Professionals reveal secrets about what happens in their workplace. Photo / iStock
Dirty secrets behind some of the world's most popular professions have been aired.
From doctors to the unemployed, there are some things that happen behind the scenes that are quite shocking and, at times, disturbing.
This could make you never want to eat at a fancy restaurant again or lead you to question your child's teacher during the next parent-teacher interviews.
Professionals have become quite loose-lipped on website Reddit with hospitality workers and even strippers confessing what actually goes on in their industries.
Maybe it's a good time to trade in the escargot for a Big Mac.
You might not believe this but apparently the fast food industry has much higher standards when it comes to cleanliness than fancy restaurants do.
One hospitality professional was asked to again deep-fry a large appetiser tray after it had been dropped on the floor.
The restaurant also reused food that had barely been touched by diners because "the cooks are too busy or too lazy or tipsy to make more".
The worker said the restaurant would also make up new dishes for their menu because meat "broke a day or two ago".
Fast food restaurants are strict when it comes to throwing out food and marking used-by dates, according to the professional.
"These losses are already factored into their budgets," the anonymous worker said.
"I've seen a food court go DEFCON 50 because they realised someone was using milk a couple days past expiry."
And it gets worse. The worker says a colleague once cut himself while prepping tomato soup while he wasn't wearing gloves, but did the restaurant throw it out?
"Blood's red and salty too. He SAYS he didn't get any in it, it'll be fine, there's not even any blood on the knife," the worker said.
"They stopped asking me to come in after I pitched a fit about this."
This next secret could leave caffeine lovers shaken.
One professional who works in catering admitted to giving people decaf when they'd overstayed their welcome.
You should feel confident leaving your children with teachers, they help expand their young minds and teach them lessons that are sometimes even beyond our own ability.
But sometimes they learn things just hours before they teach, and spend a lot of time talking about lazy or misbehaving students.
"I'm assuming people could guess, but many people scoff/are shocked if they hear that teachers talk about students at all with each other in a non-academic sense," the educator said.
"But man, sometimes the only way to make it through the day is to come into the lounge, guns blazing."
Apparently the well-behaved children get talked about too.
"But stories with them are always said with a smile or a cringe, depending on if they did one of the run-of-the-mill embarrassing things teenagers do," the teacher said.
This next confession could break the hearts of parents everywhere.
That colourful picture you have on your fridge that your child made at daycare could very well not be their work.
"There is about a five per cent chance he or she didn't do that," a childcare worker admitted.
"While we try to put names on each one, kids trade papers or projects and names have to get crossed out, and sometimes, we just forget to write names.
"I've had kids take home my project because when they don't find theirs, they take the nicest one."
Hopefully you don't have an operation scheduled soon because a surgeon admitted all of them made mistakes while operating.
"Any surgeon who doesn't is either not operating or lying," one said.
An emergency room doctor also admitted what they were thinking.
"We're often scared of screwing up, we just hide it well," the health professional said.
"A little fear is important, makes you remember that someone's life is at stake if we get things wrong."
If you're somebody who visits emergency and talks about your pets, family members or irrelevant and unrelated medical procedures you had 25 years ago, your doctor is not listening.
"I'm working out what's wrong with you and planning how to investigate/treat it," the doctor said.
"We manage to keep a straight face for the time wasters. We've often not eaten, drank, urinated, or even sat down for the last 10 hours, and we're often guilt-tripped into being at work despite having minor illnesses. It takes a lot of effort to pretend to care about your ingrown toenail, or your cold you've decided needs emergency antibiotics."
A person who has worked as an aviation electrician for 10 years said a piece of debris smaller than a penny was all it took to cause a catastrophic failure in an aircraft.
"There's a reason that people from the aviation industry tend to be absolutely anal-retentive when it comes to tools and machine cleanliness," the professional said.
Another aviation worker also admitted to being "anal" but said you probably wouldn't want to meet those who flew planes on a regular basis.
"We're all just big kids with drinking problems that are good at making things disobey gravity," the professional said.
It turns out strippers are encouraged to drink a lot.
That gets quite tough for them to manage and one said if a customer buys her a drink, there might not actually be alcohol in it.
"The chances of you getting me drunk and taking advantage of me are MUCH less than me getting you drunk and taking advantage of you."
The strippers tend to make deals with bar tenders and let them know in advance if they want alcoholic beverages ordered for them watered down.
Another stripper however said they did drink most of the time.
"In VIP or with champagne I'll always drink the alcohol as I know I've made my money and don't NEED to be totally alert and on my game," she said.
"If you're paying for my time and a chat I'll drink with you. If you and your mates are having dances and a party, me and my work friends will shot with you and drink.
"But if it's 10pm and I'm working until 6am and you've bought me 6 shots of tequila already, I'm probably gonna switch to water because I've likely been working since 3pm and already been bought five vodka cranberries and three Patron shots.
"If it's a dead day though I'll stay utterly sober because I need to be really on my game to try to squeeze any money that comes in the door."
To some it may seem like the dream but if you think it's all about kicking back and playing Xbox, you're seriously mistaken.
One who is out of a job had quite a dark confession of what it was actually like.
"Unemployment keeps your brain locked on the suicide channel almost constantly," the unemployed person said.
"Being unemployed is not a happy, enviable vacation of lounging around and enjoying your freedom. It is more like gears turning and grinding closer to your ears, closer to f***ing crushing you with worry, resentment, and self-loathing, every single day.
- news.com.au