Dirty secret about an industry that you have worked in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another college friend's mother was a psychologist and she herself was in and out of the hospital having electro shock therapy!

Note all the comments about psychologists/psychiatrists. I could relate stories about my neighbor the shrink that would make you wonder if I was making them up. He was certifiable. Unfortunately, he was not above harming other people out of malice.

[Anonymous]

I worked at a make-up counter at a department store we'd always have promos where if you spend x amount of money, you'd get a gift with purchase. We'd always have more on hand and the end of the promo, so if a customer was very nice, I'd offer them the gift even if she spent a little bit of money.

[Anonymous]

Probably not a dirty secret but I used to work in a career that put me in touch with LEOs on a daily basis. My God , the men in that profession are prone to cheating. It is absolutely rampant. Doesn't matter which agency, state or federal. A significant portion openly go after women they come into contact with professionally.

[Anonymous]

Dad was in the Navy. Affairs are rampant! When half the fleet is out, the wives are sleeping with the fleet that is in port. Then they switch.

Now that women are on board--yeah, there is sex going on all over the place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was 20 years ago in lobbying ..many of the guys drank all afternoon. We used to drag our head guy in to testify on the Hill. I had to go to his favorite watering hole...Garys (no longer there )to drag him out

I was waiting for lobbying to be mentioned. I know a couple lobbyists like this but it's damaged their reputation -- I think by and large it doesn't happen anymore outside of evening receptions. Hill staff can't afford to drink with lobbyists and lobbyists aren't allowed to buy them drinks. I think lobbying is one profession where the perception is far worse than the reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was 20 years ago in lobbying ..many of the guys drank all afternoon. We used to drag our head guy in to testify on the Hill. I had to go to his favorite watering hole...Garys (no longer there )to drag him out

I was waiting for lobbying to be mentioned. I know a couple lobbyists like this but it's damaged their reputation -- I think by and large it doesn't happen anymore outside of evening receptions. Hill staff can't afford to drink with lobbyists and lobbyists aren't allowed to buy them drinks. I think lobbying is one profession where the perception is far worse than the reality.

Honestly I doubt it. There are so many alcoholic political staffers and television reporters that lobbying is the last profession I would think is actually on a downward booze swing (I mean they practically have mandatory office hours in bars)...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sibley Drs, nurses, staff are gossips. It is not uncommon to hear Drs trash patients or their colleagues. Major unprofessional culture.

Oh, I can back this one up. It's part of why I avoided specific pediatricians when my kids needed one. Lots of gossip about the kids and their parents.

[Anonymous]

I'm a preschool teacher. The administration is primarily interested in having us assess the kids and enter data. Also, most teachers don't take the kids out to play when it's below 50 degrees, even though we can go out down to 25.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a preschool teacher. The administration is primarily interested in having us assess the kids and enter data. Also, most teachers don't take the kids out to play when it's below 50 degrees, even though we can go out down to 25.

Because I actually care about the children, I fake pretty much all the assessments and spend my time with, you know, the kids instead.

And I go out right down to the 25 degree limit. Some classrooms, though, don't see outdoors between October and March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Corporate attorney.

Most lawyers with billable hour quotas defraud their clients by billing for time not worked.

Sometimes it's minor "rounding" or "estimating", but it many cases it's intentional and deliberate.

i can attest to this. i was chastised for working too quickly on a memo. told i should have taken my time, and kept the meter running to go to the bathroom, etc.

This is a tough one. Working too quickly on a memo is a problem for some of my associates because what they produce is shit. Good legal work that properly assesses risk (to client and firm) takes a long time. Writing it fast and dropping it into an email is awful practice. Being told you did something too quickly and should have taken your time doesn't mean you should have billed more. In the grand scheme, a 5th year spending a few extra hours is meaningless to me.

Overall, in my experience, the myth of the purely fraudulent biller this day and age is way overblown. There are a handful of colleagues I've known who were regarded as having a heavy pen, but that is a long term detriment (though in some cases maybe it works well in the short term). I've known many more very good lawyers who consciously underbill for various reasons--didn't feel right charging to "get up to speed", went down a wrong path analytically, pride in being ultra bright and don't want to admit a certain task took as long as it did, etc.

If you want dirty secrets re big law firms, they're out there. I don't think over billing is among them.

[Anonymous]

I was a fairly low level campaign staffer for Clinton this cycle.

Alcohol = huge part of the culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a preschool teacher. The administration is primarily interested in having us assess the kids and enter data. Also, most teachers don't take the kids out to play when it's below 50 degrees, even though we can go out down to 25.

Because I actually care about the children, I fake pretty much all the assessments and spend my time with, you know, the kids instead.

And I go out right down to the 25 degree limit. Some classrooms, though, don't see outdoors between October and March.

I think you'd be better off finding a school whose philosophy of testing aligns with your own. Faking your job is its own dirty secret.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a preschool teacher. The administration is primarily interested in having us assess the kids and enter data. Also, most teachers don't take the kids out to play when it's below 50 degrees, even though we can go out down to 25.

Because I actually care about the children, I fake pretty much all the assessments and spend my time with, you know, the kids instead.

And I go out right down to the 25 degree limit. Some classrooms, though, don't see outdoors between October and March.

I think you'd be better off finding a school whose philosophy of testing aligns with your own. Faking your job is its own dirty secret.

Nope. Everyone's doing it because you'd literally have to spend 4 hours a night (yes, we've done the math) every day of the school year to get it done the way they'd prefer. None of the information is valid, too, whether you do it the way they'd like or not. We literally answer questions like whether the kids can grip balls of 3", 6", and 9" in diameter with their non-dominant hands. Imagine that x 1200 questions (30 questions x 40 students, 3x a year) and you have our assessments.

[Anonymous]

^ Nonsense like that, by the way, is why teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ Nonsense like that, by the way, is why teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers.

I don't understand why you'd work at a preschool whose philosophy you didn't agree with. There are schools that aren't like this--