Chef here. 80% of us are alcoholics or addicts

I was a licensed Cremationist for 8 years. Regardless how hard we tried, that wasn’t just grandma or grandpa in the urn….

Software developer here. Only a minority of companies take data security seriously enough to prevent leaks. For every publicly announced leak, there are 20 that were swept under the rug. Proper security requires that the whole structure, from the top down, has an understanding of the issues. It's not just down to the techies, it's down to their managers, and their manager's managers.

Public defender. I don’t do this because it’s the only job I could get. I do it because I’m passionately invested in making sure poor people have access to the courts and because without us, there would be absolutely nothing between them and the awesome power of the government. The vast majority of us are there for the same reason. The perception that we’re not as good as private attorneys is just wrong. In fact, most PDs have done many more trials than privates because we have many more clients. The difference is that we can’t pick and choose our clients as private attorneys can. We have to work with what we get so our win/loss ratio isn’t as impressive as theirs. Ask a private defense attorney what they think of public defenders- most will tell you that some of the best attorneys they’ve known are PDs. While we can’t take the time to hold your hand and take every one of your calls, we actually do care about you and your case. I work nights. I work weekends. In fact, every weekend I’m at the jail, seeing my guys, because I don’t have time during the week. We are excellent attorneys who chose public service.

Ex-security guard here. We're not there to protect you. We're there to observe and report. Don't assume that just because whatever building you're working in has security that you're safe. Especially if security is of the unarmed variety.

ER Nurse. People get seen by severity, not the order they came in the door... Also, just because you came in by ambulance doesn't mean you immediately bypass the waiting room.

When you call 911, please say your address before anything else. It doesn’t matter if someone is actively dying, say your address first. (I’m from a rural area so this might just be a problem where I’m from) but if you’re calling on a cell phone sometimes it can ping in a completely different spot then you are. If you call and don’t say where you are and we get disconnected, I might not have any clue where to send rescue/police/fire and therefore I cannot help you. Say your address (if you don’t know then please give like a cross street or notable location) first, then preferably your name, THEN tell me what’s going on. A lot of people assume that we automatically have a precise location where they’re at, and the systems can be pretty accurate but you can’t always rely on them. If you say the address and we get disconnected I can at least send someone to the area to figure out what needs to be done. (Source: I am a 911 dispatcher and I have so many people scream at me for not automatically knowing their location)

The bags of cement are not filled by a robot. A person handles every bag. I can fill 2500 bags in an 8 hour shift.

I work in IT support. Legit about 80% of all problems are solved by rebooting the computer/terminal/phone. If not, 20 percent is pure detective work.

That as a trucker, that space I left in front of me is so I don’t kill anybody, NOT your personal invitation to jump in front of my bumper because you forgot your exit or whatever reason. So many want to get in front of us and slow down and park in front my bumper. YSK: Don’t believe the billboards those ambulance chasing lawyers put up about big truck accidents mean big bucks. Only survivors get money, most likely not you. If you do survive, more than likely your quality of life is going to be miserable. Also YSK: these trucks can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, 34,000 pounds empty and around 20,000 pounds without the trailer. How does that compare to your SUV or even your lifted pickup. Do us all a favor and give us some space, leave us room so that you can live and go home to your family One final thought, NEVER assume the other driver sees you.

I'm a massage therapist. I don't care if you didn't shave. But please wash your feet.

I work at a large biotech/pharmaceutical manufacturing company. The medication you take or buy from your local pharmacy are so insanely and meticulously regulated & inspected at every step of the journey - from petri dish to pharmacy shelf, that you could take a pill from a bottle and it can be traced back to the exact room it was made in, the exact equipment that was used, who was responsible for each step, and the time it was made down to the very second. Seriously, there is no misteps when it comes to GxP.

I’m a nanny and most people think the kids are what bothers me the most or what would lead me to quit. It’s never the kids, always the f****d up parents. People with too much money who don’t intend on raising their own kids are far too prevalent.

Chef here. The reason you love our food is salt and butter... and a lot of it.

Working for giant companies, it’s comical how many systems are raggedy messes of bare-bones functionality. All available money gets thrown at certain projects, leaving everything else to work on complete shoe-strings.

As someone in construction, statistically speaking, I have a bigger chance of [passing] on the job than police officers do in their line of work. It was even more dangerous when I did scaffolding at an oil refinery. I think people abstractly know construction is dangerous, but sometimes you have to put it in perspective for them.

I have worked for the US federal government. Every time Congress waits until the 11th hour to pass a budget or a continuing resolution (a temporary "budget"), the government spends an unknown amount of money, probably millions of dollars, preparing for a government shutdown, whether the shutdown happens or not. If the government actually shuts down, even if only for a few hours, it wastes millions more tax dollars. Taxpayers get no benefit from these expenditures, and the money is simply wasted. When Congress holds the budget hostage, they're not actually hurting political rivals. They're punishing taxpayers and anyone who relies on government services directly or indirectly for anything.

Healthcare worker - part of the reason your doctors appointments are so quick is the amount of documenting we have to do so we get paid. We can be the most brilliant clinician and save your damn life but if we don’t write a note that’s complete enough or have the right elements, your insurance company will pay less. We get nothing for being smart, correct or compassionate….only what we can “document” and takes time away from you.

Bridge carpenter. When you drive by 6 people standing around one guy working, the group is usually comprised of inspectors, superintendents, subs, engineers, and foremen all standing around a laborer to talk. You can differentiate by the hardhats and how clean they are. If you want to get upset at someone for your commute being slowed, don't pick the dirty guys.

I currently work the line at a recycling facility. Y'all m***********s throw a lot of s**t away when it could have been given to a charity.

In newswriting, if we like you we don't quote you exactly. If we don't like you, best believe you're getting a 'sic'.

Structural Engineer. We take materials we do not entirely understand, form them into shapes we cannot precisely analyze to resist forces we cannot truly assess in such a way that the public at large has no idea of the extent of our ignorance!

Crisis hotline. Sometimes we get really disturbing prank calls. I always encourage people to call back if they are ever in crisis. A lot of times, they (the prank callers) do.

US based flight attendant here. Unless you’re flying on Delta, your flight attendants aren’t getting paid during boarding and deplaning. We’re just as annoyed as the next person that the flight is delayed because of a mechanical issue, weather, etc. If the boarding door is closed we (usually) don’t mind though.

Radioactive contamination can often just be cleaned with Windex or even water.

I work with the developmentally disabled. While we are allowed to encourage our clients to make good choices and try to talk them out of making bad ones, we are not allowed to stop them from doing what they want. They are people first, and everyone is allowed to make poor choices and suffer the consequences. The United States government calls it "The Right to Consequences."

Retail worker so this may not be surprising. A majority of food waste/waste in general are from customers. Yes, leaving that cold f*****g food at the other side of the store because you decided you didn't want/need it and were too lazy to put it back correctly, that s**t adds up and is a majority of what we throw out. Cannot tell you how much good food went to waste for no good reason, just because people were too lazy to put it back. But, at least we donate our meat to animal shelters.

Paramedic here. Me and a shocking amount of my medic friends learned vital, life saving skills off of YouTube. The schooling just isn't always what it should be and often we are left on our own to figure things out while we are learning. More often than not that leads to YouTube video tutorials (they have one for everything) so more frequently than you'd think people are learning how to give needles and read ECGs from the same place we all learn what the proper time to hard boil an egg is.

I’m the spray tech at a golf course. We use green dye on our putting greens. The grass at Augusta national is sprayed green as well; “any grass you see on camera has been sprayed green”

Copy/print industry. I have signed a lot of NDA's and copied/scanned many jobs that I wasn't allowed to 'look at'. Medical documents, documents for law suits and such, and helped a few people with patent application. Had a few print jobs they guy had to sit there the whole time. No one was allowed to look at the printouts. Had to show him how to take the prints out of the copier and make sure no customers came back by the copier. I couldn't copy the files if the DVD, and had to sign a document no copies of those documents - physical or digitally were kept by my company. I think the guy was a defense contractor, so that was interesting. Also - the pulp to make paper mostly comes trees specifically grown for making paper. The rest comes from leftovers from the lumber Industry. Recycling paper into reusable white paper is WAY worse for the environment that making new paper. Making brown paper goods from recycled paper isn't so bad, but still not great.

Worked at an automotive assembly plant. Every 60 seconds the assembly line is shut down, the plant is losing $10,000. Missing parts, incorrectly sequenced material(a red bumper shows up next in line when it’s a blue car in bumper install), broken lift assist devices, 1 person running off the line to bathroom(it’s happened), chains breaking etc.. could all shut down the line. Tensions were incredibly high and the stress was unbelievable on some days. Other days it was super easy and chill. Good pay. High school degree is the only mandatory requirement to be a supervisor, and with the mandatory OT(usually you work 5-6 days, 10-12 hour shifts) you’re making at least 100k.

I work for a department that does tolls by mail. A robot may take your picture, but a live human ends up processing it. We can see inside your car... even in the dark tunnels.

I work with recycling. I can assure you that recycling is WAY more dangerous than it looks like. people throw away loose razor blades, glass (sometimes even whole knives). there's also the problem with human excrement ,if you're cut and get an infection from human fecal meter ,you're f****d.

Most fossils in museums are plastic replicas. Not always the whole thing, but any full dinosaur you see more than likely has at least some plastic components. There's only a handful of businesses in the world that make the replicas and, at least in the US, they're pretty small operations.

Electricity is fun to play with and can create a multitude of phenomena.