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“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)

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There are tons of misunderstandings about what professionals actually do at their jobs. For one, a lot of people have a lot of these wildly incorrect assumptions due to the media they consume. But when you take a peek behind the curtain, you realize that the reality of any position can be incredibly different from what you think you know.
Some seasoned job veterans shared the (not so) obvious truth about their work in an interesting discussion on AskReddit. In it, they opened up about the most common things that the general public gets wrong about their professions. We’ve collected their most intriguing insights to share with you. Keep scrolling to check them out.

#1

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
When you're food shopping and you change your mind about a chilled/frozen product, but you put it back into an *ambient* product shelf, it will go straight into the waste when a member of staff finds it. Please don't do that.


We can't leave chilled foods out of the chillers for longer than 20 minutes due to food safety laws(in the UK, ymmv), and we have no idea how long that steak or chicken has been sitting with those cans of soup, so it gets binned.


F**k food waste. Ask a member of staff to put it back for you.
208points

#2

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
You may not remember me, but I hold your hand while you are being intubated before surgery. You are not alone. OR RN.
155points

#3

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
Librarian aka information professional here.

The scholarly publishing industry is a massively profitable industry (check out Elsevier’s profit margins).

They are holding academic research hostage with paywalls.

We are trying to push for a sustainable model of open access publishing where everyone can access the information they need.

Information is important and shouldn’t be hid behind paywalls especially when these companies are not the ones securing the grant money, doing the research and writing the d**n paper.
140points

The truth is that the media and entertainment you consume can have a major impact on how you perceive the world.

Pop culture—movies, shows, books, music, etc.—shapes how you see certain things. For instance, if you watch a lot of medical or crime investigation TV shows, you might make assumptions about the jobs of doctors, police officers, and other experts without even realizing it.

Even the shows that get most of the technical details right have to take some liberties to make the narrative more dramatic and engaging.

#4

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
IT professional here. As dumb as it sounds and as much as everyone hates hearing it, "turn it off and turn it back on again" works roughly 65% of the time. MOST computer problems (including phones!) are caused by a temporary glitch or memory error. Restarting eliminates most common problems. Seriously, before you panic that something is broken, always try this first. 😁.
136points

#5

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
Diamonds are a complete, idiotic f*****g waste of money. They're not rare, valuable, or traditional. Diamonds being associated with marriage comes from a 30's ad campaign

That 2000 dollar rock you bought could have started your kids college fund, could have done literally any good in this world.
135points

#6

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
UTIs in seniors cause dementia like symptoms.
123points

According to US News, vet technicians, construction workers, dental hygienists, carpenters, and medical assistants have the top five most stressful jobs.

Other majorly stressful professions include being diagnostic medical sonographers, solar photovoltaic installers, bakers, electricians, and pilots, followed by flight attendants, nurse practitioners, delivery truck drivers, registered nurses, and medical records technicians.

#7

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
The Oxford Comma is literally never optional.
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114points

#8

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
CPR and resuscitation is a lot less effective and a lot more violent than medical movies and TV shows depict. You usually break ribs.

And if you do get a person to "come back" they don't sit up in the bed coughing, gasping and thanking you...they're usually still unconscious. You just see through machines that they have a stable heart rhythm.

You then intubate them, move them to an ICU and hope that you didn't give them brain damage.
112points

#9

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
L&D nurse here. While I could go with the obvious "labor is nothing like the movies" I'm gonna switch it up. Pregnant women need to drink an ungodly amount of water. Think 16 16 oz glasses. Crampy? Drink some f*****g water. Baby not moving? Go drink that water. Contractions? Before you rush to the hospital chug a bunch of water and see if they stop. Literally half of my triage patients are just dehydrated.
102points

Meanwhile, Business News Daily argues that the most stressful professions involve working as military personnel, police officers, firefighters, social workers, broadcasters, newspaper reporters, emergency dispatchers, mental health counselors, anesthesiologists, and emergency room nurses.

On the flip side, some of the most zen and least stressful jobs include people working as massage therapists, hairstylists, librarians, landscapers, orthodontists, art directors, occupational therapists, medical records technicians, web developers, and data entry specialists.

#10

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
Many/most teachers get to a point in their careers where they no longer like kids.
100points

#11

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
The cloud is really just someone else's computer.
93points

#12

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
I work for local government. yes, taxpayers pay my salary (which also means i’m contributing to my own salary), but that doesn’t justify why i should give a person extra attention or service. people who come to my office and say “i pay your salary” right after asking for something completely ridiculous have no respect for me and assume i do nothing all day.
89points

What are some of the wrongest assumptions you’ve ever had about someone else’s jobs, dear Pandas? On the other hand, what do people tend to usually get wrong about your own profession? How stressful is your work? What do you see as the ideal job for you personally? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

#13

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
Don’t yell or be rude at the person who anwsers the phone for the company you are calling. It will not make us help you better or faster. It will do exactly the opposite.
84points

#14

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
I'm an accountant and people think I'm some type of math wizard. Excel, literally, does all the math for me.
78points

#15

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
I’m a security guard and we have standard operating procedures for bombs and mysterious packages.

A few weeks ago, someone tried to plant a bomb at the high school near my apartment. The school janitor found it and he brought it INTO THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE to show him.
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77points

#16

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
I am a chemist and it’s not all fun experiments with colourful solutions and explosions&flames with rainbow sparkles and m**h cooking and instant results from all our shiny fancy machines. It’s more like preparing 50 solutions a day (all of which look alike, usually like water) and waiting for instruments to complete the analyses (for hours!) and then trying to make sense from the results while cursing and having a mental breakdown.
75points

#17

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
"Hackers" are seldom the actual problem with computer security. Insider threats and the battle against the end user's stupidity make up the vast majority of security breaches.
74points

#18

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
No one is maliciously hiding a cure for cancer. It's just really f*****g hard to figure out.
70points

#19

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
Nobody gives a flying f**k about your website beyond whether it gives them the information they came to find.

99% of people just want to know where you're located, what your phone number is, and what your hours of operation are. The thousands of dollars people spend adjusting colours and logos are all done in the service of business owners' egos.
67points

#20

“What's Something Obvious Within Your Profession That The General Public Is Unaware Of?” (40 Answers)
I'm a computer programmer and programming is no where near as glamorous as the movies make it. Code does not make digital noises when it runs.
65points
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