What's an oddly specific 'blessing' / well-wish in your line of work?
Working healthcare, I tell all other healthcare / first responders "I hope you have a boring shift" (every once in a while a younger person objects, but they are almost immediately hushed / corrected by their senior coworker).
But it occurs to me that many office / sedentary workers might not find this to be a blessing. What would I say to a desk worker that might be equivalent?
63 replies
May your code run on the second try. Because if it works the first time, that's suspicious. And if it fails the second time, that's frustrating.
Unless you didn't change anything. Then it's unsettling.
It's that damn compiler again.
If it fails the second time, that's reproducibility.
If it fails randomly then starts working again the next day without any changes, that's when you get yourself a headache. And it took someone's wife, a year later, to figure out the failures only happen on Tuesdays.
One of my favorites is still "we can't send email more than 500 miles."
That was a FASCINATING read, thank you.
I have been in IT too long. As soon as 500 miles appeared I said "very short timeout"
I think someone fly's planes
Blue skies and safe landings.
"Don't let your knuckles be whiter than the clouds below you."
I climb communication towers, and let the new guys know not to over grip the tower. Trust in your harness.
What's the downside of over gripping?
Muscle fatigue in the forearms and hands. And it also means, don't be scared. Trust your training and gear.
Ah, makes sense! Perhaps a dumb question, but I was curious for an answer from someone with experience vs assuming, so thank you :)
not at all qualified to answer but id imagine it tires your hands out worse which is a problem with the hundreds of rungs they need to climb
“Hopefully we’ll see you back here in a bit.” - tacitly acknowledging that, uh, certain jobs and worksites have incredible danger and uncertainty attached to them.
Hope your Friday is read-only. Because no one wants to ship code changes on a Friday. (No one will be there on the weekend to babysit changes)
I'm in a giant organisation. All our releases are on Fridays and Saturdays to give Sunday for user acceptance test. Our big releases are Christmas and Easter for the extra time they offer for UAT. Last time I was on duty for UAT my slot was 02:00 to 02:30 boxing day, and the product hadn't been deployed correctly
Yet. And it's the weekend when they want to do all the production patches. "Well sure, we can assign the last people to step back when asked, the least senior or adept, and have ZERO backup when they fuck up your prod server. See ya Monday!"
One thing that was common in my EMS organization.
Don't say the 'Q' word!
Q=quiet. If you say 'it's a quiet night, you're sure to get slammed.
I once told my EMT student that if he said "quiet" one more time I was throwing him off my truck and sending him home. He laughed. I was not joking. I'd been slammed all week and it was a pretty chill day and I needed the break.
Instead of telling co-workers goodbye in EMS, it's common to say "be safe"
Working in maintenance, automation to be specific, and I always leave the site with "I hope I never see you again!" to the client.
I tell this to my Psych patients too (depending on rapport obvs).
May you have no teacher dreams. Teacher dreams, common among teachers, generally have you going to class unprepared or having a class out of control.
Sounds a bit like server nightmares. You're fully aware you have gone home for the day and even in the midst of a good night's rest. But wait! Table eleven had asked for a side of Ranch and they are still there waiting for it all these hours later!
Ha! Up until "table eleven", I was sure it was going to be an IT thing.
I've done both.
It's the same as realizing you swapped cables in ports 14 and 15 and they're gonna pull one tonight thinking it's the other.
Being chased by little children nthwt will tear your soul apart hellraiser style
Not my line of work, but I think that acting's "break a leg" is a pretty oddball benediction.
They have a bunch of weird superstitions. Like how you can't say the word "Macbeth" in a theatre. Something about whistling backstage too?
Also, the ghost light, which is a lamp on stage or back stage that they leave on 24/7 so ghosts can use the stage at night when everyone is gone. Or something.
Huh. Never heard of the ghost light thing. Neat! Thanks for sharing it!
Wikipedia says that it's got some weird traditions around it, but that it has a real safety rationale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_light_(theatre)
EDIT: Actually, this is a good candidate for ![email protected]. Gonna go submit it there!
Whistling comes from when whistling was used to communicate to stagehands to lower and lift the various backdops that used sand bags as counterweights. Whistling could cause someone up in the grid to send something down that was heavy, injuring or killing people.
The thing about the Scottish play that you mentioned (which is what most theatre folks call it) is more of an actual superstition, but may well stem from the fact that the play has a lot in it that can cause injury if not done safely, so the thought is that a lot of productions of the play can feel cursed, so that turned into referencing the play feeling cursed.
Neat!
Is the Scottish play superstition only for theaters which are currently rehearsing/performing that play, or is it an all-encompassing sort of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named situation, where the proper title is never utilized if it can be avoided?
The latter; and it's taken seriously by many, less seriously by many others. For some, they will never utter the name; others simply don't say it in a theatre. My wife is well into the second camp, and for example, while explaining it to kids in kids camp at the theatre, was quite willing to say the name.
For me, my main basically hard-and-fast rule is not saying it to actors or techs during rehearsals or productions, but that is mainly because for the ones who DO believe in it, it might make them nervous enough to actually do something that they would attribute to the curse. Placebos have real effects. :)
Fascinating. The first time I ran across the superstition was in a high school English class, in which the teacher would wheel out the TV and her Slings and Arrows dvds whenever she didn't want to do the lesson. I don't recall much (other than it being quite funny), but the "curse" of the play (and it's legitimacy) came up frequently over the course of one of the seasons.
May your knife chip and shatter
what industry?
The Spice
Back in the Klingon Navy we just said "die with honor".
Not officially, but I've definitely said to coworkers "I hope your meetings are cancelled"
One that I read that I found interesting is in the busking community is "fat hats!". Since they sometimes use a hat to collect donations, it's an expression that you hope they collect a lot of money.
I worked in an ironworks and that's how most shifts greeted each other.
When people are working I like to tell them I hope it goes by quickly. They prob'ly tired.
Woodworker - I'm careful complimenting a piece someone's midway on in the workshop, just in case I accidentally curse them to screw it up in the final moments
Fortunately it's not hard to touch wood just in case
Yeah. IT people are superstitious as wood people. We never say "have a good on-call" or "that large task should be fine" or, the classic "it's just a reboot".
What area of the world do you live in? In my neck of the woods wishing a "boring shift" or a "quiet shift" is considered a curse and will bring about all the crazy cases.
We typically wish each other a "safe shift" instead of a "quiet shift" here.
Working in a restaurant the word quiet will not leave my mouth as long as I'm working, and the moment someone else says it I know we're about to have a horrible shift
I would never say quiet, hence boring. Also reminds people that a shift that drags a little is better than an interesting one.
Not a job (although it takes up more than 20 hours of my week), but we commonly say "Have a good treatment!" as a greeting/goodbye at dialysis (to other patients, of course).
Can't think of one right now, but what it should be is "I hope all your tool batteries don't run empty at the same time"
Then you get a little break
I mean the classic is actors saying "break a leg" - which actors actually take very seriously.
get slammed, make money
Only fans model?
waitress
What's your favorite thing from the menu?
to eat or to sell?
I was thinking about eating but I'm intrigued to know why anything would be more fun to sell haha.
To eat: Pistachio ravioli — Not only is it the best savory dish on the menu, it's vegetarian and cheese-free. I also like to sell this, as it generates positive reviews and repeat business, since we're the only place in town that sells anything like it.
To sell: Avocado toast with house-cured salmon gravlax — I like to eat this, too, albeit vegan for myself; but the quick pickup time, bright color contrast, and great flavor make it one that people remember positively, and seeing it on a nearby table often makes other patrons ask "what is that and can I have it?" It's also a good utility item because the kitchen can make it all day, so it's a breakfast-y option for those who missed the breakfast menu cutoff. And of course, with the optional salmon add-on it's the most high-dollar item at breakfast, driving sales and percentage-based tipping.
Pro wrestler
"Hope there are no notes." Audio Post-production before client playbacks.
One that my DM and I came up with was a common farewell in Orc and Hobgoblin culture. "Fight well!" "Die better!"