Comments on: 8 Vaguely Named Professions: Explained!

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:20:00 +0000

Uhm…orderlies are now called CNAs, PCAs, and PCTs. And ALL of it is true. We do ALL the work except pass out the meds but the RNs get paid twice what we do lol.

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:17:44 +0000

Ombudsman comes from the Swedish word ‘Ombudsman’. Just like smorgasbord the word was a complete rip off. Swedes are considered by some as very law abiding with a sort of ‘fair for all’ mentality. That’s why we have ombudsmen. The word ombud more or less means representative and man means, drumroll, man. Hence, there are also ombudskvinna which means an ombudsman who’s a woman. Swedes also like gender fairness.
Ombudsmen in Sweden represent an individual or group thereof in resolving disputes before they go too far. Liked the description here on mental_floss but it did sound more bureaucratic than I have had experienced that it is.

By: Pamela V. Martin

Pamela V. Martin — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:15:25 +0000

You are correct in that an Ombuds, particularly an Organizational Ombuds in the corporate arena, can be viewed as a masochist. We like to think of ourselves as fire alarms for HR who man (person?) the fire hose. Ombuds are the finest trend spotters and big-time legal mess prevention specialists.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:56:31 +0000

Ha, wheel. I’m in mortgage processing too. I guess we mortgage production types just see eye to eye on these things.

By: wheel

wheel — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:39:59 +0000

Amen Kim, I feel the same way.

BTW, my job title is Mortgage Sales Production Associate which is a really fancy way of saying Assistant

By: Florida

Florida — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:10:18 +0000

@ Julesie,

You’re assessment is correct. The rodman is the person with the least experience and, as such, is essentially the bitch of the crew.

My father is a land surveyor/civil engineer so my summer job every year until I graduated HS was land surveying (Apparently I wasn’t qualified to have a summer job civil engineering) and being the 12, 13, 14, etc. year old of the crew resulted in me always being the rodman. You mention hiking through the TN mountains; I had the pleasure of working in the mangrove swamps of the Florida Keys. Nothing says awesome summer job like 100 degrees temperatures, 100% humidity, and mosquitoes so thick you actually breathe them in. However, on the flip side was coming across the occasional endangered species sightings (especially key deer), pot bush or naked sunbather.

But as technology has progressed the need for the rodman has dwindled. Many surveyors have replaced their rodman with excruciatingly accurate GPS devices, essentially eliminating the need for anyone to hold prisms anymore.

@ PartiallyDeflected

Think of a “community organizer” as similar to being mayor of a rinky dink town, but without access to Congressional earmarks.

By: CK

CK — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:42:39 +0000

Aha! That’s what an Ombudsman is! I work for a University and the Ombudsman’s office is on another floor in my building. No one ever seems to know what they do, so thanks for clarifying =).

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:13:27 +0000

@Kim: I like the _floss for being a place where a self-described nerd can come and [usually] not have to roll her eyes and be annoyed at the grammar errors that run rampant around the rest of the internet. Therefore, the folks who point out the mistakes in the original post are My Kind of People. Most of the time, the mistakes are pointed out in a polite way, so what’s the issue?

I very much expect my mental_floss bloggers to be better at grammar than I am – otherwise, I’d be working for the _floss myself.

(and I shall refrain from mentioning that pointing out people’s corrections of other people’s mistakes doesn’t add to the conversation either…. oops. ;) )

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:03:50 +0000

Its become a bit of an issue for me to be reading the comments that follow an article, looking for flashes of insight from my fellow FlossFans, only to find a number of people correcting the grammer and usage of the author. I was always taught if you aren’t adding anything to the conversation, stop talking…or typing, as the case may be.

By: 8rustystaples

8rustystaples — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:28:33 +0000

Your explanation of a Best Boy is correct, but your description of a grip is not. Grips don’t just move the stuff around the set, and they don’t set up lighting equipment.
The electricians set up lights. Grips sculpt and manipulate the light using various tools of the trade (screens, flags, etc.) to achieve the director of photography’s desired effect.
Most grips (the good ones, anyway) are jacks-of-all-trades with the ability to solve many problems that arise on a film set, their job is to work with the electricians to properly light a scene.
Think of it like this: the electricians (led by the Gaffer) set up the lights, and the grips (led by the Key Grip) bend the light.
The Dolly Grip runs the dolly but is not the only person to set up dolly track.
The Key Grip is also responsible for safety on set. If he/she deems something too dangerous, it’s his job to keep if from happening.