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 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
43 Insider Secrets From Various Jobs That You’re Not Supposed To Know, But Are Industry Standards
Every job is its own weird little universe, with its own set of unbreakable rules and unspoken truths. It's the "common knowledge" that professionals learn on day one that the rest of us are completely, blissfully unaware of. It’s the secret menu of every single industry.
An online community threw open the doors and asked people from all walks of life to share one of these secrets. The responses are a mind-blowing peek behind the curtain, revealing the things we were never supposed to know about our food, our health, and even our pets. Prepare to look at some jobs in a totally different way.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I don’t know about the “average person,” but as a former consular officer, it never failed to surprise me how many American citizens are shocked to learn that they have no special privileges overseas, that they are fully subject to local laws even if something is legal “back home,” and that the most a consulate or embassy will likely be able to do for you if you get in trouble is visit you in jail some time in the first few weeks and bring you a list of local lawyers.
If you’re really lucky, we’ll bring along some fresh fruit and a couple of old paperbacks, although that’s getting rarer.
RELATED:
#2
That an ungodly amount of people in big fancy office buildings have their usernames/passwords on a sticky note on their monitor.
I’m a janitor.
sturmwesen 1 week ago
Everytime I advice people on how to change their password I tell them to NOT mutter it
#3
We are graduating students who cannot read, write, or do simple Math; and not just a few.
Ever seen an expert look at you like you have three heads because you don't know something that's incredibly obvious to them? There's a name for that brain glitch: the "Curse of Knowledge." As the experts at The Decision Lab explain, it's a cognitive bias where someone who knows a lot about a subject forgets what it's like to not know it.
They can no longer imagine seeing the world from a beginner's perspective. This is the reason so many professionals in the online thread were genuinely shocked by what the public doesn't know. To them, it's just a normal Tuesday; to us, it's a mind-blowing secret.
#4
Animal rescue and vet tech: People will give up a dog they've had for years and not shed a tear. They treat it like an errand. Some people don't stay with their pet when it gets euthanized. In the first instance, the dog will not want to leave the lobby and will watch you walk away, confused and try to follow. In the second, they look expectantly around the room for their person before they fall asleep.
#5
Any Naval vessel manned and maintained from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s is likely operating with electronic components purchased from Radio Shack by desperate sailors who knew that obtaining the same parts through The System might take as long as 6 months.
Don't ask me how I know.
B Hobbs 1 week ago
Last century, I did maintenance on a system that had a paper tape reader. The reader was not used much. The reader light bulb burned out, order a replacement through The System / supply. About a week later, coworker was in the base auto store, noticed some bulbs on a rack that looked just like the reader bulb. She bought a two pack for a dollar. We checked the specs, good match. Installed the bulb, reader works. I was sent to supply to cancel the order. They call up the order, bulb listed for something like $5, but was unavailable. Because the system the reader was in was marked as priority (the whole system was priority), the supply system changed the order to the next higher assembly, which was the reader head assembly, some $300. Unavailable, next higher assembly, the entire paper tape reader, thousands of dollars. Unavailable, next higher, six million dollar system. Do I get credit for saving the US Air Force $6M? Hah!
#6
Half my job is basically watching people find out the hard way that “no one reads that stuff” is not a legal defense.
Lousha 1 week ago
In some cases it should be though. E.g. the online agreements are purposefully written to be hard to understand, ridiculously long, and as boring as possible. No reasonable person will read a user agreement as long as War and Peace to access an article, use a simple website etc. So in these cases it should be a valid argument that the company is fully aware that only one in a million users actually know what they agree to, and is actively doing everything to keep it that way.
If you've ever felt guilty for letting a single banana go brown, brace yourself. One of the most common and shocking secrets came from people in the food industry, from grocery store clerks to restaurant chefs: the sheer, epic scale of food waste. We're not talking about a few scraps either. These insiders are talking about mountains of perfectly edible produce, bread, and meals getting tossed every single day.
According to The Restaurant HQ, a single restaurant can produce an estimated 25,000 to 75,000 pounds of food waste in just one year. This terrifying statistic also contributes to the global climate crisis, so maybe think twice next time you send back that untouched side salad.
#7
A lot of wannabe authors pick writing because they think it's the easiest way to put their story into an artistic format. Fun fact: writing is not any easier than any other art.
#8
There are more people with personality disorders (borderline, narcissistic, antisocial) walking among us than most realize.
Also, your therapist most certainly has their own psych diagnosis. Your psychiatrist probably does.
Katie The Bug 1 week ago
Newsflash: people with "dark" personality disorders are PEOPLE and not snickering cartoon villains.
#9
How emotionally draining teaching is.
Here's a secret that will change the way you shop forever. Several retail and manufacturing insiders on the thread confirmed what we've all secretly suspected: the fancy brand-name product and the cheaper store-brand version are often the exact same thing, made in the same factory, just put in a different box.
Strategy expert Bob Caporale explains this is a genius business move because if a company can market one product under several brands, they can cover way more ground in the market but also cut their costs." So next time you're in the cereal aisle, remember that the only real difference between those two boxes might just be the price tag and the quality of the cartoon mascot.
#10
How much store brand stuff is basically name brand stuff in different packaging. It's wild how much I have learned and saved from knowing this.
Mike F 1 week ago
I worked in a printing plant that made packaging for retail items. Our "director of operations" went to visit one of our customers (a massively huge company) and while on a tour of the facility he noticed a run of private label stuff that we also printed. He asked the guide "what's the difference between the branded product and and the private label"? The guide held up the package and said, "that right there", indicating that the products were identical, just with different packaging.
#11
Nonprofit (and also education):
First three quarters: spend as little as possible
Last quarter: IF WE DON'T SPEND THIS GRANT THEY WON'T GIVE US AS MUCH NEXT YEAR.
#12
Many theater costumes aren't washed but are sprayed with vodka water to get rid of the bacteria that otherwise causes them to stink. It's worse if the show is double cast, and it's a 2 show day. The second performer has to wear a costume that's slightly damp with someone else's sweat. Wearing a t-shirt underneath helps. Pit pads, also known as dress shields, are sometimes used. They're snapped in place and laundered daily.
Michael Largey 1 week ago (edited)
🎶🎵 "There's no business / Like show business / Like no business I know / ..." 🎵🎶
We imagine a corporate headquarters is like Fort Knox, with firewalls, biometric scanners, and laser grids. The shocking truth? According to IT professionals and office workers in the thread, your entire digital life is often being protected by the digital equivalent of a piece of tape, with passwords simply being stored on a sticky note.
The statistics are just as terrifying as the stories. A report from Spacelift found that 45% of people still write their passwords down, and a staggering 55% use the same password for multiple accounts. The IT guy in the thread is right to be sweating because the biggest security threat isn't a master hacker, it's Brenda from accounting and her love of the password "Password123."
#13
That big companies in charge of your money, utilities, health etc. are all useless at IT and data security.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
Because security measures reduce instead of enhance profit. And it's primarily your money, not theirs, at risk.
#14
As a locomotive engineer I’m not supposed to apply the emergency brakes until after I’ve hit you.
#15
"but it worked on me" does not replace sound scientific evidence.
We look at professionals like surgeons, teachers, and engineers as infallible superhumans who have it all figured out. But the most common, and perhaps most terrifying, secret shared by insiders is just how much of their job involves guesswork, winging it, and making mistakes. According to the Niagara Institute, the average person makes about 15 human errors for every 100 opportunities.
So when a teacher in the thread admits to passing a kid who can barely read, or a surgeon confesses that a lot of what they do is an educated guess, they're just revealing the messy, human reality of every single profession. It’s a terrifying, but also weirdly comforting, reminder that everyone is just trying their best.
Do you have any trade secrets that you want to share with the layman? Share them in the comments section!
#16
Concrete doesn’t “dry” it cures through a chemical reaction and will do so under water. The same design mix of concrete will cure harder under water than above water.
#17
Working at an opticians taught me that most people have no idea how bad their eyesight actually is.
They'll walk in saying "my vision's fine", then read the chart like they're trying to guess lottery numbers.
The wild part is when they finally put on the right prescription and go, "Wow, I didn't know the world looked like this."
Happens way more often than you'd think.
Apatheist Account2 1 week ago
"What are you going to do when you get your new glasses?" "I don't know, I'll see".
#18
Most food goes to waste just because it has a dent or produce/fruit has a blemish. They refuse to donate the food because they get tax write offs for damaged goods, and even after they document it; they still lock up their garbage so nobody can have the perfectly good food that is being wasted away.
#19
Most software you use is held together with some of the worst code imaginable
Source: some of which I have written.
#20
Working wholesale produce , it would break your heart to know how much food you have to throw away.
#21
Safety guy for a construction company.
You know those diagrams at a butcher shop that shows what part of the animal makes what cut off meat.
Every state work comp has what is called a "meat chart". It basically lists out what each body part is worth and how many weeks off you get if you lose said body part or if it becomes non functioning.
#22
That the 'urgent' project request you just submitted will sit untouched for three days before anyone actually starts working on it.
#23
Most men say they like deep tissue massage, but they can’t handle it. So I dial it way back and many will say “so can anybody else handle as much pressure as me?” Nope. You’re one in a million, my guy.
#24
Deadlines are usually arbitrary and may often be ignored without any consequences.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” - Douglas Adams
#25
Engineering and project management boils down to telling clients "no" without saying the word and finding creative ways to do so.
#26
The number of hungover teachers watching your children is pretty horrifying.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
The number of teachers who have reason to drink that much is much more horrifying.
#27
The process of getting electricity to your house is so complex and technical, you can’t believe how cheap it really is.
Carrie de Luka 1 week ago
Well, that is a teeny weeny bit hard to believe when staring at an enormous bill. Though, we must never forget to factor in those poor, poor greedy people at the top who so need our money. How would they buy a bigger yacht or a second home without us. Poor things.
#28
I actually cannot have you instantly "committed" if you say you want to hurt yourself. In fact I probably could not get you into inpatient psych treatment if you wanted very much to go and clearly needed it.
Lukas (he/him, it/its) 1 week ago (edited)
I got in pretty easily- My mom put me there when I was 16 after a fight and them kicking me out (I was blamed for something I didn't do and yelled and screamed at before being thrown out of the house.) I was not suicidaI, never have been, have never seIf harmed. My biggest issues were my undiagnosed ADHD and autism. I spent a week inpatient. Honestly, it was mostly just boring as hell.
#29
If you didn't put it there, you DONT TOUCH IT. People at my work have been fired for picking up the "cool thing" they found out in a field.
#30
Accounting for big businesses isn't as black and white as people think it is. There are rules for a lot of it but at the same time there is a ton of gray area that we have no idea how to navigate. I've seen multiple high level directors get annoyed because they got into accounting because they liked the strict rules of the numbers and where the numbers go, only to now be forced to make decisions for millions of dollars with very little direction or rules.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
As educators we were always scolded "You should run a school like a business." As OP points out, even businessmen don't know how to run a business like a business.
#31
Bleeding gums mean you have to keep brushing them, not stop and avoid it. It can be a sign you are starting to brush them correctly.
They will only get better if they are bleeding when you brush. They heal and get tougher.
If you don't brush gums that bleed they will get worse and very painful.
Charlotte Ingle 1 week ago
Or it could be that you have damaged part of your mouth from over brushing after the last hygienist told you this gem. Ask me how I know.
#32
To all the people that post doorbell camera footage of a delivery driver tossing/dropping/throwing your package, chances are they didn't damage it. Packages go through way, way worse in warehouses during the sorting process.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 1 week ago
I have a great game with one of the local delivery drivers, hunt the parcel. I found a parcel over 6 months later behind a large wooden planter. I only spotted it because the plants had died back for the winter. The umbrella inside was in perfect condition. Another notable one was when they wedged a small parcel above ground level between 2 wheelie bins. Took me a day to find that one…
#33
Oil is used in almost every product you can think of. It’s in just about everything.
michael Chock 1 week ago
They are talking about crude oil, same stuff that makes gasoline/petrol. Whenever you see "artificial", chances are its an oil product. Many times, if you cannot pronounce it, it is an oil product/byproduct.
#34
That we’re horribly understaffed and always on the verge of causing people to go homeless or starve or both.
The Majestic Opossum 1 week ago (edited)
OP is in Family Support Services (those in charge of helping a countries most vulnerable through food benefits, shelter, child protection, a*******n treatment, etc) - in America right now, this shortage is at crisis level - and not just due to understaffing. Chances are that almost everyone knows someone on the verge of homelessness or going hungry because these crucial basic needs are going unmet.
#35
You can put a peripheral IV in a baby’s scalp. That and that you can put a central line for fluids in their belly buttons.
#36
If the person in front of you came to a stop and you had to stop behind them it DOES NOT count as you stopping. Do not go through the sign without stopping at the line yourself.
#37
You can get a joint replacement without general anesthesia.
B Hobbs 1 week ago
Reminds me when I worked as a US defense contractor on a US military base in what was then West Germany. Contractors could not use on base medical facilities. I went to an off base dentist, found out I had a cavity. The dentist asked me if I wanted a pain killer. I said certainly, why do you ask that? It seems that German government healthcare pays for fixing the cavity but not the pain killer, that was extra. Nope, I am not raw dogging that.
#38
How much guess work is involved in knee and hip joint replacements.. it’s incredible how forgiving the body can be.
#39
I can mess up a LOT and pretty badly, but as long as I don't noticably react to the mistakes, the only people who will ever notice are other professionals.
The Majestic Opossum 1 week ago (edited)
I'm in HR, and same... Now, I'm pretty good at my job, so of course I don't do this 😂 But the amount of egregious and highly illegal/dangerous errors I've had to fix that went unnoticed for YEARS is astounding. Make sure you read those offer letters and employee handbooks, folks!
#40
Restarting any electronic device really does solve a lot of problems.....
Edit to add: a lot of my "skill" for new problems is Google-fu. Aa lot of the rest is from *everything* in our systems working in roughly the same way....
#41
If you have dementia and can’t feed yourself because you forgot how to swallow or use the restroom, have no clue who anyone is, wander off, but other than being almost completely non-functional are healthy etc. you do not get the same medical benefits from the government as someone who has had a heart attack, diabetes, or other medical issue if your monthly income is over $1448.
#42
Mothers of the brides are the worst people in the world to deal with.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
Oh, come on. We could spend all day naming groups far worse than the worst mothers of the bride.
#43
Dog behavior is highly, highly hereditary. It’s not “all in how you raise them.” Along those lines, most dogs with anxiety weren’t mistreated. They have some bad genetics working against them and nobody bothered to socialize them right in early puppyhood.
What do you think ?
Tobias Reaper 1 week ago
I work in an office job that involves speaking to the public that email request you sent that you marked as urgent its only urgent to you not us. The amount of people that when i ask their name just give their first like they think i am being friendly no i need to know who you are or I ask for their address they just give me the postcode i ask for the address they repeat the postcode
Tobias Reaper 1 week ago
I work in an office job that involves speaking to the public that email request you sent that you marked as urgent its only urgent to you not us. The amount of people that when i ask their name just give their first like they think i am being friendly no i need to know who you are or I ask for their address they just give me the postcode i ask for the address they repeat the postcode
You May Like 50 World’s Weirdest Jobs That Pay Out Quite Well Employee Denied Time Off After Covering A Crisis All Weekend: “The Stupidest Person Alive” We Rounded Up Some Absurdly Funny Job Titles For Your Entertainment Pleasure
Aivaras Kaziukonis
Dominyka Proškėnaitė
Saimonas Lukošius
Related on Bored Panda
