Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
30 Workers Share Their Industry’s Equivalent Of “Bring Me Blinker Fluid” And They’re Hilarious
Despite HR reminding their companies that good onboarding matters, most managers don't get the message. A recent survey found that only 52% of new hires feel satisfied with how theirs went, with 32% finding it confusing and 22% disorganized.
For better or worse, the old sharks also play a role in it. One way they do this is by highlighting the newcomer's lack of knowledge and/or experience.
A few days ago, Reddit user ArklaitGigabyte asked workers on the platform to share their industry's equivalent of "bring me blinker fluid" and their call was answered — as of now their post has 6.2K comments, many of which (hilariously) underscore the challenges of fitting into an unfamiliar professional environment.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
In Germany a spirit level is called Wasserwaage (water scale). So the kids are sent out to get the Ausgleichgewichte (balancing weights) for the Wasserwaage.
But I'm glad that my company doesn't allow that s**t. You got a little kid in front of you. That kid is 16/17/18. They are nervous as f**k. No need to take them down even more just because it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of being smarter. If that's what you are aiming for... Seems like a sad life.
Be a mentor, don't be an a*****e.
RELATED:
#2
I'm a nurse and used to work in hospitals. We had little biohazard bags that we would use to send tubes of blood and other assorted bodily fluids to the lab for tests. I had a fellow nurse who would blow a bag full of air and label it "fart sample", then give it to an unsuspecting unit secretary. One poor secretary failed to find any fart test orders in the computer and asked us how to enter it in 😆.
MandyMolaFizzyCola 6 months ago
I was once discharged from the hospital with a bag that contained my own underwear and was labeled with a BIOHAZARD sticker. Heh.
#3
When I was in the Marine Corps, I was in the air wing as a repair squadron as a tin bender. My Sargent told me to go to the supply building and get 100ft of flight line. I already knew about this since my buddy worked in supply. So I said "sir, yes sir" and just spent two hours hanging out with Buddy. When I get back I pretend to be confused and he has a good laugh. Win, win all around.
#4
“WD-40 isn’t gonna be quite strong enough. run to the supply room and get a can of WD-41”.
#5
In anesthesia, sometimes we ask the patient, "let me know when you're asleep.".
#6
Rock climbing guide. I constantly get people asking how I get the ropes up. My coworkers and I all have different answers varying from "there's a ladder/elevator in the back of the rock" to "we retrained old mail carrier pigeons" or "grappling hook."
I've had a shocking amount of people who will walk around to look for a ladder then glare at me later once they realized the joke on them.
#7
Me setting up gas/air lines in the prenatal chemistry lab: *Hey new kid, go get me a roll of fallopian tubing*.
Donkey boi 6 months ago
Then they come back... covered in blood... holding fallopian tubes... 'I could find a roll, so I got you some fresh ones.'
#8
I used to work in a diesel engine manufacturing plant.
We would send new people to the parts cage to get spark plugs.
nm (he/him) 6 months ago
Back in the 70s I was deck officer on a ship. Some day appeared on the bridge the two apprentice engineers who had joined at the last port of call. Each one was carrying an enormous spanner, 1 meter long, used to fasten the bolts of the main engine. The 2nd engineer had send them from the engine room, 6-7 decks below, to fasten the bolts of the gyro compass, which is a delicate instrument.
#9
I worked at Best Buy in college and we would have tell the new guy that when they clocked out they needed to hit #19 on the desk phone and say they were leaving for the day, what they accomplished, and their favorite part of the day. We told them it was an automated time and labor tool that automatically clocked them out . Really it called the stores intercom system and blared it over the loud speakers for everyone in the store. Pretty embarrassing and gave all the rest of us a good chuckle. The best part it was delayed so they typically made it all the way across the store until it started to play back.
#10
Working at a McDonalds in the mid to late 1990s we’d sent the new employees out into the lobby to water the numerous plants in the entire seating area - they were all fake plants.
#11
Send the apprentice to get the wire stretcher.
Have the apprentice hold a bucket under a cut cable to catch the extra amps that leak out.
#12
I work on an airfield. We have the new guys stand outside holding a piece of printer paper above their heads at night so the air traffic controllers can “calibrate the light gun”. It’s literally just a fancy flash light.
We had one guy stand out there for almost 20 minutes before he realized we were messing with him.
Upstaged75 6 months ago
The lifeguards at Bondi Beach (Australia) once made the new guy (from New Zealand) go around counting people with one of those hand held counters where you click and the number goes up. They convinced him it was very important that they know exactly how many people were on the beach. It took him ages and they all sat laughing the whole time. :)
#13
When I worked at Pizza Hut in the 90s we would send the new driver to another Pizza Hut to get our cheese grater. We would call ahead and that store would send them to KFC, KFC would send them to Burger King. I don't recall it going farther than that.
#14
Fun fact...
I know a guy who started a company selling "blinker fluid" just to make a buck off people who still think this is funny.
He gets angry email messages from senior mechanics all the time, who made the mistake of telling the new guy to get blinker fluid, only for the new guy to realise they didn't have any, and to ask purchasing to order a palletload.
Apparently, this extremely specific scenario happens enough for him to drive a current year car.
#15
This isn’t going to all fit, go get the shelf stretcher.
#17
Two cans of steam. My buddy confused the heck out of a trainee in the kitchen by, during a rush, frantically telling him to go and get two cans of steam from the back.
Pirate Luxe 6 months ago
bags of steam for the steamer... go to the maintenance dept in the basement of the hotel and ask for a bag of steam, QUICK! (Maintenance gives them an empty garbage bag filled with air and closed with a zip tie.... RUN back or it might leak out....
#18
Surgeon here. We peel tissue off bones and cartilage with various named types of “elevators” to elevate tissue. So we’d ask new scrub tech’s to pass an Otis elevator.
(That’s the company that makes regular elevators in buildings).
#19
Asking to check the to see if the new guy's hammer has a whee. Then tossing it as far as possible. .
#20
I like to write on a piece of paper "help I'm stuck in the copy machine" and scan-to email from a central unit to a coworkers's inbox. Alternatively, I just write it on a piece of copy paper and put it back in the hopper so it shows up on someone's print job.
#21
'Quick, go get the left handed chopping board' or 'Quick, I need the left handed knife'
Or my favourite....'Why don't you go chop up some flour'.
#22
We sent out an apprentice for some left-handed frying pans and a bacon stretcher. The other pubs in the area played into it and sent him on a wild goose chase. Guy still got paid for his time though so it was just a fun prank.
#23
Jump up and down on top of an Army tank to check the shocks. Also walk around it and hit it with a mallet to check for soft spots.
Katie Lutesinger 6 months ago
Jumping up and down on a tank actually sounds pretty fun! (BTW, they're called that because that was the code name used during the secret development of the first tanks! Guess it just stuck).
#24
Glass hammer… when I got my first apprentice job in manufacturing the person I was shadowing sent me to the managers office to ask for one, he was in the middle of a meeting so I knocked on, he waved me in and I asked for it in front of about 7 fully experienced upper management people… they all looked at me for a second and then burst out laughing 😭.
#25
In the IT department, asking someone to fetch a "wireless Ethernet cable" is a popular joke. It’s funny because Ethernet cables, by definition, cannot be wireless. It’s a great way to gauge someone’s understanding of networking basics.
#26
FYI a snipe is a bird. So one could find a snipe.
Snipes are famously hard to hunt. They get spooked real easy and would have unpredictable flight patterns. That’s where the words sniping and later on sniper come from.
#27
Ah, yes, such things are rite of passsage in the military. I have sent people (and been sent, myself) to supply for a viariety of things, such as:
An ID ten T (ID10T)
B A eleven hundred NST rings (balloon strings)
A length of flight line
A roll of fallopian tube
A bucket of prop wash
A tube of squelch grease
Muffler bearings
Chemlight Batteries
Rear-view Mirror fluid
A box of ground guides
A bag of grid squares
I've also given the new guy a hammer a piece of chalk and told him to find all the soft spots in the armor of an MRAP, and given people a box of trash bags and sent them into the motor pool to take exhaust samples.
The one that really got me into trouble, though, was when I sent someone around the operations center to collect the EMHO Report (that stands for Early Morning Hard On); the Major in charge of operations didn't think it was funny *at all* and almost brought me up on several counts of sexual harassment charges (I was 23 and stupid). My platoon sergeant was able to talk her down from that, but I was in the professional doghouse for *months* afterward.
KatSaidWhat 6 months ago
ID Ten T is commonly used in the IT industry along with PICNIC. [problem in chair, not in computer]
#28
Go grab the box of f-stops from the camera bag.
Kelly Scott 6 months ago
When I was with my group and had my telescope out for the public to look through once, I took a dollhouse-sized TV (with pins for antennae) and pasted a picture of the moon on it (we used to do our public star parties on full moon nights so people could see the moon through a scope). Then I glued it to the top of the telescope and ran a wire between it and the eyepiece. Then I turned my scope to the moon and told people the image was being sent electronically to the little TV glued on the top. There were so many people who believed me that I started to feel bad and took it down. Honestly, it was sort of a mean thing to do and I wouldn't do that today.
#29
I don't know if there is something like that in my profession (MEP/building engineer) but one of my professors told a story when he first got out of school and got a job, and the first thing they asked him to do was figure out the transformer to feed a panel. So, he spent the next few hours calculating turn ratio, iron core thickness, and other parameters of a transformer. Wrote it all down and took it to the senior engineer to review his work. The senior engineer took one look at what he did, pulled a catalog off his shelf (this was before the internet), opened it up and pointed to a transformer available to buy. "That's all you need to do", he said.
#30
Press the "any" key.
What do you think ?
Multa Nocte 6 months ago
I am happy to say that I have never been hazed and have never hazed someone, especially a newbie. I am sure I am the only one who will say this, but this is mean-spirited and childish.
Elvira394 6 months ago (edited)
In medical school, the OB/GYN teacher got me twice. First, coached me through delivering my first baby, then told me to count the cord vessels (normal practice)....then to count fingers and toes. 1.2.3.4.5.6. 1,2,3,4,5...6. SIX. I was mortified thinking how to I tell this first time mother her baby has 24 fingers and toes. I just froze mouth open....then the mom and dad and doc all started cracking up laughing at the look on my face. It was a known familial genetic thing they totally knew about long in advance. Second time, my first day in the OR no one told me my mask was backwards until I almost passed out. Nurses and him all thought it hilarious. But in the end the joke was on him when in the middle of a hysterectomy with both of his hands busy at a crucial moment In between the ladies legs in the stirrups.... His pants fell down. And we all laughed so hard it took 10 minutes of him 2 hands deep standing in his tighty-whities before we could regain composure and pull them up for him!!!
Donnie Mc00 6 months ago
i was once sent for a long weight (wait). and my friend was sent for a bucket of Tartan Paint.
Ryan-James O'Driscoll 6 months ago
Worked at a bar, sent the newbie next door to see if we could borrow a pack of ice mix.
Steve Hall 6 months ago
In retail, everyone is sent looking for a shelf stretcher and in metal manufacuring everyone is sent for a sheet stretcher.
les 6 months ago
sent the apprentice to a garage down the road for a long stand. they left him for 10-20 mins and said they couldn't find it and would send him down the road to the next garage. and so they did the same. When they arrived back a couple hours later saying they didn't have one we'd ask if they gave him a seat while he was waiting and wait for them to realise they'd been had
Sweet Taurus 6 months ago
I waited tables at a restaurant that was out in the country. Located at the bottom of a beautiful canyon filled with lots of wildlife. It was a log cabin with a bar in front and then seating towards the back. Up front there were various animals' heads mounted on the wall and in the back there were bigger display cases that had larger taxidermies of animals. Think deer, cougars etc. One of the mounts up front was a Jackelope. It was a jack rabbit that had a small set of horns mounted to the top of his head. It was always a lot of fun when we would get people from out of town asking questions about it. All of us had our own stories we would share with the customers about it.
HTakeover 6 months ago
Was on a campout recently with my scouts. One of the kids is extreme ADHD, like I don't know how this kid functions level of ADHD (probably overall happiest kid I've ever met too & absolute joy to interact with but I'm left with a lot of 'what just happened?' moments). Well, kid didn't have a job that breakfast (fire, cooking, KP, etc.) so the group sent this one over to the adults to ask for a missing ingredient. I see the kid head over & ask what's up. I'm asked "egg shell juice?" Huh? "Egg shell juice!" Uh, that's called a yolk and albumen and it's in your eggs that I know you have... "No, egg shell juice." Uhhhhhh.... Had to go over to the group & ask, because that's not an unusual style of verbal exchange. They sent this kid to go get some fresh egg shell juice & was their first harmless prank as a group! So proud, lol.
Some guy 6 months ago (edited)
There's an old story (urban legend?) about urology instructors teaching students to test urine samples by tasting them. The instructor dips a finger in a sample, then licks their finger off. After persuading the cockiest student to try it, the instructor THEN shows how they dip in one finger and lick off another finger, usually while lecturing the student to be more observant.
Multa Nocte 6 months ago
I am happy to say that I have never been hazed and have never hazed someone, especially a newbie. I am sure I am the only one who will say this, but this is mean-spirited and childish.
Elvira394 6 months ago (edited)
In medical school, the OB/GYN teacher got me twice. First, coached me through delivering my first baby, then told me to count the cord vessels (normal practice)....then to count fingers and toes. 1.2.3.4.5.6. 1,2,3,4,5...6. SIX. I was mortified thinking how to I tell this first time mother her baby has 24 fingers and toes. I just froze mouth open....then the mom and dad and doc all started cracking up laughing at the look on my face. It was a known familial genetic thing they totally knew about long in advance. Second time, my first day in the OR no one told me my mask was backwards until I almost passed out. Nurses and him all thought it hilarious. But in the end the joke was on him when in the middle of a hysterectomy with both of his hands busy at a crucial moment In between the ladies legs in the stirrups.... His pants fell down. And we all laughed so hard it took 10 minutes of him 2 hands deep standing in his tighty-whities before we could regain composure and pull them up for him!!!
Donnie Mc00 6 months ago
i was once sent for a long weight (wait). and my friend was sent for a bucket of Tartan Paint.
Ryan-James O'Driscoll 6 months ago
Worked at a bar, sent the newbie next door to see if we could borrow a pack of ice mix.
Steve Hall 6 months ago
In retail, everyone is sent looking for a shelf stretcher and in metal manufacuring everyone is sent for a sheet stretcher.
les 6 months ago
sent the apprentice to a garage down the road for a long stand. they left him for 10-20 mins and said they couldn't find it and would send him down the road to the next garage. and so they did the same. When they arrived back a couple hours later saying they didn't have one we'd ask if they gave him a seat while he was waiting and wait for them to realise they'd been had
Sweet Taurus 6 months ago
I waited tables at a restaurant that was out in the country. Located at the bottom of a beautiful canyon filled with lots of wildlife. It was a log cabin with a bar in front and then seating towards the back. Up front there were various animals' heads mounted on the wall and in the back there were bigger display cases that had larger taxidermies of animals. Think deer, cougars etc. One of the mounts up front was a Jackelope. It was a jack rabbit that had a small set of horns mounted to the top of his head. It was always a lot of fun when we would get people from out of town asking questions about it. All of us had our own stories we would share with the customers about it.
HTakeover 6 months ago
Was on a campout recently with my scouts. One of the kids is extreme ADHD, like I don't know how this kid functions level of ADHD (probably overall happiest kid I've ever met too & absolute joy to interact with but I'm left with a lot of 'what just happened?' moments). Well, kid didn't have a job that breakfast (fire, cooking, KP, etc.) so the group sent this one over to the adults to ask for a missing ingredient. I see the kid head over & ask what's up. I'm asked "egg shell juice?" Huh? "Egg shell juice!" Uh, that's called a yolk and albumen and it's in your eggs that I know you have... "No, egg shell juice." Uhhhhhh.... Had to go over to the group & ask, because that's not an unusual style of verbal exchange. They sent this kid to go get some fresh egg shell juice & was their first harmless prank as a group! So proud, lol.
Some guy 6 months ago (edited)
There's an old story (urban legend?) about urology instructors teaching students to test urine samples by tasting them. The instructor dips a finger in a sample, then licks their finger off. After persuading the cockiest student to try it, the instructor THEN shows how they dip in one finger and lick off another finger, usually while lecturing the student to be more observant.
You May Like People Who Have Worked In Hollywood Reveal 30 Dark Secrets About The Entertainment Industry “Like Something In A Movie”: 36 Hospital Workers Share Their Wildest Stories 30 Times People Trusted They’d Get Their Way Just Because They Outnumbered The Opposing Side
Ieva Pečiulytė
Gabija Saveiskyte
Gabija Palšytė
Related on Bored Panda
