system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What happens in an Embassy on a day-to-day basis?

Surely in most countries there can't be that many 'lost-passport' issues that need solving, so what else do they do? (please be more detailed than 'diplomatic stuff')

Especially interested in remote countries that don't have a lot of connection with the Embassy's home country!
gpt
A lot of things, though it varies depending on the country. 

The "lost passport stuff" refers only to the "Consular" office of the embassy, which deals with lost passports, any citizens who get arrested, etc. as well as issuing visas to any foreigners who want to visit the embassy's country. If it's a big country with lots of business, there can be more than one consulate - so, for example the U.S. in Italy has consulates in Milan and Naples, in addition to the "consulate general" at the embassy in Rome. On the other hand, if there's little or no business for the consulate, they can share between several countries (there is only one consulate among a smattering of small Caribbean countries, for example, and one of the officers travels around, doing one day per week in each of the countries covered). 

The actual "Diplomatic stuff" is the non-consular officers, who generally maintain all of their home country's relations with the host. This can vary greatly, depending on the country. If it's an ally, there will be some military personnel monitoring any joint missions and all military cooperation more broadly. There are people who help companies do business in that country (the US department of commerce has a whole diplomatic division, called the Foreign Commercial Service, who are posted overseas to help US companies that import/export to/from the host country). There are treaties and international agreements that need to be negotiated/updated/monitored/maintained/renewed. There are politicians from one country who want to visit the other. Anyone from a visiting university researcher up to the President will pass through the embassy to find out background info, get paperwork help, get in touch with the right people locally, etc. And then the home country wants to be kept updated on what's going on over there, so there are a lot of memos to write back to Washington (and yes, sometimes there are spies). 

But again, the scale varies widely depending on the links between the two countries. The largest embassies have hundreds of diplomats and many hundreds more local staff; while I've once met a guy who was stationed at the Irish embassy in Egypt, which had 3 people.