What's the scariest fact you know in your profession that no one else outside of it knows?

There is still a lot of asbestos in the walls and ceilings of government buildings.

Baker: The filling in bear claw pastries is day old danish and donuts ground up plus flavoring (and anything else that’s left over).

Asbestos is ok as long as it is contained and not exposed. Not optimal, of course, but not a danger.

We really don't sanitize the toilet seat and drinking glass in the hotel's guest rooms. The light switches, door handles, drawer pulls and TV remote are at best merely "dusted". Even we wouldn't walk around barefoot, lean our heads against the headboards, or put anything in the drawers. (In our defense, VRBOs and Airbnbs are worse offenders.)

Most public housing associations are poorly run messes, with directors who drive luxury cars and commute from nicer cities. Most of the residents never benefit from the loads of grant money that comes flowing in.

Most of the station cars driven by TV news crews are death traps that never pass inspection on the first try or get scheduled maintenance.

r5 that is pretty weak. You need to up your game if you want to excel on this thread.

Most all social service or human service programs are band aids. Few actually get people out of poverty or get them to be self sufficient. They rarely affect any kind of long term permanent or systemic change. Whatever they are fighting is more or less the same size problem it's always been. They have little to no empirical proof otherwise.

A butcher of 40 years told me that sausages and salami are "assholes, lips, ears, eyes and guts".

Please share the Reddit thread to make this thread more interesting which it needs. TIA!

Next President have very tiny peenus. Not like Hegseth. I recommend him for job. He fuck me good. But the people, they not like him much. They talk about the credentials. The idiots the people be.

R9 if it's the same one I'm thinking of, it's as uninteresting as this one. Things like "your personal data is being sold to China!" and lifeguards are trained to look for signs of child abuse on kids bodies.

My own newly created religion’s scheduled date for the end of the world!

Need at least $600,000 house to be insured where I work. To some that’s not a lot, but we primarily write in the Midwest.

Ok. Guess mine weren’t scary enough.

When I worked at McDonalds years ago, you didn’t use the buns the mice chewed on, but you could use the ones that looked fine. Which may be right next to the chewed ones.

[quote] Need at least $600,000 house to be insured where I work.

What do you mean? Your house has to appraised at $600,000 or more in order to get insurance on your house?

R7 The people who want to change will utilize supports available and they will change. Services aren't fast and they're not magic but then they shouldn't be that anyway, should they?

Thought of the wish fulfilled.

The building abd fire inspectors are paid to look the other way at violations.

Climate change is at a tipping point. It’s already too late

Crematoriums who do private cremations and dispose of remains for the county /state (unclaimed) sometimes sneak a welfare in cremation with a private one.

My handmaidens sometimes make etiquette errors before the very eyes of my Imperial Husband!

[quote] Climate change is at a tipping point. It’s already too late

What's your profession, r19?

My father owns a few car repair shops. Every. Single. Thing is a scam. They tell them to say “ Oh you better change your cabin filter” etc. 98% of car maintenance is bullshit.

You're telling me an oil change at 2.5K miles is bs?

Someone in my family owns an asbestos-adjacent business. It's not really dangerous if it's completely undisturbed but it's still not something you want to live with considering the misery of lung cancer. Plus there are numerous abatement companies that will get rid of it for you.

Get your shit tested and then get rid of it if you have to.

Here, R9.

R8 I know this as “Fingernails and Assholes”

r7 I sometimes thing this is by design.

We must have an underclass in order for society to function correctly.

R4 Agreed. Bring antiseptic wipes and use the FUCK out of them.

Slaughterhouses and meat processing plants.

If you knew what they were really like, you too would be a vegetarian.

If you see a relatively middle class looking white guy in the public STD clinic you know he is a man that engages in the homosexual sex. That is where you start and go from there.

R30 Can you suggest any movies or clips that I could watch? Not sure I want to go to one. In fact, I KNOW I don't.

When I was teaching, I wasn't allowed to fail anyone, even if they blew off the final, or rarely came to class, etc. I spoke to many other college professors in my travels, from small private schools to large public ones, and they all said the same thing. That was 15+ years ago.

This is why, although you don't know it, your degree means nothing. Hell, I used to look out at my students and sigh to myself, "It's a shame I can't fail them all." The "dumbing down" of the American education system has been apparent for many years. And yeah, if you're under 45, this applies to you whether you know it or not.

If you don't believe me, look at who was just elected president. And if that doesn't prove it to you, look at the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage errors that are made constantly here on our beloved Datalounge.

I rest my case.

Bread that is not eaten at a table may be returned to a restaurant's kitchen and repurposed into dressing or bread pudding or other dishes that use bread.

I'm sorry, I can't R32. I was close friends with a guy who worked in those industries/areas. For a little while, anyway. He wasn't a weak guy but he just couldn't deal with the things he saw. He works in a totally different line of work now.

Lesbians are freaks.

Lorna Luft was molested.

The equipment in any food business is constantly breaking down (especially when the owner of the establishment never invested in new appliances, but bought 'refurbished'). That means dishwashers are using cold water instead of hot to wash the dishes and silverware, no sanitizers in the dishwasher, the stoves and grills are not heating up as high as they are required to be, etc.

More a stark reality than a secret. ‘In sickness and in health’ is the emptiest of promises. The number of partners who bail on people with serious health issues is sad. Anecdotal patterns I’ve noticed. It’s highest with any kind of long term care issues, mobility issues, and especially mental health issues. The younger they are or newer the relationship, the more likely to bail often encouraged by family and friends.

As someone who stayed by the side of his sick partner to the end, r39 that REALLY bothers me. And I'm a millennial. But I was told that numerous times through the journey. People acted like I was a saint for doing the right thing and always being there for him and being his advocate. Maybe it helps that gay relationships tend to be open and I was free to fuck, but I cannot imagine NOT being there every minute I could with him during his long illness(es) and death. That's what commitment is about. He would've done the same for me.

R40 I'm not calling you a saint but I think you're wonderful for doing that, and I'm sure it made such a difference to your partner. Truly sorry for your loss X

[quote]Slaughterhouses and meat processing plants. If you knew what they were really like, you too would be a vegetarian.

And if you knew what fruit and vegetable fields were really like, you wouldn't eat plants, either.

If you knew what came out of assholes you wouldn’t …….

R40 apologies my comments upset you. You’re the opposite of what I’m talking about. In my profession, I’ve seem both the best and worst of people. The bailing thing is something I’ve been shocked by over the years because society doesn’t really talk about it. Sorry for your loss.

R39 so common that it was the entire plot of Angels in America. I just rewatched, which is why it's top of mind.

At least theses foods made of ‘’leftovers’’ are cooked at high temperatures (I hope)

Three places you should never see behind the scenes:

1. Restaurants

2. Hospitals

3. Funeral Homes

In that order.

Backstage is shit.

R33 I had the same exact experience teaching. If I wanted to fail a student, pretty soon I'd be called in the department chair's office and given a talk where they made it clear that, given how much students paid for tuition, they could not be failed. This was at a graduate program where I was forced to pass people who couldn't put a sentence together.

R19 Hi. I am not a climate scientist; however, I do read the peer-reviewed literature and agree we are on course to hit all tipping points and there is nothing we can do about it.

People frequently ask the question, How much time do we have? I don’t know the answer, but I would appreciate your thoughts.

If you see very stoned/drunk people playing in the street in the middle of the night, look for baggage.

If they have none, they’re housed in some way and they’re out playing. If they have stuff, it’s an unhoused person.

Either way, do not vape and do not smoke- it triggers bullshit

Former restaurant worker here. When I can't finish my meal, I ask for a takeout box and box it up, myself. (I don't go to fancy restaurants.)

At the barbershop, that jar of blue barbicide solution is just Windex.

[quote] What's your profession, [R19]

Pole dancer...for the man

[quote] People frequently ask the question, How much time do we have? I don’t know the answer, but I would appreciate your thoughts.

Even if we stopped producing greenhouse gases today, the gases already up in the atmosphere are not going anywhere, and causing havok. The climate is changing rapidly, with ocean currents the next milestone to be affect. That will throw of temperatures, particularly in Europe. Tropical diseases like Dengue are showing up in the southern US and Europe.

So when people ask, "How much time do we have?," I ask, "For what?" Sure your city isn't underwater yet, but that will take 50-70 years. Sure the heat isn't so intolerable that you can't go outside at all in the summer, but that will come in 50 years.

We have so much to rethink--everything from how to I not get a tropical disease to should schools really be out for summer, when kids won't be able to go outside?

What do you mean about vaping and smoking, r51?

Hospitals use vendor data to figure out within 24 to 48 hours how rich or poor each of their current inpatients is. Bells go off in the development department if a patient is estimated as capable of making a major gift.

If you donate to charities, do your research. I worked for an LGBT crisis nonprofit who had piles and piles of money just sitting there. Nobody knew for sure what it was used for, but definitely not to pay the employees.

Another nonprofit I worked for aimed at fixing homelessness made all its money from those touch pad prompts at grocery stores asking if you’d like to donate. We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars. I had no clue how most of the 50-ish employees filled up their days besides holding fake meetings, but they constantly congratulated themselves like the money coming in was all from their hard work. It was like corporate cosplay. I remember the HR manager was wearing Prada glasses when I quit.

R2 I love bear claws! Is that what almond paste consists of? I will continue to eat them (especially Paneras) regardless.

R58, so that $$ actually does go to a not for profit. Huh! I always assumed it’s just the supermarket doing some shady internal tax write off thing.

Not for Profit Organization - Yes, no profit but that's after all the CEOs, CFOs, and staff receive their compensation. There is very little profit left.

Trump and Biden are the only government workers who take Top Secret information home and forget where they put it.

This could have been an informative thread, OP, but it turned into gossip and conspiracy shit. It could've been great!

Health care providers rarely wash their hand between patients

Interesting about the containment of asbestos.

Of course, restaurants try to food uneaten food scraps into something else. Good for them for not wasting.

[quote] Not for Profit Organization - Yes, no profit but that's after all the CEOs, CFOs, and staff receive their compensation. There is very little profit left.

That's the crazy loophole. You can still make huge salaries in a major non-profit

A good number of people in the Medical Professions (See: Surgeons in particular) are secretly Sociopaths.

I'd like to hear from CNAs and nursing home maintenance staff. There must be a goldmine of information there -- and we will all be facing it at some point...

Major hospital systems makes gobs in profits (and it was revealed a few years back that the large NY hospitals had bank accounts in the Cayman Islands!), yet they constantly push the image that they are on the verge of bankruptcy.

They take millions in charity care money from the government but shift their un-insured and underinsured patients to city hospitals

[quote] Health care providers rarely wash their hand between patients

The problem is more that they don't wash them for long enough.

Freshly grown christmas trees are anything but organic. They receive at least 4 sprays of pesticide each year.

R7 is full of shit. 70 percent of families on welfare get off of it within 2 years. Same with food stamps.

Medicaid is life saving. Social Security has been successful in keeping elderly people out of the soup lines for 90 years.

The problem is that wages are too low and housing and living costs are too high due to capitalism gone amok. We need social services.

UK here. I work in the NHS. The amount of cover ups of serious misconduct in the organisation would horrify the public who pay for it.

LPN stands for Low Paid Nurse.

RN stands for Rich Nurse.

Crypto currency is basically a Ponzi scheme

r58 sounds like HRC.

R75 Ty…an ahole on FB was bragging about his Bitcoin gains…I try not to wish ill will but I hope he loses it all in the end.

I'm a book editor. Don't think for a moment that we care about anything or anyone other than our bestselling authors, who make up 90% of our profit. We may say we do promotion, publicity, and advertising, but that's only for those who have track records. Otherwise, all we do is place your book in a few bookstores and expect you to do everything else.

And if you don't have an agent, don't even think your book will be published.

And if you don't have a way to get to an agent, don't even think you'll have an agent.

Guys at the Dunkin bakery get lonely overnight, be wary of Creme filled donuts.

R5 And you surely know TV stations cars are "trades." Station gives $1000 in spots in exchange for use of vehicles.

At Wendy's when a customer leaves any hamburger on the plate, it becomes tomorrow's chili.

Yes, the “plates” at Wendy’s.

R20 Italian Funeral Home secret. More than one gangster who disappeared was buried in the bottom of a casket with someone's granny. No wonder it was so heavy.

Italian funeral home next to a Rays’s Famous Pizza. Don’t ask..

My brother was a Verizon service guy in Manhattan. He told me never eat in the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. The basements and kitchens are infested with rats, like running over food infested.

[quote]Hospitals use vendor data to figure out within 24 to 48 hours how rich or poor each of their current inpatients is. Bells go off in the development department if a patient is estimated as capable of making a major gift.

I used to work in a hospital where a senior nurse manager would target the “VIP” patients for special/luxury treatment in hopes of getting them to make a donation. She was also a huge cunt to everyone beneath her and was reported multiple times for rude and unprofessional behavior.

If you work for a large corporation, you would be shocked to know the disparity in pay between workers in the same jobs at the same level.

I inherited lots of teams from other leaders and was shocked. Like, top talent was often making a pittance compared to people who were lousy. And HR is never going to reduce someone’s salary, but they also will rarely allow a salary adjustment for those criminally overpaid.

A lot of it has to do with who is doing the hiring. Most don't care if their (unproven) new hire is making way more than current staff.

I had a gap of like $400,000 between my highest and lowest paid and those on the low end typically were stronger contributors. It was insane (and the fault of previous managers).

When you piss off the server, you'll be eating some sort of bodily fluids, from seven, piss. Spit or phlegm.

R78, I’m a book sales rep. Don’t that I do anything extra to place your books into accounts until the email chain from the angry agent makes its way to my inbox. This includes books by your big name authors.

Most of book publishing has quietly quit with the exception of those who spend their time managing up.

Sorry, that should be “Don’t think that”

I worked in restaurants for 20 years and never saw anyone contaminate someone's food with their body fluids.

• medical students sometimes practice performing gynecological (pelvic) exams on anesthetized female surgery patients

• according to some posters on the DL thread titled "I Watched a Guy Die Last Night," CPR actually isn't all that useful or lifesaving as people think

Although I admittedly don't have a lot to contribute myself, I really expected more from everyone else. I'm with R6 and R63, this entire thread turned out... disappointing as hell.

R11 what is scary about lifeguards being trained to look for signs of child abuse on kids' bodies? That's a great thing to know.

R39 your post has fuck-all to do with the point of this thread.

R92 that's my point -- it wasn't "scary" at all, and that was an example of what was on the Reddit thread

R11 and R92, lifeguards might be mandated reporters in some states.

All of your data, ssn, credit card numbers, everything is already exposed and out there. It is just a matter of luck if you have not been compromised.

[quote] When you piss off the server, you'll be eating some sort of bodily fluids, from seven, piss. Spit or phlegm.

Former restaurant worker here (5 years). It happens, but it wasn't widespread, IME. The only incident I was involved in was with a really rude manager who would sit at a back table and eat/drink and order the servers around.

I also saw a bartender put eye drops (Visine) in a customer's drink. Customer was someone that the bartender had dealt with outside of the restaurant (had a bad experience with).

What does visine in a drink do?

"Some people have heard that slipping someone a "Visine mickey" will give them a bout of sudden, but harmless, diarrhea.

Visine does NOT cause diarrhea. But people have been severely harmed after ingesting Visine as part of a practical joke.

The active ingredient tetrahydrozoline is a vasoconstrictor found in several OTC eye drops (Visine, Murine Tears Plus, etc). Swallowing even small amounts can lead to seizures, cardiovascular collapse, and coma.'

There’s a true crime from about ten years ago in which the wife killed the husband with Visine

My coworker (who put Visine) in the drink was hoping to cause diarrhea. I don't think it worked. Customer sat there, comfortably, in the bar, for quite a while.

Also, I remember from Forensic Files (or another show like that) that the Visine formula has changed. In the past, I guess it really was deadly. But how deadly could it have been if you're supposed to drop them into your eyes.

I worked in a high end medical spa the estheticians did not properly sanitize their tools between patients. The “high end” products they used were things you can get at the drug store.

r101, nooooooooo that is nasty.

Old folks die of over medication in nursing homes. They can lie down on a pillow and suffocate because they can’t lift themselves up.

Doctors raise the morphine levels on older people about to die anyway so they stop breathing

There is no such thing as harmless diarrhea. There is frivolous diarrhea

When doctors determine your family member is in Hospice, they prescribe morphine patches.

The nurse tells you the day your patient will die. Then, the nurse drops by to pick up any unused morphine patches.

This is when you find out you have junkie relatives who have used your mother’s meds and you (a clueless moron regarding drugs) don’t understand. Someone has died and your family members are going through withdrawal.

This is us. I’m so happy I never reproduced.

I don't use drugs, but I would probably try out a morphine patch if I had access.

Some of the people who work in special education are verbally, emotionally and physically abusive to nonverbal kids. I have reported it so many times. Nothing EVER happens to the abuser. It is so distressing. I just transfer or get the person transferred.

I came to this thread to write the exact same thing as R101. A relatively who worked in a spa shared the same info with me.

Reading this thread makes you wonder how anyone gets out of a hospital or restaurant alive.

For R110, here’s a story about someone who didn’t. I knew a surgeon who disregarded the “no jewelry in the OR” rule and killed a priest when the clasp of her necklace broke and her pearls fell into the guy’s abdomen during surgery. He died from the subsequent infection: those pearls weren’t sterile. He was an old priest, retired, and luckily for her, had no close family. The hospital never said a thing, presumably because there was no one asking. Likewise her colleagues. I’m told she billed the Archdiocese for the surgery, too.

The “no jewelry” rule has been rigorously enforced there in the decades since.

In the Diamond District of NYC, there’s a ton of diamond switching. You look at one and love it. They switch it for one that looks similar but is less valuable

R111 Good to know , but junior mints are ok

[quote]Doctors raise the morphine levels on older people about to die anyway so they stop breathing.

Glad to hear it; hope I get one of those doctors when I'm in hospice...

R111 nearly made me ill. Can I ask which year/decade and state this event took place in? Also, I'm assuming some INCREDIBLY fucked-up workplace politics also played a major role in the poor man's death.

Surgeries are always performed with many people watching, do you have any inkling as to how the incident never got reported by anyone else?

If you or a loved one are in serious pain, beware those morphine patches. I really don’t think they work as well as the needle drip.

My mom was in home (her house) hospice and towards the end, the patches seemed to have no effect. She was suffering badly.

We put her into the hospice and she calmed down i think due to the needle drip.

If your child is below grade level in reading at the end of third grade he is unlikely to graduate high school with his peers.

Sometimes elderly people put in their advance health care directive that they want to be resuscitated. Frequently their ribs are broken during CPR and their quality of life becomes much, much worse. CPR is for younger people with stronger bones. When you get old, go for the comfort care.

I didn’t know Jeb Bush (R117) posted on Datalounge.

I worked in a restaurant and some fast food places, including an IHOP, during high school. The advice I give is very simple. Do it and you will be fine.

ALWAYS be kind to the people who are serving you food. Kindness goes a long way. Just remember to maintain your politeness until you actually receive your food. If you want to take leftovers home, request a doggie bag and do it yourself. If the server isn’t doing a good job, you can express your dissatisfaction through the tip. This also applies to Amber or Sh'quita working the drive-thru window at Burger King. I've put my hand in a couple of drinks before I handed it to the customers. Not something that I'm proud of but these people were AWFUL. Treated me like gum on the bottom of their shoes. I HATE people, but it doesn't take much effort to be at the very least respectful. I'm always kind to customer service unless I feel attacked.

ALWAYS check your silverware under the light. If you notice anything questionable, ask for plasticware. The silverware is likely to have been washed with hundreds of other pieces in hot water and left to dry.

Bring antiseptic wipes for the tables. Those tables have been wiped by the same towel that's wiped 10 other ones.

[quote] ALWAYS be kind to the people

That's good advice in general.

R115 Late 1960s - early ‘70s. Massachusetts. It’s a story with a lot of layers I heard about a decade later - some nurses (fuck HIPPA), especially when drunk, will tell you what Paul Harvey used to call “the rest of the story.”

This tale’s about pretty privilege, social privilege, fame privilege, ancestry privilege, the non-transferability of skills from one field to another, the less-professional medical training standards then in effect, the interruptions of that training when she was young and perhaps - this is by no means a certainty - the effects of her being possibly groomed as a child by a lesbian member of one of America’s most notable families.

Her first husband was a very rich, very nasty man whose drinking (and her occasional injuries as a result) was locally legendary. I was told her colleagues felt sorry for her as at that time she was essentially a single mom in a shitty marriage whose medical training was far from today’s national standards and is no longer allowed. Of course there were other people in the OR - how would I know about it otherwise? Since the decedent had no relatives, who would complain? Patients get post-op infections: it happens. I was told the hospital saw no upside to reporting it (I have no idea what the hospital was required to do 50-plus years ago) and the surgical department quietly stopped her from operating for a period of time. I don’t know if she jumped or was pushed, but soon thereafter her interests moved from surgery to research and she no longer operated.

Finally, I was told by another surgeon in a different case that even if you fuck up and kill the patient on the table, the lawyers make sure you send a bill to the insurer or guarantor. Failure to do so is seen as evidence you knew it was your fault in a malpractice case.

There’s one detail I won’t repeat because to reveal it would reveal her identity. She’s still alive if elderly now, and while today her license would at least be suspended while her actions were investigated, back then it wasn’t. She was treated like Laura Bush when she killed a guy by accident: the first time doesn’t count.