Dirty secret about an industry that you have worked in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At academic conferences, you can present your research as a talk, or on a poster that you stand by for an hour and then people come ask you about it.

Talks are given only to high-ranking PhDs since there are limited presentation rooms. Meanwhile, acceptance rates for posters is 99% since they just throw up some poster boards in a big ballroom.

Why such a high acceptance rate? The conference organizers get kickbacks from the conference hotels like free rooms and so on, but it depends on attendees booking a certain number of hotel rooms. By accepting all posters, those people have justification to go to the conference and will then stay in a room.

I've debated having my 3 year old scribble on a poster board and submitting that. I bet she'd be accepted!

I have always wondered about this. We pay SO much to attend a particular conference and it seems like we get less and less for it every year but the rates keep going up! We used to get coffee and light snacks between some plenary session but about 2 years ago that stopped and we had to buy coffee. Basically we get a conference bag and to attend the sessions and that's it for 1k! It is the primary conference in my field so not going is not really an option.

Conferences are fundraising ventures for the sponsoring society. That's not news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is probably not a secret BUT I worked in a retail store and we all pretty much had sex all over the place in there.

+1 in restaurants. Also, lots of drinking & drugs.

Journalism--probably 50% of the stories you read are advertisements in disguise.

Child care--oh, Lord. Let's just say parents only see a TINY sliver of what goes on.

You've never worked in a newsroom.

+1000. I'm a journalist who has worked for newspapers, magazines, and a wire service. My coworkers and I were way too cynical about people trying to get free advertising, and our bosses were even more sensitive to that.

However, if the PP was referring to what appears on the content farms that make up much of the "new media," I would agree.

[Anonymous]

I used to work as a mental health person in a nursing home. Multiple times a day, we were charged with supervising residents in the smoking room.

Up to a dozen people smoking in an area maybe 10x30 feet in size, several times a day. Aside from the health risks to the smokers, I also thought of the long term damage the staff were doing to their lungs. I got a medical pass for obvious health reasons and staff resented me.

Oh, and we spent time every day coding the various times we talked to residents as counseling time so we could bill Medicare. We basically coded the entire day for billing, every single day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a zookeeper in many zoos, and you would not believe the amount of animal mistreatment and neglect. I finally had to quit when animals were being euthanized for reasons like "it's the end of our shift and we don't want to deal with this, just put it down and lets go home". A lot of people who works in zoos really don't like their animals all that much, and they HATE the public.

Zoos also don't do nearly as much for wildlife conservation as they lead you to believe. 99+% of animals bred in zoos go live in other zoos. Only a handful of facilities actually release animals back into the wild. But they make it appear like they are saving all these endangered species to raise $$.

I don't know much about zoos. I would think the people who have the authority to put an animal down would at least be a veterinary technician of some sort right? It's not the people who clean the cages or a keeper? I wouldn't think its a field you'd go into if you didn't love them - vet degrees are expensive and I read that the suicide rates are high.

Also whats the deal with the escaped bobcat last month?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to work as a mental health person in a nursing home. Multiple times a day, we were charged with supervising residents in the smoking room.

Up to a dozen people smoking in an area maybe 10x30 feet in size, several times a day. Aside from the health risks to the smokers, I also thought of the long term damage the staff were doing to their lungs. I got a medical pass for obvious health reasons and staff resented me.

Oh, and we spent time every day coding the various times we talked to residents as counseling time so we could bill Medicare. We basically coded the entire day for billing, every single day.

What were the obvious reasons? And if you got it why couldn't staff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes. A relative works there and is a total busybody. Talks to me about work people and I don't even know who they are!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to work as a mental health person in a nursing home. Multiple times a day, we were charged with supervising residents in the smoking room.

Up to a dozen people smoking in an area maybe 10x30 feet in size, several times a day. Aside from the health risks to the smokers, I also thought of the long term damage the staff were doing to their lungs. I got a medical pass for obvious health reasons and staff resented me.

Oh, and we spent time every day coding the various times we talked to residents as counseling time so we could bill Medicare. We basically coded the entire day for billing, every single day.

What were the obvious reasons? And if you got it why couldn't staff?

The long term risk of dying from lung cancer due to secondhand smoke inhalation. It felt like sitting in a garage with a car that had been running for several minutes, five times a day.

Staff could have gotten one too, I'm sure. However, no one did...I'm guessing because they either a.) didn't think of doing so, or b.) feared reprisals from our boss. I didn't want to piss her off either, but I liked my lungs more. I ended up leaving the job for another one a few months later. As far as I know, everyone's still in the smoking room destroying their lungs for $12 an hour (maybe a bit more, depending on how long they've worked there).

[Anonymous]

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/tobacco/second-hand-smoke-fact-sheet

From googling, I learned that while second hand smoke causes about 3,000 deaths a year from lung cancer, it also causes about 46,000 deaths a year from heart disease.

That's more than the annual deaths from car crashes or guns (both around 35,000).

Holy cow. Yes, I ducked a bullet by leaving that job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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--

Perhaps because there are things more important about the job than agreeing with the philosophy? That's like saying you don't get why someone would live in the US while thinking Trump was a freaking idiot.

No, not at all. If I don't agree with the direction of my employer, I believe it's my duty to find a new job. I'm an early childhood administrator, and one of my first interview questions is about teaching philosophy. It's important to have a cohesive school culture. I am opposed to the assessment culture and push-down academics, so I know I wouldn't fit in public schools. I've made a nice career without doing so, and I don't have to go against what I believe when it comes to how young children learn. Plus I don't have to work with a bunch of people who are faking their work.

I know plenty of people who work in the fed govt who absolutely disagree with current leadership. However, as noted several times earlier, there are things more important to most people than being in lockstep with the work culture. I show up because I like some things about where I work, including the fact that I get paid enough to support my family with it. If I changed work every time I thought the boss was wrong, I'd never work!

Civil service is way different from teaching. You have to believe in what you're doing for young children, or else you get cynical and vindictive. That's not good for children. There's a reason schools of education spend so much time helping preservice teachers develop teaching philosophies. It's really sad for the children when someone says, "F it. I don't like what this school does, but it pays well, so I'll fake it and hide out in my classroom." Teachers don't do this for the money, so you might as well find s school that fits you. I'm an early childhood teacher-educator at a large state U, have been an administrator, researcher, trainer, etc., and the idea that a teacher is just faking the assessments and that's somehow better for children than finding a school / philosophy / method aligned with their beliefs is laughable. It's a recipe for burnout and it not good for the kids. Teaching is different from other jobs in this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is well stated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is probably not a secret BUT I worked in a retail store and we all pretty much had sex all over the place in there.

+1 in restaurants. Also, lots of drinking & drugs.

Journalism--probably 50% of the stories you read are advertisements in disguise.

Child care--oh, Lord. Let's just say parents only see a TINY sliver of what goes on.

You've never worked in a newsroom.

+1000. I'm a journalist who has worked for newspapers, magazines, and a wire service. My coworkers and I were way too cynical about people trying to get free advertising, and our bosses were even more sensitive to that.

However, if the PP was referring to what appears on the content farms that make up much of the "new media," I would agree.

Feature and business sections are primarily PR operations, hard news not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Give me a break with the daycare stories. The teachers at our center send their own kids there. Explain that?

+1. Our center director and many of the teachers send their kids to our center. I check on the video feed often and have never once seen teachers eating the kids' food, hitting, falling down drunk on the playground, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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--

Perhaps because there are things more important about the job than agreeing with the philosophy? That's like saying you don't get why someone would live in the US while thinking Trump was a freaking idiot.

No, not at all. If I don't agree with the direction of my employer, I believe it's my duty to find a new job. I'm an early childhood administrator, and one of my first interview questions is about teaching philosophy. It's important to have a cohesive school culture. I am opposed to the assessment culture and push-down academics, so I know I wouldn't fit in public schools. I've made a nice career without doing so, and I don't have to go against what I believe when it comes to how young children learn. Plus I don't have to work with a bunch of people who are faking their work.

I know plenty of people who work in the fed govt who absolutely disagree with current leadership. However, as noted several times earlier, there are things more important to most people than being in lockstep with the work culture. I show up because I like some things about where I work, including the fact that I get paid enough to support my family with it. If I changed work every time I thought the boss was wrong, I'd never work!

Civil service is way different from teaching. You have to believe in what you're doing for young children, or else you get cynical and vindictive. That's not good for children. There's a reason schools of education spend so much time helping preservice teachers develop teaching philosophies. It's really sad for the children when someone says, "F it. I don't like what this school does, but it pays well, so I'll fake it and hide out in my classroom." Teachers don't do this for the money, so you might as well find s school that fits you. I'm an early childhood teacher-educator at a large state U, have been an administrator, researcher, trainer, etc., and the idea that a teacher is just faking the assessments and that's somehow better for children than finding a school / philosophy / method aligned with their beliefs is laughable. It's a recipe for burnout and it not good for the kids. Teaching is different from other jobs in this way.

Nope. Teaching isn't that unique; people in other helping professions face similar or greater pressures. Polls show every year that doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and so on are appalled at our for profit healthcare system, the increased level of meaningless paperwork and electronic masturbation, and the declining level of attention and care they're able to give to their patients, yet still continue to practice medicine because, once again, there are things more important to most people than being in lockstep with the work culture. Only brainwashed college students believe that you need to identify with your job this much to be happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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--

Perhaps because there are things more important about the job than agreeing with the philosophy? That's like saying you don't get why someone would live in the US while thinking Trump was a freaking idiot.

No, not at all. If I don't agree with the direction of my employer, I believe it's my duty to find a new job. I'm an early childhood administrator, and one of my first interview questions is about teaching philosophy. It's important to have a cohesive school culture. I am opposed to the assessment culture and push-down academics, so I know I wouldn't fit in public schools. I've made a nice career without doing so, and I don't have to go against what I believe when it comes to how young children learn. Plus I don't have to work with a bunch of people who are faking their work.

I know plenty of people who work in the fed govt who absolutely disagree with current leadership. However, as noted several times earlier, there are things more important to most people than being in lockstep with the work culture. I show up because I like some things about where I work, including the fact that I get paid enough to support my family with it. If I changed work every time I thought the boss was wrong, I'd never work!

Civil service is way different from teaching. You have to believe in what you're doing for young children, or else you get cynical and vindictive. That's not good for children. There's a reason schools of education spend so much time helping preservice teachers develop teaching philosophies. It's really sad for the children when someone says, "F it. I don't like what this school does, but it pays well, so I'll fake it and hide out in my classroom." Teachers don't do this for the money, so you might as well find s school that fits you. I'm an early childhood teacher-educator at a large state U, have been an administrator, researcher, trainer, etc., and the idea that a teacher is just faking the assessments and that's somehow better for children than finding a school / philosophy / method aligned with their beliefs is laughable. It's a recipe for burnout and it not good for the kids. Teaching is different from other jobs in this way.

For someone who claims to be a teacher educator, you sure seem pretty dumb about what actually goes on in classrooms with real teachers.

I know a teacher who teaches high school. The district's policy--and that of the next several adjacent districts--is effectively abstinence only. Actually, the entire state is like that. You can mention other methods, but you need to drill it in by law that abstinence is the best way. It's a stupid law, kind of like you're a stupid person to tell my teacher friend she should quit. She teaches other methods once she shuts her door, as do most of the teachers she knows, because it's a greater crime to leave 15 year olds to their own sexual devices than it is to ignore stupid laws. No, she's not going to "find a school / philosophy / method" that aligns with her beliefs, because her beliefs involve teaching students, which is a higher priority than teaching nonsense. The fact that you've lost sight of this (as demonstrated by the repeated purity nonsense you've spouted in this thread) suggests that you, above all, should retire before spreading further ignorance to future generations of teachers.

[Anonymous]

Re: Teaching.

You can make a tiny rebellion by selling your soul for a paycheck,pretending you're a rebel and closing your door to do what's best for the few children in your class.

You make a bigger statement by saying, "I don't agree with the state of public education, and I won't work there."

If all the teachers who are in public schools but don't agree with them left for other jobs, we'd have to improve the situation real quick.