As are almost all things classified.
This.
I run into all sorts of secrets at work. Social security numbers and health details of random people. Competitively sensitive information about how my employer does business. Questions that might show up on future qualifying exams – extremely technical questions about obscure topics. Super super exciting stuff that almost no one would care about. But secret.
There is a guy at work who claims to be a SAP expert. Based on the questions we’ve gotten from him (in writing, too), he hadn’t even seen a single screen before arriving here. He’s good at reading forum posts, though, I’ll grant him that. After enough attempts at doing things that some moron recommended but which work sideways to what the moron said, he’s even figured out which are the posters he should read and which are not.
An amazing amount of information about drugs and medical devices, including which problems each type, and each manufacturer, are most prone to.
I could tell you, but …
I don’t have to, you can find all this out for your self.
I know which manufacturers have patterns of recalls that indicate serious deficiencies in their practice, or possibly to their concept of and commitment to quality.
I know that if you ever get an expensive imaging diagnostic test you should make a note of the make and model of the equipment, and insist on the software version number, because there is a possibility you got someone else’s results.
I know that if your medication just doesn’t seem to be working as well as it used, it may actually be sub potent. (There are certain generics I raise hell about being given, and I monitor my response religiously.)
I know that you should never, ever, NEVER use premoistened cleaning wipes on your child’s face and hands, or any open sores; those are cosmetics, not medical devices, btw.
Finally, I know that you are an integral element in the quality system, and you have a duty to report any problems and deficiencies to the manufacturer.
And no, none of this is secret, it’s all information that can be gleaned or inferred from the FDA website. I read this stuff all the time, and I am amazed at the blissful ignorance the rest of you live in. (Well, some of you; I do bore & torment all my friends and associates. They are miserably well-informed these days.)
(And, by the way, really, please do not use those disposable wipes on your baby’s face and hands; you can buy dry napkins made of the same material and wet them with bottled water at time of use.)
Wait, what? How is knowing the software version number going to help me identify that I received someone else’s results?
Here is a secret about secrets. The legal and (especially) finance guys will know more than almost anyone else in any medium size entity or larger. I still remember sitting in on one meeting and realising that 25 year old, lawyer for 18 months me was more in the know than any other participant there and these were senior management and technical people.
From my job? Nothing of interest. The secrets involved tend to be boring, incomprehensible, or both to anyone not working on the same stuff. (In fact, the documentation in most of the places I’ve worked was largely incomprehensible to the people who were working on it.)
My freelance work, on the other hand…
Good advice in principle, but I’m not that big a fan of relish.
If your surgery is abdominal in nature, I have to clean, or ‘prep’ your abdomen, and I have specially designed q-tips to clean out your belly button. If it’s nasty, I will judge you, and tell the whole OR team that you have a nasty belly button.
But, but, . . .HIPAA!?
[evil spruce]When you do it right there is little need to hide anything because they died of “natural causes” or an unfortunate accident that could not have been foreseen or prevented. This time of year is a lonely one, and sometimes people get depressed…Just sayin’…[/evilspruce]
Them: “OMG, how do we do X, Y and Z!?”
Me: [google, google, google] “Oh, that’s simple, we just click on the thing and open the thing and check the thing, and then we’re done.”
I suppose figuring out what search terms to enter, and what obvious nonsense to ignore and what to try are a sort of competency. At least compared to the guy who didn’t even try to google the answer before emailing me asking what to do. So I’ve got that going for me.
I know the secret ingredient that makes the new formula better than the old formula!
The good news is, sometimes there actually IS a difference between the new and old formulas.
I know very little of ‘macro’ importance, but plenty of ‘micro’ importance at my job. I am privvy to the 5-year plan that indicates what positions are going to be eliminated, what divisions of the company are going to be up for sale, which employees are on the fast track and which are to be phased out. I know who’s going to get a raise or a pink slip. I know what drugs they take, what medical problems they have, their birth dates, social security numbers, home addresses, any legal proceedings they are involved in, the results of their random drug screens, and if they are paying their bills on time as I screen the creditor calls.
Much of this information is a tremendous burden. I have sleepless nights after I hear that an employee who is on the chopping block just bought a house or a car. I can’t tell them. I can’t say a word in advance, even though I know. It can be brutal if its someone you care about. Recently I found out a co-worker is terminally ill. He hasn’t told anyone yet, but I know.
Architects are weasels. It’s almost impossible to get an A&E firm to admit error, let alone pay damages.
Outsourced government service contracts are one of the largest scams perpetrated on the American taxpayer. Thanks, Ronnie.
Bolding mine.
I hope after you’re done cleaning, it’s more accurate to tell the OR team that the patient **had **a nasty belly button.
That was also true for me when I was actively working as a pharmacist.
My dad would sometimes ask me, “So, are there any interesting patients in the hospital?” and I would usually reply, “Sure! Can’t tell you about them, however.” Once in a while, there would be a patient I could mention because I found out about it outside the hospital - the 2-year-old in hospice (read about it in the newspaper), the mayor had prostate cancer (it was on the news), that kind of thing.
I thought that was an urban legend!
I’m a geologist who works on oil rigs. If we strike oil, I am literally the first person on the planet to know it. A new field can easily be worth a billion dollars. That’s a pretty big secret to keep.
I’m not sure if the OP is really asking about secrets, or just the endless arcana of our various occupations. Or is he/she looking for the shocking expose’, the insider factoid that debunks all the corporate spin?
I don’t have much secret stuff now. Back in the military I did. And I can agree with the others above that said that the more secret the secrets, the more boring they tended to be. I suppose that changes when you get waaay up to the super duper extra special secret stuff. Although the cynic in me suspects that that level of secrets would be pretty indistinguishable from the most jaundiced political rants you’ve ever heard/read.
I work in food service. Out front, where food is served after being cooked, or mixed up, or whatever, the servers must wear gloves if they will touch something that won’t subsequently be heated to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the back, if someone is, say, slicing raw meat, we can touch that with our bare hands. Yes, all you persnickety people, bare hands. that meat will go on the grill for a set amount of time, or be heated in that oven at 350 degress.
It’s legal. Anything like cutting up veggies for salad, hands must have gloves. Stuff that get’s well cooked afterwards, gloves not needed except for desired protection.
I bake a LOT of cookies. I’m not wearing gloves when I scoop them out, so maybe my hands touch the dough. But when I ice Christmas cookies after they are baked and cooled, I’m wearing gloves.
We want to keep customers well, so they can keep spending their money with us!