Secrets you know because of your occupation

Is there anything you can GENERALLY attest to about the industry you work in that is kept from outsiders or downplayed. Like for example if you work in fast food, you can attest that the cooks don't wash their hands or that there are pests inside the building sniffing around food. Or if you're a police officer, you can attest that cops do let the women they pull over for speeding off with a warning if they're attractive, or not have sympathy for those who aren't. Learn us!

I'll go first, since I work in the medical arena.

- Some doctors DO judge patients character based on what kind of insurance they have and treat them accordingly.
- The reason you feel sore after surgery isn't just because of surgery, you're getting thrown around like a ragdoll while under anesthesia.
- Lab techs laugh when they see semen in your urine sample.
- Hospital beds are notoriously dirty. Don't touch those side rails.
- Avoid the ER at all costs. It's like $300-400 just to be seen by a doctor, let alone be treated. The minute the doctor lays eyes on you, you owe him money.
- Quite a few male gynos really are perverts.

Your turn.

Well working at a health club I can tell you that when they say clever things like "month to month plan" and "no contract" its all bullshit. You can't sign up for a membership w/o a credit or debit card and if you dont pay for your next month on your own you will be debited. People hear that and come in thinking that they can just pay for a month of working out and not be under any obligation for the next. Nope! And there's ALWAYS a contract. You cant have a membership without a signature and thats a contract. Most people are fooled by wording and fall for it. The ones that arent fooled are usually so bent on working out that they will sign the contract anyway even if they know its bull. Finally mens locker rooms are a cruising areas. Sex happens in them on a regular basis. The locker attendants are constantly replacing shower curtains that pervs poke holes in to spy. If you see a guy walking around in only a towel, there's 50% chance he's looking to play and if he takes 30 trips back and forth from the shower to the steam room then you may wanna steer clear of him. lol

femme fatale wrote:
- Lab techs laugh when they see semen in your urine sample.

Actually we laugh more when we have to send a guy into the bathroom to obtain a semen sample for fertility studies, and we play "Alcohol Level Jeopardy" with the ER nurses on the frequent flyer drunks, to see if they can guess how high the ETOH will be before we release the results.

This is such an interesting thread!

With my current profession, I find out a lot of good shit from local business people. It's mostly all local gossip, so nothing you guys would care about. I think because I work from home, people have this feeling of safety to tell me things because they don't envision me out and about telling others.

As far as my last job in dentistry, a huge secret to patients was when the hygienist quit, they trained two of us assistants to do coronal polishing. While it is legal in our state for an assistant to do coronal polishing, it was a shitty trade off for the patients. They paid the same, yet when the office made the switch, the dentists hurriedly did the scaling when they did their exam. They never took the same time the hygienist did. Also, with us doing the polishing, they had a person not formally trained to look for oral cancer or other gum issues in their mouth. So, they were paying the same, but getting much less bang for their buck.

I can't think of anything.

Cheaps wrote:I can't think of anything.

I had thought to myself, "I should not read Cheaps' reply." SO glad you don't have some info that would make us all think twice about booking a hotel room!

Only thing I can add is that customer service reps despise customers and think they are basically spoiled idiots who want something for nothing.

I can't think of anything either. I'm more knowledgeable about certain things like life safety issues in structures than the average person but it's not like they're industry secrets.

most law firms and medical offices use cheap envelopes to mail important documents. these envelopes get shredded from the weight of the contents and the tumbling of the machines. On a daily basis, we find 1040s, divorce suits, medical reports---all which have social security numbers and vital information of the participants. postal employees answer all of the "letters to santa" that kids all over the country send. we have to fill them out on lunches and breaks--- on our time not company time... but we enjoy it. At least 4 times a week, i find wallets in the mail that people find on the street and just throw into the nearest mailbox. The musical Dr. Zhivago owes my crew for their production---- as they put five pounds of paper, CDs, production projections, everything--- into a cheap envelope..... we had to chase the items around a football field sized machine.. and the production is now touring the country.

People are stupid. Really.

When I was in the Air Force stationed in Turkey I knew some secrets about the Soviet military - but that is why we were there.

AtownPeep wrote:Only thing I can add is that customer service reps despise customers and think they are basically spoiled idiots who want something for nothing.

I work for the gov't and I will cosign with anybody who says it's corrupt. The reason for this is because once someone passes their probationary period, it takes an act of Congress to get them fired. So we have a whole bunch of shiftless assholes walking around that do nothing but make things difficult for others that we can't get rid of--we're either waiting for their retirement or an act of God. And since ignorance begets ignorance, the successors know no other way than the same ol' foolishness. We have a union that's supposed to protect us but unfortunately, it also has to protect the wrongdoers if they pay their dues. The general public complains about not being heard by the gov't--and the people who do the real work within the gov't complain about the same thing. Apparently in my sector the same changes have been requested and the same problems have persisted since the 80's.