Dirty secret about an industry that you have worked in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Salesperson here. We know you told us to leave you alone with our cold calls, but chances are, we're not going to unless you bring in some legal action. Until then, you're fair game. We also have no idea what's going on in terms of the products we sell or their features; our products team does that, so go talk to them. Everything I tell you, including reactions to objections, is read off a script more or less. The kids that go work for us straight out of college, with a few exceptions, aren't the sharpest crayons in the box and are more than happy to earn a meager salary as long as they get free booze at happy hour and can go party the second work ends. We also don't earn anywhere as much as glorified sales movies will have you believe.

Thanks Captain Obvious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd think twice about ordering tap beers. The tubes that deliver the beer are rarely - if ever - cleaned or changed. They get this ick that builds up in them. I never order tap beer! Also, bars themselves are pretty filthy. Only one bar I worked at would close for a Spring Cleaning and really scrub down the entire place. Otherwise it was just a mop or a broom, and call it quits.
~Former bartender.

+a million, from another former bartender

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd think twice about ordering tap beers. The tubes that deliver the beer are rarely - if ever - cleaned or changed. They get this ick that builds up in them. I never order tap beer! Also, bars themselves are pretty filthy. Only one bar I worked at would close for a Spring Cleaning and really scrub down the entire place. Otherwise it was just a mop or a broom, and call it quits.
~Former bartender.

+a million, from another former bartender

I've seen that Kitchen Nightmare Bar show version, and wow there are some nasty bars out there. I won't order any drinks, even water, with fruit wedges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in graduate school, I worked at a tutoring center. We saw a fraction of a fraction of what the parents paid hourly; my students thought it was such a cushy job because they assumed we got most of the pay.

I was promoted to an administrative position, and was told to sell hours at the highest rate, no matter what the student's test scores looked like. The student could be flunking out, or getting the highest SAT score, and I had to try to get the same money, as well as assuring every parent that the use of our center could absolutely get their child into HYP.

I felt so gross, I quit after just a couple of weeks in the office. I would have loved to have been a tutor again, but they wouldn't let me demote myself.

I just took a corporate course for my job and I wonder if its the same. If my company is paying $3,000 for a 4-night course, how much is the instructor standing in front of the room making???

I work for a company that runs courses like that - don't think it's the exact one because we don't have any specific courses that hit that profile, but same industry and type of courses.

Our instructors/consultants that teach make between $1,000 - $2,000 per day they are teaching depending on the course. Their travel expenses are also covered separate from their pay. Ours are all employees (not 1099) and are eligible for benefits.

[Anonymous]

ER nurse. It's cold and flu season. Half of the nurses and doctors on the floor in the ER are sick right now. We shouldn't be working. We can't call off because we don't have anyone to cover our shifts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Same - and I drop in unannounced all the time, as do other parents. Zero issues.

You are kidding yourself. Staff know when parents are in the facility. There are often code words used. "Elvis is in the building" was used whenever a parent was unexpectedly on-site at my last center. I worked with a teacher who would put her long coat over kids and pretend to be hugging them. She was pinching their little ears. Another teacher took kids in the bathrooms out the camera site and smacked them on the head with their shoes if they took them off. These were degreed teachers in accredited centers. Yes I reported.

It would take me hours to list all the scary stuff I saw in even the "best centers". There are some great teachers out there. But there are also some awful ones. Low pay plus the stress of dealing with young children and long hours with few breaks creates a less than ideal environment.

+1000 Sure there are good and bad centers (as in every industry) but in this area, parents are so involved with their kids, if ANYTHING was a-miss, it would most likely get caught pretty quickly and that center wouldn't survive.
Whatever.

I think it's hilarious at people don't believe these stories. Why would PPs lie about this crap? Nobody is trying to scare anyone off from daycare, but this does exist.

I think there are nannies from the nanny forum who are pretty invested in scare stories. My kids are much older and I did all variants of childcare when they were younger so don't really have a horse in this race, but this is a pattern I've seen on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in graduate school, I worked at a tutoring center. We saw a fraction of a fraction of what the parents paid hourly; my students thought it was such a cushy job because they assumed we got most of the pay.

I was promoted to an administrative position, and was told to sell hours at the highest rate, no matter what the student's test scores looked like. The student could be flunking out, or getting the highest SAT score, and I had to try to get the same money, as well as assuring every parent that the use of our center could absolutely get their child into HYP.

I felt so gross, I quit after just a couple of weeks in the office. I would have loved to have been a tutor again, but they wouldn't let me demote myself.

I just took a corporate course for my job and I wonder if its the same. If my company is paying $3,000 for a 4-night course, how much is the instructor standing in front of the room making???

I work for a company that runs courses like that - don't think it's the exact one because we don't have any specific courses that hit that profile, but same industry and type of courses.

Our instructors/consultants that teach make between $1,000 - $2,000 per day they are teaching depending on the course. Their travel expenses are also covered separate from their pay. Ours are all employees (not 1099) and are eligible for benefits.

Tutoring center PP here. Our clients pause up to $80/hour. We each had 1-3 students per hour, and made $10-15/hour. The powers that be kept our hours low so they didn't have to give us benefits. That was the biggest reason I took the admin position.

[Anonymous]

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

I'm sure they treat their own babies ... as if they were their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I'm sure they treat their own babies ... as if they were their own.

Most centers do not allow the teachers to be caring for their own child during the day. So, it's the other teachers caring for the teachers' child in separate classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feds don't hire the best and brightest. They hire people who are willing to wait 3+ months after an interview for a job offer.

LOL, yup. It's also so freaking hard to get fired. Same for state government.

Yup. I worked at one government agency where they touted how we new hires were "the best and the brightest". Amusing because first, they had no idea that David Halberstam did not use that wording in a complementary matter (irony lost) and second, no way in hell were the best minds in America waiting 12 months for a start date - they had long since joined Goldman or McKinsey.

Of course, the true "best and brightest" would know that "complementary" was misspelled in that post (I believe "complimentary" was meant?) ... ironic and amusing, indeed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Feds don't hire the best and brightest. They hire people who are willing to wait 3+ months after an interview for a job offer.

Wow all these stories are crazy. But as an NIH employee and researcher, I can at least safely say the opposite of the above quote is true! I work with amazingly talented and highly intelligent, passionate and caring people. Seriously folks, if you ever have any unusual medical needs pop up and have an opportunity to be treated at the NIH, do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feds don't hire the best and brightest. They hire people who are willing to wait 3+ months after an interview for a job offer.

Wow all these stories are crazy. But as an NIH employee and researcher, I can at least safely say the opposite of the above quote is true! I work with amazingly talented and highly intelligent, passionate and caring people. Seriously folks, if you ever have any unusual medical needs pop up and have an opportunity to be treated at the NIH, do it.

The NIH is clearly unique though.

[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.

I know someone that worked at a Montessori and I kid you not she's the dumbest person I know. Very sweet and means well but I mean DIM. We are talking lacking both intelligence and common sense. Cannot spell common words. Scary that she was an assistant teacher. She worked for a long time at a school out-of-state and could not keep a job at the schools here so at least she was weeded out. Bless her heart.

I think I know her

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ER nurse. It's cold and flu season. Half of the nurses and doctors on the floor in the ER are sick right now. We shouldn't be working. We can't call off because we don't have anyone to cover our shifts.

+1. I love seeing patients in the ER who are less sick than I am. Oh, have belly pain for 1 year? Ok, well, now you have belly pain for one year AND you have my flu!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ER nurse. It's cold and flu season. Half of the nurses and doctors on the floor in the ER are sick right now. We shouldn't be working. We can't call off because we don't have anyone to cover our shifts.

+1. I love seeing patients in the ER who are less sick than I am. Oh, have belly pain for 1 year? Ok, well, now you have belly pain for one year AND you have my flu!!!

???