# Co-Workers/Applicants to jobs you had who had completely unrealistic ideas of how the job worked **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 5, 2019, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723 "2019-09-05T07:45:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/41 "2019-09-05T22:55:15Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > A small defense for the people who don’t know which holidays you get off: the set of “standard” federal holidays is about half days that are commonly celebrated by lots of people (Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, July 4th), and half randomish Mondays to honor an important individual or group that are not widely celebrated as events (Columbus Day, Labor Day, MLK’s birthday, etc.) > > If you’ve never had a job that has paid holidays, it’s not at all obvious that you’d get Columbus Day off but not Halloween. Has anyone in history ever gotten Halloween off though? Schools don’t get it off (which is where most people get their idea of “off” holidays from) and most people would be already off work by the time Halloween festivities started. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/42 "2019-09-05T23:41:50Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Has anyone in history ever gotten Halloween off though? Schools don’t get it off (which is where most people get their idea of “off” holidays from) and most people would be already off work by the time Halloween festivities started. In parochial schools, you got the next day off. (So you could eat all the candy, and get sick at home, not in school, I guess.) And it was pretty common either to get out early on Halloween, or to spend the last half of the school day in a class party. So I can see why a lot of people think of Halloween as a holiday. Almost as big as Christmas. (Plus, to a computer guy, Oct 31 = Dec 25.) ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/43 "2019-09-05T23:45:38Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > It got to the point where some of us started to suspect that he was using his disability and religion (Hindu) to get away with shit. I worked with an engineer (no clue how he graduated) who used race and his friendship with the engineer union rep to keep from getting fired for years. They just shuffled him from one office to another, till one boss finally started keeping records. He told me about the last straw, and that waste of oxygen was finally terminated. Last I heard, he was working at Home Depot. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/44 "2019-09-05T23:52:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Hijack: what’s a lake management company? It’s a company that treats lakes and ponds to keep them from clogging up with algae and weeds. The guy that treats our lake does it for a lot of housing developments and businesses that have lakes. I’d think doing golf course lakes would be the same. There’s a lot to know and it’s easy to over treat or under treat. It’s kind of like a lawn service company. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/45 "2019-09-05T23:55:37Z")
OK, thanks. I thought of lakes as natural bodies of water that are essentially unmanaged. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/46 "2019-09-06T03:21:04Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > In parochial schools, you got the next day off. (So you could eat all the candy, and get sick at home, not in school, I guess.) And it was pretty common either to get out early on Halloween, or to spend the last half of the school day in a class party. > > So I can see why a lot of people think of Halloween as a holiday. Almost as big as Christmas. > > (Plus, to a computer guy, Oct 31 = Dec 25.) October 31 is Nevada Day, commemorating the anniversary of the state joining the union. State employees get Nevada Day off (observed the last Friday in October) instead of Columbus Day. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/47 "2019-09-06T04:01:05Z")
actually, several “Wiccans” tried that in high school saying Halloween was a “religious” holiday it didn’t work … And school districts in la used to only do half days for Dia de Los Muertos aka day of the dead And the k-8th district does give the monday after easter off as an “instructional” day ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/48 "2019-09-06T05:40:39Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve known a few people that requested fewer hours to stay under the poverty level and get insurance through the state/welfare. My back of the envelope math says she could work 20 hours a week and get really good insurance through the state or work an extra 20 hours per week, take home the same amount and get a high deductible plan through us. > For the moment, lets assume she gets everything done that we need her to get done. There’s not a whole lot of incentive for her to work those extra hours and it saves us a ton of money as well. Between not paying part of her insurance and not paying her an extra 20 hours per week, it reduces our costs by nearly 30k per year. Also a Social Security issue for early retirees. My mom took hers at 62 while she was working 3 part-time seasonal jobs. So at the time, whatever she got combined with unemployment and what she was allowed to make without reducing her Social Security was just enough to get by. She was offered a full-time year-round job with the agreement that she wouldn’t be working anything close to 40 hours. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/49 "2019-09-06T05:45:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I had one guy who literally did not want to come to work. He had his own business and he said he could make more working a day there than he made working a day at his job. So he figured it was a better use of his time to spend every day at his business and never show up for his job. He agreed that under those circumstances it was reasonable that we wouldn’t pay him his wages. But he wanted to officially stay on the payroll so he could keep his insurance benefits. I work at a job that a lot of people only have for the insurance. There are a lot of small business owners, restaurateurs, real estate investors, ebay flippers, etc. Then some people who do the whole Uber/gig economy thing. The problem for most is when we have mandatory 60 hour weeks, which used to be rare during peak season but are now common and only require 24 hours notice for working on your day off. When I started it was the opposite - so many voluntary days/weeks off and unpaid personal leaves in use that you could be fulltime and barely work, also a lot of SNAP/Medicaid qualifiers. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/50 "2019-09-06T05:49:49Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > A small defense for the people who don’t know which holidays you get off: the set of “standard” federal holidays is about half days that are commonly celebrated by lots of people (Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, July 4th), and half randomish Mondays to honor an important individual or group that are not widely celebrated as events (Columbus Day, Labor Day, MLK’s birthday, etc.) > > If you’ve never had a job that has paid holidays, it’s not at all obvious that you’d get Columbus Day off but not Halloween. I don’t get any holidays off that fall on a regular work day but I get holiday pay plus time and a half (obviously I am an hourly worker) for 6 holidays. Columbus day is not one of them. Labor Day (which, along with Memorial Day, certainly IS celebrated by many people) is. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/51 "2019-09-06T07:01:15Z")
In a zoo I used o work in, we had some, well, interesting applicants pretty often. It seems some tutors translate ‘can’t work with people’ into ‘should work with animals!’ At one point we had an applicant whose entire qualification for animal care was ‘I used to have a goldfish’. Not a joke. We had applications which listed which animals they were prepared to work with basically ‘mammals OK, birds tolerable, reptiles and invertebrates are icky and I won’t work with them’. We had a guy with no work experience or qualifications who sent in the application on Monday, then showed up every day for over a week asking ‘Can I start yet?’ at reception. We think he was living kinda feral, because he got grubbier and grubbier over the week as well. One of the very early staff there, supposedly animal care staff, declared that cleaning wasn’t his job (he was a MAN! cleaning was WOMEN’s work!), he only had to prep food and put it in the already clean bowls. He also used to show up slightly late every day, then make himself a coffee and sit there reading a newspaper for half an hour before deigning to start (most of the current animal staff routinely show up somewhere between a half an hour and an hour _earlier_ than timetabled, for which they’re not paid- stay late to finish off and you get you paid for it, show up before you’re scheduled and that’s on you, but that’s how keen most of them are). We also had someone apply as a volunteer who wanted to work with the animals. So far so normal. There were already plenty of volunteers working with the animals, the only volunteer role we were looking to fill at the time was site maintenance, stuff like helping paint fences and sheds. She was told this, with the comment that it would involve a little interaction with the animals, and existing volunteers got priority for new positions, so if she wanted to do that for a while, she’d be first in line if something suitable did come up. She blew up. How DARE they suggest things like that, she wanted to work with ANIMALS. Then she got her big sister to phone up and complain as well. They were both in their 50s, incidentally. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/52 "2019-09-06T08:50:17Z")
I work at a hotel. We have overnight security. One guy got fired because he sat in the break room for 90% of his shift with his walkie-talkie off. My night engineer ran across him doing that and got him fired. (Management ignored my complaints about the security guard for months before this happened because they were terrible managers.) We had some sort of construction crew staying with us once and one guy got massively drunk and came up to complain about how he got sunburned and our soap was not solving this issue (really). He got really really aggressive and I was busy trying to calm him down when a guest came up for a toothbrush. She heard his drunk mostly incoherent accusations and stick around. I was mortified - this was not what I wanted a guest to hear! Finally my security guard and I got him calmed down and security escorted him back to his room. The woman left as well, and came back with her brother… The head of the construction crew and I think the owner of the business. He asked some questions, and I told the truth and when I got into work the next night drunk bozo was gone. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/53 "2019-09-06T11:28:04Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Has anyone in history ever gotten Halloween off though? Schools don’t get it off (which is where most people get their idea of “off” holidays from) and most people would be already off work by the time Halloween festivities started. For a while I gave employees an hour off with pay on election days. I thought it was a good idea and would inspire people to vote who otherwise wouldn’t, plus maybe create interest in politics. The idea was a total failure. Everyone enjoyed their hour off, but nobody used it as intended. Nobody. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/54 "2019-09-06T13:05:36Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > In parochial schools, you got the next day off. (So you could eat all the candy, and get sick at home, not in school, I guess.) Not to eat candy, but because Nov 1 is All Saints Day, a Catholic religious holiday. [Since “Hallowed” is an old word for “Blessed”, All Saints Day was sometimes known as All Hallows Day. The night before of course was the Evening of All Hallows Day (for some reason abbreviated “e’en”, while Christmas Evening turned to “Eve”). And there was a sort of folk tale belief about wicked spirits/the dead/etc getting to roam the earth for one night before the Saints Day cleaned everything up. Obviously, that eventually that led to children getting sick on candy] ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/55 "2019-09-06T13:14:13Z")
My current job is in a store owned by Orthodox Jews. Friday and especially Sunday (being outsifde of our county’s blue laws) are our busiest days. The first question anyone interviewing for a job is asked is “Are you free to work all day Fridays and Sundays?” If the answer is “no,” they are not hired. Yet some people say “yes,” and then start calling in about not being abler to come to work those days. After the third time, they are let go. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/56 "2019-09-07T02:08:38Z")
It’s not stupid, but it’s common enough that I’ve seen it a few times: people that think they should be doing something “useful” at work. I get to explain to them that they aren’t paid to feel useful, they’re paid to do something the owner thinks is useful. If that means just waiting, or even sitting at reception waiting for the phone to ring, it is what it is. Sometimes they get it: sometimes they don’t. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/57 "2019-09-07T03:03:05Z")
Heh. In the Colorado county that I work for, we used to get Columbus Day off. A commission was unhappy with that, as Columbus, was, well a bit of an asshole I suppose. Said commissioner got it renamed to “Indigenous Peoples Day”. Us white folks of western European ancestry get it off too. I think it’s a nice gesture I guess, but I suppose some sap will ask for “Indigenous Peoples Day off” after he leaves current employment. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/58 "2019-09-07T03:12:52Z")
It’s not precisely employment, but kind of like that: Under the Compact of Free Association, a document that governs the relationship between the United States and the Federated States of Micronesia, citizens of the FSM can be treated like US citizens in many ways. For example, they can join the US military. So, a military recruiter was on Pohnpei (the FSM’s capital island) one day, speaking to a group of Micronesian young men and extolling the virtues of joining the military. One potential recruit had a question: “So, if we join the army, and the US gets into a war … do we have to fight?” ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/59 "2019-09-07T07:35:41Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > My current job is in a store owned by Orthodox Jews. Friday and especially Sunday (being outsifde of our county’s blue laws) are our busiest days. The first question anyone interviewing for a job is asked is “Are you free to work all day Fridays and Sundays?” If the answer is “no,” they are not hired. > > Yet some people say “yes,” and then start calling in about not being abler to come to work those days. After the third time, they are let go. I worked at a catalog call center for a couple of years and they told you during the open house for prospective employees that you were expected to work every other weekend. If you couldn’t do that, there was no point in applying. They did accept people who wouldn’t/couldn’t work either Saturdays or Sundays but were willing to work every weekend day they could work instead. So someone who always wanted every Sunday off for Church but was willing to work every Saturday was fine. Lots of high schoolers with Saturday sports worked every Sunday. And yet people would get hired and then try to get every weekend off. They never lasted long. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/60 "2019-09-07T13:16:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Another story about somebody who had trouble with the subject of days off. > > I worked in a prison. Anyone who gave a moment’s thought to it would figure out that a prison is a twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year business. There is never a time when we close. Surely you gave snow days, though, right, in the case of a blizzard? Sorry, being facetious. I used to work at a hospital and the number of people who were genuinely surprised that we didn’t give people “snow days” was astounding. Oh, ok, I’ll just tell Mr. Smith in room 1017 that he can’t have medication or a meal or someone to help him to the bathroom because you all think we should close down when it snows. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723.md?page=4)