# Things you've been surprised you've had to explain at work
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 13, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959 "2021-05-13T02:42:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 12
### Author:  [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/221 "2021-05-16T15:39:28Z")
> [@Isamu](#):
>
> Umm, I don’t quite remember. I think so, because I’m not shy of saying so and we worked together for about 5 years. But even still, a lawyer should know better.
Not necessarily unless they were an immigration lawyer that deals with that particular part of the law. Every country has so many laws that being a lawyer does not automatically mean you know all the laws of the country.
```
//i\\
```
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### Author:  [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/222 "2021-05-16T15:44:17Z")
> [@icon](#):
>
> Every country has so many laws
Yep they do.
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/223 "2021-05-16T15:45:42Z")
No blur spoiler? 🤔
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### Author:  [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2021, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/224 "2021-05-16T16:08:22Z")
Getting back to the OP, I remember having to explain how to find the area of a circle to a STEM professional. “Pi r squared…” But I cut the person a bit of slack - English was definitely NOT the language he learned at his mother’s knee.
We used to get documents sent from Europe, and I kept a stash of A4 ( 210 x 287 mm) size paper when I needed to print hardcopies. Then I saw a co-worker (looking for 8-1/2x11) **rip open package after package** and stare in stupefaction when each ream didn’t fit the paper tray. I had to run over and explain about the paper size printed on the end of each package. (He was probably the same coworker who ripped open package after package of paper - looking for the one that DIDN’T have prepunched holes.)
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2021, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/225 "2021-05-16T17:40:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> In golf a hook goes off to the left, a slice goes off to the right. ‘Left’ and ‘hook’ have 4 letters, ‘right’ and ‘slice’ have 5 letters. Mainly I just remember that my drives hook and I have to turn a little to the right to adjust for that. If I cared about golf I might try to learn how to drive the ball straight, but I don’t.
Everything I know for sure about golf I learned from that awesome Robin Williams skit about the drunk Scotsman explaining the bonnie new game he’d just invented.
I’d figured out that hook & slice meant undesired curves in the flight of the ball one way or the other. But I had always assumed that they were relative to the handedness of the golfer. e.g. a righty’s ball curving off to the right and a lefty’s ball curving off to the left would both be either a hook or a slice. Not one of each.
Now you’re telling me they’re just synonyms for left and right and don’t depend on the handedness of the golfer? Color me TILT!!!
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/226 "2021-05-16T18:22:43Z")
I had never heard that it was related to the handedness of your swing [but apparently it is](https://usgolftv.com/instruction/hook-vs-slice/). It’s not like I care that much about the stupid game. It’s like playing darts and trying to hit the bull’s eye from 75 feet away.
So it is like hitting a baseball, where ‘pull’ and ‘push’ are relative to the handedness of the swing.
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/227 "2021-05-17T00:34:24Z")
> [@nightshadea](#):
>
> so wait because my pre school teacher had a thing against left handedness and actually changed the hand i used is why i confuse left and right 50 times a day ? …nice to know that …
Nobody made me change, and I confuse them anyway.
I’m actually alright with telling my right from my left, but I have to think about it every time, so it’s never a thing you can depend on while I’m driving.
Also, as I’ve become old, I’ve developed a secondary confusion with ‘dominant hand’. My ‘Left’ hand is my ‘dominant’ hand (which I can picture). But 'dominant hand is right hand? No, wait, back up. _My_ dominant hand is my _left_ hand. When I was very young, I didn’t have that problem: my left hand is on the left side of my desk (which I can picture)
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/228 "2021-05-17T00:55:06Z")
> [@squeegee](#):
>
> I was also confused/amused when in the movie Titanic, to try to avoid the iceberg, the order was given “hard to starboard!!” and [the ship (eventually) turned _left_ .](https://youtu.be/Mg9VDvAQ-1k?t=32)
You weren’t the only one who was confused. The naval enquiry at the time considered the same question. As far as I can see, they didn’t come up with an entirely satisfactory answer, and people are still wondering about it.
Remember that it takes a _long time_ to turn a ship like that. The ‘left turn’ may have been the result of an order that was given much earlier.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/229 "2021-05-17T01:57:54Z")
> [@filmore](#):
>
> > [@ThelmaLou](#):
> >
> > I remember that port is left because they both have four letters.
>
> Also, staRboaRd has more R’s in it and has more of an R sound which matches with Right.
And alphabetically, Left comes before Right and Port comes before Starboard.
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> The order is for the direction of the rudder control, as I recall. Push to starboard, rudder moves to port, ship turns to port.
Correct. I find it extremely annoying when people who should know better get that wrong. (Yes, Eric Flint, I’m looking at you.)
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/230 "2021-05-17T11:14:17Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> I finally figured out what the problem is. When I see that sign, my brain does NOT say, “Don’t do this.” _Au contraire,_ it says, “It’s okay to do the _opposite_ of this sign.” Then I have to figure out what the action is, what the opposite of it is, therefore what’s okay to do, and by then, people behind me are honking.
Jesus. I now understand that your avatar is not ironic.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/231 "2021-05-17T12:10:53Z")
Many of these confusions are understandable (especially when it comes to taxes. I probably would have screwed up the withholding question myself, not thinking of change in marital status. I assume it could be quite confusing post-divorce accounting for all the little changes in life.)
Going back to our left-right confusion, there was a woman my freshman year of college that we were walking around the university campus with. She was from out of town so we helped out with how we got our bearings in Chicago, the grid system of streets, and how the lake is east. She paused. “But what if you’re facing the lake?” “Well then you’re facing east.” “But isn’t what’s in front of you always north?” Somehow, she had gotten through 13 years of K-12 education and into an upper tier university with no one explaining to her that cardinal directions are not synonyms for “in front, behind, left, right.”
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/232 "2021-05-17T12:31:13Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> I remember being four, and being furious at my parents’ bullshit. They showed me which hand was my left, and which was my right, which was fine. But then these idiots insisted that if I turned around, the hand they’d called my left hand was _still_ my left hand, _even though it was on the other side_. It made no goddamned sense and I was so angry.
Now your avatar handle makes so much more sense.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/233 "2021-05-17T15:07:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> She was from out of town so we helped out with how we got our bearings in Chicago, the grid system of streets, and how the lake is east. She paused. “But what if you’re facing the lake?” “Well then you’re facing east.” “But isn’t what’s in front of you always north?” Somehow, she had gotten through 13 years of K-12 education and into an upper tier university with no one explaining to her that cardinal directions are not synonyms for “in front, behind, left, right.”
I had a cousin just like that. In fact I was going to post her equivalent anecdote as my contribution to this thread. Except she was 35 & had 2 kids when I found out that “North is the direction I’m facing.”
Doubly fun, she grew up in gridly Chicago and was living in gridly Phoenix at the time she delivered this bombshell to me.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/234 "2021-05-17T15:11:36Z")
Back to office weirdnesses: I worked with a woman who didn’t have a clue about saving things to folders in specific locations. So she saved all of her documents to the desktop. Yup, her screen was a checkerboard of hundreds of document icons.
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### Author:  [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/235 "2021-05-17T15:12:58Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> I had a cousin just like that. In fact I was going to post her equivalent anecdote as my contribution to this thread. Except she was 35 & had 2 kids when I found out that “North is the direction I’m facing.”
This is probably exacerbated by many GPS systems rotating maps to always have up as the direction you are heading rather than true north. The GPS can be set to have fixed maps with north on the top, but many drivers find that confusing. I expect that we will see more people who think this way going forward with so many dependent on in-car GPS navigation.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/236 "2021-05-17T15:32:38Z")
I remember starboard as if I was Columbus sailing west; the north star would be on your right. Isn’t that the original derivation of starboard?
In a similar vein, we had our college’s commencement last week. Everyone, including the faculty, gets confused whether the tassel is on your right or left. I give them the mental image that it starts on your right, and then when you graduate it gets moved to the left, where it stays for what’s left of your life.
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### Author:  [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/237 "2021-05-17T15:33:04Z")
I had an employee who couldn’t grasp that if she worked fewer than 32 hours per week I could not pay her as a full-time employee. Evidently all her previous managers had punted on enforcement for nearly 15 years to the point where she seemed literally incapable of comprehending even when I sat down with her with a spreadsheet and compared her time to company policy. Turns out she’d been working maybe 25 hours a week most weeks. Of course, I doubt that was stupidity on her part. So she reported me to HR. And no, she is no longer with the company.
I also had a colleague who was an MD that most people referred to as “Box O’Rocks.” He was a licensed medical doctor working in our industry who could not understand our function as a company. How he got hired I don’t know, but even after hours of diagramming on a wipe board what we do as a company and what specifically our department did, he had to be let go because he still had no idea what we did. I think he was at the company two weeks.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/238 "2021-05-17T15:50:00Z")
Reminds me of the episode of That Seventies Show where Kelso’s dad tries all day to explain what he did for a living (he was a Senior Executive Statistical Analysis Technician). In the end, Kelso just decided to say his dad was a farmer. 🙂
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/239 "2021-05-17T16:01:09Z")
I had this difficulty explaining what my father did when I was a kid. He had an executive title but it wasn’t very clear at all what he did, I could barely explain to people what this company did. As best I could tell he talked for a living, a job he certainly would have enjoyed doing, and then later I found out my uncle did the same thing at another company. They were actually general purpose representatives of this company, part sales, part rep, and assuming some managerial roles. As a kid I just tried to avoid the subject altogether, would have been easier to say he was a farmer.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-been-surprised-youve-had-to-explain-at-work/941959/240 "2021-05-17T16:01:27Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#):
>
> I remember starboard as if I was Columbus sailing west;
The best way to “know” port/starboard is to be immersed in boating. Imagine driving a car and not knowing what green/red signify. You couldn’t drive safely. Similarly, if you are boating, you just have to know port/starboard to boat sanely. On the water there are no lane markers and right-of-way is determined by how boats are traveling in relation to one another. Also markers on the waterways are interpreted considering port/starboard and are meaningless without knowing this.
ETA: years ago I was crew on my friend’s Hobie for a weekend of racing. We raced in “C” fleet, the beginners. Approaching the starting line, my buddy (captain) decided to do a last minute jibe. This move caused us to slow considerably, but forced every other boat to tack hard away as we all jockeyed for position.
We won the race easily, and our competition all approached after to congratulate the ballsy move, except for one couple who thought it was a cheat (it wasn’t).
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