Let’s face it—some people have no idea what our jobs are all about. Sometimes, we might enjoy explaining the basics with a few polite sentences but when they ask the same questions over and over again, it can start to feel slightly annoying. Luckily, there are plenty of people on the internet ready to enlighten the masses about the realities of what they do for a living.
One Reddit user posed a question on the r/AskReddit forum, “What is something that people in your profession understand, but the general public can’t seem to grasp?” From lifeguards to teachers, hundreds of people rushed to share insider knowledge and debunk the myths surrounding their jobs.
Take a look at some of the illuminating observations commenters revealed in this thread and make sure to upvote the ones that you might not have known about. And if you can relate to any of them, don’t be shy and share your insights in the comments below!
#1
I work in healthcare. People are dumb and I’m just going to leave it at that.
Image source: toxinogen, Klaus Nielsen
#2
Pencils are expensive. Prints are expensive. Proper paper is expensive. It takes a lot of time to do a painting. So, no, I can’t give it to you for free or ‘exposure.’
Image source: SidnyM, David Perkins
#3
Mental health is real health.
Image source: toomanyweirdoshere
#4
I work on super yachts. We understand that the rich and famous can get away with ordering drugs, hookers and whatever else they want to their yachts. I’ve been stopped by police with drugs, but when I tell them it’s for the owner of the yacht I work on they let me go. Rules and laws do not apply to the rich and famous. Oh,……. And yacht owners are rich and rarely famous. The really rich don’t want to be known.
Image source: Shug22389, Furkan Tumer
#5
Public libraries are not safe places to drop off your kids. It’s not the books that are unsafe; it’s the other patrons, and the fact that librarians are not babysitters.
Image source: fauxbuous, Ranurte
#6
In most places, we don’t set the prices for anything. Your surgeon is not making $50,000 on your grandma’s hip because the hospital charged that much. He or she is probably getting $1,500, and the institution gets the rest. Insurances and institutions are the problem.
Image source: will0593, Павел Сорокин
#7
Your children are generally [jerks] and we don’t find them nearly as charming as you find them
Image source: JonGilbony, Pixabay
#8
Military spending.
The U.S. spends the most by far, but it doesn’t mean that money goes towards making sure Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines have the best training, facilities, education, and equipment.
The vast majority of that money goes to private companies for programs that never produce anything or contribute in any way to the effectiveness of the fighting forces.
There is no concrete evidence that the U.S. has “The Best” military in the world.
Image source: potential_human0
#9
A lot of “tough” parenting stances don’t work.
I work with teenagers who have committed minor offenses and are not required to do jail time, but seeing a youth worker and working on anger management/social skills/life skills is required of them. There is not one single teen that has been sent to me who has come from a background of “gentle parenting”. Not one. Every singe one of them without fail as long as I have been doing this will tell stories of all the times they were hit as punishment, and it becomes their logic when faced with conflict, “He disrespected me so I bashed his face in”, “He called me a wanker so a smashed his car with my baseball bat”, “I didn’t do anything wrong, he stole the girl I like so I kicked him and his knee just broke, it’s not really my fault”.
This whole “Back in my day we got hit and we grew up right!” is just silly. Back in “your day” hitting was more prevalent so it’s safe to say that most, if not all, violent crimes were committed by those who were hit. Most of the more shocking serial killers and so on have very well documented back stories of abuse.
Not every child who is hit will resort to physical violence when things don’t go their way, of course, but children who are taught proper coping mechanisms for anger other than hitting people or things are very less likely to resort to that themselves, because they’ve been given conflict resolution skills that they can carry on into young adulthood.
And yeah, here’s the point that a lot do understand in regards to this- if you are saying that you were hit and you grew up okay and you are using that to defend physical violence against children who most of the time actually don’t know any better (and it’s even worse when it’s “Oh well they’re too young to understand why they shouldn’t touch the stove, so I hit them so they understand”- if they can’t understand why they can’t touch the stove they won’t understand why you hit them either), you didn’t grow up okay, you grew up with violent tendencies.
General rule, don’t hit people.
If you hit children, they will learn to hit.
When children grow up and hit other grown ups, that’s a criminal offense and they will go to jail.
Image source: 12ed11
#10
‘Switching it off and on again’ in I.T. usually resets the device to the state before you pissed about with it — this quite often solves the problem.
#11
Just because I “play” in a band, doesn’t mean it isn’t work! For every hour you see me on stage, I spent probably 100 hours practicing and rehearsing, so you would enjoy listening to me.
Image source: LusciousLennyStone, Eneida Nieves
#12
Veterinary- just because you can’t afford care for your pet, doesn’t mean I have to give said care for free. Nor does it it mean I’m heartless and cruel and killing your pet. It just means you can’t afford it.
I have bills to pay too. I have a right to make a living wage. I need to get paid. We get no government funding, we exist solely because people they their bills.
Image source: Crazyboutdogs, FLOUFFY
#13
Emergency Rooms are NOT first-come, first-serve businesses! We triage you for a reason, and you CANNOT cut the line in front of somebody with a more serious complaint just because you got here first!
Image source: SwingGirlAtHeart, Mat Napo
#14
As a teacher, No! Your “babies” are not babies. They are delinquent teens with sociopathic behaviors that you allowed to go unchecked, and now we have to deal with it when they disrupt learning environments and harm others, while you throw a fit when we call home about it, even though we have video evidence of them brutally hitting others, including staff, and behaving like out of control animals. But your little “baby” would “never do that.”
Image source: Enlightened_Ghost_
#15
I am not a babysitter. It is your job as a parent to watch your kid when swimming and if they can’t swim, you have to be in the water within five feet of them at all times.
Image source: Ceiling_Fan_Lady, z pm
#16
YOU NEED TO SLOW DOWN IN BAD WEATHER!!!!!
Image source: MetalMikeJr
#17
That the eighty thousand pound truck I’m driving can’t stop in a dime
Image source: blakjak66
#18
You actually don’t want an exotic animal as a pet.
Image source: feivelgoeswest, Worldspectrum
#19
Marriage and Family Therapist
Your partner only wants your advice if they ask for it. They want you to listen and emphasize. Tell them what they’re going through must (fill in appropriate adjective here- examples: suck, feel amazing, feel overwhelming, etc)
No, you haven’t found your soulmate. You’re brain is giving you a super boost in brain chemicals so you screw like bunnies and have babies. Tell me in 1.5-2 years if they’re still your soulmate. That’s how long it takes for that chemical boost to return to their “normal for you” state. And not feeling fireworks at the first kiss doesn’t mean anything. Plenty of amazing long-term relationships started from friendship (which by the way is what you’ll need to have a long-term, fulfilling relationship).
Also… be kind to each other. You will each f*** things up in your relationship. All is not lost because one of you talked to an ex, forgot a birthday, etc. Relationships go through seasons and I promise if you can work though the winter you’ll have an amazing summer! Every relationship sucks sometimes (screw you social media and your highlight reels).
Lastly, though there are so many more- I can’t stress this one enough, there is no such thing as my problem or yours. Though the work to get through it will look different for each of you, once you decide to become partners, everything becomes ours to work through together. Yes, even that thing that happened before you met but is getting in the way of your healthy relationship. And especially that thing you never want to talk about that is getting in the way of your relationship.
Image source: GlamtasticGlitter, Alex Green
#20
Your kids lie to you. If we said they didn’t do the homework and they said they did, it’s a 99.985% chance they are lying. If they say they weren’t doing xyz behavior in class and we say they were, it’s a 99.985% chance they were doing it. I have so many more demands on my time than to make up random c**p about your kid.
Image source: skybluedreams
#21
Flossing actually helps.
Image source: throwmeawaydumbass, Sora Shimazaki
#22
You can lie all you want about falling on or accidentally sitting on the stuff that gets lodged in your [butt], none of us HCWs believe you though!
Image source: Smudgeandarrogant44, Karolina Grabowska
#23
Teachers don’t “give grades” – students earn them. The teachers just calculate them.
Sure, some teachers can be d**ks, and actually give grades, but that’s not how it’s supposed to work.
Image source: LotusPrince
#24
That office work is more than just making excel spreadsheets and chatting at the water cooler. A busy day in an office can be exhausting.
Image source: ShutterBug1988
#25
My god, your chocolate will last the two weeks until Christmas. Buy it now and give it next Christmas. It has a shelf life measured in years. And stop putting it in the fridge. I made it three months ago and it’s been sitting at room temperature in a box since then. If you put it in the fridge for a week it’ll get condensation on it and turn sticky, or the cold will ruin the tempering.
Image source: JvckiWaifu, Pixabay
#26
Yes, the animal is in the exhibit. Sometimes you have to look for longer than eight seconds.
Image source: rue842, Daiga Ellaby
#27
Bathroom renovations — things take time. Drying times are a factor. If I ask your budget, it’s not because I’m trying to empty your account. I just need to know your expectations so I can meet them.
Image source: EasyOutside4, Steven Ungermann
#28
Teaching children takes more than subject knowledge. Many people think that their experience as a student qualifies them to be teachers. It’s called the apprenticeship of observation. There are strategies for both classroom management and teaching that you don’t learn from being a student.
Image source: Substantially-Ranged, Tra Nguyen
#29
Correlation is not causation.
Image source: RegMonkey4Life
#30
The Cloud is just someone else’s computer.
Image source: EnigmaCA
#31
Just because I’m an electrical engineer doesn’t mean I can rewire your house. At least not legally.
Image source: CrumpledPopCan, Sami Abdullah
#32
I work in long term mental health care with special need adults.
I see al kinds of s**t, trust me. Most people get that. I get the ‘ah you are such a hero for doing what you do, I could never do that’ quite often.
What most people don’t grasp is that the good moments are equally amazing as the bad things are horrible.
My residents are capable of such great things. Or they become so happy in our care it’s just amazing to witness.
I could tell amazing or terrible things about my job, depending on the mood you’re in to hear about.
Image source: VloekenenVentileren, Pixabay
#33
No, I can’t grab your iPhone and take a picture to match my best studio works, even if it’s the most recent model of an iPhone. Also, yes, I do charge money ‘just to take a picture.
Image source: le_wild_ahole, PhotoMIX Company
#34
Unpleasant feelings are healthy and needed for us to function properly
Image source: bananaritual, RF._.studio
#35
That everyone is entitled to due process and to be presumed innocent until proven guilty no matter how sleazy or guilty they are.
Image source: bobby4orr70, EKATERINA BOLOVTS
#36
Complaining to my manager isn’t going to get me fired. If anything he’s going to be even more blunt with you about how much of a power tripping c**t you’re being because he knows for a fact that you can’t get him fired either. Retail workers, especially during a labor shortage and especially when they’ve got a few years experience, aren’t so replacable that you can get one axed just by complaining to management. Most of the time your complaints won’t even reach anyone with the authority to fire someone. Even if they do, they get so many complaints from unreasonable people that the management is far more likely to side with an employee that’s in good standing with the store than with some random weirdo that didn’t get what they wanted.
Image source: Stradoverius
#37
Teaching English in Japan does not elevate you to godlike status among the locals and Japanese kids can be as ill mannered and unruly as kids in the West.
Image source: welshegg
#38
The only certainty in medicine is that everyone dies eventually.
Image source: Tapestry-of-Life
#39
I am a material scientist.
America will never go to war with Russia. We buy too much Titanium and Helium from them.
Image source: Cassandra_Canmore, RF._.studio
#40
If you want to fit a portrait image into a landscape canvas, you either have to crop it, leave a black or white border or empty space left and right, or distort it (which is almost always a bad idea). On a regular occurrence, clients are unhappy with either of these options, they just want me to somehow make it fit.
Image source: aleqqqs, Alex Azabache
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