this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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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?

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[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

[–] ProfessorScience@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Unless you didn't change anything. Then it's unsettling.

[–] not@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

It's that damn compiler again.

[–] RustySharp@programming.dev 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

That was a FASCINATING read, thank you.

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[–] _deleted_@aussie.zone 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)
  • Happy landings
  • Keep the blue side up
  • May you have fair weather and clear skies
[–] confuser@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago
  • Planes
  • planes
  • Planes

I think someone fly's planes

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[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago

“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.

[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"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.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

What's the downside of over gripping?

[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Muscle fatigue in the forearms and hands. And it also means, don't be scared. Trust your training and gear.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Ah, makes sense! Perhaps a dumb question, but I was curious for an answer from someone with experience vs assuming, so thank you :)

[–] nylo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago

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

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] lonefighter@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago

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"

[–] sickday@fedia.io 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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)

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 1 week ago

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

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

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!"

[–] EarWorm@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Working in maintenance, automation to be specific, and I always leave the site with "I hope I never see you again!" to the client.

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

I tell this to my Psych patients too (depending on rapport obvs).

[–] tal@lemmy.today 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not my line of work, but I think that acting's "break a leg" is a pretty oddball benediction.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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)

A ghost light is an electric light that is left energised on the stage of a theatre when the theatre is unoccupied and would otherwise be completely dark.

The practical use of a ghost light is for safety. A ghost light enables one to navigate the theatre to find the lighting control console and to avoid accidents such as falling into the orchestra pit and stepping on or tripping over set pieces.

The superstitious have various justifications for the ghost light in relation to the supernatural. A popular theatrical superstition holds that every theatre has a ghost, and some theatres have traditions to appease ghosts that reach far back into their history. For example, the Palace Theatre, London keeps two seats in its balcony permanently bolted open to provide seating for the theatre ghosts.

Many theatres that were forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic renewed the tradition of ghost lights as a way of indicating the theatres would re-open.

EDIT: Actually, this is a good candidate for !wikipedia@lemmy.world. Gonna go submit it there!

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] Quilotoa@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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!

[–] tal@lemmy.today 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ha! Up until "table eleven", I was sure it was going to be an IT thing.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

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.

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[–] Zeppo@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

May your knife chip and shatter

[–] nylo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Zeppo@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago
[–] Erusset@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 week ago

Not officially, but I've definitely said to coworkers "I hope your meetings are cancelled"

[–] Jarlsburg@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

good luck fuckface!

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.

[–] CelloMike@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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".

[–] Fallibilist@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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"

[–] Erusset@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago

Then you get a little break

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

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).

[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] JohnJohnJohn@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

"Hope there are no notes." Audio Post-production before client playbacks.

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] sunsofold@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 week ago (4 children)
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[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

I mean the classic is actors saying "break a leg" - which actors actually take very seriously.

One that my DM and I came up with was a common farewell in Orc and Hobgoblin culture. "Fight well!" "Die better!"

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