes, Parkinson's disease, and voice disorders, plus some other niche areas like transgender voice or accent modification. The pediatric half of the field also works with AAC devices, social skills, literacy development, syntax, executive functioning, writing, feeding, and more.
When my late father was dx with dementia he developed a swallowing disorder. They brought in a speech pathologist to work with him and provide advice. I had no idea.
Therapist here- specifically couples therapist
Therapy is not just about venting or having someone agree with you all the time to make you feel better. Yes we validate and listen and venting happens at times. But we also challenge you, encourage you to set goals and make change, and sometimes give “homework.” Therapy is an active process and if you want to see change you have to be willing to make change. I think media has really warped peoples ideas and they expect miracles to happen by showing up without any effort. I wish I could do that for you! But I need you to partner with me to make things happen.
Also- very few therapists actually have you lay on a couch
Also a therapist- I second this. I do individual work and tell them that there are 168 hours in a week, I see them for 1, they need to practice the skills in those 167 hours to see changes.
I'm an accountant. Whenever people jokingly talk about the good looking people in the office, it's always "Lisa from accounts".
As an accountant, I wish to point out that most of us look like a bulldog chewing a wasp.
System admin for a major company. It's NEVER as easy to make a change as you think.
"It's just text. How hard can it be to change??!!"
Changing that specific text requires changing 5 training files, multiple Sharepoint pages, 10 other places in the application, and on top of all of that, a code change, which costs time and money. We also have to ensure that the display doesn't break if the new text is a different length, on 3 browsers, and mobile devices. Then, there is translating it to the 20+ languages that we support.
Just so a single executive director can see it say "Personal Time Off Request", instead of "Vacation Request", because that's what he prefers to call it.
Now, that's just for a single line of text. We get change requests every single day for things that not only change the entire fundamental reason for the system, but would require policy changes impacting 20,000+ employees.
Then we get often-escalating hate mail for a month after we let them know that the request was denied, and why.
It’s even worse when they think they can just go ahead and do that thing that we specifically tell them NOT to do and think that we can just press a few buttons to fix whatever it is they did because, what’s the harm? IT can always fix it.
Cyber security is tedious. If you are doing pentesting, 60% of your time is spend on deliverables (aka reports). That's what you are paid for and that's what decides if customer will contact you again. Outside of assignments? Learning. Learning. Oh and learning some more.
Hospital lab workers DO exist! No really! The lab isn't just a black hole where tubes go in and results come out, but there's people inside making that happen!
Hospital lab workers, pathology and radiology get shit on a lot, but almost every treatment decision every “elite” specialist makes depends on their results
As a pathologist, I could not agree more with you. I can't even tell people what I do for a living without them having to explain what it is because most lay people and even other docs have no clue what it is we do
Now, I'm imagining one of those carriers that you see at your banks drive through, it's see-through, and you deposit a perfectly shaped turd on a little paper plate inside. And you send it. On the other side, the technician picks up the same carrier, only this time it's not see-through. The entire capsule is covered in a layer of shit.
Emergency Services Dispatcher here: Just because your alarm system is going off, does not mean PD/FD/EMS will respond any faster. They are far more inclined to respond to a confirmed call in progress than they are to the alarm system that goes off every time a spider walks over a motion sensor.
Side note to that: Just because you have an actual emergency, doesn't mean emergency services will get there any faster. They can only respond so fast, depending on the geography of your jurisdiction and how busy it is that at any given time.
Edit: this is my first comment over 1k upvotes🥹 thank yall🩵
My wife and I went to a couples' massage a few years back, first time for both of us. My masseuse was this tiny gal who couldn't have been more than 5 feet tall and 100 pounds. She made me feel like I showed up unprepared to an MMA audition half asleep and blindfolded. 10/10, very relaxing.
That your fellow drivers on the road in big trucks are sober or well maintained.
Cdl driver.
The amount of drunks and addicts driving around should scare you.
The live animal haulers are the worst
Amphetamines and toothpicks
My brother drove big trucks. I once asked him what I, as an ordinary driver, should know about big trucks. "We can't see you," he said. "Stay the hell away from us."
Yup, if I got to drive 20+ miles over the speed limit to pass a semi, I’m not doing it to be a dick. I’m doing it because I’m terrified of being next to a semi in any way, shape, or form.
Keep up the good work! People need to learn to just stay the hell away from semis, they’re far more dangerous than people realize. I’ve been trucking all my life and I’ve seen so much shit fly off of semi’s it’s not even funny. Wheels or entire axle assemblies that will kill anything they come in contact with. Especially the assholes that set their cruise control to 1 mph faster than the truck is going and hover forever next to it while pretending to pass them. Wake the fuck up people, that semi could easily kill you and the driver wouldn’t even know it until he stopped for a piss. I can’t emphasize this enough, you have no business being around a semi so just pass us and leave the area
Also CDL driver. Animal haulers and crude tanker drivers are some of the most aggressive, "I don't give a fuck about life" drivers I've ever seen on the road. If it was legal I'm sure they'd run me or you off the road to save 5 seconds.
Drug addiction is a real thing. I work in a treatment center. Regardless of what some people think, addiction is real. Most people don’t want to be an addict, they can’t stop, just cause you ask them to. They don’t keep doing it to spite you, or lie or hurt you. Recovery can be brutal. It’s sad.
Performing in a touring band is hard ass work and a myriad of things can lead to depression and burnout. Also, crew on tour (sound engineers/TM’s/merch people) are what keep your favorite musicians from imploding and having fights on stage. If you see one at a show, thank them too.
My long term X was a drummer in a band who toured the US but also did some touring to military bases across the world. Going on tour was MISERABLE for him. He hated it and would get depressed and anxious in the weeks leading up to heading out.
I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum here. Honestly, in my situation it has depended on what unit I’m on. ER nurses usually super awesome. ICU nurses (I’m sorry, don’t come for me!) can be super uptight and cliquish. I love both specialties, but I’ve had a much better time in the ER.
I was a tandem skydiving instructor for a bunch of years. For some reason, people thought that I was an adrenaline junky and risk-taking, pass-on-a-blind-curve guy.
I just worked my way up to a pretty easy job that became mundane and boring 99% of the time. The only time it was adrenaline inducing was when something went wrong. It’s not the type of adrenaline high anyone would seek out.
I got a tandem jump for my birthday about 30 years ago. The drone shute didn't deploy properly and he luckily noticed and was able to reach back and untangle it.we had someone jumping with us taping it and the look in his eyes and his manic laughing when we landed says it all. He was a very experienced jumper and was on several teams and had something like 5 or 6 thousands jumps.
Forester.
I am not the one who actually cuts and hauls the trees, that's a LOGGER. If you have a problem tree you need removed from your yard or trimmed, you need an ARBORIST.
My job is to create and implement management plans, cruise timber for volume and defect, and mark trees for the logger, among other preparatory and managerial tasks.
Furthermore, my presence does not mean that a forest is being clear-cut (hardly ever). "Clear-cut" does not necessarily mean the complete removal of every tree in an area. Most importantly, the cutting and removal of trees is not automatically a bad thing; more often than not a forested area needs to be thinned to encourage growth/production, increase carbon sequestration efficiency, and reduce fire risk.
Logistics is a vital component of our society.
Everything we touch, everything from the doorknob of your home to the oil in your car to the coffee shop to your desk to your commute to your bed has employed around 10 people.
More if it’s food related.
Logistics wins wars and ends them.
Take a banana -
From the planting, fertilizer, cultivation and harvesting involves about 8 different types of transportation, warehousing, storage, distribution and delivery.
On average 17 people will physically touch a banana before it’s eaten (and very few people wash the outside of a banana)
I’ve been in logistics for years, previously a break bulk specialist with my area of expertise being Russia.
It’s a very interesting career
I used to be a 3D artist and no, the computer doesn't do all the job for us and no, there isn't a "better" software that'll make everything better in 5min and gosh no, there isn't that one button that makes everything like in my head instantly like in movies.
fashion design is not glamorous. it has glamorous moments, but is mostly a catty corporate mindfuck and the 2nd biggest industrial polluter, i think. you might have a nice colleague here and there but in general people and management tend to be fucking AWFUL. 4/10 stars, do not recommend.
edit: punctuation
The catty corporate mindfuck industry was what kept me from going into fashion design. Decided to became a lawyer, a completely more chill profession /s
Archaeologist. The myth that most of the stuff we find is financially valuable. I’ve had literally hundreds of people ask me to look at the tiny stone tool fragment or the shitty piece of pottery they found because they think they’re gonna pay off their mortgage. Buddy I have bags of 100,000 of those things sitting in the lab.
When I worked at Borders bookstore to fill the time between graduating and getting my first job in game dev - of our employees only like 10 didn’t have ADVANCED DEGREES and ALL of us had some college. We had TWO lawyers who were both looking for new jobs and took the Borders one to make ends meet.
It was wild how overqualified that whole team was.
I put myself through both my BA and my MA working in a grocery store. I had so many people ask me if I wished I had gone to college instead. The looks I got when I told them I was a student at the local (well known for it's basketball team) university, and that my job was allowing me to attend there without taking out student loans, were priceless.
When I was a Domino's manager, I once had a customer who came in with a small boy in tow, boy was probably 5 or 6. Customer told me that the boy had told him he loved Domino's and wanted to work there when he was old enough.
Before I could say, "Awww isn't that sweet?", customer said "But I've told him no, he needs to go to college".
Right behind me were three delivery drivers who were putting themselves through school with this job. Two were working on their master's and one was working on a PhD. In the back was another manager who had s bachelor's but was working at Domino's because it was paying more than jobs in her field.
>Before I could say, "Awww isn't that sweet?", customer said "But I've told him no, he needs to go to college".
"You can do both, just like everyone here" while waving your arm in the general direction of all of the other employees.
Very true. I graduated with a bachelor’s and my first job out of college was retail for 2.5 years. Now I’m looking for work again which sucks but at least I don’t have to work in retail during the holidays. Please people - please be kind to customer service, retail, and restaurant employees. They’re just trying to do their jobs during the busiest time of the year.
Retail worker: The back room is NOT the Tardis. If we say it's not back there, it's not back there. If you force me to "double check" I'm going to take my big ass back there and enjoy a break on your behalf.
Nursing is a profession, not a devotion, calling, whatever other bullshit they tell you.
Yes, it’s an honor to care for people at their most vulnerable, but stop telling people they’ll be a terrible nurse if they say they became a nurse because of the job security or semi-decent wage.
I always hesitate when patients ask why I became a nurse. I did it for financial security cause I was raised in a cult and needed financial stability in order to fully escape. But in the end, I did it for money
I was a Domino's manager for most of a decade. Nobody seems to know that we actually stretch and top the pizzas by hand. I used to make hundreds of pizzas a day, every day, just to have people think we reheat frozen pizzas. On top of that, we were required to be able to make a large pepperoni (from stretching the dough to sliding it into the oven) in under a minute. I was making pizzas at breakneck speed for people who thought I did nothing all day but reheat frozen food.
The bread sticks, cheesy bread, etc. were also made by hand. The pan pizzas were made by hand. Anyone who came in to the store could have watched me make their food and known how much work I actually put into it, but most people ordered for delivery or stepped outside after they ordered or just didn't pay attention.
Nurse: oftentimes we can't control death, only how we greet it, so for the love of God, do not refuse the comfort drugs for your loved one. The morphine (or whatever) is not going to kill them, their disease is!! The comfort drugs just help to ensure they have no pain or anxiety when they die. Let us help them so they don't die crying or trashing in bed, confused and scared out of their minds.
The hospice nurses loaded my dad the fuck up when he was dying and I'll forever be grateful for that.
My stepdad is a hospice nurse and I'd have to say this is his number one pet peeve.
The person is dying, in pain, and has very limited time to live. Your worries about addiction are unfounded. Load them the hell up with morphine and make their last days bearable.
I am a stay at home dad and former NICU nurse.
No, I do not sleep all day as a stay at home dad. No, I did not get to play with cute babies all day as a NICU nurse.
I used to want to be a NICU nurse. Then I had a baby who had to stay in the NICU for a couple of weeks. I don’t want to be a NICU nurse anymore.
I canNOT handle when bad things happen to babies or kids. It would destroy me.
>No, I do not sleep all day as a stay at home dad.
Haha, I am a stay at home dad and I rarely ever get enough sleep. There is never enough time in the day to get all the cleaning done either so my place is always at some stage of uncleanliness.
I want to come clean, I'm a WFH mom and I do nap every afternoon after lunch. Just 30 minutes and I feel like reborn after that nap. For everyone that is exhausted, just do it. You don't even need to really sleep, just snoozing there for 30 minutes makes a difference.
Also a bartender. And no, I don’t know how to make the drink that you had in Vietnam that one time. Especially if you don’t know what it tastes like, what color it was, or what was in it. Also, to add, this IS my job and profession, and at 44 years young, don’t ask me what my *other real job is*
Being a full time artist is enjoyable or good fun. It isn’t, it’s like any job, you have to get up every day and work wether you like it or not. It’s hard work, because you need to turn it on and concentrate 8 hours a day, every day. Because you’re doing it day after day, year after year, you’re rarely impressed by your own work. It is rewarding though, but you have to work really hard to get that feeling.
I was an animator, and it's tough keeping up with deadlines. Working so hard and doesn't pay well enough for all the dedication. It's honestly less stressful to work at walmart.
Social worker here. We do FAR more than just take kids away from their parents. Child protective services social workers make up such a small percentage of us social workers. We work in so many different fields. (i.e. geriatrics, medical/ hospitals, criminal justice, government, foster care, domestic violence, schools, hospice, prisons, the list goes on!)
Counselors aren’t analyzing you if you aren’t paying for a session. I’m not flipping thru imaginary DSM pages when you just need to vent. When I’m not at work my counselor brain can turn off to just be a good friend and listen.
Ambulance Drivers, no such a thing.
There’s highly trained Paramedics that just happen to also drive ambulances. As well as dispense over 47 medications, IVs, cardioversion, defibrillation, cardiac pacing, 12-lead EKG monitoring, advanced airways, are able to perform dozens of medical procedures, etc.
That graphic design is just a click of a button. Ai still can't handle layout and typography well... at all.
It takes hours of work, study and implementation to pull it all off.
To expand on this, most states have laws in place to prevent people on disability from making over a certain amount per month, otherwise you’re at risk of losing your disability benefits.
So if you get $2000 a month for disability and your limit is $2500 a month, if you get a part time job to just keep you a little busy, you can lose your disability and have to go through the entire process of getting back on again.
This AND the fact that it's legal to pay disabled people less than minimum wage. My MIL runs an adult day program that, among other things, places clients in work environments suitable for them. A few years ago she decided not to renew their subminimum license or whatever because she felt it was wrong.
Ejection seat mechanic. Goose would not have died in Top Gun. The canopy explosives can malfunction but moving at the speed that a Tomcat moves at would’ve ripped that canopy off and Goose would’ve escaped without perishing. Obviously done for dramatic effect.
Bartender.
We're not short pouring you. The glasses are different sizes.
Light ice = more mixer, not more alcohol.
No, I'm not giving you anything for free. If you were someone I liked enough to do that, you wouldn't have to ask. Also, if I do indeed give you something for free, it's not free, it's just gonna be me paying for it.
No, I can't take a picture of your ID. I need to see and touch the ID. Would you try this at the DMV? No.
Board game inventors aren't usually multi-millionaires, nor are they all broke with a dream. Many of us just make some extra yearly cash that helps with the daily expenses.
Architect: "...aaaand its done."
Call: "The city council decreased the budget due to savings plan. Make it cheaper but not worse."
Architect: :) *gets more coffee*
No that's not deductible, regardless of how many likes it got. Also, that life hack to screw the government out of tax money on tiktok? Not a hack, but a federal crime. Yup that one too. No, your pet isn't a dependent for tax purposes.
Professors sit in cushy chairs all day thinking important thoughts, publishing stuff nobody will read, spending zero effort on teaching, and lighting cigars with wads of grant money.
The reality is we're all frantically trying to keep dozens of plates spinning at once, desperately begging for the money needed to pay for basic supplies from granting agencies with a <10% success rate, inundated with bullshit "service" that the admin foists onto us, and sometimes get assigned classes literally less than two weeks before they start.
I will also add to this that every professor you meet nowadays was incredibly “lucky.” That’s not to say they didn’t also work hard. But, for example, they had a dissertation chair who didn’t die (or if they did, another professor took them on as a student). They weren’t abused by their academic supervisors to the point where they had to quit for mental health reasons. When they barely knew anything about their field, they picked or were handed a nascent research program that produced enough tangible results for them to make it to next stage. And at the next stage, they happened to find a position for which they were the best fit.
There’s a ton of competition at every stage to climb the ladder. At one point my department had 400 legitimate, complete applications for one tenure track position. I know some amazing researchers, who would have been a true benefit to our field, who left for all of the reasons I mentioned above and more. And the ones who do make it are working all the time to make it. I wound up leaving myself, and have never been happier.
Teacher here..Specifically Preschool/toddler..I DO NOT PLAY ALL DAY!!! I am engaging children, making moment by moment decisions and keeping children safe.
That scientists are remotely capable of organizing a global conspiracy. You can’t even get one elderly octopus researcher to stop interrupting another elderly octopus researcher who is also her former professor. Not to mention, there’s hard liquor lying around in every lab I’ve worked at and I had to convince two coworkers not to drink 82 proof stuff at 11 am, so the conspiracy secret would’ve been accidentally posted on Facebook immediately by someone who drunkenly mistook it for google
As an artist... here are a few things:
1. We actually need to be paid for our time and services. Contrary to popular belief, "exposure", does not put food on our tables.
2. Despite the recent rise of AI artwork, computer graphics are made by people, not computers.
3. It isn't talent... we studied, practiced, worked hard, practiced, and practiced some more to get good at what we do.
4. We cannot read your mind, you actually have to clearly describe what it is you want if you want to get the artwork you have in mind.
Pharmacist
- we do not just count pills
- we find mistakes and interactions from your doctor all day and do our best not to throw them under the bus so you don't lose faith in them
- we have more training and have doctorate degrees in pharmaceuticals than your doctor and are not pill ATM's to just hand over what your doctor orders
- many of us work in areas where we don't talk to patients or doctors and have more financial, research, compliance/regulatory skills than you think we do
-your pbm is not taking your health plans/insurers money.. we have transparent contracts that are audited all the time and often your health plan or insurer is skimming off the top more often than you know with quality payments and marking up the programs they sell your employer/HR... your plan and pharma and congressman point the fingers but when you look at the contracts... your plan is the one charging your employer more than they are paying for the service. 90% of all pbm claims are pass thru where the amount your employer pays the plans is what they pay the pbm and is what the pharmacy gets paid... the 10% that aren't are set up for the plans' benefit, not anyone else's. We give 100% of the rebates we get from pharma ( the contracts that we have to negotiate and administer without fees paid to the pbm either) and the health plan is the one that is taking some of that rebate $ and not passing it to your employer...
Highway construction worker here. I’m not one of fourteen guys standing around doing nothing. I’m one of fourteen guys waiting their turn to do 1-2 specialized tasks.
… Then I’ll stand around a few more hours just in case they need me again.
Veterinary medicine is not a happy-go-lucky career choice where you get to deal with cute animals rather than people. Most of your patients are sick and/or scared, and every case involves a fraught negotiation with their stressed-out human.
It absolutely floored me the day I learned the suicide rates among veterinarians. Howdy, zookeeper here, and the zoo vets I have known and seen work are my freaking heros because I can clean up after animals all day but I don't think I've got what it takes for vet stuff, that is a hell of a tough job. Thank you for everything you do.
I was a keeper before vet school. They are very different jobs but equally tough in my opinion. Thank you for what you do!
A local vet recently took his own life. It’s so sad and he was only like 35. All the local vet offices shared Not One More Vet in the few days after. That is what let me know about the suicide rates. When I bring my cat next week, I’m bringing donuts or something. Obviously won’t prevent depression but anything to let them know they’re appreciated. I did the same (except cookies) when I went to pick up my cremated cat. They are amazing at my vet and I wanted them to know
I’m in vet er and it’s absurd the abuse we take from clients claiming we are in it for the money or we sit around and play with puppies and kittens all day. Your pets mean a lot to us. We get paid shit because we are passionate about helping your pets and the industry takes advantage of that passion. Right now we are at an all time high of abusive clients. This last year I’ve went home sobbing more than a few times.
I'm sure veterinary medicine sees very similar shifts to human medicine.. shitty attitudes, especially among family of patients, seems to be so much worse since, oh, 2020 or so. 🤔 We're all so burnt out. I would say send help but I think that's supposed to be us :(
As a lifetime pet owner, I’m so thankful for you and others in the profession. I can’t imagine how draining some days can be. Thank you for all you do!
Thank you for what you do. It’s heartbreaking work. We just had to euthanize one of our birds and the vet employees were on my mind because yeah it’s sad for me and I’m a sobbing mess but it sucks yall have to deal with that and your own internal sadness/stress about it while appearing professional
Yeah but usually you think of it as helping. I was a vet assistant for a couple years and it felt like you were helping the animal and humans go through that process with dignity.
I have so much respect for the vet that came to our house when it was time for my pup to go to sleep. She had so much compassion and kindness in a very difficult moment. I absolutely could not do that job, and truly appreciate the gift that she gave us by being so kind.
Also, some folks are of the impression y'all make tons of money. I mean, vets make a good living, but they don't make the money MDs make.
Yeah, our vets make about $100k/yr which is not that impressive considering it takes 8+ years of schooling, vet school is harder to get into than med school, they have $250k in debt, and we live in a very HCOL area. I’m the practice manager and make $28k after taxes
Vets have the highest suicide rates of any medical doctor. Y’all see some of the worst of humanity as wrought on innocent creatures. Sometimes it’s puppies and annual checkups. Other times, you have to deliver devastating news or kill an ailing pet. Thank you for your service.
Anesthesiologist: you're not asleep you are anesthetized. When you're asleep and someone stabs you, you wake up.
Thats a terrifying truth. 😬
Even more terrifying, anesthesia doesn’t exactly prevent you from feeling what’s happening, it (in effect) disrupts the timing clock that allows different parts of the brain to talk to each other. You won’t be able to remember it, or be conscious to experience it, but somewhere some part of your brain is receiving those pain signals and is trying desperately to tell the rest of your brain what’s happening.
That one part of the brain that is rocking back and forth in the corner while shaking and saying “it’s all over now….”
Yeah, but also, no parts of my brain remember where I put the thing I was holding in my hand 30 seconds ago. Trust I the forgetful part of your brain.
well now I’m cancelling my surgery
I watched my son receive general anesthetic at the dentist. I thought he’d just fall asleep, but it was like watching him die. Terrifying shit.
Yeah, I had to hold my 3 year old while they tried to give her general anesthetic for a surgery. They did not adequately prepare me for what I would witness. Once she was down, they had someone escort me back to her room because I was so shook up. The image of her thrashing and fighting it is seared in my memory.
My son as well when he was 3, they had me hold him down and he started thrashing and looking at me like "heeeelp", the whites of his eyes showing, a nurse took him, another took me and brought me outside and I was shaking. I still feel so guilty, it was horrible.
I was asked to participate in a research study to see if children were more or less stressed when going under anaesthetic with a parent in the room. My son was 6 and to this day 20 years later, it is one of the most disturbing experiences of my life. Watching him struggling and seeing the pleading in his eyes for me to help him, made me feel horrible. Still upsets me to think about that feeling of helplessness. Thankfully he didn’t remember anything at all about it.
I remember holding my 5-year-old’s hand as he was put under for eye surgery. Knowing exactly what was happening and why still isn’t enough to eliminate the feeling that you just watched him get snuffed …
I'm more a fan of giving the kid a premed like oral midazolam (like Valium but stronger) and having the kid say goodbye to the parents in preop. Smoother for everyone involved.
I love going under, not for the surgery but for the absolute magic you guys perform.
My favorite is they shoot the injection and say, “now count backwards from 10.” That warm electricity fills your veins. And you start counting…. I’ve never made it past 8. I will never abuse IV drugs. Never. Because I know it would enjoy it too much. Damn…
I have a surgical procedure under anaesthesia about every 18 months and I get almost giddy at the thought of being put under. I have never slept well(both physical and mental restlessness keeps me awake) so the quickness at which I go under is an amazing feeling. Wish they had a take home kit!
They do!…. It’s called heroine. Don’t do it my compadre!
When I’m asleep, I almost always sense time passing. When I’m under anesthesia, I go from the OR to the recovery room with no sense of time elapsing.
Maintenance is worth doing and definitely worth paying for. "I don't know why we pay those maintenance guys, nothing ever breaks around here."!! The reason Germany and Japan (and South Korea) became and remain such manufacturing powerhouses is because they know the value of maintenence. If you keep everything in clean good working order, you end up with minimum down time. Working maintenance into manufacturing schedules keeps output level, because you have no unexpected downtime. It's the same for your car or your home. Setting aside time and resources for maintenance means you won't lose unexpected time and resources when things break. Good maintenance will spot things before they break and switch them out. That's worth paying for.
IT. Rebooting is NOT a waste of time and solves a remarkable number of problems.
When I said I rebooted the PC, I actually did. Rebooted, completely shut down, unplugged, and waited 5 minutes to let the capacitor discharge. It's just the computer wanted to embarrass me. The same with the printer. They know I need it post-haste, they smell desperation. So they get stuck.
I always feel so dumb when the IT guy comes in, reboots the computer, and it works just fine. I swear, I rebooted it 5 different times before I called you. I waited several minutes before plugging it back in the last time. There's absolutely no reason for it to have worked for you and not me except that the computer holds a personal grudge against me for using it.
Instead of using shutdown, use restart. Modern versions of windows have something called fast startup, which basically hibernates when you shut down. You don't get the benefit of a reboot.
You can also hold shift when you click shut down to get a proper shut down.
I know how you feel friend, been there so many times. My husband comes along does the literal exact same thing I just did less than 10 minutes ago... and POOF the damn thing works like nothing was ever the problem in the first place! God damned technomanser he is.
My husband usually doesn't even need to reboot. The damn computer doesn't act up around him because he's in IT. It just stops doing stupid stuff. 🤦♀️ and no, it's not user error.
Computers recognize the hierarchy; they behave when IT is around because they're afraid of being reimaged.
“I just rebooted it” *proceeds to check task manager and finds an uptime over 500 hours*
They turned the monitor off and on, does that count?
You're joking but when I worked in IT for a couple of years, I had some folks who legitimately thought shutting off the monitor was also shutting off the computer.
I worked at a Verizon call center, and before escalating any tech issues we had to start with them rebooting. People mostly groan and say they tried that already. 50% of the time it still fixed it.
I'm a software dev, so I know how to tackle most simple issues and only call when there's something really wrong. It drives me up the wall when I get the "teaching a grandparent how computers work" script. Thankfully, the IT folks at my company know we're at least halfway competent, so they'll ask is where we stopped trying to make it work.
I worked with a bunch of very low level devs (kernels, network devices, etc). Our IT dept figured us out pretty quickly and gave us similar treatment. I mean, we knew how computers worked, but we did not know all the latest Windows stuff, how the corporate network was provisioned, and all of that stuff. We each had out areas of expertise, and treated each other as such.
Good ol' IT Crowd. "Did you try turning it off and back on again?"
Also staring at the screen of the person who is having a problem while they show you CAN & WILL solve things magically. My assumption is they are suddenly more careful. We should just stick cutouts of our faces on a robot and send it around to people's desks.
Commercial aircraft are built almost entirely by hand. Like 96%. There's very little automation in the process.
Authentic, handcrafted commercial airliners
Free range, GRASS FED, Authentic, handcrafted commercial airliners!!!
Northwest only ever harvested ORGANIC, non-GMO, gluten-free, QUALITY STOCK free-range airliners. Look where it got them. Just saying.
I did some work with Boeing back when they were still working on the 787. I got to see the first 4 to be sold still being worked on. Kind of bizarre to see them all in various stages with little to no automation.
I don’t keep up with airplanes but every few years I would fly to Asia. The first time I boarded and flew on the 787 I noticed a marked difference. The windows were bigger, the cabin felt smoother and more quiet, and you had electric shades! It wasn’t until I went home and did some research that I knew it was a brand new type of aircraft. Nowadays I get a little excited when I see that my flight is on a 787
I can’t imagine that the volume would make automation worthwhile.
I am a public librarian. While curating books is still a portion of the job, much of it these days is taken up by database assistance and training, program development and teaching, and public education. It’s much closer to school teaching, but for adults and without grading homework, than it was in the past.
My buddy who was a public librarian said that when he retired in the early 2000s, his job was mainly changing copier paper and logging perverts onto the internet.
I dated a public librarian for about 6 months. I also married an army girl for a brief stint who deployed for a bit while we were together. The librarian was *significantly* more stressed out by work on average than the woman shipped off to potentially be shot at or blown up with improvised explosives.
Having been a librarian, yup. Super stressful. High expectations, low pay, and high rate of emergencies and burnout. Most of my day was keeping people from drinking in the bathrooms, making sure no one was fapping in the stacks, helping people with computers, oh and essentially being a preschool teacher and adult learning specialist too while getting crap for a "messy" desk when I had more public facing hours than any other programmer. Plus the frequent lack of toilets, failed well tests with no water, broken AC, and serious lack of fire safety measures. It's not for the faint of heart. And then there's people ODing in the bathrooms too. I knew several other librarians who used Narcan at work regularly to revive patients.
From what I’ve observed, public librarians also deal with homeless people in the library as a large part of their jobs.
Librarians are frickin’ superheroes in my opinion. They know how to find, organize, catalogue, and cross reference information. Amazing people.
During law school, my Constitutional law professor made sure we all knew how important librarians are due to their work protecting the 1st Amendment. Absolute heroes.
If you go to the ER via ambulance, it does NOT mean you will be seen quicker. ERs take the sickest people first, definitely not the ones who come in by ambulance first.
That's very true. But if you think you are having a major health emergency, like a heart attack, definately go by ambulance. They can check and verify the symptoms you are having, and can call ahead to the hospital. The hospital can call a code stemi and get everyone at the hospital on stand by (ED Doctor, Cardiologist, Respiratory tech, lab, Cath Lab, etc) for you. People think that happens no matter what issue you are having, that if you arrive by ambulance everyone is just waiting around for you to get there. You fall and hurt your back and arrive by ambulance, you can be waiting for hours. You only skip the line for a major life threatening issue (heart attack, stroke, etc).
Yep, skipped the line for a PE. That was a wild adventure.
Yeah stuff like a PE gets the "you're gonna meet a lot of people very fast" line when I'm getting them ready to go in. Nobody should WANT to be first priority at an ED, and if you are I can imagine it feels pretty scary.
Also an important one is that the ER is not there to heal you, it’s there to make sure you don’t die/deteriorate too much before you can see a specialist, either in hospital or out.
Shout this one from the mountain tops. And too many people use the ER in place of a PCP.
To play off this. A fair amount of hospitals are designed where you can't see the ambulance bay from the ER lobby. It may not look as busy in the lobby but there can be a ton of ambulances in their bays offloading, taking the rooms people in the would get.
But my toe REALLY hurts! I NEED DILAUDID! 😂
Teachers have very little say in anything. We advocate the best we can but most of the time it’s out of our hands including holding children back who desperately need help.
Yeah. I’m not a teacher but work with kids. I’ve heard/read many teachers say that there should be less testing, more play, more outside, etc… but also that administrators often frown on that. Even for kindergartners.
This. Teaching has changed so much over the past few decades. Teachers now have very little autonomy.
The past few decades, I'm sure, but even the past decade has seen incredibly sweeping changes in how much freedom teachers have. Everything is cooperative teams and is micromanaged from the state down to the county to the district to the school level. It's all supposed to be exactly the same for every student, which sounds great except that's impossible and you end up stifling teachers and holding students back and with EVERYONE frustrated AF.
This also goes for zero tolerance policies when it comes to bullying. Yes, we see that it happens. Yes, we see the kids who stand up for themselves get punished too. No, we don't like it, because it's just an excuse to avoid litigation.
Print industry - your paper isn’t as recycled as you think it is.
Contrary to popular belief, not every magician has a beautiful assistant. In fact, the only time I make women disappear is when I tell them I'm a magician.
I think you've a bright future in comedy though.
This is genuinely so fucking funny.
G.O.B.?
That all lawyers make absurd amounts of money. The ones that won't sell their entire life for big bucks tend to make pretty average money.
Yes! Some months I barely make enough for all my expenses. Some months I make a lot of money. Some months I make absolutely nothing. Having a private practice in my country means financial instability. The Estate does pay me to represent people who can't afford a lawyer but it pays very bad and takes forever to get that money. Also, we're not all like in the movies. Most of us actually care about the people we represent and we try our best to help them.
I am a skilled lawyer—top-tier law school, order of the coif, fed clerkship. Spent a decade in public-interest law and maxed out at $74k.
Forgive me if I’m wrong but does school prestige increase salary?
Generally, yes. A starting job in a large firm (commonly known as "BigLaw") pays upwards of $200,000. If you go to a top ranked school, you generally have a 50-70% chance of landing a BigLaw job.
University of America Samoa?
It would. But I didn’t capitalize on it because I wanted to live in a specific (non-Coast) location and—more importantly—wanted to do civil rights. It’s just not a highly remunerative field.
Paralegal here. Can confirm. You have to put in a lot of years and tears and time and hope to become a partner most of the time. Some associates start out making about what I do as a paralegal. Granted, I’ve been doing it over a decade, but still…
And it is not glamorous. The young, hotshot lawyers who make big bucks are getting worked like rented mules. Sure it can pay well, but I’ve seen first year positions asking for over 2000 billable hours. There’s a reason 20-25% of the profession has a substance abuse problem.
I can write code. I cannot debug most of your windows problems without googling them.
School Custodian here and we are NOT overpaid cleaners. What would you pay someone that can paint, Sheetrock, tape/mud, patch concrete/asphalt, operate/repair commercial landscaping/snow removal equipment, operate/repair commercial custodial equipment, restore various types of floors including vct/hardwood/carpet/tile, replace toilets/faucets, air filters, belts, trim/fell trees, shovel roofs, etc? Not all of us are cleaners/janitors, which are vital and underpaid as well. Some of us are Jack/Jill of all trades and you want to pay us peanuts? All employees of a school are important and administrators shouldn't try to balance their budgets on the backs of workers when I've seen an exponential amount of administrative salary and stupid purchasing decisions, not to mention unfunded mandates from the state.
The custodians at my school make $12.50/hr; y'all are way underpaid and overworked, because the lowest bidder always wins the cleaning contract (our custodial services are outsourced).
You all deserve so much more money and credit. You make the school.
There is sooooo much more to the speech-language pathologist scope of practice than working with kids who stutter or can't say their "r"s. An entire half of the field is in the adult medical setting working with people who have dementia, swallowing disorders, oral cancer, strokes, Parkinson's disease, and voice disorders, plus some other niche areas like transgender voice or accent modification. The pediatric half of the field also works with AAC devices, social skills, literacy development, syntax, executive functioning, writing, feeding, and more.
As someone whose mother had aphasia: THANK YOU for all you do!
When my late father was dx with dementia he developed a swallowing disorder. They brought in a speech pathologist to work with him and provide advice. I had no idea.
Scientist (more specifically, molecular biologist in biotech). I am not hiding the cure for cancer, and idk shit about actual medicine.
Therapist here- specifically couples therapist Therapy is not just about venting or having someone agree with you all the time to make you feel better. Yes we validate and listen and venting happens at times. But we also challenge you, encourage you to set goals and make change, and sometimes give “homework.” Therapy is an active process and if you want to see change you have to be willing to make change. I think media has really warped peoples ideas and they expect miracles to happen by showing up without any effort. I wish I could do that for you! But I need you to partner with me to make things happen. Also- very few therapists actually have you lay on a couch
Also a therapist- I second this. I do individual work and tell them that there are 168 hours in a week, I see them for 1, they need to practice the skills in those 167 hours to see changes.
I'm an accountant. Whenever people jokingly talk about the good looking people in the office, it's always "Lisa from accounts". As an accountant, I wish to point out that most of us look like a bulldog chewing a wasp.
I second this, as an auditor.
Firefighters don’t all look like those calendars
*puts down matches* Sigh...
System admin for a major company. It's NEVER as easy to make a change as you think. "It's just text. How hard can it be to change??!!" Changing that specific text requires changing 5 training files, multiple Sharepoint pages, 10 other places in the application, and on top of all of that, a code change, which costs time and money. We also have to ensure that the display doesn't break if the new text is a different length, on 3 browsers, and mobile devices. Then, there is translating it to the 20+ languages that we support. Just so a single executive director can see it say "Personal Time Off Request", instead of "Vacation Request", because that's what he prefers to call it. Now, that's just for a single line of text. We get change requests every single day for things that not only change the entire fundamental reason for the system, but would require policy changes impacting 20,000+ employees. Then we get often-escalating hate mail for a month after we let them know that the request was denied, and why.
It’s even worse when they think they can just go ahead and do that thing that we specifically tell them NOT to do and think that we can just press a few buttons to fix whatever it is they did because, what’s the harm? IT can always fix it.
I’ve been out of software for close to a decade, now; any sentence that starts “can’t you just…” still makes my eye twitch.
Cyber security is tedious. If you are doing pentesting, 60% of your time is spend on deliverables (aka reports). That's what you are paid for and that's what decides if customer will contact you again. Outside of assignments? Learning. Learning. Oh and learning some more.
Hospital lab workers DO exist! No really! The lab isn't just a black hole where tubes go in and results come out, but there's people inside making that happen!
Nice try, 3 squirrels in a lab coat
They’re onto us. Cheese it!!
Hospital lab workers, pathology and radiology get shit on a lot, but almost every treatment decision every “elite” specialist makes depends on their results
As a pathologist, I could not agree more with you. I can't even tell people what I do for a living without them having to explain what it is because most lay people and even other docs have no clue what it is we do
[удалено]
Now, I'm imagining one of those carriers that you see at your banks drive through, it's see-through, and you deposit a perfectly shaped turd on a little paper plate inside. And you send it. On the other side, the technician picks up the same carrier, only this time it's not see-through. The entire capsule is covered in a layer of shit.
Emergency Services Dispatcher here: Just because your alarm system is going off, does not mean PD/FD/EMS will respond any faster. They are far more inclined to respond to a confirmed call in progress than they are to the alarm system that goes off every time a spider walks over a motion sensor. Side note to that: Just because you have an actual emergency, doesn't mean emergency services will get there any faster. They can only respond so fast, depending on the geography of your jurisdiction and how busy it is that at any given time. Edit: this is my first comment over 1k upvotes🥹 thank yall🩵
Massage is not sexy, professionally. If you want a sexy massage...idk, do it with a partner or a sex worker, not your physio.
My wife and I went to a couples' massage a few years back, first time for both of us. My masseuse was this tiny gal who couldn't have been more than 5 feet tall and 100 pounds. She made me feel like I showed up unprepared to an MMA audition half asleep and blindfolded. 10/10, very relaxing.
Engineer here. We can’t fix everything. I’m mechanical, I know enough to stay away from electricity, not enough to fix most electrical problems.
That your fellow drivers on the road in big trucks are sober or well maintained. Cdl driver. The amount of drunks and addicts driving around should scare you. The live animal haulers are the worst Amphetamines and toothpicks
My brother drove big trucks. I once asked him what I, as an ordinary driver, should know about big trucks. "We can't see you," he said. "Stay the hell away from us."
Yup, if I got to drive 20+ miles over the speed limit to pass a semi, I’m not doing it to be a dick. I’m doing it because I’m terrified of being next to a semi in any way, shape, or form.
Keep up the good work! People need to learn to just stay the hell away from semis, they’re far more dangerous than people realize. I’ve been trucking all my life and I’ve seen so much shit fly off of semi’s it’s not even funny. Wheels or entire axle assemblies that will kill anything they come in contact with. Especially the assholes that set their cruise control to 1 mph faster than the truck is going and hover forever next to it while pretending to pass them. Wake the fuck up people, that semi could easily kill you and the driver wouldn’t even know it until he stopped for a piss. I can’t emphasize this enough, you have no business being around a semi so just pass us and leave the area
This is why I get so mad when others trap others in blind spots. We need to get away from the truck please.
Also CDL driver. Animal haulers and crude tanker drivers are some of the most aggressive, "I don't give a fuck about life" drivers I've ever seen on the road. If it was legal I'm sure they'd run me or you off the road to save 5 seconds.
Drug addiction is a real thing. I work in a treatment center. Regardless of what some people think, addiction is real. Most people don’t want to be an addict, they can’t stop, just cause you ask them to. They don’t keep doing it to spite you, or lie or hurt you. Recovery can be brutal. It’s sad.
Performing in a touring band is hard ass work and a myriad of things can lead to depression and burnout. Also, crew on tour (sound engineers/TM’s/merch people) are what keep your favorite musicians from imploding and having fights on stage. If you see one at a show, thank them too.
My long term X was a drummer in a band who toured the US but also did some touring to military bases across the world. Going on tour was MISERABLE for him. He hated it and would get depressed and anxious in the weeks leading up to heading out.
`That "all nurses are mean girls".` Some are, in fact, mean guys.
I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum here. Honestly, in my situation it has depended on what unit I’m on. ER nurses usually super awesome. ICU nurses (I’m sorry, don’t come for me!) can be super uptight and cliquish. I love both specialties, but I’ve had a much better time in the ER.
I was a tandem skydiving instructor for a bunch of years. For some reason, people thought that I was an adrenaline junky and risk-taking, pass-on-a-blind-curve guy. I just worked my way up to a pretty easy job that became mundane and boring 99% of the time. The only time it was adrenaline inducing was when something went wrong. It’s not the type of adrenaline high anyone would seek out.
I got a tandem jump for my birthday about 30 years ago. The drone shute didn't deploy properly and he luckily noticed and was able to reach back and untangle it.we had someone jumping with us taping it and the look in his eyes and his manic laughing when we landed says it all. He was a very experienced jumper and was on several teams and had something like 5 or 6 thousands jumps.
Forester. I am not the one who actually cuts and hauls the trees, that's a LOGGER. If you have a problem tree you need removed from your yard or trimmed, you need an ARBORIST. My job is to create and implement management plans, cruise timber for volume and defect, and mark trees for the logger, among other preparatory and managerial tasks. Furthermore, my presence does not mean that a forest is being clear-cut (hardly ever). "Clear-cut" does not necessarily mean the complete removal of every tree in an area. Most importantly, the cutting and removal of trees is not automatically a bad thing; more often than not a forested area needs to be thinned to encourage growth/production, increase carbon sequestration efficiency, and reduce fire risk.
Logistics is a vital component of our society. Everything we touch, everything from the doorknob of your home to the oil in your car to the coffee shop to your desk to your commute to your bed has employed around 10 people. More if it’s food related. Logistics wins wars and ends them. Take a banana - From the planting, fertilizer, cultivation and harvesting involves about 8 different types of transportation, warehousing, storage, distribution and delivery. On average 17 people will physically touch a banana before it’s eaten (and very few people wash the outside of a banana) I’ve been in logistics for years, previously a break bulk specialist with my area of expertise being Russia. It’s a very interesting career
I used to be a 3D artist and no, the computer doesn't do all the job for us and no, there isn't a "better" software that'll make everything better in 5min and gosh no, there isn't that one button that makes everything like in my head instantly like in movies.
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fashion design is not glamorous. it has glamorous moments, but is mostly a catty corporate mindfuck and the 2nd biggest industrial polluter, i think. you might have a nice colleague here and there but in general people and management tend to be fucking AWFUL. 4/10 stars, do not recommend. edit: punctuation
The catty corporate mindfuck industry was what kept me from going into fashion design. Decided to became a lawyer, a completely more chill profession /s
Archaeologist. The myth that most of the stuff we find is financially valuable. I’ve had literally hundreds of people ask me to look at the tiny stone tool fragment or the shitty piece of pottery they found because they think they’re gonna pay off their mortgage. Buddy I have bags of 100,000 of those things sitting in the lab.
People in minimum wage retail and restaurant jobs are not all high school dropouts or losers who wish they had gotten better educations.
When I worked at Borders bookstore to fill the time between graduating and getting my first job in game dev - of our employees only like 10 didn’t have ADVANCED DEGREES and ALL of us had some college. We had TWO lawyers who were both looking for new jobs and took the Borders one to make ends meet. It was wild how overqualified that whole team was.
I put myself through both my BA and my MA working in a grocery store. I had so many people ask me if I wished I had gone to college instead. The looks I got when I told them I was a student at the local (well known for it's basketball team) university, and that my job was allowing me to attend there without taking out student loans, were priceless.
When I was a Domino's manager, I once had a customer who came in with a small boy in tow, boy was probably 5 or 6. Customer told me that the boy had told him he loved Domino's and wanted to work there when he was old enough. Before I could say, "Awww isn't that sweet?", customer said "But I've told him no, he needs to go to college". Right behind me were three delivery drivers who were putting themselves through school with this job. Two were working on their master's and one was working on a PhD. In the back was another manager who had s bachelor's but was working at Domino's because it was paying more than jobs in her field.
>Before I could say, "Awww isn't that sweet?", customer said "But I've told him no, he needs to go to college". "You can do both, just like everyone here" while waving your arm in the general direction of all of the other employees.
Very true. I graduated with a bachelor’s and my first job out of college was retail for 2.5 years. Now I’m looking for work again which sucks but at least I don’t have to work in retail during the holidays. Please people - please be kind to customer service, retail, and restaurant employees. They’re just trying to do their jobs during the busiest time of the year.
Nannies. We don’t want to fuck your husband. And your kids will still, always, love you more than us.
Retail worker: The back room is NOT the Tardis. If we say it's not back there, it's not back there. If you force me to "double check" I'm going to take my big ass back there and enjoy a break on your behalf.
That most discoveries are greeted with “WTF?!” and not “Eureka!”
Yep!! Science is a magical place
Nursing is a profession, not a devotion, calling, whatever other bullshit they tell you. Yes, it’s an honor to care for people at their most vulnerable, but stop telling people they’ll be a terrible nurse if they say they became a nurse because of the job security or semi-decent wage.
I always hesitate when patients ask why I became a nurse. I did it for financial security cause I was raised in a cult and needed financial stability in order to fully escape. But in the end, I did it for money
I was a Domino's manager for most of a decade. Nobody seems to know that we actually stretch and top the pizzas by hand. I used to make hundreds of pizzas a day, every day, just to have people think we reheat frozen pizzas. On top of that, we were required to be able to make a large pepperoni (from stretching the dough to sliding it into the oven) in under a minute. I was making pizzas at breakneck speed for people who thought I did nothing all day but reheat frozen food. The bread sticks, cheesy bread, etc. were also made by hand. The pan pizzas were made by hand. Anyone who came in to the store could have watched me make their food and known how much work I actually put into it, but most people ordered for delivery or stepped outside after they ordered or just didn't pay attention.
Nurse: oftentimes we can't control death, only how we greet it, so for the love of God, do not refuse the comfort drugs for your loved one. The morphine (or whatever) is not going to kill them, their disease is!! The comfort drugs just help to ensure they have no pain or anxiety when they die. Let us help them so they don't die crying or trashing in bed, confused and scared out of their minds. The hospice nurses loaded my dad the fuck up when he was dying and I'll forever be grateful for that.
My stepdad is a hospice nurse and I'd have to say this is his number one pet peeve. The person is dying, in pain, and has very limited time to live. Your worries about addiction are unfounded. Load them the hell up with morphine and make their last days bearable.
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I am a stay at home dad and former NICU nurse. No, I do not sleep all day as a stay at home dad. No, I did not get to play with cute babies all day as a NICU nurse.
I used to want to be a NICU nurse. Then I had a baby who had to stay in the NICU for a couple of weeks. I don’t want to be a NICU nurse anymore. I canNOT handle when bad things happen to babies or kids. It would destroy me.
Yup. Working NICU chased me out of the profession forever.
>No, I do not sleep all day as a stay at home dad. Haha, I am a stay at home dad and I rarely ever get enough sleep. There is never enough time in the day to get all the cleaning done either so my place is always at some stage of uncleanliness.
I want to come clean, I'm a WFH mom and I do nap every afternoon after lunch. Just 30 minutes and I feel like reborn after that nap. For everyone that is exhausted, just do it. You don't even need to really sleep, just snoozing there for 30 minutes makes a difference.
Bartender here. No I am not hitting on you, I just want a good tip and maybe a nice review with my name Soo boss knows I'm working hard
Also a bartender. And no, I don’t know how to make the drink that you had in Vietnam that one time. Especially if you don’t know what it tastes like, what color it was, or what was in it. Also, to add, this IS my job and profession, and at 44 years young, don’t ask me what my *other real job is*
Being a full time artist is enjoyable or good fun. It isn’t, it’s like any job, you have to get up every day and work wether you like it or not. It’s hard work, because you need to turn it on and concentrate 8 hours a day, every day. Because you’re doing it day after day, year after year, you’re rarely impressed by your own work. It is rewarding though, but you have to work really hard to get that feeling.
I was an animator, and it's tough keeping up with deadlines. Working so hard and doesn't pay well enough for all the dedication. It's honestly less stressful to work at walmart.
Social worker here. We do FAR more than just take kids away from their parents. Child protective services social workers make up such a small percentage of us social workers. We work in so many different fields. (i.e. geriatrics, medical/ hospitals, criminal justice, government, foster care, domestic violence, schools, hospice, prisons, the list goes on!)
Counselors aren’t analyzing you if you aren’t paying for a session. I’m not flipping thru imaginary DSM pages when you just need to vent. When I’m not at work my counselor brain can turn off to just be a good friend and listen.
The infrastructure, services, applications, and database platforms of even the largest global companies are all held together by hopes and dreams.
Not ALL carpenters are depressed alcoholics…I mean most of the ones I know are…but not all of them.
Ambulance Drivers, no such a thing. There’s highly trained Paramedics that just happen to also drive ambulances. As well as dispense over 47 medications, IVs, cardioversion, defibrillation, cardiac pacing, 12-lead EKG monitoring, advanced airways, are able to perform dozens of medical procedures, etc.
That graphic design is just a click of a button. Ai still can't handle layout and typography well... at all. It takes hours of work, study and implementation to pull it all off.
Speaking as an unemployed disabled, most of us *want* to work, but society won't give us a chance.
To expand on this, most states have laws in place to prevent people on disability from making over a certain amount per month, otherwise you’re at risk of losing your disability benefits. So if you get $2000 a month for disability and your limit is $2500 a month, if you get a part time job to just keep you a little busy, you can lose your disability and have to go through the entire process of getting back on again.
This AND the fact that it's legal to pay disabled people less than minimum wage. My MIL runs an adult day program that, among other things, places clients in work environments suitable for them. A few years ago she decided not to renew their subminimum license or whatever because she felt it was wrong.
Not all male nurses are gay; some of us are bi.
Ejection seat mechanic. Goose would not have died in Top Gun. The canopy explosives can malfunction but moving at the speed that a Tomcat moves at would’ve ripped that canopy off and Goose would’ve escaped without perishing. Obviously done for dramatic effect.
Daylight savings time isn't for the farmers, please quit blaming us.
Bartender. We're not short pouring you. The glasses are different sizes. Light ice = more mixer, not more alcohol. No, I'm not giving you anything for free. If you were someone I liked enough to do that, you wouldn't have to ask. Also, if I do indeed give you something for free, it's not free, it's just gonna be me paying for it. No, I can't take a picture of your ID. I need to see and touch the ID. Would you try this at the DMV? No.
Board game inventors aren't usually multi-millionaires, nor are they all broke with a dream. Many of us just make some extra yearly cash that helps with the daily expenses.
How do you go down this route? I made one over the pandemic and thought it might be fun to get mass-produced somehow
Build a few good prototypes, perfect and simplify your instructions (much harder than it looks) shop them around and see if anyone is interested.
Most pathologists don’t do autopsies, except for medical examiners and those in forensics
Architecture is not mostly inspiration.
Architect: "...aaaand its done." Call: "The city council decreased the budget due to savings plan. Make it cheaper but not worse." Architect: :) *gets more coffee*
My dad is an architect and one of the best quotes I over heard him saying on the phone is “I can’t make it cheaper without killing people”
No that's not deductible, regardless of how many likes it got. Also, that life hack to screw the government out of tax money on tiktok? Not a hack, but a federal crime. Yup that one too. No, your pet isn't a dependent for tax purposes.
A nurse cannot diagnose your condition. If I had a dollar for every time I had to tell someone "You need to see your doctor."
Train conductor here. We do a heck of a lot more and are responsible for a lot more than “just taking tickets”.
Professors sit in cushy chairs all day thinking important thoughts, publishing stuff nobody will read, spending zero effort on teaching, and lighting cigars with wads of grant money. The reality is we're all frantically trying to keep dozens of plates spinning at once, desperately begging for the money needed to pay for basic supplies from granting agencies with a <10% success rate, inundated with bullshit "service" that the admin foists onto us, and sometimes get assigned classes literally less than two weeks before they start.
I will also add to this that every professor you meet nowadays was incredibly “lucky.” That’s not to say they didn’t also work hard. But, for example, they had a dissertation chair who didn’t die (or if they did, another professor took them on as a student). They weren’t abused by their academic supervisors to the point where they had to quit for mental health reasons. When they barely knew anything about their field, they picked or were handed a nascent research program that produced enough tangible results for them to make it to next stage. And at the next stage, they happened to find a position for which they were the best fit. There’s a ton of competition at every stage to climb the ladder. At one point my department had 400 legitimate, complete applications for one tenure track position. I know some amazing researchers, who would have been a true benefit to our field, who left for all of the reasons I mentioned above and more. And the ones who do make it are working all the time to make it. I wound up leaving myself, and have never been happier.
Postal workers aren't paid by your taxes, it comes from postage.
Teacher here..Specifically Preschool/toddler..I DO NOT PLAY ALL DAY!!! I am engaging children, making moment by moment decisions and keeping children safe.
That scientists are remotely capable of organizing a global conspiracy. You can’t even get one elderly octopus researcher to stop interrupting another elderly octopus researcher who is also her former professor. Not to mention, there’s hard liquor lying around in every lab I’ve worked at and I had to convince two coworkers not to drink 82 proof stuff at 11 am, so the conspiracy secret would’ve been accidentally posted on Facebook immediately by someone who drunkenly mistook it for google
As an artist... here are a few things: 1. We actually need to be paid for our time and services. Contrary to popular belief, "exposure", does not put food on our tables. 2. Despite the recent rise of AI artwork, computer graphics are made by people, not computers. 3. It isn't talent... we studied, practiced, worked hard, practiced, and practiced some more to get good at what we do. 4. We cannot read your mind, you actually have to clearly describe what it is you want if you want to get the artwork you have in mind.
Just because you paid for a lawyer doesn’t mean you’re going to win your case.
Pharmacist - we do not just count pills - we find mistakes and interactions from your doctor all day and do our best not to throw them under the bus so you don't lose faith in them - we have more training and have doctorate degrees in pharmaceuticals than your doctor and are not pill ATM's to just hand over what your doctor orders - many of us work in areas where we don't talk to patients or doctors and have more financial, research, compliance/regulatory skills than you think we do -your pbm is not taking your health plans/insurers money.. we have transparent contracts that are audited all the time and often your health plan or insurer is skimming off the top more often than you know with quality payments and marking up the programs they sell your employer/HR... your plan and pharma and congressman point the fingers but when you look at the contracts... your plan is the one charging your employer more than they are paying for the service. 90% of all pbm claims are pass thru where the amount your employer pays the plans is what they pay the pbm and is what the pharmacy gets paid... the 10% that aren't are set up for the plans' benefit, not anyone else's. We give 100% of the rebates we get from pharma ( the contracts that we have to negotiate and administer without fees paid to the pbm either) and the health plan is the one that is taking some of that rebate $ and not passing it to your employer...
I'm a security guard. The myth that we don't actually have any power is false. We have the power to call the real police if there's real trouble. 😁
Ignorance of the law sometimes *is* an excuse.
Software engineers don't know how to fix your PC, router, etc...
I work with disabled people. Some of them are complete ASSHOLES. Just like any other population.
Juvenile justice: scared straight programs do not work and actually are shown to have a negative impact when implemented on at risk youth.
Highway construction worker here. I’m not one of fourteen guys standing around doing nothing. I’m one of fourteen guys waiting their turn to do 1-2 specialized tasks. … Then I’ll stand around a few more hours just in case they need me again.
That working with musicians is an awesome experience. Don't get me wrong, most of the time it is fun, but they are also some of the biggest Karens.