# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/81 "2019-09-09T19:29:50Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > In parochial schools, you got the next day off. Well yes, November 1 is All Saints Day (Halloween - referred originally to as All Hallows Eve in the past - is the night before), so I’d expect a parochial school to have it off. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/82 "2019-09-09T19:41:56Z")
Though speaking of days off… I work for the US Government. It is very interesting to see the number of people who get surprised that we don’t get the day after Thanksgiving off (it’s not a federal holiday). ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/83 "2019-09-09T19:55:47Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Though speaking of days off… I work for the US Government. It is very interesting to see the number of people who get surprised that we don’t get the day after Thanksgiving off (it’s not a federal holiday). So that’s why the garbage truck came on Friday last Thanksgiving. I thought they’ll be off till next week. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/84 "2019-09-09T20:48:29Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > Though speaking of days off… I work for the US Government. It is very interesting to see the number of people who get surprised that we don’t get the day after Thanksgiving off (it’s not a federal holiday). Our library changed holidays a few years ago to match the county government’s holidays, so we now are closed on the day after Thanksgiving because county government is. We also have Good Friday and Easter Sunday off now. Only it apparently never occurred to anyone that _we’re open on weekends_, unlike county government. So for Thanksgiving, we’re closed for two days, then open again. For Easter, it’s even crazier because we closed for Good Friday, open on Saturday, then closed again for Easter Sunday. This was sold as making it “simpler.” ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/85 "2019-09-09T21:26:26Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I understand this is a different topic than the OP, but I thought I would chime in with my experience. > > I work with lots of people who (supposedly) have engineering degrees. But I would call less than 50% of them “engineers.” I worked with someone for many years who had a degree in mechanical engineering. He couldn’t do the simplest math. He had no understanding of **F = ma**. I currently work with people w/ EE degrees who would not be able to solve for the voltages in a voltage divider. > > I have no idea how these people got the degrees. > > This would be an excellent topic for a new thread, IMO. I was an English Lit major, and even I knew this one! ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/86 "2019-09-10T21:23:15Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Our library changed holidays a few years ago to match the county government’s holidays, so we now are closed on the day after Thanksgiving because county government is. We also have Good Friday and Easter Sunday off now. > > Only it apparently never occurred to anyone that _we’re open on weekends_, unlike county government. So for Thanksgiving, we’re closed for two days, then open again. For Easter, it’s even crazier because we closed for Good Friday, open on Saturday, then closed again for Easter Sunday. > > This was sold as making it “simpler.” The library I work in closes on Easter Sunday. It does not close on Black Friday though. The cafe I work in is closed that day however, the only weekday we are closed and the library isn’t. The library closes on all federal holidays and also New Year’s Eve, and Christmas Eve. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/87 "2019-09-10T22:57:33Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > You work in a pharmacy? Yes, we have drugs here. No, you can’t have them unless a doctor prescribes them. To be fair, pharmacists in other parts of the world can totally dispense some drugs without a physician or other third party’s involvement. I learned this while I was living in France. A few years later, I was visiting Paris with a girlfriend when she developed a UTI. I explained the issue to a female while my girlfriend stood there. She got a course of antibiotics on the spot. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/88 "2019-09-10T23:03:41Z")
Another story I work in a warehouse than also has a “public” section with offices in the front. Two years ago an old man (probably in his 60’s) applied to the job and got it in the warehouse portion. This was a section that worked 24 hours a day and had 3 shifts and you would come in to work and immediately relieve the shift before you. Apparently the old guy thought the first week on the job he could show up on time, but instead of relieving the prior shift he could go make himself a cup of coffee and then go into the office section and drink it while sitting down and talking with various people for up to 30 to 40 minutes before finally making his way to his section. Then in addition to this, he wouldn’t wait for his own relief and would leave work 30 minutes early leaving his area abandoned until the next shift showed up. Obviously the people he was suppose to relieve got very VERY pissed at this so they complained and by the end of the week he had a serious talking to by management. Then for the next two weeks he started to loudly gripe and complain to everyone who would listen how in his prior jobs “Guys have an understanding that everyone comes in late and to just cover for them with no complaining” not understanding he also wasn’t following his advice and just leaving early instead of waiting for the next shift. About two months into his job he suddenly complains of an old injury and work gave him a menial job in the office portion just to shut him up. Now he spends his days hanging out in the mens restroom and talking to anybody who walks in about how his day has been going and commenting “Back so soon?” if you happen to see him in the restroom again which happens to be all the time because that guy is literally in the restroom at all hours of his shift. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/89 "2019-09-11T00:18:59Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I would call less than 50% of them “engineers.” I worked with someone for many years who had a degree in mechanical engineering. He couldn’t do the simplest math. He had no understanding of F = ma. I currently work with people w/ EE degrees who would not be able to solve for the voltages in a voltage divider. > > I have no idea how these people got the degrees. Last night, I was helping a fellow mechanical engineer calculate the area of an arbitrary cross section; he complained that he kept getting the wrong answer. He walked me through his math: - first find the perimeter and divide it by pi to get the diameter; - divide the diameter by 2 to get the radius; - square the radius and multiply it by pi to get the area. I thought I was missing something big, so I let him get all the way through his explanation before I interjected. I then pointed out that his formulae worked for circles but not for any other shape. (The cross-section was vaguely trapezoidal). He still wasn’t convinced, so I asked him to point to the “diameter” for which he had solved. That did it. Another mechanical engineer I worked with didn’t know that springs in series behave differently than springs in parallel. The first guy is a decent person who cranks out solid mechanical drawings at a pace I can’t dream of matching. The second guy is reasonably OK at building and maintaining project-management spreadsheets. Both are incompetent _at the things I’m good at_, but only the second guy is an incompetent engineer (IMHO). The first guy graciously takes responsibility when he’s wrong, learns from his mistakes and tries not to get in over his head. The second guy insists that others are fools for thinking he’s mistaken. And as usual, he’s mistaken about that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/90 "2019-09-11T00:25:41Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > I explained the issue **to a female** while my girlfriend stood there. Ugh. I hate when people refer to human women as “females.” I meant to write “female pharmacist.” We sought one out because we thought a male pharmacist might not be as sympathetic to a woman with a UTI. ---
**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 11, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/91 "2019-09-11T01:35:20Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > Ugh. I hate when people refer to human women as “females.” I meant to write “female pharmacist.” We sought one out because we thought a male pharmacist might not be as sympathetic to a woman with a UTI. This human woman forgives you 🙂 Going a bit off topic, your story reminds me of a similar one my parents experienced, except for the essential detail that I infer you spoke French. Many years ago my parents were in Bali when my mother got a yeast infection, and my dad gallantly tried to get something like Monostat from the _apotik_ for her. My dad was a charming guy, and while he wasn’t the least bit arrogant, he was supremely confident that his charm, coupled with communication skills that existed only in his imagination, would allow him to talk to anybody, anywhere, linguistic barriers be damned. (It was quite a picture to see him “conversing” with Spanish speakers when they moved to Mexico, but that’s a different topic.) So, as the story is told, my dad went up to the clerk at the drugstore and asked for medicine to treat a yeast infection. Knowing my dad, his technique involved loud, repetitious use of English, occasionally remembering to speak slowly but not always. As that failed, he added visual aids to his attempt: namely, gesturing. He pointed to his wife. Then he pointed to his crotch. And then started scratching his crotch. Then he looked expectantly at the clerk. The Balinese are on the whole gentle souls with a good sense of humor, which probably explains why he was not arrested or beat up. He did not get the medication he sought, however. And I bet the person he gesticulated at is still marveling at the crazy foreigner who wanted … something. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/92 "2019-09-11T02:55:25Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > To be fair, pharmacists in other parts of the world can totally dispense some drugs without a physician or other third party’s involvement. I learned this while I was living in France. A few years later, I was visiting Paris with a girlfriend when she developed a UTI. I explained the issue to a female while my girlfriend stood there. She got a course of antibiotics on the spot. That’s also true here in the States, and what’s available from behind-the-counter varies widely from state to state. I’m talking about people who go in and just, like, help themselves to the Xanax and OxyContin. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/93 "2019-09-11T08:34:30Z")
nada _fluffy clouds pass by_ ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/94 "2019-09-11T14:05:38Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > 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?” About halfway through boot camp we were having a class on how to properly strap someone into a Stokes stretcher. Suddenly a guy interrupts, “Wait! You mean I could get hurt or killed?” With a lot more patience than I would have had, the instructor replied, “Well, this _is_ the Navy. The odds are pretty low but rather higher than in the civilian world.” ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/95 "2019-09-11T15:08:03Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > A partner in our pathology practice was on call one weekend. He was paged to cover a problem, and called back saying he was at the airport about to leave on a trip. Sorry fellas, can’t help you, gotta go, g’bye. :rolleyes: Well, to be fair, it was a pathology practice - they will still be dead when he gets back. yes yes, I know there’s more to pathology than autopsies. as in [“go see if that’s a duck”](https://www.facebook.com/JokesForIntelligentPeople/posts/doctors-go-duck-huntinga-family-practitioner-an-internist-a-surgeon-and-a-pathol/362468273881576/). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/96 "2019-09-15T04:38:09Z")
I’ve whined here before about the difference between laws and regulations. For federal subcontracts work, lawyers are really not the best choice, but try to explain this to HR. They get soooooo excited when a JD applies. I can hardly count the times I’ve had to sit down with some poor fool and straighten them out. Inevitably they thought they were going to sit around all day taking phone calls, researching laws and providing advice. It takes hours to give them the barest idea of the myriad of rules and regulations they will now be learning in order to get their incredibly admin-heavy jobs done. They seldom last long. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/97 "2019-09-15T05:23:24Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Another story > > I work in a warehouse than also has a “public” section with offices in the front. Two years ago an old man (probably in his 60’s) applied to the job and got it in the warehouse portion. This was a section that worked 24 hours a day and had 3 shifts and you would come in to work and immediately relieve the shift before you. > > Apparently the old guy thought the first week on the job he could show up on time, but instead of relieving the prior shift he could go make himself a cup of coffee and then go into the office section and drink it while sitting down and talking with various people for up to 30 to 40 minutes before finally making his way to his section. Then in addition to this, he wouldn’t wait for his own relief and would leave work 30 minutes early leaving his area abandoned until the next shift showed up. Obviously the people he was suppose to relieve got very VERY pissed at this so they complained and by the end of the week he had a serious talking to by management. Then for the next two weeks he started to loudly gripe and complain to everyone who would listen how in his prior jobs “Guys have an understanding that everyone comes in late and to just cover for them with no complaining” not understanding he also wasn’t following his advice and just leaving early instead of waiting for the next shift. About two months into his job he suddenly complains of an old injury and work gave him a menial job in the office portion just to shut him up. Now he spends his days hanging out in the mens restroom and talking to anybody who walks in about how his day has been going and commenting “Back so soon?” if you happen to see him in the restroom again which happens to be all the time because that guy is literally in the restroom at all hours of his shift. This guy’s wife must really drive him crazy. Why else would he do that? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/98 "2019-09-15T06:41:17Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Well, to be fair, it was a pathology practice - they will still be dead when he gets back. I like Dennis Miller’s joke: _I think the easiest job in the world has to be pathologist. Even if everything goes wrong…maybe you get a pulse._ ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/99 "2019-09-15T17:54:09Z")
I worked with an awful lot of English as a Foreign Language teachers who had no idea at all about grammar. They literally had no idea how to explain what a verb is - and that is a bit complicated sometimes, but they didn’t even have the rudiments. This was in even fairly high-level EFL contexts where people were paying huge amounts to be taught. The worst thing was that some of them disliked the idea of knowing about grammar. That wasn’t because they’d been taught some other immersion-type school of teaching; they really thought that all English language teaching meant was correcting people and chatting a bit. They didn’t understand that correcting people who are paying you generally requires a reason why you’re correcting them, which means teaching them rather than just saying “that’s wrong, we don’t say it that way.” Even the chatting is not that easy - I saw many charming male teachers who thought they were doing really well, and their female students sometimes liked them, but the teachers just talked and people wrote things down. The students barely talked at all. This was in the UK. If they wanted to listen to a man talking about his life without any interaction they could just go on youtube. (I never saw a female teacher do this). > [@Shodan](#): > > My father had an employee who asked if they got the Monday after Easter off, because “Easter falls on a Sunday this year”. > > Regards, > Shodan Was the employee not American? Some countries do have the Monday after Easter off if it falls on a Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-workers-applicants-to-jobs-you-had-who-had-completely-unrealistic-ideas-of-how-the-job-worked/839723/100 "2019-09-15T18:08:30Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Was the employee not American? Some countries do have the Monday after Easter off if it falls on a Sunday. Are there any times when Easter Sunday doesn’t fall on a Sunday? Admittedly, there are a number of holidays celebrated the week before Easter - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and such - which are rarely celebrated by Americans (Holy Monday would be the Monday before Easter - is it possible they meant that one?). But even in the Orthodox tradition, Easter is celebrated on a Sunday. [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=4) [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=6)